| we wanted to get an early start today, but due to an incident with steve's toe and a chair in the room (it's worse than it sounds but i don't think it's broken) we didn't get out til 11 or so. we took the train to a station right in akihabara. for those unfamiliar, akihabara is known for it's electronics stores. it took us a minute to figure out where the main street to go down was...the first store we wandered into seemed to be a used toy store. it was a pretty small store jammed completely full of old anime toys (and some american ones as well). the next store down was a bit bigger and was full of anime model kits. that was pretty cool except that everything was far too expensive to even consider getting anything. then we found a few electronics stores and knew we were in the right place. this district is full of small stores that sell every variety of something completely random..there's shops of different light bulbs..old (OLD) computers and computer pieces...stores that just sell wire..it's crazy. if you need anything electronics related, you can find it here. we found another toy shop that was 4 or 5 floors high full of new and used, american and japanese, recent and old toys. they had some original star wars episode 4 toys they were selling for some disgusting price. i found a "disney magical collection" japanese figure of ariel from the end of the little mermaid...i love that movie and it seems nearly impossible to find anything of her as a human, let alone in her wedding dress, so i got that..we had a lot of fun looking around the store seeing stuff we remembered from when we were little or toys for things we didn't know had merchandising. there were quite a few anime stores in the area (finally got my flooding of anime merchandise even tho i didn't buy anything). in the stores and on the street there's tons of capsule machines (gashapon)...these machines own my soul, they're awesome. for those who are unfamiliar, they're kind of like those crappy little machines with the crappy toys you see in grocery stores, except they're more expensive (100-400 yen) and you get a really really high quality (atleast for the size and price) small figure/keychain/cell phone charm (sometimes other stuff but these are the only types i care about). i took pictures of a wall of these machines..i'll put it up later.
after figuring out when we were going to meet peter later this evening (japanese pay phones are coool..there's a little visualization of how much money's in it and how fast it's running out) we finished wandering through the main akihabara area. we stopped at a convenience store for steve to see if there were any cans he wanted..i got some pretz to snack on (yummy japanese crackery snack thing) but that made me thirsty. we stopped at another convenience store where i got what i thought was a fruit juicey soda thing and learned an important lesson. when buying new and unknown beverages in a foreign country, you should check said beverage for alcohol content before consuming. lesson learned. (steve points to katakana on can: "does that say fruit 5%?" me: "no..no it doesn't..")
we headed back to the hotel to drop off the stuff we bought and get off our feet for a little bit. then we headed out to roppongi hills where we were going to meet peter. we had some time to kill so we wandered around some of the stores a bit. seemed like a rather high class shopping area..one of those places that sells $40 tshirts. we met peter and headed up to the 52nd floor of the roppongi hills tower which has a full panoramic view of tokyo from atleast as high as tokyo tower. the view was absolutely amazing and we got to see it before and after the sun set. one of the exhibits a couple floors down was these full scale models of new york, tokyo and shanghai. these things were absolutely amazing. the scale was about 1/1000..tokyo tower was less than a foot tall. instead of painting on the building models, they had taken photographs of every single building in the model and used that. it really was absolutely incredible. the tokyo model was broken up into four pieces, the smallest of which was atleast 6 ft square. we met up with jaqueline, then went to an art exhibit on the top floor. we saw some amazing original art, including some van gogh, monet, and renoir's luncheon at the boating party which was incredible. seeing this stuff up close is so much more amazing than any print or art history book. the renoir was really very cool to see since it's so famous. after we finished our tourist experience, we went downstairs and found a sushi restaurant. tried some things i've never had before (squid, salmon roe, minced tuna, japanese pickles, and japanese mackarel are new additions to my sushi experience). it was really a wonderful last day.
we're planning on getting up early and getting a few more things in before we have to leave for the airport. there might be a short update about tomorrow morning, then another update with photos, then that's about it for this journal. depending on internet availability in the san francisco airport the next update may not be til wednesday, us central time. | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment   |
| today was fantastic, despite the fact that we got off to kind of a late start. peter called this morning around 11:30, and asked if we wanted to join him and jaqueline (and his girlfriend hitomi) about an hour south of tokyo to see some buddhist temples. we got on the confusing JR train again and thought we were going to be late to meet them at the connecting train. as our train was slowing down and pulling into the station we saw peter walk up the stairs. the door of our train car opened literally right in front of him. it was awesome. we got on a really nice train (we got to sit up on top of a double decker car) and rode out to yokohama for about an hour. then we got on another train that was much smaller. on this train we got our stereotypical japan train experience. you go to get on the train and end up in there whether you want to or not. i literally could not move once the doors closed. atleast we can cross that japan experience off our list of things to do..
the town we ended up in had a similar feel to cape cod or port aransas..a kind of beachy feel, very small roads and very crowded with tourists. the first temple we went to had a HUGE buddha there. the buddha was built around 1200AD and the temple was just kinda build around it. it survived a huge tsunami in the late 1400s and several earthquakes with little modification. recently the base of the buddha as enhanced so it would wobble enough during an earthquake to keep from getting damaged. we were able to pay 20 yen for the thoroughly claustrophobic experience of going inside the buddha..kinda like the outside only backwards..
the other temple was a bit flashier, but not in the normal sense of the word. the temple part had a lot more gold trim but it wasn't cheesy. this particular temple is famous for its gardens and flowers which had drawn quite a crowd. we found it sad that the main worship area of this temple had half been turned into souvenir shop. kinda weird. there were candles, flowers, and incense everywhere you could buy to offer...there were *tons* of tiny buddha statues everywhere.
we wandered around a bit, then got back on the crowded train back to kamakura where we switched trains to yokohama. there we checked out the chinatown which was very nice..one of the nicest china towns i've seen. peter took us all out to an amazing szechwan restaurant where we ate family style. it's kinda funny that we haven't actually had any japanese food while we've been here..after dinner we walked around chinatown a bit more, then went to tokyo bay. we sat and admired the skyline for a bit before we found the nearest train station and headed home. it was a really nice night. the company and weather couldnt have been better (altho it's been really hazy, but it could be worse.) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| got a bit of a late start..skipped breakfast and headed back to omote sando. we went to a shop that had been recommended for souveniere shopping, then wandered around to find a greek cafe that had been recommended in my guide book. pretty good food served in the top floor of a 3 story building that was going for a sort of green housey atrium feel. then we headed back to kiddy land..unfortunately they're renovating it and all but the bottom two floors were closed. very disappointed, we went back to the snoopy store. i got a collection book that has the strips written in japanese with english translations on the side. then we headed back to ginza where my book told me the largest toy store in japan is.
we came up out of the subway to the odd sight of seeing people at tables and lawn chairs in the middle of the street. apparently the whole main shopping street was closed off so people could just wander around freely...it was pretty cool. we walked aalll the way down the street and finally found the toy store. i attacked the ghibli section (which wasn't quite as good as the one in kiddy land, but i had to settle) and steve and i bought some more stuff (you can never have too much totoro). afterwards we walked around a bit more till i was completely exhausted, then i noticed a friday's just off the main road and decided that was a safe place to get a snack. typical fridays except all the waiters were japanese...they spoke a little english tho. one thing we've noticed: apparently in japan (and singapore) they aren't too big on refills. when they do give you refills (like on water or the soda at fridays..most places don't do free refills on soday) they wait until your glass is empty to refill it. i miss my free refills!!
after our snack i headed back to the toy store. thhey were having a promotion so when you bought things they gave you coupons for your next visit. we had decided we probably weren't coming back to this area so i figured i needed to use my coupons. with another bag in tow, we headed back to the subway and went back to the hotel.
the plan was to get sushi in the hotel for dinner. the only two sushi places are set up where you pay a flat price and they give you a predetermined platter of sushi which was both overpriced and not exactly what we were looking for. we went out to a near by street with lots of restaurants and stuff on it to see what else we could find. we came to the conclusion that all the sushi places in our vicinity were the same way. before we headed back, steve found a pachinko place and decided we needed to go experience pachinko in japan. we each sat and played for 1000yen (about 10 bucks)...it's very noisy in there..it's an odd game that apparently neither of us are very good at. we went back to the room where we had the ramen we got the other day. it was really really good...practically a bucket of soup. much more filling than the little cups you get in the states. anyway, i was exhausted to i went to bed. lots of walking around today.
side note; since our usual days involve getting up, going out, coming back late, going to sleep, i think we're going to upload tokyo pictures once we get back to the us. we'll have plenty of time to work on it during our huge gross layover in san francisco. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| wow, what a day.
we got up pretty early and went down to the same coffee shop for breakfast. we headed off to tokyo station where we wandered over the the imperial palace. we walked around the outside a bit, but the gardens are closed on friday so we didn't get to do that today. it was pretty impressive anyway...lots of big impressive looking gates and trees everywhere in the midst of this huge city area. it was pretty hot so we stopped for some water and ice cream, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for ghibli.
we went downstairs and talked to the guest relations guy to figure out the best train route to get to where the ghibli bus picks you up. we had to take the JR, which we hadn't done yet..there's two kinds of lines, the metro which is subway, and the JR which is trains. the train ticket thing is a bit more intimidating than the metro tickets, mainly because everything's in kanji. after asking around a bit we figured it out and got on an express train. once we got to our stop we had to figure out where the infamous ghibli bus picks you up. i (in english) asked a guard where the ghibli bus was and he started rambling at me in japanese. i stumbled around a bit in broken japanese, both of us repeating and pointing a lot (i had the print out with instructions in japanese with me) and then a woman came over and said "ghibli?" and started talking to me in a mix of japanese and english about where the bus was. we went over in the direction she pointed and finally figured it out. just in time, the ghibli bus, a small yellow bus with white totoro-ish figures on it pulled up. after a short ride, we got to the museum where, soon after getting inside, we ended up meeting up with peter and jaqueline. the inside was amazing..unfortunately they don't let you take pictures. if you plan on going to the ghibli museum sometimes, you should skip the next paragraph and be surprised.
one of our favorite things was in the first room which featured a lot of zoetrope and frame related stuff...there was a strobe animation thing that was absolutely amazing. it was about a meter high and featured 6 sets of sequential figurines about 6" high on poles..it would spin around, the light would go down, and a strobe would flash and suddenly there's this huge animated scene in front of you..it's impossible to describe but it was absolutely amazing. we wandered around for quite a while..there was the giant catbus, but that seemed to be for little kids only, much to my and steve's dismay. we saw the giant laputa robot guy on top of the roof. we went to the gift shop where presents were bought (some for me, some not..).we were gonna go to the straw hat cafe but there was a line so we got hot dogs and ice cream instead. afterward we went to the theater and watched the short film, "Kujiratori" ("The Whale Hunt") which was very cute (and i actually understood about half of it). if you're not familiar with miyazaki and/or ghibli, you should go to www.nausicaa.net and educate yourself :) they even have some pictures from the museum.
afterward, we went with peter back to his place where we all hung out a bit since we were all pretty tired. we met his black lab, venus, who was very sweet. we watched a bit of the ghibli museum dvd (which was pretty cool), then peter showed us some scenes from 'you only live twice' (bond) which had exterior scenes shot at our hotel. after that he took us to shibuya to shop. at first glance it's incredibly amazing and intimidating. this it the picture of japan you always see. times square meets vegas meets, well, tokyo. there's a big intersection where all the cars stop and everyone crosses going every direction at the same time in this massive ocean of people. our first stop was a book store where i picked up a couple potter books with japanese text (one of my goals) and a couple other things. wandering around i came to the realization that this must be how illiterate people feel. i guess more so for steve than me, but it's very disorienting being surrounded by books you can't read. anyway, then we went to hmv which is apparently a british chain similar to virgin or tower records. i got a cd i wanted (Lucy by Maaya Sakamoto), then we went to another big cd/dvd/game/book store with a starbucks in it on the main corner, got some coffee, and sat and watched people. we saw the tower records, then went to the disney store for a few minutes (which was a pretty impressive store visually, not so much merchandise wise). we went and ate at a little hole in the wall indian buffet place which was very good and the people were very nice. then, exhausted we joined the sea of people, got on the train and came back to the hotel.
big long day..tired..must sleep now. oyasumi :) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| happy birthday to stephen!!
we got up early today and headed down to a coffee shop in the hotel for breakfast. then we walked down to a different metro station which is about the same distance from the hotel, maybe closer, that's much bigger than the one we saw yesterday. after a quick examination, we figured out how to buy a ticket and headed off for our train. once you figure out the ticket machine, it's actually really easy. everything's very clearly marked and there's maps everywhere with the full list of stops on that line. also, once you're on the train there's japanese and english announcements of what the next stop is. in addition to that, there's a line over the door with all the stops on it and each one has a light that lights up when you're on the way and at that stop. the train wasn't quite as crowded as i was expecting, altho we did get there around 10. i think the hardest part about the train stations is figuring out where the exit is...
first we headed to ginza, which is the old big shopping district. the main pull there was the apple store which is basically right across from the train station. it's a four story store..three floors of stuff they sell and a theater where they teach you stuff about macs (often in both japanese and english). we walked around the area a bit, then got back on the train.
next stop was omote sando, which is the new big shopping district. when we got up to the street, we got out the map to try and figure out which way to go. a man came over trying to give us flyers and when we said no he offered to help us figure out where to go (in very good english). i asked where the toy store was (we talked about it with peter last night) and he told us the right way to go. we wandered down the street a bit, then came to kiddy land, a 5 floor toy store (but the top floor was under construction). we wandered around there for a very long time. the highest floor we could go had a ghibli section we spent a while in, preparing to price compare when we go to the ghibli museum tomorrow. the 3rd floor had a TON of disney stuff...would put disney stores to shame. we didn't buy anything there today, but we plan on going back later.
we walked down the street , looking around at all the different shops. at the end of the street there's a bit temple entrance thing in a huge wooded area. it's amazing..you step through this gateway and suddenly you're not in the city anymore. they have an iris garden, but we decided to come back when the weather was a bit better. we walked around the pathway, then came to the meiji jingu shrine. we got there right on the hour and heard a big drum from the main area. we watched a short prayer ceremony, then looked around. we wandered out the shrine back the way we came, then found a gift shop. we loaded up on some souveniers, then had lunch. we walked out of the shrine (where someone actually asked us for directions) and were going to go back toward the train, but spotted a snoopy store across the street. yes, a huge store devoted entirely to snoopy. it was awesome. after that we were pretty tired..we walked back to the train, stopping at a couple places on the way, then came back to the hotel.
we were pretty tired so we decided to take a short nap that turned out not to be so short. when we woke up all the hotel restaurants were closed and it seemed everything else was closing too, so we went to the convenience store in the hotel and ate in the room. oh well, guess we'll have to postpone stephen's big birthday dinner. ghibli museum tomorrow! | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | well unfortunately we got kind of a late start today, because i didnt feel great this morning. better now. once we got started, we walked up a hill to what we thought was the closest rail station here, and then down a major street. we passed a lot of restaurants, several small book stores, a couple arcades, and many convenience stores. i stopped at a cd store (a display inside for the incredibles on dvd caught my eye) where i got thoroughly intimidated and didn't buy anything (can't find anything..everything's in japanese :P). we stopped at a really big grocery store and picked up some bread, peanut butter and jelly along with some instant ramen. they know how to do instant ramen here. these are like buckets of soup. its enlightening walking around today...the area we are in could be equivalent to the size of downtown dallas, but this is more or less the suburbs of tokyo. i guess it takes a lot of room to fit 20 million+ people in one city. its really impressive. on the way back we investigated the outside of the rail station and stared at the mysterious ticket machine for a few seconds. we came back to the hotel to meet a friend of my dad's who lives here in Tokyo. he treated us to a very nice dinner in the hotel. we also met another girl who's been visiting tokyo that he's been helping out as well. we had a really nice time. we plan on going to do some shopping tomorrow, then the ghibli museum is on friday. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Tokyo!
today we woke up very very early and went to the airport. it was raining when we left which was ok since we got a taxi. going through immigration and security was a breeze. the rain stopped just in time for us to take off. the flight was uneventful. we watched "National Treasure" which wasnt nearly as bad as it looked in the previews. if you can suspend your belief of all reality it's actually pretty amusing (especially if you like nicholas cage). the plane was about half full. we ended up having all three seats on our row to ourselves. that was the case with most of the rows. we landed about after about 7 hours. we were happy to use the bathrooms again which have auto sensor faucets, auto sensor soap, and auto sensor hand driers THAT ACTUALLY DRY YOUR HANDS!!!! they have moving sidewalks that have sensors before they start so when no one is on them they stop moving. you get about two steps away and it starts moving. we got some yen and we bought tickets for the "airport limousine" which is a large bus that takes people to many of the hotels in the area. there was a prerecorded announcement at the beginning of the trip that made us laugh. "we would like you to remember not to use your cell phones on the bus because it annoys your neighbors...thank you." the announcements were in japanese, then repeated in english with an odd english/austrailian/japanese accent. the ride to our hotel took about an hour an a half, but it felt like less because there was so much to see on the way here. near the airport its very industrial, and on the way we passed by tokyo disney. it feels very "city-like" near our hotel, you can really get a feel for that whole crowded japanese thing. riding around through the city can feel a bit claustrophobic.
when we arrived at the hotel everyone was really nice and spoke a good amount of english. the bell hop got our luggage and went up to our room with us..we could barely hold in our giggles until he left. our room is amazing! everything is automatic. there's a small tv in the bathroom and a variety of "extra features" on the toilet. there's a heated rectangle behind the mirror, above the sink, so that when you take a shower, there's a spot on the mirror that doesnt fog up...its really cool. there's an electronic tea kettle thing that constantly keeps the water in it heated and they give you like six different kinds of tea. i flipped around on the tv until i could yell "there's anime on the tv!" the view outside our window is pretty spectacular.
for dinner we went to a "casual" chinese buffet on the top floor of our building. its actually really fancy and it rotates and gives you a very nice view of all of the city. the only problem was that the rotation was super smooth and there was a distinct feeling of moving, which isnt always the best sensation when you're eating. the food was good enough. there were some fried noodles that were quite good and steve found the pork dumplings he fell in love with in singapore.
after dinner we walked down to the japanese gardens where we met a very nice japanese cat. its been a long day so we're going to bed a little early. the plan is to wake up at a decent hour and talk to my dad's friend peter, who lives here in tokyo, and figure out the best way to get around and what there is to do in our immediate area.
it's a bit overwhelming..i haven't spoken any japanese yet..i'm always worried i'll screw up. i feel a bit lost in this huge city that's not even actually the main part of the city..but we haven't looked at a map or the tour book we got yet, so maybe that'll make me feel better. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| today was a very good day.
first off, and this is for the anime fans (particularly jenny and liz): our first day out i saw an ad on a bus for the cable/internet company here advertising an anime network that featured a very large (the back half of a double decker bus) picture of Ed from Full Metal Alchemist. i saw the bus twice our first day here but didn't have my camera with me. i've spent every day here with my camera tucked in my bag, alertly watching double decker buses, trying to find it again. i finally saw it again today! three times!!
 
so anyway..that was singapore's farewell gift to me i guess. we (me, steve, and marilyn) went back to lucky plaza to try and find some souveniers. steve picked up one thing, then we decided to go to china town. before that, we met richard and went to mcdonalds for lunch. we needed a western food fix and wanted to try the stuff on the menu we'd never seen before. steve got the grilled chicken foldover and i got the savoury tempura chicken. the tempura chicken was small, but pretty good. basically fried chicken with some kind of asian-afied thousand island dressing type thing. the foldover was good too.
steve and i headed to china town where we wandered around for quite a while and got a fair number of souveniers. we stopped at a tiny 7-11 cuz i was thirsty. (i'm constantly amused by the fact that it'd be the easiest thing ever to get a slurpee in singapore, but i can't get one in savannah) i got a can of mangosteen juice (those who recal my first post here might remember we had some for breakfast and i really liked them) that was quite good. we took a taxi home and started packing.
for dinner we (all four of us) went to a place called marche (there's an accent on the e but i'm not sure how to do that..) that was really cool. it's pretty much all western style food but served in an interesting way. when you walk in you're given a card (that looks kind of like a single sheet brochure) that has a bar code on the back. there's stations for all the different types of food (drinks, steak, pasta, seafood, pizza, dessert..) and it has a very dangerous buffet feel to it. you can go to any station and pick out what you want in/on your food and how you want it cooked, then they scan your card and when you leave the restaurant they take your card and scan it to add up everything you got. so it's set up sort of like a buffet, but charges you like a normal restaurant.
after dinner we looked around at a few more stands out on the street. then, tempted by the sign, the four of us went up to toys r us. it was a toys r us express, which is really really tiny but it was still fun to look around. although they didn't really have much of anything you wouldn't find in a US store aside from some gundam and ultraman looking stuff. i did find and attack another capsule machine tho :D
came back and finished packing. our flight to tokyo leaves tomorrow morning at 7:20. bleh. we've both had an amazing time here in singapore and have become a bit acustomed to it. feels sort of weird to be leaving..
our hotel in tokyo charges you per 24 hrs of internet so we'll probably be getting online every other day or so. we'll continue to write entries and post them when we get online. in the mean time, i have some more photo albums up for you tmi enjoyment..
Little India
China Town
Random Stuff around Singapore that i thought was interesting or amusing for one reason or another.. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| nothing to report today...hung out around the house...went swimming for about an hour...
and i got more pictures up:
Tioman highlights (another crude webpage)
Full Tioman Island Album
random pictures from around the city, including the river walk and the merlion
i'll try and get the little india pictures up before we leave for tokyo at way too frickin early in the morning tuesday..
there's also a video i have up..but beware, it's rather large and scad's server is a bit slow sometimes..
monkey in tioman
i've got more but scad's server is being stubborn about letting me upload stuff...i'll post when it behaves.. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Got up and went to Little India with steve and his parents. we started out in an area with a lot of hawker stands. we wandered around the food market area a bit but steve and i didn't last long from the smell. between those durians and all the meat..jeez.. anyway, steve's mom looked around at some spices for a bit, then all of us got some food. richard got some indian food and the rest of us went to a more generic stand. steve and i got chicken cuttlet with noodles (basically fried chicken with ramen-ish noodles in some kinda sauce) that was pretty good. i got that winter melon tea again. after we ate we went to different area. we went into a more traditional (but still kind of small) grocery store and gave in to the desire to buy some foreign cans. got a cool glass 7up bottle, a can of sprite ice and a can of "clear raspberry" 7up. for those who don't know, steve (and he got me into it too) collects foreign/rare/cool soda cans (mainly coke and pepsi related).
we went across the street and wandered through some more shops. there's some kind of dried fish or something that some of those shops sell that smells reaallly icky. we found our way to a big mosque in the middle of little india. we waited until visiting hours started, took our shoes off and went in. visitors aren't allowed in the main prayer area or on the second floor (it's only a two story building) and aren't allowed in at all between 1 and 2 or at all on fridays (women in general aren't allowed in the prayer area). they gave us big robe-y coat things to wear at the front and you can walk around the perimeter of the prayer hall. the outside of the building was very nice. the iniside was very simple. there were some people inside praying..it was very quiet other than outside noise. it was also very open. no glass on any windows, no actual doors. there wasn't much to do so we didn't stay there long.
it was pretty hot (read that the heat index today was 104) so we stopped at a cafe for some drinks. i tried sprite ice which i think is pretty good. not quite as minty as the 7up ice. we finished up and headed home. spent the rest of the day watching some tv and hanging out. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| not much to report today.
went to see batman begins with steve and richard. it was AWESOME!!
the rest of the day was spent hanging out | | comments: Leave a comment |
| wow...so kinda a lot has happened since our last post. malaysia was amazing.
we took a taxi to some former military base where we went to the smallest "commercial" airport ever. we had some time to kill because the flight was late so we went across the street to the "staff canteen." this was the first time for me that i felt like i was in another country. a little run down open area, cooled only by fans, with long cafeteria style tables. the food was decent enough, just a little cold. we figured we should head back over to the airport just incase the flight made up some time. hah. we went through to the waiting area where we waited at least another hour, hour and a half. the crowd of people that had gathered to wait for the plane seemed to not be too familiar with airplanes...everytime a new plane would land or pass by, they'd all crowd up at the front to ooh and aah. the plane was supposed to show up at 2 and ended up leaving around 5. It looked kind of like a cargo plane dressed up as a commercial flight. the plane had two seats on each side with a small isle. it held about 50 people. when the plane took off several people clapped (which sort of worried me) and they continued oohing and aahing for the first 10 minutes or so of the flight. it was only about a 40 minute flight til we got to the small island of Tioman, Malaysia. the airline and the airport we landed at both seemed to be run by the resort. Tioman is basically a very lush mountain surrounded by beach. the only way there besides the one plane that flies back and forth is by ferry. you can't even drive around the entire island, they have water taxis to the villages.
we ended up staying at a "five-star" resort on the beach. the rooms were cabin like and plenty comfortable. the hot water in our room didnt work all that well, but we didnt really need it all that much because it was pretty hot there. the service was good even though the people didnt speak english very well. you had to stick to key phrases such as "bill." dinner on the first night was amazing. they had a bbq buffet near one of the pools. they had all kinds of meat (except for pork as we were in a muslim country), and we tried some of everything, including the sting ray. it was really tasty but had too many small bones to really enjoy. the desserts were nothing to write home about. after our sunset dinner, we walked around the beach for a while. after watching the stars for a bit we went back to our room and crashed.
the next day we woke up around nine and headed off to the breakfast buffet, which wasnt quite as good as the previous nights, but was filling nonetheless. the big adventure for this day was the snorkeling trip. there was a very tiny island just off the coast of where we were staying. they have boats that ferry people back and forth from a small platform (about 10 feet square). we saw a large variety of very cool fish and some pretty amazing coral. i had a fun time trying to touch them while steve had a small problem getting them to not bite him. there were some really nice people there that brought some bread and were feeding the fish. we were out there at least an hour and a half, probably closer to two. on the way back to the resort area we saw the largest humming bird that we have ever seen (a little bit bigger than a common sparrow). afterwards, we hung out on the beach with steve's parents. steve wasnt feeling great (motion sickness and swallowing too much salt water) so we shared a banana split. on the way back to our room there is a stream in the middle of the resort that we passed over. we both saw an enormous lizard on either side of the bridge in the water. at first we thought they were alligators, but they turned out to be monitor lizards. we took a nap, and then headed for dinner. on our way to dinner, we saw a monkey cross the street to dig through a trash can. we investigated and followed the monkey back across the street to the other side of the above mentioned stream where there was a whole big group of monkeys...it was really pretty cool. the lizards were gathered in the pond too so we watched them as well. we went to the same buffet dinner and spent a bit more time on the beach. we went to bed a bit early, rather wiped out by the full day.
the third day we got up very early to watch the sunrise on the beach. we had the buffet breakfast again, then went back to our room to take a nap (steve still wasn't feeling great from the day before). we got up and, feeling much better, steve went to go snorkeling again this time with his dad. i went to sit by the pool/beach with marilyn. steve and his dad came back from snorkeling (both with a bit of motion sickness). we took it easy the rest of the day. i got a lot of reading done (i finished lion, witch and the wardrobe last week, which i've never read; now i'm reading castle in the air, the sequel to howl's moving castle). we had pizza by the beach for dinner, and watched some bats come out and fly around. we walked on the beach a little more and went to bed early again.
we got up "late" the next day and had breakfast and when to see a man called "uncle john" feed the lizards and monkeys. he was a small chinese man that had a very peaceful manner about him. he threw parts of chickens, fish and bread into the pond for the animals to feast on. one monkey that john paid close attention to had lost one of his arms and his foot on the same side, but still seemed to get around remarkably well, all things considered. we went back to the room to pack. from there we caught a bus to the ferry that would take us part of the way back to singapore. at the ferry dock we saw some amazingly big bats. dont know what type of bat they were, but they were huge. the ferry was pretty small, but the ride was very smooth. we pulled up to some docks that we were pretty sure were about to fall over. from there we caught a bus to singapore. the roads in malaysia are astoundingly rough. the entire ride was bumpy and uncomfortable for all involved. we made a quick stop in the city of johor for snacks and bathrooms. the rest of the trip was uneventful and we made it back to singapore just fine.
pictures will follow as soon as we can get them organized and edited. as it is this post is long enough. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Currently on Tioman Island, Malaysia, and it's absolutely beautiful.
Just got back from some amazing snorkeling.
Internet here isn't free so we'll be doing some batch updating...
Enjoy your "jobs" and your "responsiblities"...we're gonna go sit on the beach some more. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| The bird park photo album is almost complete...i've got another 50 or so to upload but you'll have to make due with the 90 that are there now..:P they alternate between dsc and pict files..the dsc ones are my pictures and the pict ones are steve's so that's why there's some that are very similar. i've also got a few of my own pictures from the chinese garden (mainly of turtles) that i need to edit and deal with. but anyway...
Bird Park
Orchid Garden
Chinese Garden
the easiest thing to do is hit slideshow if you really want to see them.
getting ready to leave for Malaysia... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Day 9 | | Time: | 11:30 pm |
|
| started the day off with some waffles marilyn and richard made which were very good. then steve and i went back down to the riverwalk to wander around some more and take pictures. we took some pictures of the theater which is shaped like two durians. durians are fruit that i guess are kind of popular here in a way..there's several things shaped like them or statues of them around, but apparently they smell so strongly they aren't allowed on public transportation or even in some apartment complexes. anyway, across the river from the durian theater was another thing we were looking for, the merlion. we'd kind of gotten the feel that the merlion was important here because it's all over tourist shops. there's a giant statue of one that spits water into the bay and (according to some postcards i've seen) has cool laser eyes at night. did a bit more wandering around, then headed back home to get ready for dinner.
before i get to dinner, and i will get to dinner, a random observation. we've noticed an extreme difference in the variety of cars here compared to the US (aside from the fact that the steering wheel's on the right side). first off, there's barely any suvs. quite a few vans and hatchbacks, but not a lot of suvs. i'd guess about 30-40% of the cars here are toyota. there's a lot of hondas, quite a few nissans. there's a good number of mercedes and bmws. we've been here a week and we've seen 4 fords and 4 chevys as far as american cars go. several porches tho. and a lamborghini (steve was quite excited)!
anyway, dinner. we went to to an amazing restaurant at the top (70th floor) of a very nice hotel. the tallest restaurant and hotel in singapore, and one of the tallest in asia. when i stepped out of the elevator i think it took a moment for my head to register the view it was looking at. a perfect panoramic view of singapore. we took a few minutes to look around at the city which was beautiful. the food was amazing..steve got tiger prawns and scallops, i got beef tenderloin and cheek..yes, cheek. and it's some of the most tender melty meat i've ever eaten. for dessert marilyn ordered the chocolate fantasy for all of us to share (they had both been there before). i wish someone had had a camera when they brought it out for my and steve's faces..i think both our jaws dropped. i can't even describe it, but marilyn got a good picture of it so i'll post that. all in all, i really can't do the evening justice trying to explain and describe it. afterwards we walked across the street and looked at a ww2 memorial and then through a mall...kind of amazing to see a few stores open past 9 on a sunday night. marilyn and i got a taxi home and steve and his dad stayed out.
all in all, today was probably the best day that we've had here so far. between the home made breakfast in the morning, the sightseeing in the afternoon, and the exquisite food and view at night this really has been a remarkable day. we both have had an absolutely wonderful time today!
side note about the coming few days: we are going to malaysia tomorrow (for 4 days)! we may or may not have access to the internet (but we think we will), so if we dont post for the next few days, thats why. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Day 8 | | Time: | 11:31 pm |
|
| a quick side note before todays post...Happy Birthday to steve's mom! :)
Steve's dad got back from india this morning. We all slept in, then went out to the Chinese/Japanese Gardens.
Turns out the Japanese gardens are closed for something..couldn't understand what the guard guy was saying. The Chinese garden was...interesting...the trees and gardeny-ness was really nice but it seemed to be trying so hard to be touristy. We embraced the cheese, sometimes literally,
 
but some of it was just ackward. chinese soldier statues made of plastic with bad multicolored paint jobs...some weird dying panda things..chinese girls dressed up in super cheap fabric..and some weird animal that steve took a picture of because neither of us had any idea what it was supposed to be (apparenlty steve says it's a bear, but i'm not sure..picture soon and you can decide).
 
We went to the bonsai garden which, dispite the cheese, was quite nice. it's cool to think about a little two foot high tree being 200 years ol
d. We walked around some more and we saw a lizard walking around that looked like a 2 1/2 foot long mini komodo dragon or something.
we followed him around until he went and hid under a bridge. wandered around some more until we found the live turtle exibit. the gardens' pride and joy is a two headed, six legged turtle that's been there about 5 years. you pay your admission and go through a maze of turtle memerobilia (the point at which hobby crosses into obsession and insanity) and get to a covered open area full of fish tanks with turtles in them. there were a ton of different types, but it was kind of sad because the tanks were completely bare...some had a couple rocks for the turtles that don't swim all the time, but those things looked so bored and desperate to get out of there. there was a pond with more turtles than i've ever seen in one area before. we found our way to the back corner where there were some larger tortoises (maybe 2 ft long) in an open enclosure with a short wall around them (so you're not actually in with them, but you're very close). as soon as we walked up a couple started walking, surprisingly quickly, toward us which was somewhat unsettling. about thirty seconds later a man walks over with some lettuce asking if we wanted to feed them. lucky for us it was lunch time. as soon as he showed up every turtle in the enclosure rushed toward him. we got to hold stalks of lettuce and have the turtles litteraly climbing over each other trying to get a bite.
He then handed us huge cucumbers (at which point i noticed he was missing a finger) which confused me a bit..i wasn't sure if we were supposed to break them up or what. The man's only advice was "hold on tight". one of the turtles was eyeing me and my new cucumber, and when i held it out to him he tore a considerable chunk off. there were several instances where i had to play a serious game of tug of war with a turtle to keep hold of the cucumber. it was pretty intense. i got a video of the aftermath, with turtles climbing over each other and going crazy over the scraps that were left. (also coming soon). That experience alone was worth the price of admission. After the turtles, we fed a small pond of koi and giggled at their ravenous eating, then headed out of the gardens. after a little bit of work we got a taxi and headed home.
Everyone got cleaned up from the outing and we headed out for dinner. We went back to the river walk area but this time payed attention to the people stepping out and yelling at us. we found a place we liked, but they didn't have a table by the river. when steve's dad started to move on, the hostess went into salesman mode. she got on her radio and followed him as he started to walk and finally said we could sit at a different restaurant and still eat off the other place's menu. we found out that 4 of these restaurants in a row were owned by the same company and shared a kitchen. they also had pretty similar menus. now, when i say restaurant, it's a long row of canopies along the river with tables underneath them and it's often hard to see where one place's tables end and the next begin. anyway, we found a seat by the river. steve got some hot and sour soup for an appetizer and was thrilled to find it very similar to what he gets back in the states. richard and i ordered the mango chicken, which is like honey chicken with chunks of mangos on top. marilyn ordered pineapple fried rice (actually served in an empty pineapple skin), and steve order some Indian dish that consisted of noodles with a mild chili sauce (mild enough for steve's mom to enjoy it). we all ate family style and it was all very good. when the check came, steve's dad was very surprised at several items. they had charged us for some tea that they had been refilling throughout the night, and which nobody had asked for. they also charged us for refills on steve's mom's soda water which she also didnt ask for. the best though, was a charge for some packaged wet-naps that were placed on the table next to the plates even before we got there. the waitress was very nice about all these things when richard confronted her about them. she quickly removed all the questionable items without fuss. after dinner we walked around the river walk for a bit. steve and i stopped and split some strawberry ice cream for dessert, then we all took a taxi home. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| Got up late and decided to take the day off. Steve's feet have been kind of sore and we seem to be getting a bit ahead of ourselves on sightseeing. Spent a lot of time down by the pool which was nice. Between yesterday and today I got a bit more sun than i intended, but it's not too bad. Steve's mom picked up some food from some hawker stands that was really good. Fast food is really good and really cheap here. We had enough for two people to make two meals out of, for about the same price as getting one "value" meal at mcdonalds. i'm also increasingly amused by the fact that the tap water here is better than the water that comes out of my brita filter in savannah. We went out after dinner and found our way to some amazingly good raspberry cheescake at a coffee place (The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf).
anyway, not much news to report today. i'm working on getting complete and unabridged photo albums from the bird park and orchid gardens up..i'll post when they're ready. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Day 6 | | Time: | 10:01 pm |
|
| Woke up to the usual sunny death...twas a perfect day to go to the botanical gardens; more specifically, the orchid garden. actually it turned out to be quite breezy and somewhat overcast, so it was much nicer than some previous days.
The orchid garden was quite large and full of beautiful orchids of all different colors/shapes/sizes etc. the garden was full of photo op areas which we took full advantage of. here's a photo of the three of us:
this doesn't really have anything to do with orchids, but they had some vending machines there and it was a good opportunity to take a picture of one and some of the stuff you can't get in the us. it was an evian vending machine but i cropped out all the bottles of water..
anyway, back to flowers. they make a lot of hybrids at this garden, so many so that they started naming them after famous people who have visited. my favorite of all the orchids was the margaret thatcher:
steve's favorite was named after the prime minister of mongolia's wife:
on our way out, we saw Singapore's official national flower, the Vanda Miss Joaquim:
we spent a little while in the gift shop which was very nice. steve bought me a very pretty necklace:
this company takes actual orchids, coats them in a layer of copper, then dips them in either 24 karat gold or silver. they're rather amazing. the photo doesn't do it justice.
afterwards we went back to plaza singapura for lunch and returned to the indonesian bbq place. this time i got a quick picture before it quickly disappeared. and trust me, it doesn't look very exciting, but it's sooo goooood :P
then while steve and his mom got some groceries downstairs i ran back to the store i went to yesterday ("Action City"). they were out of the plush sleeping eyeore, my favorite..but i ended up buying Ashley, the runaway pig. she can hold me cell phone for me!
 | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
melissa_trip's journal