Johns Tentative Top 20

Hey folks,
So its 6am in the morning here. Im currently in a little town called Kawaguchiko - which is a town at the base of Mt Fuji. Im waiting for my friends to wake up b/c were going to go for a hike. It kinda sux b/c were so close to Mt Fuji but we still cant see it. Too cloudy. I might just have to buy a postcard... Anyway, couldnt sleep so I got up to indulge my new found Facebook addicition for a bit and to blog a bit about my tentative top 20 experiences in the last 10 months. I know it seems a bit premature b/c Im still not home yet - but barring any major exciting new experiences in the next 6 days, I think the following top 20 are a go!

So here they are in no particular order -

1) Hong Kong - this city is so cool. One of the coolest views had to be seeing the city skyline from the peak. I love the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong - taking public transportation especially. I love seeing friends and family there. Great food.

2) Wildlife - Ive seen a lot of cool animals on this trip. Riding elephants in Thailand. Taking pics with pandas in China. Snorkelling off the coast of Oz and seeing AMAZING fish and marine life. Swimming with turtles in Malaysia. But my favourite had to be seeing Kangaroos.

3) Great Wall of China - experience of a lifetime

4) Trekking in Sapa in Northern Vietnam. It was a lousy day weather wise but it was still gorgeous. Loved every minute of it - well, except sliding down in the mud...

5) Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Cambodia overall was a really cool country though. Its where I visited my first AIDS development project and went off the beaten path a bit. But yeah, Angkor Wat was amazing. Sunrise, sunset, and climbing everything in sight.

6) Climbing Mt Kinabalu in Malaysia. Great experience to watch the sunrise (while eating a Mars bar) on top of the mountain.

7) Hiking on Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand. Another amazing experience of hiking on ice.

8) Sydney - I LOVE this city. And Id consider immigrating there. Sydney was my refuge when I desperately needed Chinese food while in Oz. Cant remember how many times I went to that Chinese bakery. Loved the Chinese New Year Parade. Going clubbing and to the beach. The Harbour was beautiful. Seeing the Opera House and going to a play there. Taronga Zoo... Manly Beach... Loved it, loved it, loved it.

9) Speaking of Sydney - New Years Eve rocked! watching the fireworks off the Harbour Bridge, going clubbing, and then to the all day rave the next day (Field Day, baby!). I will never forget that New Years.

10) Hiking around Mt Cook, New Zealand - totally lucked out on the weather and it was amazing. Felt like I was in the middle of a landscape for Lord of the Rings.

Hmmm... Im noticing a pattern here... lots of hiking.... anyway....

11) Eating in Malaysia and Singapore. Hands down - best food ever. I just ate and ate and ate - even when I wasnt hungry. Loads of cheap good food.

12) Beach bumming - favourite beaches: Gold Coast (Oz), Perhentian Islands and Borneo (Malaysia), Sihanoukville (Cambodia) I cant wait to show you all my tan. ;)

13) Japan overall. This has been a pretty wicked country to travel through. Easy as. Loved the shinkansen train that took my everywhere I wanted to go. Loved the history, culture, and the people who were so friendly. I love how they keep talking to you in Japanese even though you havent clue what theyre saying.

14) Hiking on Yellow Mountain in China.

15) Shopping in Hoi An, Vietnam. It was so much fun getting custom made clothes. Cant wait to show off the new wardrobe. Kicking myself now for not getting a suit made.

16) Camping in the outback (Central Australia). Those were a few awesome days in the desert.

17) Working for the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance while in Canberra. That was an amazing experience that challenged my political views and made me reflect on what I believed. I learned a lot about Aussie politics. I got to enhance my skillset e.g. writing grant proposals. I got to organize a one day conference and meet heaps of people from the HIV/AIDS sector in Oz. Great coworkers that were fun to drink with.

18) T - you know who you are. ;) Still miss you heaps.

19) Living with the Allans in Canberra. That was a great experience. I was blown away by their hospitality in letting me be a part of their family for a few months.

20) The people that I have met traveling- either briefly or have had the pleasure of knowing for a few months. You are the people who have prevented me from feeling homesick and have changed who I am profoundly. I sincerely hope that we can keep in touch to a certain extent. Maybe facebook is the answer? ;)

Mud baths and opthamologists

Greetings from Beppu - city of hot springs. Yeah, and they are EVERYWHERE. When I exited the train station - the first thing I saw was a hot spring for hands. It was like a little fountain - except that the water was HOT! There are so many hot springs in this city. You can even see random plumes of smoke rising from various places in the city.

So about two days ago -I realise that I was at a start of yet another eye infection. Its a fairly regular thing for me - just part of wearing contact lenses I figured. Anyway, I was a bit panicky just b/c I wasnt too keen on trying to find an English speaking doctor in Japan - let alone from a small town like Beppu or an even smaller town like Aso. I started calling my medical insurance company to see if I could find a doctor in my next big city - Hakata (5th largest in Japan). I totally lucked out b/c I mentioned that I had an eye infection to the guy who works at the guesthouse and how I was debating whether or not to go immediately to Hakata today to look for a hospital with an English speaking doctor and hes like - theres an eye doctor next door. What? You mean, he lives next door? Or he has an office next door? Nope, theres an eye doctor next door. And sure enough, next door to my guest house is an opthamologist office. So by about 930am this morning, I have visited the opthamologist - hed given me eye drops and an ointment to put on the puffy bit below my eye and I was on my way. Not quite sure what hes given me - but Ill put my faith in the Japanese medical system.

So I spent the rest of the day visiting the various onsens (read hot springs and spas) around the city. I visited a springs loosely translated as Blue Sea Hell. These hot springs are too hot to actually go in. You just look at them and boil eggs in them. Then I visited a hot mud bath area. That was cool. And then I visited a hill side hot springs overlooking the city and had it to myself. Oh yeah, and last night, I went to another spa that was literally scalding hot. A nice Nagoya businessman started chatting me up and we went for coffee afterwards. Cool deal. He got to practice my English and I got to hang out w/ a Japanese and learn more about the country firsthand.

Anyway, I can hear English being spoken nearby so I better go check it out. Im longing to have a decent conversation in English. Laters.

8 more days!

Omigosh, Ill be home in 8 days. It really hasnt sunk in yet that Ill be back in Vancouver in a very short while. Just the other day, I was in a shopping mall in Nagasaki, and I saw GAP. I havent seen a GAP store since last September. Holy smokes...

So Im currently in a little town called Aso -the smallest town I have visited in Japan thus far. Theres only one convenience store here and one restaurant. Seriously, thats small - in Tokyo, theres like two convenience stores on a busy block. I came here to hike around the Aso mountain - which has multiple peaks. Theres a big crater with sulphuric gas coming out of it. There was a lot of haze, clouds, and maybe gas... dunno... cant be sure, so I didnt get any magnificent pictures today. The entire area is actually inside of a volcanic caldera formed over 100,000 years ago and has a circumference of 128km. Very cool indeed - if only I could see through the haze and clouds.

Nagasaki was good. Chinatown in Nagasaki was pretty disappointing. I also visited the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb museum in that city, which was similar to Hiroshima but also very moving. THe nice thing was that it wasnt very crowded. I guess not as many people make it all the way down to Nagasaki. Actually, since leaving Hiroshima, Ive seen less and less white people. Today is my Day 2 of not speaking English with anyone. Its pretty quiet not being able to talk to people.

Nagasaki is probably or WAS probably Japans most Christian city interestingly enough. It was the port whereby foreign traders and missionaries came in through. ST Francis Xavier landed in nearby Kagoshima in the mid 16th century. Christianity flourished for awhile but then was banned. I visited the site of 26 people (6 foreigners, and 20 japs) who were crucified in an effort to stamp out Christianity. Interesting memorial museum there. Never really thought of Japan as a Christian country but then again, it isnt. Its not really a religious country period. Very secular but people still just visit temples out of tradition I think. Ironically, one of the buildings closest to the hypocenter of the bomb that fell on Nagasaki was the Urakami Cathedral, the largest cathedral at the time in East Asia that only had been constructed in the early 1900s after freedom of religion was granted in the 1890s. Its been rebuilt, FYI.

Anyway, I have a train to catch now. Later.

Sumimasen

In case youre wondering, sumimasen means excuse me. I say it a lot. To get around people and stuff. Its one of three phrases that Ive learned - hello, thank you, and excuse me. Yeah, I havent made much effort to learn more unfortunately.

So Im currently in Nagasaki. Since I last wrote, Ive visited Osaka, Hiroshima, and Miyajima. Again, Im moving to a new city everyday so its pretty intense. My cough is worsening though so Ill probably call it a night pretty early tonight.

I visited the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima which was a sobering reminder of how awful nuclear war is. Theres the atomic bomb dome which is the second picture, which is one of the few buildings that were left standing after the bomb hit. Contrary to what I thought before, the bomb actually exploded 600m above the ground to maximize the impact. Everything in the area was simply burned. Craziness... people in the vicinity literally had their skin slide off their bones. It was pretty gruesome. Tomorrow I will visit the museum in Nagasaki. I imagine that itll be quite similar.

I also visited the floating torri gate just off of Miyajima - in the third picture. That gate is one of the most photographed gates in Japan. Its pretty beautiful and massive. I also climbed to teh top of the mountain on the island.

Alright thats it from me for now. Gotta go have dinner now. Theres a Chinatown in Nagasaki. Im very excited about that. Im a bit sick of Japanese food....

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1) sumo tournament in Nagoya!

2) Geisha hunting in Kyoto - they are VERY popular

3) Gion Matsuri - a big festival in Kyoto. There are these massive floats that they have to turn. Takes a lot of manpower to turn them.

4) Lots of people wear their kimonos for the festival. These girls were more than happy to pose with me. :D

5) Shrine in Kyoto - there are hundreds if not like a thousand red torii gates going all the way up the side of the mountain

6) Another temple in Kyoto - with a nice view of the city.

Deer, Sumo, and Geisha Hunting

Highlights over the last couple of days

Nara - its a small town outside of Kyoto. Essentially theres a big park with temples everywhere including the biggest wooden building in the world. Heaps of temples - to be honest, Im really templed out. I can do a temple in 30 seconds now - much like cathedrals by the end of Europe trip a few years ago, or wats in Thailand last year. The coolest thing about Nara though is the deer that walk around. And there are HEAPS of them. Theyre everywhere and we went up to this lady to buy deer biscuits to feed them and she said start walking and we were like what? Then I felt a deer bite my butt and I turned around and there were a few deer behind me. They were literally chasing me at one point and this Canadian girl that I was visiting Nara with has a short video of these deer coming towards me and surrounding me. Ill make sure I get the link from her when she posts it.

Geisha Hunting - if I recall correctly, there are less geishas than pandas in the world... dont quote me on that. But there is one district in Kyoto called Gion where you can go geisha spotting. I spent the last few nights walking the alleyways of Gion looking for geishas to photograph. Im proud to admit that I was successful. Ill post pics later.

Sumo - one thing that I definitely wanted to watch was a sumo tournament in Japan and I lucked out because its not year round. I had to go to Nagoya for it and my friends and I made it into a day trip. Saw a lot of ass that day...more than enough for a lifetime I think. But who doesnt like watching fat people in literally a G-string push each other around. ;)

Anyway, I think theres a line of people waiting to use the internet so Ill sign off for now.

More later and hopefully pics too.

Greetings from Tokyo

I hope you guys like the pics. So its another rainy day in Tokyo. Unfortunately, its the rainy season. And apparenlty, a typhoon is on the way and is expected to hit around Monday. Yeah for typhoons, eh? Im headed into the mountains today for 2 days so hopefully it wont be too bad.

Japan is a very interesting place to say the least. Fairly homogenous population makes for a fairly insulated culture.

Tokyo isnt as crazy as I imagined it to be. In fact, Id say that Hong Kong is more bustling just because its more dense as a city than Tokyo is. Dont get me wrong, Tokyo is a massive city with what 20 million people in the Greater Tokyo area compared to Hong Kongs 7-8 million, but its more spread out. The buildings arent as high as I thought theyd be either.

Its still been great though so far. A few highlights.

Going to Puroland!!!! Sanrio - the creators of Hello Kitty have a kids amusement park about 1 hour outside of the city. I had casually mentioned my interest going to a Danish backpacker here at the hostel and hed said that hed be up for going. So Daniel and I headed to Puroland yesterday. We were the only Westerners there except for two white kids. The rest were all Chinese and Japanese tourists. I was never a serious fan of Hello Kitty, but hey, when in Japan, eh? It was pretty amazing. Its all indoors. It is cutesy as heck. I went on a boat ride which was a Sanrio equivalent of Its a small world. I got a picture with Hello Kitty, and Bad Badtz Baru, etc. We caught a couple of shows including an amazing parade which had acrobatics in it as well. Hello Kitty was feature prominently in every show of course. And we also got to visit Hello Kittys house. I got to lie in her bed. Sit in her living room... I have more pics and even videos that Ill be happy to show to people later. www.puroland.co.jp for those of you interested in learning more about Puroland.

Then I went to the Park Hyatt hotel, which is where Lost in Translation was filmed. I went up to the New York Bar on the 52nd floor. AMAZING views of Tokyo. I got there about 530pm and left just after 8pm until it was all dark and you could see all the lights of Tokyo. It was just like the movie... I could imagine the red head singing, Bill Murray sitting at the long table... I was invitedover to the table of an American businessman, we were the only ones there at 6pm. Apparently his wife knows Scarlet Johansson (sp?) Anyway, he invited me to share a bottle of wine with him. I sneaked a peak at his bill afterwards - it was a $170CND bottle of red wine... holy crap... anyway, he was really nice and we just chatted and compared travel notes as hes travelled all over the world for work.

Then I went to Shibuya which is the way that I imagined Tokyo. They have one of the craziest intersections ever with heaps of people crossing every few minutes. ALso in the area is Love HOtel HIll, which is where couples go to have discreet encounters. You can rent rooms to rest (for 3 hours... not much resting happens Im sure) or to stay (which is after midnight). I walked into one because the Lonely Planet says you can. They have pics of the room and the ones available are lit up. The cars out front have their license plates covered up. Sketchy, eh?

Anyway I have a train to catch so I better get going. More later...

Japan rox!

Tokyo Pics

DESCRIPTION

1) SHIBUYA - CRAZIEST INTERSECTION EVER IN TOKYO.

2) 52ND FLOOD AT THE PARK HYATT HOTEL. DOES IT LOOK FAMILIAR? BECAUSE ITS WHERE LOST IN TRANSLATION WAS FILMED.

3) ME WITH HELLO KITTY!!!!!

4) A GROUP PHOTO GONE WRONG. DIDNT KNOW WE WERE BEING PHOTOGRAPHED. OH WELL....

5) TSKUJI FISH MARKET AT 6AM. THEY ARE AUCTIONING OFF THE TUNA.

6) SOME BIG TEMPLE GATE NEAR MY HOSTEL.

ILL WRITE A PROPER BLOG IN THE MORNING. IM GOING 2 BED NOW.

P.S. THE CAPLOCK IS JAMMED.

Leaving on a Jet(star) plane

Alright, so it's my last night in Singapore. Tomorrow arvo, I fly to HK (on Jetstar hence the reference in the title...) and spend the night w/ the relatives and then the next morning, I'm on my way to Tokyo. Craziness...

So I didn't get up to much my last few days in Malaysia. After climbing the mountain, I was totally lazy and spent two days at the beach, which were gorgeous by the way, if you could see from the previous picture of me w/ the Aussie flag. I spent a night in Sandakhan, which is probably one of the most boring cities to stay in. I stayed at a really nice guesthouse where every room is equipped with its own TV/DVD and the owner has a massive DVD collection to pick from. (Blood Diamond was a pretty amazing movie... totally missed the Academy Awards earlier this year but I'm guessing it did alright?) The next morning, I made the trek out to the orangutan rehabilitation centre, which was so-so. It was cool to see orangutans and I'm glad I went but it wasn't as monumental as I thought it would've been.

That night, I caught me a flight to Johor Bahru, which is the town just on the other side of the Singapore border. 3 hours later... 2 buses... 2 custom checks... and I was finally in Singapore on Saturday night. Naturally, I went clubbing and had an awesome time.

Sunday, I went to Sentosa, which is a sort of Disneyland meets island beach resort. It's a man made beach and the view is pretty ugly. The water is murky and when you look out, all you see our container ships. I mean, it's a far cry from the Borneo beaches I'd been on just a few days earlier. There's tropical music playing softly along all the footpaths, all the workers are smiley, and everything is escalator or tram accessible. No physical exertion required. it was pretty tacky but I spent a good chunk of the day there.

Now Singapore excels in shopping and eating. there's both a food and shopping festival going on currently, as if you need any more reasons to shop and eat. orchard road is lined with probably a dozen shopping centres. And I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVEEEE the hawker food stalls everywhere. Like you don't understand I love it. It's like "Richmond Night Market" but everywhere and half the price and way more types of food.

I'll be very sad to leave tomorrow. Looking forward to giving Japanese food a go though.

23 more days.....

I miss Australia

Alright, who thinks that I'm naked behind the towel....? ;)

p.s. picture from Manukan Island (Tunku Abdul Rahman Park) just off the coast from Kota Kinabalu. You can see the fishies swimming in the water. Very cool. I'm going back again tomorrow for more sun. :D

Climb every mountain...

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1) Morten and I at the peak at 5:45am. It was VERY cold at the top. Lots of wind....

2) Shots from the upper part of Mt Kinabalu

3) Ditto

4) Sunrise from the peak.

5) Mt Kinabalu

So I survived climbing Mt Kinabalu. It was SO intense. It is the one of the highest mountains in Asia at about 4000m. Everest in comparison is about 8000m I think. Its a very popular mountain to climb and I didn't know that it's booked for the next few months solid. But I showed up on MOnday morning at the resort agency and totally lucked out. They had 5 beds left (as a result of cancellations) if I was ready to leave in 20 mins. I didn't think I could do it - but boo yeah! Guess who was on his way to climbing Mt. K?!?

See, it's a 2 day climb. The first day you climb about for 6.5km with about an elevation gain close to over a 1000m. The terrain of it really reminded me of the Grouse Grind for those of you from Vancouver. It's fairly intense. You sleep overnight at the guesthouse at 3000m in really overprice dormitories. I guess they're really expensive b/c they have to carry EVERYTHING up the mountain. I saw a few locals lugging steel frames among other things up the side of the mountain. Craziness... Anyway, so you go to bed and then you get up at 2am (yes, I got up at 2am after about 3 hours of sleep) and then you climb the remaining 2.7km to the summit, with another 1000m gain. Staying overnight is to help you adjust to the altitude and also b/c doing the hike all in one day would probably kill you. We started hiking at about 3am in the darkness and reached the peak just before sunrise at 6am. It was so intense. You're hiking in the darkness with a flashlight for the first little bit. And then you have to hold onto a rope to pull yourself up the side of the granite rock. And then finally at the top - I was so tired, so cold, a bit dizzy too - I was on all four crawling up to the summit. Holy crap... I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. It felt so good to close my eyes... But my new Danish friend who I met at the guesthouse and was my hiking partner, encouraged me to press on. The sunrise was amazing as you can see from the pic. But even then the pic doesnt justify the sight. We totally lucked out and had amazing weather for the last 2 days. I couldn't imagine doing it all in the rain. That and we practically had a full moon so for most of the hike at 3am - I was hiking my moonlight. Never done that before

Then there's the climb down... First the 2.7km down from the summit, we had brekkie and a quick nap, and then the 6.5km back down... omigosh...

The hike itself isn't too bad Like I said - very much like the Grouse Grind, but it takes a tremendous amount of mental and physical stamina. I'm so glad that I did it. It was amazing. Not sure if I'd do it again, and not sure how active Ill be over the next few days. I have a few more days left in Malaysian Borneo (Sabah) so Ill try to make the best of it. But I seriously could use a day just to veg out and watch DVDs. Well see

28 days until Vancouver....

Malaysia Pictures

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1) So this afternoon, I visited the Water village in Brunei as well. Its weird b/c Brunei is super rich and has a really high GDP per capita But people still live in a floating village in the river. Dont feel too bad for them, some of the houses had satellite dishes affixed to them.

2) The big, big mosque in Brunei. Cant remember the name of it. Its big - I went inside. :D

3) Adam and Eve Beach on the Perhentian Island. Amazing...

4) Tea Plantation in Cameron Highlands

5) A very common sight in the very Muslim country of Malaysia.

6) Another common sight - street vendors. This one is making radish cake YUM! (from Melaka)