2006

Gallery: 24. Malaysia

katie_and_eoin — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:35:00 GMT

30th October - Kuala Lumpur

katie_and_eoin — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 22:15:00 GMT

Penang

We've been taking things pretty easy in Malaysia, Emma came to join us for a week in Penang where we spent most of the time eating or waiting to be hungry enough to eat again. We couldn't get enough of the night market / hawkers centre near where we stayed - not the most glamourous eating spot but cheap as chips (actually, cheaper than chips) with people bringing beers to our table all night and about 20 different food stalls around us to order whatever we fancied from. Lovely! Also low on the glamour scale but very exotic was the Indian cafe where we were served curry and rice on a banana leaf and ate with our fingers.

Butterfly Garden

We did a little excursion to a butterfly sanctuary - you wouldn't think it was possible to be scared of such harmless, pretty little things but I ended up squealing and running away from them...I made the mistake of wearing red, the colour that their most enormous butterflies are attracted to. They flocked to me, landing all over me and fluttering around me and honestly, they are huge, the size of a hand, bigger. Serves me right for laughing at Emma for being scared when one landed on her finger.

Hotels

When I last wrote, I said that we'd upgraded our accommodation to a four star hotel. Who knows where they got these so called stars from, it turned out to be the kind of establishment where there were porters, but their main job was to watch you lug your own bag up the steps; there was a gym, but the equipment had all been purchased in the eighties, broken down in the nineties and left to fester ever since. It also turned out that the entire week was some kind of Malaysian national holiday (not mentioned in the guide book / internet guides) so everywhere was packed including, unfortunately, the ferry that was meant to be taking us to idyllic Langkawi for a few days on the beach. So packed, in fact, that it was fully booked out for days and we had to abandon the plan. Don't worry about us though, we managed to find another beach to relax beside in the end.

Bus

Once Emma left us, we carried on travelling and braved a five hour bus journey to Kuala Lumpur. It was meant to leave at 9:30 but turned out to be on some kind of flexi time and only left once it was full, almost an hour later. A year of travelling has not left me any more zen like than I was before and I got really cross with the guy who kept telling me five more minutes. We finally left and the driver lit up a cigarette as we drove out of the city, I just couldn't believe it and stomped up to the front and terrified him into putting it out. Pah.

Ritz!

My favourite bit of the journey was getting into the taxi in KL and saying "The Ritz, please" to the driver. Oh yes, we've well and truly upgraded this time (I think there must have been some mistake with the price on Expedia). We drew up to the hotel where we were enthusiastically greeted by about ten staff, shown to our gorgeous room and introduced to our butler. Three days later and I still haven't thought up any chores for him to do. He said he could run us a bath (but I've managed that by myself) and polish our shoes but I don't think either our flip flops or our trainers would benefit from much of a buff really. Still, the room is gorgeous, it's like an apartment. Every time we come or go from the hotel, all the staff are falling over themselves to offer us help, wish us a good day, welcome us back, whatever. The hotel is also attached to a shopping centre, a really plush one with posh restaurants and terrifying shops like Versace, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. I feel like a rock star!

What a way to end the trip. Tomorrow we fly to Cape Town for Aoife and Damian's wedding and a few days after that, we'll be home. Thanks for reading the journal, I've really enjoyed writing it anyway. See you all soon!

19th October - Penang

katie_and_eoin — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:14:00 GMT

After roughing it in cheap hotels in the north of Thailand, we decided it wa time to live it up, blow the budget and stay somewhere flash in Ko Samui. Aoife had been honing her bargaining skills in the night bazaar in Chiang Mai and managed to charm the man in a gorgeous hotel into giving us a big discount on a luxury poolside villa, a few metres from the beach. It was LOVELY! We felt like rich people (though they probably don't haggle for hotel rooms) and passed a week lounging around with a few breaks for shopping, eating, swimming and tennis.

Snake

We did manage to exert ourselves long enough one day for a snorkelling and kayaking trip around a stunning group of islands. We were taking a break on the beach of one of the islands when, I'm not joking, a 3 metre snake fell out of the really tall palm tree next to us. How scary, then it slithered back up the tree. Didn't feel quite so relaxed on the idyllic beach after that.

Spa

Ko Samui is full of those luxury spas you always read about in travel articles. Obviously, Aoife and I had to go to one, our new "rich person" lifestyle seemed to demand it. It was gorgeous - up in the hills with views out to sea, we were greeted with ginger and tamarind juice and shown to our private treatment suite. So far, so fabulous. We started with a herbal steam and jacuzzi - we were told to strip off, no bikinis allowed and bundled into the steam room. After ten minutes we were ushered into what I can only describe as a honeymoon bath...it wasn't much bigger than normal bath (very cosy for two!), the milky water was gently bubbling and floating in it were loads of flowers, petals, lime segments and kaffir lime leaves. What a romantic experience to be sitting naked in all of this with your sister in law while a lady brought more ginger drinks and, quite strangely, plates of mini jammie dodgers. Ha ha, I wish I could say that we were very sophisticated about it all but we had great fun sniggering and giggling at our romantic experience. After that, it was down to the relaxation business, we were scrubbed, massaged and pampered for the next two and a half hours. What a decadent day, it was brilliant, I wish I was rich.

Aoife's gone home now (not before one last luxury of a gourmet meal on her last night) and we're in Penang, Malaysia. The knock on effects of our rich persons lifestyle has made it tough to go back to the kind of places where the sheets are bobbly and have cigarette burns in them. So we haven't - after one night in a cheapy, we checked out and moved on up to a four star...good thing there's only a couple of weeks of the trip left.

Gallery: 23. Thailand

katie_and_eoin — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:56:00 GMT

Gallery: 22. Thailand

katie_and_eoin — Sun, 8 Oct 2006 21:45:00 GMT

Thailand

8th October - Chiang Mai

katie_and_eoin — Sun, 8 Oct 2006 21:19:00 GMT

Hurrah, I have female company again! Aoife (Eoin's sister) has been with us for the last couple of weeks and we've been having a ball. We've been for manicures, pedicures, massages, facials, hair treatments, haircuts and body scrubs. Thailand seems to be full of people offering treatments for almost no money, but with varying degrees of luxury. In Bangkok we paid our one pound fifty upfront for a massage and were taken upstairs to the massage room. It turned out to be a bit of a communal experience, there must have been about 20 mattresses squashed together on the floor and about 10 tourists already being pummelled - thai massage seems to be a clothes on thing so it's not as bad as it sounds. We lay on adjacent mattresses while our masseuses had a good natter - probably about how dirty our feet were. I think everyone in the room must have heard the loud crack when my girl twisted me into a contorted position, I heard Aoife laughing but not for long since she was in an equally awkard position.

We vastly upgraded for our next spa experience out in the countryside where the girls welcomed us by washing our feet in bowls of water full of lime segments and rose petals. If only I could get Eoin to greet me like that when i get in from work.

Patpong

One night in Bangkok we decided to head down to Patpong, the seedy "entertainment" district. It's half sickening and half funny but the most entertaining thing was how close Eoin kept to the two of us. In fact, he looked absolutely terrified when we walked down "Boy Street" and were set upon by touts trying to get us into their boy shows. Love it!

Kanchanaburi

We headed out of Bangkok after a couple of days and went to Kanchanuburi. From there we took a long and strange journey on a train, pickup truck and boat to a sweet hotel built on a raft on the River Kwai in the jungle, there was no electricity, just lanterns in the evening and lots of hammocks to swing from, very rustic.

We had a great day on a cookery course in Kanchanaburi with our ladyboy instructor Mickey. He / She (sorry, no idea what the etiquette is there) was hilarious and full of tips about putting lots of chillis into your ex-boyfriends dinner. And I'm sure I caught him / her giving Eoin the eye a couple of times. We've just done another cookery course today and can barely move because we've eaten so much. Not a good thing when we're due at the tailor's for a fitting in an hour.

Trek

We're up in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand now and been off trekking in the jungle for a couple of days. You have the option of a two or three day trek and even though we really enjoyed it, I felt pretty smug leaving the filthy, dirty, damp three dayers behind on the second day. Nobody warns you quite how dirty and muddy you're going to get - especially when they have you riding your elephant mahout style (bareback, on the neck) like they made Eoin do. Aoife and I had the relative comfort of a bamboo seat and Eoin insisted in being called Captain.

The walking itself was almost a scramble at times, we all fell over at least once, apart from our guides who were skipping along in flip flops.

We spent the night in a hill-tribe village where every effort was made to ensure a rustic experience. ie nowhere to wash and we slept all together on the floor of a bamboo hut. Not the most comfortable night and we were even serenaded by cocks crowing from about 3am onwards. The evening's entertainment consisted of two guitars handed out for anyone to play and a local guy who did tricks with a piece of string. Eoin sat in the corner and read his book by torchlight.

Anyway, we got safely back to Chiang Mai and managed to scrub off all the mud. I'm so unfit now that two days after the walk, my legs are still really stiff, I crouched down to look at something in a shop yesterday and could barely get up again. Oh dear.

So there we are. Since we got back, Aoife and I have shopped and shopped, now we just have to figure out how to get all the stuff home. Tomorrow we fly to the beach.

Gallery: 21. Vietnam

katie_and_eoin — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 20:19:00 GMT

23rd September - Thailand

katie_and_eoin — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 19:42:00 GMT

I think I'm not really a proper traveller because I've got to admit, I was quite glad to leave Vietnam in the end. We did have a really good time there but I'd had enough of the traffic and the hard sell you get from everyone. The difference in people here in Thailand is amazing, it seems like people are happier here. It's all smiles and friendliness, people stop and offer help if you look lost, even in Bangkok. And there are a lot less motorbikes here, hurrahh.

Motorbike Taxis

Speaking of motorbikes, the whole of Vietnam is full of men sitting around on street corners shouting "Motorbike" at tourists, they are offering taxi rides and from the start I have been adamant that I would not be getting on one. So when the guy from the bus company came to pick us up from our hotel (for our three hour bus ride up the coast) and went out and started his motorbike I was horrified. He and his friend assured me that no, this was not a joke, the bus station was 1km away and they were going to transport us and all our luggage on two motorkies. Once Eoin hopped onto his one, I didn't have much choice but to do the same. I hadn't a clue as to the etiquette of motorbike taxi riding but I thought it was probably a bit inappropriate to follow my instincts and cling onto my driver for dear life. I tried to sit upright and adopt a calm poised facial expression, a la Vietnamese. I found a metal bar at the back to hold on to, I think my white knuckles gave away my fear, as well as all my yells at the driver to slow down. All the while I was thinking that my mum would kill me if she saw me now, flying down the road with no crash helmet on. It was the first of four motorbike rides (the other three were on a day trip) but I never really got any calmer about it. One of my drivers had a bit of a body odour issue which was unfortunate because on the back of a bike you're in close proximity and always downstream of any smell.

Hanoi

Hanoi was totally hectic, the old quarter is very charming looking with trees in the steet and is totally packed with people selling things, cooking things, riding their motorbikes (of course). You have to concentrate to walk anywhere but there is always something good to look at.

We managed to get tickets for the opera - the opening night of The Magic Flute. Being opening night there were lots of government big wigs there, the Austrian Ambassador and lots of speeches, all in Vietnamese and English, I thought the show would never start. The opera house is a gorgeous restored French Colonial building and the performance itself was fabulous, but the audience had to be seen (and heard) to be believed. There were mobile phones going off, people texting, people getting up out of their seats, camera flashes going off, digital camera LCD screens lit up everywhere, incessant plastic bag rustling and even men noisily moving phlegm around their nasal systems. Unbelievable. I thought Eoin was going to get up and confiscate an old man's plastic bag at one point but we both just sat there, silent and polite, trying not to get cross.

Halong Bay

We managed to leave Hanoi without getting run over and took a three day trip to the very stunning Halong Bay. We slept one night on a junk (boat) in the bay and the second in a beach bungalow on a private island. It was just like Celebrity Love Island - really luxurious, our group got along really well and we even had the added entertainment of following the attempts of a very smooth Russian guy to woo an Australian girl. Very amusing. We went swimming, kayaking and cycling and ate ridiculous amounts of the seafood that they kept cooking us. I was gutted when it was over.

Military Coup

The news of the military coup did dampen my enthusiasm for flying to Thailand the next day, but it looked ok on the TV and Eoin really wanted his picture taken with a tank so we went. We haven't seen a single tank, just a few soldiers on their way to McDonalds for dinner. You wouldn't know anything has happened or that the country is under martial law. It does make us sounds like pretty intrepid travellers though I think.

10th September - Hoi An

katie_and_eoin — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:35:00 GMT

My initial euphoria at leaving Cambodia and arriving in Saigon started wearing off pretty quickly when I realised that the Vietnamese follow the same road rules as the Cambodians but there are even more road users here. To cross the street in Saigon, you have to abandon any techniques that would get you successfully across in Europe. For example, you cannot wait for a gap in the traffic, it does not exist. Unless you want to confine yourself to staying on one side of one street for your whole stay in Saigon, you just have to grit your teeth and step out into the fray. The traffic is ninety per cent motorbikes so crossing a two lane each way road actually means crossing about 16 lanes of motorbikes, all going at different speeds. Even on the big roads (in fact, especially on the big roads) people drive on the wrong side so having 360 degree vision is useful. Not allowing yourself to panic at any point is also essential since any sudden movement can result in a motorcycle rider misjusding his path around you.

Not surprisingly, I was pretty crap at all this. On the second day, after I had shouted at Eoin and told him to give me time to psyche myself up for a particularly big crossing, and 80 year old lady came along, took me by the hand and didn't let go til she'd walked me over to the other side.

Mekong Delta

We took a day trip out of the city (two hours there and two hours back with the drivers hand on the horn all the way) to the Mekong Delta, it would have been quite pretty had we not spent most of the time being herded around souvenir places.

The Beach

Anyway, we finally boarded a plane and headed up the coast to a beach resort town, Nha Trang, leaving all the proper, hard core backpackers to suffer an 11 hour bus journey. Hurrah! The flight was great (an hour!) though the girl sitting next to Eoin clearly didn't enjoy it as she quietly vomited for the entire journey.

First impressions of Nha Trang were bad - it was overcast and the town was so packed it felt as though the whole of Saigon had travelled up there with us. There was rubbish everywhere, motorbikes everywhere, I even saw a rat running around. I was absolutely gutted. It turned out to all be caused by a national holiday and the next day the place was transformed. We even found a gorgeous beach club with a pool and waiters to fetch drinks and people on hand to give massages and pedicures. We loved it there so much that despite there being islands to take boat trips to and ruins to visit, we couldn't move our lazy bums from our sun loungers. We did manage a snorkelling trip though but we were back in time to spend an afternoon down the beach club.

Hoi An

Yesterday, we reluctantly dragged ourselves away from the beach and flew north to Hoi An. It is a lovely, lovely old town and a bit of a shopping heaven. I'm looking forward to doing my bit for the Vietnamese economy.

Food

We went on a cookery course today so I'm feeling all inspired to have loads of dinner parties when I get back. And who knows, Eoin might actually do more than just pour the wine now he can make nice fresh spring rolls.

Gallery: 20. Vietnam

katie_and_eoin — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:18:00 GMT

Gallery: 19. Cambodia

katie_and_eoin — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 23:29:00 GMT

29th August - Escaped from Phnom Penh

katie_and_eoin — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:54:00 GMT

"Interesting" is what everyone seems to say about Cambodia. Yes, very interesting, but by this morning all I was interestd in was leaving the place. Actually, that is quite harsh, we had a good time but we'd seen enough.

As we flew in, the whole country seemed to be underwater, to the left and to the right, as far as we could see. It seems this is normal in the wet season. We were fined on arrival by the unfriendly immigration people for not bringing passport photos for our visas (though no one subsequently took our photo). But at least I'd pre-booked our hotel and arranged for someone to collect us from the airport.

Nobody turned up to collect us. We hired a taxi to the hotel and found it was closed til October. Not a great start but our friendly taxi driver soon had us checked into a really nice place. Walking around the town was hard work, you get besieged by people (adults and children) trying to get you onto their motorbike, into their tuk tuk, sell you postcards, sell you books or just plain begging for money, all with an edge of desperation. In total contrast there were loads of lovely restaurants and the food was fabulous but I did feel more than a bit guilty tucking in in such lovely surroundings when everyone outside seemed to have nothing.

Temples

We were in the town of Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat, which did not disappoint. 1000 years ago, the city of Angkor was the biggest metropolis in the world (I'm sure I read that somewhere). The ruins are incredible for the scale and the sheer quality and amount of stone carvings on all the buildings, as well as for the way the jungle has been growing over them. Tomb Raider was filmed there and I can see how Angelina Jolie came back with a Cambodian baby..the kids there are heart-breaking, their parents send them to sell to you or beg from you. They're really cute and charming but there are so many of them that you just can't give to them all and saying no is horrible.

Phnom Penh

To get to the capital Phnom Penh, we had to undertake a six hour journey in a sweaty bus with mould growing on the curtains and half-hearted air con. Our driver didn't like to lose momentum by using the brake so used the horn as a substitute..all the way. We never got up enough speed for it to be a particularly scary journey. We were the biggest vehicle on the road and, just as our driver expected, everyone else got out of the way. Everyone else being bikes, horse drawn carts, cars, cattle, whatever. I felt like a celebrity when we finally arrived in Phnom Penh because we were literally mobbed by people trying to get us into thir tuk tuks and off to their guest houses.

Road Rules

In both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, road rules are not what I'm used to. As a general rule, people drive on the right, the exceptions being when you are turning into another road (in which case you use the left, right or centre of the road as you please) or when you just feel like driving against all the other traffic on the wrong side of the road. Indicating is frowned on, lights are totally unnecessary at night. There are pavements but their primary purpose is for parking / selling your wares/ fixing cars / dismantling elecetrical equipement / setting up barber stalls. Crossing the road is a battle of nerves (and my nerves can't take it!).

The city itself is very dirty, chaotic and pretty poor. We only realised this morning that we had been staying in the nice part of town and even there, tiny children, totally naked with not even a pair of pants or shoes, sit and play in the filthy streets. There is a an energy to the place though, you get the feeling that the country is moving towards better things.

We visited the Royal Palace yesterday and they decided I wasn't dressed modestly enough and made me hire a pair of enormous, electric blue itchy trousers that i had to tie on, much to Eoin's amusement. I looked ridiculous.

So, now we're here in Vietnam and I feel like kissing the ground. It's much nicer here, hurrah. It was interesting to visit Cambodia, and, as Eoin put it, the people who weren't trying to rip us off or run us over were really nice to us.

29th August - Escaped from Phnom Penh

katie_and_eoin — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:54:00 GMT

"Interesting" is what everyone seems to say about Cambodia. Yes, very interesting, but by this morning all I was interested in was leaving the place. Actually, that is quite harsh, we had a good time but we'd seen enough.

Temples

Phnom Penh

Road Rules

In both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, road rules are not what I'm used to. As a general rule, people drive on the right, the exceptions being when you are turning into another road (in which case you use the left, right or centre of the road as you please) or when you just feel like driving against all the other traffic on the wrong side of the road. Indicating is frowned on, lights are totally unnecessary at night. There are pavements but their primary purpose is for parking / selling your wares/ fixing cars / dismantling electrical equipement / setting up barber stalls. Crossing the road is a battle of nerves (and my nerves can't take it!).

Gallery: 18. Malaysia

katie_and_eoin — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 00:26:00 GMT

23rd August - Kuala Lumpur

katie_and_eoin — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 00:02:00 GMT

Singapore

After the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, Singapore seemed pretty tame. It's nice, all very orderly and efficient but not really that exciting - or not if you're on a budget like us anyway, oh poor us, i know we have your sympathy. Did love the orchid gardens though.

We stayed in Little India, probably the least tame part of town. Due to a bit of a booking problem, we ended up staying in a dorm. An 18 bed dorm. It was clean enough and I suppose we were lucky that our bunk was at the end of a very long row of bunks so we didn't have anyone's feet by our heads but they are about the only positives. Once the noise from the bars outside had died down, the dustmen came round to wake us up at 2am and then the last people in the dorm came rolling in at 4am. Lovely. Not to mention the big burp the guy in the bunk opposite me did before he went off to sleep.

Malaysia

After a very long train journey we got to Kuala Lumpur and within an hour we had bumped into a couple who we kept bumping into in New Zealand and Australia. How bizarre and how bad for my detox resolution. I'll update you on that now. Eoin caved in one day three, unable to resist the free beer on the plane on the flight to Singapore. I gave up on day 6 when we were out with our friends...the last three nights we've been very good - that is actually due to the fact that the place we stayed in the jungle was entirely dry, not a drop of alcohol sold there.

Jungle

Ah yes, just call us Tarzan and Jane. We spent the last three nights in the jungle in the middle of Malaysia. We felt like proper travellers - a train, three buses and two boats got us there in twelve hours. Plus, for the first time in the whole trip, we had to carry our bags on our backs, couldn't wheel them along the pebbled river beach thing..I could barely walk under the weight of mine, in fact, an old man had to push me up a hill when I attempted to carry it again today.

Never mind, it was all worth it, the jungle was great - we went walking with monkeys playing in trees over our heads and met loads of wild pigs on the paths (it's a great life for a pig in this Muslim country). We stayed in a little tin roof hut and tried not to freak out when we heard something climbing on the roof in the night. There were bats flying through the restaurant at night and strangely, a massive tame porcupine that ate there one night.

Toilets

Sorry, can't not give you an update on the toilets, both sit down and squattie variety never seem to have loo roll here. They are, however, all equpped with a hose. Hmm, I really don't get it, how does one dry off after a hose down?

It's great being back in Malaysia, I haven't been here for eight years and I'd forgotten what a gorgeous place it is. People have been lovely to us - there's always people saying hello to us everywhere (I swear I had to say 20 hellos when I staggered into our jungle resort under the weight of my backpack) and the food is great. We're leaving for Cambodia in the morning, I hope it's worth leaving Malaysia for!

15th August - Hong Kong

katie_and_eoin — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:09:00 GMT

We left Japan and flew to Hong Kong (don’t talk to me about the flight, I got all excited when I realized we were being upgraded, brushed my hair, put on some lipstick and they just put us in economy plus, we clearly don’t look classy enough for business class). In the name of using up Ken’s airmiles, Emma followed us a day later. Home for most of our stay has been a lovely, lovely little flat right in the middle of Hong Kong – thank you so much Mary and Derek..mucho appreciated! We were also totally spoiled for a couple of days by some friends from East Grinstead, Caroline and Francis, who are living the ex-pat high life in Shenzhen right now.

Hong Kong

In Tokyo, despite the crowds and the fact that people are so polite they barely look at each other, everyone seems to glide along the streets, never bumping into each other. I hadn’t actually noticed this until we arrived here. In Hong Kong, you can barely walk down the street without being jostled or barged or crashed into and all the while people are trying to drag you into their tailors shop, sell you copy watches or take you off for a massage…it’s totally mental! The whole city has a really upbeat, busy, buzzy feel and we’ve been really enjoying it.

We’ve been wandering around markets or should I say, Emma and I wandered around markets, Eoin strode on ahead; we’ve been up The Peak (big hill, great views, very tiring and very, very sweaty if you walk it like we did); riding the ferry which is ridiculously cheap at less than 20p and, as recommended by Tiffany, eating lobster in a great seafood restaurant on another island where they pick you up and take you back in their own boat.

Macau

In the name of even more stamps in our passports, we went for a day out in Macau, a former Portuguese colony. It’s a funny place, it has a really lovely, picturesque central square and some nice old ruins and forts to look but once you leave those bits and wander round town, it’s not so good. Especially in torrential rain which came pouring down as we tried to leave. We had to brave it and wade through it, Birkenstocks totally submerged in manky puddles, nice.

Shenzhen

Next door to Hong Kong is Shenzhen, part of China but a “Special Economic Zone” and so is just a taster of real China I suppose. Anyway, we got our visas for China (bloody cheek of the country, they charged me 20 quid more than Eoin for a visa, just because I’m British) and went off to stay with Caroline and Francis who put us up in their huge, lovely house in Shekou, took us out for loads of lovely dinners and showed us around. The wet market was quite an experience..I’ve seen markets where live chickens are sold before but frogs??? I wanted to take photos but was terrified they might make me buy something or worse, set the frogs on me.

Most amazing was The Show…there’s a kind a of theme park in Shekou called Splendid China with all the sights of China recreated in miniature (saves us a trip anyway!) and in the evenings they put on the most amazing shows, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was as glitzy as any Vegas show, must have been about 100 very acrobatic people in it, plus all these horses and even a buffalo. Very hard to explain but really good.

Toilets

I can’t gross you out with food stories this week so it’ll have to be toilets… it’s not Tokyo standards of toilets in China. Squatties are everywhere and in some places can only only be avoided by sneaking into the disabled loo. They’re none too clean either but I suppose I should be glad people are using them. Lots of the children in China don’t wear nappies - Caroline has honestly seen a child wee on the floor of Walmart and I saw a boy (who was old enough to know better) just pee against the wall of the stands where everyone sat for The Show. Unbelievable. On a much cleaner note, I went to the weirdest loo ever in a restaurant in Shekou…The walls were all totally covered in mirrors, I could see 20 of myself on either side of me all sitting on the loo.

Detox

We’re off the grog! From yesterday, Eoin and I have decided to see how long we can give alcohol up for. I’m hoping my insomnia last night wasn’t caused by this. I will keep you updated.

Gallery: 17. Hong Kong, China and Macau

katie_and_eoin — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:55:00 GMT

6th August - Tokyo

katie_and_eoin — Sun, 6 Aug 2006 15:57:00 GMT

We leave Japan today, bound for Hong Kong. I’m quite sad to leave really because it feels like we’re really starting to get the hang of it here.

Traditional Japanese Inn

Before leaving Kyoto we left our regular western style hotel and checked into a ryokan, a traditional Japanese Inn. Ken acted as our travel agent and I’m guessing they don’t get many foreign guests staying there because we were greeted by our names by people waiting outside as we wandered up to it. I did feel a bit like a VIP but was then mortified when this tiny girl, no bigger than my suitcase, insisted on taking said case from me and struggled so much to carry it that a man had to be summoned.

Our room had only a couple of low tables and floor chair things and the flooring was all tatami mats - all very minimalistic. The idea in these places is that you go for a bath before dinner in the public bath in the inn. Since this involves walking naked into a room of strangers, I bottled it but Eoin had no such qualms and reported back that it was lovely. All bathed (or showered in my case), you put on your dressing gown thing (yukata) and settle down on the floor waiting for dinner to be served in your room.

Dinner was very complicated but very nice. The girl who was serving it (all decked out in kimono) was really sweet and despite the language barrier managed to instruct us on what to dip where and how to cook the piece of beef that was in a sauce on a great big leaf on top of a grill on our table. There were loads of little courses, every time she served one she disappeared for a while, at which point Eoin would down chopsticks and eat with his fingers. After dinner was all cleared away, someone else came to our room and took some futon things out of the cupboard and made some beds up on the floor. How bizarre!

Breakfast the following morning was almost as complicated, we were grilling again, this time fish and tofu. We watched everyone else stir Japanese pickles into their rice porridge and did the same but it was only after I nearly broke a tooth on one that I found out you weren’t meant to eat all of them whole. I’m glad we tried the breakfast but I think I’m going to stick to muesli in the future.

Toilet Slippers

They do love their slippers out here. Wherever you stay you are given slippers for your room or the hotel – in one of the places we stayed we had to leave our shoes at reception. Nice touch I think but the toilet slippers are really funny. Even if your toilet is the size of a cupboard you are provided with separate slippers for the loo and they just stay in the loo. And speaking of toilets, last week I came across toilets that play flushing sounds while you go, just to provide you with a bit more privacy.

Sleeping

Another thing the Japanese excel at is sleeping. Trains and subways are full of people dozing off, that doesn’t sound that strange but we saw people napping just sitting on benches in front of exhibits at the National Museum and I even saw someone fast asleep, face on the table in a packed Starbucks.

Food

I though that when we were out for dinner with Ken we could leave the picture menu places behind and rely on him to order for us, however he is starting to use these occaisions for his own entertainment. The other night he had us eating pig’s tongue (which we barbequed in the middle of our table), chicken cartiledge (actually Emma and I just couldn’t manage that) and one very special raw meat dish. Emma insisted that Ken not tell us what it was til we’d eaten some in case it put us off. It was delicious - until he told us that it was RAW HORSE. If you want to know what it looks like, check out the photo of Eoin eating some.

Style

One thing I’m going to miss from Japan is all the beautiful things here. Everything is so well presented. Boxes of sweets are too pretty to open, in cake shops the signs probably just say “Sticky buns 100 yen” but they look like pieces of artwork. In fact, in the National Museum I wanted to take the Out of Order sign from the toilets and frame it because it was so pretty. The shops are full to bursting of lovely things to buy, it’s probably a good job that I have no room in my suitcase this time. I have a feeling I’ll be back though.

Gallery: 16. Japan part 2

katie_and_eoin — Sun, 6 Aug 2006 14:27:00 GMT

Gallery: 15. Japan

katie_and_eoin — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 18:13:00 GMT