nateguy's Xanga

24 hours in Tokyo

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:08:00 GMT

Originally, I'd planned to take a 1 week trip to Japan on the way to Seattle. Well things happened and 1 week turned to around 1 day. Of course trying to see even just Tokyo in a day would be nearly impossible so settled on a flight in on an afternoon and a flight out on the afternoon 48 hours later....

I was warned... Intimidated by reports of Tokyo's cost of living... But expensive yes, worse than Europe no. Narita is far away but ended up taking the cheapest and fastest option downtown. The Tokyo Skyliner train took less than an hour and even included a 2 day subway pass, package for around 2400 yen. Every other option costed at least $30 for the one way trip to downtown only. Stayed at this capsule hotel in the geek district of Akhibara. It's really just a hostel with a bit more privacy, but you do get your own TV, which I never used. Very organized. I'm surprised by the widespread use of squat toilets in this country. Despite their cleanliness compared to Chinese squatties, they seem a bit out of place in a country as modern as Japan. On the flip side, they do have the most modern toilets in the world, the type that showers your ass!

Tokyo looks a lot like Seoul, except all the technology actually works! And no one ducks under turnstiles here! The streets are unbelievably pristine and well paved despite the population density. Spent much of the following day making use of the subway pass going place to place and eventually managed to see most of the main sites of Tokyo in less than 24 hours. Everything from the sashimi market to Roppongi to Shibuya, think I managed to touch it all! Even more fascinating than the physical would have to be Japanese fashion sense! Holy shit!

The next day I hoped to see more, but ended up with a fever of 102 and ended up making a B line to the airport in the morning. Make a quick visit to the Narita clinic which not only charged an arm and a leg, but the Japanese doc prescribed a whole bunch of unrelated and useless tablets even without as much as a full examination. Ulcer tablets? WTF? I guess something in that country isn't quite up to par.

Bulgaria's William Hung

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:40:41 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI&feature=related .

Hilarious...

Vang Vieng, Laos

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:57:19 GMT

OK, remember what I said about good roads in Laos? That's true... Only for the 20km from the border to Vientiane and the streets in Vientiane itself. I will say Vientiane offers a much better intro to Laos than does Poipet to Cambodia from Thailand. The road to Vang Vieng, while paved was full of potholes. Given that only a few years ago the only method of transport around the country was by river, I guess it's still considered a great improvement! I do have to say unlike Albania, I didn't see anyone on a horsecart! once out of Vientiane, the surroundings look very much like Cambodia, stilt village houses everywhere and lots of mud.

Vang Vieng was very nice, very chilled, great scenery too... Well except for this one strip of identical guesthouses all showing reruns of friends, serving the same pseudo western food, and each containing about 95% white people. Yeh, just seems so odd and yet so familiar. I will never understand why some people come all the way to Laos to do things they do at home. They could save that horrendous air fare too! I admit I've been splurging a little in this short Laos trip of mine and got myself a $12 hotel room in a village where most guesthouses have rooms for 5. But coming from Europe where even $12 might not afford you a night in a public park, I thought it was a pretty sweet deal. The hotel was pretty good given its location, except for a bunch of drunken idiots making noise on the hallways and some really annoying Canadian girls (the flag patch gave it away) giving the staff a hard time. Hmmm. No wonder why they slapped on higher visa fees for Canadians.

Rented a bike and planned to go explore the caves and the karst hills a bit. I came across one cave on the other side of the river and decided to check it out. Bad idea! Getting to the cave involved a walk through a narrow path along the rice paddies, many sections over narrow planks over muddy streams. But that wasn't it. Finally i got to a "ticket booth" which consisted of some 10 year old kids claiming ownership of this cave asking for 10,000 kip entrance and 50,000 for one of the kids to act as a guide. 50,000 for a guide? I thought no way, considering how small these caves were supposed to be. Then the path turned into a deluded swamp and I ended up walking in the rice paddy for the rest of the way, getting entirely soaked in mud and who knows what else! The caves itself were nice, but not too different from others I've seen. On the way back, I noticed there in fact was a solid path just a little to the right. Somehow I wasn't the only one to miss it since, I met 2 others also completely soaked in mud! Finally got back to the hotel and washed everything off.

That night must've been the most amazing thunderstorm I've ever seen. Lightning striking everywhere and rains just pouring down for almost 2 hours. At one point the electricity in the hotel went out completely. Yet still there were village kids running around playing in the water.

Caught the first minibus in the morning back to Vientiane. One great thing about southeast asia is how you can book a bus at a guesthouse/hotel and they actually come pick you up for free! In Europe they'd probably charge you 10 euros just to bring you to the bus station! Of course the bus driver drove around the village for an hour to every guesthouse trying to fill up the bus and finally we were on our way on that potholed road. At least drivers here are less nuts than in some other countries I've been in. The bus did get a flat tire mid way, but they got that sorted in about 10 minutes. More annoying was that we were all sweating because the A/C didn't work!

Back in Vientiane, I made a quick stop at That Luang, another major Laotian monument, had lunch in the only mall in town, and made my way back to the border. Thailand is definitely much more organized than its neighbors, at least the roads are good! Once at Nong Khai station, I tried to get a 2nd class ticket only for them to tell me only first class was available. Fair enough. First class on Thai trains isn't really worth it, but you do get more privacy... if you happen to have the whole compartment to yourself. Otherwise you share with some odd stranger. Lucky for me, my compartment partner was some easy going Brit retiree Thailand who self proclaimed himself as "NOT a sex tourist". Unfortunately for us, the woman in the compartment next door sounded like some angry, pissed off European babushka woman who once yelled at us for talking too loud. So we made kept talking, this time about her, just to keep pissing her off.

The train arrived in Hualumphong at 6:20am, which is suprisingly early given the tendency for Thai trains to be at least 4 hours late! Got to Karn's place to pick up my stuff only to find it's Typhoon 8 in Hong Kong, so I'll have to be staying another night here.

Back to Bangkok, on to Laos

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:10:23 GMT

Having gotten totally bored with Europe, felt glad to be back in Asia. I've been in Bangkok twice in a year now! Quite a relief to be paying for things that would cost 10 times more in Germany! Got in around 1:30, but didn't get to downtown til 3:30 given Bangkok's fabulous traffic. Met up with karn and stayed at his place a couple nights. European cities might be nice to look at, but they'll always lack that something that makes places like Bangkok so exciting and dymanic. Come to think of it, the only country I found really fascinating on my Eurotrip was Albania.

Didn't really do much except watch Batman and a Cosplay event on Saturday. I was trying to decide between going to Phuket or a quick trip to Laos. Ended up choosing Laos, since it's rainy season and not really in the mood for seeing more of "those" kind of tourists.

Got a sleeper to the Thai border town to Nong Khai. The rail link was supposed to have been extended 20km north to the Lao capital of Vientianne by now, but knowing Laos, nothing has happened yet. The second class sleeper was quite a change from the cattle train I took to Cambodia last time! And this might just be the best sleeper I've taken! All airconditioned, with just two levels of bunks on each side, facing forward, unlike those triple deck bunks of Chinese or European trains. My 10 hour train ticket was even cheaper than the ticket from Hong Kong to Guangzhou! Although my train was oldish, at least it had soap and sitdown toilets unlike even the soc alled new trains in China, which are usually poorly maintained!

Once in Northern Thailand, got a tuk tuk to the border, bus across the no man land's bridge, and another tuk tuk to Vientianne center. Laos visas are bought on arrival, I found it interesting how Vietnamese and Chinese (the dirty Asians) only have to pay $20, US and EU citizens pay $35, but Canadians have to pay $42? I guess Canadians aren't universally liked.

Despite being as developed as Cambodia, so far the roads have been pretty good, unlike that shit road to Siem Reap and this country has proper gas stations too! Vientianne is incredibly clean compared to Phnom Penh with proper sidewalks everywhere. I'm also amazed by the lack (mostly) of touts and the absence of pushiness of shopkeepers. No wonder why everyone says Laos is the highlight of Southeast Asia.

Munich

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:29:22 GMT

I came here not because there was anything in particular I wanted to see but mainly to get my flight out of this continent. Got a train from Prague early in the morning, which crossed into Germany without any passport checks. let's just say Czech language sounds better than German. These days the Czech side looks almost as modern as the German side.

I didn't make any reservations so I walked all over town looking for a place to stay for a night. I couldn't believe almost every hostel was full! Since I didn't care too much for Munich, I did have some thought of leaving immediately to Bangkok. Eventually I found a hostel, but the place kinda sucked with poor value for money. Although Sir Toby's in prague was expensive, it was an awesome hostel. Walked around town for a bit but it wasn't anything I haven't seen before. Decided to finally drag myself to go out for the night and went to some clubbing district called Kultfabrik. Turns out only one club out of about 40 was actually open that night! Cover charge was only 1 euro and didn't see too many stunnining women (twisted male/female ratio in this place), so left after midnight.

The next day, I visited the memorial site of the Dachau concentration camp and the site of the botched 1972 Olympic games. Somehow I found this more interesting than castles/old pedestrian streets. Quickly got to the airport at 7 for my 9 o clock flight. Munich airport: Airport modern, amenities not. How can such a modern airport, not have any kind of internet access, never mind free internet access?

Sat next to an Elisha Cuthbert look alike.. If it wasn't for the fact that I have seen Elisha in person before, I could've sworn it was her, albeit with a German acent. She was celebrating her birthday on the plane on her first long distance plane trip. Too bad she was going all the way to Australia rather than Bangkok.

Prague

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:04:44 GMT

Caught an overnight train from Warsaw to Prague on a not so ecomonical train ticket. I could've probably found a budget flight for half the price of my train ticket. Why prices of more efficient rail transport are kept high while budget airlines are allowed to proliferate in so called "eco conscious" Europe, I will never understand. Met a polish guy on the train and we chatted about how women have it much easier in the dating game.

Although stunning, Prague felt much more Western European than Eastern European. Despite being in the Czech Republic and therefore a former Eastern bloc state, there were as many tourists here as in Greece with prices to match. My hostel bed costed 18 euros even here without internet or breakfast! Not only were there tons of Asian tourists, but I was surprised to find convenient stores run by Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants all over the place as well. Spent Sunday afternoon walking around the old town, which was nice, but as I said before starts getting old after a while.

The following day, I got a bus to Kutna Hora, home of the infamous skulls and bones chapel. The chapel itself is a bit bone chilling, those Czechs are creative at least! Reminds me of the Killing Fields memorial in Phnom Penh. Met some 60 year old American/Canadian women who wanted to tag along with me for some reason. But she turned out to be quite interesting to chat with and she spent the entire afternoon telling me about her life history, fleeing the US during the Vietnam war, teaching at Sun Yat Sen University, and about how Americans are ignorant in Geography, etc.

I really wanted to go out one night in Prague and check out the gorgeous women in town, but for some reason, I kept going to the wrong places, which were almost always closed.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:36:08 GMT

Warsaw is a nice city, but why does every European city start to look and feel the same after a while? As nice as European cities are and the incredible amount of historic architecture they may have, somehow I've still found Tirana the most fascinating city on this trip simply because it isn't typically European. Having said that though, Warsaw is different from other cities I've been to in Poland. More modern, more expensive, more colorful.

But anyway, I stayed with curly haired Ania. She lives on the top floor of her parents house and is planning on constructing a separate entranceway to her part of her house some day. Interesting arrangement indeed. Although both girls were working, we met each night for dinner, which turned out to be interesting dinner choices. Tried out a Mexican restaurant, which served very European tasting tacos. Another night we even went to a Chinese restaurant, which turned out to be run by Vietnamese who only speak Polish. Tried ordering pho but it seems like they didn't even understand that. weird.

I called up the other Ania I knew back in Croatia and she came over to Warsaw on Saturday. So fun to meet everyone again (with the same name)

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:58:36 GMT

Bulgaria was kinda boring, I did get my meet my skype pal for a couple hours, yup just a couple hours. That's bullllshit man. Now I'm just glad to be in Poland. Staying with one of the 2 Anias. Beautiful city and probably the most modern city I've been on this trip. Polish is a cute language as are the women Sorry this entry is so short, but I don't have unlimited internet access right now

Skopje

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:05:01 GMT

If Lake Ohrid was gorgeous, Skopje made Belgrade look like Beverly Hills! I heard plenty of negatives about the capital city of Macedonia and so only planned on staying a day there before catching an overnight bus to Bulgaria. I didn't realize that there was barely anything to do in town anyway. There was a nice Turkish old town in the center with interesting old buildings, but it was surrounded by a dodgy market and slum housing. Someone was even selling live chickens right in the middle of the street! Like elsewhere in Macedonia, every car on the road seems to be some old 1970s Yugo or 1960s VW! Really like a timewarp. Some good kebab shops in the old town though. A river separates the old town from the new town which was a nice pedestrian street and a couple malls. Although there's a river promenade, it was full of grafitti. My bus didn't leave until 11, so I sat around at the bus station, probably the most modern building in the city for 4 hours. Despite it's newness, they only turned on maybe 2 lights in the building and everything was shut after 8. Feeling bored I walked to the train station around the corner, which was probably the most rundown rail station I've ever seen... Non flushing hole in the ground toilets included. At least it was free.

Corrupt border guards

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:44:34 GMT

Set off with Etienne and Janna yesterday morning from Tirana to Ohrid, Macedonia. We decided to take furgons to the border rather than wait for the scheduled night bus, not a good idea since the roads in this country suck. The guy in the hotel told us to take it to Pogradec on the south side of Ohrid lake which is 4 km from the border. At Pogradec, we got another taxi to the border post. While, I had my entry tax receipt and easily got stamped out of Albania, the other two were having major problems with the border guard. When they entered Albania from Montenegro, they weren't given receipts for the 10 euro entry tax they paid! The guy wouldn't let them through and after 10 minutes of arguments, they found another problem, their stamps were only valid for 24 hour entry into the country! Unbelievable, considering how much more they paid than me! The guy then gave them an option of paying 18 euros each to leave the country in order to get a receipt or going all the way back to Shkoder/Ulcinj on the other side of Albania. Of course, the latter would be unthinkable and they were going to go ahead with it, but then these 2 Brits came along and guess what? The border guard found the same problem as they also didn't have receipts! So everyone started having a huge argument with the Albanians, who of course spoke little English. Finally the guard told everyone that they either go back! Or they could all go to Shkoder and pay 100 euros each! Then a taxi came along and suddenly the border guards said that they could go to Qafe e Thanes on the other side of Lake Ohrid who would stamp them out with no problems! Of course me, Etienne and Janna were not quite willing to part with each other but decided to fix a time to meet in Ohrid. And so there we set off. Later we suspected the taxi driver and Albanian authorities were all in it. In the meantime, I came across 3 Croatian cyclists who were from Varazdin!

That's not the end of the story. Then I got a border taxi to the Macedonian side and the Macedonians informed me that starting yesterday that all foreigners need to purchase their insurance to cross the border. Fair enough, it was only 5 euros, but it involved a drive back to the Albanian side. The Macedonians searched my bag and looked curiously at my Thai coconut egg rolls. Of course they aren't too familiar with Asian food in this part of the world and thought it was a box of cigars! So I was like no no, food, eat! Finally they got it. That was still pretty hilarious.

Macedonia is a former Yugoslav country so not surprisingly, it looks a bit like Croatia, though a bit more rundown. Lake Ohrid is beautiful and the town of Ohrid is full of tourists from the rest of the Balkans. I was only going to stay a day at first, but decided to stay 2 nights due to the cheap accomodation. Like in the rest of the former Yugoslavia, there's tons of old babushkas all over town offering 10 euro rooms. My place, though comfortable is a bit ghetto. The door knob to my room needs to be taken out to open it from the inside or outside.

Today, met up with Etianna and Janna again who told me their border crossing on the other side of Ohrid was absolutely free of problems. We spent the day exploring the town and sitting by the lake. Food seems to be incredibly cheap even compared to Albania. It's a pity most travellers to Europe skip this part due to past events, if Lake Ohrid were in Greece or Spain, it would be jam packed with foreign tourists.

I don't know why Ohrid's new bus station was built more than 2 km out of town, when the old one was in a great location right next to the old town. It must be another scam by the municipal government to bring taxi drivers more business.