KYOTO

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I arrived in Kyoto yesterday late morning on a bullet train from Tokyo. Over 500Km in less than 3 hours on a comfortable seat! What a way to travel! I booked a ryokan within walking distance from the train station...thankfully, due to the rain and weather. I am so grateful I bought all those warm jackets, thermal underwear, gloves and hats in Sapa because boy have I needed them. Do you have any idea how hard it is to read a map while walking under an umbrella? It's a bitch.

The train station here, by the way, is so amazing and a sight in and of itself. I don't even know how to describe it. I will take photos tomorrow and post them on my next blog. It's kind of a massive twisty metal see-through dome that goes up 12 floors and they all open up to the middle...on the top is an observation deck with aerial views of the city and roof-top food courts. The escalators climb up in huge rows and you can see up in front of you escalator after escalator taking you to the summit. It was super cool.

I only have limited time here and there is so much to see so I immediately bundled up and ventured out to see the city. I went to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple first. The owners of my ryokan recommended it and I was not disappointed. It was spectacular. Kyoto is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains and most of the temples and shrines lay in the foothills. This one was beautiful and gave stunning bird's eye views of the city...in payment for the steep climb up to it's peak. It name comes from the waterfall it was built into that flows behind it sending water into a sacred spring. It is said that drinking this water gives you wisdom, health and longevity. I didn't actually drink any because everyone drinking from it was using the same metal ladle and I figured it could only bring me a nasty case of mono instead of it's promised health effects. The main hall of the temple itself is a huge beautiful wooden structure that was built without the use of a single nail. The main hall juts out over the hillside. A popular Japanese saying and their version of "to take a plunge" is "to jump of the stage at Kiyomizu. This Temple was stunning and was actually one of the finalists in the new 7 wonders of the world.

The weirdest thing I did here was pay 100yen to go down into this dark room under the temple...you follow this beaded wooden rope thing with your hand as it is pitch black. It was supposed to duplicated the mother's womb! It was a twisty path deep into the bowels of this building and at the end was a stone...you were supposed to touch it and make a wish. Everyone was giggling, even the Japanese, at the ridiculousness of it! It was fun though. I felt like I was in a fun house at Halloween and was waiting for something to jump out at me.

CHARMING OLD ALLEYS IN HIGASHIYAMA DISTRICT EAST OF GION... REMINISCENT OF OLD KYOTO WITH ITS TEA HOUSES AND TINY AMAZINGLY SCULPTURED GARDENS.

PRETTY STREETS WALKING UP TO KIYOMIZU-DERA TEMPLE

LOVELY GARDENS ON THE WAY DOWN FROM KIYOMIZU-DERA TEMPLE

KIYOMIZU-DERA TEMPLE

VIEW FROM MAIN HALL OF KIYOMIZU-DERA TEMPLE

KIYOMIZU-DERA TEMPLE

PAGODAS POKING THEIR HEADS UP FROM THE END OF QUIET STREETS

STREETS LEADING INTO GION

GION

I did a lot of walking yesterday...my feet were killing me! I walked from the Kiyomizu temple up through all these beautiful old Kyoto streets and into Gion (Geisha spotting..none unfortunately, I guess they are hard to spot!)and back around to my Ryokan....where I collapsed and stuffed myself with sushi and sashimi I bought at a supermarket(the cheapest way to eat here!) on the way home. I was drenched with rain, despite my umbrella, and ready for bed.

Today I just got back from a day trip to Hiroshima. Again, the magic of the bullet train. I will blog about that tomorrow. I'm running out of steam and ready for bed. I leave Kyoto at 16:45 tomorrow night for Tokyo and still have lots to see so an early day tomorrow.

TOKYO

Monday, March 8, 2010

LOVING Japan! What a cool city Tokyo is.

I arrived yesterday afternoon at 4pm and had to make my way via railway to my hotel....approx 1hour by skyliner train from the airport. It wasn't too painful finding my way around the train station but they sure are a labyrinth like I have never seen before. Thankfully most things are in english as well as Japanese and labelled pretty well for the uninitiated. I'm staying in a Ryokan which is a traditional Japanese inn. The rooms are covered with tatami mats and you sleep on a futon on the floor. It is in an older quiet area that is simply lovely. The walk from the train station was about 10 minutes and even though it was pouring rain on me and I was exhausted I was just so enchanted by the pretty streets and shops I didn't even mind. I tried to take some Yen out of 3 different bank machine at the airport and my debit card was declined with error messages at all of them....thankfully, I had about $40 worth of Thai Baht and Canadian dollars in my wallet which I used at the money exchange so I at least had a little yen on me for metro tickets and food. I was rather anxious about my chances of getting any more cash here but after a little Internet recon I discovered that almost all ATM's in Japan won't accept foreign bank cards and my best bet was at a post office ATM. So this morning the first order of business was to go to a post office and attempt to take out cash. Success! I was holding my breath the whole time. So I have Yen to spend and I bundled up against the cold and ventured into Tokyo to jam in as much as I could for my one whole day here. I was out for 8 hours pounding the pavement! I saw half of what I want to see before I leave and will see the rest when I return from Kyoto.

STREETS NEAR MY RYOKAN

CUTE LITTLE ALLEYS

ALL THE HOUSES HAVE LITTLE POTTED PLANT GARDENS

JAPAN IS A VERY HELPFUL CITY! EVERY WHERE YOU TURN THERE ARE MAPS TELLING YOU EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE! THAT AND PUBLIC TOILETS EVERYWHERE!...A NICE CHANGE FROM S.E.ASIA WHERE YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOURSELF IN A CONSTANT STATE OF DEHYDRATION WHEN GOING OUT ALL DAY DUE TO THE LACK OF BATHROOMS...AND IF YOU FIND ONE YOU HAVE TO PAY TO USE IT.

JAPAN LOVES IT'S VENDING MACHINES!!! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE, SELLING EVERYTHING.

PRETTY LANDSCAPING EVERYWHERE.

LOT'S OF BICYCLES WITH BASKETS...I COVET ONE.

5 PILLAR PAGODA IN UENO PARK

UENO PARK

STILL A COUPLE WEEKS AWAY FROM CHERRY BLOSSOM SEASON BUT A FEW ARE POKING THEIR HEADS OUT IN ANTICIPATION FOR SPRING!

MEIJI JINTU SHRINE

SHIBUYA CROSSING. HUGE INTERSECTION WHERE THE ROADS MEET IN AN OCTAGON. THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS STOPS ALL THE LANES AT THE SAME TIME AND A MILLION PEOPLE POUR INTO THE ROAD TO CROSS IN EVERY DIRECTION!

SHIBUYA AREA SHOPPING

ASAKUSA STREETS

ALL THE RESTAURANTS HAVE A FRONT WINDOW WITH PLASTIC MODELS OF ALL THE FOOD ON THE MENU FOR YOU TO DROOL OVER AND IN CASE IF YOU CAN'T READ A JAPANESE MENU YOU CAN POINT TO WHAT YOU WANT!

MARKET STREETS ON THE WAY INTO THE SENSO-JI TEMPLE - TOKYO'S OLDEST BUILT IN 645AD.

SENSO-JI TEMPLE

SENSO-JI TEMPLE

It was a busy day. I walked a million miles, ate a ton of sushi and am exhausted. Tomorrow morning I take a bullet train to Kyoto where I will stay for 2 nights before heading back to Tokyo. I'm done, goodnight.

RAILAY BEACH

Friday, March 5, 2010

RAILAY BEACH FROM THE BOAT COMING IN, LOOKS LIKE IT'S GIVING ME THE FINGER.

I can't believe this is my last day in Railay. This trip has gone by so fast. This is the perfect place to end it, so tranquil. I have been relaxing and reading by the pool and trying to make time slow down.

The only thing remotely exciting thing that has happened to me was my near death by electrocution the night I arrived. There is an electric kettle in the room to heat water for coffee and tea so in the evening, after watching the sun set, I decided to make a cup of tea and drink it on my patio. This kettle isn't the type you pour the water out of but instead you fill the basin with water, close the lid then push a pump at the top to get your hot water through a spout. So I boil my water, the light indicates it is done. I pump it into my mug and sip it to discover it is barely luke warm. So I investigate the kettle, it feels really hot to touch and when I open it to look in on the water remaining in the basin really hot steam comes out so it feels like the water should be hot. I decide to poke my finger into the water in the kettle reservoir to see what the temperature is and clearly there is some major faulty wiring with this kettle because the second my fingertips touch the water I feel the worst sensation I have ever experienced in my life. My fingertips were in the water for at least 2-3seconds before I was able to push the kettle off the table with my other hand and break the contact. It wasn't a quick zap you pull away from it, was waves and waves of pulsating electricity shooting from my fingers of my right hand up my arm and down into my chest... and the voltage here is 220v not 110v like at home... It was the most horrible feeling. I thought I was going to die, I have had a few little shocks before in my life and this was 1000x worse than anything I've ever felt. I couldn't even pull my hand out it was like it was held in there by gravity. My whole body was shaking for at least 20 minutes after. I can't even walk by that kettle now without feeling my fingers tingle...it was so awful. Hopefully I can avoid catastrophe for the rest of my trip.

Tomorrow morning I head to the Krabi airport and fly to Bangkok where I spend the night and fly to Tokyo early the next day. Good thing I bought those winter jackets in Sapa...it looks like I will need them with a forecast sitting under 10C and snow or rain daily... I sure know how to plan a vacation!

PHUKET

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Have I ever had a busy couple days! No Wifi in the Phuket hotel so here I am catching up on all things email in Railay beach.

VIEW FROM THE BALCONY OF MY PHUKET HOTEL, WATCHING THE SUN RISE.

I checked out of my Ko Lanta resort, sadly, and travelled onward to the island of Phuket on Sunday. Phuket is a huge island( doesn't feel like one when you are driving through it in rush hour though), it's the largest around here with it's own airport. I decided to use it as a base to do a couple day trips I was interested in...no point in paying for nice hotel on the beach with a pool when I am out all day. I found an amazing jem of a little inexpensive hotel tucked in a side street a couple blocks off of Karon beach on Phuket with killer views. On Monday I did a fantastic Kayaking trip around the Andaman islands in the Phuket area... there are tons of limestone islands full of caves, lagoons and mangroves to explore here. Some of the cave tunnels were so low we had to lay on our backs to fit through and they opened up into lagoons with towering limestone surrounding them and mangroves filling the water. It was very beautiful. The Kayaking trip went from 12:30pm to about 10pm...so we were able to watch the sun set on the water, have a seafood BBQ dinner and then the coolest part was when it was pitch black we went back out in the kayaks away from the light of the boat and the water was full of bioilluninescient plankton...as soon as anything touched the water (your hand, the ore, the boat) a million little lights sparkled in the water..it was very cool to be out in the dark water to have your kayak surrounded by glow-in-the-dark lights sparkling in the water.

NARROW TUNNELS OF THE CAVES

MONKEY'S LIVING IN THE CAVES.

LOTS OF STALACTITES!

QUIET WHITE SAND BEACHES

WATCHING THE SUN SET OFF THE BOAT

On Tuesday I did an island hopping/snorkling day trip. We went to all of the phi phi islands, which are stunning. I have never walked on sand so white and so soft in my life...it was like walking on flour. I had a good day just hopping from place to place in a speed boat. Some nice snorkling spots mixed in with sunning ourselves. I've been spending so much time on boats lately that I feel like the room in moving back and forth when I am on land....it won't stop. I think it is me still swaying with the motion of the boat I am no longer on!

Today I woke up early and took a ferry from Phuket to Railay beach. Railay beach is in Krabi and is the most amazing, beautiful places I've ever been. It's only accessable by boat and is pretty small. White sand, aquamarine green waters and huge towering limestone cliffs surrounding you in every direction. It's really breathtaking. I am here for 3 nights then back to Bangkok. I can't believe this trip is almost over. I miss the sun already. I'll post Railay pictures tomorrow night.