Singapore, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pai

WHAT THE??? Have been a tad too busy the past few weeks. Now in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand and going to take a few days to rest , both mentally and physically. Did NOT go out last night and went for a run early this morning, trying to reset my clock a little. The old city of Chiang Mai is surrounded by and old wall and canal that makes for an 8 km run. It is hot here during the day, but the humidity is low and the mornings, evenings are cool (ie: no A/C running in the hostel dorms, which makes me happy...hate A/C, would rather be hot).

I am here because Indonesia got to effing hot/humid for me. Thought i was doing OK after 3 weeks, but after a month, I was starting to crack up. Was looking online for cheap flights north, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan....settled on northern Thailand and it has been a real treat.

SINGAPORE

You never know when you will like a big city. Al ot of it depends on what you were doing in the week or so before. After scurrying out of Bali with my tail between my legs, it was a lot of fun to be in a big, modern city. A tad pricey till you find the local food-markets, but English Premier soccer on in every bar, lots of night markets and great food. Not to mention hot showers, sit-down loos and fast internet.

I was in a good hostel (5footway on Pagoda st in Chinatown), hit a few museums, learned the subway system well, made it to the world-class zoo (open-concept, very few fences/cages/pacing) and botanical gardens and generally enjoyed myself.

BANGKOK

In order to move around SouthEast Asia, you will end up in big, hot cities. Was pleasantly surprised by Bangkok. I fly home out of there in February and am looking forward to going back. Was in a great hostel (WE Bangkok off Silom Rd). What makes this city for me is the river (Chao Phraya) and all the traffic and cheap ferries on it. There is also a light rail system, so you can get about pretty good. Taxis are dirt cheap but the traffic snarl is deadly. I do a lot of walking.

The hostel has a front porch, right on the street where everyone hangs out for a beer after a day of sight-seeing (Wat Arun, Gold Buddah, Reclining Buddah, KhaoSan Rd). Next thing you know, you are off for some excellent street food or Soi Cowboy ping-pong shows or Thai kick-boxing or the bars on KhaoSan Rd. It is a busy town.

I take a Thai cooking class because the food here is so amazing. It was a lot of fun and the food I made turned out way better than usual. Can't wait to try and duplicate some of the dishes back in Canada.

PAI

I was so happy to get to Chiang Mai, as the the temperature in the mornings and evenings is high teens, low 20's. I am so happy. You get up here in northern Thailand and everyone says that you MUST go to Pai, which i do and have a lot of fun. I hook up with a 'croo of Brits (Slim, Aaron, Danielle, Phil) and an Aussie (Claire) who have been a group for a few countries/months.

We party for 2 days and then the rest of the group splits up for a week or so. We consume whatever Pai has to offer. There are hundreds of ex-pats in this town, just chilling out and enjoying the very relaxed vibe in this special place. Even the street-hawkers are chill which is a pleasant break.

CHIANG MAI - Jungle Trek

I have been using Chiang Mai as a base for the last week or so, with a few days spent in Pai and another few on a jungle trek. There is enough stuff to do here (lions, elephants, hill-tribes, long-neck tribes, white-water rafting, ziplining) I did a 3 day jungle trek that included most of this and cost a whopping $60 that covered food, guides, accommodations. The expensive part is the nightlife. Beer costs about $1-$2 and there are mucho bars and live music in this town. Easy to get caught up in all the hoopla.

CHIANG MAI - Christmas

Christmas Eve was a tad rowdy. Noom put on a big BBQ and then we all headed downtown for some bar-hopping and live music. It was a late night out, but dovetailed nicely into Christmas Day afternoon at a local lake.

I got to try Dancing Shrimp (the pic up above, movie below) Up to you to figure out why the dish is called that.

Bruce eats Dancing Shrimp - Chiang Mai

Bruce

Pangandaran/Jogyakarta, Bromo, Ijen

Indonesia is an amazing coutry with equally amzing people. I am enjoying myself so much here. My visa runs out next week and i am looking to extend it a month. Actually, if you told me i had to spend my entire trip here, it would be a real treat

The place is hot, damn hot, and muggy (it is rainy season). It hits 30C before I fifnish breakfast. The rain comes most days, a few times a day. That being said, it is just a variable, along with no easy train/bus info, squat toilets , cold showers, really lousy bread, etc. All these things can be workded around. I have been to the mountains a few times and the drop of 5C is worht the work to get there. Everyone can help you get to where you want to go, either as hostel support of local tourism.You take a bus/shuttle/car/moto/train somewhere. for a few bucks, someone picks you up where you are staying.

Whie I genrally like to be my own support staff, this place is just so social and inter-connected that I am enjoying the different way to get things done. I am spending about $32 a day for food, lodging, beer and including transport and the guided and non-guided tours.

Breakfast is usualy in the losmen , homestay of hostel. Lunch a steet stall or resto and same for supper, which runs to $2.50 without a drink.

Local Buses and trains are a riot. As many people selling food and services as customers, and they all change every stop or so, so are continually inter-acting with these people, who are basically polite about their business. I enjoy moving about this country a lot. I smile,say hello or laugh with people 40-50 times a day and it is addictive. When you get in a public spot, like a temple, like Eva from Germany says, it is like being Madonna, surrounded by people who want to talk to you, take pictures with you. It really is a heart-warming culture

You give an Indonesian a smile, you get a bigger one back.

Been busy with sports and cultural, a few volcanoes, rivers, plantations parks, temple sites, beaches, day hikes, mucho hours on a moto. The traffic here is intense. No way a description or photo does it justice. It is not as intense a India, but in the same ballpark. Really need to follow the rules whne xrossing lanes of traffic that splay all over the roadways:

Walk, don't run. Don't stop

Traffic will flow around you. Honest. Believe it. You have to believe ro never cross a street.

Been way more social than usual, as the backpackers crowd tends to hit the same places and between the tourist attractions and bars, you keep hanging out with a flowing group of 10-15 people that changes as the towns change. Facebook is the common language, which is why I bought a for, for the wifi connections that exist everywhere and people post and comment like CDNs text all day. I have to work a bit to get time to myself and get things done like reading and this blog. I use

PANGANDARAN

What a week, nice little surf town, great place to stay (Panorama), lots of new friends, a few nights at the beach bars being silly, a jungle walk (the pic is from a swim...stunning view), a tour thru the kampung (local villages), coconut farms, a day of canyoning with some big jumps and of course, surfing. An amazing week all around.

JOGYAKARTA

Another amazing week, the little backpacker section of the city is all little alleyways maybe 6 feet wide, no vehicles. You can get anything you want without leaving, sleep, eat, drink, laundry, internet. The tours around include Borobador and Prambanan, plus the Merapi volcano. Did all of this, but no luck with a view on the volcano. Also finally got a phone, as wifi is everywhere but internet shops not so much. The train to Jogja was a riot.

BROMO - IJEN

Bromo is the crater everyone goes to see when travelling from JogJa to Bali. With the Merapi washout, we also went to Ijen...a most stunning place with guys digging sulphur out of the volcano crater and hauling it up. We live in a funny world.

Stunning amount of bussing it takes to get this done. 12 hrs to Bromo, 8 to Ijen and another 8 to Bali. Current medical report has a heat rash on my ass, a rash from climbing Merapi in the rain with sandals and a foot infection (small abrasion canyoning, exacerbated by leash on surf board and the volcano hike, no way to deal with in 3 days of bussing) and voila...now holed up in Denpasar, Bali with antibiotics. No surfing, no beer. Catching up on things which is good.

Indonesian Hospital...in and out in one hour with doctor appt, cleanup and meds..all for $40. Sweet.

Indonesia - Jakarta/Bandung

My Remembrance Day moment of silence in Jakarta

Indonesia is quite a change from Japan. Time and space mean different things here. It is a very fast-paced country with a large, traditional Muslim culture. It is also very dense with people, motos and cars. Being in the middle of all this interaction is a lot of fun. Everyone gets about on little combi buses and motos. Watching Muslim women hikes their skirts (they all have long trousers underneath) to get on the back of a moto is very odd. Definitely not a picture-taking opportunity.

There are malls that inside look like middle America (with mucho more people) and yet outside, the street teems with food stalls glued to every conceivable usable space, open sewers, garbage without end and enough traffic to keep you on your two. To cross, you have but one rule, walk, do NOT run, do NOT stop. he traffic will flow around you. Trust me. My first experience of this was India...which is another level up, so here I am quite fine.

First night in Jakarta, we drive some scooters over to Monas Park to play soccer againsta small crew of 14-15 year-old, barefoot locals. The temperature was in the 30s at 9:00 PM. There was a chnace of this being my last day on the planet. Then it was off for a few beers and back to hostel. We saw a girl on a moto get hit as we left the bar. This made the 20 minutes back a little more hair-raising.

People have been more than friendly, with lots of eye-contact, smiles, hellos and nods. In tourist areas like the volcano, you deal with street touts, but they are friendly, not really aggressive and no grabbing, so easy to be polite or ignore them. Otherwise, all I get is lots of hello, Mister!.

The hike above the hills in Bandung yesterday was very cool. Took an hour to bus to Lembang then a bit of walking to get out of town, then uphill thru a few villages, surrounded by working rice paddies, cut into the mountains.

My favorite part of travelling includes hiking the backs of small towns and then getting up into some elevation to look back down. The Lembang hike was perfect.

Wwoofing with the Kinezuka Family in Fujieda

I think the Japanese drink more beer than Canadians!!!!

Cxxx  / Mxxxxxxx / Oxxxx / FARM

Wwoofing is such a great concept. You show up at someone's farm, agree to live and work with the family..and they take you in, feed you, give you a bed, expose you to new food and a bit of local culture. I have done this in Canada and New Zealand and it was always a lot of fun. Woofing in Japan adds the variable of a different language and a lot of food I have never seen nor heard of before.

The Kinezuka family in Fujieda took me in for a week, and all I had to do was put in 8 hours of back-breaking labour, and the rest was free sailing. My best buddy was the patriarch of the family, Toshiaki. In the first minutes we meet, we are having hand strength contests and putting back beer and sake while eating what was to become a serious array of (to me) exotic foods. Then it was off to an outdoor onsen (hot spa) to soak up some serious heat and watch the moon come up over the low mountains (Fujieda is in some small mountains just SW of Mt. Fuji).

It takes a certain type of family to want to take in a variety of un-skilled, non-Japanese people to help out on the farm. They have to be curious about the world, be open to other cultures and allow strangers to share their family life. The Kinezuka family is all this and more. There was a lot of warmth in the family, between themselves and towards me. It was the best part of the experience..that and the fact that they have a sense of humour, especially Toshiaki. I tend to may a lot of wisecracks about the situations I am in...even tho they may or may not come across in another culture. I felt very comfortable being myself in this family.

I bring 2 things with me when I am Wwoofing, a strong work ethic and the desire to eat everything placed in front of me. This went over well in the Japanese family. Kazue and Toshiaki seemed to be intent on not having the same food twice for my entire week. Everyday was a lot of new tastes and textures.

I got to learn about soy beans, rice and tea farming (very hands on, you could say), we got out to three restaurants, a tea festival, the onsen and some horseback riding. All in all, fantastic way to spend a week and one of the coolest experiences I have had in the past few years.

Thus ends my Japan visit for now..my plan was to visit 4 areas (City - Tokyo, Mountain - Fuji, Ocean - Izu Peninsula and Farm - Fujieda) and that went very well. Onto the next country!

Izu Peninsula

I got swimming here, but no luck renting or bumming a board

Cxxx  / Mxxxxxxx / OCEAN / Fxxx

I am just finishing up Part 3 of my intro Japan Tour - CITY / MOUNTAIN / OCEAN. I am on the Izu Peninsula, staying at a re-furbished Ryokan in Ito. The coast is all old volcanoes, lave flows, rocky inlets and hilly towns. The train/bus system gets you anywhere in a hurry and I am here for 4 days. I usually stay 3 or 4 nights everywhere I go. You see less (or do you?) but the pace is more relaxed. The Ryokan is a fluke. did not know how nice it was till I walked in

Check out the pics of this place...mine do not do it justice K's House Ryokan - Ito

If you think I am burning money, I am in a dorm room with 6 people and the cost is in line with Hostel prices here (in Tokyo I was paying $27, 12 to a room, here it's $35...the next country it drops to $12-14 and cheaper yet after that. My breakfasts are groceries (yogurt, fruit, bread, egg), lunches are street or stall food in the $4-6 range. Suppers are usually sitdown and bottom of menu or combo plate at $13-15. All in all acceptable for a first-world country. Trains and buses are expensive, but I take all local, non-reserved, which makes it OK. I am not in a hurry.

My average day is spent outdoors, walking, hiking, climbing, swimming, a shrine or two, a cemetery, a walk thru the older sections of a town, interested in architecture and use of space. Before supper is errands, computer work, laundry and shower/hot-tub(onsen). Supper and after are very social times when you meet people and compare trips and the days activity. since i do so little planning, a lot of my days walkabouts are based on what I heard in the hostel the night before.

No wasted space in this cemetery, places I find quite peaceful and always peculiar to the local culture

Up behind the orange groves

Rocky, lava flow coastline

Mt Omuro, bus up, walk back to Ito (15 kms)

Breakfasts tend to be quiet, as most of the kids sleep late. There are always a few of us and conversations start up easily. I am by myself most of the day unless there is a something particular going on (fish market trip, bike rentals). Supper on is very social, sometimes supper with a new friend and always some drinks/ reading/ online stuff in the common room. It is a lot of fun to meet other travellers and share stories of current and past experiences. I find backpackers a very open crowd.

I am finding locals very friendly, both in helping on trains and when I invariably get lost. They love to try out their English on you . Everyone has smiles all around and there are always handshakes and bows and sometimes pictures.

Above are Sibos (Indian) and Yamanase, both my age, both quite interesting

People travel for a variety of reasons. I love the speed that I travel at, I love spending time outdoors getting some form of exercise, I love sharing travel stories with other backpackers and meeting locals, I love the food in most countries I visit.

I don't count what I miss in any one area, just what I see, because you really only see a small slice of a country anyway.

Backpacking alone and staying in hostels and dorms with a very social way to travel. If I was with someone 24/7, a large part of my social interactions would be with that person. Being alone forces you to open up and let things happen. It is a large part of what makes me travel. B

Mt. Fuji

Sunrise view of Mt. Fuji from the hot tub in my hostel...sublime

Cxxx  / MOUNTAIN / Oxxxx / Fxxx

After the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, I trained (4 trains, 3 companies, help!) to the Mt. Fuji area (Kawaguchiko) for some hiking and R&R. In a nice hostel just across from the train station with a kick-ass view of Mt.Fuji.

Bussed up to Fifth Station at 8000 feet and hiked about 1.5 hours up to Seventh, stopping because of all the hard ice and requirement to hold the chain to stay on track. The path is closed for the season, the huts are closed, they take down the signs.

I love looking down from a height more than looking up, so the 15 km hike back into town was very enjoyable. Mind you, I got lost and ended up in the next town just as the sun went down. Added a bit of stress to what had been a very loose day. Made the supper , beer and hot tub all the more enjoyable.

Japan Thoughts

- I never hear car horns...so odd. Just too damn polite
- The huts from Fifth Station down are all abandoned, as the bus goes around them. Many people hike the mountain, but not from the bottom. Too bad
- The hiking paths are well maintained, yet they handle water runoff completely different from say New Zealand, using wired sandbags, cement poles that look like birch and rock bins
- I am continually in small, polite simple conversations with locals. My 5 words Japanese with their 10-20 English can across quite a bit, as long as it is not specific directions and you remember that answering YES to your question may not mean much

I also hiked up Tenjoyrama, which gives a nice view of the lake and the mountain

Travel Thoughts

- The mechanics of backpacking (book hostel, find groceries, laundry, maps, trains/buses, ATMs, museums, restaurants, hike locations) take about twice as much of your time when access to English is compromised
- I spend a lot of time wandering back streets, popping into cemeteries, peeking in backyards. I love seeing how different cultures use space for say gardens and laundry and parking and courtyards and how their architecture deals with hills and dense living.

I also visited the Fuji Museum. Lots of old farm implements and sports gear. Check out the split-toe skates, knapsack, crampons and handyd-dandy all-around food processor.