9 April 2013 by Kim

Tokyo, Japan

Inokashira Park

13 days, 13 nights, three cities, and a bout of dysentery.

Tokyo is big. BIG big.

I was expecting a big, highly populated city but it really took me by surprise. I’ve been to other big places, Hanoi, Bangkok, but Japan being what it is I kinda mistranslated “excellent public transport” to “fast and easy to get anywhere.”
You can go lots of places, it’s true, and the trains will arrive on time, they’ll be heated and clean, and they’ll have announcements in English; but there’s a lot of distance to cover and train changes to coordinate.

The size was hard for me to adjust to and it meant I didn’t enjoy my time in Tokyo as much as I’d hoped. We stayed at a cute, very clean place called Nui Hostel in Kuramae. Unfortunately the excellent cheap digs came with a price we didn’t factor in – an extra subway ride just to get to the main train line. I definitely recommend first time visitors, and those not good at navigating, stay on the JR Yamanote loop line.

Spending so much time on trains was a really good way of observing Japanese culture though. Everyone learns to get comfortable so close to strangers and you’ll find many people napping with briefcases on their laps. The trains were where I saw the most interesting clothes and accessories, and where I sat next to a guy casually reading anime porn. They were where we learned how to pronounce Tokyo and Kyoto place names correctly.

As a Gaijin in a foreign country not knowing any of the language I found it pretty hard to find good Japanese food (completely my own fault). Going to restaurants we’d researched were missions in their own right which we didn’t have the time or energy for; we’d often end up eating at the (excellent) convenience stores, or an American themed family restaurant. It was a real treat when we got to meet our Wellington friend Mika for dinner, she read a whole menu to us and acted as translator.

Despite our terrible language skills we found everyone to be very accommodating and eager to use any English they knew. Most people were really friendly and welcoming, with the occasional scowl from an elderly person, and a pointed finger from a child wondering what’s up with the two pale girls and how did that one end up with pink hair?

We spent six nights in Tokyo before catching the shinkansen to Kyoto, which is much closer to my pace of living.

I took A LOT of photos. Rather than trying to use the awful WordPress galleries I’ll post a few of my favourites and leave you with links to explore more of them on Flickr. Enjoy. (See all of my Tokyo photos here.)

The Sumida River as seen from my window at Nui Hostel, Kuramae, Tokyo, Japan

The Sumida River as seen from our window at Nui Hostel

View from the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku

We (I) got a bit lost getting here, but a nice man saw us staring at our map and walked with us a few blocks to point us in the right direction. Well worth the visit because it’s free! If you’re not familiar with the area try to get off the subway at Tocho-mae Station on the Oedo Subway Line. (See more sights of Tokyo)

Our first visit to the famous Shibuya Crossing

Swan boats in Inokashira Park

Inokashira park was a beautiful surprise on our walk to The Ghibli Museum. Full of autumn leaves, dogs wearing coats, little black ducks, fountains, …and swan boats. I’m sure there’s some kind of terrifying swan boat king horror movie in the making here. (See all photos of Inokashira Park and the Ghibli Museum)

Ghibli Museum turret in autumn

The Ghibli Museum was more than we could have hoped for. We squealed and exclaimed about all the small details. I hadn’t been a Studio Ghibli fan for long, animation really isn’t my jam, but the museum really solidified my love.
There are no photos allowed inside which meant no one standing in the way taking selfies. I got to take it all in without my camera glued to my face. (See all photos of Inokashira Park and the Ghibli Museum)

Food is advertised this way everywhere in Tokyo & Kyoto. There's a whole market devoted to plastic food for advertising! (Tokyo, Japan)

Robot Soldier guarding the Ghibli Museum rooftop garden / Pfft pictures of food is for chumps, Japan advertises with plastic plates of meals

Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street), Harajuku

Takeshita Dori (Street) is where you’ll find the cool kids shopping for cheap jewellery and the latest fashions. Like really, this is where trends are made and new products are test-marketed.

Lunch at the Brown Rice Cafe in Shibuya

We got a litte lost trying to find this place (you have to go through a holistic health store on one side) but it was well worth it. Just vegetarian whole foods made delicious.

Carousel

Me & my Tigger hat in front of DisneySea’s Mount Prometheus

The American Waterfront & SS Columbia

This was my first visit to a Disney park, and wow. Wow. DisneySea is next door to Tokyo’s Disneyland. It’s designed for an older crowd, which definitely appealed to me as I kinda really don’t enjoy children.
DisneySea has seven ports with different rides and landscapes, and it’s just so cool. Everything looks amazing so even when you’re not on the rides there’s lots to discover. The day we went wasn’t too crowded but there was still quite a long wait for the rides. We managed to go on everything we wanted to and we stayed for the christmas shows…which really weren’t as cool as I was expecting. I read “floating christmas trees” and somehow equated that with trees floating in the air rather than in the big lagoon.
The best rides are always the most terrifying ones, so if you get to DisneySea then make sure you ride the Tower of Terror. (See all photos of DisneySea)

Nui Hostel, Kuramae

The aforementioned cute digs, Nui Hostel. Everyone working there was super nice, and the place was decorated beautifully. The hostel lobby doubles as a cafe/bar, tree trunks hold up huge wooden bar tops, and exposed concrete walls are decorated with dried flowers and planter boxes. (See all photos of Nui Hostel)

Lazy cats at Neko Jalala / A beautiful bride (?) at Meiji Shrine

Kate and I love cats so we obviously had to check out a cat cafe in Tokyo. Kate had heard about Neko Jalala in Akihabara so we went there one night to have a play. Unfortunately all the cats were tired and grumpy by the time we got there. Grumpy cats unite! (See all photos of Neko Jalala cat cafe)

Meiji Shrine

At Meiji Shrine we were treated to a procession of beautifully clothed people. We’re still not sure what they were doing but I’ve deduced that it was probably a wedding party entering the shrine to be married.
Elsewhere in the grounds a few children in colourful traditional clothes ran about being cute. (See all photos of Meiji Shrine)

Photo sets: Nui Hostel & Kuramae; Inokashira Park, Ghibli Museum, & Mitaka; Sights of Tokyo; DisneySea; Neko Jalala Cat Cafe; Meiji Shrine

24 January 2013 by Kim

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries

I’m planning some trips in 2013 (if you couldn’t already tell from my 13 in ’13 list). They’ll be both close to home and on the other side of the world, and I’m pretty excited.

Even though I was born in Christchurch I haven’t been in the South Island since I was a couple of months old (bar a few hours spent in Christchurch Airport). The one time I attempted to travel to Christchurch it was so foggy that the plane flew to Christchurch, circled the city a few times and flew back to Wellington. So this year I’m going for sure.

We want to see Arrowtown when it’s all sparkly for the autumn festival, pretty with autumn leaves, maybe find a good deal on a bed and breakfast. Brendan has been writing a script based in Arrowtown gold mining times on and off for a couple of years so it will be really great to see the area for himself.

The truly big trip will be in October and November. Six weeks, six countries, six cities. Prague, Berlin, Reykjavik, Budapest, Krakow, and Vienna. I’ve wanted to go to Germany for about 10 years, German is my favourite language (though I don’t speak it). Iceland, though a relative newcomer to my list of favourite places I’ve never been, should be incredible. The Northern Lights! Potentially some kinds of snow dwelling animals! Though my narwhal and polar bear viewing mission may have to wait a few years till Brend and I both have the desire to spend $12000 on an 8 day arctic safari cruise.

21 November 2012 by Kim

Hoi An, Vietnam

After a four to five hour bus ride from Hue we arrive in Hoi An, though, not before our bus driver gets lost and pretends nothing is wrong by driving through narrow unsealed back streets till he finds a real road again.

As team leader I was in charge of finding a place to sleep so pulled out the Lonely Planet and asked for directions to the street that had the most hotel dots on it.

20 May

We find room at Hoa Binh Hotel with wifi, and a pool for 120000vnd each per night (currently $7nzd). Our first meal is at a place around the corner offering a free beer with your meal and just 3000vnd for extra beers (around 20cents nzd). I wish I could remember the name because I still think about the banh xeo (rice flour pancake), I have never had better.

21 May

Hoi An was our favourite place in Vietnam, the food is incredible. It’s definitely touristy, but that means there’s a heap of pretty things to look at. Most of all it’s know as the place in Vietnam to get clothes tailored.

We put aside about 4 nights for Hoi An, allowing time to find a tailor, pick clothes, and allow for refits. After much internet research and warnings of shitty tailors we found one that sounded good – B’Lan Silk at 23 Tran Phu St. The plan was to check out and compare a couple of the recommended places and barter for the best price. There are 600 “tailors” in Hoi An, most of them following the typical way of stealing your neighbour’s good reputation and trading on that. B’Lan came highly recommended though so we went there first and stuck with them.

The boys got suits for $90usd each. I got a suit jacket ($45usd), a floaty dress, sailor dress, pleated skirt dress (between $40 and $45usd each), and a jacket with a pleated skirt ($90usd) made. A total of $252 usd, half up front, half on delivery.

All the designs were picked from photos in magazine catalogues and the materials picked from the shelves and racks around us. It took a bit to convince the tailors that yes, I definitely wanted all of these items made in black, eventually I was worn down and ordered a few of the pieces in grey instead. (And I haven’t worn the grey pieces more than twice each!) My winter jacket has had the most wear by far & I still get complimented on its bright fuchsia lining.

At night we wandered around the market across the river. Taking in the sights of brightly coloured lanterns, and Brendan got suckered into buying coffee filters at tourist rates (which I later proved by buying them from the local market at less than half the price.).

22 May

Brendan’s suit was perfect first try, Darian’s needed a little adjusting on the jacket. My jackets are good, the sailor dress is 6″ shorter than I wanted, the pleated dress doesn’t fit my boobs, and the floaty dress? The floaty dress was completely different to what I wanted (as well as it being grey), I hate conflict though and couldn’t be bothered changing the whole thing.

While waiting for Darian’s suit to be altered we ate in a restaurant called Bazar across the road. Hoi An has many food specialities and I think the “Bazar Rolls” we ate here may have been one of them, they were definitely special to this restaurant. Cabbage and carrot, wrapped in pork, breaded, then fried! Suddenly the 37° weather turns into lightning and deafening thunder, so loud it frightens the wait staff. The restaurant started flooding so we escaped as soon as things calmed down.

23 May

A couple of tries later and my two remaining dresses are done. While talking with our tailor we mentioned having trouble finding good sandwiches (banh mi). She wrote down the name of a place and sent us off with my bag of clothes. We stopped to ask for directions about five times before finally finding the sandwich cart; every person we asked knew who we were looking for and laughed when we gave the name, they must get it all the time. Not surprisingly, the sandwiches were amazing.

After collecting a few lanterns and other touristy things we started for the post office but were stopped in the hotel lobby and asked if we want to use the free postal service where they pack and post things at your house! Um, yes. $91usd worth of not having to carry an extra 6.5kg on my back for six weeks.

24 May

Check out is 12, our night bus is at 7. There’s nothing for it but to cafe hop.

A French place where I find tiramisu; a restaurant called Secret Garden (warning – music) that we had visited a couple of nights prior, they make an amazing Cau lau – a dish (or noodle) served only in Hoi An; and some banh mi for the road.

14 November 2011 by Kim

Hamilton Gardens

It was Brendan’s one request that while visiting Mum in Ngaruawahia we see the Hamilton Gardens. I hadn’t been for years but remembered them being quite spectacular and well themed.

The weather was awful but we were only in Hams for two days so we braved the rain with my friend Kezz to take a look. The rain really packed in by the end of our visit so we left soaked and hungry. Worth it.

9 November 2011 by Kim

26 in 26: Visit Mum [by train]

On Saturday I took my very first trip on the Overlander, the train that runs from Wellington to Auckland. Mum is in Hamilton so our journey wasn’t quite as far as Auckland, but still a good 10 hours.

Thankfully I’d had a bit of train practice in Asia. In Asia we bought cheap tickets and ended up with a) seats with no leg room, b) hard sleepers, which are planks of wood with thin covers and bed bugs, or c) plastic chairs. There was none of that in the Overlander. Lots of leg room, some bigger couches in a lounge at the back of the coach and clean enough toilets. Though in typical train fashion the door to the toilet was extremely awkward to get through I’m not sure that anyone much bigger than me would have been able to manage it.

Our carriage did come with the requisite “conspiracy theorists” though. Grow From Here on twitter was kind enough to explain to me how odd people are assigned on public transport: “they are allocated by the travel people – sometimes you get screaming kid instead- or paper rustling snarler”. Pleased to say I only had to deal with a guy explaining to me how an Egyptian prince and a Jewish Princess were married way back to broke a deal between feuding families (etc etc on and off for 10 hours). Cool story bro.

But thankfully no screaming children.

Views from the North Island to the South Island

Waiting for 7am to check in // My favourite stretch of highway with views to Kapiti // You can see the South Island in good weather, that faint shape in the distance // Ohakune for a pie and coffee break (shit coffee good pie) // Art in Ohakune // Crossing one of the tall viaducts // The windows were annoyingly reflective // What NZ does well – farms

5 November 2011 by Kim

Hai Phong, Vietnam

From Ha Long bay we traveled by bus, then boat to Hai Phong. It was around this point in the trip I finally felt like I was in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese people were fascinated by us whiteys, a couple of ladies gave me frights by putting their fingers in my stretched lobes, and guys on the street stopped their conversations to stare at us as we walked past. We only saw a few other tourists while in Hai Phong, it was really hard to tell we were in the third most populated city in Vietnam. (Though there is 4.5 million between Hanoi – the second most populated – and Hai Phong.) I was totally unprepared for white people to still be a ‘thing’.

After getting ripped off by a taxi driver, staying in a hotel for a couple of nights (with the added bonus of bed bugs for Brendan!), and discovering our first bar covered in sunflower seed shells we trekked over to the bus station to book a ride to the next town with a train track. I think the guys hanging out at the bus stop were even more fascinated by me than the ladies on the bus. They asked me, in the international language of sign language, if my tattoo was real or if it would come off. They delighted in our poor pronunciation of Ninh Binh when asking for bus tickets, apparently the ‘nh’ sound is more like a g!

Bonus memories: The pretty gardens running through the center of town; string cottage cheese at Big Man Bia; watching guys do round house kicks on the shuttlecocks while playing jianzi; trying Vietnamese coffee for the first time; seeing the huge town square full of small communist children doing a choreographed dance!!

See Brend’s memories of Hai Phong.

11 October 2011 by Kim

Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island

As I’ve said before Ha Long Bay is really beautiful. But it’s hard not to get scammed.

We really really wanted to go Hanoi > Ha Long Bay > Cat Ba Island > Haiphong, so we googled around and found the most highly recommended travel agency in Hanoi. Yes they were straight up and yes they gave us what we paid for, but of course no one is going to tell you the full story when they’re not going to make money from it. According to them there was absolutely no way we could go from Hanoi to Cat Ba Island in one day. No explanation offered, just that it couldn’t be done. So we booked their one day return trip tour from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay and got a few dollars knocked off because we wouldn’t be coming back to Hanoi.

The initial tour of Ha Long Bay went well, seafood lunch was provided, a cave was visited, limestone karsts in the shape of kissing chickens were seen. Back on the tourist wharf we spotted a travel agency and Darian, being team leader* at the time, went in to book a boat to Cat Ba Island the next day. We were promised many things, the most significant being that the boat would get us to the Cat Ba town side of the island and not the other side of the National Park from Cat Ba town end of Cat Ba Island.

You can guess where this is going.

Thankfully there were a number of other people on the boat from different tour companies that had been told they were going straight to Cat Ba town as well so they had a bus waiting for them. Then we realised why we were told at the start of the trip that the bus was NOT included in our tickets. (We had all heard this, we just dismissed it though because we weren’t planning on catching a bus anywhere.)

Fuck. That. Shit.

By the time we got off the boat I was so incensed and scared that we would have to spend the night outside in the cold that no one could have made me get off that bus.

The whole debacle ruined my memories of Ha Long Bay.

We only stayed one night on Cat Ba Island, but it was nice. We were mobbed on the street by people trying to get us to stay at their hotels so got a real cheap room and woke up to a bay full of little boats. Beautiful. I ate fresh crab from the shell for the first time, and we had a few drinks in a Kiwi bar.

While we waited for the boat to Haiphong the boys pulled out their guitars and played to a few people who joined us in the gazebo to listen.

*It was the team leaders responsibility to find transport to the city they were in charge of, accommodation, suggest some activities, and make decisions about where to eat when no one could decide. The role rotated to the next in line every time we moved cities. I highly recommend this approach, especially if you’re gone for a long time and moving often. It gives everyone a chance to relax sometimes and be a visitor rather than a tour leader.

Read Brendan’s opinion of our trip to Ha Long Bay.
See all of the Ha Long Bay photos on Flickr.

7 September 2011 by Kim

Hanoi, Vietnam

BLAH!

We flew into Vietnam to avoid the 24+ hour bus from Vientiane. Darian did take the bus though and didn’t think it was too bad. Apparently the roads are a lot better now than when it was known as the 24 hour death bus. If I had to do it again I’d take the bus, if only to save a couple of hundred dollars. Actually, that’s a lie. I just wouldn’t go to Hanoi.

I do remember a few good thing about this place. The water puppet theatre. Learning how to cross 6 lanes of traffic. OK, a couple of good things.

Other than that it’s all tiny streets, too much heat, bad smells, bad food, and power outages. Oh and that one time I read about our hotel online and someone said the owners let hookers use guests rooms while the guests are out and then the door opened and a girl and guy were at the door and they quickly apologised and went away.

A few days in the stinking hot heat and we were outta there, on our way to Halong Bay. Lots of people love the business of Hanoi. I really…don’t.

I didn’t take any photos in Hanoi, this is one of Brend’s. I didn’t not take any on purpose. It was just too hot to think about anything other than not getting run over.

On our first night in Vietnam a woman selling pineapple from one of those excellent bamboo pole shoulder things (technical term!) came up to me and asked if I wanted some. I said no. So she took off her conical hat and bamboo pole shoulder thing and put them on me, started telling Brendan to take a photo, insisted it was free to take a photo, all the while I’m protesting and trying to give her stuff back. Those poles are heavy yo!

2 September 2011 by Kim

Vientiane, Laos

Another minibus, another drive between cities. After being dropped at the out of town bus station in Laos’ capital we jumped in a cramped shuttle with a bunch of other tourists from the minibus and were taken into town. Like a few others in the shuttle we hadn’t booked accommodation in advance, thinking we could wing it like we’d been able to so far. We didn’t count on it being a holiday weekend though.

We found a cheap room, good enough and even came with a small window; unlike a few of the others we’d looked at. It wasn’t the most comfortable place though so we decided to head out to the Rivertime Resort and Ecolodge 30km from town. Being a hot hot holiday day we were sufficiently overcharged for our trip out to the “resort” (my excellent haggling skills got us an aircon minivan for the same price as a tuk tuk though!). We hadn’t booked, again, because we weren’t able to get hold of anyone on the phone the day before. I almost died when we were initially told they had no room for us. Thankfully it was just a communication mix up with neither of us speaking the other’s language.

Rivertime’s floating restaurant and “pool”

Is it just me, or do you expect snakeless bathrooms, rooms without huge bugs crawling up through the sizable gaps in the floorboards, and actual showers when you hear the word resort? In an ecolodge in Laos you’d be wrong to expect that. One night in the 3 bed dorm with outside bathroom and I’d had enough. I paid the difference for the 3 of us to be moved to a room with an en suite just so I could go to the bathroom in the night and not have to bathe in the river.
During the day the lodge was lovely, green, and relaxing sitting in the floating restaurant. Once the sun went down it turned into a bugfest so bad I almost wanted to go home. It’s one of the 3 worst things I remember about the trip.

Anyway. A few days later I convinced the boys it was time to leave and we went back to Vientiane, and back to exactly the same room we’d had when we first arrived. 4 days till our flight to Hanoi was plenty enough time for me to be eaten alive by bedbugs. I’d never encountered the critters before so I just assumed I was covered in mosquito bites, which wasn’t an unreasonable assumption considering the state of my legs before we arrived in Vientiane. But by the last night I noticed the patterns of two and three bites and spent an uncomfortable night terrified I was going to see the bugs crawling all over me as I tried to sleep. Ugh.

So long and good riddance Vientiane.

The Mekong River border with Thailand

Patuxai – The Victory Gate monument in the centre of Vientiane. Built with funds and concrete given to Laos from America to build a new airport.

See all the Vientiane photos on Flickr

21 August 2011 by Kim

Vang Vieng, Laos

Poor Vang Vieng has a fairly bad reputation thanks to more than a few Scheiß tourists. Maybe that’s not fair, but that’s my opinion regarding people that travel to another country in order to drink “happy shakes” in bars that play endless reruns of Friends; and get drunk while floating down an invariably swollen fast moving or shallow and rocky river.

With that in mind I was reluctant to even go to Vang Vieng, but the boys were not going to miss the chance to tube down a dirty river for a few hours. We agreed to not stop at any of the bars along the river therefore getting to float along it by ourselves while all the other tourists started drinking before they’d even gotten wet.

At one point during our stay it didn’t look like the river tubing was going to happen. We got hit with a spell of rainy weather and were warned the river would be freezing the day after a big rain. Thankfully we extended our stay by a day and the beautiful morning weather convinced me to forget the freezing water warnings and get in on the action. It turns out the river wasn’t cold at all. The rain that pelted us for half of our float was though.

It wasn’t a problem though, we enjoyed the float and stopped only twice to have a quick nip of something to warm us a little. And we scoffed at the tourists we saw boating back to town instead of tubing. At least they were smart enough not too float down the river for a couple of hours while smashed off their faces.

Vang Vieng is actually quite pretty if you can get past the fact it’s a tourist wasteland. We met some really nice Laotians and learnt a bit about Lao property laws and world economics from the man who was looking after our hostel. And I ended up eating my words against river tubing, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

The rains continued on our drive from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng//Engrish//Half gin half tonic//We used the riverside pool at a fancy hotel for $2. Worth it.//The limestone cliffs, orange bridge, stairs, and clear blue swimming hole that surround Tham Jang Cave//America’s gift to Vang Vieng, an abandoned airstrip from the Vietnam War

Aren’t the limestone peaks a beautiful backdrop to this backpacker ghetto!
See all the Vang Vieng photos on Flickr

Whisky and Wry

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