Category: Travel
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Photo Essay: Chiang Mai
All photos courtesy Ayoung Kim 7:00AM I took some photos on local streets. Morning rush with people buying breakfast and/or lunch packed to-go which they’ll eat at home or at work. The streets are lined with vendors offering different items: fried Chinese donuts, Thai curries, vegetables, rice + meat combinations. The young man above waits…
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Chiang Mai: Local Scenes
I love this composition. All photos by Ayoung Kim Local scenes, spontaneous snapshots Photo essay that shows a local neighborhood, their activities, Buddhist and spiritual traditions, Thai aesthetics, and of course, some “only in Thailand” shots. 6am: Monks on “pindabhat” or going on alms rounds. They will receive food donations into their bowls. In the…
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Chiang Mai: Natural Beauty
Chiang Mai photo essay I love the photo of the sky right after it opened up and unleashed a furious storm. Moody and gorgeous. It’s been awhile since I shared some favorite photos, so here we go. Yellow Below: photo of the outside of a motorbike repair shop’s yellow wall with green shrubs facing a…
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Eat Like the Locals
Photo courtesy Crystal Jo via Unsplash Mari, my mother’s younger rich sister, wanted to get rid of us. My mother had been calling her nonstop, treating her as her personal assistant, her GPS, her tech support. Mari’s solution was to buy us an all expenses paid tour of the southern area of South Korea. The…
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Teaching English in Taiwan
Students spooking a colleague on Halloween. Go home! The moment classes concluded and students spilled out into the hallway, the Taiwanese administrators hollered, “Go home! Min, go home! Benjamin, go home!” Yikes. I wondered what the students had done to piss off Anna, one of the administrators. She barked like a sergeant dressing down her…
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Students in Taiwan
Students dance to a grammar song. Before meeting my students, I attended training for two weeks. The owner employed specific methods to teach subjects such as vocabulary, grammar, phonics, reading and writing. He observed me teach in person. He filmed my classes for a month to make sure I executed his method properly. However, regardless…
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Living in Kaohsiung Taiwan
Love River, Zuoying, Kaohsiung, Taiwan I was originally hired to teach in Taiwan in 2020, during Covid-19. I had been living in Thailand at the time, living through the shut-down. In order to satisfy the Taiwanese Ministry of Education’s requirement to pass a medical exam at a government hospital only, I flew from Chiang Mai…
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Taiwan: North to South
My first trip to Taiwan coincided with Tomb Sweeping holiday. Unfortunately, hotel vacancy plummeted while prices sky rocketed. That’s how I ended up in this capsule with shared toilet for $70/night in Taipei. The weather in April reminded me of that saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” I didn’t stick around long enough to know…
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Artistic Georgetown Penang
Customers browse this art gallery café warehouse. I arrived in Penang sleep-deprived while holding optimism on a short leash. Given my experience in Kuala Lumpur, I didn’t let myself open the gates to unchecked glee. Although my admiration and love of the art scene in Georgetown is well documented, I needed to check my hotel’s…
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Slumber Party at Kuala Lumpur Airport
Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia re-opened its borders post Covid-19, and I booked my trip. I had fond memories of my previous visits to the country, and looked forward to roaming around the markets and soaking up the culture. Unfortunately, during the two-years of Covid-19 closures, hotel rooms remained vacant, unswept, unkempt. Dank corners became breeding…