Ko Samui pictures - the one nice day after the storms

Ko Samui pictures - the aftermath of the storm

Waiting at the airport to go to Chiang Mai

Ko Samui had the worst stroms in 30 years and we were there for it. It was quite cool and the power was out twice. Yesterday was beautiful so we rode around on a scooter, went to the ocean and then swam for a bit at the hotel pool.

We are waiting at the airport lounge to go off to Chiang Mai. Bangkok Air has yummy snacks while you wait and 15 mins of free internet to update the blog.

Why are there no pictures ?

There are no pictures because internet cafes offer very limited bandwidth. Often 128K is shared between 8-10 machines. That makes it insanely difficult to post pictures as you can imagine. As you might be unable to imagine, yes, 128 K DSL still exists. So back to the good old days of ascii art it will have to be unless we get to somewhere with reasonable connectivity. And yes, I can read all of your comments.

Also, my 1 GB hard drive caught a virus in Thailand ! How appropriate ! I hope I can find a linux box that can delete the file off the drive because windows is unable to do it.

Bangkok ! Tourist madness

We are now off to Ko Samui, a lovely island in the Thai gulf coast. We leave in literally a few minutes to catch our bus which would explain the abnormally poor quality of the writing (among other things). Bangkok is a crazy city. It is busy as all hell and Thai people are very nice. Of course since there are always exceptions, the thai exceptions are tuk-tuk drivers (kinda like auto rickshaws in India). They invariably try to screw you, the bastards. They'll offer you a ride for 10 baht (about 25 c US) and then they whisk you off to a store where they MAKE you shop or a restaurant where you have to eat and they get a commission. The best bet is to negotiate a no stop price even if you have to pay a little extra. More on this later. The city itself is charming in a way that only an Asian metropolis can be. Clean, dirty, modern and primitive all at the same time.

We saw the Grand Palace, and the Vimanek Mansion which are both important royal buildings for thais. The Grand palace is opulent with detail which I would consider Asian baroque. It is richly detailed, exquisitely coloured and fantastic in its geometric aesthetics.

We also met some really nice people in Bangkok. At the airport we met a viking named Eric and another nice german couple, Michael and Yvonne.

Tokyo is mad

This is one mad city. We had the pleasure of witnessing rush hour on Friday at 7:00-ish and contrary to North American expectations that is smack in the middle of rush hour. The subways were packed like it was nobody's business.

Kyoto: Bush pissed in my coffee !!!

So we arrive in Kyoto, get settled in at the Ryokan and are ready to the Imperial palace. We trudge there for 40 minutes and guess what ? The imperial palace is closed ! And who might the culprit be ? Why, everyone's favourite assmonkey, Dubya ! We walked around the city some more and went to Shikokuji temple (ok) and then later after losing our way and our map (thanks to me, yes) we went to the Chio-in temple. It was really stunning at night with crystal clear ponds reflecting everything perfectly.

Then we went to a restaurant where they brought us some nibbles with our drinks. We had not ordered these but were charged for it. These are called charms. She referred to them as a Japanese custom. Luckily I had read about them in the guide and was not surprised. Otherwise a typical north american accustomed person would be pretty upset.

Kobe

Kobe is a very nicely located city sandwiched between the mountains and the ocean. We mostly walked around Kobe, through some of its shopping and Chinatown. Chinatown is not impressive if you compare it to the ones in Toronto, NY or SF. It is still neat because they all operate differently. We then walked through the Harbour area where there are still massive chunks of concrete left over on purpose after the earthquate in order for people to see the damage. These are in the water. And they are building anothe artificial island to put an airport on it. There are already one or two but of course they need another one and what better way to get more space than to move a mountain !

Osaka and Jiri

Osaka was a nice place to go to because it fixed my perceptions of a clean futuristic japanese society. First of all, the place was dirty but not overly so. Apparently, it is one of the dirtiest cities in Japan. More in comparison to the sanitized existence of Yokohama. We went through a little mall which is really a covered street and saw little 99 yen stores (dollar store equivalents). That really was a bit of a shock to me but Maria loved it because she said it was a slice of real life. Osaka itself is pretty industrial with lots of tall buildings but not a whole lot of old ones around. There was a castle which is surrounded by a moat and is aesthetically appealing although it is a concrete replica of the original. We ate noodles with strange meats in the little noodle houses and quite enjoyed it although the rumblings of the stomachs can still be felt the next day.

Enoshima onsen

We were off yesterday to Enoshima to enjoy a nice walk around the ocean and some hot springs onsen. The walk around Enoshima was beautiful with lots of lush greenery, a miracle to a canadian at this time of year. The walk was beautfiul as we walked along the die of a hill that stuck right out of the water. There were webs with massive spiders which looked intricat. Also there were a lot of hawks flying around. (to be continued).

Minato Mirai

One of the best parts of being in a place like Yokohama is that you can watch and participate in average Yokohama social life. We went to Minato Mirai which has been redeveloped as future city. I forget the japanese name for it. Chano-ma is a really nicely setup bar in an old warehouse building which was derelict up until a few years ago. At some point the city decided to redevelop the space and a spectacular job it was indeed. Back to Chano-ma. Exposed brick, metal beams and heavy metal doors on above the door roller hinges. The place has a loft chic that is best experienced rather than described. And the service, like most other places in our limited experience in Japan, impeccable. The food was great, the drinks stiff and delicious; the guava shonju is a must try along with beef rolls of some kind. There was the option to sit up on a bed like raised platform which was about 25 m long and shared by many people. We chose to sit in the more familiar table and chair setting because we were accompanied by Hiroko, Chris and their little boy Matthew. It would allow Matthew to run around and be safer for him too.

Walking around Yokohama

Yokohama pubs

The Narita Express to Yokohama is fast and quiet and gently rocked our jetlagged and tired minds and bodies to an intoxicating sleep. Remarkably we woke up a few minutes before our stop and met Andrew and Joe who amazingly found us on the crowded platform in Yokohama. It was brilliant seeing them since it had been years since we had seen either. The platform was packed with people and it was a big challenging lugging our backpacks through the crowd, sometimes inches from the edge of the platform. Many locals on the other hand, walked inches from the moving train without really batting an eyelid.

We ended up at a local pub, on the sixth floor and I loved having to take my shoes off. It was incredibly comfortable, not to mention civilized. But that was not it. They had really nice lockers with little keys for the shoes ! Did I say civilized yet ? There was 2 cm gap under the door so you could visually identify your locker without knowing the exact number. We got massive beers, dai joki I believe they are called. I think that is a reference to the size. Shane met us at the pub. After the massive beer, it was time to hit the loo. The germ freak in me was alarmed at the thought of going to the toilet in my socks. Did I mention civilized yet ? They had shared slippers that were lined up nicely for you to wear in the toilet. The toilet was insanely clean, it is a pub mind you. I then left the slippers where I had taken them from, neatly lined up , thrilled to participate in such orderly functioning of society.

Off we went to the next pub where Chris joined us. It was really cool because all of them were speaking japanese reasonably well and everywhere the staff were really nice and helpful. We tried some interesting drinks and generally chatted, laughed and were rude. It was brilliant. Off we went to Andrew's place and it was Andrew and Shane had promised, tiny. About the size that they had set our expectations. It is comfortable and that is what matters.

Two days late

Two days late, but better late than never! Wednesday was mad. After Maria's exam, we finished packing and prepping for our trip at around3:30 AM just before we were going to be picked up to be dropped off at the airport. We arrived at the airport at 4:15 and stood in line for a bit so that we could stand in another line. We had to miss breakfast because we were told that once checked in, we were obligated to go wait in another line. Thanks C and C for dropping us off, without breakfast to boot !

Since we had not had any sleep, we slept for a tiny bit before our flight. We boarded the flight and slept some more and some more on the flight to Tokyo, which departed timely from DC and arrived before schedule in Tokyo. ANA (All Nippon Airways) is a great airline. The food was decent and the stewardesses friendly. It didn't hurt that they were attractive japanese women.