Posts by Amanda Slavinsky

Sep 22

Taman Ujung Karangasem: A Palace in a Pond

Taman Ujung Karangasem, or Karangasem Water Palace, is a short drive from the villa near Amlapura. This palace was built in 1919 by the king of Karangasem. He and his family used this ornate palace as a place of relaxation. Unfortunately for us, the majority of the palace was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1970s and today only a few buildings remain. In spite of this, visitors are still able to enjoy the grounds and can wander through the ponds, ruins and buildings that are still standing today. Read more

Sep 20

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Why I Quit My Job to Teach Abroad and Travel

One year ago today I quit my job in telesales with no real plan for the future. I spent the majority of the time in my cubicle wanting to cry, yelling at people on the phone, or browsing BootsnAll forums and looking at pictures of places I wanted to visit. I was wildly unhappy. After suffering through nine months I decided, with the support of my fabulous parents, to leave the corporate world. A year later I’m halfway done with my teaching contract in Seoul and 161 days away from beginning my backpacking trip around Southeast Asia. Read more

Sep 19

The Best Brunch in Seoul

In my opinion, a weekend isn’t truly great until you’ve sat down to recap the events of the last night over great food. Enter brunch. Brunch is the meal that allows for the perfect fusion of eating and socializing. A great breakfast, or brunch, can be hard to find in a city where seafood stew is a traditional breakfast eat, but the Flying Pan in Itaewon manages to create a meal that will satisfy even the most critical of diners. Read more

Sep 13

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Friends, Living Abroad, and Traveling

You may have noticed that the blog has been quiet the majority of the past two weeks and for this I apologize. Going silent isn’t the best way to build an audience and while I don’t have any truly great excuse as to why I haven’t been writing, the honest answer is that I just haven’t felt compelled. Two weeks ago was the end of the semester at my school and with that came changes, people coming and friends leaving. I started to become extremely jaded with the whole idea of living abroad and traveling with no permanent home base. And while 95 percent of the time I enjoy my lifestyle and would choose it over a cubicle job in the same city for the next 20 years, living abroad and long term travel comes with its downsides. The one that causes me the most pain? Friendships. Read more

Sep 2

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Flashback Friday: Fall in Michigan

This Friday I won’t be flashing back to a specific trip I’ve taken, but rather to a time and place that makes me truly happy. I grew up in metro Detroit and for the first 20 something years that I lived there, I hated it. I didn’t see any positives, only things holding me back. It wasn’t until I moved away for the first time, when I studied in Rome in 2009, that I became a proud Michigander. Now that the days are getting shorter and I’m thousands of miles away, I am starting to yearn for my home state. What are the things I miss most about fall in Michigan? Take a look. Read more

Aug 26

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Flashback Friday: New England Road Trip

At this time last year I was toiling away in a cubicle in suburban Philadelphia for eight hours a day. The end of our fiscal year (oh, how I don’t miss using phrases like that regularly anymore) was approaching which meant my unused vacation days were going to expire. The thought of wasting precious time off was unthinkable so my friend, who was living in Manhattan at the time, and I decided to take advantage of our new found east coast location and road trip up to Maine over a long weekend. With no set plans except for making it to Bar Harbor, Maine we ended up having a weekend to remember.

Looking to take your own road trip? Here are three things that can make the trip more interesting and less frustrating. Read more

Aug 23

Biking the Han

On Sunday Seoulites were graced with the presence of something we hadn’t seen on a weekend in months. The sun. The constant cloudiness and rainfall the past two months had me believing that I was living in my personal version of hell and I was beginning to wonder how much more of this I would be able to handle. So, when I saw the little yellow ball on my iPhone’s weather app last Monday I immediately began planning the ways in which I could take advantage of this change in weather. And when I woke up on Sunday to actual sunshine I knew that I was headed to the Han for some biking. Read more

Aug 22

Out and About in Candidasa

Candidasa is a charming little town in East Bali that offers many amenities for tourists without being touristy. The main road is dotted with small hotels, guest bungalows, and restaurants serving a wide array of culinary options. Being only a short drive from the villa, we would hop over to Candidasa when we needed a little break from the tranquility, or in some cases when we needed to achieve an even higher level of calmness. Read more

Aug 16

Celebrating Korean Independence Day

I’m taking a break from the Bali coverage today to write about a special holiday to the Korean people. On August 15 of every year Korea celebrates its liberation from Japanese occupation. At the end of World War II the defeated Japan was forced to give up its’ colonial possessions and after 35 years of horrific rule, the Korean peninsula was free again. Thus, August 15 is a national holiday and a national holiday means independence of another sort. Freedom from working. Taking full advantage of every second I don’t have to spend inside the walls of a school, I had a full day planned. Read more

Aug 11

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Off the Beaten Track and onto Unpaved Roads

I spent the majority of my first full day in Bali white knuckling anything I could get my hands near in the back of a Jeep. My friends and I had rented a car and we were making the journey from Amalpura to the coastal fishing town of Amed. Being the adventurous (or, in my mind about half the time, stupid) souls we are, we decided to venture off the paved main road and take the more scenic route along the coast. Lonely Planet describes this as the “longer, twistier, and more adventurous road”. A more apt description, in my opinion, would be a harrowing, sometimes paved, sometimes not cliff side lane full of hairpin turns and oncoming traffic. Did I mention I have a serious fear of driving in these types of situations? Well, I do. Heart palpitations and sweaty palms aside, the day turned out to be an experience I would have been upset had I missed. Read more