Below Belief

Breakfast for 2, Onsen Ryokan style

tim — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:58:52 +0000

We found an amazing spa town where you wander around in kimonos and clogs moving between got spring baths! This is more like it. Also traditional ryokan hotel has incredible, if “tentacle” heavy food for breakfast and dinner. Futons still hard!

This is the amazing (though sometimes hard to stomach breakfast). Amazing place. Loving it now.

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Kyoto and Japan

tim — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:47:33 +0000

We’re now leaving Kyoto and enroute to Hiroshima via bullet train.

We’re travelling with the bags which is never too much fun but the Japanese rail system is impressive by any standard and so doing a trip like we’re doing (Kyoto to Hiroshima for lunch, a few hours to look around the atomic bomb memorial, and then back on a train for 3 hours to a small place called Kinosaki-onsen (on the north coast, north of Osaka) is definitely do-able. We have JR rail passes and the process for getting booked onto the right trains took just a few minutes – with a Japanese booking clerk whose fingers flew over the keys of her keyboard to get us on each of the right trains. Like I said, impressive.

In the end we “got Kyoto” and enjoyed our time there. We took it slowly – not giving in to the “temple-itus” that a lot of tourists seem to have. As you can see below, we admired their temples to consumerism (actually they were quite revolting). the city scopes at night as well as the temples, the zen gardens and the Geishas (entertainment girls, heading to dinners).

Here’s a Geisha, on her way to dinner. The sawn-off flip-flops they wear look painful and the preparation of all that make-up intense…

Our “love shack”, we stayed in a small holiday rental above the workshop of an apparently famous Japanese potter (who has pieces in the British Museum, no less and makes reproduction Japanese pottery with a very specific blue glaze that no one else can make). That unfortunately didn’t stop his place being old-fashioned, dirty and a bit of an uncomfortable place to stay - especially with the wooden beams positioned carefully at a 6″ height…

The “futon on the floor” dream of the Japanese home was lost on us….

But the Zen gardens were something else – and we even saw a man painstakingly remaking one… the calm returned:

In the big department stores though, the sell was heavy and full-on. Toilets?

After a while we just wanted to be sick:

The night scape was cool, here taken from a walkway in one of the big hotels overlooking Kyoto:

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Japan and struggles

tim — Sat, 12 May 2012 05:39:47 +0000

We are, if we’re honest, struggling a little bit with Japan. We’re in Kyoto, it’s cold and the place we’re staying is one step up from a caravan (we didn’t know this until we arrived…). There are parts to the city which are amazing – the temples and the Geisha district – but a lot of the rest of it reminds me of a Swiss ski resort (the concrete 60s looking type). Everything is very small (so I often bang my head) and there are people everywhere, queuing for things… I don’t think the “lost decade” has been much good for architecture in Japan – everything seems a bit run down.

Anyway, we make the best of it. We are sunning ourselves on top of a pagoda overlooking the city and reading books, getting zen. Thinking of home (and Bali!)

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Japan enthralls

tim — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:41:09 +0000

We're in Japan – 2 days in. Time here is mostly spent going "WOW" as the latest craziness is observed. It's curiously similar to any big city on the outside, the small details are what make it incredible. It's tiring, busy, chaotic and sometimes confusing but it's very entertaining and the Japanese are friendly, smiley, reserved, graceful and very homogenous at times.

The toilets are something else. Especially when you press the wrong button and get surprised!

We are somewhat alien here, being both Tall and Large:

Drinking Sake!

The food is pretty much universally amazing:

Temples (everywhere!)

And crowds, crazy crowds in places. In other places it's quiet, almost too quiet:

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Lao Novice Monks, Laos | Travel Blog

tim — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:05:10 +0000

http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-428931.html

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LivingLand experience in Luang Prabang

tim — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:43:37 +0000

It’s rare to get a truly inspirational experience – but Living Land is one. It’s an organic farm community project on the outskirts of Luang Prabang, Laos. It was set up by Mark, an English gentlemen who they said has supported more than 80 Lao children through education and into jobs within the community.

We met members of the community who started out life as poor Hmong villagers with slash and burn agricultural practices, no education and no way out of their existence. Through the help of the Living Land community (and the temples), they have been educated in the ways of organic, sustainable farming and rice growing – and found self-esteem and empowerment, even university careers. There are 40-50 people working on the farm who otherwise wouldn’t have jobs. Incredible support! The experience was great – learn how to grow rice in 14 easy steps, very hands on, using original and ancient techniques. Ploughing the field with Susan the buffalo was hilarious.

This is one experience not to miss (and you get to eat the rice products at the end too!)

By selling high-end organic, mostly European-species of salad and herbs to the nice hotels in Luang Prabang, and offering tours around their farm to tourists, they can fund their existence as well as doing outreach projects in the Hmong villages, looking for talented young kids with the right attitude but lacking the opportunity of any education. By educating these youngsters they help their families to grow out of poverty and adopt organic, sustainable techniques.

Positive and life-affirming day out!

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Things to do in Luang Prabang

tim — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:01:26 +0000

From our friend K:

Eat Mekong "river weed" – basically river weed that's been fried in sesame seeds, served with hot chilli paste (it's pretty amazing actually)
Lao coffee at the Morning Glory Cafe
Tom Tom Cheung restaurant
Diam Sabori
Utopia – cool bar for evening chills
Tak Bhat – the morning almsgiving monk procession
Saffron restaurant – for Lao food
Kwang Si waterfalls
Big Brother Mouse reading project – but also in the afternoons at the Library
Ride Bikes

So far, we've:

Done a cooking class – though possible S's tummy upset came from said establishment…
Been to a couple of Wat's (temples) and the National Museum
Ridden our bikes around town
Visited the giant food market… wow
Helped locals to speak English at the library
Enjoyed several restaurants
Visited the night market
Seen a big tropical storm
Slept a lot (good)
Read books…

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Pharmacies Laos style

tim — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:48:55 +0000

S has traveller's diarrhea and fever and I have a blister on my foot (from flip-flops) which has turned septic in the tropical heat. All of which is a fine reminder of how dangerous and unsettling the tropical climate can be when you're not used to it. It's also noteworthy that medical facilities in Laos are poor to say the least. There is one decent doctor in Luang Prabang and he is out of town currently.

Looking for some anti-biotics for S's tummy upset, I turn to the hotel for help and they recommend a pharmacy at the market. This is a stall selling mostly European drug deriatives – mostly made in Thailand. They don't need a prescription and can't speak much English but with some miming and comedy pointing, I come away with some strong anti-biotics (the type where the wiki-pedia definition says they're normally prescribed and reserved for severe cases of bronchitis…), some rehydration electrolyte sachets, some anti-biotic cream for my foot (apparently normally used to treat infections in marine fish…) and some anti-histamine tablets. All for about a fiver. Lao medicine!

Anyway, S is doing ok, still not great, but less fever and aches so I think it's working. My foot is less like an elephant's now and less sore, so hopefully we are saved…

See the full gallery on Posterous

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The river crossing

tim — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:13:13 +0000

Our hotel is on one side of the river Nahm Kahn and the town on the other. There are several ways to cross, but the coolest is the boat. Accessed by two rickety staircases on each side which have to be rebuilt every dry season as the river washes it away, the boat is a short trip but kind of magical.

The other Two ways to cross are a proper Indiana Jones rickety bamboo bridge (by nervous pedestrians only) and a large metal “communist era” bridge built by the army for bikes and motorbikes only.

All adds to the wonderful magic of Luang Prabang

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Boat trip in Bangkok

tim — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:46:07 +0000

In our 8 hours in Bangkok, turned out getting an hour long boat ride up the river was a great idea…

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