Mangrove Swamps

Mangroves happen to be the weirdest trees I’ve ever seen. They look like they have these long, spindly legs that they stand on, almost like they’re ready to walk out of the swamp on their own.
Now…since the rest of us don’t have boats or the knowledge of the swamps and the swamps have all these crocodiles and snakes and bats and insects living in there (it’s a cool swamp), they have come up with a fool proof way to treat/fleece all of the tourists…excursions into the swamps. Our two guides took us off into the mangrove swamp, first stop watching the eagles feed. Now we were totally impressed. The eagles were circling overhead, performing aerial tricks, swooping in, latching onto small fish…the perfect photo opportunity. I just had to know what fish was in such plentiful supply to have so many eagles all in one place, repeatedly diving in for the kill. Well…it’s a very rare species designed to convince tourists that the eagles always congregate in one spot to eat their favorite food…chicken skins.

Langkawi Island

Langkawi ! An island paradise! Blue sky! Blue sea! Rainforests, waterfalls, mangroves, and, most of all…WARMTH.
Our hotel was like a step back in time - right out of Swiss Family Robinson. Old wooden building, wooden shutters and a view of the forest that was totally relaxing and welcoming. It was such a treat to wake up to the birds and clean smells and delightful scenery every morning.

News Flash from Japan

OK...you've got to check out Nancy's blog about their trip to Japan. It's absolutely fabulous. You can find it at: http://www.nancyoster.blogspot.com/
She has included lots of the Engrish available here in Japan.

Petronus Towers

The fabled Petronus towers, the tallest in the world for a little while at least, are cool, towering, gigantic, colossal and absolutely magnificent. Standing below them and looking up makes you want to fall over backwards! They seem to spiral as they rise, making them appear to be taller and taller, almost reaching into the stratosphere. It’s hard to get a picture of them that really shows how awesome they are.
Inside is a food court to beat all food courts. The variety of foods is unbelievable and any kind of eating beliefs, preferences or restrictions can be met and any finicky eater pleased. We spent a long time just looking at the variety, Indian, Pakistan, Chinese (a couple of kinds), Malay, Pilipino, and who knows what else. Before we could even decide what to choose we had to go around a few times!
We had hoped to go up to the skywalk but, alas, you must have a ticket. You can sign up for one the night before and they hand out tickets at 8:30 in the morning - if you don’t get one of the tickets then, you don’t get to go up. Just a warning…plan ahead….

Kuala Lumpur

T’was the middle of vacation
And all through the house
All the heaters were running
To warm up the …
Freezing people within!

I do believe we left the land of the freezing sun at the perfect time. The cold was seeping into our bones and we all needed to be warmed…While Nancy and Dave returned to the sea and sun in Santa Barbara, we headed to the sea and sun in Malaysia.
Just the name, Kuala Lumpur, conjures up pictures of mystery and the exotic and indeed we found it. Our friend Robert helped us through the first hurdle…the mystery of getting past the myriad of taxi drivers, all attempting to give us a ride…and for MANY different prices. They followed you like porters on a train, each hoping you’d change your mind as they changed the price, each trying to out bargain the other. We’d have fallen for the first ruse if we hadn’t had Robert along to keep us moving.
While Jeff and Robert took off for a day in the electronic stores, Maria and I tackled the subway system for a trip into Kuala Lumpur, through a mosque, street markets and finally the famous Petronus Towers.
Malaysia represents a mixture of many different peoples and beliefs…Indians, Malays, Chinese, Hindis, Muslims, Christians and tourists to cover just a few. It’s remarkable to walk down the street and see the confusing swirl of colors and costumes and listen to the blending of the languages and the smells! The foods were sumptuous!
They allow all people to come and view the gardens around the mosque…and they even provide the head scarves and a long robe so that you’re appropriately attired to enter. It’s interesting…the women need to be covered but the men could wear shorts or whatever and they were fine.

More Snow!

Here are some more pictures of the snow taken from the house.

SNOW!!

Oh my gosh! Did we ever have the snow-globe Christmas! We had assured Nancy and Dave that the weather here was cold, but not really too bad. Thank goodness they came with LOTS of warm clothing. We had a dusting on Saturday before they arrived but it really wasn’t too bad, enough to be pretty, a bit nippy but nice. Well…I guess that Japan thought they needed a bit more of a welcome. We woke up Monday morning to 6 inches of fresh snow. It was absolutely gorgeous but cold!! We decided quite quickly that staying home was a VERY good idea.

Kyoto Silver Pavilion

We had the opportunity to travel once again to Kyoto, this time with Nancy and Dave. We decided to take off to the east side of the city and take in the “Silver Pavilion” as well as a stroll down the “Philosopher’s Walk”
First, the Ginkaku-ji temple is misnamed. It translates to the ‘silver pavilion’ but it has never been silver. The story goes that it was supposed to be silver someday but it never seemed to happen. The shogun who built it really wanted it to be his retirement villa. The lower floor is very small and was supposed to be the “living” quarters. Apparently the 2nd floor actually had a Buddhist image and was eventually changed into a temple. The temple itself is quite small and modest but the garden is spectacular. Once you are past the pavilion, you enter the garden itself.
The garden is actually divided into two parts, though it doesn’t really start out with a garden like we usually imagine. It is a “karaesanisui” garden or a ‘dry’ garden. First you get a view of a cone shaped structure that rises about 2 meters. It is called a “kogetsudai” or ‘moon-viewing platform’. It is supposed to resemble Mount Fuji but it really requires a bit of imagination. After Mt. Fuji, you come to a ‘garden’ that is actually a 2-foot high platform that is sculpted to be a “sea”. Once again, imagination is required. It’s a sand structure with alternating “waves” and flat sections. The labor required to maintain the structure must be spectacular. It really is pleasing to look at and easy to get lost in. Though it’s amazing at any time of the day, it is said the best view of the garden is at night with a full moon shining on the sand, making it truly resemble a calm, peaceful, silver sea. Unfortunately, I had to copy that from the brochure information because alas, we were there during the day and I’ll have to take their word for it.
After this you walk through a more traditional garden, complete with fabulous, manicured trails, perfect trees and groomed moss (yes, I know…it’s the stuff we in the Pacific NW usually wage war against. I’ve come to have a new appreciation of it). The number of varieties and their infinite colors is really pretty spectacular. There are a number of beautiful pools and waterfalls as you wind your way through the grounds. It would be quite easy to sit for a long time to enjoy it.
The Philosopher’s Walk was delightful. There is a small canal complete with trees and gardens and, of course, the tiny shops. We strolled down the path, taking in the old structures, meandering through the stores and checking out the street food. It was way too cold to have many of them open but we took advantage of the ones that were.

Korea!!!

Korea

It’s amazing how many places you end up going to just because you CAN. I have to admit, that’s one of the best things about living in Asia.
Now I must admit, I never really thought about going to Korea before we moved here. It is supposed to be a shopper’s paradise and many tours take shopping crazed people over there. Boy do they ever fill the streets!!! Not only that, we took the Queen of Shopping with us! Janet (our counselor at school) absolutely loves shopping and was truly in her element, weaving through the throngs of people and booths across Seoul. Nothing like learning from the master!
The city has a cool “City Bus Tour” service that allows you to get on and off the bus for the entire day for only $10. It’s really a great deal. Now, knowing that people come to Korea to shop…guess where some of the stops are???? Well, you got it…it’s the major shopping areas!!! We did not (thankfully) hit all of them but the ones we did were definitely colorful, noisy, and interesting. The first one we hit was the Itaewon area – actually…we went to Itaewon every day we were there!!! They have regular shops along with street vendors selling just about anything you could imagine wanting to buy. The streets are packed with people from all over the world. We were impressed that so many people spoke at least some English, and some quite a bit (far more than I could respond in Korean…TaeKwonDo only provided us with a few useful phrases). Unlike Vietnam, these people were very polite and friendly and while some tried to ‘push’ a bit, they were very calm about it and took “no” for an answer.
Janet is an avid Harley-Davidson rider and has a mission to locate every Harley-Davidson store in the world to take a picture of it – with her in it - and buy some shirts from them. Well…the Seoul HD store happens to be near Itaewon so we took a VERY cheap taxi ride out to it (it was actually only a few long blocks away).
Yongsan Station was Jeff’s love…it was the electronics market area. Janet and I walked around the area while Jeff enjoyed a trip up and down the many floors, dreaming of all that was available.
We did manage to squeeze in a couple of cultural stops…we went to Namsangol, a traditional Korean Village. They had preserved some of the old houses with courtyards and small garden areas around. There’s a larger, more developed one that we just didn’t have time to visit…maybe next time. There are many similarities to Japanese structures with the open doorways, shoes removed and gates at the entranceways. We also saw the Gyeongbkgung Palace. A spectacular palace in a beautiful setting, juxtaposed between stately, modern buildings and vast mountain vistas. Truly a great setting, yet sad to see it encroached upon. Alas…seems to be a problem everywhere.
Not to let you think we passed up on the shopping….we did go to two other huge market areas. The Namdaemun is absolutely gigantic (please forgive me if I’ve named the wrong one…I truly can’t keep the names straight). Anyway….this place is really two shopping areas. One is nothing but street markets, packed so tightly it’s next to impossible to weave your way between the vendors, the stalls, the people, the food…it’s like Otovalo compressed into 2 blocks. Unbelievable!! We ate in one of the many booths there…they did call us in and served us pretty traditional Korean food (of which Jeff, bless his heart, saved me from the meat portions of the dish). Janet and I spent quite a bit longer there while Jeff decided to go back to Yongsan Station (gee, I wonder why). The other section is a HUGE department store type area where you can truly shop until you drop. Apparently they re-open at something like midnight and you can shop until 5:00 AM. We went through it at a far more normal hour.
I couldn’t leave Seoul without a look at the Kukkiwan, the Tae Kwon Do headquarters. I truly expected the place to be closed…it was Sunday when we had the chance to go there. Much to my surprise the place was open and FULL of cars and people. It turns out it was the weekend for the Hanmadang 2005 and we wandered into the opening ceremony!!! I could have watched the forms and sparring all day! There was something pretty special to make it there and actually walk around inside!

China...the long awaited part II

It has taken a while but here is the next installment of China.....

Lijiang is an absolutely delightful place to visit. The Naxi people, the indigenous group who live there, have maintained many elements of their traditional culture. The tour guides and workers dress in colorful native costumes and put on many demonstrations of dances and crafts. We even had the chance to join in on their line dancing, complete with native music, instruments and dancers. The steps were simple to learn, fortunately, and the women dancing were very serious about it. It was fun despite the gaijin missteps.
Lijiang town is nestled between snow-clad mountains and turbulent rivers that travel tamely throughout the town. The waterways are still prominent in the ‘old town’ area. The old town area has been designated a World Heritage Site, meaning money will be available to continue to preserve the area for the world….as well as the tourists. Unfortunately, it truly is a tourist trap but at least the old world charm has been preserved and there are a lot of wonderful photo opportunities. It truly is a unique place to visit.
The water has always been a source of life for the people, and regulated long ago. The day was divided into periods of time when one could draw water for drinking and cooking, and when to wash clothing, dishes or people. With everyone on the same schedule, they could guarantee fresh, clean water for all. The women of the town run EVERYTHING and they’re very proud of it. Men pretty much work on artistic endeavors and leave all of the money management and wheeling and dealing to the women. Things are changing a bit….young girls do look for Naxi men, but they seem to look for ones who have attended college outside of the area and have a broader view of life.
The Yulong Mountains outside of Lijiang are spectacular…well….according to the pictures we saw they are. We were there on cloud covered days and never saw the spectacular mountains in person. There were, however, numerous pictures available so that we could see what we were missing. They were fabulous…someday we’ll have to return.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Island has got to be one of the most densly populated places I've ever seen, though Macau Island actually holds the distinction of the most densley populated place on earth.
Hong Kong is totally different by night and day. At all times of the day you will find hectic driving, honking horns and tons of people but at night you must add a complete neon jungle. The night cruise on the water showed a fabulous skyline that is really enchanting.

Expo III

Now we’re really looking formal here with a title like "Expo III"
The Expo is divided into “Global Commons”. They’ve grouped areas of the world together so that you can visit Europe, the south seas, Asia etc all in one area. Global Commons 6 is our favorite. It is most of the smaller, southern asian countries, along with Australia (you figure it out…maybe ‘cause it’s in the same ocean?). Anyway, we are impressed with most of the pavilions. Thailand is gorgeous. You enter into another world with a lot of information about the plants and animals that thrive in the country. They have a small restaurant there with some vegetarian choices…but I haven’t been able to try them yet ‘cause they’ve been sold out every time…pretty popular I guess.
The Phillipines is interesting the theme uses the coconut “Usbong: seeds of life” because it leads the world in exporting coconuts. It has a wonderful dish made with squash and coconut cream…delicious!
We also liked the Pacific Islands pavilion. They worked together to create a display with information from each of them. Guam is, of course, included as well as Fiji, Somoa and others. Makes me want to take off. I LOVE island life.
Malaysia is another one that is just a treat to go through. They wind you through the island life there – flora and fauna. Really a spectacular display. We have some great pictures of some of the dancers from there.

Expo...the sequel

I want you to know…we haven’t taken this Expo thing lightly…we have season passes (thank goodness) and have already gone 9 times. No, we haven’t seen everything yet. Back to the favorites
Egypt is another spectacular pavilion. It is full of artifacts and you can get up close and even touch some of them! We had to ask…they’re all replicas. Oh well…they do look very good. They even have an open sarcophagus with a very dried out mummy in it and to our untutored eyes it looks quite real. And for the food update…they also have vegetarian food. Not much, one item, but hey that’s good in a dedicated carnivorous society. All of the food is native food but ‘tweaked’ to accommodate the tastes of the Japanese. Fish is frequently found in many of the dishes, whether it’s native or not.
At night they have a Koi Pond performance. They use the water and laser lights, similar to Disneyland, to show a number of typically Japanese characters. I’m afraid the story is lost on some of us but the display is quite nice. Pretty simple but entertaining to watch once. They also have “swaying towers” – 3 very tall towers (they’re INTO towers here) that are created so that they can be moved back and forth, in time to the gentle music they play. They also have a “south pointing puppet on a cart” that shows up every half hour. The puppet pulling the cart does some gymnastics as it moves the cart around. The puppets are very flexible here and there’s a long tradition in creating some pretty elaborate puppets in Japan. There are even whole museums dedicated just to puppetry and they do major puppet show productions.
Stay tuned for the next episode….

EXPO!! First installment!

Bampaku or the Aichi World Exposition is a fantastic place to visit. There are pavilions representing over 100 different countries and food to go with them.
We have a few favorite pavilions. Mexico is fantastic – plus I understand what they’re saying – very important! You enter at the sea and climb up through the desert and into the mountains and the caves. It’s really quite a feat, considering how small the area is. The cave actually has the drip, drip, drip of slowly falling water.
Singapore is fantastic. They have a few dancers who performed a few native dances – with a twist…one of the costumed characters would suddenly drop to the floor and do some break dancing routines, jump up and they’d all continue dancing. He was quite popular. They have a room of memories…hollow books are opened up to display an item of some sort with writing about why it was important to the person. A purple heart was there, a cleat from a shoe (they won the game), jacks, report cards, doll set of dishes….lots of touching, little things about life. Really a cool idea and you could spend a long time opening up the boxes.
Another favorite pavilion is India. It really does one of the best jobs of sticking to the theme “nature's wisdom”. You enter to see two well-known symbols of India - the Bodhi Tree and the Dharmachakra (wheel of truth/reincarnation concept). They have a towering tree in the center and most of the information kind of flows around it. Really a calming pavilion to go through. Not only that – they have vegetarian food!!!!

Reunification Palace

The palace was really a fascinating place to visit in Ho Chi Minh City. It had figured large in the history of Vietnam and has pretty well remained the same since 1975. The architecture is very open with large, open hallways all around – great for circulation on those hot days! The outside has sectional columns all around – made to represent bamboo. It was partially destroyed during the Vietnam War (called the American War in Vietnam) but it has been rebuilt and it is still in use for official functions.
We were fortunately to be considered “official”. The conference organizers were able to rent the large ballroom area along with the outside halls and we had our gala celebration there – fabulous place! The entertainment was all native Vietnamese dancing, instrumentals and singing. A great opportunity to see some very interesting and unique instruments.

The palace also has a whole network of tunnels and rooms underneath the building – places where they could hide, escape, as well as direct the war through the telecommunications room. One of the tunnels goes all the way to another palace that is now the Revolutionary Museum.

Shopping in Vietnam

Vietnam is an interesting place to shop in. There are some very cheap prices for some things – and very expensive for others. They organize their shops in a very interesting way – all shops selling the same things are right next to each other. That means all of the jewelry stores are together, all of the tailors, all of the electronic stores and so forth. This also makes the competition fierce – they want YOU in THEIR store FIRST!!! On the streets there’s a constant line of talk, handing out things, trying to entice you in, showing you items. In the open market place it was crazy! They’d grab you as you went by to get you to look at things and they’d push and pull and honestly keep hold of you. It was enough to drive me crazy!
I think that the smooth salesmen of the world have been to Vietnam to pass on their sales tricks – get the customer talking “where you from” was heard from every salesperson and confidential “whispers” that they can give YOU a special price, not available to anyone else. Oh well….guess they have to make their money somehow. Did find some things we liked and hopefully didn’t pay too much over its actual worth. It was fun but I think that next time I want to go into a quieter area.

Criss-crossing traffic in Saigon. Believe me, this is a calm intersection at the moment. 

Vietnam Driving!!!

I recall those long ago days when we all sat in those driver’s ed classes and the teacher let us know that absolute chaos and no end of accidents would occur if we didn’t follow the rules and stop at traffic lights, yield, watch right of way etc. Well….I’m letting you know that the teacher was at least partially wrong. The chaos part is true but the accidents…well...somehow, in Vietnam, through the chaos…they are avoided.
I recall talking about driving in Japan. Let me tell you, Japan is a piece of cake with the icing. It’s fabulous. Vietnam is…well…different. First, there are about 500 motorbikes, 100 bikes and 50 cars in any given mile of road. The motorbikes have one person on them, two people, up to 4 people, the family dog, the kids sandwiched in between the parents or friends, kids reading books and kids still in diapers. They also talk to each other constantly. You can see 2 or 3 or 4 motorbikes pacing and the people carrying on a conversation – in the midst of all the other bikes. They are dressed in jeans, ao dai’s (the traditional dress in Vietnam), slacks, dresses, in elegant dresses and suits. And they are carrying…..EVERYTHING! We saw ladders, boxes, ice, fruit, veggies, a computer monitor, a small refrigerator, a crate of chickens, baskets with who knows what inside, baskets of herbs, trash and beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.
Now…the driving. It is called “driving by the horn”. If you want to do anything, you honk your horn. It seems to be a form of conversation. The motorbikes go wherever they want…cut around the cars, cut in front, cut behind, cut around the other motorbikes, turn left, right, from whatever lane…if you honk your horn it’s ok. Lights are definitely suggestions only and they definitely seem to be ignored the majority of the time. The traffic is interlaced constantly with the people coming in from both directions, crossing, turning or whatever. They also have huge traffic circles, just to make life a little more interesting. Those are really wicked!
And then comes the fun part…pedestrians get to cross the street in the middle of all of this. You just look at the bikes coming down towards you to your left – they at least drive on the right side of the road – when they think of it anyway. You watch until there’s a bit of a break in the crowd, they’re still coming towards you, there’s just not so many of them. You step out and start walking, you don’t stop, you just watch them come and they flow around you, some behind, some ahead but they do it. You continue, now looking to the right and watching for the ‘lull’. Sometimes you stand in the middle of the road with vehicles flowing around you but eventually there’s a space to step into and you do it. Whatever you do, you never speed up or suddenly stop. They are judging your pace and adjusting accordingly and with so many coming at you they’re all adjusting at the same time – you just have to hope they’re watching each other also and not watching the cute girl on the bike they just passed.
I’ve decided Japan has wonderful, clear, elegant, easy to navigate roads.

DisneySea

“Welcome to Tokyo DisneySea – Where adventure and imagination set sail”….so began our adventure this weekend to DisneySea.
As you enter the magical world, you are greeted with a spectacular fountain of the earth. The mammoth globe has sheets of water cascading through the seas surrounding the continents as the globe rotates on its watery base. It’s a real, breath taking entrance to the land of the world oceans. The water theme is continued throughout this Disney set on the coast of Japan.
It doesn’t have as many rides as I remember from DisneyLand but it makes up for it with spectacular settings. The central mountain for DisneySea is Mount Prometheus. They have done a spectacular job making it fit into the “land” it is a backdrop for. When you are in the Mediterranean Harbor, it is an old volcano with ropy lava cascading into the harbor. Shift a little, moving into the American Waterfront, and it becomes a tree covered mountain. Further on, it’s a part of the Lost River Delta and finally an active, spouting volcano as the backdrop for Mysterious Island. The buildings, of course, are very authentic looking, and filled with stores and restaurants for your pleasure (and lightening of the pocketbooks).
Kaz and Kazumi went with us for the day and we had a wonderful time. It was great knowing what was being said to us and being able to know what the signs said. The restaurants where centered around the theme area but definitely with a Japanese twist….Italian pasta dishes all have far more shellfish included and mysterious island had some mysterious dishes to the American palate.
Some of the rides were pretty traditional but there were a few surprises. The Aquatopia cars gave the appearance of being water based bumper cars without the bumping. It looked like you were being drug around the water in a set path, finally ending up back at the beginning. In actuality, you were seemingly randomly moving about the water, forward, backward, spinning, stopping, not following any one car at any given moment. Somehow, when you were brought back to the beginning, you ended up in the same car order as you had started. No idea how that worked.
You’ll have to start planning for a trip over to Japan to enjoy this adventure. It’s well worthwhile!!!!

Check out our pictures

I've added pictures from our Christmas trip. We're also going to be going to Tokyo to Disneyland next week so watch for more pictures!!!!! They can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/zooguide2002/