Introduction to Thailand – crossing the border from Malaysia. Satun to Krabi

In Krabi town

We took a ferry from Langkawi early in the morning and as soon as we got to Thailand we noticed the difference from Malaysia straight away. First of all, you have to be a lot more weary of people trying to scam you, as we noticed firstly, when the toilet lady tried to short-change Jemma and secondly, when the bus company taking us to Krabi tried to get us to exchange our Malaysian currency with them for an appalling rate. We also noticed that the people seem a lot more lively and open and that the transport system is, well, unlike anything we have come across in the world so far. You basically book a ticket with a travel agent to go to your destination, but you have no idea when or how you will arrive, you just have to put your faith in the people taking you (who often speak very little English) that they will get you to where you want to be. They put a little sticker on you saying the name of your destination and you get carted from one bus to another, on and off of boats, and sometimes, if you don't ask, you may end up being left behind or shifted onto the wrong bus. So this started from the ferry port at Satun, where we were herded onto a little open van, with our rucksacks on top, and taken down a dusty road, to another bus station, where we were told to get off and were then ushered onto another, bigger, but very crowded bus. 

We got seats, but there were people standing an sitting in the aisles, with one woman at one point attempting to change a baby's nappy in the aisle. We had no idea how long the journey would be. The tavel agent in Malaysia had told us 5 hours total for ferry and bus, but as we had now gone past the 5 hours mark, we resigned ourselves to not knowing how long it would take. A few hours later, we finally stopped and lots of people got off, instructions were shouted in Thai that we didn't understand, so we go off too.

What the first bus looked like

 There was then a bit of confusion, with people getting on different buses, but I asked a woman, and showed her my sticker that I had on saying Krabi, and we got on another, less crowded bus. We hoped it would be our last bus and thankfully it was. We arrived in Krabi about 2 hours later and were dropped at a taxi rank in the middle of nowhere, where we had no choice but to pay the taxi driver the asking price to take us to our hotel (£4, which is actually quite a lot for Asia). We told him the name and address of the hotel we had found in Lonely Planet but he dropped us off instead outside his friends hotel and told us it was a very nice hotel. Before we had had chance to realise that this was not the hotel we had asked for, he had driven off and we then had to walk around looking for a hotel. After a while of wandering, we found what looked like an excellent deal – an upmarket hotel, for £5 each, with air con, TV, bathroom etc. It looked lovely. We checked in, relaxed, had a shower and then went out for tea. I did notice a few ants on the bed, but thought a few of them must have come in when we opened the door. We went to the night markets for tea, and when we got back, we noticed that the ants were everywhere. There was an infestation. It was only for one night, so we decided to just grin and bare it but to tell the woman in reception. We went down to tell her and she offered us some spray to kill them with. We didn’t think this was much of a solution so said no. Jemma went back up to the room and I tried to go on the internet in the lobby. I was down there for a while trying to fix our computer that had broken. At about 10pm, Jemma came down saying that it wasn't just ants in the room, she had seen two big cockroaches. I was so glad I hadn’t seen this! I googled the hotel and found lots of similar complaints from past guests, including one who said they had moved out and got a partial re-fund. We went to the desk and asked for the same. She gave us about 10% back, we accepted it, packed our bags and got out of there as fast as we could. Luckily Jemma had earlier spotted a nicer hotel just down the road that had a vacancy. It was slightly more expensive, but it was absolute heaven – one of the nicest hotels we have stayed in on this trip – Orange Tree Inn. It was so nice and we were so revealed to be out of the other flea pit. We relaxed in the room and had a brilliant nights sleep – probably the best I have had on the whole trip.

Our amazing new hotel - exactly as pictured on the advert outside

The next day, we didn't have much planned. We had thought about doing a day trip to Phi Phi island but the reviews online didn’t look good so we thought we'd save it for when we were in Phuket (our next destination). We had a lazy day and ended up taking a little long boat trip up the river to see the mangroves and some ancient caves where they found the remains of early human beings. We walked around Krabi – which doesn't have much to see, other than some monkey traffic lights and a big statue of a crab. At night we had our first Thai curry, which was my first ever Thai curry, and consequently I have now decided I prefer Thai to Indian – it is so creamy and tasty. We booked another night in our lovely hotel and booked tickets through them to go to Phuket the next day to meet up with Jemma's friend Amber from work, who has been travelling around Thailand as long as she can remember and is a Thailand expert. So far my impression of Thailand was that it was a lot more hectic than Malaysia, but the people seem more open and it definitely has more infrastructure, is cleaner and more modern. It also has a lot more Western tourists and you therefore need to be on your guard more with regard to scams. 

Our first longboat trip around Krabi



More Photos of Thailand so far: Thailand photos

Langkawi – tropical Malaysian Island near the bottom of Thailand

The beach by our hostel

We had originally planned to catch a bus straight to Thailand from Penang but we met so many people that told us we must visit Langkawi, so we decided to schedule it into our now, looser-than-ever, itinerary. We woke up early, around 6.45am and took a taxi to the port, where we caught a ferry to Langkawi. Also on the ferry, was a Chinese boy from our hostel in Penang and a girl we had met in KL. The 2 hour ferry ride went quite quickly because I was engrossed in a book about Cambodia called First they Killed my Father, which was recommended to me by one of Lid's friends, is absolutely harrowing and I highly recommend it. When we reached Langkawi, we were waiting to get off the ferry and a baby crawled onto my rucksack so I was playing with it and the parents wanted to take a picture of me with it. What a little cutie!

Malaysian baba

We then took a taxi to a hostel recommended in the Lonely Planet, and also by a girl in Penang. We got there and were greeted by the British owner, and had beans on toast from the bar. It was a really nice chilled out place, but when we went to check out the room, which was only £5 each for a private, I wasn’t very impressed. It was in a little hut and was really pokey and hot. It reminded me of one of the places we stayed in Fiji. I said to Jemma that I wasn't ready for Island life and that I wished I was back in a big city. Roughing it in a beach hut isn't what I came travelling for (although this is what many people want from travelling and I do like beaches to an extent, I just don't like wasting too much time on being a beach bum). So anyway, we told the woman we'd take it, and sat there having our beans on toast with daddy's sauce, and just out of interest I thought I'd google the hostel to see what came up. A host of horror stories appeared, about peoples huts being broken into and the owner and police not caring. I knew as soon as I read this I couldn't stay there. I left Jemma with the things and went off to look at the other hostels near bye. For just £3 more, I found an amazing hotel, with big beds, a TV, air con and a private bathroom. 

Our nice new hotel - better than a beach hut

There was nothing to deliberate over, we were moving. I went back to get Jemma and we sheepishly told the woman we had changed our minds. Luckily no cash had passed hands. We then checked into our new luxury room in the hotel next door and promptly fell asleep in air conditioned bliss. We woke up a couple of hours later just in time for sunset and went for a walk on the beach, where we bumped into the Chinese guy from our last hostel. He let us have a little go on his moped (we were thinking of renting one) but after both having a go, we decided it would not be such a good idea. We then went for dinner with him in one of the many restaurants along the beach and had an ice cream milkshake for desert. He was staying in a beach hut but saw an offer on a hostel that night for £2 for a bed so he decided to switch to that. We were happy in our hotel for £8 a night.

The next day, we decided to go jet skiing, as Jemma has wanted to do it the whole trip but it has always been too expensive. We found somewhere offering 30 mins for £20 so we went off to get cash and had lunch in a western place, before heading back to the beach to try the jet skiing. I really wasn’t too keen on going jet skiing and as we went over to the rental place, we saw a couple who had just come off theirs and all of their valuables had gotten wet and broken (why take an iphone on a jet ski??). They were a bit shaken because the waves had been quite big and the French guy who worked there said we should go a bit later because of the waves. We had to sign a form saying if we died it wasn’t their fault and it we damaged the equipment we'd have to pay. My gut was telling me at this point not to proceed, but Jemma was desperate to have a go, and didn't want to do it without me. So we got on, and Jemma drove first, and we sped along the waves, jumping up in the air at some points, my bum burning on the seat from the engine heat.

Jemma speeding away

 I had a little go too, but it really wasn't for me (I don't like speed), so after about 10 minutes, I got off and swam to the beach whilst Jemma continued, going faster than ever, jumping in the air and standing up. Luckily she made it back in one piece and told me afterwards that she had been a bit worried but didn’t say anything, because she had noticed the oil light flashing the whole time! No wonder my seat was hot! We were also lucky not to get ripped off, because I read on the internet when I got back, that it is very common in Thailand to get scammed for Jet skis: when you come back, they accuse you of damaging them and make you pay out thousands for the repairs. I was so happy we got it out of the way in Malaysia!

We needed to book tickets to get to Thailand in the afternoon, but we were so tired, we went back to the hotel for a little nap and woke up at 7pm to meet the Chinese guy for dinner again, still not having booked anything for Thailand. Neither of us could decide whether or not to stay in Langkawi another day or go to Thailand. In the end I decided we should just go to Thailand, because Langkawi was actually nothing special and the sea was quite dirty. So here I am now, sat on a ferry on the way to Satun in the South West of Thailand, where we will then catch a bus to our next destination, Krabi!

For more pictures: Penang & Langkawi

Penang – food central, Malaysia

Wanton mee

We spent 3 days in Penang, an island in the North West of Malaysia, known mainly for its food. We stayed in a little hostel called Roommates, which was nice, because it was so small you got to know everyone there, but it was also bloody hot because they were tight with the aircon. They took us on a food crawl on the first night, where we tried local dishes, some of which are pictured below. For dessert we had rice balls with peanuts in the middle, in a ginger soup (which actually wasn't that bad).

The next day, we had to get our visas for Thailand sorted, because you only get 15 days if you enter Thailand by road or sea, so we gave our passports to an office down the road, pad them a small fee, and they took them off for us and brought them back with 60 day Thai visas. We also did some laundry at a local laundrette, which was run by a little man in his house down a back alley. I was amazed to get all of our clothes back the next day, neatly pressed, none missing. After this, we went for a walk to find food, but it was so hot, we ended up having to find the mall and cool down in there. We had a burger from McDonald's and then I did something that the guidebook recommends you do whilst travelling the world: have your hair cut by a local hairdresser. I was a little alarmed at first when she showed me a picture of an Asian mullet and asked 'you want layers??' and then tried to sell me various 'special treatments', but I rebutted her requests and ended up with a very nice, freshly cut hairdoo that felt so much cooler than the 5 month mop I have been carrying around. After the mall, we went to an old Perhentian mansion to look around that has been built in perfect Feng-shui style.

Old Perhentian house

 It wasn’t very interesting. We then went back to the hostel, where they took us out for food again (street food), which was really cheap (less than £1 each) and it was really nice to get to know everyone. They also took us out for a typical pudding called chendol and ABC which are pictured below. Basically ABC is sweetcorn, crushed ice, red beans, grass jelly (black noodles) and some shiny green things that no one could identify. I didn't eat all of it obviously. Instead I tried my first Milo – a popular chocolate malt milk drink over here in Asia. We went back to the hostel and got chatting to a boy from Singapore, who studies music and has bought instruments in every country he has visited. He got them all out and played them for us.

ABC dessert

The next day, we had hoped to go to the national park and even got up relatively early (it was too hot to sleep in the hostel anyway, with the air con going off at 6am). We had the breakfast provided by the hostel – boiled egg and toast, and then we went out to catch the bus and a massive downpour started. With no coat, there was no way we could stay outside in the monsoon, so we went back to the hostel and went online for a bit. When it eventually stopped about an hour later, we caught a bus to the other side of Penang island to visit the National Park and go to the monkey beach. The bus ride there took about an hour and the other side of Penang was much more touristy (with a Hard Rock cafe etc). We set off on the trail, not realising how long or difficult it would be. I was dressed in my walking sandals and shirt and was sweating before we even set off. It turned out to be a jungle trek and I really didn’t enjoy it. It was too hot, there were too many mossies, and without my walking shoes on, I found it difficult to navigate the obstacles of branches, slippery mud and winding terrain. We saw lots of animals, including a massive monitor lizard – the biggest I have ever seen in the wild (about 1.5m in length). I moaned the whole way along because of all the mozzies and because we didn't bring enough water (neither of us had expected such a long jungle trail). When we were almost at the end, we bumped into the first and only other person we saw on the trail – a Dutch man who told us there was only another 1k to go until the monkey beach, where there were boats to take you back to the mainland. I was so happy.

Monitor lizard behind the leaves

It felt like more than 1k, but when we eventually got to the monkey beach, we saw lots of monkeys (one of which lunged at Jemma for making eye contact and sent her running into the sea screaming – highlight of the trek) and we also were relieved to see a little hut selling cold drinks and boat rides back. We each had a cold coke and then chartered out own private boat back for the bargain fee of £4 each! It was a really nice boat ride, with the wind in our hair, cooling us down and sipping ice cold cokes.

Sailing away from monkey beach

The boat took us all the way back to the entrance of the National park, where we could catch a bus back to Georgetown (where our hostel was). We got on the bus, I took out my money belt to pay and then we realised we had spent our last few ringits on the cokes and boat ride! We only had half the fare we needed! We had thought our tickets were return tickets, but the driver wouldn’t accept this and told us to get off the bus! We wondered how the hell we were going to get back to the hostel. Luckily, there was another, nicer driver outside who told us that we could use our change to buy a cheaper ticket to the town down the road and there was a cash machine there. And so that’s what we did, and we ended up in the touristy town, eating a McDonald's to break into the 50s that the cash machine gave us (my first Mcdonald's with chips in over a week, I can't believe I lasted so long without chips. Mcdonald's are so tempting here, what with them only costing £1.50 for a large meal).We eventually got back to the hostel and relaxed there for a while, before going out for one last bit of street food.  

Cameron Highlands to Penang

View over 'aboriginal village'

We had one more day in the Cameron Highlands and we used it to go on a jungle trek. The trek was 4 hours, and you're meant to set off in the morning, but by the time we'd gotten ready, got out the hostel, and had yet another all you can eat Indian for brunch, it was 2pm. We set off on the trail and it was blazing hot - I had to put sun cream on and was drenched in sweat. We trekked through a very roughly cut path in dense jungle (just the two of us, no guides) and it was quite scary at times as we were scared we would see snakes. We saw lizards, monkeys and at one point a leech attached its self to Jemma. The trek was hard and mostly uphill, winding through the forest, and we had to steady ourselves on branches a lot of the time. About 2 hours into the trek, we got to the top of the mountain and had a glorious view over the rain forest, and then it started to rain very heavily, with thunder and lightening.

One of the many creatures we saw

Knowing we were not even half way, we set off back into the forest to try to complete the trek before the paths became impassible. We got absolutely drenched. There were times when I was quite scared that we would get trapped in the forest and not be able to get out, especially when Jemma started complaining of chest pains. I had visions of her having a heart attack and me having to run for help, 2 hours out of the forest. We took a wrong turn at one point and had to climb over a fallen tree to get back. The rain was gushing down into the forest and the paths up the mountain were becoming very muddy and slippery. I was so relieved when we eventually saw rooftops in the distance: we had arrived at the 'aboriginal village', which is a vary basic village of wooden houses on stilts with tin rooves. I stood at the top of the hill for a few moments in the pouring rain, taking in the view of the misty village below me. It was a real round the world moment. From there, we were able to make our way back down out of the forest and towards the resort where we were staying. It took us about another hour to get back to the hostel, and we stopped on the way at a cafe for Jemma to have strawberry and chocolate waffles (strawberries picked fresh from the local area). It is nice to be able to allow ourselves these luxuries, we really feel like kings here after scrimping and saving in other parts of the world.

Drenched at the end of the trek

We got back to the hostel, had a shower, and then went back out to our favourite Indian, where you can have so much food (Indian, Chinese, Malay), you can eat until you're really stuffed, have 2 fruit juices, and it never comes to more than £2. It's heaven. That was our last day in the Cameron highlands. We relaxed that night in our cosy hostel and the next day we took a bus to Penang, which should have taken 3 hours but took 6. We are now in Penang, where it is unbearably hot (Cameron highlands were such a nice cool relief from the hot Malaysian weather). It is unbearably hot here and our hostel only switches the aircon on between 9pm and 6am so I am lying here at 5pm, having just had a cold shower, lying on my bed under the fan. Penang is known for its food and yesterday we went on a 'food crawl' with the hostel, where they took us around all the good food places. The food really is amazing here.

Pics of Cameron Highlands & trek: Cameron Highlands

The Cameron Highlands

View over the tea plantation

Well, what a difference a day and a few hundred kilometres make! We are now in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and it is a world apart from what we have seen elsewhere in Malaysia. First of all, the climate is a lot cooler and it is so much more relaxed here (less traffic, less people). We are staying in a really lovely hostel run by a very friendly couple who came and picked us up from the bus stop. We have our own private room, for less than what we were paying in KL and its really modern. As soon as we arrived, they told us about a tour we could go on for £10 of the tea plantations and rainforest, so before we even had time to unpack our bags, we went straight off on this tour. It was excellent. The guide took us around the stunning tea plantations up at altitudes of over 2000metres and then we went for a trek in the rainforest where we had to climb up muddy embankments and swing around trees. He showed us lots of different types of plants in the rainforest and told us what they are used for, including ones that are used for medicinal purposes (like TCP), carnivorous plants, lipstick plants and orchids.

We climbed above the clouds

We had three lovely Malaysian girls with us on the tour and we stopped at a tea factory for a cup of tea with a very impressive view over the tea plantations.

The girls who were on the tour with us

It was a really great afternoon. When we got back to the hostel, we relaxed for a bit in the lounge and then walked into the town, where we had a massive Indian meal for £2 each and got talking to a Dutch couple who have just got back from Borneo and were raving about it. Its somewhere that wasn't in our original plan but now I really want to go! The town its self here in the Cameron highlands is known for how British it looks & feels. It is like a little England - maybe that's why I like it so much ;)

Pictures: Cameron Highlands

Malaysia

The Petronas towers - one of the most famous landmarks in the world

Malaysia so far...We've only been in Malaysia a couple of days but so far, I've not had the greatest impression of the country. We started off crossing the border from Singapore by bus to Johor Bahru. We met a girl in South America who told us that she remembered crossing the border and being taken aback by the difference between the two countries as the bus drove over the bridge. You literally drive from everything being all squeaky clean, shiny and modern, to, well, more of a neglected developing city. 

View from our hostel balcony in Melaka

The good thing was, as sanitation standards went down, so did prices, and for a few pounds, we managed to navigate our way on and off several different buses, before finally ending up in Melaka, the place we had booked a hostel for the night. Queue bad experience number one. When we booked the hostel, they had asked us for an estimated time of arrival and I had just put down 10pm as a guess as I had no idea when we would arrive. Most hostels have someone on the reception 24/7 so it doesn't actually matter when you arrive. Not this one. We got out of the taxi at 7pm and knocked on the door and it seemed no one was in. There was a sign saying 'out to lunch'. Then, two German girls came to the door and said that the owner was out and they weren't allowed to let us in. However, after a bit of persuasion, they let us in to put our bags down and then told us to get straight back out and wait for the owner to come back. The German girls were leaving to go our for dinner and they did not want to leave us in the hostel alone. So, Jemma and I went out to a little Chinese place for dinner, came back an hour later, and still nobody was there, not even the German girls. After a while of knocking, a coy Chinese girl appeared at the door and told us to go away and that she was not allowed to let us in. A this point, Jemma was bursting for the toilet and pleaded with the girl just to let her in for one minute to use the bathroom. She even said the girl could keep her bag as an assurance. No can do – the girl shook her head and insisted that she could not let us in. It was 9.30pm at night by this point, and we just sat on the step outside the hostel and waited. In the end, we had to go to a cafe down the road and wait there. The cafe owner knew the hostel owner's number, so we used skype to call him. A few minutes later, he came and let us in, but not before demanding to know where our rucksacks were. We told him they were in the hall and we had put them there earlier. 'WHO LET YOU IN??' he said. Jemma just said that people had been going out as we arrived and had let us leave our big rucksacks in the lounge. He did not look happy and was actually a really scary man. We finally got to our room at about 10.30pm, and although it was nice enough, it had bed bugs. 

My poor leg covered in bedbug bites

I got terribly bitten all over my legs, arms and back and I really have nothing good to say about Melaka. We went on a boat cruise at night along the river, which was nice, but other than that, there was not much to the city. Its supposed to be a World Heritage sight, and maybe its just because we've been travelling so long that we've become blasé about these amazing sights (I hope not) but, Malaysia really isn't much to write home about.

After 2 days in Melaka, we took a bus to the capital city Kuala Lumpur (4 hours away) and checked into our hostel, which was quite nice. KL however, is not. I am actually really disappointed with KL. I was expecting a slightly downscaled version of Singapore, maybe a little rougher around the edges, but I was really expecting too much. There is not much to do here. Its quite dirty and its really not an impressive city. The most impressive thing is the famous Petronas towers, which are nice to photograph and there is a nice modern mall near bye where you can escape the unbearable humidity, but that's about it. One thing we did do in Melaka, was go to a chicken satay restaurant called Capital satay, where you buy a load of raw meat on skewers for about 20p per skewer and then dip it in the boiling hot satay sauce on the table to cook it. That was an interesting experience!

Cooking our own chicken in the satay pot

 Maybe I am not in a position to be impartial – during my time in KL, I have been covered in bedbug bites, suffered from a bad cold and had a migraine. Also, nowhere was ever going to compare to Singapore, was it? I had a down moment the other day thinking about it all, and realised that maybe Japan is to blame, perhaps Japan has spoiled me for life and no other countries will ever compare (except Singapore). I hope not. I am hopeful that Thailand will be infinitely better and now I am over my cold, I am trying to see the positives in Malaysia.

You can get a mega mac meal for £1.80!!

One positive is the cheap food. Although it could be seen as a negative too: Because its so cheap, we are buying double thus spending the same amount as in an expensive country and becoming fat in the process.

We have met a few nice people here though, including Amanda from Baltimore, who quit her job to go travelling and is writing a blog called 'Amanda abroad'. I have also met 3 other people who are digital nomads (they take their work with them as they travel the world). One is a journalist for a national newspaper in Norway, one edits paparazzi photos and the other does online marketing.

I have just realised I have not actually written much about what we have done here in KL. Mainly because we haven't done much. 

We have eaten a lot of Indian food, and today we went to some caves (Batu caves) where there is a Hindu shrine inside and lots of stray monkeys about pinching people's food. Tomorrow we are leaving for the Cameron highlands. Hopefully I will have something more positive to report about Malaysia from there.

For a few more photos of Malaysia, click here

Singapore part 2

2 meals for £2. Can't fault it.

Singapore was even better the second time round. We stayed in a nicer hostel and we knew where all the best food places were: we picked our hostel based on its vicinity to the nicest hawker market (Albert street, near Bugis). We basically gorged on food for the 3 days we were there. In addition to eating, we also went on a jungle walk called the tree top walk, where you walk for 4 hours through the jungle, including over a bridge that stretches over the top of the rainforest. We did this walk during a storm, despite the signs warning of lightening strikes (the bridge was metal). We saw lots of monkeys, including one that stole a girls unopened subway sandwich from her hands and ran away with it. We also went to Sentosa Island (a man-made island of fun),the Botanic gardens, Chinese and Japanese gardens. Other than that, we just relaxed and enjoyed being in the vibrant, clean, modern city that is Singapore. I bought a bargain pair of Havaiana flip flops after having lost the ones I bought in Brazil in Auckland. Our hostel owner was lovely and gave us lots of tips on what to do in Malaysia, including giving us a map of where to eat, so it looks like we are about to pile on more pounds as we move north.  

Last Few days in Tokyo

View of Tokyo (Lost in Translation hotel on left)

Our last few days in Tokyo were spent doing things we hadn't had chance to do the first time round. We visited the hotel where Lost in Translation was filmed and got a lift up the tower next to it for awesome views over Tokyo for free! We even saw Mount Fuji, which I was really happy about as I had wanted to go on a day trip there but we didn't have time. It was such a clear day, we say almost all of Tokyo, Mount Fuji and the surrounding mountains. The night before, we had paid to go up a different tower, but there was a typhoon and the visibility was very poor. We had walked for miles to find it and were starving by the time we got there. It was torrential rain (a typhoon) and we wanted to find a MOS burger, but in the end we were so hungry we ended up having a McDonald's. We calculated that during our time in Japan, ½ of all our meals have been burger-based. That is to say, we stayed in Japan 3 weeks, and ate 10 burger meals in that time (Maccas, Burger King or MOS burger).

Looks like NYC, but no, its Tokyo

On our second to last day, we intended to get up early to experience Tokyo fish market but we got there too late and all we saw was them closing down the stalls. So we decided instead to set out to find Joyopolis – a games world that Jemma had read about. It took us quite a while to get there, but we got to ride the monorail and saw a completely different side to Tokyo by the sea, which was nice. We eventually found Joyopolis, but it was closed, however, there was lots of other stuff to keep us entertained in the same area.

I love Japan

On our second to last night in Tokyo, we had a lovely leaving party with our friends, who treated us to a meal at a Japanese restaurant where they had traditional dancing and entertainment. It was absolutely the best night of my whole trip and I could not believe how lucky we were to have met such kind and welcoming people. They ordered so many different dishes for us to try, including chicken gizzard! They also ordered these big chickens that the waiter had to cut up with garden scissors and they bought us drinks all night. When the bill came at the end they insisted on paying. The entertainment was excellent, and everybody did a kind of conga dance around the restaurant. Words can't describe it so I have added in the video at the bottom of this page (more videos on my youtube channel). 

It was the best cultural experience ever and everyone was so lovely. At the end, one of our friends won the prize for best dancer and we all had to go up with her for a photo, at which point they told the whole restaurant about who we were (Yoshie's English friends she met in New Zealand). I have never experienced hospitality like it in my life. At the end of the meal, we were really sad to leave them, and they gave us a goodbye present (our own set of posh chopsticks). It was so cute. It really left us with such an amazing lasting impression of Japan.

More photos can be found here: Tokyo 2


But for now, one last photo of my favourite part of Tokyo, Shibuya crossing

Yokohama/ Tokyo – Japanese house parties and drunken karaoke

Japanese house party

We have just had probably the best 48 hours of our whole trip and to round it off I am typing this sat in my little capsule in our wonderful capsule hostel in Tokyo.

The fun started on Saturday night, when, after a long day travelling back to Tokyo from the Alps, we were met at the train station by our lovely friend Yoshie whom we met in New Zealand. She came to collect us to take us back to her sister's flat in Yokohama (just outside of Tokyo), where we were to spend the night. We got to the flat and were met at the door by a group of young, welcoming Japanese people (Yoshie's friends and family) who were all smiling and eager to meet us. As we walked through the door and took our shoes off, they were all taking photos of us and each one shook our hand in turn and said hello in English. Most of don't speak English, so practising with us that night was a big deal for them. We went into the lounge, where they had prepared a feast for us, with a low table and mats on the floor to sit on. It was really cute. Everything we had told Yoshie in NZ, she had remembered and they had tailored the meal exactly to our tastes. They had made pasta bake with two little flags in it (Japan and UK), a ginger pork dish, a cold pasta dish, and sushi (with no raw fish, because Yoshie had remembered that we weren't keen on 'law fish').  

Pasta bake

It was overwhelming. They kept the alcohol flowing all night (champagne, wine and beer) and they were the friendliest people I have ever met. We brought them a little present (as we were advised this is the custom in Japan). We gave them some cherry blossom sweets from Kyoto and they gave me a box of chocolates (Yoshie had remembered that I am chocolate mad) and they gave Jemma (or German, as they thought her name was) a Japanese fan. They were all so friendly and eager to practise their English. We felt really at ease because everybody was so laid back and friendly. I think Jemma had built it up a little in her head and was worried she might commit some cultural faux pas, but they were all so young and easy going, we really had nothing to worry about. We chatted and laughed the whole night, with new dishes and drinks being brought out all the time and at one point, they even brought out the ingredients for making sushi and let us have a go at making our own. It was a really brilliant night and we were stuffed by the end of it. At the end of the night, Yoshie's sister ran me an onsen, and I committed the only cultural error of the night (as far as we know), by having a bath in it and washing my hair, when it was actually meant to be shared by the whole house. We all laughed about it in the end, but I can just remember starting to wash my hair with shampoo in the bath and then remembering something I had read in the lonely planet about Japanese families having onsens and that you should never pull the plug. What I should have done was had a shower first and then got in the onsen, and then everyone else would have done the same. I think this is the biggest cultural difference between the UK and Japan! Jemma and I slept with Yoshie in the spare room on a traditional Tatami Japanese floor and some of the other friends also stayed the night.

The next day, we got up, had some hot chocolate/ tea and then they took us out to see Yokohama and to have sushi for brunch. They took us to the best sushi bar I have ever been to – it was so cheap and the conveyor belt was huge! I tried all kinds of sushi, including raw squid, which nearly made me sick, but I eventually managed to swallow it. Jemma was not so successful. 

Yokohama harbour

At the sushi restaurant

After brunch, we took a sightseeing boat across Yokohama harbour and Yoshie's brother-in-law kindly paid. We walked all around the harbour, looking at the big cruise ships that were docked there and watching the entertainment. It was like a much bigger version of Cardiff bay! We then stopped at a little park for coffee and took the train back to Yoshie's sister's flat, where we said our farewells, before heading back to Tokyo to meet our friends from Kyoto for a night out.

It took us about an hour to get across Tokyo to the hostel that we had booked on hostelworld. We booked it because it was surprisingly cheap for Tokyo, and I can now confirm, that you definitely get what you paid for. As soon as we saw it, I was doubtful. Not only was it a hefty train ride from the centre of Tokyo, but it also looked like a little shack from the outside. We were in such a rush to dump our bags and check-in before meeting our friends Emily and Sandra, that luckily I didn't have time to take it all in properly. The bedroom was the biggest disgrace of a bedroom I have ever seen in my life. It has to be seen to be believed! I would not put my dog in there! Luckily we had only booked for one night and I had visions of us coming in, numbed enough by alcohol not to be bothered by it, but my god, it was not fit for human living. I am sure there must be a law against squashing that many people into such a small space. The bunks were pushed so close together, you had to turn sideways to walk between them. There was no space for bags, and if you were unlucky enough to be on the 3^rd tier, you had to climb over 2 peoples heads (no ladders to get in). It was pure squalor and I am horrified that it has such high ratings on hostelworld. I think the owner must have dodgy dealings going on somewhere because there is not one single bad review on hostelworld! Suspiciously, it is also not listed on Trip advisor, which should cause some alarm bells to ring, but as we were literally just dropping our bags then racing out to see our friends, I didn't have time to think too much about it.

Worst hostel ever

We dropped our bags in the 'luggage room' (cupboard) and raced out to meet Emily and Sandra at an agreed place. The four of us then went to the best restaurant I have ever been to! An all you-can-drink Izakaya! The deal is, you sit at the table, and have a little computer screen, where you can order an unlimited number of drinks (any drink you want – alcohol, soft drink, milk shakes... you name it). You have the table for 3 hours and during this time, everyone also has to order and least two items of food off the menu. For this, you pay about £20! Incredible value! If this existed in the UK, it would go out of business on opening night, but as the Japanese can't drink much, these fantastic establishments exist all over Tokyo. We ordered a load of dishes to share: pizza, chips. Yakitori (chicken on skewers) etc. And we drank till we were merry. As Jemma put it, she drank a whiskey drink, she drank a lager drink, she drank a cider drink, she drank a vodka drink. I think she also drank every other drink on the menu, including to tropical Japanese varieties. I just stuck to wine and cocktails. 

At the Izakaya

By the end, we were very merry, and left the restaurant to go into the games arcade next door, where we played on Table Flip. A computer game, where the only aim is to flip a table in a restaurant so that the drinks go all over everybody! We then played some drumming games, and had our photos taken in one of those booths that Japanese girls love where you can add fake eyelashes and glasses etc to yourself. It was the most amazing fun ever. By this point, Jemma and Emily were very drunk and were keen on catching the last train back to the student area where Emily and Sandra live, to spend a couple more hours in a karaoke booth, and then we could crash for a few hours at theirs before catching an early train back to our hostel to check out. We found the karaoke booth, and again, it was pay a sum (~£22) and drink all you like for 2 hours whilst singing karaoke in the booth. It was one of the best nights out I have ever had in my life and I am so glad we got to experience a real Japanese karaoke booth. It really is a fun way to spend a night. After two hours of singing (or squawking), I wanted to carry on, but they were all tired, so we stumbled back to the student halls, where I slept on a mat on Sandra's floor and Jemma slept on Emily's floor. It was about 3am by the time we went to sleep. 

Photobooth fun

Karaoke

At 8am, we had to leave to catch a number of different trains back to our hostel. This was not the easiest of tasks on a hangover, in fact, if you knew what the Tokyo subway was like, you would probably find it like something out of a comedy sketch. 2 hours later(!) we finally got to the horrible hostel, where we scooped up our bags from where we had left them, used the toilet facilities, and then made a sharp exit. Another 2 hours later, we were at our new hostel, where we were told that check-in was not until 4pm. So we went to Burger king and then slept in the lounge, before checking into our cosy little, clean capsule dorm (same company as the excellent hostel we stayed in in Kyoto). What a fantastic 48 hours.  

New cool capsule hostel in Tokyo

Photos: Best 48 hours ever

The Japanese Alps – snow monkeys and naked baths

We planned a visit to the Japanese Alps into our itinerary after Jemma's brother told us we had to see them. Our first stop was Nagano, which was a little out of the way, and took us a while to get to from Kyoto. We arrived at Nagano station in the pouring rain and walked for about half an hour without finding the hostel. In the end, I waited in a bank with the rucksacks whilst Jemma went off to try and find it. When she came back 40 minutes later, soaking wet, she still had not found it but had a good idea of where it might be. Before we set off on a trek to find it, we saw a MOSBurger (now my favourite fast food chain ever) and went there for tea. I had a curry sauce burger. We eventually found the hostel, 1166, tucked away down a little side street and the owner let us in. It was basically someone's house. The young girl (32) had set the house up as a hostel and she had great reviews on hostelworld because of how helpful she is with planning your travels. I t was a typical Japanese style house, with one western toilet and one shower. It also had a Japanese toilet. The dorms had bunks but the mattresses, were paper thin (standard in Japan) and the pillow was terrible. Needless to say I didn't get the best night's sleep that night and I was freezing. When I needed the toilet, I had to creep down the narrow staircase to the western toilet next to the kitchen. The good thing about the hostel was that she cooked us a typical Japanese dinner for £5 (hot pot) and we sat round the table with the other guests from Belgium, Singapore, Germany and Japan and learnt about Japanese culture from the owner and her friend. They showed us a funny clip on youtube about how to eat sushi (clip) and answered all of our questions. We got along quite well with the other guests and the owner even gave us free alcohol (sake and wine). Jemma and the German boy went out to buy some suntory whisky (as featured in Lost in Translation) and they ended up drinking the whole bottle between them. As there was only one shower, I had to wait about 45 mins for our Japanese room mate (who looked about 8!) to finish in the shower before I could go in.

We went to bed at midnight, and set our alarm for 6am, ready to get up for a trip to see the snow monkeys the next day.

Hot pot night at the hostel in Nagano

The next day we got up at 6am and caught a train to the mountains and then a bus. By 10am, after having walked up a snowy mountainside and taken in the lovely views, we eventually made it to the monkey park, which is basically a clearing in the forest with a hot spring in it where the monkeys bathe! It is amazing to see the monkeys running around in their natural habitat. I had never heard of monkeys that live in the snow before. There are hundreds of them and they can get quite lively, fighting with each other and chasing each other about. There were babies and adults and lots of monkeys in the onsen (hot spring) taking a bath. I was quite scared at some points as we were warned not to look them in the eyes otherwise they might attack. We didn't witness any attacks whilst we were there but the Belgian girl told us that one had leapt out of the water to go for her when she was there.

One of the baby monkeys

After a couple of hours looking at the monkeys and taking pictures, we headed back down the mountain to do something we had been told we must do whilst in Japan: take an onsen.

An onsen is a hot spring where Japanese people bathe naked: (click for description of onsen)

We were first told about this by a British girl in Fiji who raved over it and reckoned it was no problem getting naked once you were there because the Japanese didn't bat an eyelid. The same thoughts were echoed by the Belgian couple in our hostel the night before. I however, was not so sure. Europeans don't seem to understand the British fear of getting naked, in fact they laughed at me when I told them what a big thing it was for me to do. Even typing this now, I am cringing thinking back to it. But hey, if Lonely Planet says you've got to do it, you've got to do it.

It's basically a public bath, where you go in, strip off (no towels allowed – we were told off in Japanese by an old woman when we tried to slip into the bathing area with our towels around us). Before you get in, you have to sit in a row with a load of naked Japanese women and wash yourself with the soap and shampoo provided. There is a bucket that you have to fill with hot water and then pour it over yourself. Then, you are allowed to get into the bath, which is usually outside, naked. It was quite a traumatic experience for me personally as I am very modest. A lot of people who do it (i.e. the Brits in Fiji) come out raving about it saying how great it is, but I'd rather just get in a jacuzzi with my batha on. Anyway, I've done it now, so nobody can say that I'm not embracing Japanese culture!

A bit like the onsen we went in

After the onsen, we got the train back to Nagano and had another MOSBurger. Then we went for our daily trip to Seven Eleven (I now, sadly, sing the theme tune as we walk in). We decided to be adventurous and bought some Tomato chocolate. Yes, that's right, tomato flavoured chocolate! How could I fail to like it when it combines my two favourite things?? Chocolate and tomoato sauce?? It was disgusting. But, I'm glad we tried it.

That night I was really tired so I stayed in next to the fire, whilst Jemma went our drinking with some Aussies from our dorm. Again, I had another terrible, freezing nights sleep on the cold, hard bed and woke up ready to get out and get to a new comfortable hostel.

Our next destination was Hakuba, which, according to Jemma's brother is 'the best place in the world and she would bring shame upon her family if she didn't go there'. You're meant to go there to ski and we did want to do this, however due to poor planning, we realised that a)we wouldn't have enough time to ski as we had only booked one night there and b) I wasn't actually insured for skiing.

Never mind, we still set off, on the 3 hour journey to get there and got there in the late evening, leaving us just enough time to chill out in the lovely, modern, hostel/chalet and do our washing. After I had pressed start on the washing machine, with all of our clothes in, except the t shirt and shorts we were wearing, I read a sign that said the dryer took 2 hours, so our plans to go out for dinner were scuppered. Luckily the hostel had a good stock of ready made curry meals in boxes so we made ourselves one of those and relaxed in the cosy lounge. We both said we would have loved to have stayed longer in Hakuba and actually go skiing as it is such a nice place, however, we had to leave the next morning as our friend Yoshie from New Zealand, had contacted us out of the blue and offered us a bed for the night. We were very keen on taking up her offer and are now currently on a train, making our way to Yoshie's sister's house in Yokohama (near Tokyo) where we will stay for a night and experience a typical Japanese family home!

For many more pictures of monkeys and snowy mountains, please click here: Japanese Alps

The Hunt for Kobe Beef...

When we left Hiroshima, we went back to Kyoto for one night as we intended to see the Golden Pavillion. We got back too late to see it however, and decided, on a whim (Jemma's idea), to go to Kobe to try and taste some Kobe beef. For anyone that doesn't know, Kobe beef is very famous for being the most delicious, expensive beef in the world. According to folk law, they massage the cows and feed them beer, which is why the beef tastes so delicious. According to Lonely Planet, once you have tasted Kobe beef, you will be spoilt for life, and normal beef will never taste the same again. Having read in the Lonely Planet guide book, that we could get hold of some of this world famous beef for the small price of £17, we set off at 6pm on a train to Kobe, giving ourselves just a few hours to find the restaurant, eat the beef and make it back to Kyoto on the last train at 10.00pm. We got to Kobe as planned, caught another train into the city centre, and then got completely lost trying to follow the Lonely Planet's directions. At one point, we were even asked by a group of Japanese men to join them in their footspa they were having in the middle of the city centre. We looked around for ages, asking for directions and being helped by random expats who spoke Japanese and English. We thought we would have to give up (time was running out and we would miss our last train if we ate any later), when I approached a florist and asked in my best Japanese if she knew where the restaurant was 'sumimasen.... doko deska.... <points at guide book>.'

Luckily, she knew and exclaimed 'ahhhh steakhouse!' 'Hai! Steakhouse!' We repeated merrily. I had been worried that the restaurant would be a bit too luxurious for two scruffy travellers, but a steakhouse sounded just up my street. I pictured myself having a nice cheap chunk of kobe beef with some chips on the side and maybe some peppercorn sauce. After all, the Lonely Planet had said that meals ranged from just 2000 yen ( around £17).

We took an elevator up to the restaurant on the 8^th floor and I realised straight away how very wrong

I was. A waiter approached us and took our jackets (i.e. fleece hoodies) and then led us to our seats, amongst the hoity toity clientèle. I was too embarrassed to look at anyone, as I sat down and wiped my hands with the hot towel he passed us. I let Jemma open the menu first and interpret the prices. She went pale and looked as though she would have a heart attack. The cheapest thing on the menu, which by the way, wasn't Kobe beef, was 14,000 yen (aka £100+)! The cheapest thing, a little starter, was over £100!! To have actual Kobe beef you were looking at around £150 for a small portion on its own, without sides! I looked at Jemma, wondering if she would go through with it and order something out of sheer politeness/ embarrassment. We both knew we could not justify wiping a week's worth of budget for South East Asia out on one decadent meal. We politely made our apologies, and scurried out of the restaurant, hanging our heads in shame as we waited for the lift to take us down. We made our way back to Kyoto and bought a pot noodle from the 7/11 for tea, with Jemma ranting along the way about how she would write a strongly worded letter to Lonely Planet for misleading her into thinking that she could actually afford Kobe beef!