Asian Trip

This is the archive of the journal and pictures site I had during my trip through Asia in May and June of 2005. Enjoy!

Pictures

News

2005-07-28 - Everything is now hosted on http://g0dlike.com/asia/. If you've bookmarked http://nesser.org/baron/, please update them to here. Thanks :)

2005-06-22 - I finally got around to updating all the pictures. Besides adding the ones from Brian's camera, I sorted and rotated pictures as needed so no more tilting your head sideways! Video links now also have descriptions... Enjoy!

2005-06-10 - I picked up our underwater dive pictures from Walmart today and they are now online in the Cairns section. Check it out :)

In other news, my regular site at g0dlike.com will continue to be offline until I find a place in Toronto and get internet access setup. I'm probably looking at another 2-3 weeks for this to happen. Be patient and thank Ness.

2005-06-08 - "Welcome home" were the words that came from the Customs Officer at Pearson Airport. It's funny how good it actually felt hearing those words. It's definitely been a quick 6 weeks and although it would've been nice to be travelling longer, it's nice to be home. The words marked the official end of our trip and at the same time after seeing so many different cultures, it made me think of how proud I am to be Canadian.

A bit about Australia... We started out in Cairns and it was just an amazing time! Basically because we got to do some scuba diving the one day at the Great Barrier Reef. Brian's a certified diver so he was right at home in the water, but I was jumping in for the first time. It was harder than I thought it would be... Not because I was claustrophobic or scared of the water or anything. But breathing in and out only with your mouth on the regulator took a little while to get used to. Needless to say, I took in some tasty mouthfuls of ocean. MMmmmm... While in Cairns, we also visited the rainforest there and had the opportunity to see some crazy vegetation and waterfalls'. Of course, none of the falls' that we saw compared to that of Niagara ;) The rest of the time in Australia was spent in Brisbane hanging out with Munroe on and off the beach. Our bad luck streak with beaches hasn't failed us yet as every time we try to go to the beach, it's cloudy and/or rainy. But we did have a bit of sun so that was ok. We also tried to learn to surf. But we were half hour too late (thanks Aussie public transit!) to make it for the last lessons.

Pictures are being uploaded as we speak and they'll be updated over the next little while as I get Brian's pictures together and our dive pictures back so stayed tuned. I think the biggest thing I missed while away (besides friends and family of course) was a good ol' double-double from Tim Horton's. The cup I had this morning was just fantastic!

All in all, the trip was a great time. It was a nice break before I join the real world. The next big trip I take will probably be towards Eastern Europe with stops in Italy and Greece. Who wants to come? ;)

2005-06-06 - Good news... We're not dead!

We're now back and safe in Hong Kong for the night before hopping on a Toronto-bound flight in less than 24 hours. We spent the last week in Australia split up between Cairns and Brisbane with very little Internet access and cheap overseas calling. But I don't have much time now to write more as we're heading out. I'll update more tomorrow.

2005-05-30 - We're now sitting at Changi airport in Singapore waiting for our flight to Australia with an hour stopover in Hong Kong. This airport has free Internet everywhere so it's kinda nice.

The rest of our stay in Singapore wasn't terribly interesting. We spent yesterday on Sentosa Island - Singapore's big island resort/beach thing. Of course with our luck, the weather wasn't all that great. It was cloudy most of the day and rained for about half an hour. All the other days we've been here have been 30+ degrees and sunny.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get our pictures online once we get to Heather's place in Australia...

2005-05-28 - The rest of our days spent in Bangkok consisted of wandering the streets and malls for cheap goods while eating cheap food. At one point, we weren't even hungry, but we passed a Pizza Hut with lunch buffet including a drink for $3. We should be eating Thai food, but how can you pass up a deal like that especially being deprived from pizza for so long?

As part of our whirlwind trip, we've now been here for a day and half in Singapore. It's still hot, but it's less humid here so it's somewhat more tolerable than the other places we've been.

The first night, Brian and I decided to splurge on a good, seafood meal. We went down to Clarke's Quay by the river in the city. We tried Singapore's famous chilli king crab and the biggest prawn you've ever seen. Meal came to about $40 CND each, but it was definitely worth it. Plus, we ate on Chinese-style boats right ON the river. Can't complain about that. Yesterday, we did the walking sightseeing thing around the city. Walked through Arab St, Little India, Chinatown and some of the shopping districts.

Before coming to Singapore, I didn't know much about the place and was very impressed when I saw it. The city is very multicultural. 70% Chinese, 20% Malay, 8% Indian, and 2% everyone else (I don't remember the exact numbers, but that's close enough). But unlike Canada, every nationality and race maintains their own separate cultures and communicate to each other in the common language of English. So, we've had no problem with language barrier here.

But another day here and we're off to Australia for a week to wrap up our trip. It's been so fast! Sorry there haven't been any pictures for a while. Internet access has been scarce or very slow. Soon though, I promise!

2005-05-25 - Haven't gotten to Internet access for a while so hopefully this isn't too long...

After we left Kyoto, we went stopped in Hakone on our way to Tokyo. Hakone is a small town right by Mount Fuji renowned for its natural hot springs. Brian and I stripped down to our birthday suits at a hot spring resort and hung out naked with a dozen or two naked Japanese men. Interesting experience to say the least. I will say this though. Don't go into the spring that has no people - that's the one that's about a million degrees. The 'normal' ones are hot, but at least tolerable.

From there we took off to Tokyo where we checked into our hostel and had the night to wander the streets. We sat down at a sushi restaurant that was conveyor belt style. You just grab the plate you want and each plate is colour coded with different costs. That was fun and the sushi was fresh and delicious!

The next day, we spent the afternoon watching sumo. It happened to be the last day of a 2-week tournament so we got to see the finals. It's an interesting sport rich with tradition, but it's just really, really boring. Each match has about 5 minutes of prep, then 10 seconds of 'fight' time. Wooo. Beyond that, Tokyo wasn't too too exciting. It's a big, expensive city known for it's haute-couture, fashion and shopping. So the rest of the stay there was spent walking through the major shopping and market districts without buying anything. We did take in some more touristy things like going to the top of the tallest building in Tokyo in Rappongi Hills that had a crazy observation deck with amazing views of the city. We avoided the temples and shrines here cause we're pretty much templed out already. Very much like seeing all the cathedrals in Europe - they're all pretty much the same.

But now, we're in Bangkok, Thailand. Everything is SO cheap here compared to Japan. Japan actually was comparable to prices at home, but things here are ridiculous. Meals for $1.50 to $2.00, bottles of water or pop for 33 cents. We've spent a day and half here and including our hostel, food, lots of shopping and the (relatively) expensive Thai boxing, Brian and I have spent less $100 each.

We're here for another day and half before taking off to Singapore. That's it for now... I'll check in again soon.

2005-05-19 - We've spent the last few days here in Japan now. We spent the 17th travelling. From Hong Kong to Tokyo in the morning, then on a bullet train to Kyoto in the evening. We ran into some problems though! First, most of the bank machines here don't accept international bank cards so we had no money. We wandered the streets in Kyoto forever before we found one. Second problem was that we arrived in Kyoto after public transit (subways and busses) stopped running. But that's ok, because our third problem was that we forgot to write down the phone number and address of our hostel. After getting some nice McDonald's girls to help us search the phone book (to no avail), they pointed us to an Internet cafe that was still open so I could check my email for the hostel. Our final scare came when the taxi driver called the hostel for directions. The girl at the hostel said we didn't have any reservations! We went up to the hostel anyways with the intent of yelling and screaming for a bed to sleep in. But when we got there, the girl did find the reservation and pointed us to our "matted floor". Apparently, the Japanese call "a wooden tatami mat on a wood floor", "matted". Man does that floor suck. But we get upgraded to actual beds tonight! Yay!

On the 18th, we hopped back on the bullet trains and visited the biggest, nicest castle in Japan in Himeji - about an hour train ride from Kyoto. From there, we went on to Hiroshima to check out the A-bomb building (the only half building left standing from the US atomic bombing on August 6, 1945) and the Peace Memorial Museum they have. Very interesting and educational. It was definitely a nice follow-up to the historical lessons learned in Germany 2 years ago...

Finally, on the 19th, we checked out some of the sites in Kyoto. Went to the Nijo castle, and some temples (there are sooo many that I'm kinda getting tired of them already! Much like cathedrals in Europe). Things are pretty expensive here... So as for dinner, we picked up (cheaper) bento boxes from the supermarket down the road. They were actually pretty good for our first sushi meal. Today we're wandering the streets of Kyoto some more to finish off the sites then we're headed towards Tokyo tomorrow with stops in Mt. Fuji and Hakone.

2005-05-16 - We just spent the last 4 days in beautiful Guilin, China. There was no internet access so I've been slow on email and pictures. But we're back here in Hong Kong for the night to sleep for a few hours before hopping on a plane to Tokyo in the morning.

But Guilin was just amazing! Pictures are uploading and will be up in the morning. The entire region is littered with little mountains and hilltops. We were with an organized tour so it was pretty easy - we didn't have to worry about getting around and finding a place to live. However, the tour was all in Cantonese. I understood 70-80% of the tour guides and 0% of all the Mandarin people there spoke. Brian understood 0% of the language 100% of the time. It was kinda funny having a translation chain from the tour guide to me to Brian in Mandarin, Cantonese and English respectively.

That's it for now though... Need to get some sleep!

2005-05-09 - Still alive and well here in Hong Kong. On the night of the 7th, we met up with my friend Lisa from IBM, her sisters and their friends at a club called Edge in Lun Kwai Fong. It was ridiculously expensive though - even more than downtown TO! Luckily, the 7-11 outside sold cheap (~$1-2 CND) beer to help us pre-drink!

The next day, another cousin of mine, Iris, met up with us and we made our way up to the Big Buddha (by bus this time!) It was rainy in the morning so there weren't many tourists so that was nice for a change. After that, we visited the small fishing town of Tai O. This place is definitely small and rural! They live in little shanties and modular, metallic houses on stilts that seem like they were bought at a Home Depot. In the evening, we met up with Lisa and her friends again for badminton. Man, it's been a while since I've played. But apparently it's like riding a bike... I still got it and kicked some ass ;)

Today was a relatively slower day. We went into Tsuen Wan and checked out a temple and the first village of the Chan clan who first settled in the area many, many years ago. Their village was walled in by houses in a rectangular fashion. I guess they didn't like to socialize with others...

2005-05-07 - It's been a few busy days here without too much time to send out emails and updates. But we've been in Hong Kong now for 3 days. After climbing parts of the Great Wall and checking out the Tian Tan park in Beijing, we left for Hong Kong. 2 of my aunts and my cousin picked us up from the airport and showed us the appartment we're staying in.

The next day, we met up with Jeff and his mom at their hotel for breakfast. Kev and Jeff spent a few hours booking their trip to Katmandu, Nepal. It turns out that they left Hong Kong this morning since they got a cheap deal with a 2-day layover in Bangkok, Thailand. But after all the administrative stuff was finished, we headed up to Victoria Peak for some amazing views!

Today was a disappointing day for Brian and I. We rented some bikes hoping to ride up to the big Buddha statue here. But it turns out that the route was straight up this mountain and none of us were in any shape to make the trip. Not even half way up, we turned to come home to catch the bus back. But Brian's bike caught a flat and we ended up walking the bike all the way back down! By the time we got back, it wasn't worth it to rush the 5:30pm close so we're just hanging out around here catching up on journals and emails before we head out tonight.

But that's it for now. Check out the new pictures!

2005-05-02 - Brian, Kevin and I are all here safe in Beijing. We flew in on May 30th and have been here for a few days. There's been no emails or posts since we just found an internet cafe now to sit down at.

Things have been fun though. We've walked around Tiananmen Square and within the Forbidden City on the first day. There are sooo many people in the city. Beijing has a population of 13 million people. And this week happens to be a week-long holiday for everyone so there's even more people on the streets. The holiday is the same as our Labour Day, except it's a Labour Week here! Because the city has so many people the streets are ridiculous... Everyone pushes their way around with cars, bikes and mopeds on the roads giving no mercy to anyone or anything. Painted lanes on the roads are only suggested driving routes, but all vehicles are weaving agressively through traffic. Road rage doesn't exist since everyone is just as agressive and don't seem to care that they are inches away from hitting other cars or people. It's Frogger worst nightmare!

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon at the Summer Palace of the Emperor and what an amazing place that was! Great views and it was just beautiful. At night, we went to this outdoor food area where they had rows and rows of street meat vendors! Needless to say, we were in heaven. We tried out different kinds of food including fantastic fried scorpions, silk worms and snakes. Mmmm... And ya, they all did kinda taste like chicken.

We've been fortunate enough to have Brian's dad's friend's employees be our private tour guide and translators around town during the days. Their cute kids have also been tagging along and it's funny having us try to teach them English and them teaching us Mandarin.

We've been taking a lot of pictures, but the USB ports on these computers don't seem to be connected so no pictures yet :( The plan for the rest of the day is to check out one of the less-touristy areas of the Great Wall and do some hiking along it. Not sure if we'll get on the net again before we leave Beijing, but pictures will definitely be posted when we get to Hong Kong in 3 days...

2005-04-28 - Today is the day! We're Asia-bound!