Hurricane Sandy

   This post won't be very long, but I just wanted to write this to send out my love to all of you who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. I have been watching this storm since Saturday or Sunday, and have just helplessly watched as it moved over our little state. I knew the storm would hit home hard, but last night when I began to see photos of all the damage, particularly to the Jersey Shore, I just lost it. 
    I grew up going to the shore every summer, and spending time at our house in Seacrest or family members' cottages in Ocean Beach. Seeing these places that are so close to my heart being destroyed is so, so heartbreaking. I know it is most important that everyone is okay, but I can't help but mourn the losses the shore community is facing right now.

This is a link showing the damage in Ocean Beach. The video ends just a few houses down from where my old shore house is. Hopefully the damage won't be too bad, but you can see that some houses were just completely wiped out....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRAdgh9VH0o&feature=youtu.be

Trip to Chiang Mai!

Hello everyone!
     Time to write another quick blog post before heading out to a new trip! I just got into Bangkok this morning from an overnight bus back from Chiang Mai (located in Northern Thailand). My entire study abroad group (all 40 of us) piled into a bus on October 9th to begin our Chiang Mai trip. Our first stop was in Sukhothai, a former capital and kingdom of Thailand. We stayed there overnight and toured the ruins before heading out the next morning to finish the drive up to Chiang Mai. One of our first stops in Chiang Mai was at the Doi Suthep temple, which sits on top of a mountain and has a great overlook of the city. 

Sukhothai 

Sukhothai

 Steps up to Doi Suthep

Steps down from Doi Suthep 

Outside of the temple 

Doi Suthep 

At the Chiang Mai umbrella factory!

     The second part of our trip involved a four day trek through the mountains of Chiang Mai. Our group of 40 was broken up into three smaller groups. My group consisted of me, 14 other students, one adult leader and two Thai guides. Each group took different routes to visit and stay with three different hilltribes in the mountains. Our group was called Karen because the Karen tribe was the first place we visited. The trek was pretty intense, but it ended up being one of my favorite trips so far and I had an amazing time!!

    One of the best parts of the trip was that I GOT TO RIDE AN ELEPHANT!!! For those of you who don't know, elephants are absolutely 100% my favorite animals of all time and I've been waiting for the opportunity to ride one. We got to take the elephants into the second village we stayed in, and it was absolutely incredible (although a little scary since I rode on the neck)!

     This trip to Chiang Mai really signifies the beginning of the end of my study abroad experience. As hard as it is to believe, I only have about three and a half weeks left in Southeast Asia. I will be spending the next ten days in Malaysia and Indonesia, then I will have one last week in Bangkok before moving onto Hong Kong for a week prior to going back to America! I have very mixed feelings about this right now. I'm very excited to come home and see everyone and everything I've missed so much for the past six months, but at the same time I know that I am going to miss Thailand!! It's a very strange feeling. For now, I'm just enjoying what I'm experiencing and I'll deal with what's ahead when it comes!

Look for another update around Halloween! :)

Youtube Channel!

Hi everyone!
    I was talking to a friend of mine recently about our blogs, and she told me about a great idea that I thought I'd try. In order to keep all the videos I've taken on this trip in one place and accessible for my friends and family to watch, I've made a Youtube account! I'm in the process of adding all the videos I've taken, so click on the link below to watch some!

Here is a link to my youtube account:
http://www.youtube.com/user/emkayylove?feature=mhee 

Thanks, Andrea, for the great idea! :)

Good Moooooorning Vietnam!

Hello everyone! Unfortunately this has to be a quick post because I just got back from Vietnam this morning and am heading down south to the islands tonight!

So Vietnam was AMAZING. 

A lot happened in the week Lauren and I were there. We started off in Hanoi on Tuesday, our first day, and we just walked around all day seeing museums and looking at the sights. We saw such a large part of the city that day, and it was especially nice because all we needed was a map and our sense of direction!

That first night, we hopped on a sleeper train to head up to Sapa (near the Chinese border). We arrived early in the morning on Wednesday, and got in a van to head up to Sapa form the train station. Unfortunately, it had been monsooning really badly there for awhile, and before we reached the top of the mountain, there were several landslides and we were stuck. Lauren and I decided to take matters into our own hands and climbed over the landslide to then get a ride up to the main town at the top of the mountain. 

After climbing through the landslide 

     So once we got to Sapa, we arranged our trekking tour through the mountains. This trek involved two days of hiking through the mountains of Sapa and Lao Chai, with a one night homestay in a local village. Our tour guide was a 22 year old H'mong woman named Ker (pronounced Kuh). She helped guide us through treacherous mud puddles and saved us from falling off hills of rice paddies more than a few times. While on the trek, I saw some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen in my whole life, and the pictures just cannot do it justice.

Ker, the H'mong woman who 

was our tour guide through the mountains 

Other H'mong women who helped us on the trail

View while trekking 

 View from our homestay

     Once we returned to Hanoi from Sapa, we did a day trip to Halong Bay, which is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We got to go out on boats and check out the rock formations of the bay up close, which was just amazing.

Here are some pictures:

 Halong Bay

In Hanoi 

Sorry this was such a rushed post! I hope I'll have more time to post more pictures when I come back from the islands :)

The Kanes take BKK Part 2!

     First of all, I would like to apologize for my lack of blog posts in the past month or so. My last two weeks of classes followed by a week and a half of finals has been crazy!! Luckily, today is my LAST FINAL and then I am done with school until January. I can't wait to be done- three semesters in a row was kind of rough....Now I just get to travel all over for the next six weeks until my return to America!!

     Anyway, I wanted to write a bit about the second half of my visit with my parents. After their trip to Phuket and Chiang Mai, my parents came back to Bangkok for a second weekend of adventures. I brought them to Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn. From there, we went on a khlong boat tour (although this khlong was much better than the smelly khlong I talked about in one of my early posts). The tour took us around the back canals off the Chao Phraya River and gave Mom and Dad a very different view of Bangkok! Later that day, we all went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for dinner. It was one of the most beautiful hotels I've seen in Bangkok, and we had a delicious dinner while looking out over the Chao Phraya river and seeing the Bangkok skyline. The following day, we spent more time touring around Bangkok and seeing sights like Khao San Road. We ended the day eating some of the best Thai food ever at a restaurant called The Spice Market in the Four Season Hotel. Following dinner, we went to the Skybar and even though it was raining a bit, we got an incredible view of Bangkok- one I've never seen before! 
     I had a great time showing my parents a glimpse of my life in Bangkok. It was sad to say goodbye to my parents, but knowing I'll see them in a matter of a few weeks made it much better! They seemed to really, really love their time spent in Thailand- if you see them soon, ask them about it! I'm sure they'd love to tell you :)

On the ferry boat to Wat Arun 

Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) 

We wrote our names on a cloth surrounding Wat Arun 

 Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel!

Khlong boat tour on the Chao Phraya River 

Mom and I at Skybar

 Skybar hanging over the edge of the Lebua Hotel! Yikes!

Dad enjoyed looking at the countless street markets

Here are some pictures from Mom and Dad's trip to China on the way back to America:

On the Great Wall of China!

Halfway Point!!

Hi everyone!
   
I wanted to write this post to explain a little bit about how I'm feeling now that I am halfway (or more than halfway at this point) through my study abroad experience. 

It seems that at major milestones during this trip, I end up getting kind of homesick. This happened when I reached the one month mark in June, and it's happening now that I've reached the halfway point in August. I think most of the homesickness I'm feeling now has to do with the fact that all my friends are moving back into school, and I am really missing Loyola right now!! I definitely don't want to rush this experience, and I really am having a wonderful time here, but I can't help but want to get back home and be reunited with my friends and family there. So here's a shoutout to all my friends at home and at Loyola: MISS YOU GUYS!!

I know that these next 10 or 11 weeks will really fly by though, with the amount of traveling I will be doing! Here are my plans for my remaining weeks in Thailand

Now - Sept 24th: School and finals!! Can't believe my semester is almost over!
Sept 25th - Sept 30th: Trip to northern Vietnam
Oct 1st - Oct 6th/7th: Trip down to southern Thailand to Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, etc.
Oct 9th - Oct 17th: Trek up in Chiang Mai with all 40 people in my program
Oct 19th - Oct 29th: Trip to Malaysia and Indonesia
Oct 30th- Nov 5th: My last week in Bangkok..........not okay.
Nov 5th- Nov 11th: Our whole program goes to Hong Kong on the way back to America
Nov 11th: Home to America!!

So I will definitely be kept busy during my last weeks in Southeast Asia! It's so bizarre to think about how fast these past three months have gone, and how fast these coming weeks are going to go! I'm just trying to keep my head in the present moment and enjoy everything surrounding me in Thailand :)

Cambodia: Angkor Wat and Siem Reap!

Hello everyone!

This blog post should be much easier and happier to read after my last India post! So last weekend, a few friends and I decided to take a long weekend and go to Cambodia. Ever since we realized that we're more than halfway through our study abroad experience (with only a few weekends left in Bangkok itself), everyone has kicked it into high gear and is going out to see all the things left to see in Southeast Asia!

We figured Cambodia would be an easy weekend trip, considering it's only next door to Thailand. Turns out, however, getting there was a little more complicated than we thought. After a six hour train ride (starting at 6am), a three hour bus ride and almost 15 hours of traveling in general, we made it across the border and to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Luckily for us, we found a nice hotel almost immediately and got to set out and explore Siem Reap a little bit! We found an awesome nighttime art market and checked out the beautiful items they were selling.

The next morning, we woke up and got some breakfast at a restaurant called Red Piano, in the popular backpacking area of Pub Street. Then, all five of us crammed into a tuk tuk and drove out to see the temples of Angkor Thom, just outside of Siem Reap. We spent the first day driving around, exploring lots of different ruins. That night we hung out around Pub Street, and got a "fish massage", where you put your feet in a giant tank ,and the fish eat the dead skin off your feet! Kinda gross, but fun!

The next morning after a delicious breakfast on Pub Street, we rented bicycles at a stand across the street for only $1 per day. We rode our bikes 3 or 4 miles out of Siem Reap to the temples of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the most recognized and famous of these Cambodian temple ruins. We biked around all day, and even though we didn't get to see as many temples as the day before, we really got to appreciate the beautiful scenery and had lots of fun. 

 View out the back of our train from 

Bangkok to the Cambodian border

The border of Cambodia 

Pub Street (backpacker district) in Siem Reap 

Angkor Thom 

 Jason, me, Katie, Lauren and John

Getting our "fish massage"

Lisa, a 2 year old Cambodian girl we met in the temples 

Sunrise at Angkor Wat 

Angkor Wat sunrise