Woke up by 8am. Showered-- oh, I didn't mention, we don't have a shower in the bathroom. There's just a shower head and the hole bathroom is the shower. I also didn't mention, our hotel is in the redlight district of singapore, atleast there were a ton of short skirts and tons of makeup standing guard along our street the night before.
Packed and checked our bags by 930. We are headed to sentosa. An island south of singapore. we stopped at a little cafe and had deep fried eggs over white rice. Scrambled eggs with tomatoes. And Guava juice (just about as good as in Brazil Rachel!!). Then we hopped the train to harbor front where we spotted the cablecars to the island. 29S$ each (about 20$) we went up the mountain got our free juice drink. Then went onto Sentosa. Oh, did I mention the cable car is a giant sauna flying through the air. Ugh. Sweaty. Deboarded on sentosa, an island with amusement park like attractions, an universal studios and beaches. Walked past the merlion and to the beaches. It was like 100 and humid. Hot hot hot. Then made our way back to the cable car. Bought watches in the mall and made it back to our hotel by 230 to get our bags, and make it to the airport by 345 for our 550 flight to manila. Had to hop a bus to the budget terminal. Checked our bags. Made it through customs okay and got first row seats. Lots of legroom. Slept the entire way.
Landed 10 minutes late in manila where our couchsurfer dave was going to pick us up. Got through customs no problem. Had to wait for our bags as we were the first ones off the plane. After waiting a little bit we found our way to passenger pickup and found dave. He drove us out to dinner. Had some pork chunks, tuna, shrimp white rice, and san miquel. Then we drove around a little bit before he dropped us off at our hotel. He was picking us up in the am for some more driving around manila before we depart. We actually scored at this hotel. Nice rooms. Free wifi. 46$.
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Thursday, June 28, 2012
Asia day 13- transit to singapore
Our wake up call came 15 minutes early. 315 am instead of 330am. Showered with a gecko. Got downstairs by 4am. Got our breakfast but our driver was 10 minutes late. Got to the airport by 420 to find out we need to pay an additional 150,000 rupiah a piece to get through customs. Had to go to the atm again and get $$. Boarded our plane, and passed out.
Arrived in singapore about 1130 am. Got through customs and headed to our hotel. It was right off the train station about 6 blks. In the ghetto yet again. Was unsure if we would have a host so we booked our hotel room last minute for 40$. This came with free wifi. Sat in the room trying to figure out what to do about our night in manila and our night in tokyo. Booked a night in manila at a 3star manila grand opera hotel for 45$ and decided we are just going to sleep in the haneda airport as the public transport doesn't operate in tokyo early enough in the am for us and the hotels around the airport are like 200$ a night.
I also looked up things to do in singapore. China town little india, orchard st, and clarke area. So with our daypacks, mom and I set out in the 100 degree weather and walked the entire singapore island. First stop was ensalade area, walked along the river. Quite pretty. Got our bearings (or I got my bearings and mom follows) and headed to chinatown. Got some really cheap silk stuff. Then we headed to orchard street. The shopping district of singapore. Loads of shops. Not impressed with the prices. Next we went to little india. Lots of yellow gold jewelry shops. Didn't buy anything. By now it was 7pm and mom was hot, sweaty, tired and not feeling well. So we headed to clarke area along the river. Found a pub had some nachos and watched the river boats pass. Then head home. We repacked all of our bags to assure we can still carry on transpacifico. I have 80% of clothes in my bag. And a new bag with all the crap we bought. Then went to bed.
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Arrived in singapore about 1130 am. Got through customs and headed to our hotel. It was right off the train station about 6 blks. In the ghetto yet again. Was unsure if we would have a host so we booked our hotel room last minute for 40$. This came with free wifi. Sat in the room trying to figure out what to do about our night in manila and our night in tokyo. Booked a night in manila at a 3star manila grand opera hotel for 45$ and decided we are just going to sleep in the haneda airport as the public transport doesn't operate in tokyo early enough in the am for us and the hotels around the airport are like 200$ a night.
I also looked up things to do in singapore. China town little india, orchard st, and clarke area. So with our daypacks, mom and I set out in the 100 degree weather and walked the entire singapore island. First stop was ensalade area, walked along the river. Quite pretty. Got our bearings (or I got my bearings and mom follows) and headed to chinatown. Got some really cheap silk stuff. Then we headed to orchard street. The shopping district of singapore. Loads of shops. Not impressed with the prices. Next we went to little india. Lots of yellow gold jewelry shops. Didn't buy anything. By now it was 7pm and mom was hot, sweaty, tired and not feeling well. So we headed to clarke area along the river. Found a pub had some nachos and watched the river boats pass. Then head home. We repacked all of our bags to assure we can still carry on transpacifico. I have 80% of clothes in my bag. And a new bag with all the crap we bought. Then went to bed.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Asia day 12- Bali.
Woke up at 7am to shower and eat hotel breakfast before our driver narko picks us up at 830 to go to ubod and the volcano kintamani on the north side of the island. Breakfast was the only good thing about the hotel. Made to order omelets, pancakes, pastries, coco krispies even. Ate and at 830 went out to our driver.
Narko was waiting and we started out on our voyage. Stopped about a half hour out at a bastik and weaving place. We were greeted with money hungry indonesians. The bastik is painted fabric. And they had two weaving machines fully operating. We looked around the shop and left. Mom bought 6$ flip flops.
Next stop was a handmade silver company. Silver is imported and they melt it with copper to make stronger and then design it. Prices here were way too expensive, especially for 92.5% sterling silver. We asked to see more and narko brought us to a similar shop down some back road. Again greeted with money hungry indonesians, but prices were much cheaper. 30$ for a really nice handmade ring and 40$ for two pairs of dangly earrings. Next stop was a hand wood carving joint. The stuff here was super cool. Ended up spending 60$ but got a couple hand carved signs, a gift for bryson and a couple other surprises. after wood carving joint was a professional painting gallery. I fell in love with one artist who paints in blues purples whites and blacks. There was a huge 5x6 ft painting dude started the bidding at 350us$. No way. Poor college kid, and I'm not sure if there is a wall big enough in my new house to hold it. Same painter had done a 3ftx6 ft painting which would fit perfect above a couch or bed. Again, bidding started at 350us$, but me being a poor college kid ended up talking him down to 105us$ for a new original abstract awesome painting. Don't ask the painter. I have no idea. But its a really nice piece. Hopefully I can carry it on the plane lol.
Now that we've spent way too much $$ We stopped at a 900 year old temple. Pretty sweet that its still standing. In order to enter we had to wrap a surong around us to cover our knees. After about 20 minutes here we headed to the volcano before the fog sets in. But first ATM and gas. The ATM was out of cash (second time its happened to me this trip. Once in chaing mai as I was trying to pay the driver for our professional photos from ziplining). Found a second one. And as narko was filling up, I walked down the street and found a lightshade place. Bought a blue and metal light shade for 7us$. Then we were off to the volcano.
Have I mentioned about how indonesian drivers drive? Its a race track with the gaps filled in with motor bikes. No speed limit, always a horn letting people know where they are. Its common practice to just ride along the center of a lane. All while driving stick shift which is super jerky.
Paid the 25000 rupiah to see the volcano. Got hassled into a side kiosk. Bargaining is everything. Lori sucks at bargaining. I originally picked out 2 sundresses and a wrap and lori had picked out 2 shirts. The lady told her 2 for 150,000 (15us$) and mom was just like okay. I told the ladys 100,000 (10$) for everything. They laughed. Then we ended up getting moms 2 shirts for 100,000 and I left the other dresses while we ate outside at a buffet with a clear line of site to the volcano. There were still black lava fields visible from the last eruption 150 years ago. People predict it blows every 200 years. Well see how that goes. The buffet was nice. Rice noodles freshfruit. Meats in sauces. Vegetable soup. All for 10us$. Ordered fruit juices and returned 4 times through the buffet line (gotta make it count right). Then Narko found us and took pictures with the volcano in the background. We used the dumpy balinese bathroom (no flushing toilet paper here) and snuck out a back way to the van.
Next stop--rice patty fields built in the side of a mountain. Sure enough as narko was pulling out the lady with the dresses and wrap found us and continued to hassle us as we pulled out. Too bad she didn't take the offer while it was on the table. 10,000 rupiah to stop and take pictures of the rice patty fields. Some people were working in some down the way. The ones in the mountain had just been picked but they were still quite impressive. Along back to the car we stopped at some shops. Found mosaic coasters but that seller didn't have the color I wanted. Set of six coasters for 5$. Meh I could do better. Everyone wanted us to stop in their shops. Didn't buy anything here. We were headed into ubod to stop at a wooden necklace store. She also had my coasters which would go perfect with the new painting I got. But she wanted 50 cents a piece. I found some cool coconut necklaces which I bought a half dozen (1.50$ a piece) of plus the set of 6 mosaic coasters for 10$. Mom picked out 5 huge necklaces and I talked her from 13.0$ to 10$. Not as impressive negotiation as the painting. But she did not want to budge. She sold them to us that cheap for luck.
We then told narko we had seen (and spent enough). It was 530pm already and we had an hour and half to get back to kuta. Again racecar driver Narko drove through shoulders weaved in and out of traffic and was always the first off the line at stoplights. Got back to kuta about 730. Gave narko 80 us$ for the day. Which includes gas and everything.
Dropped our stuff off in our room and set out for balineese massages with our 100,000 rupiah (10$) first place wouldn't negotiate. Second place was willing to do an hour balineese massage and a manicure for mom for 100,000 (published at 125,000) but there was a half hour wait. Continued a little further and found a place that was ready now and would do it for the cash we had. The massage was awesome. I liked it better than the thai massage. She worked the knots out of my shoulders and removed the stress from my back. Definitely worth the 5$.
We then went to the hotel restaurant we ate at yesterday for the free wifi and had beverages and appetizers. We ordered calamari first and as my email pulled up realized I needed to run and grab my ipod to sign a few more documents for ricardo/my house. Put in an order for chicken satay. Its like kabobs but just meat no veggies. As the waiter kept refilling my glass I reminded him he would have to carry me home (haha). He was all about it. I ran and grabbed my ipod and returned before the appetizers were up. Signed the documents and resent them and finished off our beverages before turning in for the night. Of course we had to pack our bags and determine how to get everything to fit. The pictures from bangkok fit in a bag we got in chaingmai along with my pink puma bag (megan/steph I did bring that bag with me again despite all my complaints! Ha). Packed the lampshad amongst clothes in my duffle and zipped it all up as we passed out for 4 hours before our wake up call.
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Asia Day 11- transit to Bali
Our plane landed in Bangkok at 1230AM. Grabbed our luggage and started looking for departures. Our flight to Bali leaves at 615 AM. No use getting a hotel. So after finding the AirAsia checkin counter, we printed off our boarding passes and laid down on a bench. Andrea blew up her pink fuzzy neck pillow and grabbed her awesome easttern china airlines blanket she forgot to give back after the Tokyo/Hong Kong flight and passed out with an alarm set for 345AM. No idea what mom did, but she kept waking me up Freaking out. Andrea andrea- I have to go to the bathroom--okay go to the bathroom!. Andrea andrea -theres someone at the airasia desk! Ugh. So I only got about an hour of sleep. At 330 we hopped in line for airasia to check our bags and head through security to our gate. Passed by a BK and Auntie Annies pretzel shops which were open. Put our stuff down near the gate, andrea went and got a breakfast pretzel and sat on one of the free computers and checked email and chatted on facebook. Boarded the plane at 545 found our seats and passed out.
Landed in Bali 3 hours later. Paid 25us$ for a bali visa and found our driver to our hotel. Along the way he sold us he and his car for the rest of the night for 50us$. He would bring us to beach activity, a temple on a hill, and dinner on the beach for sunset. We had nothing planned sounds good. Got our room, no wifi at our hotel-- its a 4 star hotel, u think they would offer free wifi. Also, the elevator was broken so we had to carry our stuff up. No hand towels in our room. And they canceled our bali massage. Showered and met our driver downstairs. He brought us to lunch across the way with free wifi so I could email our host in singapore. Then we went to apollo water sports. 70us$ got us a glass bottom boat and a triple to turtle island where we could hold actual sea turtles. They were huge!! Quite awesome. However, I feel like everyone is out for our money here. Tip yur guide, by yur boat driver a drink, buy a souvenir. Ugh.
Next we went to the temple on a hill. Reminded me of cliffs of mohr. Temple high on the cliff overlooking the ocean. Pretty sweet. We only had 30 minutes there because we had to get to jambarin for sunset. Got to the beach restaurant after sunset but it was still pretty. We literally were at a table in the sand at the beach. Andrea ordered a 700gram red snapper and lori had a seafood salad. The fish came out whole and bony. Gross. Topped the rice with a spicy bbq and ate that. Then our driver brought us to a really expensive spa (65us$/2hours). We said no. Bring us back to our hotel. So we were dropped off at 815pm and Narko, our driver was 50$ richer.
After running down to our spa--which no one was present we walked the strip outside our hotel looking for a spa. Nothing we could find so we decided to call it a night. Narko was picking us up at 830am for a drive to udob and the volcano in the AM.
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Sunday, June 24, 2012
Asia Day 10-- chaing mai
Woke up at 600am, mom showered, i packed my bags and we headed downstairs by 630 am for our driver to pick us up and bring us to the flight of the gibbon. we ate a luna bar for breakfast along the way to another hotel to pick up a family originally from virigina but living in manila who is in town visiting their eldest daughter and husband here in chaing mai. mom and dad and two brothers 15 and 13 were going to experience the gibbons.
along the way, we watched a safety video for the ziplining-- no doing the caribeaner, legs up and run into the stopping platform, and i dont remember the oter two. oh well, i'm still alive to write about it so they must not be that important. the driver then put in avatar to watch along the hour commute. i tried to sleep. upon arrival, we were able to use the toilet and put our bags in a locker-- only bringing with a camera. then we got fitted in our harnesses—boy how fun those are. we also got a doo rag and helmets.
then we boarded in the van for a five minute ride to the starting point. we disembarked and started our trek-- I in my havanah sandals hiking through the forest!!Rachel brown you should be proud :-) they held up marvelously. we then did 21 ziplines throughout the rainforest including the longest zipline in a rainforest in the world at a quarter mile long. it was definitely an exhilerating experience. we even did a zip line where we were attached from behind on a longer rope and we just had to run and jump off the platform and at the end we had to grab onto the rope web and climb up to the platform. little dude defintely got stuck and Tata our fearless leader had to go out to save him. there were a couple ziplines that two people went at the same time too. ½ way through our journey we stopped and entered the gibbon zone. there are three gibbons that inhabit the area and they are very territorial. infact we had to back off as they were getting angry we were there watching. there were a couple shaky bridges we had to cross high above the rainforest floor and we were repelled down twice before completing the three hour rainforest zipline.
we were then served lunch—chicken, veggies and white rice. i had a coca cola light (thought of kirsten-- it definitely tastes different than diet coke), and then we were off in the van to hike up the seven tiered water fall of the town. it was quite gorgeous, and a lot of steps. worth it to see the top though.
after climbing down we were given local fruit tea and a local showed the 13 year old lil dude how to do magic trick with a string and a pop can. then we boarded the van for the hour long trek home getting us home about 2pm. of course we had to have our driver bring us to an atm so we could pay for the 1000baht zipdrive of the professional pictures along the journey.
after the hour long massages we went to our hotel and ordered pad thai chik (pad thai with chicken) which was absolutely delicious and only 120 bahts for everything drinks included –4$ for dinner for two. then a tuk-tuk (3 wheeled taxi) was waiting to bring us to the airport for the next leg of our journey.
we plan to sleep somewhere for a few hours inside the bangkok airport then fly to bali at 6am. should be an adventure!!
Asia day 6-- Hong Kong
did not set the alarm, but woke up still by nine am. took our sweet time getting ready and figuring out what to do. we decided to do a night cruise through the harbor and the cable cars. so, we set out on the trains to find a place to sign up for the cruise. after wandering for quite some time we found it and signed up for the symphony of lights 2 hour boat cruise through the harbor. 290HK$ a piece with unlimited beverages. then we hopped back on the trains to the cable car place ngong ping or something like that. there is also a giant buddha out that way. took about forty five minutes on the train but we made it to the cable cars. got offered vip and skipped the line to buy tickets only to find a ginormous line on the other side waiting to board the cable cars. luckily they had free wifi and i facebook chatted while we waited the thirty minutes.
we boarded the cable car with a family from china? we crossed over some water and numerous mountain peaks. it was a twenty five minute ride. gorgeous views despite the fog. got to the top and i was hungry so we stopped for a donar kabob. was quite spicy for being medium. then we set out for the buddha statue. we climbed what felt like two hundred steps. and he was a giant buddha statue.
got some pictures then headed down to temple. while i was in europe i felt like every city was castles and churches. here in asia its temples and shrines that are the must see in every town.
we then were making sure we saw everything and turned down this road which said it led to neptunes place. we started up conversation with a twenty something female who just moved to HK to be with her boyfriend from manhatten. she told us things to do in bali—like get out of kuta. and was quite enjoyable.
we then shopped some of the shops atop the peak. didnt buy anything it was all over priced. then we embarked on the twenty five minute cable car ride down. we then hopped the train back to our hotel and grabbed some dramamine and booked our hotel for bangkok—per willlie segers suggestion. and were off to hongkong island where we were going to grab some seafood for dinner and set out on our night crusie.
made it to the pier but there was no good seafood place. we ended up grabbing a tuna melt from a cart inside the pier. ate it while watching people fish the harbor below us. before we knew it it was time to head to our pier for our boat.
a chinese boat picked us and a couple from newzealand up. we boarded and grabbed seats on the right side of the boat—not knowing this was the ideal spot to sit. we then picked up a couple dozen more people from the other harbor and sat the boat right infront of hong kong harbor for the symphony of lights show. it was awesome. lights atop numerous buildings were synced up to music. pretty sure the big gingers helped make it more enjoyable.
we then cruised around the harbor and two hours later got dropped off back at our dock. decided we should head home for tomorrow we leave for thailand. along the walk back through the ghetto to our hotel we grabbed some pringle llike chips from a gas station. then decided we should try mcdonalds in hong kong. couldnt communicate the order i wanted. actually the cashier couldnt understand that i wanted a double cheeseburger meal with lemonade. we ended p getting a big and tastey a double cheese burger and an ice tea with los of lemon. oh well. it was delicious at the late hour.. then we went to sleep ready to get out of hong kong the next day.
Asia Day 9- transit to Chaing Mai
355 was WAY to early to wake up. Got showered packed and downstairs in time for our 430 driver. They even had prepared to go boxed breakfasts for us. Made it to the airport in 30 minutes. Checked our bags, headed to the terminal where they had a computer kiosk where I logged in to find out that the seller accepted my offer. No counter or anything, and she's willing to pay my closing. Of course its contingent upon inspection. Boarded the plane for our 1hr flight to chiang mai. I passed out hard core.
Landed, grabbed our bags and baa-chang elephant park was waiting for us with a sign with our names. Our driver delivered us to the pickup point and we had 30 minutes to go around the corner and pick up something from the coffee shop. Andrea grabbed a strawberry smoothie for 1$ then our van picked us up and I crawled into the back inbetween two american girls for our hour ride to the elephant park. Meghan and Shantelle were on a month long tour of southeast asia with their friend jody (sitting near the front). We talked about travels the entire way. Then we pulled into the park with 21 elephants hanging out in the yard. They had one leg buckled down with about 6 feet of room to move each. Tom our guide gave us the low down including the requirements to wear their ugly denim jump suits as we will get dirty. Changed and got our lesson on elephants.
Each one has its own mahut who is that particular elephants trainer. They are all asian elephants. There were 3 babies, 5,7,10 years old and the oldest elephant is 38. Each elephant has its own personality and some are more timid/aggressive than others. We then were let lose to feed the elephants bamboo shoots and bunches of bananas they just ate whole. U held out the item and they wrapped their trunk around it. We had five huge baskets to feed the elephants. Who eat 200kg a day each. Some were given more distance from their mahuts than others. We could even get our pictures taken with some. Then after feeding time it was time to learn how to get on the elephant. "Nalung" is the command for the to lay down so you can jump on bareback. And then we did just that with 2 elephants. Their skin is so tough and their hair is spiky-- its a good thing we had denim on.
Next we had to learn how to direct them. "Bye is forward, how is stop and pang is turn. We then climbed up and had them walk us around. It was like riding a huge slow moving horse. You hold onto the ears as you climb on/off otherwise u just balance with your hands on the head. It was pretty crazy to be riding bareback on such a huge animal! After learning how to ride we cleaned up and had an awesome fresh cooked sweet and sour chicken served over rice and delicious soup and fresh cut pinneapple for dessert. Then we went and took a little nap in the hammocks (making sure our feet were pointed away from the spirit box) until the elephants were ready for their ride.
We then hopped on our elephants and walked through the forest. Each had a mahut very close by. My elephant needed to be drug a lot by our mahut. And he even needed to be hit a few times. Poor elephant. He scratched his body against numerous trees and tried eating everything. Downhill was incredibly hard. My triceps were burning! Plus the elephant waddle made it difficult to stay on! We took a break about 15 minutes in. Some of the little elephants climbed on the backs of other little elephants. Then we climbed back on our elephants for the other 15 minutes and hopped off of them right at the water hole. We took off our shoes, emptied our pockets and hopped in the elephant poop filled water hole to scrub down our elephants. We had floor brushes and buckets of water. A few elephants came up behind me and squirted water at me through their noses. GROSS!! Haha then after about 15 minutes playing in the waterhole we said goodbye and went up to shower. We were given clean towels and bath stalls to use. Water pressure was horrible but we had a guest house to go to to shower later. Turned in our wet clothes (thank goodness we were wearing their clothes!) And took the van an hour back to the city.
Upon being dropped off at our guest house, andrea got an hour long thai massage and lori got an hour long foot massage. We also booked the events for tomorrow: flight of the gibbons ziplining, and our own car to bring us to the tiger kingdom where you go pet tigers, and a trip up to the white elephant temple high on the hill, then delivery to the airport. We then went to the night market and bought way too much! Returned home by 930 pm, andrea showered the rest of the elephant poopy water out and fell asleep for our early 630AM van pickup out to the chang mai rainforest. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Asia day 8- Bangkok
Waking up was definitely not easy. 930 am rolled outta bed for our breakfast buffet. However, I was not hungry. Just needed water. But I ordered an omelet and ate a ham and cheese sandwich. Then I went back to sleep until noon. Mom checked out the pool off of the fourth floor. I showered, popped some advil and we decided we were just going to shop and do a dinner cruise along the river tonight. Found a silk shop right around the corner. Found a nice silk dress for 85$ but did not buy it. Then we headed down the street again looking at all the random junk. Then we got to the river again. Decided we should water taxi it back to the shops and see if we could find anything worthwhile. The shopping in china town is like a giant flea market. The hallways are at sometimes so narrow its total stopped traffic. We just walked and walked and walked. Bought some fabric for 3$ and some headbands 30 cents. We just kept walking and sure enough we found a pier for the water taxi. We hopped onto the water ferry and got off at central. It was 4pm. We were being picked up from our hotel at 620 for our dinner cruise. We decided to walk the other side of the street. Ended up getting to a big street and were attempting to cross when this dude came up to us and said u guys trying to cross? Come with me I'm local. So we followed him across the busy street. Then, I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure he was a scam artist he asked what we wwere looking for (meh, just kinda looking no intention of buying anything). So then he asked for our map! Wrote all over it where we need to go (some tailor and world exports jewelry store) and how we needed to take a tuk tuk (3 wheel cart taxi) and not pay more than 20 baht round trip to our hotel. Then outta no where a tuk tuk appeared. Smooth talker told the driver where to bring us and how he needed to drop us off at our hotel. 20 baht for round trip through the streets and drop off at our hotel. He even tipped the driver--who brought us to a tailor, said no; then to a jewlery store where we were hasseled quite hard for 100$ pearl ring in silver with cubic zerconia (rip off) then we asked to be brought back to our hotel as it was nearing time for our boat cruise. Made it to the hotel, where I found out I had an offer and sellers disclosure to sign. Good thing I have the app "sign me" on my ipod. I could create a signature and place it wherever needed on the doc. Sent it back to ricardo to see if the seller would accept the offer. Then, our driver came to pick us up for our dinner cruise. Due to traffic we hopped a taxi to the river landing. Got on the dinner cruise where we were greeted, served drinks (water only for me) and brought some peanuts. The cruise along the river was quite nice. We went past the temples and emperors palace. For dinner we had a spicy soup and spring rolls. Then we ordered one seafood one thai food meal. The seafood had HUGE shrimp (complete with shells and head) pawns, mussels, and fish steak. Mother ate this. The thai food came out with a pork soup, rice, and fried meat. It was okay. Ended up being too much food. The cruise was nice though.
After the cruise we were shuttled back to our hotel where after booking our hotel for chiang mai at anoma boutique guest house per willies suggestion, we went to sleep with our alarms set for 355am in time to leave by 430 for our 640 flight. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Asia day 7. Transit to Bangkok
Woke up promptly at 7am, took a nice long shower in our rain drop shower. Then stopped at the bakery and grabbed a coconut bun, an egg and ham bun and the hotdog sweet bun before treking to the airport via trains. Once to got onto the airport express, I ended up sitting next to a nice brit. He looked up what terminal we needed to go to and told me about how he's worked in HK for 3 years as a broker and doesn't speak a lick of chinese. He was returning for his little sisters wedding and was really excited about it.
Got checked in no problem. Andrea had to check her bag because it weighs 13kg (limit is 7 for carryon. I was planning on checking anyway). Caught up with some last minute facebook, told ricardo to put an offer in on the 4br 4ba house off of the lightrail's 38th ave station (haven't seen the house, ricardo knows what I like as we've seen 30 houses together). And boarded our 3 hour plane to bangkok. Andrea passed out hard core against the window (per usual)
Landed 10 minutes late and customs was about 30 minute wait just because of the numerous amount of people. Made it through and found our hotel's pickup man just outside of our gate. He brought us right to our hotel's doorstep where we were greeted with fresh fruit juice and our room.
After dropping our bags andrea tried for 20 minutes to get on the wifi to figure out what we should do while in bangkok. No one could get the wifi working which was very frustrating. Finally I gave up asked for a map and asked the clerk where we should go. "Get out to busy road go right and find river" sweet. We meandered the streets which were covered in vendors pushing carts of deep fried food, fresh cut fruits and random crappy trinkets.
Walked along a closed market and found ourselves to the river. A group of people was just about to board. I spotted two foreign dudes asked them where they were going (china town, randaswenger road) and they said we should join. One-will- is a brit working in australia. Cory- cali dude- is on the tail end of his 6 month se asia trip. Both were just coming back from the embassy getting their burma visas. Mom and I had to spot 30 baht (1$ equivalent) from one of them as we only had 1000baht bills. Then I told him for spotting us wed buy him a beer. We found our way to the street filled with foreigners, carts, and market like atmosphere. Will went back to drop off his passport and check his email so cory mom and I grabbed pad thai's and an ice cold chang on the street side. The thing about chang is the % is not regulated. 2 can knock your socks off. After dinner cory wanted to drop his passport off and we shopped the shops while shooting the crap. Ended up down this connecting street and saw these gorgeous pictures of one of the south islands of thailand. Ther picture was split in 3. The dude wanted 600 bahts (20$) but cory talked him down to 500 bahts. Now we just need to figure out how to get those home.... Minor details.
Cory mom and I walked the streets and out of no where will walks up behind us! Hey guys! So then we went to an irish place where we spent the rest of the night. Played some pool. Then mom and I caught a 70 baht taxi ride right to our doorstep. (3 $ and it was about a 1/2 hour ride). Passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Asia day 5. Transit to hong kong.
Woke up at 6am, showered and packed our bags. Grabbed breakfast from the front desk of our hotel (350 yen for 5 pastries and an iced coffee) and headed to the transit line stop right around the corner of our hotel. We waited 20 minutes for our Narita express train. No changes, just 2 hours to Narita Airport. Its amazing how japanese people will fall into what appears to be a deep sleep then suddenly wake up as the doors open for their stop. This happened numerous times throughout our 2 hour journey. Got to the airport at 915 for our 1055 flight. Got check in and found out we could carry on both of our bags. SCORE! Got 2 seats in the middle 4 section of the plane. And no one else was in our row so we sat on each end.
About 30 minutes into our 3 hour flight we got beef and noodles as a lunch served. It was actually decent too! Eastern Asia Airlines was pretty sweet for treating us well. Landed in shanghai on time and got put in the den as we were transfers without visas. Went through our own security again before being released to rome about shanghai airport for an hour. Nothing to see or do.
Boarded our next flight unsure if we were going to get fed again (it would make for a cheap day of eating if we did). Turbulence was very bad almost the entire flight. But sure enough, an hour in-- we got fed. Rice with baby shrimp and a hot dog baked into the middle of a table roll (chinese corndog?). Landed. No problem. Found our way to the train station. No problem. Asked directions on how to get to our hotel, which was about 10 minutes from the station through the ghetto. Droplets of who knows what fell every few seconds from the sky, and loads of beat-up looking people lurked around. But, alas, we found our hotel-- which is quite nice actually! Air conditioning was turned down to 20 degrees celsius and we have our own window overlooking mangkok. It was 745 and we wanted to see the city, so we hopped the train to hong kong island in search of Gary Blanchards suggestion of Peak tram/tower. That took some backstepping and wrong turns before finding it. Went up to the skydeck where even in the rainy season with a fog, we could see the spectacular lights of hong kong below. It started raining while we were there, so we went to bubba gump for an appetizer and drink. Ordered the all-american sampler (loads of shrimps) which came with 35hk$ coors lights. But they were out of coors light and refused to sub another beer. Tried to cancel the dinner order and do something else. But we couldn't do that either. Eventually they allowed us to sub heinikens (I would have much rather had the coors) and we enjoyed our shrimp overlooking the lights of hong kong city.
Afterwards we headed easily back to central station and to our hotel where we decided we were not going to set an alarm and we were going to do the cable cars and a night cruise through the harbor. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
asia day four-- tokyo day three, mount fuji trip
woke up at 655, showered quick and grabbed breakfast from out hotel lobby—which consisted of 5 pastries and a can of coffee before hopping on the asukusa line towards daimon to get to hamamatschu bus terminal—the meeting place for our mt fuji trip.
got on the subway no problem. even got off at daimon stop no problem. had to circle the station a couple times before finding hamamatschu terminal. found it after about 20 minutes, and got onto our bus with fifteen minutes to spare.
mariku was our english speaking tourguide. it was a large coach bus (no bathroom). it took about 2 hours to get to the mt fuji base visitor center. along the way mariku informed us of many japanese traditions, normalities and informed us about mt fuji. it last eruped 300 years ago but is still considered active. with last years huge earthquake professionals are skeptic it may erupt again sooner-than later. there are 10 stations to the top of mt fuji-- the fifth station is as high as you can go via motorcoach. you can climb mt fuji-- but only in the months of july and august. these are summer months and there is no snow atop mt fuji at this time either. At the visitor center we could not see mt fuji due to the clouds-- oh-- did i mention i chose rainy/monsoon season to visit asia. score.
we then took the 40 minutes up winding roads to the station 5. sure enough—we got above the clouds and could see mt fuji for a few pictures before more clouds would come in and cover it up. it was about 15 degrees cooler at the fifth station and we were about 2.1 km above sea level. the summit is about 3 km above sea level. we spent about 40 minutes at this station before winding our way back down and into a town for a traditional japanese lunch. complete with sushami. which is raw fish. mother did not appreciate this. there was also tempora shrimp and chicken. very small portions. and of course a bowl of white rice. andrea was still hungry afterwards. oh well. we then went to the sulfur valley and rode a cable car. we hiked up to a shack where they boil eggs in the sulfur springs turning the shells black. of couse we had to get these. 5 eggs/500 yen. this was a great—healthy midafternoon snack. then we went to hakone for our boat cruise across lake asha. we were hurried into a pirate like ship for the forty minute journey across the lake. at times we could BARELY make out mt fuji in the distance. as it is rainy season mariku was not very hopeful we would see it at all.
after exiting the boat, we took 20 minute drive through town to drop off a couple that was staying at hakone. hakone is known for its hot springs and public baths. everyone uses the same bath water so you 'shower' before entering the bath. “no swimming costumes allowed” so of course they are seperated by gender. did NOT do the public back in a hotspring. instead we continued our journey to the bullet train. this was the end of our tour and it was nearly six oclock. it was about a half hour on the bullet train to get back into tokyo city limits. we ended up getting off one stop early in shinagawa as it was easier to find our way back to magome from here. oh-- when our tour guide found out we were staying in magome she grew quickly concerned for our. apparently it is the 'ghetto' of tokyo. wow-- i'm really good at finding hotels in these parts of town to stay in. we had no issue. also, apparently 15 years ago there was a subway gas terriorist attack which killed a bunch of people. 4/5 of the perpetratiors were caught within a couple months. the fifth perpetraitor was caught on saturday afternoon in the area of magome. :-) awesome.
back to the subway station of shinagawa—i found a way to get us back to magome which required only one transfer. check check. made it back to magome about 730 pm. asked the front desk for food within walking distance. we went to a ramon noodle place just down a back alley. no english menu or english speakers. ordered 2 ramon noodles for 900 yen total. watched as mom still could not use chopsticks—its getting better though. pretty sure the ramon back home is not nearly as good as this ramon was. after paying our bill we headed back to our hotel-- packed our bags and set the alarm for 600am. off to hong kong in the am. after a 2 hour commute to narita international airport. luckily our hotel was perfectly off the subway line that brings us right to narita without any transfers or anything-- and itill only be 1300 yen a person to get there.
Monday, June 18, 2012
asia day 2--tokyo travel day 2
Woke up around 9am. Got ready and grabbed pastries from the front desk along with a coffee in a can while I tried to connect to the internet. Figured it out in time for my whatapps application to go off letting me know mari--our couchsurfer was going to be late as she hit traffic. For those of you unaware of whatapps, its an application for your phone where you can text international numbers for free. Subscription is free for the first year. Awesome. Mari brought her family's car and picked us up from our hotel for a day of sightseeing. We headed towards park palace hotel per kirsten johnson's demand to determine the reisling they serve. However, it was 100 pm and the bar didn't open until 3. So, we went and took pictures at the nearby tokyo tower, ate traditional japanese food for lunch and walked through the nearby shiba park. Saw a temple and shrine and a bunch of cute 3 year old japanese boys bike racing around the park. Then about 255 we started our trek back to the park palace hotel up to the sky lounge for a gorgeous view of downtown tokyo and the tokyo tower. We were up on floor 33. We could even see skytree (the third tallest building in the world which just opened last month) off in the distance. Ordered a dessert tray which came with tea and mari ordered an orange juice. For 3000 yen total. The view was totally worth it though!! Afterwards we went and grabbed maris car drove passed the capitol building and the emperors grounds before going to ginza. Ginza is a shopping district much like 5th ave in NYC. We went into idlunqo or whatever the new japanese fad clothing line is that is taking off in the US-- its 12 floors worth of cheaper clothing. We also strolled passed a couple tiffany's stores (thought of cherish and jim) and numerous other high class places before heading back to the car--which was next to mari's office building. We then headed towards the nearby island across the rainbow bridge. We parked the car and entered the shopping mall venus. Yup! It was like I was at the venetian in vegas-- the shops and ceiling on the 2nd level were decorated like we were in venice. Which was a pretty close resemblence to the venetian. Loved it. We then went for sushi. Mom A. Doesn't know how to use chopsticks and is too stubborn to try a different way to attempt to hold them. And B. Doesn't do raw fish. The sushi place we were at had the trolley line atop the bar that had a constant supply of sushi. Mom had a tuna salad one and a shrimp one. I had avacado/ tuna. And salmon. These were the ones with the meat atop the rice. Delicious. 2000yen or 20$ for our meal. We then went outside and took pictures of the rainbow bridge --which resembles the brooklyn bridge. There is even a mini-- statue of liberty. Haha first time moms seen the statue of liberty and its in tokyo.
After we got our pictures it was already 9pm and mari had to work the next morning. She brought us back to our hotel (mom passed out 2 minutes into the car ride) and then we fell asleep for the night, ready for our mt fuji--hakone tourist bus tour monday morning! Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Sight seeing Tokyo Day 1
despite the 50 mg diphenhydramine-- i
still woke up evey hour on the hour. finally at eight am we decided
it was time to get up. lori showered first in our tub shower with
water coming from the nearby sink then andrea hopped in the shower.
meanwhile—luis our couchsurfer we picked up at the airport—headed
downstais for breakfast. it was a buffet with lots of interesting
things. raw eggs included. we had some scrambled eggs, noodles,
potatoe salad like items, buns, criossants, breads, and all you can
drink juices. Julian—one of jens' friends i met while in germany
last year met us at the breakfast place and to tour us around tokyo.
poor luis had to haul his bags with him as he was flying out of
narita that night.
first we road the asakusa line from one
end to the other which took about forty minutes. we got off and then
went to a temple area. there were shops all over like an open air
market. none of us bought anything—but i may have to get
personalized expensive chopsticks. then we threw a 5 yen piece and
wished for luck, and luis drew his fortune. this was all at the
asakusajinja shrine. we then headed towards the technology area.
complete with 100 people playing their nintendo DS's versus one
another. 7 flights of technology/electronics were inside the store.
each vendor has their own little stand in each specialized
electronics area.
we then headed towards the ueno onshi
park. we walked to the toshogu shrine and grabbed a starbucks. grande
non-fat chai tea latte only 460 yen. (dont ask me the exchange rate—i
have NO idea). then we saw luis off to his train towards narita
airport and we—mom julian and andrea continued walking around the
park before heading to shibuya where we shopped the shitake street
filled with shops and stopped for okinawa food. then we met up with
some of julians friends from work for a birthday. we went into this
restaurant where we were given a back room where you had to take your
shoes off to enter, sat and had unlimited drinks and food. we chatted
with some japanese dudes—a couple of which did not know english.
except for a few words. then at nine fifteen had julian walk us back
to the station where we had to change trains successfully once before
getting to our hotel. where we both passed out for the night.
Travel day to Tokyo
finished
up packing at 3am. mother woke me up at eight am freaking out about
how to pack her clothes. (you fold them... roll them... and put the
away). i then finished packing everything up and booked our resort in
bali-- four stars right on the beach. then went and printed off as
much of the information i had for the trip from the bus company.
stopped at kinkos got our itineraries bound and made it back to the
house minutes before barb platt stopped to bring us to the airport.
got checked in no problem. waited for
about thirty minutes in the security line then we were off to
detroit. except due to the rain there was a litte bit of a back up to
take off. i was already sleeping by then though. detroit flight was
uneventful.
landed in detroit and had an hour to
get to our next gate to tokyo. boarded the plane at seven. sent out a
few last text messages, then we were off. except there was a slight
delay as apparently another plane had hit a bird and they needed to
check it out. oh. and there was a wife that was suuppoed to sit next
to me-- we were the middle two seats of the middle four seats, but
she switched with this young dude luis. a second year med student
about to start a forty day trek throughout southeast asia. I
explained couchsufring and stuff to him. he is on a fifteen hour
layover in tokyo before he heads to singapore.. unsure of what to do,
i invited him to join us with julian tomorrow to see a little bit of
tokyo before he heads to the other airport for his flight. so, we are
cramming 3 people in our 190 square meter hotel room in tokyo. we
hoped a train and then taxied it to our hotel. it was 2700 yen for
the taxi. divided by three now not so bad.
popped a couple benadryl ready to pass
out
Tokyo day two
We are in tokyo! Internet is horrid. We will update the blog with details asap. Met a medstudent from new orleans on our plane. He surfed our hotel floor the first night before going onto singapore. We toured tokyo via train w julian from germany. Now we are waiting for mari a CSer who is driving to get us from our hotel! Going to try and go to park place tower for kirstens drink tonight. Well see. Have a place to stay tonight and are going to mt fuji tomorrow and hong kong tuesday.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Friday, June 15, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Packing/Prepping for Asia
Well-- Its, 3am, and Andrea just finished packing. oh, and just two days ago was airfare finished booking--well, except for the singapore to manila flight. hopefully thats still fairly inexpensive (<100$)
Both mom and I are carrying on. we have matching backpacks. cute!
our itinerary is:
Hopefully Lori can keep up-- and deal with flying by the seats of our pants. itll be an adventure of a lifetime--- thats for sure!
Not sure when or how often internet access will happen. therefore, bear with us!
Both mom and I are carrying on. we have matching backpacks. cute!
our itinerary is:
- 6/15-6/19 Tokyo, with a day going to mt fuji and the bullet train booked
- 6/19-6/21 HongKong. got nothing
- 6/21-6/23 Bangkok--- hopefully our couchsurfer pulls through
- 6/23-6/24 Chiang Mai-- we are both adapting an elephant for the day.. and they are picking us up from the airport at 755 AM
- 6/24-6/25 8 hours in bangkok. got nothing
- 6/25-6/27 BALI-- thinking about booking an all-inclusive 5 star resort for 180$ a day.
- 6/27-6/28 Singapore got nothing
- 6/28-6/29 Manila got nothing
- 6/29-6/30 Tokyo for a few hours then Depart for MPLS
Hopefully Lori can keep up-- and deal with flying by the seats of our pants. itll be an adventure of a lifetime--- thats for sure!
Not sure when or how often internet access will happen. therefore, bear with us!
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