NY Hot Dog-style tofu sticks

I woke up with an odd feeling – I have never been overseas and not had that nights accommodation booked. It was kinda scary and truly exhilarating. After heading to the train station and organizing a train to Kaohsiung (pronounced “gaoshiung”) I sat down to ring around hostels. The actual process of booking a train ticket was extremely simple – the staff at the station spoke English, and even told me which platform to board the train from. I found a hostel that sounded good, and booked it with the girl over the phone.

Patiently waiting for the train in Taipei

Train travel in Taiwan is another mix between china and Japan. Not quite as “high class” as Japan, but certainly up there. Trains are very clean and comfortable with stacks of legroom, and a stewardess roams around with a food trolley. There are shelves overhead for smaller luggage and spots about the carriage for larger items Seating is assigned, but it’s common to find someone in your seat – passengers who haven’t booked an assigned seat will sit in any free one, but will move quickly if you’re standing there looking at your ticket and the seat. Announcements are made in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka (local dialect) and English, although the ticket also says the time the train will stop, so you have an idea of when you’ll be arriving. You can book tickets at the window, or at larger stations there are bilingual computer terminals that also let you search, book and pay for tickets.

At Kaohsiung I found an interesting shop called “carton king” – the entire shop was full of packs of DIY cardboard models, including an almost-life size train! I transferred to the MRT to head to my hostel, stopping at Formosa Boulevard. I had scribbled a note in my diary saying that I wanted to stop there, but completely forgot about it until I exited the MRT. Walking into the “dome of light”, you are confronted with an amazing stained lass ceiling showing off beautiful colours and patterns. Worth checking out if you’re in the area.

Amazing roof at Khaosiung's Formosa Metro Station - known as the "Dome of Light"

My hostel was simple to get to, and I was warmly greeted by the manager. It has only been open a few months, and they are still setting up some of the rooms. Great location, cute “rooftop bar” and a lovely big table to sit around and chat with other travelers. The manager and another guest pointed out some things for me to do the following day, and told me which night markets to head to in Khaosiung.

The first night market was the Liouhe Tourist Market, literally around the corner from the hostel. Definetly a tourist attraction, there were lots of “yellow hat” mainland tourist groups getting around. Regardless, the food was fantastic and cheap too (TWD $4 per Shanghai dumpling). There was a stand that had a line a mile long every time I went past – I eventually hung around to figure it out. It was a famous juice stand, there were newspaper clippings and photos of the owner standing with famous locals and international artists. I lined up, and was at a loss what to ask for, as there wasn’t an English menu to be found. I just asked for “whatever is number one” and was rewarded with a local favourite: papaya milk. Yum!

One of Khaosiung's night markets - this one is considered the "locals" night market, with plenty to see and eat.

The second night market was the Rueifeng Night Market, accessed from exit 1 of the Kaohsiung Arena MRT station. This market still had plenty of tourists, but more locals as well. Food was abundant, cheap and delicious (New York Hot Dog style tofu stick anyone? – I’ve now discovered that this was the infamous “stinky tofu”, not. Ad!) and there was a selection of fashion shopping as well as amusement games and massages. Taiwan is an interesting country – it is illegal to smoke in public in most areas, littering is a crime, and there certainly isn’t a lot of rubbish kicking around. Eating in public (ie walking along and eating) is a no-no, but night markets are a different story – it’s all about the food!

"NY-hot-dog-style tofu" aka stinky tofu... yum

When I started looking a little closer, I noticed that little dogs are everywhere. If you’re ever in Taiwan, assume that every women carrying a large handbag (and indeed men too) are harboring a small pup – there’s a fair chance they are! In fact, I’ve been sitting next a girl on a train for the past two hours, and have just noticed she has a small dog in her handbag!

Puppies all over the place in Taiwan - this is at one of the many night markets, his girlfriend had a pink poodle

Scarily Good…

Australasia ~ Australia ~ Gold Coast and Asia ~ Japan ~ Osaka

“Your bag is over weight, but when we combine both of your luggage allowances, it’s fine”, “no need to worry, buses run all night from Surfers back to your hotel”, “even though you’re amongst the last to checkin, I’ve assigned you emergency exit seats”.

The trip over to Japan wasn’t bad, not bad at all. We flew Melbourne to Coolangatta (Gold Coast) on Friday via Tiger Airways, and despite my bag being slightly overweight (oh come on, it’s not easy to pack a years worth of clothes into 15kg!), they combined our luggage – and as Matt has an amazing ability to pack lightly, we were fine. Our stay in Coolangatta was short but sweet (the hotel was a 5 minute walk from the aiport, right next to the beautiful beach and a 40min bus ride from Surfers Paradise). Checkin for our Osaka flight was quick and trouble free – and we snagged the emergency exit seats on a half full plane. Arrival into Osaka was great, as we stayed at a hotel I had previously stayed at (New Chuo Hotel) so finding it was a breeze. All in all it was a wee bit scary how easy it all was, but our confusion of Osaka’s subway over the next few days certainly levelled the playing field.

Beach near our hotel

Whilst in Osaka we’ve done the standard tourist activities, such as walking around Den-den Town (street full of electrical shops), stroll around Namba, watch families fish off the central pier at night (and see the sun set over the city) and visit a temple in Kyoto (Rokuonji Temple). But, as per usual, the most favourite activity was definetly people watching – for Osaka (and indeed Japan) has it’s own collection of distinct characters – from young girls in kimonos to teenagers with mountains of facial peircings, to salarymen, to old grandmas tottering around in floral print, there is always something different to see.

At the Golden Pavillion

Tomorrow morning we’re off to Fukuoka – we managed to book our first two nights in a cheap hotel (despite leaving it to the very last minute), and intend to start hunting for an apartment straight away. Fingers crossed please! Flight doesn’t leave until 5pm, and a reference website assures us that the trip from our hotel to the airport should take 50mins, so we are assuming that, with our incredible ability to catch trains that terminate before our destination, the trip will take at least 3 hours. So we will be leaving when our hotel kicks us out, 6 hours before our flight. Better to be safe than sorry!

Are the gods out to get me?

Asia ~ Japan ~ Kyushu ~ Kurume, Beppu & Kagoshima and Asia ~ Japan ~ Koyasan

Everyday over here seems to present new challenging situations, and yet each day also seems to present unbelievable experiences.

After leaving Hokkaido, I traveled down south to Kyushu via Osaka. Due to the entire country being on the move (and despite the fact that I booked my tickets two weeks in advance), I was unable to secure seats on a fast shinkansen. Instead, I went on the “SuperExpress Shinkansen” that stopped at all stations to Kurume. Sheesh. In Kurume I once again met up with previous host families and had a fantastic time. Our days were spent lazying about in the air conditioning (unbelievably hot down here in Kyushu) and going out for dinner. My first night out was at the local Chinese restaurant, where the owner still remembered me! Second night out was at a yakitori (grilled foods) restaurant. Plenty of (ice cold) beer to be had, fun times had by all. As always, leaving was difficult (sob!), but I’ll be back soon…

From Kurume I headed to Beppu. However, due to a problem with buying my rail pass in Kurume, I first had top head to the bigger city of Fukuoka to take care of my rail pass. As I’m flying out of there in 5 days time, I thought I would leave my big backpack in a coin locker there, and just cart around my small bag. So off I went to the coin locker place, and asked the guy how long you can leave a bag there, was 5 days ok? He said it was fine, so I put the bag in a locker (had to struggle to make it fit, I wasn’t going to pay the extra $1 to get a bigger locker!). The way it works is you pay the first day when you deposit the bag, then you pay whats owing when you come and get your luggage. So I paid for the first day. I then went all chatted to the girls at the information desk, and they then told me that its a max of three days for the lockers – after that they make you pay heaps of money to get your bag back. Bah! I had to go back and get my bag, and take it with me to the next place. Put it in a locker at the station when I got here, so I didn’t have to lug it to my accommodation, but still had to get it in and off the trains, very annoying!

Kagoshima

In Beppu, the capital of hot springs in Japan, I spent my first day wandering around, attempting to keep out of the sun. While strolling down the main street, I noticed an ATM that would accept my card, and thought I may as well get some money out as backup. Big mistake – half an hour later, after many “discussions” with the guys at the bank, my credit card had been frozen, and it appeared they had $500 of my money. The rest of the night was spent on internet chat to Australia trying to sort it out. Appears to be sorted out now, but was not fun! Whilst in Beppu, I also went to a hot sand bath (in an attempt to relax after the credit card dramas). Amazing! You put on a cotton yukata (summer kimono), and then lie down in the hot black sand whilst they shovel hot sand over your body. The feeling is amazing. Afterwards, you wash yourself off and soak in a big onsen bath. My second night was spent in fear – put a bunch of drunk foreigners together with a big bag of fireworks, and what do you think is going to happen? We’re just lucky that the rain dealt with most of the blow from the crackers.

Fireworks in Beppu

From Beppu it was down to Kagoshima, one of the most south points (other than the islands) that you can go in Japan. My first day was spent in agony – the trip was 6 hours of changing trains, and as it is the Obon holiday, tickets were sold out in most carriages. As a result, I ended up in a smoking carriage – couple that with the 3 hours of sleep I had the night before, and the copious amounts of Japanese sake and shochu I drank the night before (FREE, it was free!), I was a sorry sight by the time I made it to Kagoshima. Luckily I had the foresight to book a hotel rather than a hostel, and spent a good majority of my time asleep in my hotel room…

My last night in Japan was spent at a buddhist temple – an unbelievable experience. After checkin, I wandered about the neighbouring mossy antique cemetery – with an estimated 500,000 graves. Dinner was at 5.30pm, with an 8pm lights out! With a wake-up bell at 5.30am, the early bedtime was just as well. The next day was spent traveling to get back to the airport (with a few pre-planned stops for souvineer shopping 🙂 ).

Once again, my travels in Japan are over, but have no fear, I’ll be back again!

Sun setting on my holiday

Old Russian Jeeps and 13 hour buses

Asia ~ China ~ Beijing & Mongolia ~ Ulan Baator

Where to begin? Once again, I’ve been lazy about updating my blog – my excuse? I’m in holiday mode!!! Last week, we headed off to Mongolia via train – we had ‘soft sleeper’ (first class), but it was an old train – NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! It was horrible! Couldn’t even have the window open (our fan broke on both trips) as the sand from all the deserts comes in, something we didn’t learn until after the first trip… When we arrived in Ulan Baator (Mongolia), after the train trip, the very first thing I wanted was to have a shower. For the past 13 hours, there had been sand and dust slowly pouring into my hair all night. Alas, there was to be no shower for a very very long time…

We wandered into town (had no map, and didn’t understand enough to know what to pay for a taxi, so we just guessed which way to go – my way was the right way in the end!)… After walking about for a couple of hours, we got some directions to where our hostel was supposed to be, and headed that direction (a good 1.5km away). Once there, we still couldn’t find it. Queried at a supermarket, where all the girls went out of their way to help us (they spoke no English, I spoke no Mongolian, we communicated through gestures). Eventually, one of the girls took us to a telephone shop to call the hostel (I had the number written down in my diary). Turns out the number had been disconnected. Hmm. So we found an internet cafe – and after about half an hour of searching, we found that the hostel had moved and not updated it’s address. Off we tumbled again… We never did find the hostel, at about 11.30pm (we had arrived in town at about 8am) we found a hotel for $25 a night and decided it would do – the manager didn’t speak any English, but was very nice, and we collapsed into bed, but not before jumping in the shower and discovering… THERE WAS NO HOT WATER!!! Not only that, but the water was incredibly cold, middle of winter Mongolian type cold (ok, maybe not that cold, the water probably freezes in the middle of winter, but close enough). I had a 3 second sponge shower, then attempted to wash my hair – my head still hurts thinking about that cold water. We ended up staying at the hotel for all of our trip – it was cheap, the people were friendly, and we figured we’d have cold showers no matter what hostel/hotel we choose.

The Trans-Mongolian Train

We spent our days wandering Ulan Baator and marveling at how nice and friendly the people were. Most people were willing to help us find things and were happy to help – despite the desperate lack of a common language. The weather was deliciously cool (coming from hot Beijing), although the sun was nice and strong. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Mongolian ‘supermarkets’ (often just convenience store size) stock many luxury items that Chinese supermarkets don’t, at great prices. Chocolate yogo’s and nutella were the top of Matt’s list, whilst I was in love with the ‘bounty’ chocolate bars and REAL (non-sweet) bread. Yum. Seriously lacking was something we thought would be in abundance – cheese. Turns out we were just looking in the wrong places, and it wasn’t the type of cheese we were expecting, so we didn’t notice it. We also trooped out to the black market – a huge market on the edge of town, selling absolutly everything, from clothing to goats milk, to horse rugs and high heels. Plenty of things to see and people to watch – getting back was harder than anticipated when we realised that we had no idea where any of the mini-busses were going and would have to rely on a taxi driver who spoke no english. Matt saved the day with a sketch of a horse, indicating the statue of a horse in the middle of town. Our taxi driver figured it out straight away and off we went.

The Black Market (Naram Tuul)

The journey back wasn’t as easy our trip there, but it was an experience none-the-less. Instead of booking a train direct from Ulan Baator to Beijing (which would have been expensive, and probably sold out anyway), we caught an overnight train to Zamyn Uud (the Mongolian side of the border). The train itself was nothing special, no fan, no airconditioning, but we did get free cups of tea! We also made friends with a Mongolian guy on his way to visit his son and wife in Singapore – a friendship that turned out to be very handy. Once in Zamyn Uud, we (with the help of our new friend) caught an old russian jeep to cross the border. Once again, I found that being a foreign female helped me – Matt was squished in the back with about four or five other guys, while I had the front to myself! The jeep drove us to the border, where we waited in line for about an hour and a half. Although everyone jumped out of the jeep and wandering around, I was happy to stay in (the sun was incredibly strong, I’m trying so hard not to get burnt) and chat to the driver instead. As the driver spoke no English or Mandarin, and I spoke no Mongolian, all of our conversation was done through gestures. After exhausting my possible topics of conversation (i.e. “I’m tired” and “It’s hot”), the drive got sick of me, and made his younger companion drive while he had a cigarette. Lucky driver #2 also got to chat with me about the weather and my lack of sleep…

Eventually we made it over the border and into Erlian (the Chinese side of the border). Saying bye to our new friend at the bus station (he was going to catch a bus to Beijing – we thought he was crazy, a bus for 10 hours? No thanks!), we headed to the train station. Only to discover that it was a Chinese Holiday (‘Lovers Day’) and no trains were running. Back to the bus station we headed, where we met up with our friend again, and bought tickets for the 10 hour (which was, in reality, 13 hours) sleeper bus to Beijing. After lunch with our Mongolian friend, we boarded the bus to discover that it had no seats – instead, it was full of bunk beds! Reasonablly comfortable (for the average not-tall person), they allowed us (well, me anyway – Matt belongs to the tall category) to get a bit of rest on the trip to Beijing. Arrival in Beijing was pleasant, we now know this city, so getting a taxi was relatively easy, and we were able to grab some McD’s for brekky (it was 6am!) before stumbling into bed…

Me in the old russian jeep

Since our return, we’ve been lazying about and attempting to organise a visa extension for Matt. Many dramas (laws changed on August 1st regarding extensions, making it more difficult), but it appears the extension is now under way. Trains are books, flights are booked, we are leaving Beijing for Shanghai next Friday – yey! Now to get all the last minute shopping done and see all the places I forgot to visit… In between all this, we are still finding ways to truly experience the Chinese culture – Last night we spent the night at a hairdressers, where we all got our hair cut and washed for only 15 yuan (a bit over $2). And no, it wasn’t me and the girls – it was me and the boys who thought up this fabulous way to spend an evening! After the hairdressers, we toddled off to an internet cafe that was packed, where we spent a good two hours playing computer games (Battlefield and other such gun-toting games) with the rest of the under-25 male Chinese population. An interesting night to say the least.

China is getting into gear for the olympics, some-thing we are reminded over and over again each day. On August 8th, we went to the ‘pre-versary’ of the 2008 Olympic Games at Tianamen Square – the 365 day countdown has began! The official theme song ‘We are ready’ was released (you can preview this amazing song here), and advertising can be seen all over the television, on buses, buildings, at McD’s, on billboards – everywhere! Perhaps my favourite television add is one which features a number of smiling people doing ‘good deeds’, such as stopping for pedestrians at a pedestrian crossing and holding a lift door open for some-one – it seems these adds are trying to ‘train’ the population as to how to behave for the olympics? An amusing ad none-the-less.

And so, we are left with the task of packing up the apartment (ooh, that’s right, need another suitcase!) and getting ourselves down to Shanghai, where we’ll be for a few days, before Hong Kong, and then home! Hope all is well, xoxo

Dancing with Panda’s in Chengdu

Asia ~ China ~ Shanghai & Chengdu

So a 10 hour plane trip doesn’t seem that long when you compare it to some of the long hauls that we’ve done (namely Australia – USA), but man, any flight over 3 hours is a long flight! Before we even left Australia we had our first embarrassing experience- dad walked into the ladies toilets without realising. We quickly took off and pretending we didn’t know him – he got shoo-ed out soon after! We flew Qantas, so service was reasonably decent (although Chuck really didn’t like her vego food – chickpeas and cous cous, ugh! [says her hehe]), but the entertainment was top notch. They have a new entertainment system – movies on demand – so you can watch whatever you want, when you want it. Chuck got her fill of movies!

All things done and said, arrival into Shanghai was easy and quick. After filling out the health card (“do you have sniffles?” “no [sniffle sniffle]”, “do you have a fever” “no [ooh it’s hot in here]! we got through and out into the arrival hall. After picking up our bags, we ran the gauntlet to get through past arrivals – so many people! We we’re supposed to pick up our tickets for our flight – so we grabbed a phone card and attempted to ring the dude… and he spoke only Chinese! I knew that this trip would be a great way to practice my ‘barely-there’ Chinese, but I didn’t realise it would be this soon! Stumbled through the phone call, and we arranged a place to pick up the tickets – my Chinese worked!!!

Family waiting for taxi in Shanghai

First hotel was interesting – a typical Chinese hotel, complete with a fantastic little restaurant. Little to no English though, so it was interesting to see what we got to eat! Up early the next day for our flight to Chengdu, just made it to the airport on time (as usual, whoops!). Chengdu was awesome – we went on a tour to see the pandas first up. They were so incredibly cute – we got to wander around and see the babies, and then have out photos taken with the olympic panda…

Chuck & I with Panda in Chengdu

Train trip was sooooo long. But not unbearable. In usual O’Riley fashion, we stumbled onto the train, bags flying and feet tripping. Caught a taxi from our hostel to the station – just imagine the four of us, two large backpacks, 2 even larger suitcases, a small wheely suitcase and numerous handbags and bags of food all fitting in taxi – with a huge gastank in the boot! Taxi drivers at the station thought our driver was a legend for fitting us all in the car – I wasn’t so happy with a bag of coke wedged under my chin. Train trip was fun – the four of us in our little cabin, venturing out for dinner and lunch. Chuck went through 2 ipods, but the rest of us slept, read and slept for the 50 hours.

Dad shopping in Chengdu

Now we are living the life of luxury – I booked us into a 4 star hotel and man, is it class! Gold fittings and marble everywhere, Chuck and I have the executive room, on the nice nice nice floor, whilst mum and dad are on the ‘ordinary people’ level. Hehe. Now we’re all relaxing after a taxing day of shopping, enjoying the offerings of room service and cable tv – this is the life!

xoxo bobbi