Journey of A Thousand Miles

Final Thoughts

2006-01-09T15:44:00.000-05:00

For a moment I find it strange to hear the pilot announcing over the pa "... Welcome to Land of the Free and Home of the Brave ...", then I realized that I am really home.

I missed family, friends, and colleagues, and as I transition back to comfortable US lifestyle I have some final thoughts:

Even though I blended in pretty well in most of the countries (thanks to gradual darkening of my skin as I moved southward), I felt more “American” than ever in the foreign lands yet I still feel in-between culture here in the US.

As with every trip to culturally diverse countries, I come to appreciate what America has to offer: the freedom, the comfortable lifestyle. And at same time what disgusted me: the excessive obsession with work, material things, power, status, and anything big.

I truly going to miss the SEA and beyond: the cheap fresh juices and pastries of the tropic, efficient and widespread public trans of Japan, the fresh air of Borneo jungle, unique culture of Bali, friendly people of the countries (even Vietnam has few), the nature beauties, ancient ruins of Angkor, and fast diminishing and commercialized local culture/custom.

On this trip I have defended the America's freedom/democracy against communist/totalitarian sympathizers, joined the chorus of disdains for President Bush and Iraq fiasco, lamented about the world's eagerness to follow the footsteps of America's massive consumerism/materialism knowing this planet can't support everyone at that borrowed and temporary lifestyle, and sadden by the destruction of tropical rainforest by the corrupt governments eager to support timber companies and plantation owners that feed the voracious demands of developed countries

So where is my next long trip? Central America. When? I don’t know, definitely not this year. More Spanish class is the only thing certain.

Signing off……

Highlighs and disappointments

2006-01-09T03:28:00.000-05:00

Highlights

Angkor Wat**
Fellow Travelers *
Pinnacles Trek *
Uncle Tan's Wildiness Camp
Japan
Passport stamps and foreign currencies
Stone Forest
Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek *
Friendly inn/guesthouse/internet cafe girls
Malaysia/Brunei friends' hospitality *
HK photographer
Hoi An, Vietnam
Yangshuo, China
Mulu caves *
Insects and creatures of Borneo *
Ubud, Bali *

Disappointments

Vietnamese People *
Drug use of local and foreigners in Laos *
rude, spiting and cigarette smoking people of China/massive wave of tourists
Mekong delta tour *
deforestation in general
accomendation in Borneo Malaysia *
Cat Ba island stay (Halong Bay)

Just missed out highlight due to poor weather

Taroko gorge, Taiwan
Halong Bay, Vietnam
Sapa, Vietnam

Final Stat

2006-01-08T23:37:00.000-05:00

- typhoon: 3
- earthquake: 1
- flight taken: 25
- ferry/boat taken: too many
- kayaking: 2
- country/territory visited: 13
- country/territory driving on the left: 8
- long distance train (over 2 hours): 2
- bus/subway/train: countless
- longest non-stop plane ride: 13+ hours
- longest ferry ride: 5 hours
- longest train ride: 9 hours
- longest bus ride: 15.5 hours
- leech attacks: 6

Travelers along the road less traveled

2006-01-08T23:20:00.000-05:00

Japan:
- couple Horshia (Japanese) and Nathan (seattle)
- Daniela (architect/dancer/trying acting now) from Portugal. In Japan for conference, and vacation.
- Andy, a car gear designer from London and Peter, a carpenter from SF

Hong Kong:
- Cinnie Chan and S.H. Lam, college students that were sitting at my table at a dinner place. It is common practice to place strangers in tables that have seats available since space is of premium in HK. They want to see my pictures when I get back to the states.
- Sunny, local photographer, cool dude showed me the tricks and spots for taking picture of HK harbor.

Yangshuo:
- Adam Lam (in transition) a fifth generation Chinese from SF. 3 or more month on the road. Update: after returning to SF, Adam is now in Southern China to start a new life there.
- Hiral(software consultant) from Chicago. Going on a 5 month trip.
- Ryan (software engineer) from Kansas City (Hiral's travel partner)
- Mai and Ulrick from Danmark. Grad students (to be teachers) with one course left. Cool couples.
- Amigo, a female (yes female) from Guangzhou vacation on her own. Met along with Mai and Ulrick on the boat ride down Lijing river. She got her English name from a soap from Taiwan. We did not want to ruin her happiness about her English name by telling her what it means and that it is a masculine word.
- Martin from US, PhD candidate.
- Ido, an interesting Athesist from Israel, yes Israel. I did not know that Athesist existed there!. He is a software engineer I think but gone back to school. He and bounch other travelers (Andreas, Tasha, Mikkel and 3 others I think - 2 Dans, 1 Irish, 1 Brazilian, 1 Australian) got so drunk one night. Well they apparently enjoyed it so much and with lots foolish picutures.
- Vivian? a Taiwanese Brazilan (work in marketing). Again I did not Taiwanese people existed in Brazilan, I know tons of Japanese immigrated there.

Guilin:
- Ruth from Ireland. I think she is a student. She is traveling with 5 other friends for 1 year to Asia, Australia, and South America. Paying part of the way by working in Aust. Update: Only Ruth remained in Australia traveling and working, she is planning to go home some time in Jan 07.
- A HK/New York Chinese bunkmate that is traveling around China. He and his friend smoked in our dorm, which is allowed in China. I gave them a health and moral lesson :) the friend wasn't very happy.
- A couple from Ireland? who lost one of their backback with all his cloth. He is fit-up with China, ready for Australia. I don't blame him. I would be the same if I were to be in China for as long as they did and lost everything.

Kunming:
- Well I met up with Adam (from Yangshuo), he is just chillin in this modern yet not so overwhelming city. No haze and first blue sky I saw in China. We had dinner at the muslim section of the town. He met with local college students and played basketball with them.

Lijiang:
- a Chinese couple from Shanghai, we meet on the ride from the airport and we shared lunch together. Very friendly even tried to help me to find the inn I had in mind before they get to theirs. We did not find the inn, must be closed.
- Adam again, the third time! After I came back from Tiger Leaping Gorge earlier in the evening, I just happened to be standing in the front of the place that I was staying and saw him walking by. He is going to Tiger Leaping Gorge the next day.

Tiger Leaping Gorge:
- Hector and Marc from Barcelona Spain: internet enigeer on 3-week vacation. Very fast hikers. We discussed Spain and Taiwan history and internal politics.

- Mr Ju: A member of communist party who is helping Hector and Marc arrange things. He strained his injured knee during the hike and was very slow after that.

- Mr Liu: Met him at Lijiang to goto TGL together, but I told him I would probably leave him soon after the hike since he is a middle aged smoker :)

- Y. Ji. Chen: on the same bus to TLG and we started togther with Mr. Liu who we lost after 30 minutes or so. He is pretty fast for a Chinese. But no match for westerners.

Dali:
- Bunch Israelis: Couple Naaman and Miri, Translator and Psychologist (just graduated). Naaman another Atheist! Apparent a lot people from Tele Vie are Atheist. We talked about Chinese culture and Israeli society.

- Mikkel and Andreas again (from Yangshou), they took a terrible 24 plus bus ride from Guilin. Mikkel throws up half the way. They both very tired when arriving in Dali and ready for sunny and warm weather of Thailand.

Kunming Part II:
- Mikkel and Andreas again (from Yangshou, Dali), they are leaving for Chang Mai, Thailand.

- Danish couples Martin and Kiva saw them at Stone Forest as well. Heading to Laos and then Vietnam.

Sapa:
- Shane from Ireland and Harold from Germany, we all took the long bus ride from Kunming to Hekou. Harold is heading to Hanoi for some sun.
- Inga, Dutch travel guide based in Hanoi. Guide Dutch tourists for Vietnam and Cambodia.
- Suri, Japanese cloth designer ? working in Hanoi

Hanoi:
- Shane Ireland (See Sapa)
- John, England, biking across Vietnam. He has been traveling around Asia for a while. He want to live in France when he get back because he encountered many good mannered French people! How come I did not met many in Paris? May be all the good mannered French people can't stand Paris itself and want to get away?
- Kate and Kelly from Connecticut and Indiana, childern welfare? Currently traveling around Southeast Asia (and been to South America already) for about a year.

Halong Bay:
- Shane again, my traveling partner from Sapa :)
- Denis and Laura, newly wed from Australia. He is Vietnamese origin. Saw them again in Hoi An
- Chris and Ann, couple from Oregon, she a school teacher and he a carpenter. Both quit their jobs and have been traveling for a while.
- Jeffery, Singapore. On a short holiday.

Hoi An:
- Shane again. Update: After his SEA trip, Shane went back to teaching English for about a month and headed back to SEA again!
- Saw Denis and Laura and few others from the Halong Bay tour.

Hue:
- Vicky Le & Desmond Quek, couple from Bay Area. she, Vietnamese Amercian (realtor), he, Singaporian American (system admin). Visiting relatives in Vietnam and sightseeing. Good coversation with them on the bus to and from Hue.

Saigon/Mekong Delta Tour:
- Clara from Australia, just finshed her degree in mining and environment. Visting Vietnam the second time, and to do some sighseeing and try to do voluteering work.
- Sachiyo, Japanese lived in Paris. Vacation in Vietnam and then visiting home in Nara, Japan.
- Ines, Germany. Just finished her degree in teaching, starts in Feb.
- Sherley & Lisa, funny Canadians from Vancouver Island. Waitress and home depot clerk. they have traveled to all contienents. All long trips. Many interesting stories. Their curent journey started in China. They have been traveled so much, and seen the worst and best, so nothing faze them any more. Sherley want to go back school (business) and hope to start a hostal one day.
- Mark and Yana from Germany, just graduated to become teachers in Feb. He a special ed teacher, and she a primary teacher.

Phnom Penh:
- Ines, Sherley & Lisa, Mark, Jana from Mekong delta tour
- Gil from South Africa
- English couple from Halong Bay/Hoi An

Siemp Reap:
- Ines, Sheiley & Lisa, Mark, Jana, and Gil from Phnom Penh. We had Thanksgiving dinner together. No turkey and pie though.
- Grant, soon to be HS teacher (one more semester) from Madison Wisconsin. Miscalculated number of credits he needed to graduate. Come up short, but he was already book his Asia vacation, so he need to go back to finish it up next year.

Vientiane:
- Iqnacio (aka Nacho) & Maria: a couple from Madrid; seem like a really nice couple. He is law clerk at a patent office and she an internet admin?? at an engery company. I met them again in Luang Prabang.

Vang Viang:
- Philip: chinese Australian (parents from Malaysia), 51 year old divorced father of 1, is partying hardy to make up the lost years. Pretty fun and knowledgable guy. Although I don't agree with him on politic and communism in China (he is pro-communinism). Pot smoker. He is traveling for extended period of time. Going to China next.
- Jacob: Czech Australian, 24 year old party animal; booze and pot and who knows what else.
- Kerry: Irish lady, also booz and drug.
- Nikki: Canadian from Vancouver who lived in Thailand for a while, but is chasing her dream man across border to here. Very strange lady who is out hunting everyday for a man (sugar daddy)
- Sylvia: dutch 32, the only really not smokers (tried one puff). She is traveling for a year in Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand. Seems to be pretty health person but I thinking she feels the peer pressure sometime.
- Danny and Tara: young American couple from Seattle: She is the controling kind. They claimed one of their traveler check was stolen, and then tried to walk away from paying their room (but got caught by the police and in the end they paid half for the room and get a free bus). Very immature behavior of them, dealing one wrong with another.
- Andy: an American; the true backpacker with the look to go with it.

Luang Prabang:
- The whole gang from Vang Viang minus Andy and Nikki. Nikki went to remote South Laos still in search of her sugar daddy. More booze and drug of course. The new addition to the gang Louise from Jonhansberg SA. She said no to the drug. Good for her!
- The cool Spanish couple Iqnacio & Maria
- Lawrance, Janice and their daughter from NZ. The parents have been traveling in South Asia for a while after they quit their jobs. And currently living in Thailand and taking this trip with their youngest daughter who is on break from Uni. Plan to go back soon and move/work in Australia. They are part some sort of relative new religion...

Bangkok:
- fun crew Sheiley, Lisa, and Jana from Cambodia

Sukhothai:
- English couple of Chinese ancestry. he a doctor and she a food health and safety inspector? On a two-week vacation

Mt. Kinabaru:
- Adam and group of Aussie HS students who come to borneo to do some work for the local tribes as part of their school curriculum, they are finished and just spending last few days having fun
- Fiona, Helen, Claire from UK: Helen in advertising, but going to become call girl recuiter in NY; Claire a mid-wife looking to move and work in Australia, may be NZ

Sandakan:
- Claire (a different one), Corala, Becky (English): fed up after about one year of working, decided to travel around the world. Seems like young people in their early to mid 20s get fed with work (real world) soon after school (controlled world). The baby boomers' kids have been sheltered and praised all their life and now entering the real world, they can't stand the criticisms and little hard work. Very sad.

Uncle Tan's Wilderness camp:
- Mary a massage therapist from Victoria canada
- Catherin and David (Italian) from NY: will traveling around for about 20 month. His sister come join them for this part of the trip
- Petra, Medelo, Marle, Manu: Dutches

Gum Gum:
- Jackie: a teacher from New Zealand that is teaching in Brunei; her daughters Hena (a uni student) and Selly came visit.
- Adam and Aussie students

Miri/Brunei:
Mr Hwang and family: friendly Malaysian invited to his home in Miri and Brunei. He was traveling with Mr. Lee from Sibu.

Mulu:
- Dominique: french traveling for about year
- Vincent: french traveling for about year as well
- Mr Wu and his nephew: Malaysian from KL. He, a physician and avid photographer
- Mary from Uncle Tan's Wilderness camp
- Two Malaysian girls: one working in Ottawa Canada, the other work in Forestry department in Malaysia

Sibu:
- Mr Lee and family from Miri: staying one night with his family. The daughter of Mr Hwang was staying with him (playmate with his own daughter)

Kuching:
- Mary from Uncle Tan's Wilderness camp

Ubud/Amed:
- Mary from Uncle Tan's Wilderness camp
- Jack originally from Hawaii but lived in Bali for over 20 years: retired formal sarong wholeseller? now just surf and travel around Bali in his van (sold everything) to catch the surf. Extensive knowlege of local culure as well out of the this world beliefs: UFO.

Amed:
- Neil (South Africa) and Ally (Taiwan): realestate agents that sell managed and gated property to foreigners as rental investment here in Bali. Now expanding their business to near by counries like Fiji. Previously they worked in Taiwan.

Singapore, the last stop

2006-01-08T11:56:00.000-05:00

My last stop in my long journey.
The border crossing via the bus was an interesting exprience.
Everyone get off the bus to go through immigration on the Malaysia side and then get back on. The bus drove through the buffer zone and everyone get off again at singapore side, but this time with all the luggages. After that, everyone get back on the bus again.

It was kind of chaotic with many buses and people, and I was not sure what to expect in the beginning.

The weather in Singapore is probably the worst I have since the all day rain in Halong Bay Vietnam. It rained on and off all day. And on early morning of last day, it poured all the way to the airport.

The rain and cloudy weather did not get me excited to explore this city even though Singapore is lot bigger and greener than I expected and not like that of concret shopping city of HK. The comofort of Sheraton just a bit too nice after 3.5 month of sometime dodgy/dingy accomendation.

I spend my first afternoon exploring the main shopping street in Singpore - Orchard Rd. Many locals and visitors walk this area. Tons of department stores and food courts. I managed to find a place to eat and got some pastries as well.

After couple hours of wondering around that area and sky looked threatening, I headed back to my comfortable hotel for quick rest before going to the zoo for its famous night time safari. The rain started again as the bus approached the zoo, but it stopped short time later.

The whole entrance area are full of stores and food courts, just a bit too much for my taste. As for the actual night safari, it was pretty cool, you have the choice of walking the trail or taking a tram/walk/tram. Becuase of the rain, most pople opted for tram and walk. There are no fences (that goes for lions as well), and one get to see animal active in the night. O, the flying squirrels were cool, they fly when they feel like to and does not matter if you're standing in their way!

The safari also included trained animal shows, but it rained just when the show about to start and was cancelled as a result.

Next morning, it was so comfortable sleep, I woke up way past 8! The sky was still looking cloudy and threatening, so quickly ate my last cake and head out to the botanic garden for its large orchid display. There are so many type of orchids, I didn't even try to remember any of the names. They even have hybrids that were created especially for visiting dignitaries like Barbra Bush, Kofi Anna, etc.

After a quick lunch at an Orchard rd food court and a rest at my comfortable room, I was on my way to check out the colonial area of Singpore and Chinatown.

The colonial area is intersected by the Sinapore river with tall high rises and water front cafes and resturant and old colonial building. I took a river cruise as suggested by David (ex-Edge coworker, now back working in his home country). After the cruise I hung out at the colonial area for little bit and then headed to Chinatown.

Again rain started to come down hard again, and the area was partially closed in anticipation of the kick off for Chinese new year celebration that afternoon/night. So the street was especially crowded, and after fruitlessly looking for a bakery shop, I went back to my (did I said comfortable) room.

I promised to meet David at my room around 5:30.
David is still the same as I remembered. We catched up on what's going on in our life and Edge happening. He is going back school and working as teacher at local college. We continued our chat at dinner at a local eatery. Thanks David for the yummy seafdood treat, including sting ray. Another first along with snake in Vietnam :)

After saying our good-bye and packing up I went to bed around 10 so I can get up at 4:30 for my 7:20 flight home.

O, I have a hard time getting my Borneo purchased souvenir blow pipe clear the custom, apparently in Singapore it is considered as a deadly weapon. I am taking it out the country anyway who cares! Stupid regulation.....

One thing I noticed about Singapore is that it is not as orderly as one expected despite the strict rules and media hypes. People jay-walking etc. Japan is the most orderly country I ever visited by far and without too many strict rules.

Melaka

2006-01-05T07:44:00.000-05:00

I arrived at Melaka around mid afternoon with good amount of sunshine.

After checking into my expensive (126 RM ~= $35) hotel in old Chinatown (see picture of the hotel) I was ready for quick tour of the city's historic sites.

A word on the Puri Hotel that I am staying in, it was an old Chinese house that was converted into a boutique hotel, some of the original structure is maintained.

Melaka has seen its procession of foreign conquerers since its founding in 1400 by an exiled Sumatran prince. It succumbed to Portuguese in 1511. Later on Dutch, then the British.

The city is really great to wonder around, with many colonial buildings/structure still intact, along with old neighborhoods. I enjoyed my short time here.

The old town's main square is surrounded by some historical buildings like: the Christ Church build by the Dutch in 1741 to commemorate a century of colonial rule in Melaka. The Stadthuys, build by the Dutch in 1600s for the governor of Melaka.

Anyway, tomorrow morning I'll leave for Singapore, the last country on my trip.

Kuala Lumpur

2006-01-04T03:17:00.000-05:00

I arrived at KL airport for the 3rd time in less than a month. But this time I am actually going into the city. Actually I am visiting Malaysia for the 3rd time during this period as well. Making it the country I visited most often along with Taiwan.

The ride into the city and finding the hotel was trouble free.

I am staying at a little higher class hotel, but I did notice bed bug, so I guess I will be itchy for few more days.

The place I stayed is in between Chinatown and little India. The first night I went to Chinatown for dinner. I was so hungry, I pretty much stop at the first street side resturant. I ended up eating for 19.5 RM, which is way over my budget :)

Day two, I went for sightseeing in near by area.
I wanted to see orchid and hibiscus garden but it was closed till May for renovation so went to the near by bird park and butterfly farm. The bird park was pretty good except the caged birds part (not overcrowded or anything, just thought the birds could use more free space). Later on I went to the Petronas twin towers, once the highest building in the world. The building is well designed and pretty I think.
There is a big shopping mall in the ground floors.
It rained that evening so it prevented me from taking night picture of the building.

So what do I think of Kuala Lumpur?
This city looked modern, but its people still behind by the western standard. Motorbikes ride on the side walk (i have a stare down with motorcycle on the sidewalk), motorbikes run red lights (very frequent), people pee on the street.

Anyway I am heading to Melaka this morning, 3.5 days to go...

Bali my impression

2006-01-03T01:23:00.000-05:00

Bali is an island with very distinctive Hindu culture in the mist of lush mountains and rice fields. There are more temples than houses.

The Balinese people are very friendly and artistic with wide range of handicraft, painting, and carvings.

Women here are very curvely and beautiful.

Yes there are wild and crazy parties, terrorist bombings (by none-native muslims extremists, local hindu population is just troubled by the acts as other people), but if one is to exercise caution and come for the culture and not parties, one will walk away with amazing and unique experiences.

I highly recommend Bali as place for culture/artistic immersion!

Ubud Part 2

2006-01-02T01:08:00.000-05:00

I got back to Ubud this morning. I checked into the same place/room as before.
I spend my last day here with Internet, massage, show. No more shopping, I bought too much the first 3 days!

I'll fly into KL around 4:55PM, but I don't expect it to be on-time (seem to be always late when flying in Malaysia).

I plan to check into nice hotels from now on for the last 5 nights, which including 2 nights in Sheraton in Singapore.

I'll upload pictures from Bali when I get to KL, since the speed here is super slow and upload is almost impossible.

Amed

2006-01-02T00:31:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Amed in a late afternoon rain. We checked out few places, but all seem to be very expensive. One place Jack tried to bargin, the guy did not even acknowledge it even though there is virtually no tourists and tons of near empty hotels.

Finally we found one that is willing to bargin and we got $10 for a sea side bunglow with a small swimming pool, including breakfast. The room looked great, big room and windows over look the ocean, tiled floor and bath. Might be the best room I stayed in the whole trip!

Anyway the area around fishing village of Amed is either cliff side rocky shore or black sand/rock beach. People come here to relax, dive, or kayaking. Some of the reefs are right up the coast! There is one right at my bunglow during low tide. Although I did not see any big fish or crabs, I did enjoyed my walk among the reef - not even have to get wet!

New Year eve, we all went to sleep before 11PM, since there wasn't much to do here in quiet Amed.
Next morning I went for a morning run and check out the transportation price for a ride back Ubud.
The best I got was $20, very expensive, but one has little choice...

O, the saga of Mary and Jack. They continued their spirtual and paranormal discussion, I sort of zone out on the discussion when UFO subject come up. Again Jack gave indirect hint that he want to move on (by himself) with his surfing, but again Mary unwilling to let Jack go decided to follow him to surfing even though she doesn't surf and loves kayaking. She is kind of wishy-washy, change her mind frequently. So I wished them the best of luck on new year day.

At the place I stayed there was a couple Neil and Ally, he is from SA and she is from Taiwan. They are into real estate for foreigners buying investment property in Bali.
They are in Bali for about 9 years, and now expanding into near by areas as well ( like Fiji etc). Previously they worked in the same line in Taiwan. I had lunch with them after Mary and Jack left.

That afternoon, I spend time cleaning, washing, and organizing. But I still end up with way too much time on hand with nothing else to do (no TV), so I went to sleep before 9PM!!!

My ride arrived before 7AM next morning, and after a quick breakfast, I was on my way back Ubud.

Ubud, Bali Indonesia

2005-12-31T03:45:00.000-05:00

I arrived in Bali at about 7:55PM. After cleared the immigration/custom and exchanged some TC, I was off to Ubud, the artistic center of Bali in the rain.

Ubud looked deserted when I arrived, I think the rain and recent bombing/warning have kept most of the tourists away.

The place I stayed look really nice in compare to what I stayed in Borneo and all for half the price and with breakfast! The room is tiled with ornated door. The interior is decorated nicely as well. Even though it has no ac (no need since it does not smell and vented well).

In the morning I went for a walk to the moneky forest, people are friendly along the rice paddy fields. I guess the morning/mid-day sun bring out the tourists I did not see last night, but from what I was told, the place is slower than normal.

The streets are lined with souvenir shops that are filled with many finely hand made goods for a fraction price you would find any where. I guess I'll be loading up on gifts from here :)
Intermixed with the shops you get many stylish resturants and coffe shops. The prices are pretty expensive by Indonesian standard, as many are owned by westerners (with higher expense and tax). Food is good in these resturants, but I avoid it and tried the few local resturants.

One thing annoying here is the constant being hassled by the taxi drivers. But I think after my Vietnam exprience, I have a higher tolerance for it now :) Thank you Vietnamese people.

Day two, Mary (from Boneo) arrived, and we went for walk to near by village and rice fields. Even though there are shops and up scale hotels along the way, it was scenic hike none the less.
That evening, we went to the monkey forest temple to watch local hindu religious parade and later that night we went to see some Balinese/Hindu dance. It was good except we sat at the last row, so can't see too well.

Day three, Mary and I chartered a taxi, to goto couple near by hindu temples. Not thing grand, just more of historical values. In fact the hindu temples here are just plain by my standard. It is the custom of the local people that are real facination to the visitors.
BTW, there are more temples here in Bali than houses I was told. After a afternoon of Balinese massage which was pretty good, we went to the monkey forest temple to watch local people in the hindu ritual in the evening. Even though it rained pretty hard, people still carry on the prayer ceremonies. There were also traditional music and plays. One has to dress up in local costume in order to going in to see the ceremony inside the temple. So I bought a full dress for it. Mary deicded to go back early, I stayed on till about 10PM (I was told the ceremony last to 12 or 1 AM). And some people (4 villages were represented here) hava one hour drive back....
After I went back to my guesthouse, I found Mary talking with my neighbor Jack, who is from Hawaii but lived in Bali for over 20 years, now retired (from sarong business) and a surfer. He is very knowledgeble about Balinese culture including that of Balinese people don't trust each (since they gossip a lot), hide themselves when eating except during regious gathering since they consider it as animal behaviour, joke with each other a lot and in public and work places (many involve sexual jokes), has modified caste system, some religious ceremonies near/at tourist areas are bit exaggerated. Anyway, Mary has decided to go with Jack to where ever he is going instead to Amed with me as originally planed, I was kind upset since I changed my plan and paid the transport so we will both be in Amed for new year.

Next morning (day four), Mary felt guity and convinced Jack to goto Amed with us (he has sold everything he owned and now traveled in a mini van with surf boards to catch the waves), so Mary, Jack, and I left for small beach town Amed for new year.

Jack (in his late 40s or early 50s) and Mary (in her early 40s) both into meditation, yoga, mysticism, so they connect prety well. On top of that Jack believed UFO because his mother was abducted by aliens. Anyway, Mary is looking for a man that is compatible with her, so Jack fits the build and Mary seen to grab on to Jack. But I have the feeling that Jack is not that interested and he did us a favorite by going to Amed with us after Mary insist he come. Anyway more on this saga later to come in Amed log.

O, I left all the souvenirs I bought here in Ubud which I intend to come back after 2 nights in Amed.

My Malaysian Borneo Impression

2005-12-28T02:55:00.000-05:00

Borneo lived up to my expectation and beyond.
I expected the land of the wild with man made destructions, but I did not expect the hospitality of the local people and extend of Chinese business influence in parts of the area.

Deforestation is pretty much the name of the game here. Old forests are being replaced with massive oil palm plantations. Despite this continue threat and pressure, what little remained still invoked the lush jungle wildiness teeming with life that one imagine of Borneo of long ago. Although the biodiversity here isn't as great as one in the Amazon. But it is much more than jungle of the mainland Southeat Asia, where in places like Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia (may be Thailand as well), people not only cut down the forest for farming, they also eat every living things in sight: birds, insects, mammals, fish! So the jungle felt silent when I visited.

The Malaysian Borneo is relative accessible for people looking for short jungle stay/trekking. Cheap and reliable hopper flights and bus transport make it all possible. But the park system is pretty disorganized and expensive for single budget travelers. Fees for some hike are in the range of $100 regardless how many people. Also the food in most of the park are very expensive and accomandation in some are monopolized so one pays premium for cheap accomandation.

As for cavers, there are many caves to explore in Borneo: from the largest cave in the world Sarawak cave to the source of Chinese birdnest soup Niah caves.

Even though most of the indigenous people have integrated into the modern world, they still remain pretty friendly. Also there are many cute girls here with great looking eyes.

Most other people here are pretty friedly as well.

English and Chinese will get you almost anywhere in Malaysian Borneo.
Chinese population is big here. They own many business, but get shut out of political process and discriminated in everyday Malay society. The native poupulation fairs even worst.

The accomandation here is pretty expensive compare to other near by countries (see my Kuching blog for accomandation nightmare), few internet and laundry places, little or no fresh juices (coming in cans yes). This is all part of modernization process I guess.

One good thing is that they have very good bakeries (thanks to the large Chinese population), almost rival that of Taiwan.

I consider my Borneo experience as a highlight, and definitely recommend it to other people even one that does not fancy wild jungle experience because many people come here to visit the jungle/caves/mountains without doing the trekking (hard work).

Kuching, meow meow

2005-12-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

After a 5.5 hour boat ride from Sibu to Kuching that journey through river, ocean, back to river with some big waves, the rain greeted my arrival.

I headed straight to the hotel I had in mind and the friend from Sibu phone in a reservation for me (apparently he is friend to the owner). They gave me a room on the first floor for 35 riggit (just under US$10). But the room smelled awful, and looked nasty. Not willing to offend the friend from Sibu, I decide to take the room.
For the night 3 nights there, I dreaded to go back to the room to sleep. Luckily I find things to do at daytime, and internet at night so I only spend the minumum amount of time in the room. O, I think there are bugs in the room (even with AC on), my body are all itchy from some sort of bites! This might be the worst room I have since the one in Vietnam (Mekong delta tour).

Anyway it was Christmas eve, but there is only a Catholic church near by, so I tried to attend the service (hoping for to sing some familiar hymns), but I arrived to standing room only crowd, and hymns weren't familiar, and my backpack was heavy, so I left after 15 minutes to go to sleep in the nasty room.

btw Kuching in malay means cat, so the city is decorated with many cat statues. It is the largest city in Borneo I believe. The city is charming by Borneo standard, but the weather here isn't as nice this time of the year as other part of Borneo. Also this city is the only one city that not being bombed by the allied in WWII when Japanese occupied the country. On top of this, it was the capital of the reign of white rajahs in 1800s and 1900s, so there are some colonial buildings remained.

on Christmas day morning, I went to near by Kubah national park to see some more catcher plants for couple hours. I saw couple types and one of them I saw it in Mulu as well, but the walk is short and nice none the less, and I think I might be the only hiker for the last few days for the park. Around 12:30PM I headed back to Kuching for lunch.

Soon as I step out the van in Kuching, I felt something sticky and wet on bottom of my left foot. When I looked closer, it was blood! It took few seconds before it dawn on me, leech attack again!! Since I was in public, I decided to walk to a resturant or store before I take off my sandle and have closer look.

I went to a juice place where bought something earlier in the morning and clean up the wound, the leech was gone. after settling down for a needed drink, I took off my right sandle, and you probably guess by now what I found, another fat leech! The owner pried off with his shoe and step on it. This bastard was filled with my blood.

So the final leech vs me result (I hope no more leeches) is leech 2 and me 4.

That afternoon, I tried to visit the Sarawak museum, but it was closed, so I headed to visitor center to find out its schedule. There I saw Mary (from Uncle Tan and Mulu). She just arrived from Mulu. So we decided to get together for dinner.
Later as we were walking, she saw a guy, Marco (Dutch)from Mulu and 3 of us had a "Chirstmas" dinner. The town was pretty quiet on Christmas night.

On the day after Christmas, Mary and I went to visit the near by culture village that have full size of some of the traditional Malaysian dwellings and culture dances.
The building are pretty authentic and well done although many of the actors for demostration seems to have gone home for Christmas. As for the culture dances, it is like bollywood/vegas show of sound and dance. It ends with sound about Malaysia which has nothing to do the the culture. Anyway we did little shopping around the town, and both of us got ourselves a mid-size blow pipe, so you better watch out when I get back home, I need practice.

Finally Mary, Marco, and I met for a seafood dinner, very good, but portion is kind of small for the price. We had drink at river side bar, and say our goodbyes, Marco is going home, Mary is going to Bako NP, and I going to Bali. But I may see Mary again as she is heading to Bali a day after me.

I was so happy to check out my dump the next morning to catch my fly to KL (the second time) and onward to Bali.

Sibu

2005-12-23T08:50:00.000-05:00

The bus ride from Bintulu to sibu took about 4 hours. Mr. Lee picked me up at the station after I phoned his phone. Apparently he thought I was arriving earilier when I phoned him in Bintulu (I left 3 hours after I phoned him), I am really sorry.

So I stayed at his place for a night. He wanted me to stay for two, but I told him I like to goto Kuching for Christmas eve. He lived with his wife who is preganan with their 4th child, and their youngest daughter. The daughter from guy who lives in Brunei, was also here.

he took me out for dinner with the family and a quick visit to the town center where Christmas lights were up (even a Christmas tree).

Next morning after breakfast and quick visit to the oldest Chinese temple in sibu and I was on the boat to Kuching. The guy paid my ferry ticket (40 riggits)!

O, The city of Sibu is almost pure Chinese city.

Similajau NP

2005-12-22T08:32:00.000-05:00

My quick tours of Sarawak National parks continues with Similajau NP.

I wasn't sure I want to visit this park when I arrived in Bintulu long distance bus station, but after unable to find a place to stay near the station, with sunny sky, and a small prod from the taxi driver and I was off to Similajau NP.

I think I was the only visitor staying in the park that night! The beach was dirty and foamy with many tree debris. And the lodges surrounded with many big puddle of water where mosiquitos are everywhere. The place has look of being abandoned for few months. I did manage to do a short hike in near by forest, nothing real interesting to see, but good view point for the sunset, waves, and just quiet relaxing place.

Next morning I went back to Bintulu bus station and internet to book my flights to KL and Bali and soon I was on my way to Sibu to visit one of the two friendly Chinese Malaysian I met on the KK flight.

Niah Caves NP

2005-12-21T04:25:00.000-05:00

After a short flight from Mulu back to Miri, I headed for the taxi stand to catch a bus at the city's long distance bus station.
Apparently the taxi coupon sales person mistakenly wrote down the price for the inner city bus station, so I was angry when the taxi driver taking me in the direction of the city center, this is after he told me there are no bus to Niah Caves, which I know it is not true. He want me go with him to his friend who operates a share taxi.

So I started yelling at him and telling him that he is try to cheat me, and he got angry as well, so we headed back to airport and shouted our way back to the taxi coupon counter. After correct the bus station mess up, I headed for another taxi, but the place is run by taxi monopoly, and the original driver insist I get back into his cab, so we shouted all the way to his cab again. We both finally shut up and I arrived the long distance bus station, and I was on my way to Niah Caves.

I arrived in the park around 3:30 in the afternoon, and rain just started. So I decided to do the cave visit the following day. The park was pretty quiet with few local and foreign tourists.

The following morning the rain finally stopped, so I started my quick tour of the caves. The plank walkway to the caves was so wet and with mossy slime that even walking on the flat surface, one can slip on it. So I slip and slide my way to the caves. There were many snails along the way, I guess they love the wet and slimy condition.

The cave system here wasn't as impressive as the ones in Mulu, but there are couple things worthy a visit: one the guano harvesting and bird nest soup (swiflets) harvesting, and the painted cave where ancient human inhabitant made their marks.

The bird nest harvester, use long multi-segmented bamboo sticks with flashlight attached to the end to break the nest high in the cave ceiling. Some use single thicker bamboo to climb to reach the nest.

One the way back, my flashlight's battery went dead and I was in the middle of a dark cave, luckily there are other visiting coming in, and one of them let me have her batteries!

At park headquarter, I found a group of Malaysian soldiers on break and paid them 10 riggits to get me to the bus stop, but apparently we mis-communicated and they drop me off at the town Niah and not the bus station few more miles away. So I need to find another way to get to bus depo. I found a Chinese guy with a very old car, and he agree to take me for 10 riggits (so I over-paid by 5 combined). The ride to bus depo was very very slow in his old car.

At depo, there is already a bus there, so I grab something to eat and paid the driver a fair fare and soon I was on my way to my next park: Similajau near Bintulu.

Mulu National Park

2005-12-20T03:52:00.000-05:00

A short 25 minutes flight from Miri (by road it takes 7 difficult hours). There is no electricity here, but we have generator.

Soon as I arrived I tried to start my pinnacles/gunung api trek. It normally takes 3-day 2-night, but I felt since I just finished Mt. Kinabalu not long ago, I am fit to do this. Not knowing it is not the fitness, but the footing and mental factor.

After talking to a tour guide and the park people, I decided to go with the tour company since it is cheaper for one person. So after lunch (couple hours after I landed), I transfered the things I needed for the overnight trek to my small backpack and off we go to camp 5.

The journey started with an hour long boat ride up the river. The river level was low, so we have to get out and push the boat couple times. The guide stop at riverside shop and bought some alcohol for the trek. The boat landed 800 meter short of high water landing and the starting point of the 8km trek to camp 5. We rested for about 15 minutes and then we're on our way to camp 5 through muddy and leeches infested trail.

Soon as we started the dark cloud rolled in and rain started to coming down. We have no choice but to push on with our rain gear, even though it was hot and humid. By the time we reach camp 5 around 5:10PM, I was all wet from rain and sweat!

We caught up to a group of 6 hikers right at camp 5. There are pretty much all wet as well. Everyone start strip down and checking for leeches.

I already found one halfway through the hike and no harm was done since it just latched on. But at camp 5 I noticed the blood stain on my sock, and when I took it off, the sign of leech attack was evident. That leech had it fill and was gone, so I just ended up with bleeding wound that won't stop for about an hour (see picture).

All in all, I had 4 leeches, only one that got its fill.

The shelter at camp 5 was open on 2 side and the heavy rain continued through out the night. I did not pack a blanket, so I used my plastic backpack cover as sheet, I felt a little cold (with wind), so I did not get a good night sleep...

When we wake up on day 2, it was still raining pretty steadily, we was told if the rain does not stop by 8AM then there will be no climbing for the day. We all pretty much giving up hope on going, until the rain suddenly stopped at 7:30 and I was off by 7:40.

The hike distance is only 2.4 KM (1.5 miles), but it raise 1200 meter (4000 feet) over that distance, very steep!

I had big breakfast so for first 30 minutes I felt terrible, then I felt better and picked up my pace up the steep and sharp/slippery limestone, tree roots.

We arrived at the view point around 9:53 to a cloudy but clear view of the pinnacles.
The sight is very similar to that of stone forest just right outside kunming china, but the journey definitely more interesting and intense. And best of all I have the place all to myself, no hords of Chinese tourist!

we lingered till 10:35 or so and started our way down. The slipperly and sharp rocks slowed the steep descent, where I fell couple times, banged my shine, so I had few cuts and bruises after the downhill portion. I think we got back to camp 5 around 12:50. I think this is the toughest downhill hike along with Mt Kilimanjaro ever. Mt. kilimanjaro isn't as slipperly, but longer.

After about an hour of rest and food, we are off to go back to the park HQ. The all night rain flooded many parts of the trail that were already muddy. So our progress was not too fast. But the rain did help raise the river level so the boat can pick us up at the 8km point. I was glad to get on the boat and head back to hot shower and dry clothing.

I slept for 10-12 hours I think that night.

next day I was off to visiting 4 show caves in the park. these shows have lights and pathway for visitor, but they are not over commercialized like that of luray.
I enjoyed the visit to the clear water cave where a river runs through it and the deer cave where million of bats lived in it and come out at evening (if weather is nice). I witness stream of bats coming out for at least 30 minutes that evening.

Mulu has the largest cave in world, sarawak cave, it is closed due to high water, also it is very difficult to get there.

I intended to do some adventure caving, but was told everything was cancelled due to holiday. I was pretty mad, because when I asked the park people on the day that I arrived all they told me was that I just need to find one more person to sign up for the adventure caving, and when I goto back 2 days later after I found some other people, they told me the real story, poor communication!!!

So I leave a day earlier back Miri to catch bus to Niah cave park. But not before I asked for a night time walk to look for insects. My guides spotted many of them....

I think the Mulu experience is one of my highlight for this trip!

Miri in Sarawak State of Malaysia and Country of Brunei

2005-12-16T07:33:00.000-05:00

My flight from Sandakan via Kota Kinabalu in Sabah State to Miri in Sarawak State was in the late evening and I did not arrive in Miri until 9:30ish. I tried to make hotel reservation while waiting for my connection, but the couple places I checked were full, so I was kind worried about finding a place to stay late in the night. But on the flight from KK to Miri, I met couple Malaysian of Chinese origin. One is an architech from country of Brunei and the other is a whole merchant living in Sibu. They both also own houses in Miri. The guy offered me a night to stay at Miri.

So begin the journey of the hospitality by these two people. I visited his family in Brunei. He paid all my expense (room, meals) and took me to see few sights in Brunei. I am really grateful to both of them. The guy from Sibu invited me to visit his family when I travel through there later on.

Brunei itself has nothing much to offer, the royal palace is closed to public except during Ramadan. And only interesting things are the magnificient mosques that were build by country rich oil wealth. the sultan was once the richest man in the world before Bill Gates's stock boom and sultan's playboy brother who wasted billions.

The guy told me the Brunei is very strict about immigration, even though he has been living and working in Brunei for many years, he is not allowed to own a house, even though he build houses for them. he rent from the local.

As for Miri, the town wasn't much to see either. I did see a Christmas parade. Christianity is big in Sarawak.

After saying good bye to both men and got clean laundry (paid by the guy from Sibu), I am off to Mulu caving and trekking adventure.

O, for strange reason, Sarawak state in Malaysia is consider a separate country, one gets an exit stamp for Malaysia and an entry stamp for Sarawak when entering!

Kota Kinabalu, Mt Kinabalu, Kinabatangan River Jungle Camp, Sepilok Orangutan Rehab Center in Sabah Sate Malaysian Borneo

2005-12-13T10:55:00.000-05:00

I arrived in KK in the evening. The transit through KL wasn't too bad, I cleared the immigration in record time and end up spending more time waiting for checkin counter to open.

I am definitly arrived in the tropic. Morning sun and chance of afternoon/night rain.
The city isn't very big (but big by Borneo standard). I had good seafood dinner, the price is just slight cheaper than the US, but I think it is fresher.

The price is defintely most expensive since HK. And stuff that I take it for granted are few and far in between. Laundry service, internet are very few. That is why I am to get online 6 days later. And I did my own laundry for the first time since may be China?

Also I have been doing things and moving from places to places everyday.

I climbed the highest mountain in Southeast Asia (between the Himalayas and Papa New Guinea) Mt. Kinabalu at 13800 feet. It was tough 2-day 1-night affair and I had attiude sickness. But I did made it to the top at around 5:50AM (started at 3AM). Again my bad surise luck, no sun rise. Of course my legs are sore, mainly from the downhill. The one night at the mountain, we stayed at a lodge full of roaches, and that serves cold breakfast. But after I saw a porter carring heavy propane tanks up the mountain, I realized cold breakfast is better than no breakfast.

I did stay at a hot spring place for a night after the climb, but the sulfur dip did not help the sore muscle a bit.
O, everything in park, hot spring are monopolized by a single company, and price are very expensive, and one have little choices (if any) but to pay it.

I traveled with 3 English ladies for the climb.

After the hot spring I head to Sandakan for the lengendary Uncle Tan's 3-day 2-nigh Wilderness jungle camp. I arrived at Sandakan around 4:10PM with 4 English ladies where I saw them at the climb and hot spring. The hotels are pretty full, but I managed to find one for 60 Ringgits. The city wasn't very interesting, but it is a base for near by excusions. I headed to uncle Tan's B&B the following day.

I ended up with a group of 9 other campers. 5 Dutches, 1 Canadian, 1 Italian, 1 Italian American, and one other American. We did night and day time jungle trekking, night, day, morning boat rides. We saw orangatans, 3 types of monkeys, hornbills, king fishers, other birds, Malaysia civet cat, 4 types of frogs, wolf spider, posisonous centerpede, millipedes, snail. I got many mosiquito, ant bites and other mystery bites as well (it was similar to chiggers bites). We have to fight off monkeys from raiding our camp, hide our food and smelly things from rats. Since it is rainy season, the water level is upto most of the trees, so our boats navigates between tree tops sometime!
One evening, it was raining, everyone decide to skip the evening boat ride to spot monkeys feeding except me, I end up buying two catfishs from a fishmen working on the river and our camp leader cooked a very good curry fish!

O, there was no shower or running water. We had generator power at night till about 12-1AM.

After I got back to Uncle Tan's office and showered up, I decided to goto visit the near by Sepilok Orangutan Rehab Center. There were a family from New Zealand who went to the center in the morning and is getting ready to goto the wilderness jungle camp so they gave me their camera ticket (good for a day).

Sukhothai/Si Satchanalai

2005-12-07T04:43:00.000-05:00

My journey from BK to Sukhothai started at 4:35AM to catch the 7:10 flight. It was none eventful. I left my big backpack at the BK airport since I'll be back the next day. The flight took 55 minutes.

The Sukhothai airport is very interesting. Unlike any tiny airports, there are no gates or belts, instead you're led away from the plane in a tram. The runway is aligned on both side with water and flowers. The service people dressed in sort of traditional Thai custom? I heard the airport is owned by Bangkok Airways.

After check into the guesthouse, I was out to see the Old Sukhothai city of 13th and 14th centuries.

I guess after Ankor Wat, nothing can compare to it. I wasn't too impressed with the ruins. They restored the whole area into a park where many people rented a bike to get around; I opted for walking.

I only liked couple ruins. Most of the ruins are wats and are dedicated to Buddah. Of the few remain intact ones, it was pretty cool.

O, on the plane I met a couple from England of Chinese ancestry. He was from Mauritious in the Indian ocean and a doctor.

I think from this point on, I'll be meeting fewer if any backpackers, let alone repeat meetings because of most are going home for the holiday and Borneo is not really a backpacker place due to the higher price.

Here, for the first time in my trip, I felt alone.

Next day I'll head out to another old city Si Satchani near by that is from the same period as old Sukhothai. And then catch a late afternoon flight back to BK. I'll stay near the airport in BK so I don't have to get back before 4:30 to catch an Internation flight. So I will check in a real hotel!

The Old Si Satchani was better than Old Sukhothai I think, although the ruins weren't that great either, but I liked the quiet setting in the forest. I end up visting the place with a Frechmen Pascal that I met on the same local bus.

The way back to Sukhothai was an interesting ordeal, I waited for 40 minutes for the local bus, and then the bus stop for 20 minutes at a town, and I didn't get to the bus station at Sukhothai until 2:59PM and that leaves me 1 minute to get to my guesthouse (1km away) to pick up my belonging, and then get to the airport pickup point.

I ran all the way and I barely able to flag down the van leaving the pickup point at 3:10PM. I was all wet.

Luckyly the airport is so small, there is no line, and you get free drinks and bananas while you wait.

My limited views on Thailand

2005-12-06T04:25:00.000-05:00

Before my trip, I heard many great praises on how friendly the Thai people are, but when I talked to many travelers I met along the way, the pictures become much blurer.

- many people do not like Bangkok at all, most frequent complains are: pollutions, congestion, and scams. One person told me while Vietnamese people might try to take advantage of you with a straight face, the thai do it with a smile. I think Bangkok is ok with me.

- my personal experience with Thai people itself is a mix bag. Some I met are very friendly, while others (especially the service sector people on Kaosan rd) are down right cold and rude.

- Thai people treat their king like a God.

- Lots boy-girl in Bangkok (assuming this is true with other parts of Thailand as well). May be its the gene or may be its the water.

- Bangkok is very international and western; with many races coming and going or staying for long term. One family (from NZ) I met in Laos, lamented that too many Thais have join the material things obsessed world.

- No one really honk and few vehicals do yield to people

- Thai people (at least the ones in Bangkok) are pretty dark, like that of Cambodia. The people aren't particularly good looking - not to offend anyone this is only based on my personal beauty standard.

Bangkok

2005-12-05T04:46:00.000-05:00

Arriving at Bangkok on Friday night seems so strange to me. After almost two month of traveling in rural/poor/small cities of southeast asia, it was as if I have rejoined the modern society: traffic jam, pollution, tall building, spraw, shopping mall etc. Saigon is big in size, but it is not as modern as Bangkok.

The backpacker area on Kaosan rd was packed, almost all places are full because peak season of travelers coming back to BK for fews days before they head home for Christmas. I was able to get a warm fan room, but upgrade the next day to AC when people checked out at noon (again early bird gets the worm. Bangkok is very warm and humid even at this time of year).

I went signtseeing the first couple days: to Grand Palace area, and few other "tourist" destinations. Lot of walking, may be the most walk since HK/Japan?

I was surprised to learned the gang from Cambodia are still in BK. Apparent Sheily got sick and so they did not go anywhere. And Jana the German teacher, got back from her national park visit and Mark the other German teacher still trekking in the Northern Thailand. Jana decided not to wait for Mark and will head to Southern Thailand with Sheily and Lisa on Tuesday night. Apparently there are really bad weather on the East coast of Thailand with heavy rain and flood. I hope they will have better luck on the west coast. I had good times with these wonderful ladies and I going to miss them. We had dinner and drinks together, saw the King's birthday parade, went to Chinatown and walked Kaosan roads countless times.

Also Adam from China is still in BK, but he left before I had the chance to contact him.

O, I drop my camera in Luang Prabang. Luckily I droped while it was in my camera bag. The lens cap jammed into the lens, so I had to have it plied open. But now I notice spots in my pictures, so I think I need to do a sensor cleaning!!! The drop might have knock lose some dust and falls on the sensor.

Also I think I lost 500B, probably from me taking things in and out of my pocket....

I tried to do a little shopping, but only got couple laterns/lights. I'll leave it to Bali.

I am leaving BK to goto Sukhothai (fly) to see some old Thai ruins for a day and half on Tuesday morning and then back to BK on Wednesday evening and then leave Thailand to goto Malaysian Borneo via Kuala Lumpur all within a span of 3 days! I really hope the weather is not too bad there; it is the rainy season there. Time to switch to nature and outdoor, and less ruins and culture.

My Impression of Laos

2005-12-03T05:28:00.000-05:00

This country is definitely quieter than most of its neighbor (I heard Burma is even quieter). People are very reserved. But most of the people do have an attractive face, more so than Cambodia, Thailand, China, and even Vietnam.

- The country did not lived up to all the hypes I heard from other travelers. The drug theme is bigger and more out in the open than I expected. probably because I traveled with some of the users. And I am seeing the starting of or continuation of tourism's impact on the simple life of Lao people.

- Drug culture is endemic both in local population and tourist population.

- a good place to do outdoor activites and at same time see and experience the local culture.

- I felt the country is safer than the guide books suggested. I think they have improved the security since the bad incidents in the early 2001.

- There many places in Laos for you to explore, I only visited the major tourist circuit.

As I said before with other SEA coutries, the sooner you visit it, the less western influence you'll see.

Luang Prabang

2005-12-02T04:30:00.000-05:00

The city of many wats was part of the Kingdom of a Million Elephants - Lane Xang.
But this UNESCO world heritage city has also succumbed to the influx of tourists.

Despite the touristy nature of it, this is still a very charming city. With many trees, rivers, mountains. Good for many lazy strolls in the old city among the many wats, or visiting and swim in the near by waterfalls, or trekking the mountain and visiting the local villages, or do a elephant ride, or biking and white water rafting.

I did a one-day trekking and elephant ride, which was great! The waterfalls we visited for lunch break was amazing, almost like that of Dunnes river falls in Jamaica.

Also watching the monks at 6:30AM out to collecting alms was very cool, but I was told they started at 5:30AM 8 years ago, and even few years ago, they stared at 6. How tourism has change even the religion itself.

One night the gang from Vang Viang went to a Laosian BBQ place (couple of boy-girls working there), which is sort like a mix between Chinese hotpot and Korean BBQ, cooked over coal fire. Very good! After the dinner we went to check out a local disco place: loud music with college/high school kids!

Apparent the drug use isn't just foreigners. My trekking guide told me methamphetamine is pretty big in Laos. He was once a user, but quit after his family sent him to Thailand to live with his sister for one year. he now enjoying being a touk-touk driver and a guide. He appaerent also enjoy western women. He went to Thailand for one of the crazy full moon party and had sex with some drunken western lady. He is married with kids!

Sex, Drugs, Booz, and Tubes

2005-11-29T21:02:00.000-05:00

Vang Vieng Laos, a city with beautifull karst scenery, clear water, caves. Yet this tiny little city hides or bluntly shows the dark side of western influence.

Backpackers, and tourists transit through here on the way to Luang Prabang or Vientiane.

The "sin" city of Laos, where many foreigners come for not just the scenery, but also the easy and lax flow of weed and opium, and magic mushroom. I am guessing 70% of the people are using one form of drug or the other based my very unscientific observation of the group I was traveling with.

It is really unfortunate for the place where you can do a lazy tubing down the river, caving, rock climbing, kayaking, biking, trekking, visiting small villages, or just doing nothing/sun bathing on the river bank.

I went tubing for the first time, where beer bars lines the river bank ready to serve the boozing westerners. They even added incentive like rope swing, zip-lines, platform jumping to grab (literaly they have long baboon stick to drag the tubers to the shore) tubers attention. Many of the tubes also smoked weed as well, so some of them are totally zone out by the time they reach town.

The second day , I went by myself (away from booze and weed people for a while) and did a caving/kayaking/trekking. It was great even though I fell into water couple times, banged my leg, bitten by mosiquitos, I had great time. Don't need drug and booze to have fun like other people.

Most people smoked weed openly, and I heard once in a while the police will arrest couple people and fine them $500 each and let them go. So I think the police/government tolerate this to attract druggies, bring in tourst money, and pocket the revenue.

O, I forgot to mention the sex part. This is a real great story, too long and complex to explain. Anyway it involves a Canadian lady that was on the same bus as us, and her desperate search for sex in the city and her "dream" man she met in Thailand (an American from Denver). The guy was here and wasn't interested in her. BTW I roomed with her for one night! Other people make fun of me about what is going to happen when she found a man and bring him back and worst yet, when she did not find a man! BTW, she got big boos and big belly

O, the great group of people I was traveled with from Vientiane/Vang Vieng and eventually again in Luang Prabang included a Chinese Australian, a Czech Australian, a Dutch, an American couple from Settle, an Irish lady. A very strange mix of people, and I do enjoyed their company (most of the time) depite the constant booze and weed use by 5 of the 6 people (guess who did not smoked weed, well the person tried one puff)?

Vientiane, Laos

2005-11-25T07:56:00.000-05:00

My flight into Laos from Siem Reap was non-eventful, not like my previous crossing by bus/foot and boat. Another twin turbo prop plane.

Paid $30 and got my visa, then I exchanged $200 travelers checks into Kips at 10802 Kips to $1 and what I got in return were 4 bundles of 5000 kips bills!!! Imagine you holding $200 worth of 50c bill. I felt like I have just robbed the bank with 2 millions plus of Kips in small used and untraceable bills.

After shared a taxi with a Canadian couple I checked into a grimmy single bed room for $7 a night. I just going to stay one night, so I did not mind too much.

I then went to find food to eat and had a best and cheap meal in a long time. I went back in cheap place again later. Laos is even cheaper Vietnam.

After lunch I went for quick 3 hours of temple sightseeing on foot. One of the temple was awesome, the whole temple is of shinny gold color and with bright sunshine and blue sky, it just jump out at you.

Even though Vientiane is the capital of the country, it felt like a provincial city than a capital. Many unpaved and dusty streets. Things tend to be much quieter than its neighboring countries. No car honking to speak of. Anyway much more of a layback feel to it. No wonder everyone who visited Laos has high praise for it.

I'll have a quick/short temple visit near where I staying in the morning tomorrow and then catch a 9:30AM tourist bus North to Vang Vieng for fun stuff and less sightseeing.

There are good pastries here. A Chinese type bakery and a scandinavia bakery as well. Both are pretty good!

Cambodia my impression

2005-11-25T07:51:00.000-05:00

A dusty country where the gap between rich and poor is huge and where corruption is ingrained into the society. But a place full of history. Defintely worth a week of visit for sure and longer if you want to explore the beach area.

- proverty is very apparent, many beggers, and cripples around the tourist area. I heard few stories about fake ones like people renting out their babies to beggers to look more desperate.

- poor roads, some are finally improved, but there are still many potholes.

- seems like everything run on monoploy here; probably as result corruption

- a culture of past glory (angkor) and recent tragedy (genocide)

I sure hope the country and people will get its act together and work toward better future for everyone.

Siem Reap/Angkor

2005-11-23T22:56:00.000-05:00

The bus journey from Phnom Penh was better than I expected. After many nightmare bus/boat rides I was expecting the worst. The bus left a bit late, but we got to Siemp Reap in the promised time of 5-6 hours.

I checked into the guesthouse I had in mind without much hassles from tons tuk tuk drivers and hawkers at the bus stations.

The guesthouse tried to charge me with rate of $1 = 4200 riels which highest I ever seen. After some haggling promising I'll staying at least 4 nights, the rate was back to 4000 the standard.
My room had a fan and good ventilation and plus that Siem Reap is a bit cooler than PP, so I felt pretty comfortable while in the room. There is no hot shower, but one does not need it. Also no TV, so boring nights for me. One can't complain too much for a $4 room!

I then went to book a flight to Laos and found out that there is no flight for Thursday day(thanksgiving), so I have no choice but stay one extra day and leave on Friday. So I am all set for flights to Laos and from there to Bangkok (open-jaw).

Siemp Reap is extremly dusty (and other cities as well), my eyes (with contacts) do not like it a bit.

After Cambodia I will be 1 day ahead on my schedule, but I probably will stay longer than the 6-day planed for Laos and will most likely going to negative.

The beggers and cripples are much worst here than in PP. On top of that hawkers and moto bikers like that of Vietnam, constant bombard you with offers. Every few minutes at a road side restaurant, you'll get a begger or cripple come calling. I think my Vietnam exeprience has immunized to most of it. I know many people here are truely poor/hungry/cripple, but the corrupted government has stolen so much of the tourist money for themselves instead of helping their own people.

My first sigtseeing to the Angkor area was to catch the sunset at a small hill top temple. The short climb up was pretty difficult, but that does not prevent million other tourists coming up to get a peek at the sunset. Well, no photo pleasing sunset that day, too much cloud at the sunset point as usual.

The real sighseeing for me starts on Day 2 (started at 5 am to catch sunrise over Angkor and for the next 12 straight hours of sightseeing) and lasts until Day 4 since I bought a 3-day pass. I hired a moto bike driver for 3 days include the sunset on day 1 for $30, but after day 2 we agree I can finish the whole thing on day 3 and I agree to pay him $25 for his service. I rented a bicycle on day 4 and rode to some minor sites that I did not visit the days before or too touristy before and visited my favorite site for a quiet reading on my next destination. It was nice to seat in the crumpled temple that is being consumed by the jungle with only the sound of birds, falling leaves, and wind. OK it was not that perfect, few tourists did find my quiet spot....

I really enjoyed my temple visits. I was afraid I might be tired after 1 day, but I think 3 days was perfect for me. I know some people got sick and tired of seeing the temples after day one, I guess they are city folks. The bike ride was great on the last day of visit since it allowed for slower pace and riding in the jungle was awesome as well (although riding an uncomfortable bike and behind exhusts of many buses was not good for the health). This place definitely is one of highlight of my trip despite the touristy nature (timing is key to avoid the massive crowd). Also the weather was relatively cool and sunny (except day 4 - cloudy which is good for bike riding, despite of this and shady road/path I still sweat a lot from the backpack on my back)

I am only able to upload very limited pictures (I took a lot) because the upload speed here in Cambodia is extremly slow (128kb/s)

So happy Thanksgiving everyone, I had a massage this afternoon to celebrate it.
And I joined Lisa, Shirely, Gill, Yana, and Mark for get together dinner.

Tomorrow morning (it will Thankgiving night your time), I will fly to Vientiane Laos.

Phnom Penh

2005-11-19T01:17:00.000-05:00

The capital of Kingdom of Cambodia (Constitutional monarchy) is rolling in dollars. Actually the whole country as well. The US$ is the defacto currency here. Most things are quoted in dollars. So it makes everything expensive. The display of wealth is more evident here than in China and Vietnam. I guess in a communist country one is afraid being to showy that might incur the wrath of the party (such as investigation into possible corruption).

The gap between rich and poor is much more evident here. Many beggers and many people driving with big American and Japanese made cars. The moto bikes here are more crowded. In Vietnam most the bikes have 1 or 2 people, here 2,3,4 are much more common. So are the standup taxi (pickup truck with many peoples cramped in standing up) and people riding on the roof tops (like that of Africa). Streets are also appear to be dirtier and many are full of pot-holes. One thing nice about the motos and cars here is that they are nicer to pedestrians, much less honking and a little more yielding.

The people looks much darker unlike far East Asian (including Vietnam), Cambodia more like that of Thai, Malay, Indonesian I think. I will find out when I get there.

Also the temples (wats) are total different in color and architechure than far East Asian temples.
So far the food here aren't much different than that of Vietnamese.

O, I made some money here! I exchanged US$120 into local currency at rate around 4170. But then at resturant where everything is charged in dollars, but I paid in Riels and they use conversion of 4100. Now that is first in currency conversion.

On day one I went to the the royal palace, a very fancy place! Just think that all those poor people on the streets.

Then I went to the genocide museum, the former detention/torture place. The place was a school before the Khmer Rouge converted into their instrument of terror. The place is pretty much the way it was back in the mid/late 70s. The museum is well incorporated into the place with shocking death photos, stories of the victims and pepertrators, and photos of everyone that were held there. Only one person survived the camp out of 14,000 or so people. What stick to my mind is that the most brutal abuses are carried out by kids between 10-15 years old. I guess at that age, the sense of what's right and wrong is just started to form and if one is expose to the wrong too much, it become the norm. The place is more telling of evil that people can do to each other than the war museum in Saigon. I am sure it is on par with the atrocity committed by the Japanese and the German in WWII.

At night, the two Canadians ladies and the German lady that I was traveling with since the disaster Mekong delta tour, went to the river front for dinner and we walked around for little while after dinner. We then say our good-byes. I am sure I might see one of them at my furture destinations.

Day 2, I started with early morning run to the Palace and river front. I then checkout the price for air flights to Laos and to Bangkok. Very expensive. I'll book a bus ticket to Siem Reap/Angkor, one of the highlight of my trip (I hope).

O, one really need AC here. The room I stayed last night has just fan (no real windows to speak of), and room stayed hot all night, of course there were mosiquitos in the rooms, so with blankets, it was too hot to sleep, so I put on bug spray. Anyway I paid double price to get a room with AC tonight.

Another thing the internet is pretty slow here, so there might be less pictures online, sorry.

The long journey into Cambodia

2005-11-18T06:05:00.000-05:00

Well the last morning in Vietnam, we went to see some fish farms on the Mekong delta. They raised mainly catfish and carps there. But soon we're told that those people (like me) who booked the "fast" boat to Phenom Penh will not be able to do so because the boat is out the service and that it is also overbooked (who knows what the real story is). We're also told that we'll get our money back (US $7) although most people paid $8 (the tour company took a cut there).

A lady on the boat went bulletstic, I think it is because the tour is well below expectation and now the final blow. She demanded the boat guide gave her the full tour package refund ($43) and the guide actually cried as a result. Most people are calm knowing it is the tour company that is responsible and not someone like her.
Anyway the last item on this tour was visit to a Cham village, no one was in any mood of visiting. Although the visit to the family toliet was very interesting. The houses along the Mekong delta are build on stilts, so the toliet is just hole with long drop down to the river. In our case it was low tide, so no water at that time (use your imagination ;)

Our journey to Cambodia started with a "slow" moto boat ride up the Mekong to the border. We disembark for lunch, had our Vietnam exit stamp, and cleared custom, got Cambodia visa (for those don't have one yet, like me it is $25) and walk over to Cambodia side to get on another "slow" boat for Cambodia. The official visa rate is $20, but most people paid "bribe" to the official/agent.

The lunch place is also function as currency exchange in which you paid in Dongs and in return you get Cambodia Riels. But the money ladies were pulling a fast one on the tourists with conversion rate of US $1 = 3000 Riels, the real rate is around 4200! I told them no, want my changes in Dongs. I rather keep few dongs as souvenirs than to give it to the blood suckers. I then told some of tourists about their scheme, and the ladies denied it is 4200, but now they raised to 3500. They were not too pleased with me.

Anyway on the slow Cambodia boat, the "guide" also let people exchanged money, but his rate is more reasonable at 4000. I exchanged US $2 just to get by.
We then disembarked at an warehouse 1.5 hours away from Phnom Penh and took a bus over potholes ridden roads into the city. So 9 hours later we arrived in Phnom Penh around 6:30. Of course it was dark and we're in a new country/city, we decided to check in at the hotel the bus dropped us off instead our original plan.

I roomed with a German lady into an AC/TV/hot shower double-bed room for $10. The price here is pretty expensive (just like Saigon). But from what we saw, Cambodia is lot poor than Vietnam, although things are changing as well.

I'll stay here for couple days, before I head up to the famous Angkor Wat in Siemp Reap

Vietnam, my impression

2005-11-17T00:15:00.000-05:00

- the greed of the Vietnamese people, everywhere and everyone is trying to cheat you. The government actually allowed dual price for things. Sort like what China had many years ago.

- the constant hassle of people who are trying to sell you things, even though you express no interests at all.

- the many customs in Vietnam reminded me so much what I experienced growing up in Taiwan 30 or so years ago. I feel there is much more Chinese culture here than what I experienced in China on my two trips there. I think the destructive culture revolution wipped out many Chinese tradition in mainland China. Even today the communist government there with its continue focus on economic growth, is making the old culture/tradition/sights even less.

- Vietnam = motobikes. there are every where, just like Taiwan, but with a good mix of bicycles as well. Again it is more like China 15-20 years ago and Taiwan 25-35 years ago.

- The ecomomy of Vietnam is growing fast as well, but the middle class is still very small, so most of the tourist places, you only see non-local tourists. So it less crowded than China.

- There are lessing smoking by men here than China

- The honking by the drivers is approaching Chinese standard

- The food in the North and central are less oily as in south western China, but a lot of fried food.

- girls here are cuter, but a bit short. In fact the people here are pretty short even by Asian standard. I think average height of men here is 5' 4".

- Vietnam seems to be lot cleaner than I expected in comparison to China, all sit down toilet, less dirty looking street.

- the residential buildings in Vietnam is greatly influenced by French, it created a good visual on the eyes, not like the gray and dirty looking building of China.

- although roads are less and narrower in Vietnam, it seem to be better build than China. Come to think of everything is China seem to be of lowest quality. That explains their exported goods as well :)

- sit-down toilet is norm and you can flush the used toilet paper down not like China where you need to put the used toilet paper in a basket, yuck! French did good here.

Vietnam I think has more "culture" appeal to me than China. Although its people are less honest and more annoyance. Time to visit is now (hopefully with a person who knows Vietnamese and local custom,so to avoid being taken to the cleaner everytime), before there is a large middle class. Else in 10-20 years, u might get a place like China.

Mekong Delta and Onward to Cambodia

2005-11-16T08:58:00.000-05:00

I signed up for the 3 days 2 nights tour of Mekong delta that includes transportation to Phnom Penh.

Day one we left HCMC and went to My Tho, the gateway into Mekong delta. The sights were particular interesting. Obvious there is lot of commerce on the river and along the river and the delta is extreme fertile with 3+ plus crops a year. Vietnam is the 2nd largest rice producer (#1 is Thailand). We also saw the coconut candy making process (I bought one package).

Day two, started from Cantho, the 5th largest city in Vietnam (the largest in Mekong delta), we checked out a floating market, again I wasn't impressed, and also visited a rice sheet/noodles factory, a rice husk removing plant, and small snake farm, and a crocodile farm (with couple Asiatic bears for beal farming). We arrived in Chau Duc on the border with Cambodia just in time for a sunset.

The hotels we stayed weren't particular great, even worst than what I would normally stay in Vietnam. The one in Chau Duc smelled like raw sewage! I paid $1 more just to get the AC to reduce the smell.

I roomed with a japanese lady for the two nights.

Then there is the van, overcrowed and the AC failed not long after we left the boat, so everyone was pretty hot to say the least

So the package tour is well below my expectation... Might be the worst in Vietnam if not the whole trip. Consider I payed $43 for it, you get what you paid.

Well, I'll report how the journey into Cambodia once I get there...

Saigon aka Ho Chi Ming City (HCMC)

2005-11-13T06:45:00.000-05:00

I arrived at the economic engine of Vietnam late Saturday night, but the streets are still alive with people, not like most other Vietnam cities.

Day 1, I visited the American War (as Vietnam call it) museum, yes there are propagada to be seen, but it still shows the the ugly truth of the war itself, innocent people get killed by both side and the legacy of the war still exist today. Afterward I went check out the Catholic church, the biggest in Vietnam and got something to eat. But when I saw the menu from a cafe, I was shocked, the price here are 2-3 times more expensive than anyway I have been in Vietnam! So I just get a pineapple juice to quinch my thirst and look for food some where cheaper.

Anyway I did find a decent, busy, and relative cheap place to eat and they put me with another person at the same table, just like HK. The guy spoke some English and help me picked out the dishes. Appearantly tipping is more common here in Saigon, but I decided not tip :) Anyway he was kind enough to give me a moto ride to Chinatown market, it was on his way home. One of only two good and kind Vietnamese people I met.

I went to market in searchng of the elusive cheap quick dry performance sports wear, where in the US would cost $15-40 a piece. After shopping around, the best I can do is about $4.5-5. More expensive than I thought ($3).
I got myself 3 and Lynn 1 since I am not sure about her size. I just look at the sales clerk and tell her the relative size to her.

Next I hopped on another moto bike (for 10,000 dongs) and headed to the Reunification palace (formally South Vietnam's Presidential palace), where one of the famous footage from last days of South Vietnam, with Viet Cong's tanks crashing through the gates. Joined a guided tour with more propaganda of course, and I was wondering do they truely believe what they are saying? Probably.

Day 2, I signed up for a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and Cao Dai temple. The tunnels are used by Vietcon to hide from the American and attack and set up booby traps. They use what they able to find and make and terrorize the mind of American soldiers. The Cao Dai religion is unique to Vietnam and is a fusion of various religion and believes, Budda, Jesus, Confusicious, Tao, just name a few. Kind of interesting to see.

Hue

2005-11-12T04:44:00.000-05:00

After an early morning run, I took an 8AM tourist bus from Hoi An to Hue.
Before the ride I tried to get breakfast but the couple places I tried can't give me bread and cheese within 15 minutes. I specifically told them I needed it fast, but they let me wait until I can wait no more. So bought some cookies for my 5 hour journey...

We stopped at couple places along the way, nothing really interesting, a marble making place and beach side resturant.

The bus drop us off at a hotel where they get a commission. After checking out the room and haggled the price down to $5.5, I decided to stay here instead the one I had in mind, too hot, and hungry to find my first choice...

After lunch I took a stroll to the imperial city and chatted with couple Kiwis for a while until about sunset. Took a picture and headed back for food, and rest.

Day two, after I exchanged $50 in travelers check, it was time for temple and tomb visits. I hired a motobike driver to take me to 3 temples and 3 tombs for $5. The standard tour package offered by tour companies cost $1.5, but I heard from other travelers and from book, it is a hassle and with additonal hidden cost. Anyway I am glad I did the bike way instead boat (more complains from people I met that came by boat), I control how long to visit a place and what to see.

The tombs and temples are interesting in its own way, althought the tombs cost $3.5 each, which is a lot by Vietnamese standard. The local pays $1.25.

O, I am still looking for a pastry place here, so far just cake places.

Also finally got CNN and BBC, old HBO movies, which keep me at my room at night. although there isn't much to do in Hue at night anyway.

Day three, I headed into the Imperial City. Modeled after China's much larger Forbidden City. It was build in 1833, but much of the structures were destroyed during the Vietnam war. Today some parts have been reconstructed with funding from various countries.

I'll leave for Saigon tonight, no seats on morning or afternoon flights. So I have about 4 hours to burn.

Hoi An

2005-11-08T20:08:00.000-05:00

The flight from Hanoi to Hue was interesting only in the fact that it was a turbo-prop. A very smooth ride though.

The 4 hours bus ride to Hoi An from Hue was pretty bad. Seats are so small and tight, I pretty much glued to the person next to me and my knee right against the seat in front of me. Also there was no AC in the 90 degree humid weather. Of course we got charged super high foreigner price for a very bad ride.

The weather in Hoi An was sunny blue sky with puffy white clouds, very nice despite the heat.

Hoi An is a small and much quieter town, I ended up spending 4 days here instead of 2. There are many cafe and resturants along the dock. Also many clothing and artisian shops to wonder about. Many artists worked right in the shops, painters, carvers, latern makers, tailors, etc. I really enjoyed the place. There are aslo some old restored houses to visit (the price of admission is super expensive and restricted), plus old Chinese provencial assembly halls. There were large Chinese immigrants/traders from few hundered years ago, some still remain. And many people here are 7-8th generations Chinese from Fujin and Canton Provinces. I even spoke Mandrin with one person in Fujin Assembly Hall.

Many tourists pass the day by sitting in a cafe having a drink. There is even a French pastry place that offer relatively expensive but very good dessert!

The one thing bad about Hoi An, and Vietnam in general is the constant hassle by the motobike and shop keepers as you walk along the streets. No sooner have you say no to one, another will ask the same question like: are you interested in motorbike, water, food, etc. It gets on my nerve sometime (on top of constantly being overcharged). The greed and annoyance of the Vietnam people definitely lived up to the reports from other travelers.

Couple incidents here really got me mad. one was the couple people tell me to go home when I angrily refused motorbikers' repeated offers. Another is the CD buring incident where I wanted to burn some CDs as back-up for my travel photos, after putting up with 6 hours of continueing slow and failed burn, the guy has the nerve to ask me to pay for the bad photo CDs. He said only a folder out the 3 was bad, so I should pay him! I walked out on him, and I can hear him cursed in Vietnamese behind. Anyway I got my CD burned at a photo shop for higher price but much faster (just about an hour). I even cleaned 41 virus from my portable hard drive! Anyway I did feel sorry for losing my temper at the first shop, so with CDs in hand, I went back to the first shop and gave him 10,000 Dong for his trouble and ask him to destroy the bad CD (which he already did).

I went to the near by ancient Champa Kingdom ruins at My Son on the 2nd day and it was very interesting. It is a hindu complex similar to Ankor Wat, but older I think. Much of the ruins were destroyed by American bombing during Vietnam war as the guide mention serveral times during the tour.

O, yes. I got couple suits made for about $110, probably over paid, but still cheap compare to US. I also bought some small gifts here and there for family and friends back home. I went to the post office just now and sent all these by sea to US. It probably will take 2-3 month to get to US (if it does not get lost or stolen). Sorry the Christmas gift might be a little late this year. Although I probably will buy more in Thailand and Bali and hand carry those home.....

I met up with Shane (Ireland) here, we had lunch and dinner together and I showed him where I got my cloth done. Although he wasn't too happy with the bag he got.....

Everday here was clear blue sky by afternoon. But today is very hot due to clear sky from the start instead of overcast and there is little wind. So I might head to the beach in the afternoon, just to check it out.

Tomorrow morning I'll head to Hue for imperial Vietnam ruins.

I'll have to leave Vietnam by the 20th when my Visa expires, I think I will have couple days to spare before that happens.....

Click on the pictures to view the description for the picture

2005-11-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

Also, I can't view my own blogs here in Communist region of Asia, so I can't comment on your comments until I get to Thailand or something.

Hanoi

2005-11-05T02:29:00.000-05:00

The first decent weather in Vietnam greeted us here. We took it easy, signing up for Halong Bay tour, get more money, see the well perserved turtle in the turtle temple, and saw a good water puppet play. Then at night few us from the place we stayed, went out to have "halloween" dinner.

On the day we came back from Halong Bay tour, we checked into the place where we are going to stay (wasn't great, but it was free) and started our plan for the next day. Shan is going to Hoi An the next evening and I am stay couple more days in Hanoi for sightseeing and shopping. I also find a new place to stay for two nights.

The next day, another gray day greeted me, I went for tour of Perfume Pagoda 53km outside of Hanoi. It took 2 hours to get there :( We have about 24 in our group. After getting out of the bus, we get on a tin boat (3-4 people per boat) and a peaceful 1.5 hour ride to our hike in point. As anywhere in Vietnam, the "resturant" at the landing point has the highest inflated price for water I saw in Vietnam.

Any after brief drink break, we started our 4km hike up the Perfume pagoda. the short hike was good work out, but our group is pretty out the shape, I waited 15 minutes for the first person to arrive. the sight wasn't great, just a Budda temple build into the cave. I guess as they say, it more of the journey than the destination.

After 20 minutes or so at the temple we headed back down for lunch, again, I waited another 15-20 minutes. Food was ok.

After the super late lunch (3:15PM), we visited a near by temple (no hills). And then we headed back to our boat.

The boat ride again was peaceful until near the end when the boat ladies (yes, only women, no men. Apparently Vietnames men like many third world countries, don't do much work) started demanding we give them tips. tipping is not customery in Vietnam. So me and the British lady decided to give 10,000 dongs (US 60c, average daily salary in Vietnam may be US $1) each, the other guy on the boat (German) did not react/give until he get off the boat (smart). Anyway on one boat with 4 people decided to give 100,000 dong (US $6)! And that boat lady started waving 100,000 dongs in our face demand we give the same! what a way to ruin an average trip. We did not give in of course.

Anyway a boring 2 hours back to Hanoi....

My Final day in hanoi started with morning run along the lake in old city, and followed by purchasing a 7AM flight for tomorrow to Hue. since the sky was gray again, so I decided to leave instead go on one day Halong Bay tour to capture that elusive magical picture.

I then hired a motor-bike/driver for a day around Hanoi.

Stop 1: silk village, I started my first shopping of the trip here. I bought some hopefully hand made silk items.

Stop 2: Enthnology Museum, interesting exhibts about the ethinic groups in Vietnam with some original and recreation of their dwellings. The place apparently is very popular with wedding couples. There must be 3-4 couples takine their photo here among the houses, very strange.

Stop 3: the temple of Literature/Royal College: a temple dedicated to scholars (what a concept instead drug using stupid athelets of western culture). A magical moment occured while I was there: the sky cleared and blue sky appeared! the first time since I arrived in Vietnam, whole 8 days later. Well too late for the visit Halong Bay again.

Stop 4 and final stop: the snake village. yes I ate snake, drink its blood, gal bladder etc. And yes, they killed the snake in front of me. I promise never to seek out snake meat intentionally again. I always want try snake meat, even for just once. BTW, it does not taste like chicken, I don't know how to describe the texture, a little chewy. you would have to try it to find out.

Now, only few hours before I leave for Hoi An.....

Halong Bay

2005-11-03T02:33:00.000-05:00

On an overcast day we boarded our mininus in Hanoi for Halong city on day one. Although the distance is about 126km, it took about 3 hours with long bathroom break at a tourist shop.

Soon as we arrived at the dock, the returning tourists boarded our minibus and head to lunch and back to Hanoi.

Our boat wasn't very nice looking, but it floats.

We have 12 people of in our group, a family of 5 vietnamese, an American couple from Oregon, a Singarporean, a newly wed from Australia, the Irishman that I have been travel with since coming to Vietnam.

We had lunch on the boat, which was quiet nice. Although all drinks are not include and so they charge highly-inflated price for any drinks. I ordered nothing.....

After lunch we started into the heart of Halong Bay and went upper deck to take in the view and some photos.

We then stop by a cave to see some formation. An interesting cave with slightly different formation than I seen before. The view over the boat below was pretty good (see photo).

We then dock next to an floating fish farm and 6 of us went sea kayaking. the guide took us through a opening in one of the karst formation and into a almost total enclosed (other than the opening) area. We saw some monkeys among the cliff faces. Not sure how they got there in the first place. May the tourist industry put it there :0

When I get back to the boat (almost dark), we were told that instead spending the first night on the boat, we'll be spending first night on Cat Ba Island. It was first of many change of plans....

O, we picked up a passenger from another boat, there was some confusion as to her status...

Anyway we got to Cat ba island and there are many tourist there, changing boats, going to hotel, etc. The extra passenger was told to sleep on the boat, she wasn't very happy to say the least. that was the last time we saw her.

Our hotel was decent, no promised sea side view.
We had our dinner in the hotel, but this time we had 7 in our table (5 in another - the Vietnamese family). it did not help the serving was so small. We all still hungry when finished. Again drink prices are inflated. Anyway we head to street to do a little sightseeing and food hunting.

There wasn't much to see on the only "main" street we stayed. Resturants and convenient stores are very expensive, and "massage" palor girls inviting you to have a massage. the town existed purely for tourist, nothing more. Anyway the Singarporean (Jeffery) and I got some so so tasty food, but enough to stop our hunger.

On day two, we were greeted by increasingly steady rain, not a good sign. there wasn't much wind. After a very small breakfast, we went on 2.5 hours visit/hike in a national park on the center of the island.

After they showed us a very poorly produce video (obvious copied too many times), we started our short hike up one of the karst formation on the island. the rain make the trail kind of slipperly, but I was fine with it. When we get to the top, we can really feel the wind. There is a observarion tower there, but no one climb it, because the strong wind. There is really no need, one already at top, no need to be any higher (not sure whos stupid idea was it to put the tower on top of a mountain). Anyway we took some pictures and headed back down.

O, we lost 7 people in our group after the breakfast (the family and the newly wed), they are on the 2 days one night tour vs our 3 days 2 nights. But we did pickup 4 people from another group who stayed on the boat last night. Again the constantly change of the people and itinerary...

We have the whole rainy afternoon off to explore the main street, what a great oppurtunity. I did nothing, but get online for about an hour of painfully slow and highly expensive internet access. I waited in hotel lobby afterward. we're picked up around 5 by motor-bikes for a night on the boat.

the boat we were to sleep was awesome, only one month old! There are 7 other on board alreay, our new friends. Another small dinner (people from another table send over their left over as they saw we have cleaned everything on our table, we promptly cleaned it up as well) After dinner we played cards to pass the rainy time.

I did not get a good night sleep, even though the sea was pretty calm at where we anchored.

The 3rd day greeted us a little break in the rain, and we actually had a decent breakfast. We went back to Cat Ba island to pickup those 4 tourists we saw yesterday and head back to Halong City and the whole cycle of returning and departing continues.

Lunch in a Resturant was plenty for the first time, although not too tasty. Anyway, another 3 hours (in downpur part of the way) later, we'er all back in Hanoi.

I guess that is how tourism works in Vietnam, you never know what what you are going to get.

The Halong bay is defintely worth a visit even if it is cloudy (may be not in rain). But its true beauty is with blue sky and whie puffy clouds. A two days one night option on the boat is probably best and avoid the tourist trap of cat ba island. O, yes, bring your own food and drinks!

Rainy, wet, and cold Sapa

2005-10-31T01:08:00.000-05:00

After coming to the foggy Sapa in the late afternoon, I was hoping for better weather (cloudy or something), but weather turned rainy, windy, foggy, and cold! So not much sightseeing in this very small town. That is why I am on the net again.
I attempt to hike in the rain and wind, but I wasn't feel too great and turn back after about half an hour. I got a little sick for couple days.

Sapa is becoming a touristy town, but nothing compares to China.
The town has lots Hmong and Dao people from near by villages who come here to sell tourists trinkets. They dressed in their traditional cloth. Due to the weather, I have not had the chance to take any pictures.

The pace of life is pretty slow here.
Unfortunately Vietnamese also adapted honking from the noisy Chinese as well. They are just a little less noisy.

I visited a village market in Bac Ha (3 hours from sapa). The market is where flowering Hmong come every Sunday to trade, buy goods and selling some trinkets to the tourists. Mostly non-staged.

We also visted a village home near by, not too interesting but did learn a little about the Hmong people in general, which is good. After the visit, our boots are coated with a thick layer of mud! so I paid 1 dollar to have someone clean it back in Lai Cao like many other tourists.....

After five boring hours waiting for my train from Lai Cao to Hanoi, we went to get on the train and was told the what we thought was ticket wasn't, so we were in a panic looking for someone who spoke English to explain what's going on, did we get scamed? luckily, there is a person from the ticket agency who exchanged our paper for real tickets.

The sleeper train is much cleaner and nicer than I expected. It even have a clean sit down toliet! I got a good night sleep (middle bunk). Although I think a Vietnamese American from another compartment was up at 3 or somethig talking loudly on the phone to his coworker or something, then talking to his booki about making bets on SF 49ers and Denver Broncos, how rude! Just can't seem to get away from rude people.

We arrived in Hanoi just before 5AM and got on back of couple moto bikes and headed for Old Quarters. Of course we could not find the place we wanted stay in the dark, so we stop by a hostel and wait till daylight. O, we met another rude person on the way........

But the weather was nice and new day and new city Hanoi....

the long road to Vietnam

2005-10-28T05:55:00.000-04:00

The 10 hours bus ride from Kunming to Hekou turn into 15.5 hours of stops due to landslides or waiting for bulldozer to clear a path around a tilled/stuck truck. The bus itself is like a regular bus except there are no seats and is fitted with twenty some beds (top and down) and with people's packages packed into every inches of remaining spaces!

It was a unique experience, that one should do once and never repeat it again!

Coming down from 6600 feet to almost sea level, we can feel the humidity as soon as we're at the border.

There were couple other foreingers on the bus, we exited China and walked cross the border into Vietnam together. The exit of China was slow and painful. It took us probly over half hour to get over and then on Vietnam side another 20 plus minutes. We all happy to leave China behind. The border official has problem with spelling of Germany and also had problem with Ireland where he insist it is Finland. I guess they don't hanve much English training.

After we exchanged some Vietnamese Dong, we all become multi-millionaire instantly!
1 US$ = 15902 Dongs. Then we had lunch at a local place and promptly being cheated with 3 dollars nasty looking chicken.

The Irishman and I parted company with the German guy (he is heading to Hanoi) and we boarded a bus for Sapa in hills (4800 feet), our first real stop in Vietnam.

Kunming Part II (with a night in Stone Forest)

2005-10-27T05:40:00.000-04:00

After 5.5 hours bus ride from Dali I am back in Kunming once again. Met a Chinese lady from Naking traveling with her relatives, she and her family have their own business. We talked about Chinese society...

After dinner I went to a local gym for first real workout since my trip. Paid 50 Yuan for one time use. Nice looking Penthouse gym, although equipments weren't so great and no cleaning towel.

Met couple more Danish, the 5th and 6th so far, for a country of just over 5 millions people they sure do travel (heading to Laos). Also met Mikkel and Andreas again (heading to Thailand).

I visited few sights in Kunming: Golden temple, and a local park. Nothing exciting, but good walk none the less. The bus fare here is so cheap! 1 yuan per ride, that's 12.5 cents. Good thing I know Chinese :)

I decided to go to the stone forest in late afternoon to avoid the mass crowd and stay over night to catch sunrise. So I plunge down 200 Yuan for a room, but it is worth to avoid the mass crowd I saw in the morning. The lady from the Dali bus told me she saw more human head than rock when she was here(head and rock rythm in Chinese).
It is really wonderful to wonder in the stone forest by oneself and enjoy the solitude.

Now I am getting ready to catch 10-hour sleeper bus to the border and to Vietnam.
Leaving China behind...

China my impression

2005-10-27T05:04:00.000-04:00

China lived up to the expectation!!

- A lot of rude people here. The guy I met in Guilin told me the rude people are mostly from the generation that grew up under Mao's culture revolution who never really educated and acted like thugs during that time. So their up bring is still resonate today. But at same time there are just as many friendly people. I strike up friendly conversions with many Chinese. So there is hope!

- Badly polluted places/cities

- smoking and spitting are everywhere. I think the Chinese government is tried to curb the latter, and I heard there is some success in the big cities on the coast.

- dirty, what can I say; most of the developing countries are dirty

- people are definetly getting richer

- still cheap to visit outside the major/big cities

- the drivers loves to honk their hones! The street of China is not only dangerous but it is extremely noisy. Also people of China are noisy as well, they don't care about their loudness, even late in the night.

The unexpected:

- prostitution, you could walk down a crowded/busy street and be approach by ladies asking you if you want massage and sex in low voice.

- every where there are new constructions: roads, building.

despite the shortcomings, there are still places for you to experience the "old" China and some remaining "wild" place. But do it soon, else it will be overrun and destoyed by the millions of up and coming middle class Chinese people.

Dali

2005-10-23T22:46:00.000-04:00

With heavy and steady rain falling (the first really bad weather during my trip other than the Typhoons), I departed from Lijiang for Dali.

The bus ride was terrible! I was sitting in the back and the up and down of the road, and speed up and braking action of the bus, make me want to throw up the whole way.

There were couple Dutch on the bus, and one of them of who speaks some Chinese was sort of sad to see the historical and natural sites that are being destroyed by the Chinese march to modernize. Sort the same feeling as me.

I was surprised to met Michael and Andreas (Dans) from Yangshuo. They stayed for 9 days there!. It took them 24 hours or something to get here.

The next day sun came out and I rode a bike around some rice field, not too interesting now that the harvest is over. I also rode through some small "modern" town, but streets smell and look like what you'll find in China generations ago.

The old town itself, is nothing like that of Lijiang. It is more of a modern looking city with some old design. So may be as result it is also much less touristy.

This is also more of backpacker's town than Lijiang. So many backpackers stayed at the youth hostel here.

I think I am a bit tired of China and ready for a change of scenery. Kunming will be my last stop.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

2005-10-22T22:52:00.000-04:00

The is an awesome hiking place! Still largely unspoiled by the destructive Chinese tourism. We hike from the river level up about 3000-4000 feet. the trail cuts along the side of the gorge high above the river and provides dramatic drop off!

One day one, we (see the list of characters on the hike in the travelers post) hiked 7 hours and passed about 20 other hikers. The weather was cloudy with showers. The trail takes us thru mountain side villages, we saw cows, goats, horses, donkeys, farmers working on their fields. The trail also cut thru side of the mountain in some places is only a foot wide and deadly drop off on the other side. We also had glance of the snow on the peak on the opposite of the gorge.

After arriving in Tina's place we had shower and dinner. I must not have eaten enough because I was hungry in the middle of the night.

After listless night of sleep we got up at 7 and by 8:10, we are ready for our push to catch the last bus back to Lijiang in town of DaJu at 1:30. The new ferry crossing was washed out, so we had to goto the old crossing. The route was along the paved road and generally down hill, so it was pretty easy walk until its time to go down to the gorge and catch the ferry to cross the river to the town of Daju. A very steep and rocky trail, our injured companion had aweful time negotiate the 40 min long path.

Luckily we got back up the opposite bank just in time to catch the bus with 15 min to spare and cool drinks!

The ride back to Lijiang was long and slow (4 hours), the bus climb over (from 5000) to over 10,000 feet. There was a plan to get off the bus and take a look at Yu Long snow mountain, but the cloud was so thick, everyone decided not to.

Anyway everyone parted company at Old Town.

Old town Lijiang

2005-10-20T05:13:00.000-04:00

A well preserved/rebuild Chinese town (partially destroyed in a 1996 earthquake). With its maze of streets and streams, I think some people called it Venice of the East. The center of old town is very touristy I think (mostly Chinese, less westerners than I expected). But you can experience the relative isolation by randomly taking one of those side streets away from the tourist streets.

I stayed at a inn (too many inns in the old town) that is run by a Taiwanese person, he is currently in Taiwan and a long term "tourist" who is looking after the place for him along with 3-4 teenage helpers. I paid 70 yuan for a double room, which is a lot, but it did come with in room sit down toilet and shower. I think I am become more American than I think, spoiled and can't tolerate share public open squat toliet. Anyway the staff are friendly and are kind enough to ask me to join them for dinner.

Lijiang is in Yunnan province of China. Nested just to the east of Tibetan plateou and bordered south with Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. This is a region rich in ethinic tribes each with it own custom and clothing. In Lijiang, people are mainly the Naxi . They has the sunburned features of many people from high elevation like Tibetan and Andean of South America. Although not as much since the elevation is around 7700 feet.

Of the 3-4 teenage workers in the place I stayed, two of them are Naxi. I think Naxi people are better looking than the han chinese, but due the high elevation, they do have wrinkles early :). Apparently school isn't that important, the two Naxi girls only finished middle school.

After coming back from Tiger Leaping Gorge, I saw Adam again (accident this time) and we had dinner and discuss what's happening since Kunming. Who knows we may end up meeting again some where in Southeast Asia.

On the last morning here with darkening sky, I talked to the local Naxi guy in his early 30s about his anger at the Han Chinese that had invaded his home land and threaten to wipe out his culture. If he had his way he would limit the tourism here and give his people more opportunities in running the tourism industry itself.
I do hope the Naxi and other minority people in China will survive mostly intact in China's rush to modernize the country.

O, still no shopping yet, for some reason I just can't get myself to shop, nothing really interest me, I think I have all the travel trinkets I ever needed from my previous travel. But I must shop for gifts for family and friends, a tough task!

Kunming Part 1

2005-10-20T05:00:00.000-04:00

A overnight stop on my way to Lijiang. A modern city, not overwhelming or big. I saw my first true blue sky in China here! No haze and the temperture was perfect.

I walked around the center of the town with Adam (met at Yangshuo). Checked out a potential workout place for when I come back in few days (50 yuan for 1 entry workout session, pretty expensive i think, but it will be only one time).

Guilin

2005-10-17T08:59:00.000-04:00

OK, I have officially started using the infamous squat toilet here. I think my squating muscle needs some work to build up the stamina. Also had my first bout of stomach problem. It seems to has recovered a bit.

There wasn't much to see here couple descent parks that is about it. Too build up and polluted (what's new). So I am just sitting around waiting for my flight on Tuesday afternoon. I should have get out on Monday.....

I was informed my original transport option to Vietnam is no longer possible, so I need to find a new way. It should not be too difficult.

So far I have not seen a clear blue sky day in China and but I am heading further inland, away from industrial pollution, and higher elevation (probably the coldest part of my journey as well), but the forecast is for rainy and cloudy weather. I'll let you know when I see the first blue sky in China. I would not be surprised if I don't see one in all 17 days in China.

Here are couple pictures I took in Guilin:

Yangshuo China (being blocked by Chinese internet police)

2005-10-14T22:04:00.000-04:00

Greeting from China.

NOTE:
The blogger website is being blocked by the Chinese government, so I can't see my own website, I can still post and edit, but not view. So there might be problem with pictures links. Stupid communists. oops they probably going to track me down.....
-----

After a minor problem at the immigration for entry into China, (the officer did not believe the passport is my, he does not seem to believe I am 34, strange....).

Anyway, thick air of pollution greeted me when I arrived in Guilin and then Yangshuo. The famed karst landscape is hiding behide the bad air! The forecast is for more the same and now cloud has rolled in, it make everything just plain dull and gray. So I bought a set post cards to show you all when I get back. It shows what it suppose to look like before the Chinese's march to industrialize has destroy the place that inspired so many Chinese artists and poets.

O, no sooner has I steped on Chinese soil, I already being ripoff by the people here for the bus ride (over-charge 50%). I guess I am officially entered the developing countries/third world part of my journey! There are more overcharges at the place I stayed not to mention leaky toilet, I mean leaking the content of the flush out on the floor, plus broken door lock. Good news they have fixed both.

I finally met some fellow travelers here in Yangshuo, interestingly they all from the US! But according the locals, the French and Israelis are the major tourists here.

The street where I stayed is full of westerner, a little western onclave in this part of China. The city seems to existed only for the tourists. Most the vender, store owner, inn keeper speaks good enough English, a rarity in China.

I am currently debating wether to cut the stay here by one day to get a cheaper flight to Lijiang China. With cloudy weather and pollution I am incline to do so.

I may upload a picture from here just to show what I mean about the pollution.

The food here is pretty cheap, a meal might only cost a dollar at local resturant, and 3 for tourist resturant.

Hong Kong and a side visit to Macau

2005-10-12T07:16:00.000-04:00

good news HK has good weather, but the smog is really bad. So only night time pictures looked nice. The HK harbor is a really beautiful sight at night. With all the lights on the tall building surrounding the harbor.

i thought Japan was bad with ads and shopping mall everywhere, HK is even more over the top. I guess that is what captialistic/materialistic/consuming society encourage. Since I don't like the above, I find my peace at few of its little parks and a trip to more temple picture taking at another island.

One thing surprise me is the diversty of the people here, I expected to see Chinese of all kind and some expats from British rules and some tourists, but the place where I stay (cheap and I mean cheap, the smallest room I ever stayed), there are African, south Asian (Indian, and I assume Parkistani), and domestic servant/nannies from poor southeast countries.

Took a side trip to Macau and got more stamps in my passport, actual it requires I get a exit stamp for HK, so now I have two sets of stamps for HK. Although Macau is Vegas of the East, it still has some of its colonial past preserved unlike that of HK. So it is good to walk around the old area instead constantly being bombarded by shopping oppourtunities in HK.

Then tonight I went up to the Victoria peak to take a dust/night picture of HK harbor. I walked up instead of taking the cable tram like most of the people. Good 40 min work out for 1200 feet climb....

On top I met a local photographer Sunny, and he showed me some photo techniques and took me to a good spot on the Kowloon side to take the pictures of the HK harbor (see below). He even let me use his heavy duty tripod. Unike my tripod, which moved slightly with a steady sea breeze and messed up my earlier pictures. Very good person.

And on Thursday morning I'll catch a early morning ferry to China and to catch a flight to Guilin and start on China portion of my journey.

More bad weather in Taiwan

2005-10-11T07:04:00.000-04:00

The second full day at Taiwan, a typhoon hit the island (not to mention a small earthquake as well), and we have to start our tour one day late. And when we did get to our destination on the east coast, the washed out roads prevented us from seeing one of the beautiful geological formation in Taiwan. The trip further south provided a relief from the bad weather, nice sunny weather for a change, but soon as we head back up north (west coast) bad weather returned and cloudy weather prevented us from a potentially beatiful sunrise in Alishan mountain.

One good news, I think I gained back the weight I lost in Japan when I was on the granola and beef jerky diet. And I finished all of it and now I am heading toward cheaper and cheaper places, I should not lose more weight (unless I get sick).

Taiwan is a beatifully country (once you get out the cities) with diverse geological/weather environment from beach to mountains (top at 13000+ feet) from topical to temperate climate zone. In fact when the Portuguese explorer first spotted the island they called it Ilha formosa, beautiful island.

All templed out

2005-09-28T05:17:00.000-04:00

After two full days of temple visits here at Kyoto (not to mention Nikko and Tokyo), I am all templed out! Tomorrow, I will head for Osaka and Sanyo-Himeji to check out couple castles. I am praying the weather will be clear. So far I only have 2 sunny days in Japan and one of the day I was traveling!

I'll do some shopping on the last day (Friday), just to get some snacks for family transit through Osaka on our way to Taiwan. Probably no souvenirs from Japan, sorry guys(see previous post about cost in Japan)

O, here are more pictures since Tokyo

My impression of Japan so far

2005-09-28T04:49:00.000-04:00

- people form lines waiting for bus/metro

- Ads are pasted every where people can see it

- Everyone is so polite, even most drivers yield to ped. They do run red lights though, speed is not that fast and other side wait patiently so no accidents.

- No tips is required and you get better service than any where I have been to. A Japanese lady told me that it is common for the store manager to come the customer's home and appology for mistake made by the clerk and refund the difference.

- Train are on time and run very frequently. Especially in Tokyo, you can get a train within 2-3 minutes. It makes DC metro/Amtrak look really bad.

- It takes lots workers to do the same amount of work as in the US. You may call it inefficient, but in some way it is sort of like semi-welfare that keep people employed and reduce the cost of dealing with unemployement.

- Japanese are not as homogenous as I thought, probably more diverse {I don't mean race} of the Far East race groups

- The ladies seem to be prettier than I imagined. Although this could because the makeups. It is very common for the ladies here to use make up.

- Everything is expensive here, well I sorted of knew this before.

- Japan isn't as fun for single traveler as other backpacker friendly countries/area. I guess there are so many places to stay/visit, you don't get bunch backpackers stayed at limited places and seeing/doing limited things to meet one and other. So for me, the night time is kind boring since I don't want to visit the few places I consider fun by myself. Example Karaoke.

- No one would die of thirst if one has money. There are vending machines every where, I mean every where with exception of inside of some temples.

- Bicylists ride on the sidewalk

- red light district seems to be in every major city, I guess prostitution is centralized in Japan and probably controlled by the Jakuza. BTW foreigners are not allowed to hire a prostitute. I guess they worry about aids.

Getting bored at Tokyo

2005-09-24T01:24:00.000-04:00

Another full day of walking (my feet are just not what it used to be when I was younger): Senso-ji (twice) and Edo-Tokyo museum.

Change place of live, check out senso-ji at day and at night. Was surprised to see a festival at the place.

It was difficult to capture the festival since no flash is allowed, and the performers are in constant motion, and my lens is only 4.0 at best (5.6 at zoom).
So I shot at 1600 speed, hope it is not too grainy. O the triod is useless, but use it as a mono pod.

Here are few earlier pictures

O, did i mention the weather is bad, well it going be the same util I leave Japan I think, with couple typhoons throwin between now and then.

Anyway today I am resting my legs for tomorrow at Nikko, lot more temples there.
Just hope it is not raining cats and dogs there.

Finally, so far I am under my budget..........

First Full Day in Tokyo

2005-09-22T03:43:00.000-04:00

After 13+ hours flight with little sleep, I arrived at Tokyo Kimi Ryokan around 6:15 local time. (it took about an hour to get through the immigration at the airport).

Went to sleep around 8 and wake up at 11 and hungry, so ate granola bars and beef jerky and read some stuff for about an hour. Finally get up at 4:30 and get ready to visit the world famous Tokyo fish market.

Had my first sushi with big pieces of raw fish for breakfast! A tradition for visitor to the market, so I must not break with tradition. So watch out Lynn and Wendy, you have new competition!

Then walk around the near by park, and then on to the Imperial Palace area for more walking and picture taking.

After that, I head on to Meji shinto temple and saw some shinto ceremony and a wedding. Good pictures I hope.

Then my feet are just too tired to walk any more, so I head back to Kimi for more granola bars and beef jerky, yum yum.. And checking mail to rest my feet for tonight's tour of Shinjiku district including its red light district :) No I am just going to taking in the outdoor sights and may be few pictures...

O, the weather here has been humid, cloudy, drizzly with temp in the mid to upper 70s and forecast is not looking good, pretty mush the same for the next 5-10 days :(
So no Mt. Fuji visit for me since you can't see through the cloud......

So now I need to figure out what to do with the extra day....

Also, I think I need to unload more stuff, it is definitely too heavy to walk around in humid weather.....

Please let me know if there are any significant local events.

Preparation

2005-09-14T21:32:00.000-04:00

Getting ready for my trip....

Made the reservation (via skype out) for the first two nights is in Ikebukuro district of Tokyo at:
Kimi Ryokan

And 3^rd and 4^th night will be at Ueno district of Tokyo at:
Sakura Ryokan

And fifth night at Nikko two hours north of Tokyo:
Turtle Inn

There are fews more things to get done and I'll be packing this weekend.