Since I had unlimited rail system access, I could travel back across the country to Fukuoka, where I had already passed and would be heading again to catch the ferry to Korea in a week. There, I met up with the Virginias again, and we partied like it was our job. The next day, I think I may have had the worst headache of my life, but we were all so zombied out from the prior evening that I probably laughed more that day than any other time in my life as well. I'm talking tears. Everything was so funny, even though it hurt to laugh. Come the next morning at 6am, we cabbed to an arena and were 2nd in a line with our hotel blankets. Once it opened, we bought our tickets and went back to sleep.
Later that day, we headed back over to that arena. The tickets we had bought, the reasons we were in Fukuoka, were the sumos. It was the final day of the sumo festival that occurs 4 times a year, each one lasting 15 days. This was wicked. We had a full day of watching these huge babies in diapers, from the lowest ranking to finally the Yokozunas (top guys with the most time allowed for intimidation). Learnt a lot about the rules, the history, the ranking system, and the current condition of the sport...ask me if you wanna hear about it! One interesting thing about it is that there is actually a drop of several feet around the sumo stage, that is relatively small to begin with (compared to the fighters) and the crowd seating begins just a few feet away from the stage. People were getting trampled by rolling fat naked men left and right, but nobody seemed to care. Doesn't that hurt? That night we hit a bar and some of the sumos showed up for drinks. Also, the dancefloor was cleared eventually for some breakdancing crews to perform. I headed back to Nagoya the next day.
I left Les & Sarah's place the following day to check out Kyoto. First thing I did, which I thought would just be a little side activity, was hike up a hill to try to catch a glimpse of some monkeys I had heard about. It turned out the be one of the coolest things I would see in Japan. On my way up, I found one in the grass and watched him for a while, since it could be the only one I'd spot. Once I'd had enough, I continued up to find about 99 more monkeys in the clearing by the tourist feeding house (for feeding monkeys, not tourists). You buy a bag of apples and pass them the pieces through the fence. I help on to one of the pieces as Charlie (or so I named him) grabbed it, and I observed his tiny hands for a while. So human like. I taught him how to catch the pieces I'd toss to him from a few feet away. I was called outside then and the monkey master threw down some monkey seeds or grains or something, and instantly the monkey population doubled as they all swarmed in from the trees. A freezy of fights, flailing and fun ensued. I spent a good hour up there snapping shots. The rest of that day was fairly uneventful, mainly just fighting through the masses, trying to get to the next temple, or to just walk around. Lots of people there for the pretty fall colors. I returned to Kyoto the next day, but this time I stayed in the city. The temples were nice enough during the day, but to my surprise, as soon as it was dark enough, massive lineups were forming. After curiously watching from a distance, I decided to see what all the hype was about and go into one of the temple grounds. Upon entering, I realized immediately that the fuss was all about the colors. The lights turned on at night and the tress were on fire. Bright orange, red and yellow everywhere. Majestic ponds with statue centerpieces reflected these images seamlessly, and of course the grounds were spotted with temples and other things. Way cooler than during the day. I walked for a while longer and then headed back.
I said my 3rd and final see-yas to Les and Sarah and thanked them for letting me freeload for a total of over a week, and I set off for Hiroshima. All of the bomb related stuff was within one area, the Peace Park, which used to be a busy section of town but was the hardest hit by the bomb. To be completely honest, this was the first time I'd even been in a museum where I was just as alert and aware when I left as when I had arrived. I think I read every single piece of english text in the place. I even rented an english audio guide. The museums, memorials, and the actual ground zero were all very captivating, although at times slightly disturbing, due to the graphic posters and wax statues. There were 4 photos taken minutes after the bomb went off, until the photographer couldn't stomach it any longer. It definitely served its purpose. I made sure to stick out my bag with the canadian flag on it, to avoid the dirty looks that I was certain would be shot my way, but it turns out that wasn't the vibe at all. In none of the exhibits was there really any blame placed anywhere, just unbiased facts. I spent the rest of that day again in a cool hostel, making friends, playing ugitar, and sharing stories. The next morning I bussed back to Fukuoka and rode a highspeed hydrofoil boat across the sea to Korea.
Other interesting stuff about Japan -->
-The Metro employees who's job it is to cram the last people onto the Tokyo subways before the doors close.
-The Japanime porno comics at the convenience stores. I call it Japornime.
-The ease of getting addicted to coffee. I drank more coffee in Japan that any other time in my life.
-The abundance of men in suits and women in miniskirts, no matter the weather.
-The obligation to drink with your boss, no matter what your situation is at home and how long he wants to drink for.
Mike
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Japan, Part 2 of 3
Going into Tokyo on the train from the west, you get a pretty great view of Mt Fuji. I did not expect it....seems kind of surreal thinking bacck on it now because I was half asleep. Anyway, I had had the idea of checking concert listings for Tokyo before going and this turned out to be one of my better ideas, because to my surprise, Billy Joel was playing at the Tokyo Dome the night of my arrival. Just him & his supporting band. No way there would be tickets left. Sarah had heard that you could buy concert tickets @ the 7/11. She took me to the 7/11 near their place in Nagoya. After much trial & error, and the clerk ultimately coming to our rescue, we figured out that there indeed some nose-bleed section seats left! I managed to buy one by credit card. A 3 hour train ride later, some scrambling for luggage storage at the Tokyo Metro Station, and I found myself in a sea of Japanese B.J. fans, inching my way to my seat down yonder. The show kicked arse. His encore songs were my 3 favorite too. Not much movement on the part of the crowd, other than my section in which there happened to be lots of foreigners belting out the lyrics. No cameras allowed apparently, as I was reprimanded for shooting some footage, but the memory of the show is still pertty vidid regardless.
Afterwards, I retreived my bag and caught a subway to "Electric City" where I had booked a room. I made a mental note of the rollercoaster outside the Tokyo Dome. After some help from the hotel crek via payphone, I finally found the Athabasca Capsule Inn. It's called a capsule inn because you sleep in a 1 person pod with a tv and a draw curtain for the hole you came in through. You leave your bags and clothing in the lockers downstairs. I was in a room with 29 other capsules, and there were 4 floors of this, men only. These places were intended for business men who couldn't return home that night for 1 reason or another, usually because they had to get plastered with their boss. At first, women weren't allowed, but since the capsule inn's have gained popularity, some now have special floors reserved for women, as did this one. So, 7 floors of capsules total. There was also a bathhouse style bathroom with a hottub. I stayed 2 nights, not because I enjoyed the place that much, but because I couldn't be bothered to track down another hostel. I regret this now because, for one, the capsule inn, counterintuitevly, was very pricey (but in Tokyo, what isn't), but also I would have liked to stay in a Ryakan, a traditional Japanese hotel. I will try to track one down in Vancvouer when I'm back in Canada.
Anyway for the next 2 full days, I explored different must see spots, like the famous intersection you see in movies where if you were to look a building above, you would be hard pressed to see any pavement beneath you. I also checked out a palace with a swedish dude I met at the Starbucks, then the Tokyo Tower (just at sunset, so I caught the daytime view, then got to enjoy the nighttime view again --> best time to go to these places in my opinion). I yet again enjoyed good music, like a Japanese easy rock duo in the tower, and an amazing jazz trio in the street. Not only is the music fantastic, but people there really appreciate it. They were dancing and shouting along with the jazz band.
The next day, I crossed paths with one of those munks who chime a bell and take 1 careful, calculated step at a time down the busy Tokyo sidewalks, in a straight line amidst the hurried people heading every which way. This was featured in the movie "Baraka", if anyone has seen it. I gave him some $ after watching him for a good 5 minutes.
Travelling around Japan, you notice and hear about a lot of crazy stuff. One such thing, one that I failed to witness, was a gathering of young people every Sunday in a certain part of Tokyo, who all dress up like Japanimation characters. Apparently the realism is astounding, and they walk around the streets. They also meet up in a park and just chase each other around, my guess is its for the tourists. Give it a gander on YouTube.
The 2nd morning of my visit, I forced myself out of bed at 4:30AM and dragged my ass to the fish market to catch the early morning hustle and bustle of the seafood sales. It trully is a madhouse, interlaced with streams of tourists. Kind of funny to complain about tourists when I'm one of them, but I try not to interfere too much at least. I had been told to try a sushi breakfast at 1 specific restaurant right on the fish market grounds. It was the most popular one, but apparently worth the wait. Standing in line, I met an Aussie couple, and the guy didn't want to try the raw fish, so he took a stroll and I hung out with the girl while we ated and eventually dined. The sushi bar only sat about 10 people, so it was tight, but the food was inredible. They serve it to you right on the wooden counters. We got an 11 piece set of fish that had only travelled a few meters from where it was actioned off. That's fresh. So fresh in fact, the he slapped down a piece of surf clam in front of us and said "Still arrrrivvveee!". He meant "Still alive", we realized as the piece curled its up tentacles towards us.
Coincidentally, after parting with her, I went for a walk in that Electric City section of Tokyo, thus called because of its endless supply of multi storey electronic stores selling the same stuff, and i ran into the girls boyfriend. In a city of over 12 million people, I ran into the same guy twice in 2 totally different parts of town. So we hung out for a while looking for the outdoor store section.
I caught a quick pint at an Irish pub for a little taste of home, and then had to leave to catch my train back to Nagoya, but not before riding that rollercoaster I had promised myself I'd conquer. It went up to the tops of the buildings, THROUGH a hole at the top of one of them, and dropped back down, a couple of times over. Glorious. I was the only one screaming out of my group of 8 year olds.
Japan to be continued...
Mike
Afterwards, I retreived my bag and caught a subway to "Electric City" where I had booked a room. I made a mental note of the rollercoaster outside the Tokyo Dome. After some help from the hotel crek via payphone, I finally found the Athabasca Capsule Inn. It's called a capsule inn because you sleep in a 1 person pod with a tv and a draw curtain for the hole you came in through. You leave your bags and clothing in the lockers downstairs. I was in a room with 29 other capsules, and there were 4 floors of this, men only. These places were intended for business men who couldn't return home that night for 1 reason or another, usually because they had to get plastered with their boss. At first, women weren't allowed, but since the capsule inn's have gained popularity, some now have special floors reserved for women, as did this one. So, 7 floors of capsules total. There was also a bathhouse style bathroom with a hottub. I stayed 2 nights, not because I enjoyed the place that much, but because I couldn't be bothered to track down another hostel. I regret this now because, for one, the capsule inn, counterintuitevly, was very pricey (but in Tokyo, what isn't), but also I would have liked to stay in a Ryakan, a traditional Japanese hotel. I will try to track one down in Vancvouer when I'm back in Canada.
Anyway for the next 2 full days, I explored different must see spots, like the famous intersection you see in movies where if you were to look a building above, you would be hard pressed to see any pavement beneath you. I also checked out a palace with a swedish dude I met at the Starbucks, then the Tokyo Tower (just at sunset, so I caught the daytime view, then got to enjoy the nighttime view again --> best time to go to these places in my opinion). I yet again enjoyed good music, like a Japanese easy rock duo in the tower, and an amazing jazz trio in the street. Not only is the music fantastic, but people there really appreciate it. They were dancing and shouting along with the jazz band.
The next day, I crossed paths with one of those munks who chime a bell and take 1 careful, calculated step at a time down the busy Tokyo sidewalks, in a straight line amidst the hurried people heading every which way. This was featured in the movie "Baraka", if anyone has seen it. I gave him some $ after watching him for a good 5 minutes.
Travelling around Japan, you notice and hear about a lot of crazy stuff. One such thing, one that I failed to witness, was a gathering of young people every Sunday in a certain part of Tokyo, who all dress up like Japanimation characters. Apparently the realism is astounding, and they walk around the streets. They also meet up in a park and just chase each other around, my guess is its for the tourists. Give it a gander on YouTube.
The 2nd morning of my visit, I forced myself out of bed at 4:30AM and dragged my ass to the fish market to catch the early morning hustle and bustle of the seafood sales. It trully is a madhouse, interlaced with streams of tourists. Kind of funny to complain about tourists when I'm one of them, but I try not to interfere too much at least. I had been told to try a sushi breakfast at 1 specific restaurant right on the fish market grounds. It was the most popular one, but apparently worth the wait. Standing in line, I met an Aussie couple, and the guy didn't want to try the raw fish, so he took a stroll and I hung out with the girl while we ated and eventually dined. The sushi bar only sat about 10 people, so it was tight, but the food was inredible. They serve it to you right on the wooden counters. We got an 11 piece set of fish that had only travelled a few meters from where it was actioned off. That's fresh. So fresh in fact, the he slapped down a piece of surf clam in front of us and said "Still arrrrivvveee!". He meant "Still alive", we realized as the piece curled its up tentacles towards us.
Coincidentally, after parting with her, I went for a walk in that Electric City section of Tokyo, thus called because of its endless supply of multi storey electronic stores selling the same stuff, and i ran into the girls boyfriend. In a city of over 12 million people, I ran into the same guy twice in 2 totally different parts of town. So we hung out for a while looking for the outdoor store section.
I caught a quick pint at an Irish pub for a little taste of home, and then had to leave to catch my train back to Nagoya, but not before riding that rollercoaster I had promised myself I'd conquer. It went up to the tops of the buildings, THROUGH a hole at the top of one of them, and dropped back down, a couple of times over. Glorious. I was the only one screaming out of my group of 8 year olds.
Japan to be continued...
Mike
Japan, Part 1 of 3
Sam, my couchsurfing host and new friend, was kind enough to drive me to the international airport in the very wee hours of the morning, where I caught a flight to Naha, Okinawa. Okinawa is a cluster of Japanese islands between Taiwan & Japanaland. The original plan was to take the 4 day ferry from Taiwan all the way to Kagoshima, Japan, but soaring fuel costs forced the only ferry company into bankruptcy, so the compromise was to fly halfway and boat from there. I arrived in Japan and was greeted with posters warning me against drugs, weapons and pornography. After they confiscated my drugs, weapons, and pornography, they went on to take away the sandwich I was saving, which was given to me on the plane, ironically. I got some hostel info from a japanese girl at the info counter who had spent a few years in Banff, Alberta, and I set out into Japan. The hostels all seemed way too expensive (Okinawa is a very touristy area, as I discovered) so I asked a pair of girl travellers on the train (1 from england, 1 from sweden) if they knew of a cheap hostel, and we ended up spending the day together finding the hostel, hanging out on the beach, going to my first "Hotto Motto" (Japanese fast food chain) and legit Ramen noodle place, and learning some japanese numbers. The hostel turned out to be the sweetest one I'd ever stayed in --- $10 USD a night got you a bed, free internet, free laundry, free bikes, guitars, djembes, a dozens different spots to hang out in on comfy cushions, and a ton of people to hang out on them with. That evening, we got into a serious guitar sing-along. With access to the internet, the lyrics were flowing. At 2am, I found myself heading to a Kareoke room with one of my new friends. We belted out some Spin Doctors, Hanson, Bon Jovi, the list goes on... We also put a major dent in Japan's beer supply. These kareoke places are private kareoke rooms, so we have our own kareoke machine, comfy couches, and a phone to order more beer. Eventually 6AM rolled around and I had to be at the docks to catch my ferry, which I was looking forward to, because I could sleep for 25 hours straight. I staggered home, packed my bags, but upon arriving at the terminal, I found out that they did not accept credit card, nor were there any ATMs open in the city until 8am, and maybe in all of Japan for that matter. An exploratory cab ride that I could not pay for in the end proved this true. I missed my ferry, then couldn't find the hostel that I had come from. The hangover set in. After an hour long walk around, I finally found the place, somebody saved me from sleeping in the hallway and let me back into my room.
I woke up an hour after check out time, with a pretty solid headache on and no money to pay for this extra day I'd be spending here. I set out to find a bank machine from which I could withdraw funds, absurdly thirty and hungry, and discovered that the only ATM that would work for me, the guy with the foreign bank account, would be the Japan Post machine. I found this out after trying every other bank machine, of course. I now had money. I drank enough water to drown a whale. I spent most of that day chilling at the hostel because there was so much to do there, but interrupted that with a walk in the late afternoon around a hilltop castle, where I met some nice ducks, a cat, a turtle and some fish.
I'll speed this up a little now because at this pace, I'll be writing a novel on my 3 weeks in Japan. So, the next morning I finally caught the 25 hour ferry to Kagoshima. 'The Last Samurai' dude comes from here, not Tom Cruise but the other guy, and not the actor but the character. On the ferry, nobody spoke a word of english except for the one creepy drunk japanese guy who I kept catching staring at me with his head peering around the corner, and I'd have to pretend I was asleep to avoid him.
I arrived at 7 the next morning to find Virginia, a friend from back home who was teaching english in Japan, waiting for me at the terminal. Awwwwww. I stayed with her for 4 or 5 days, during which time I was further initiated into the Japanese lifestyle through shopping malls riddled with xmas sales, amazing restaurants, a freezing foggy hike along a volcanicaly active mountain ridge, some "onsens" (hotsprings), and a bike around an island who's centerpiece was another active volcano. The school kids on that island wore hard hats for protection from flying debris, and there were busstop style shelters in case of a major eruption. Lava flow tenches revealed solidified magma, which was very cool. I finished that day in a hotspring that doubled as a buddhist temple. So I was sitting there in the water robe they give you, surrounded by japanese men and woman, in this lagoon style place under huge outstretched trees, surrounded by rocks down a cliffside, seperated from the ocean by not more that 2 feet of stacked stones (you could lay back with your hand in the ocean and your body in the warm water...pure awesomeness), all the while people worshipping in front of the statue and candles carefully placed under one of the trees. Pretty cool stuff. The outdoor mall also had a foot massage hot water trench...almost as cool.
I said my temporary goodbyes to Virginia and her friends, who I had had an awesome time with, I activited my JR pass, which gave me unlimited access to their train system for 2 weeks, including their famous highspeed 'Shinkansen' trains, and I headed up to Nagoya to meet up with Les and Sarah, 2 more friends from back home. I had a great time staying with them for another 4 or 5 days. They introduced me to the game Jungle Speed. Check it out, you will never be the same. Nagoya is fairly central, so I was able to check out nearby places during the day too and head back to stay with them at night. Japan can get pretty pricy, so this helped me quite a bit. I rented a jam space with Les, Sarah made all sorts of awesome Japanese dishes, I also ate at great restaurants, and went on a couple of hikes.
Also, I happened to be there on a weekend and as I walked around to explore a bit, I stumbled upon lots of outdoor concerts. I ended up hoping from show to show. Started of with a Japanese Idol type guy on a stage in an outdoor mall, then I caught the end of a punk show with 10 bands playing 3 songs each, then on to a punk and funk type show that was just starting and went on for a good couple of hours. I was realizing that there was tons of good Japanese music in Japan....go figure! Also noticed that skateboarding, bmx-ing and breakdancing were all over the streets here at night.
I then headed to Tokyo for a brief stay.....
Mike
I woke up an hour after check out time, with a pretty solid headache on and no money to pay for this extra day I'd be spending here. I set out to find a bank machine from which I could withdraw funds, absurdly thirty and hungry, and discovered that the only ATM that would work for me, the guy with the foreign bank account, would be the Japan Post machine. I found this out after trying every other bank machine, of course. I now had money. I drank enough water to drown a whale. I spent most of that day chilling at the hostel because there was so much to do there, but interrupted that with a walk in the late afternoon around a hilltop castle, where I met some nice ducks, a cat, a turtle and some fish.
I'll speed this up a little now because at this pace, I'll be writing a novel on my 3 weeks in Japan. So, the next morning I finally caught the 25 hour ferry to Kagoshima. 'The Last Samurai' dude comes from here, not Tom Cruise but the other guy, and not the actor but the character. On the ferry, nobody spoke a word of english except for the one creepy drunk japanese guy who I kept catching staring at me with his head peering around the corner, and I'd have to pretend I was asleep to avoid him.
I arrived at 7 the next morning to find Virginia, a friend from back home who was teaching english in Japan, waiting for me at the terminal. Awwwwww. I stayed with her for 4 or 5 days, during which time I was further initiated into the Japanese lifestyle through shopping malls riddled with xmas sales, amazing restaurants, a freezing foggy hike along a volcanicaly active mountain ridge, some "onsens" (hotsprings), and a bike around an island who's centerpiece was another active volcano. The school kids on that island wore hard hats for protection from flying debris, and there were busstop style shelters in case of a major eruption. Lava flow tenches revealed solidified magma, which was very cool. I finished that day in a hotspring that doubled as a buddhist temple. So I was sitting there in the water robe they give you, surrounded by japanese men and woman, in this lagoon style place under huge outstretched trees, surrounded by rocks down a cliffside, seperated from the ocean by not more that 2 feet of stacked stones (you could lay back with your hand in the ocean and your body in the warm water...pure awesomeness), all the while people worshipping in front of the statue and candles carefully placed under one of the trees. Pretty cool stuff. The outdoor mall also had a foot massage hot water trench...almost as cool.
I said my temporary goodbyes to Virginia and her friends, who I had had an awesome time with, I activited my JR pass, which gave me unlimited access to their train system for 2 weeks, including their famous highspeed 'Shinkansen' trains, and I headed up to Nagoya to meet up with Les and Sarah, 2 more friends from back home. I had a great time staying with them for another 4 or 5 days. They introduced me to the game Jungle Speed. Check it out, you will never be the same. Nagoya is fairly central, so I was able to check out nearby places during the day too and head back to stay with them at night. Japan can get pretty pricy, so this helped me quite a bit. I rented a jam space with Les, Sarah made all sorts of awesome Japanese dishes, I also ate at great restaurants, and went on a couple of hikes.
Also, I happened to be there on a weekend and as I walked around to explore a bit, I stumbled upon lots of outdoor concerts. I ended up hoping from show to show. Started of with a Japanese Idol type guy on a stage in an outdoor mall, then I caught the end of a punk show with 10 bands playing 3 songs each, then on to a punk and funk type show that was just starting and went on for a good couple of hours. I was realizing that there was tons of good Japanese music in Japan....go figure! Also noticed that skateboarding, bmx-ing and breakdancing were all over the streets here at night.
I then headed to Tokyo for a brief stay.....
Mike
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Taiwan, Part Deux
After these 2 nights in Kenting, I made my way up the east coast to a town called Hualien, meeting along the way some interesting tea enthousiast graphic designers from Czech Republic. My plan was to bus up into the mountains in Taroko National Park, apparently one of the most scenic places in Taiwan, but upon arriving there found out that the road would be closed for a marathon the next day, and the last bus already left. It was taxi or nothing, so i forked over the cash (some taiwanese guys helped me find the best deal) and after a long and pricy taxy ride, checked into a hostel up in the moutains, where I shared a room with a French guy doing almost the exact same trip as me but in reverse, so we exchanged advice on where to go. I realized that to make it to Taipei when I wanted to, I would have to get up super early the next day and hike back down to the park entrance with the marathoners.
I slept through my alarm. Good start. Did a 2 hour waterfall trail first that takes you through tunnels actually carved into the moutains under some of the waterfalls, and releases you to spectacular Jurassic Park style views. Absolutely beautiful. I then collected my full pack and started the walk down, with a few thumbs up and words of encouragement from the runners and volunteers. Made me wonder what I was getting myself into. Turned out to not be a 3 hour hike like I was told, but rather a 5 - 6 hour hike, at a fast pace, in the rain no less, and with cheap chinese shoes that fell apart half way down, but not before doing a number on my footsies. But the entire thing is along a very steep V shaped gorge, and the whole thing is like one long scenic lookout. Also, lots of suspension bridges, and I really dig suspension bridges. Finally made it down, after a few spider run ins (signs warn you about venoumous spiders, poisonous snakes, and killer bees), and made it to Tapei eventually by train.
Now, I had been dying to try out this Couchsurfing thing, which for those of you that don't know it, is an online network of people that offer up their couch or a spare room for travellers to crash on for free. They either love showing off their city, love having company, or just love supporting travellers because they were or will be travelling themselves. I had finally gotten someone to accept me, a bearded scraggly looking bloke by this point, who had no prior references to ensure them he wasn't a psycho. Daphnee was willing to take me in. So we arranged a meeting spot at Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world. She picked me up and wisked me away on her scooter to another building. Turns out, I happened to arrive on a night of a Taipei couchsurfers party, and it happened to be on the rooftop of a luxury apartment building where a wealthy couchsurfer was renting an apartment for a month, and the roof happened to have an incredible view of Taipei 101 with it's own little cloud hovering over it amidst an otherless cloudless sky. Wish my camera battery hadn't died, cause it would have probably made for one of the greatest pictures ever taken, EVER. So I met pretty much all the couchsurfing hosts, and decided right then to stay in Taipei for 5 days. When we got back to her place, she had a japanese style guestroom for me, gave me a key to her place, had printed directions for me to get back there, and even left me breakfast every morning before she left for work! I got to try all sorts of traditional Taiwanese foods with her, like vinegar style tea. She grew up in Taiwan but had done much travelling and studying abroad, so she spoke very good english, and french as well. So the next day she took me sightseeing, and when she wasn't available to take me around, she arranged for her friends to take over! Saw temples and shrines, one at the top of a moutain, participated in the worshipping at a doist temple, went to many great restaurants, raced swan boats on the river with the whole group of couchsurfers again, went to "snake alley" where I tried snake soup and a shot of alcohol/snake blood with my taiwanese guide, with whom I struck a deal that I'd only try it if she tried it with me.
The coolest thing for me was when the girls brought me to a hidden hot spring a little outside of Taipei. down a small trail, by a river, surrounded by huge mountains, with a cool moonglow to it because this was 11 pm. Sat in the different temperatures of the most legit hot springs I've ever been to, being the only foreigner for miles and miles, it felt like. I realized that people actually use some of the pools as a communal bath when they don't have their own shower/bath facilities at home.
One of Daphnees friends, Samantha, offered to let me stay at her place that night, which was my last night in Taipei, so that she could drive me to the airport the next morning for my 6am flight! Unbelievable hospitality. Her husband is an IronMan competitor and told me of a route where you can bike in a circle around the whole country of Taiwan in only 11 days. Might look into that later on.
The main thing I retained from my time in Taipei though was that after couchsurfing, you end up being real friends with these people and often with their friends as well, and I realized how awesome of a concept couchsurfing was. I was addicted. Anyhoo, the next morning I was off to Japan...
Mike
I slept through my alarm. Good start. Did a 2 hour waterfall trail first that takes you through tunnels actually carved into the moutains under some of the waterfalls, and releases you to spectacular Jurassic Park style views. Absolutely beautiful. I then collected my full pack and started the walk down, with a few thumbs up and words of encouragement from the runners and volunteers. Made me wonder what I was getting myself into. Turned out to not be a 3 hour hike like I was told, but rather a 5 - 6 hour hike, at a fast pace, in the rain no less, and with cheap chinese shoes that fell apart half way down, but not before doing a number on my footsies. But the entire thing is along a very steep V shaped gorge, and the whole thing is like one long scenic lookout. Also, lots of suspension bridges, and I really dig suspension bridges. Finally made it down, after a few spider run ins (signs warn you about venoumous spiders, poisonous snakes, and killer bees), and made it to Tapei eventually by train.
Now, I had been dying to try out this Couchsurfing thing, which for those of you that don't know it, is an online network of people that offer up their couch or a spare room for travellers to crash on for free. They either love showing off their city, love having company, or just love supporting travellers because they were or will be travelling themselves. I had finally gotten someone to accept me, a bearded scraggly looking bloke by this point, who had no prior references to ensure them he wasn't a psycho. Daphnee was willing to take me in. So we arranged a meeting spot at Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world. She picked me up and wisked me away on her scooter to another building. Turns out, I happened to arrive on a night of a Taipei couchsurfers party, and it happened to be on the rooftop of a luxury apartment building where a wealthy couchsurfer was renting an apartment for a month, and the roof happened to have an incredible view of Taipei 101 with it's own little cloud hovering over it amidst an otherless cloudless sky. Wish my camera battery hadn't died, cause it would have probably made for one of the greatest pictures ever taken, EVER. So I met pretty much all the couchsurfing hosts, and decided right then to stay in Taipei for 5 days. When we got back to her place, she had a japanese style guestroom for me, gave me a key to her place, had printed directions for me to get back there, and even left me breakfast every morning before she left for work! I got to try all sorts of traditional Taiwanese foods with her, like vinegar style tea. She grew up in Taiwan but had done much travelling and studying abroad, so she spoke very good english, and french as well. So the next day she took me sightseeing, and when she wasn't available to take me around, she arranged for her friends to take over! Saw temples and shrines, one at the top of a moutain, participated in the worshipping at a doist temple, went to many great restaurants, raced swan boats on the river with the whole group of couchsurfers again, went to "snake alley" where I tried snake soup and a shot of alcohol/snake blood with my taiwanese guide, with whom I struck a deal that I'd only try it if she tried it with me.
The coolest thing for me was when the girls brought me to a hidden hot spring a little outside of Taipei. down a small trail, by a river, surrounded by huge mountains, with a cool moonglow to it because this was 11 pm. Sat in the different temperatures of the most legit hot springs I've ever been to, being the only foreigner for miles and miles, it felt like. I realized that people actually use some of the pools as a communal bath when they don't have their own shower/bath facilities at home.
One of Daphnees friends, Samantha, offered to let me stay at her place that night, which was my last night in Taipei, so that she could drive me to the airport the next morning for my 6am flight! Unbelievable hospitality. Her husband is an IronMan competitor and told me of a route where you can bike in a circle around the whole country of Taiwan in only 11 days. Might look into that later on.
The main thing I retained from my time in Taipei though was that after couchsurfing, you end up being real friends with these people and often with their friends as well, and I realized how awesome of a concept couchsurfing was. I was addicted. Anyhoo, the next morning I was off to Japan...
Mike
Friday, December 19, 2008
Taiwan Part 1
Hi everyone,
Where to begin. I think I'll break this into several segments so its not too long. I can see this getting pretty long if I don't keep myself in check. I'll start with Taiwan, and this will go with the pictures that are now up on the facebook part of the blog.
So in the last blog, Kyle and I were just arriving in Tainan, Taiwan. We were newbies with no contacts so the first thing we did was check into a hotel. The second thing was head to the bar. The Armory is a well known place amongst the foreigners (even featured in the Lonely Planet on Taiwan I believe) and we had heard that from meeting people there, including the owner, everything else would fall into place. It did. Took no time to meet a ton of people and get involved in the sports and game nights that are pretty plentiful around here. After 4 or 5 days, Kyle and I found a 3 bedroom apartment for about 7000 New Taiwan Dollars, which is roughly 300 Canadian dollars a month! Pretty sweet location too. So we moved in started to settle. We rented scooters and checked out the area, including a beach nearby, and just kinda hung out for a while.
We knew if we wanted to stay longer than 30 days we would have to leave the country to pick up a visa eventually. With this in mind, and since I already wanted to check out these countries, I decided one night that I would make a 'side trip' to Japan and South Korea before coming back to teach for a while. There was a really big soccer tournament coming up that Kyle wanted to stay for (I'll let him tell about that), so it would be the first time I break off to travel alone. I also decided that before I flew out of Taiwan it would be fun to do a quick weeklong tour of the perimeter of the country. I met a Taiwanese family who helped me plan out my itinerary, and the next day I left.
I caught a train up north a little and hired a van to take me up to a small town in the moutains called Alishan that is famous for it's sunsets. Met a budhist munk (or nun?) along the way who gave me a bagged lunch for having helped her load her boxes into the van, which I thought was very cool. Did some hiking there amongst the ancient temples and massive 1000 - 2000 year old trees for a few days, amazing mountain views all around, and got up at 4:30am to catch the train to the summit for the sunrise, that is supposedly the fastest in the world (only a few seconds to clear the horizon). There's also often a sea of clouds covering the valley, making it even more picturesque. Some of my favorite shots from this trip were taken up there.
I headed back and bused, trained, taxied all the way back to the southern tip of Taiwan, to a beach city called Kenting (took the wrong train and ended up on a subway type run that lasted 3 hours longer than expected). Arrived at 9:30pm with no hotel, and to my surprise, thousands of school kids flooded the streets, celebrating a holiday that I happened to arrive on. Found a cheap place and crashed for the night. Next day, rented a scooter, rode around on mountain trails (have to go back to try a hiking trail where you can mingle with wild monkeys), and settled on a beach for a while.
I met a Taiwanese woman who studied abroad (actually now lived in Spain) and she treated me to a beer on the beach, as well as invited me to use some of her umbrella shade that you normally have to pay for. Side note...before this, my bag was sitting in the sun, the sun moved, the shade cast by the umbrella touched my bag, and the woman in charge of renting out the parasols instantely came running to collect money from me. Anyway, 2 beers on the beach and a meal later, she decided I was going to be the lucky person to whom she would pay forward all the hospitality she had received throughout her travels in her younger years (not the last time this would happen to me throughout this side-trip either). So she told me to make it back to that same spot for 5pm and she'd drive me to a great hot spring.
I hoped on my scooter and cruised to the south so I could say I walked along the most southern point of Taiwan, and continued on a highway along the other coast that cuts back across to where I was before. A quick dip, and a shirtless bike ride to dry off, and I made it there for 4:59. She drove me to the hotsprings resort about 30 minutes away, complete with every type of water massage you could think of, and the view of the silhouetted mountains in the darkness wasn't so bad either. She covered the quite expensive bill, I realized she was wealthy hehe, and she dropped me back off at my bike. Don't think I even got her name throughout that whole thing. Anyway, I satisfied a craving for western food with pizza at Smokie Joe's (with a big sign on the door that says 'no smoking'), learnt a bit about Taiwan from the bored waitresses since I was the only person there, caught some live music and called it a night.
Mike
PS. Taiwan Part 2 coming soon...
Where to begin. I think I'll break this into several segments so its not too long. I can see this getting pretty long if I don't keep myself in check. I'll start with Taiwan, and this will go with the pictures that are now up on the facebook part of the blog.
So in the last blog, Kyle and I were just arriving in Tainan, Taiwan. We were newbies with no contacts so the first thing we did was check into a hotel. The second thing was head to the bar. The Armory is a well known place amongst the foreigners (even featured in the Lonely Planet on Taiwan I believe) and we had heard that from meeting people there, including the owner, everything else would fall into place. It did. Took no time to meet a ton of people and get involved in the sports and game nights that are pretty plentiful around here. After 4 or 5 days, Kyle and I found a 3 bedroom apartment for about 7000 New Taiwan Dollars, which is roughly 300 Canadian dollars a month! Pretty sweet location too. So we moved in started to settle. We rented scooters and checked out the area, including a beach nearby, and just kinda hung out for a while.
We knew if we wanted to stay longer than 30 days we would have to leave the country to pick up a visa eventually. With this in mind, and since I already wanted to check out these countries, I decided one night that I would make a 'side trip' to Japan and South Korea before coming back to teach for a while. There was a really big soccer tournament coming up that Kyle wanted to stay for (I'll let him tell about that), so it would be the first time I break off to travel alone. I also decided that before I flew out of Taiwan it would be fun to do a quick weeklong tour of the perimeter of the country. I met a Taiwanese family who helped me plan out my itinerary, and the next day I left.
I caught a train up north a little and hired a van to take me up to a small town in the moutains called Alishan that is famous for it's sunsets. Met a budhist munk (or nun?) along the way who gave me a bagged lunch for having helped her load her boxes into the van, which I thought was very cool. Did some hiking there amongst the ancient temples and massive 1000 - 2000 year old trees for a few days, amazing mountain views all around, and got up at 4:30am to catch the train to the summit for the sunrise, that is supposedly the fastest in the world (only a few seconds to clear the horizon). There's also often a sea of clouds covering the valley, making it even more picturesque. Some of my favorite shots from this trip were taken up there.
I headed back and bused, trained, taxied all the way back to the southern tip of Taiwan, to a beach city called Kenting (took the wrong train and ended up on a subway type run that lasted 3 hours longer than expected). Arrived at 9:30pm with no hotel, and to my surprise, thousands of school kids flooded the streets, celebrating a holiday that I happened to arrive on. Found a cheap place and crashed for the night. Next day, rented a scooter, rode around on mountain trails (have to go back to try a hiking trail where you can mingle with wild monkeys), and settled on a beach for a while.
I met a Taiwanese woman who studied abroad (actually now lived in Spain) and she treated me to a beer on the beach, as well as invited me to use some of her umbrella shade that you normally have to pay for. Side note...before this, my bag was sitting in the sun, the sun moved, the shade cast by the umbrella touched my bag, and the woman in charge of renting out the parasols instantely came running to collect money from me. Anyway, 2 beers on the beach and a meal later, she decided I was going to be the lucky person to whom she would pay forward all the hospitality she had received throughout her travels in her younger years (not the last time this would happen to me throughout this side-trip either). So she told me to make it back to that same spot for 5pm and she'd drive me to a great hot spring.
I hoped on my scooter and cruised to the south so I could say I walked along the most southern point of Taiwan, and continued on a highway along the other coast that cuts back across to where I was before. A quick dip, and a shirtless bike ride to dry off, and I made it there for 4:59. She drove me to the hotsprings resort about 30 minutes away, complete with every type of water massage you could think of, and the view of the silhouetted mountains in the darkness wasn't so bad either. She covered the quite expensive bill, I realized she was wealthy hehe, and she dropped me back off at my bike. Don't think I even got her name throughout that whole thing. Anyway, I satisfied a craving for western food with pizza at Smokie Joe's (with a big sign on the door that says 'no smoking'), learnt a bit about Taiwan from the bored waitresses since I was the only person there, caught some live music and called it a night.
Mike
PS. Taiwan Part 2 coming soon...
Monday, October 20, 2008
One Hong Kong and a Macau later
So the Tree Loose Moose have split up. That's right. It's now Two Loose Moose and a Solo Loose Goose. Justin had a really good setup in Shanghai so he's sticking around there for now and Kyle and I took off on thursday afternoon. Wednesday night we ended that leg of the trip proper with an open mic performance of a few covers and a song we wrote on the trip that has been stuck in all of our heads. "Pretty pretty baby, your not my mommy so don't tell me what to do (what to do)". Then we boarded the overnight train to Hong Kong, and a crazy weekend ensued. Arrived and met a Chilian dude travelling alone, and found a hostel with him...the cheapest one in the book (about $11 CAD a night), on top of a mountain near downtown HK. Hoped in a cab, rode for a bit, only for the cabby to stop at the base of the mountain road that leads to our hostel, saying it is closed (turns out, because of construction the road is closed every weekday from 11 to 6). So we start hiking with our full packs on.....30 minutes later and about 5000 stairs, we walk into reception, the sweaty messes that we were. The view of all of Hong Kong more than made up for it...incredible. We cleaned up and headed back to town about 7pm, jumped into a high speed hydrofoil boat, and an hour later we were in Macau (different 'country'....so had to do the customs thing to get there....FYI Macau was a Portuguese colony so many streets, buildings, etc. have Portuguese names. Hit the first casino...weren't feeling it, so we stumbled upon another, which turned out the be the biggest casino known to man (probably)....an endless maze of chinging, dealing and yelling. Tried my hand at blackjack and was on fire for a while....people betting on my plays. Made up for my loses at the slots, then as we were gearing up to leave, noticed a few Craps tables, and we had heard that these were the best odds in a casino. Got the Chinese attendants to explain it to us, and starting playing alone. Before we knew it, we had a full table, full of people cheering and high fiving each other, and small fortunes were won and lost. I was on the 'lost' side hehe, but still managed to end up by a few bucks, and Kyle won a bunch. By the time the boat landed back in Hong Kong, it was 5 am and we had to sneak back into our hostel under the back gate.
Next day, we hit up a hiking trail about an hour away that we had heard about. Completely amazing views....the "Dragon's Back' trail takes you alone the ridge of a mountain, with a view of the ocean to the right, and a gulf to the left. At the summit, we spotted a beach with massive waves, and decided to try to make it down there. An hour of walking and jogging later, we found an incredibly long set of stairs that took us down to "Big Wave Beach", where we jumped in and body surfed on the gigantor waves, in the dark at this point. Had a beer and headed back.
Later at night, we headed back to town and went up a 45 degree tramway to a famous lookup point, where we could see a different view of the city lit up. Heard about a bar strip, took a cab there, and turns out it's more like a bar neighborhood, with like 200 bars within a couple of blocks, on a really steep hill. Drank among the hundreds/thousands of people until the wee hours of the morning, met a bunch of travellers, got separated from each other, and somehow pulled into the hostel at the same time as the sun was coming up. We went to sleep (in the dorm room with about 38 other beds).
I woke up in the morning, and casually glanced at my watch....it was 12:10. Our flight was leaving from the Hong Kong airport, over an hour away, at 1:45, and we had slept through our 9am alarms. I thought about it for a while...was it worth panicking and trying to make it, or was it a lost cause? Once you put that kind of thing in motion, theres no stopping. Decided we had to try, and it quickly turned into the begining of "Home Alone", bags been stuffed, things being left behind because there was no time. We got there at 1:20, after the most expensive cab ride of my life, and the front desk tells us they don't let you check in after 40 minutes pre flight. So there. She put us on the 3:30 flight and we had time to relax finally.
Later that night, we land in Taipei, go to the visa office, and find out not only did we need to have an onward flight booked from taiwan before they'd let us in, but we also needed to get our visas before arriving. So rather than staying for 2 or 3 months and working, now we must leave the country before 30 days goes by, and get the 'visitor' visa to come back with. The airline helped us out and whippped up an imaginary itinerary to show the customs officials that we had an exit flight booked, which they never even asked for in the end, and a high speed train later put us in Tainan, where we have made a good contact already and are joining a soccer team later this week. Staying in a $15 CAD a night hotel right now and starting the job, apartment, motorcycle, guitar, cell phone, djembe and mandarin lesson hunting process now. Looks like we'll be here for a month, then will hit up Japan before coming back for another month with the proper visa. Oh yes, and throughout all that, Kyle's been walking around with a sprained ankle. AND, they wouldn't let him leave the train station at first, because you need your original ticket to open the exit gates, and he had lost his, and apparently that's a 'big deal' and he would have had to pay for another whole ticket just to open the gate. After like an hour of detainment, I found his ticket that somehow ended up in my pocket, and the security guards let him leave. Ok that's it. More updates to come! And good pictures, lots of them, I swear.
Ciao
Mike
Next day, we hit up a hiking trail about an hour away that we had heard about. Completely amazing views....the "Dragon's Back' trail takes you alone the ridge of a mountain, with a view of the ocean to the right, and a gulf to the left. At the summit, we spotted a beach with massive waves, and decided to try to make it down there. An hour of walking and jogging later, we found an incredibly long set of stairs that took us down to "Big Wave Beach", where we jumped in and body surfed on the gigantor waves, in the dark at this point. Had a beer and headed back.
Later at night, we headed back to town and went up a 45 degree tramway to a famous lookup point, where we could see a different view of the city lit up. Heard about a bar strip, took a cab there, and turns out it's more like a bar neighborhood, with like 200 bars within a couple of blocks, on a really steep hill. Drank among the hundreds/thousands of people until the wee hours of the morning, met a bunch of travellers, got separated from each other, and somehow pulled into the hostel at the same time as the sun was coming up. We went to sleep (in the dorm room with about 38 other beds).
I woke up in the morning, and casually glanced at my watch....it was 12:10. Our flight was leaving from the Hong Kong airport, over an hour away, at 1:45, and we had slept through our 9am alarms. I thought about it for a while...was it worth panicking and trying to make it, or was it a lost cause? Once you put that kind of thing in motion, theres no stopping. Decided we had to try, and it quickly turned into the begining of "Home Alone", bags been stuffed, things being left behind because there was no time. We got there at 1:20, after the most expensive cab ride of my life, and the front desk tells us they don't let you check in after 40 minutes pre flight. So there. She put us on the 3:30 flight and we had time to relax finally.
Later that night, we land in Taipei, go to the visa office, and find out not only did we need to have an onward flight booked from taiwan before they'd let us in, but we also needed to get our visas before arriving. So rather than staying for 2 or 3 months and working, now we must leave the country before 30 days goes by, and get the 'visitor' visa to come back with. The airline helped us out and whippped up an imaginary itinerary to show the customs officials that we had an exit flight booked, which they never even asked for in the end, and a high speed train later put us in Tainan, where we have made a good contact already and are joining a soccer team later this week. Staying in a $15 CAD a night hotel right now and starting the job, apartment, motorcycle, guitar, cell phone, djembe and mandarin lesson hunting process now. Looks like we'll be here for a month, then will hit up Japan before coming back for another month with the proper visa. Oh yes, and throughout all that, Kyle's been walking around with a sprained ankle. AND, they wouldn't let him leave the train station at first, because you need your original ticket to open the exit gates, and he had lost his, and apparently that's a 'big deal' and he would have had to pay for another whole ticket just to open the gate. After like an hour of detainment, I found his ticket that somehow ended up in my pocket, and the security guards let him leave. Ok that's it. More updates to come! And good pictures, lots of them, I swear.
Ciao
Mike
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