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30
Nov
Just call me Travel Agent Bobbi!
Baobei
Asia ~ Japan ~ Fukuoka & Beppu

Once again, blogs have been few and far between, whoops. It’s been a month of accomplishments with my Japanese – I can now do many things in Japanese that I never before had the ability or courage to do: order pizza delivery over the phone, direct a taxi driver to my apartment, make travel arrangements with a travel agent and more. Most of these things are activities I never even had the opportunity to do in English, in Australia – I live in the sticks, so getting a taxi home, or getting pizza delivered has never been an option. I’m finally beginning to really function over here!

Gyoza at the gyoza restaurant in Hakata

Gyoza at the gyoza restaurant in Hakata

My friend Jen from home has been visiting me for the past two weeks, and it’s been a blast. I’ve taken her around to do plenty of things around Kyushu, including clubbing in Fukuoka (stumbling home at 7am after spending all night at “Happy Cock”, all you can drink for 2000 yen, who can go past that?!), horse races in Saga (where you go not to watch the races in Saga, but to bet on the races in Kyoto!), temples in Dazaifu (students are starting to cram, the temple was packed!), a home party drinking cocktails and eating oden in Kurume (and laughing the night away with crazy cousins!), bali style onsens in Chikushi (Jen’s first onsen!), sand onsens, hostels and “hell valley” in Beppu (natural bubbling colourful pits of sulphur water, reminiscent of what hell may look like), souvenir shopping at the many 100-yen shops in Fukuoka (and then finding a post office that will accept the 100-odd kg of souvenirs that Jen bought!) and shopping and watching movies at Canal City in Fukuoka (New Moon has FINALLY come out in Japan!).

Students tying their fortunes up at Dazaifu

Students tying their fortunes up at Dazaifu

Matt’s headed off on his next adventure – he is now in Taiwan looking for a job, leaving me in Japan all on my own… Never fear, with my newfound pizza (and sushi, curry, hotpot, Korean, Indian etc etc) ordering abilities, I think I should survive. Throw in the attention of my host sister and cousin (I have an accessible apartment in the city, a big bonus on a Saturday night when trains stop at 11:30pm! This Saturday night is the first I haven’t been out till 7am, and it was only because Jen was leaving early Sunday that I was excused!) and my other Japanese friends.

At the Moomin cafe in canal city. If you're lucky, Mr Moomin himself will come and sit at your table to help you drink your gingerbread hot chocolate (which is easily the best hot chocolate I've ever had, and so it should be at $8 a cup).

At the Moomin cafe in canal city. If you're lucky, Mr Moomin himself will come and sit at your table to help you drink your gingerbread hot chocolate (which is easily the best hot chocolate I've ever had, and so it should be at $8 a cup).

Now it’s back to work, sorting out my parents itinerary for when they rock up in two weeks time. We’ll be hiring a car (eek!) and traveling a bit of Kyushu before heading to Kyoto & Osaka for a couple a days, and then heading to China on the ferry. Just call me Travel Agent Bobbi!

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04
Aug
Scarily Good…
Baobei
Australasia ~ Australia ~ Gold Coast and Asia ~ Japan ~ Osaka

“Your bag is over weight, but when we combine both of your luggage allowances, it’s fine”, “no need to worry, buses run all night from Surfers back to your hotel”, “even though you’re amongst the last to checkin, I’ve assigned you emergency exit seats”.

The trip over to Japan wasn’t bad, not bad at all. We flew Melbourne to Coolangatta (Gold Coast) on Friday via Tiger Airways, and despite my bag being slightly overweight (oh come on, it’s not easy to pack a years worth of clothes into 15kg!), they combined our luggage – and as Matt has an amazing ability to pack lightly, we were fine. Our stay in Coolangatta was short but sweet (the hotel was a 5 minute walk from the aiport, right next to the beautiful beach and a 40min bus ride from Surfers Paradise). Checkin for our Osaka flight was quick and trouble free – and we snagged the emergency exit seats on a half full plane. Arrival into Osaka was great, as we stayed at a hotel I had previously stayed at (New Chuo Hotel) so finding it was a breeze. All in all it was a wee bit scary how easy it all was, but our confusion of Osaka’s subway over the next few days certainly levelled the playing field.

Beach near our hotel

Beach near our hotel

Whilst in Osaka we’ve done the standard tourist activities, such as walking around Den-den Town (street full of electrical shops), stroll around Namba, watch families fish off the central pier at night (and see the sun set over the city) and visit a temple in Kyoto (Rokuonji Temple). But, as per usual, the most favourite activity was definetly people watching – for Osaka (and indeed Japan) has it’s own collection of distinct characters – from young girls in kimonos to teenagers with mountains of facial peircings, to salarymen, to old grandmas tottering around in floral print, there is always something different to see.

At the Golden Pavillion

At the Golden Pavillion

Tomorrow morning we’re off to Fukuoka – we managed to book our first two nights in a cheap hotel (despite leaving it to the very last minute), and intend to start hunting for an apartment straight away. Fingers crossed please! Flight doesn’t leave until 5pm, and a reference website assures us that the trip from our hotel to the airport should take 50mins, so we are assuming that, with our incredible ability to catch trains that terminate before our destination, the trip will take at least 3 hours. So we will be leaving when our hotel kicks us out, 6 hours before our flight. Better to be safe than sorry!

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15
Aug
Are the gods out to get me?
Baobei
Asia ~ Japan ~ Kyushu ~ Kurume, Beppu & Kagoshima and Asia ~ Japan ~ Koyasan

Everyday over here seems to present new challenging situations, and yet each day also seems to present unbelievable experiences.

After leaving Hokkaido, I traveled down south to Kyushu via Osaka. Due to the entire country being on the move (and despite the fact that I booked my tickets two weeks in advance), I was unable to secure seats on a fast shinkansen. Instead, I went on the “SuperExpress Shinkansen” that stopped at all stations to Kurume. Sheesh. In Kurume I once again met up with previous host families and had a fantastic time. Our days were spent lazying about in the air conditioning (unbelievably hot down here in Kyushu) and going out for dinner. My first night out was at the local Chinese restaurant, where the owner still remembered me! Second night out was at a yakitori (grilled foods) restaurant. Plenty of (ice cold) beer to be had, fun times had by all. As always, leaving was difficult (sob!), but I’ll be back soon…

From Kurume I headed to Beppu. However, due to a problem with buying my rail pass in Kurume, I first had top head to the bigger city of Fukuoka to take care of my rail pass. As I’m flying out of there in 5 days time, I thought I would leave my big backpack in a coin locker there, and just cart around my small bag. So off I went to the coin locker place, and asked the guy how long you can leave a bag there, was 5 days ok? He said it was fine, so I put the bag in a locker (had to struggle to make it fit, I wasn’t going to pay the extra $1 to get a bigger locker!). The way it works is you pay the first day when you deposit the bag, then you pay whats owing when you come and get your luggage. So I paid for the first day. I then went all chatted to the girls at the information desk, and they then told me that its a max of three days for the lockers – after that they make you pay heaps of money to get your bag back. Bah! I had to go back and get my bag, and take it with me to the next place. Put it in a locker at the station when I got here, so I didn’t have to lug it to my accommodation, but still had to get it in and off the trains, very annoying!

Kagoshima

Kagoshima

In Beppu, the capital of hot springs in Japan, I spent my first day wandering around, attempting to keep out of the sun. While strolling down the main street, I noticed an ATM that would accept my card, and thought I may as well get some money out as backup. Big mistake – half an hour later, after many “discussions” with the guys at the bank, my credit card had been frozen, and it appeared they had $500 of my money. The rest of the night was spent on internet chat to Australia trying to sort it out. Appears to be sorted out now, but was not fun! Whilst in Beppu, I also went to a hot sand bath (in an attempt to relax after the credit card dramas). Amazing! You put on a cotton yukata (summer kimono), and then lie down in the hot black sand whilst they shovel hot sand over your body. The feeling is amazing. Afterwards, you wash yourself off and soak in a big onsen bath.  My second night was spent in fear – put a bunch of drunk foreigners together with a big bag of fireworks, and what do you think is going to happen?  We’re just lucky that the rain dealt with most of the blow from the crackers.

Fireworks in Beppu

Fireworks in Beppu

From Beppu it was down to Kagoshima, one of the most south points (other than the islands) that you can go in Japan.  My first day was spent in agony – the trip was 6 hours of changing trains, and as it is the Obon holiday, tickets were sold out in most carriages.  As a result, I ended up in a smoking carriage – couple that with the 3 hours of sleep I had the night before, and the copious amounts of Japanese sake and shochu I drank the night before (FREE, it was free!), I was a sorry sight by the time I made it to Kagoshima.  Luckily I had the foresight to book a hotel rather than a hostel, and spent a good majority of my time asleep in my hotel room…

My last night in Japan was spent at a buddhist temple – an unbelievable experience.  After checkin, I wandered about the neighbouring mossy antique cemetery - with an estimated 500,000 graves.  Dinner was at 5.30pm, with an 8pm lights out!  With a wake-up bell at 5.30am, the early bedtime was just as well.  The next day was spent traveling to get back to the airport (with a few pre-planned stops for souvineer shopping :) ).

Once again, my travels in Japan are over, but have no fear, I’ll be back again!

Sun setting on my holiday

Sun setting on my holiday

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01
Apr
Running wild in Agra
Baobei
Asia ~ India ~ Agra & Varanasi

Hey guys, how is everyone? We’re starting to get ready for Beijing (gunna be cold there, brrr). But before we go, wanted to do a quick update… In the last couple of days we have been to some of the most well known spots in India… First stop was Fatepur Sikri, which is a castle built in the middle of nowhere. The maharaja of the area built it for his 3 wives. It was pretty awesome looking around, we were shown his bedroom, which was all made from stone. In the middle of the room was a very tall (about 3 metres off the ground) very big (he did have 3 wives!) bed. Apparently, it was so far off the ground because in the summer they would flood the castle, and so the water would come up to just below his bed, thus making it cool enough to sleep. The bedroom was next to the kitchen, so that in the winter he was set as well. Other interesting things abot the castle included the games room (which was set up play hide and seek) and the wives’ quarters. Each had their own areas, the biggest one was allocated to the wife that gave him a son…

On the 26th we visited the Taj Mahal in Agra. Truly impressive. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is basically a tomb. When she died giving birth to their fourteenth child, he was so distraught that he ordered it to be built (with the tax-payers money!). It took 20,000 workers 22 years to finish. The main building was built by digging huge wells and putting wooden supports into them. The building then sits on all these supports, not on the ground. This way, in case of an earthquake, the building wont fall. The whole area is perfectly symetrical, one the left side there is a mosque – on the right side there is an identicle one that cant be used as it is facing the wrong direction, it was built purely to keep everything else in line. All the decorations on the buildings aren’t painted on, they are semi precious and precious stones that have been carved into the marble.

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

While we were taking photos we were approached time and time again by people who wanted to take my photo, its beginning to become a standard thing because of my hair. Finally we had to leave because people were starting to form queues to take photos of my hair. Oops!

The day we visited the Taj Mahal was Holi, the festival that I talked about earlier (where everyone celebrates ‘colour’). Everywhere we looked there were people running about in shirts stained with pink, blue and green! Krish kept us under careful guard so that we didnt get caught up in the festivities! For days afterwards we kept seeing straight faced guys going to work in their business suits, with pink and blue ears and necks!

Saying bye to Krish

Saying bye to Krish

After Agra we caught a 12 hour train to Varansi. Train wasnt too bad, we had our packs on our beds with us though, so there was absolutley no room. Even still, we managed a bit of sleep. In Varansi we saw all of the usual sights, all of the temples and forts. We also went on a river boat, on the river Ganges, totally amazing. We passed all the famous ghats (stairs next to the river). One of the more interesting ones was the cremation ghat, where we saw a couple of cremations taking place. Right in front of everyone they had the fires going, you could see everything. Its just a way of life over here I guess. Anyway, we’re back in Delhi now, roughed the train again, this time we went without air conditioning, we decided we could handle it. Got on the train to find out that our entire area berth was full of foreigners, we had a European couple with us and a couple from New Zealand. Very interesting… That was yesterday, got into our hotel and crashed, didnt wake up tilll 2pm this afternoon, very exhausted!!!

Train to Varanasi

Train to Varanasi

Signing off for now… xo

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24
Mar
Touring Rajasthan
Baobei
Asia ~ India ~ Rajasthan

Well well well, it’s been a hectic couple of weeks. Have been to a million and one temples, forts, castles and mosques. We’ve been touring around the Indian state of Rajasthan, one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. We’ve seen many many beautiful Jain temples, made from marble, very cool on a hot summers day. Of course all the temples have there share of monkeys hanging around. We visited the Amber fort in Jaipur, which was quite impressive. To get to the entrance many people ride elephants (we opted not to, as we had already done the elephant thing in Thailand). Anyway, just getting to the entrance was a feat in itself, walking in between the massive elephants wandering along.

Whilst we were in Udaipur we didnt just go to the standard temples and forts, we also went to Shilpgram, a small crafts village. While there the local girls taught us to dance in traditional Indian style, and we taught them a few western moves!!! They were most impressed with my hair, just as we were impressed with their outfits!

Learning to dance

Learning to dance

We’ve still got Krish driving us around everywhere, thank god we didnt attempt to drive ourselves!!! In a standard day we do about 250 kilometres, which takes about 5 hours, if we’re lucky. Some of the things Krish has to deal with include camels loaded with huge amounts of hay, tractors plugging along with mountains of people in the back, children running across the roads without looking twice, goats, busses with people hanging off the sides, motorbikes with entire families (we’re talking 5 or 6 people) and of course the cows. The other day we were stopped by a herd of sheep, the women (all dressed in their sarees) were pushing them along. At the back of the pack was a small group of donkeys, perhaps 10 or 12 of them. The donkeys all had saddle bags on, with 3 or 4 lambs poking their heads out of the top of each one!

Sharing the road

Sharing the road

Prices would be really inexpensive here, if we weren’t eating at resturants every night. Krish is convinced that we’ll die or be harrassed if we step out with the general public, so its strictly hotel resturants for us. He said the other day that we might be able to go to McDonalds later. Hmmm. But to give you an idea, a bottle of pepsi costs 7 rupees, thats under 30 cents. Water is our biggest expense, we go through about 6 or 7 bottles a day (even more if the days temples involve climbing millions of steps!) Food is fantastic though, we have discovered a dish called paneer butter masala, its basically vegetarian butter chicken, with cottage cheese instead of chicken. Visiting the food markets is really interesting, so many different colours and smells, fruit and monkeys everywhere!

Something that has really surprised me is all the women wearing traditional dress. It is very uncommon to see a woman wearing western clothing, the saree has to be one of the most beautiful costumes. The women wear many many colours, often depending on what region you’re in. Bright oranges, pinks, yellows, greens, nothing is too strong! Tash and I had punjabi suits made, so we can *attempt* to fit in, they’re great, really comfy.

Well, better run, about to go sneak out of the hotel to find some real food. Hopefully our driver hasn’t got someone watching the door (he’s done it before!)

xo Bobs

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