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06
Dec
Eating Korean Barbeque… IN KOREA!
Baobei
Asia ~ South Korea ~ Busan

Last week I decided to swing by my travel agent in downtown Fukuoka to see if they had any deals for travel to South Korea, as it is so close to Fukuoka, and I’ve never been. When I found a deal that included the return trip on a boat, and a night in a hotel that was cheaper than just the boat trip, I decided to grab it. As a result, 24 hours later I was speeding across the Korea Straight towards Busan on the JR Kyushu ‘Beetle ‘ hydrofoil…

As per normal, I had the normal issues travelling… Got to my local bus stop to see the bus leaving, even though I was 5 minutes early… Raced to get the bus, but it wasn’t until halfway to town I realised I had left my alien registration card (my Japanese ID card) at my apartment. They made a big fuss of it when I left Japan last time, but I decided I didn’t have time to go back and get it… Then the bus, which was supposed to go to the bus terminal (so I could change to a bus headed for the port) stopped at the station, and said it was going no further! Turns out when I raced for the bus earlier, I had jumped on the earlier bus, not the right one that went all of the way, so I had to try and find the bus terminal on foot. Everyone I asked didn’t know where it was, cos I was ages away from it… Finally found the correct bus stop and got to the port terminal, where I went through emigration with no issues – the girl asked for my ID card, but when I said I’d left it behind, she was fine with it. I suspect that if I hadn’t of spoken Japanese, there would of been problems.

The JR Kyushu ‘Beetle’ hydrofoil is a very small ferry that takes 3 hours to make the crossing between Hakata (Fukuoka, Japan) and Busan (South Korea). We were warned to keep our seatbelts on because they often “have to swerve quickly to avoid whales and dolphins”. I kept my eyes peeled, but didn’t see any. Did see a very interesting lighthouse as we were leaving Japan that was bright red and decked out as Santa for Christmas (complete with white beard and all).

Beetle Ferry

See the boat at the back (it says BEETLE)? That's the ferry that we crossed international waters in, only 3 hours, but still, it's tiny! The ferry at the front is the international overnight one from Shimonoseki (only 1 hour from Fukuoka).

When I mentioned to my Japanese friends that I would be heading to South Korea for a night, I asked them what there was to do in Korea – everyones response was “Shopping and food”, so I headed to Busan with a list of markets to find and foods to try. On arrival, I headed for the main train station, where I jumped on a double decker tour bus, which proceeded to take me around the city for only ₩10,000 (approx $10 AUD). I jumped off at Haeundae Beach to get some lunch (time to start crossing of the “food list”!). Surprise, surprise, at one of the most touristy spots in town I ended up munching down on good ol’ Aussie burgers, not a Bimbimbap restaurant in sight. Wandered around the area for a while (saw the Fish Car – a small car near the aquarium that has been turned into a fish tank, with large colourful fish swimming through the steering wheel and gearstick).

Fish Car at Haeundae Beach

Fish Car at Haeundae Beach

Checkin to my hotel was quick and easy – upon discovering I spoke Japanese, communication went from haltering English to fluent Japanese. Helps of course that I was staying in the Japanese part of town, in a Japanese hotel, but still much better than attempting to communicate in my non existent Korean (but perhaps my next language to learn?). My day finished up with a Korean barbeque for dinner, recommended by my hotel as “cheap and delicious”. And they weren’t joking, at only ₩12,000 (approx $12 AUD) for a huge amount of quality beef, kimchi and beer. They didn’t bat an eyelid when I came in on my own (despite Korean barbeque being a shared dish), and the owners mum helped me sort out the barbeque. I have never had real Korean barbeque before, it is eaten quite different in Korea compared to Japan – a long piece of beef on the barbeque was cut up into pieces (by the amused owners mum when she realised I had no idea what I was doing), and then dipped into sauce. Kimchi is added (all of the various bowls around the table are kimchi) on top, and then eaten. And, if you’re like me, and the owners mum is amused by you, she will put all of this together for you and basically spoon-feed (chopstick-feed) you!

Korean Barbeque

Korean Barbeque

On my second/last day in Busan, I headed out to fulfill my shopping component of my list. Busan is famous for it’s Jagalchi Fish Market, but having been to the world’s largest fish market in Tokyo, I wasn’t particularly interested in seeking out this one. Despite my intentions, I ended up at the fish market whilst trying to find another market. The fish market was surprisingly clean and not too smelly, and I saw plenty of interesting sights, including tanks upon tanks of sea snakes, and octopus’s making a run for it in the street. I eventually found the Gukje market, but didn’t buy anything, as I’m going to China soon, and much of the stuff at the market was similar to the things I usually see in China. Had bimbimbap for lunch (another tick on the “food list”) at ₩4,000 (approx $4 AUD), which was much spicier and tastier than other versions I have eaten in Japan and Australia. My day ended with me wandering back to the ferry terminal, where I caught my speedy boat back “home” to Japan.

I’ve just begun to start thinking about my Christmas shopping, how’s everyone else going?!

Category: South Korea  Tags: , , , , , ,  One Comment
30
Jan
Please not be ill
Baobei
Asia ~ China ~ Qingdao & Beijing

‘Please not be ill’ is the only English message on the fast moving public buses of Beijing. But that’s jumping forward a little – cast your minds back a week, when I was just about to leave lovely, civilised warm Japan…

The boat trip from Japan to Qingdao was easy enough – no where near as luxious as the boat from Shanghai to Kobe, though. The boat obviosuly used to be fairly important in its day – from the huge dining hall to the lavish dancing hall you could see that it was used to lots of important guests. Unfortunatly, that wasn’t the case for our trip. Although the boat can hold 350 people, we only had 12 people on board, including an American family teaching English in west whoop-whoop China and a Japanese painter importing expensive Japanese dolls into China. I had a 12 bed dorm to myself and was over the moon…

Sunset from the boat

Sunset from the boat

I arrived in Qingdao, hoping to organise a train ticket for that night… Ha! The entire city of Qingdao is under construction for the upcoming olympics – the main train station was closed, as were many of the other main buildings. Luckily, my friend the Japanese artist had already told me this, so I managed to get a taxi to the correct station. And -woooosh – I had to swap back to Chinese mode to try and secure myself a train ticket. Luckily the language part of my brain complied, and I was able to comunicate my desire to the railway staff… Only to be told no tickets. And none for the day after… Finally got myself a ticket for two days later and made my way back to the local hostel.Where my slight cold that I’d been nursing in Japan turned into a full blown cough-all-night, blow-nose-all-day ukky cold. The weather in Qingdao was so incredibly totally and utterly cold that I went to sleep of a night wearing my full body suit of thermals, my pjs, my gloves and scarf. And the heater was on. Of a day I sported my new face mask – fantastic in keeping out the bone-chilling wind. After spending two days wandering Qingdao I caught my train to Beijing and walked into my old hostel, what a relief.

Beautiful, if slightly freezing, beach at Qingdao - notice the crazy guy running into the water brrrr

Beautiful, if slightly freezing, beach at Qingdao - notice the crazy guy running into the water brrrr

First day in Beijing was spent at the hospital, after being convinced I needed to go there by a variety of people. I was right – despite what I looked and sounded like, I wasn’t dying, just a bad cold. The doctor loaded me up with a suitcase full of pills (really, there are heaps of them) and off I went… Shopping… Where I’ve been every day since I got here, loving it. It’s also how I managed to experience the warning to foreigners to ‘please not be ill’ – a little late! Being at an international hostel is nice as well, our room is full of Swedish, American and Australians, so getting to chat to a lot of people who are starting their travels in China…Well, tomorrow I’m off to Thailand, to grab some sun before heading home…

xoxo Bobbi!

Category: China  Tags: , , , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
12
Jan
Kimonos and fast trains
Baobei
Asia ~ Japan ~ Kobe, & Kyoto

Brrr, since when is January cold?! Ok, I’m too used to the Australian seasons, so sue me! When I last wrote, I was suffering from a ‘hangover’ brought on not by too much alcohol, but rather the lack of sleep and the thought that I had to deal with a cross-water trip…

I got myself to the ferry terminal with minimal trouble – why is it that the only dodgy taxi taxi I take in China is the one when I have all my baggage and I need to be somewhere by a certain time?! But I sorted him out – he didn’t realise I could read road signs… hehe. The boat trip was amazing – I caught the Shanghai-Kobe ferry across to Japan and had a great time doing it – certainly beats flying. The trip took a little over 44 hours, and the boat was basically a luxury cruise ship. We had beds – 8 to a cabin (only 6 people in mine) – complete with dooners, pillows and a curtain to close out the outside world. The ship also had 2 bars, a karaoke room, a mahjong room, washing machines (tough that all my stinky clothing was in my checked luggage!), a variety of vending machines (beer, softdrink, sake, noodles) and even a duty free shop. Best of all was the fact that all of the staff (and a fair majority of the passengers) spoke both Japanese and Chinese, so even I in my confused state (swapping between the town languages is hard, I keep using Japanese grammar and Chinese words, or vice versa, or worse still I use a mix of the two) could understand me. The journey itself was uneventful – made friends with an old Japanese guy touring the world after retirement and a number of younger Japanese returning from a tour of China.

Weather was fine, except on one of the nights, where the boat was a bit rocky – but I didn’t get seasick, must be more like dad than I thought. *edit: turns out it was rougher than i realised – the rough weather was from a series of seismic activity – earthquakes or something* My room had 2 younger boys in it – one who was about 15 and wasn’t a trouble. The other one was about 10, and spent most of the first evening running around and shouting. Try to sleep, I finally had enough, opened the curtain and told him ‘shizuka!’ (quiet!). That was enough – he didn’t quite know what to make of a blonde foreigner telling him to shut up in Japanese and was quiet for the rest of the trip. In fact, word must of got around, because when the kids ran up the corridor screaming, they would always stop shouting two doors down and wouldn’t start screaming until three doors past us… hehe … check my ABC’s of backpacing for more information on the Shanghai – Kobe Ferry.

View of the pearl tower from the ferry

View of the pearl tower from the ferry

Arrival in Japan was, once again, a great feeling. I wowed the dudes at immigration with my (dodgy) Japanese, but the Italian guy next to me had more than a little trouble, turned out he had just down a visa run to Shanghai, and the Japanese officials told him ‘last time you come to Japan!’ . Glad I didn’t go through immigration with him! Asako’s mum and dad picked me up from the dock and so began my Japanese adventure…

I arrived on the best day – ‘Adults Day’ – a bit like horses birthday for Japanese – all people who turned 20 in the past year celebrate their birthday on the 8th of January, all the girls are dressed up in beautiful kimonos, wandering the streets, fantastic sight to see. After coming from China, everything seems so civilised – the cars stop for you at the crossings and no-one hawks after you in the shops, they merely say ‘welcome’! I went and exchanged money the other day, and what an experience! I walked in, and the guard politely asked me for my address. Whilst I was writing it down, he asked if he could ‘please have your passport’, after which he bowed and photo-copied it. He then passed my information to a bowing lady, who changed the money, then returned it, complete with sweets, a pack of tissues, an envelope for the money and a bow. ‘Sorry for wasting your time’ they said as we left the bank… What a country!

I’ve spent my time in Kobe visiting once again with Asako and her family. We’ve been shopping most days, today we spent the day being truly Japanese. On the boat trip over, I spent the majority of my time reading ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ and today I spent the day in Kyoto. Incredible, after reading the books, then strolling the incredibly old streets and watching the girls dressed in kimono at the temple gazing off into the distance. I even got my fortune – although I can’t read the paper (I’m still busy translating it), I’m told it’s pretty good. This evening we went to the onsen (hot springs) which was lovely, as it’s been so incredibly cold. There were outside onsens, so we sat in really hot water (about 40 degrees), whilst the air outside was incredibly cold (probably about 4 or 5 degrees). The best part of being here is just interacting with Asako’s family and friends – everyone is so kind, and willing to explain everything slowly and carefully to me. Her Uncle and cousin were even chatting to me in Chinese the other day! Tomorrow I’m off to Fukuoka on the shinkansen, serious speeds here I come!

Asako & I in Kyoto

Asako & I in Kyoto

xoxo bobs

Category: Japan  Tags: , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
06
Jan
All over red rover
Baobei
Asia ~ China ~ Shanghai

Well, I’ve done it, it’s all over.  6 weeks of intensive study in Shanghai have finally been pulled off – not without the occasional hiccup – and I’m ready to move on…

Last week was the craziest it’s been in Shanghai, beginning with New Years eve.  We started off at an all-you-can-eat steakhouse, which had the best steak I’ve ever eaten, ANYWHERE.  And no, I’m not just saying that because I’m steak deprived, it really was that good.  76 kuai (about $12 AUD) for as much steak and vegies as you can fit – and the best part was, they bring the steak right to your table and carve it up for you.  Delish.  After dinner we roused ourselves from the table (not easy given the fact that we were delirious on meat) and went off to find a cab.  Given this city has more cabs than it does people, you’d think this would be easy enough – not so on New Years Eve.  Eventually we got one (involved our tall foreigners running up and down the main road, I think we scared the other Chinese into thinking we’d mug them if they didn’t let us have the taxi) and headed back to the hotel, to meet up with the other group.

And that’s where the troubles really began.  Jumped into another taxi with a different group of ppls and off we went.  Despite having a Mandarin speaker with us, we ended up at the wrong place.  As my clock struck 11.20pm, and we hadn’t managed to find another taxi, I realised I was going to spend New Years on the corner of a crazy street in Shanghai, with an even crazier group of people, AND I couldn’t see and vodka in sight…  That was enough to spur me into action and off I bounded to find another taxi.  We got one – a dodgy one mind you, but we got there.  Who cares if we pay a dodgy taxi driver $9 Australian instead of $5 – at least I got my vodka!

We walked into our venue for the night – a rave in a Chinese Art Gallery – at 11.50pm and I got my drink in time for the count down.  Small miracles.  The rest of our night was primarily spent at the rave, before heading off to another club and then a different bar.  Arrived in my bed at 9.30am New Years day, not a bad effort.

Class Photo

Class Photo

Other than that, my week was crazy, studying like mad for the final exams on Thursday and Friday.  Exams are now over, it’s kinda sad but I’m ready to move on.  Last night (Friday night) was spent celebrating and packing, ready to move on.  You wouldn’t believe how much rubbish I’ve accumulated over the past 7 weeks, it nearly all fits in my bag.  Kinda.  Other than the hour it took to pack my bag, I spent last night farewelling all and attempting not to drink – I have to catch a ferry to Japan in 3 hours.  Despite the determination not to drink, I managed to not get any sleep, which has the same effect, so I’m desperately hoping for good weather on the trip, do not want to be sea sick!

Next blog will be from Japan, woohoo!

xoxo Bobs

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10
Mar
Phi Phi Islands
Baobei
Asia ~ Thailand ~ Phi Phi Island

Well well well, another day another adventure. Tash and I are just about to leave Phi Phi Island, its been like a dream. After spending two nights on trains we ended up in Phuket (Southern Thailand). The trains weren’t tooo bad, the first one was a sleeper train, we had beds and everything. The second one, however, didn’t have any sleepers left (we didn’t book early enough), so we ended up on seats for a 13 hour train trip. Ugh. Oh yeh, while we were in Bangkok, on our way down here, I had my hair plaited. Blonde and Purple, almost down to my waist. Very different, have got quite a few comments.

Anyway… Phuket was different, we spent the time on Karon Beach, there was no evidence of the Tsunami there. People were really nice, but obviously hurting, it was so quiet, no tourists anywhere. Meanwhile, we managed to find a mexican resturant that sold jugs of mararitas for about $4. mmm. Tash and I have got quite accustomed to the local drinks, the beer (Singha is the best) and the cocktails (mmm Mai Tai is awesome). But dont drink the whiskey….

We also went and visited Katong beach, the destruction there was obvious. All the resturants along the main beach had been wiped out, but were well on the way to being re-built. Construction was happening all around and people were really happy to see tourists starting to visit again. When we were there, they were having a bit of a celebration, to get the tourists through, so we sat on the beach for a while, having dinner and drinks.

The next day we set off for the Phi Phi Islands. Ferry across was uneventful, after watching a horror movie on giant squid we kept our eyes open though… Arrival at Phi Phi Don (the larger of the islands) was, well, theres no way to describe it. The tsunami had really hit here. The main beach, which used to be a collection of beautiful beach huts, stores, resturants and bars was just sand, dirt and corrugated iron. Some of the stores were being propped up by who knows what, others were tumbling into the sea. On our way through town to our hotel, we could see that basically everything had been wiped away. Surprisingly, here and there were places that apeared not to have been touched at all. Scary.

Eventually we made it to our resort, which only survived because it is on a hill, the waters didn’t reach it. It used to have a bridge crossing the canal in front of it, but that was washed away. In its place stands three planks that we had to wobble across (with our huge, heavy packs!!!) to get to the resort. Tsunami aside, the island is absolutley beautiful. The beaches are white sand, the water is the prettiest blue you’ve ever seen. We spent four days on Phi Phi Don, with a visit to Phi Phi Lei. Phi Phi Lei is where the movie “The Beach’ was shot. We visited Maya Bay and did some snorkelling, there were fish everywhere. They all loved trying to nibble on my hair – i guess the purple and blonde is a *BIT* strange… Back on Phi Phi Island we went to a beach party on of the nights, where songs were sung and people were auctioned off for charity… All proceeds were going to helping the people re-build, so everyone was quite happy to drink up! We also had fire twirling, which was quite awesome. Met quite a few foreigners from around the world. I must admit though, Australians are definetly the loudest drinkers, that and the Irish, Tash and I pretended we werent aussie… Theres only so many times you can hear ‘Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oy Oy Oy’ in one night. There are about 100, maybe 150 people staying on the Island as far as I could see, an Island that used to have thousands visiting it, if anyone wants to take a holiday, I suggest Phi Phi, they definetly need the tourists, and its a beautiful place.

If you guys could see where I’m sitting to type ths email, its like paradise. I’m sitting on one of the decks at the resort, overlooking the bay, palm trees swinging in the breeze… Mmmm… Hope you’re all having a great time at home, next time I write, I’ll be in India, can’t wait, Indian food yum.

xoxo Bobs

ps Met some guys from England yesterday, they’re leaving for home today, its -4 Celcius over there right now, ugh! By the time we get there, it had better be warmer!!!

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