Places – Page 2 – Have Son Will Wander

Thailand – Round 1 – Diving and WHALE SHARK!

Arrival in Bangkok from Tokyo. Not as nice a flight as some others we have had. Oh well. We survived!

While driving to the hotel in a taxi, we saw our first Tuk Tuk and an insane number of people on a scooter.

That’s two women, three children PLUS a baby. WHAT??

In Bangkok we booked a hotel. With a gym and a spa and a pool. We were near the famous Koh San road which is a bustling street of shops bars and food carts.

Of course, I had to check it out. It was very entertaining. As were the shops on the route there. There were silver shops too. Some were just wholesale. Others retail. I saw some tempting foods being sold by the cart vendors on Koh San Road – Mango rice and sugar cane juice and fresh fruits. And of course beetles, and scorpions and other various bugs. ON A STICK! HA! I was a tad concerned about cleanliness so I didn’t eat anything from there. I had a nice dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hotel. And a very expensive bottle of wine. Beer is pretty cheap in Thailand. But wine is expensive. Even for the crappy stuff ha

One thing I found shopping was this bag. Lane had wanted one in Japan but they cost $90! In Bangkok, $20. WIN! We also bought what I call ‘harem pants’. Thin cotton baggy pants with elastic waist, very comfy for travelling in hot weather.

Mainly in Bangkok we recovered. The two tours in a row exhausted us. It was great spending the few days doing some casual wandering. Going to the gym, getting massages and sometimes eating room service. I mean, when room service costs about $5, why not? Ha. Sorry Bangkok. Even extending our stay by a couple nights we didn’t see much of anything. Yes, we should have seen the reclining Buddha, etc but honestly we had seen so much in the way of ‘man made wonders’ in Japan, we were worn out.

Yummy Room Service above. This time Indian, with NAAN BREAD YUM!!

Above, and below, is the door to the massage room at the spa at the hotel it’s a clever, simple door lock and I thought it was neat!

Lane and I getting pumped at the hotel gym. HA!

I really liked this display in the hotel gym. Representation of all the Olympic Games and where they were held. It was motivating and educational. We noticed that two ‘games’ were missing. Cancelled due to WWII. Very interesting.

There was this really beautiful zen/chill area also on the gym/pool/spa floor of the hotel. Like a rooftop area. There were very friendly Koi fish, and beautiful platforms just for chilling.

A towel elephant on our bed. So cute.

Above, check out that ‘scaffolding’ – it’s two pieces of bamboo and the guy balances on them in bare feet. Him painting that was one thing. The other guy carried up 3 bags of cement that same way!! YIKES!

This was the view from the gym/pool area. There were a variety of shops along the street, some what ‘shanty’ style. You can see that some buildings look brand new, while others are looking a little rough.

Lane and I did have a nice dinner at a nearby pub/Bar and had some nice conversations there. As well as some really good beer. I was entertained at the list of American Beers.

The cashews were SO GOOD. Basically sautéed in a pan with some chilli sauce (I think) and some Thai peppers. They were spicy and SO GOOD. I did NOT eat the peppers. HA. The Cashews alone were hot enough to encourage lots of beer drinking. I bet these could be easily made at home though. YUM

The first few nights in Bangkok, there was a celebration outside the hotel so I got to see this cool dragon that sprayed water and spat fire. It was controlled by multiple people. You can see in the pic below there are people at the bottom and people all the way up to the top. Very cool. Unfortunately with all the spotlights getting a good picture was nearly impossible.

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One cool thing we did in Bangkok was a ‘Airbnb Experience’. This is a new version of booking a tour/excursion with TripAdvisor (or Viator). Only the Airbnb Experiences are supposed to be more unique. This certainly was. We attended an authentic Thai dinner, cooked in-the-home by our hostess and her helper. Even better, the evening starts with a tour of the hostess’s garden, where she shows you some of the ingredients growing. Including Kaffir leaves, and some fruit, and other herbs. There were 5 courses – some things were familiar and some were not. One unique item was fried flowers! Very cool. They are dipped in a batter and deep fried. I guess this just proves that anything fried tastes good. HA! The food was amazing, the hostess so gracious. We shared the evening with a couple from Singapore and (his or her?) parents. The parents didn’t speak much English, but everyone was really nice. Our hostess also had 4 cats (her listing for both ‘staying’ with her, as she is also an Airbnb hostess in the traditional sense, and for the dinner included the phrase ‘for Cat Lovers’. HA. Good idea. these were some pretty friendly cats. Lane and I enjoyed having the cats around. Can you believe the one cat ate pumpkin? Weird. The pumpkin was part of our pumpkin custard dessert, which is custard baked inside of a pumpkin (in this case not an orange pumpkin but a green striped one). It was amazing! YAY FOOD!

This (above) is the fried flowers being made. Flower, batter, fryer, done! And the flowers are so pretty too!!

These are the ingredients before she started cooking.

One thing I noticed, the bowl of slightly brown liquid had contained dried mushrooms, which were soaked in water, and she added this water to the soup later – similar to how the Polish recipe is done for Polish Mushroom Soup.

The dishes include sautéed cabbage, fried flowers, meat with basil (darker in colour), shrimp pad Thai I think, and lastly a curry soup. It was all amazing.

This is the custard which is baked inside the pumpkin. First you cut a hole in the top (of a raw pumpkin), and clear out the seeds, then you fill it with the custard and bake the whole thing. Our hostess said it’s tricky to get it to the right ‘doneness’.

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A cat that eats pumpkin. HA!

Our hostess mentioned that, between her own Airbnb ‘rooms for rent’, managing a few other Airbnb rentals for people, and the cooking, she is planning to ‘quit her day job’ soon. Awesome. She says she can manage the properties remotely so she’s looking to do some travelling.

After Bangkok we were due to get to Koh Tao for our scuba certifications. I was told the overnight train was the way to go. Unfortunately I hadn’t booked enough in advance to get a first class cabin, but was told the second class could be fun because you get to meet more people.

Another adventure awaits. HA

So we attempted an Uber to the train station but after 25 minutes of the Uber app telling us he was 5 minutes away we gave up. And took a taxi. HA.

The taxi dropped is at the train station, but we needed to get across the street to a “gray building” to get our tickets that we had ordered online. Well. Not just a street but a few streets. And quite busy ones! With our luggage! And we knew this because a nice Thai man took pity on our obviously confused faces and asked something like ‘pick up tickets?’ And pointed to the building. I thought Lane was going to kill me for our attempted crossing. It was pretty crazy. At one point we got stuck in the middle of the road (between lanes). YIKES. We got there. Alive and well. We waited a bit. Got our tickets and then I asked if there was an easier way to get back to catch the train. Yup. Around the corner. No streets to cross. And go underground. Yay! (I got another death look from Lane, though). Hey you don’t know what you don’t know right!!

I had planned to get something to eat in the train station. That turned it to be a mistake. Nothing in the food court looked particularly clean to be honest. So we settled for packaged food of some kind from the convenience store in the train station. I think nuts and water, or a candy bar. HA.

We waited a while for the train. During which there was some kind of ‘hail to the king’ thing that happened. Music came on and everyone stood and faced the big picture of the king on the wall. Around Bangkok there are many pictures of the king. We learned later in Koh Tao that the king had passed away about a year ago. And the country mourned for nearly a year. Including a serious restriction on tourist partying – so some of the southern Thailand tourism business suffered greatly. Hmmm.

Anyway the train was definitely interesting. I had booked seats for Lane and I next to each other. Our seats would convert to a flat bed, this would be the lower bunk for me. And a top bunk would fold down from the ceiling for Lane. The staff supposedly handled all of that. Including fresh linens, pillows, etc. I was curious to see….

These are the bunks, to and bottom, with fresh sheets and blankets. Not too shabby considering

This is me sitting in the lower bunk (with my kindle)

After a short time someone came through asking for food orders. I knew we could go to the food car for food – but honestly we were just so tired. And frankly a bit nervous about leaving our stuff behind unattended. A lovely Thai woman brought the food to our seats. A nearly-toothless guy kept wandering up and down the isle offering beer. Which we turned down – I wanted to have all of my wits about me being surrounded by strangers and sleeping. Ha. The guy nearly insisted Lane have one though. Almost forced one into her hands with a toothless grin. Ha. He was being nice I guess. Lane managed to turn him down nicely.

Well, after getting past some motion sickness (night/dark/movement = nausea) Lane ended up sleeping on the lower bunk with me. It wasn’t even as big as a twin bed so we were shoulder to shoulder. We managed to sleep some. Ha. Pretty well, actually, considering!!

Travel tip for everyone. I was told by Matt that antihistamines can help with nausea. Twice now, on this train and on a ferry also in Thailand, I gave Lane a Claritin and it seemed to do the trick! Best part is, you can take it after the nausea sets in, and it doesn’t cause sleepiness!!! WIN!

13 or 14 hours later, we arrived at the train station, and Checked in with the transport company counter at the station.

Side Note: It’s a great system they have, this transport company. They put together the train and a bus and a ferry in one package/price/plan, and they align the times for you. A huge help when trying to get from Bangkok in north/central Thailand to the southern Thai islands.. Also, when you check in (in this case, after the train ride) they put a sticker on you. It’s color coded for where you are going. Same for your bag. It seemed stupid to me at first – I was feeling a bit embarrassed to be treated like an idiot….but then I realized it makes good sense. Even though the staff all speaks English the accent sometimes gets in the way and you don’t entirely understand what they are telling you. This way (and this happened to us one one of these types of journeys) when at a ferry stop, and they instruct certain passengers to get off (by destination name) they can look through the cabin and see if anyone has remained that should have gotten off. So everyone gets where they are going. In my defense – when it happened to us – it was a ferry transfer and we didn’t know we HAD a transfer or where it was. I thought the ferry was going to the island we were headed to. And there is no map like a train of stops etc. and no one was able to explain to me in a way I could understand.(i.e. language/accent barrier) Ha. So I was humbled. And I understood why we were being treated like kindergarteners on field trip (marching t shirts etc). Ha. And I was grateful. !!!

Here’s my ‘travel for dummies’ sticker. HA

Anyway, we waited a while for the bus (during which Lane saw a rat, or so he claimed, in the garden bed behind where I was sitting. HA) – the bus ride was maybe 40 minutes then check in again, get on the ferry, and that was a couple hours with a few stops before ours. Then, we got there, found the driver for our resort in the chaos, and got a ride on what I would call a tuk tuk ‘bus’ (drives many people, kind of golf-cart style) to our room.

Our room turned out to be pretty crappy even though we paid for the upgrade to AC. Apparently that just gets you the OLDEST room where they have slapped an AC unit on the wall. UGG.

We explored the area a bit then rested.

We visited the onsite bar and restaurant for dinner and attended our first ‘meeting’ for our scuba class. Our instructor was immediately hilarious and engaging. I could tell it was going to be fun. We had an interesting mix of people in a relatively small class of 6 students, and we had the advantage of a very experienced instructor and 2 ‘instructors in training’ which is awesome. We did some video watching that evening, and then the next morning we did some instruction next to the pool (plus the reading on the night between), then we were IN THE POOL swimming and practicing with the equipment. All went well. Lane did amazing. He seemed to master buoyancy so quickly (the goal being a balance of your weight, additional weights, air in your BC/vest and your breath to stay suspended in the water, neither on the bottom nor floating up).

The next morning, we took our first training dive! Out on the boat we went!

The course was great, so much better than when I took it in NJ. It seemed then, we had like 4 Saturdays of instruction and testing before we got in the pool and my instructors were so high strung it made me nervous. Not the case here. Andy thought that experience was the best teacher and he was so right.

We made good friends during that course. Each day instead of sitting in the classroom for our ‘out of water teaching’ we went to a nearby restaurant/bar and ate AMAZING and CHEAP food and had a few drinks. Needless to say, each afternoon resulted in a nap and most times dinner was unnecessary. HA.

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One night, I went out after dinner with the other ‘grown ups’. Got to see the fire dancers. Pretty cool

These beautiful buildings were near Bingo’s – that great restaurant we met at every day. We also got to see some ADORABLE baby chickens there, as well. Lots of chickens running around ‘wild’ in Thailand. ha.

There was a pretty nice beach near our resort, which is called Ban’s, and some nice sunsets from the bar and restaurant. Most nights there was live entertainment too. They’re no Melanie and Tony, but it was still nice.

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Oh, and we decided to take the Advanced course, with the same group of people (minus one) and the same instructors – all 3. AND, the instructor spoke to the office and got us a MASSIVE upgrade to a LOVELY room. WIN! YAY! Oh and now we had room service. WHOO HOO!!

Of course, I had to shift a few things ‘forward’ to accommodate these additional days on Koh Tao. I had to shorten our stay in Ao Nang, Thailand, (west side of southern Thailand) but it all worked out OK. Turns out, after all the diving, (like 9 dives in 5 days) I got sick and spent the Ao Nang time in bed anyway. Hello Ramen noodles for Thanksgiving. HA. No, I’m not kidding. It was the only thing in the apartment when we got there on Thanksgiving and I didn’t have the energy to go find something else after a rather long day of travel and feeling ‘punky’, as we say. HA.

But I’ve skipped over some really cool stuff. Back up! During our first ‘Advanced Open Water Course’ dive, we got to dive with a WHALE SHARK! WHOO HOO! I was over the moon. This is such an amazing creature. In case you didn’t know this creature is more whale than shark. It eats krill and plankton, has no teeth so isn’t dangerous at all. But it is a fish (not a mammal). The one we saw was relatively small but still was 4 Meters long!! WOW. Magical. Our instructor took the pic. The two guys in the background are our ‘Instructors in training’, Andy and Nicolas. Lane and I were equally close to this amazing creature, though. What an experience. I have lots of video, but haven’t had the time or patience to cull through it all yet.

THEN, we did a deep dive – and I’m glad to report that Lane and I don’t get loopy at 30 Meters deep. HA.

FINALLY we also did a night dive. This was the 3rd dive of the day and I was EXHAUSTED. We started at about 630 pm when it was getting dark. It was the most amazing experience though. We were each given torches (FLASHLIGHTS), and we dove a while with those turned on. I have to say, perhaps due to my inexperience, I didn’t see much with the torches on. I’m sure there are certain things you are supposed to look for at night (like lobsters maybe?) but I didn’t see them. BUT, THEN WE ALL TURNED THE TORCHES OFF and the real fun began. First, you could still see a little bit. Maybe 10-15 feet so I could keep track of where Lane was and where our Instructor ‘in training’ was (with 3 dive masters, we had one for each pair of divers, so awesome) – but the best part was when you wave your hand through the water, or watch behind the fins of the person in front of you, you see STARS. OK it’s BIOLUMINESCENT ORGANISMS, but they are everywhere and it’s like swimming in the night sky with stars swirling around. SO SO SO SO COOL!

OK, so back to Thanksgiving. The next few days, really 7, were nothing. I was bed-bound except for absolute necessities like food and medicine. Somewhat self-imposed, mind you. I just know myself – and if I rest when I’m sick, I get better. If I don’t, the sickness lingers and/or gets worse. And I know I didn’t want to get any worse. We were headed to Australia next and I know it’s no good to fly when you’re sick. I was very pleased, though, with the pharmacy. I showed up with a picture on my phone of Mucinex (or Mucinex D, I can’t recall), which is what I would take at home for my symptoms. An employee with very good English talked me though the options and found me something pretty much exactly the same as what I needed, she wrote down instructions, and sent me on my way. And it was all quite reasonably priced. DONE!

Fluids, rest, meds. That was it. And a run to the grocery one day (via tuk tuk, hilarious) and take out another day or two from the place literally 30 feet away, and we chilled and rested. I think Lane was pretty tuckered out too, and needing some rest. He gladly did nothing for the entire 7 days. We had some rainy days in there, anyway. And the one day I DID venture out for a walk on the beach, I was not impressed. A lot of people stay in Ao Nang to get a longboat to some of the remote beaches that can only be reached by boat. They are very pretty. And there is good diving from Ao Nang, I believe. But overall I didn’t love the area. Too backkpacker-ish and touristy in my opinion.

We did manage to pull together a nice dessert in Ao Nang. All bought at the grocery store. Whipped cream, strawberries, and CAKE!

I found this sign amusing regarding what to do in a tsunami scenario. I’m not sure you have much of a chance, unless you can get to some REALLY high ground. I read recently (based on this sparking my curiosity) that the tsunami that hit Indonesia was 50 METERS HIGH. WOW!!

After rest, we took the glorious journey back across southern Thailand, and a ferry to Koh Samui (where the airport is) and spent the night in a cheap hotel in town. I have to say, though, for $25 American, I could not BELIEVE how big and how nice our room was. Clean, fridge, big bathroom, two double sized beds, really nice! And around the corner a great beach and restaurant area. We had one of our best meals. Lane fell in love with Tuna Tar Tar, and had an amazing steak. I had fish that was OK, but the apps and cocktails made up for it. There was a pumpkin soup (I think) and the Tuna Tartar with avocado. And for DESSERT chocolate something cake, which was actually quite similar to that amazing chocolate cake with the chocolate sauce in the middle that they serve at Applebys. HA! No, not really Thai food, but we were due for some comfort food.

The next day we took a taxi ride to the airport and we were OFF to Australia!!

This time, we had a 12 hour layover in the Singapore airport. There is SO MUCH to do there. A movie theatre, free tours of Singapore, TONS of shopping (which we took full advantage of ) and tons of restaurants. Also, these AMAZING resting areas with recline/lounge chairs. I took a full 2 hour nap during our stay and I swear I could have slept more but I think Lane was bored. HA. So great.

THEN, we arrive in Cairns! Our Australia Adventure Begins!! WHOO HOO

Japan – OMG THE FOOD!!!

Hi everyone! thanks for checking out the blog on Japan!

I’m going to apologise in advance that this is a LONG blog. HA but it’s mostly pictures.

Our travel to Japan was a bit of a long haul. Ha. First an 8 hour flight then a more than 10 hour flight with less than 2 hours between. Yikes. However I have to say international long haul flights are so much better than the domestic flights I’m used to. For one there is more space; and then there is great in-flight entertainment. Literally hundreds of movies to choose from. Not that I watched much. I slept SO much. Lane enjoyed them though.

Arriving in Tokyo at 11 pm – knowing we have to do a final hop the next morning – we stayed at a simple airport hotel and had our first Japanese experience. Ha. For starters, I thought it was just the airport hotel but every single hotel we stayed in (in Japan) provided toothbrushes and toothpaste. Then of course the slippers. You’re not supposed to wear your shoes in the room. Then there’s the 100 buttons on the toilet. Ha. And warm toilet seats. I swear almost everywhere we went except the most basic of public bathrooms had a heated seat and usually a bidet function. Oh and the Japan sizing of the rooms. Ha. Yes, quite small in most cases.

The next day we take a quick hop flight to Osaka where our tour begins. We are a full day ahead so we head out for some Kobe beef. Which was so good – but not nearly what we experienced in Tokyo at the end of our trip – but more on that later. On the way home I had to try these octopus dumpling looking things they were selling everywhere. Takoyaki. They were OK, but I didn’t love them HA. We also stopped at a convenience store and Lane – my favorite child- spotted my favorite sake – the same one that I buy at home!! Whoo hoo score!

The next day we walked around Osaka a bit and rested some. We met our tour group at 6 pm for the kickoff meeting, and it was quite a varied crew. I was afraid of it being a bunch of older people but it was more young by far. We chose not to do an Osaka walking tour with the tour CEO (chief experience officer as they are called at G Adventures) so we headed to a Japanese restaurant. I had sushi. I think Lane had noodles. The sushi was SO Amazing. Ha. So was the sake! We also picked up these crazy good cookies. YUM!!

The next morning we met in the lobby at 8am to start the tour. When I booked the tour I thought ‘Express’ meant short tour. It actually means you do A LOT in a short time. Ha. Here we go! Not like we’re tired from that Africa thing. NO Not at all! Ha!

We headed to a to a subway then train station to get to Koyasan – Mount Koya – we were going to stay at a Buddhist Temple. Our CEO Natsu said it was going to be cold because of the elevation . She wasn’t kidding – it was freaking COLD and our walls were made of rice paper!! Fortunately, there was a space heater in our room so we CRANKED that and hoped for the best as we dressed in our kimonos and headed to dinner. We had a traditional Buddhist vegetarian dinner called shojin ryori. It was good although Lane and I didn’t much care for the jello-ish texture of some of the tofu.

The temple was beautiful inside and out. Particularly with the leaves changing during the fall. Our rooms were traditional Japanese, so no beds. HA. They come in during the evening to lay out futon mattress and the bedding. It was quite comfortable!

This is the entrance to the temple where we stayed

This is the doorway to our room, from an outside wooden walkway

This is the same spot but ‘turn around’ so with my back to the paper door to our bedroom, this is our view. A garden with beautiful fall foliage.

This is also in the entrance to the temple where we stayed. The man building is to the right.

These are the futons they put in our rooms for us at bedtime. they were quite comfortable.

This is multiple place settings for the dinner.

Here is the food for the evening. I really enjoyed most of it. I would hate to be the one doing the dishes though. ALL THOSE DISHES!!

Lane and I worked on making our paper cranes, which we were given by our CEO (paper and instructions) We had quite a few laughs about our mistakes. But it was fun. Paper cranes are the symbolic gift that you are to bring to the Children’s Park at the Hiroshima Peace Museum. There are thousands gathered every year. The story behind them is here.

After dinner some people went for a tour of the Okunoin cemetery, which is the largest in Japan. We had seen it during the day, though, and with it being SO COLD we opted not to go and we spent the time warming up in our room instead.

The next morning we were invited to attend a fire ceremony, which was very cool.

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We learned that all everyone in Japan is either Buddhist, Shinto or both. Many times both. People practice both religions, believe it or not. Shinto is the original religion of Japan, and Buddhism was introduced in the 6th century. They now coexist peacefully and in some cases have blended a bit in Japanese culture, as with shrines and temples.

We visited both shrines and temples in Koyasan. We utilised a purification trough to cleans our hands and mouth before entering. And we saw the shimwnawa, which is a rope with paper tied to it, representing the entrance to a sacred place. We saw pagodas as well.

Loved these sand/rock gardens. It was so peaceful

We left after the fire ceremony and headed via bus, then train again to Hiroshima to the Peace Park and Peace Memorial Museum. I didn’t take any pictures inside the Museum because it seemed disrespectful. I did learn about why the bombing was deemed appropriate by the allies, but the effect on the people and the devastation was heartbreaking. This probably affected me more than the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps – probably because in that case I felt we were on the ‘good’ side. In this case, while still the ‘good’ side, we caused something terrible. I learned, though, that the bombing was chosen as the solution because it was estimated that war would cause significantly more casualties on both sides. Still, it’s hard to see.

Children’s Monument

This building still stands from before the bombing. It’s interesting how it was left to show the damage and remains there today.

Near the center of the park is a concrete, saddle-shaped monument that covers a cenotaph holding the names of all of the people killed by the bomb. The monument is aligned to frame the Peace Flame and the A-Bomb Dome. The Memorial Cenotaph was one of the first memorial monuments built on open field on August 6, 1952. The arch shape represents a shelter for the souls of the victims

The Peace Flame is another monument to the victims of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, but it has an additional symbolic purpose. The flame has burned continuously since it was lit in 1964, and will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed and the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation

After visiting the museum and the parks, we had a group dinner. It was one of my favorite dinners of the whole tour. We met and Natsu took us to a building that contained MANY Okonomiyaki restaurants, but ours was supposedly the best. Okonomiyaki are basically a type of pancake filled usually with cabbage and noodles and other ingredients. They are usually cooked in front of you, as they were in this case. The food was amazing and the restaurant owners were great too. Of course, I had sake with mine. HA. The picture with all the ‘banners’ – each of those banners is a different Okonomiyaki restaurant – and that was just on one floor. Each restaurant is literally an L-shaped grill with seats on the opposing side. As others did, I left half my Okonomiyaki on the grill while I ate the other half. This kept it hot and fresh.

This was towards the beginning of the cooking process

This is the finished product, only some of it on my plate with some ‘special sauce’. OMG so delicious. I can’t wait to have these again. My friend Karen says she knows a place in NYC that makes them. YAY!

This is the line of restaurants, each one its own banner.

As we were leaving, they cooked some scallops on the grill. I had to take some pictures because the scallop contains a muscle/piece that I’m not used to seeing.

Later that night, the group rented a Karaoke room and we enjoyed some bad singing for a while. HA. It’s a Japanese thing. It was fun!

Our next stop was Kyoto, which I expected to be a smaller city, but actually was quite big and bustling!

In Kyoto we saw The Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, which contains over 5,000 Torii gates. This intriguing shrine was dedicated to the god of rice and sake by the Hata clan in the 8th century. YES! A shrine to SAKE!! My kind of place. HA!

We also saw Daisen-in’s Zen Garden, which was really amazing and peaceful, but sadly we couldn’t take any pictures.

We saw the Bamboo Forrest, which was a little bit damaged from the recent storm that hit the week before we were there. But it was still pretty incredible to see!

We saw with Kinaku-ji Golden Pavillion. The entire garden and ground were amazingly beautiful

These are not ‘real’ geishas. It’s common in this area particularly to rent the ‘costume’ and get hair and makeup done to match.

After the Bamboo Garden, we got some ice cream and tried one of our favorite things we had in Japan. Taiyaki. It’s a dessert. A soft cake/cookie shaped like a fish with filling and another cookie. The filling could be chocolate, or custard (our favorite), or even ice cream. All other flavours too.

Finally we saw the Nijo Castle and Gardens.

WHEW. BUSY BUSY

After that, some of our tour mates went to do some ‘experiences’ like a traditional tea ceremony, learning samurai skills, and dressing up like a Geisha. Unfortunately, we were just too tired and Lane was feeling a little punky so we just chilled in the room until dinner.

The next morning we visited the Buddhist temple Kinkaku-ji also in Kyoto, Japan. This is translated as “Temple of the Golden Pavilion” or “Golden Pavilion Temple” in English. The views all around were completely spectacular.

We also visited some additional temples that day, and had an amazing dinner at a Japanese ‘tavern’ so to speak. Like a pub. HA. It’s called an Izakaya – a type of restaurant. Ironically, probably my #1 favorite restaurant in the US is Izakaya’s (asian infused restaurant) in the Borgata in Atlantic City. HA!

Tuna over avocado. SO GOOD!

Dumplings

Octopus

The visual menu outside the restaurant. This is pretty common in Japan.

Name of the restaurant (I forget what it means. HA) Something like Happy Heart or something.

The next day we took a trip to Hakone, where we stayed in a Japanese hotel with a traditional Japanese bath, fed by a natural hot spring.

And we donned our kimonos again for a multi-course Kaiseki meal (not vegetarian this time). I think this is where Lane discovered her love of salmon sashimi. And of course the miso soup was amazing as was the beef! YUM!

Last but not least we landed ourselves in Tokyo. We enjoyed exploring the city with our tour mates and we spent quite a bit of time in the Shibuya area, and got some good film of the famous crossing.

The meal below was quite interesting. I had heard of these but this was the only time we ‘did it’. Some casual restaurants in Japan, at or near the door, you place your order in a machine, like a vending machine, and pay through the machine as well. It prints you a receipt which you give to the hostess and she seats you and brings your food (and drink) to you when it’s ready. This was a noodle type place and it was SO GOOD!

Most exciting for me (Lane opted not to go) was the Tsukiji Fish Market. We saw both the retail and the wholesale area (where, technically, we aren’t supposed to go or it’s discouraged). What an amazing array of food here. And do you know there is $13 MILLION of fish and shellfish sold here EVERY DAY?? That’s a LOT OF FREAKING SEAFOOD! WOW.

This, above, I was told is a sunfish. I didn’t think people these. So that may not be right. It’s a HUGE fish. (Another of my posts, from Tahiti, I think shows this same fish, and calls it a moonfish – check it out).

Those white things are frozen tuna. Frozen to something like negative 60 Celsius and then the guy is cutting them with a band saw (I think it’s a band saw, it’s been a long time since my shop classes at OCIS). CRAZY!

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A famous green tea shop was also in the Tsukiji market area, and this is the different types of green tea. They made us hot tea of two different kinds, including Macha, which is the best, to compare.

Dried octopus. Saw this everywhere. No I didn’t try it. It just didn’t look appetising to me.

OK, so this may be where my food fascination started (If you saw my recent post on facebook asking people to identify a food in it’s natural state). Above, this is rice. It was being sold for decorative purposes. But its interesting to know that it needs to be taken out of the shell before it can be eaten (cooked, etc.). I had no idea how rice was grown.

The guy above is cooking scallops in their shell with a butane torch. I wasn’t hungry at the time, but when Lane and I came back a few days later I had these. They were AMAZING!!

Giant tuna head.

SO, along the food lines, this is wasabi in it’s natural form. Who knew?

More amazing food on offer at the Tsukiji fish market.

With our tour mates, and then again a couple days later on our own, we had the BEST BEEF OF OUR LIVES here. If you’re in Tokyo you HAVE TO GO to this restaurant. It’s not EASY to find, but you can google this name (starts with the Han….) and then look closely for this sign. The restaurant is in the basement.

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Also in Tokyo with our group, we visited an English pub, called Hobgoblin. Rather ironic since a few people were from England. HA. Lane and I visited a few days later on our own as well. We really enjoyed playing darts!

Pretty good shots for me considering I’d had quite a lot to drink. HA

Cool Guinness labels.

LOVED this IPA!!!

I took Lane back to the Tsukiji market a few days later to see the sights, try some foods, and pick up these HUGE crabs I saw. The pictures don’t really do them justice. They were ENORMOUS.

Sweet potato ice cream, I believe

Healthy street food at the fish market.

Got my scallops!

This is a traditional Japanese dish, made slightly differently by region. It’s mostly egg, and it’s VERY FLUFFY. This on (Tokyo region) is slightly sweet.

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Check out these crabs – didn’t by these. they look like ugly spider crabs!

The claws were spotted and slightly less bulky than crabs in NJ/MD.

Lane and I mostly vegetated the last few days in our Airbnb once the tour ended. We were PRETTY TIRED! HA!

Here are some random pictures and descriptions. I can’t recall exactly when/where they happened but I don’t want to leave them out. Some are kind of cool or funny

Above – tiny crabs. Cooked, I assume and dried I guess. Sold unrefrigerated and when I asked, yes, you eat them like potato chips. Just pop them in your mouth. I wish I had tried them but I didn’t want to buy the whole bag. .

Vending machine – the item with red below them are sold HOT and items with blue are cold. Took me almost a week to realise this. HA. At least once Laneywas surprised that her tea was hot.

A funny visual about keeping your hands clear of the door of the subway train.

Vending machines are everywhere in Japan. You don’t need any kind of license to put one on your property. The vending machine company will bring it and install it and supply it regularly for free. And you get something like 20% of the profit for having it on your property. Free money. No wonder they’re everywhere.

A cool railing. It matches the steps. Makes sense. HA

Lane next to the Honey Toast statue. not actual size. Though, doesn’t seem far off when they put it in front of you. HA.

Above – actual Honey Toast. This was a random lunch with a couple tour mates (Patrick and Izzy). We had no idea it was going to be bigger than our head! And SO INSANELY GOOD. Like slightly sweet bread, fluffy, but not as sweet as cake. Drizzled with a honey-like liquid but a thinner liquid. topped with all kind of good stuff! It was to die for !

Mochi. But filled with all different things (in my experience the US they are filled with ice cream). The white strawberry is a specialty, not an unripe one. A special white strawberry supposed to be very good. Tasted like a red strawberry to me. HA.

This darker panda is a sweet one – filled with chocolate I think.

The white one, which Lane had, was a pork dumpling, similar to the ones we had at 551, a famous place for dumplings in Japan.

just a cute sign in a train station

OK so I have always thought this. We should use sink and shower ‘dirty’ water to flush toilets. This isn’t quite there but pretty cool. There was another sink in the bathroom but this one ran after you flushed, to fill the tank and to wash your hands as well. PRETTY FREAKING COOL.

Bento Boxes. Great food on the go in very neat and tidy packaging. Very Japanese. Loved these. They are sold (and consumed) at room temperature. And perfectly fine!

Amusing toilet instructions.

Interesting translation of instructions.

Every day, pretty much, Natsu would give us a written detailed agenda like this. Including weather forecast and exact train times. She was INSANELY meticulous and detailed and energetic and wonderful.

At a bus station. I think it’s just a calendar. I think it was Nov 1.

Famous dumplings from 551 (Go Go Itchy. Go is 5 in Japanese. Itchy is One).

Itchy. Knee. Sun. She. Go. That’s 1, 2,3,4,5.

More of Natsu’s instructions. Wish I had take a pic of them all. I would have had everything I needed for this blog HA. Don’t compare, I probably got some things/days mixed up.

Reality of travelling. Laundry drying on the patio. I don’t think I’ve had/seen/used a dryer but one time since I’ve left home. Crazy right? but it’s worked really well. I actually prefer it now.

Lane bought this candy (along with ‘Russian roulette iced tea’ – several bottles of unknown tea type) when we first got to Japan. And proceeded to buy a few more packs of this crazy purple taffy-like candy.

South Africa and Swaziland – Safari – The BIG FIVE!!!

The most important thing about the South Africa trip was that Jeannine joined us!!! Big freaking YAY!!!

Before I proceed, I will tell you this was the HARDEST BLOG to write. For starters, it took me a while to get TO IT because the destination after this was also a TOUR (a very busy one) AND WIFI started to get more spotty. Also, in this blog, I added LOTS OF PHOTOS and I started making them ‘enlarge-able’ if that’s a word. HA. Also, I put in some videos, which I very slightly edited in iMovie (I mostly just shortened them and/or shrank them to make them a reasonable file size). And, of course, there was just SO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT on this blog! Let me know what you think and if you have any trouble with the videos? Sorry in advance if you think this is too long. I swear it’s mostly pictures. HA!

Well, our South Africa experience started with a bit of a downer. Jeannine’s luggage didn’t arrive. Not that surprising, since she literally RAN – with a flight attendant – from her plane in Doha to the one Lane and I were already on, to take us to Jo’burg. The luggage apparently doesn’t move as fast as Jeannine does! HA!

We arrived at our ‘lodge’ in Jo’burg (Johannesburg) . I think lodge is South African for ‘crappy hotel’. HA. It wasn’t BAD, really, but it wasn’t good. HA!

We had a very small room that the 3 of us would share for 2 nights. Lane graciously took the futon on the floor.

The only place to put our bags was on the floor and we had to be EXTREMELY STRATEGIC about where we put them so that we would all still be able to walk and – say – get to the bathroom or the exit. Ha.

Jeannine and I headed out that evening to the nearby Santon City, to Nelson Mandella square, which is a nice shopping and restaurant area. We had been told NOT to walk (by our airport transport) so we hired a car to take us there and bring us back. The Nelson Mandella square itself was quite lovely, like an upscale shopping mall, with restaurants outside with great indoor and outdoor seating. It was definitely safe. We had an INSANELY delicious meal, including ribs and wings and filet and 2 sides and a bottle of wine – for like $45. Total. Crazy good.

The next day the tour offered a half day around Jo’burg – a bike ride to a nearby Township, but we skipped it as we were waiting for Jeannine’s luggage.

That night, we did some last minute shopping. A shirt for Lane, and some pharmacy necessities (like bug spray/lotion, etc.). Then the three of us had another amazing and inexpensive dinner. Yes, more meat. I had fish. LOVING South Africa so far!

The following day, we left early and embarked on a long drive from Jo’burg (that’s common ‘short’ for Johannesburg) to Hluhluwe, where there are 2 national parks, Hluhluwe and Imfolozi. On our drive, we saw lots of beautiful purple flowering trees, and also a huge area of forestation, where a non-indigenous tree is grown specifically for harvesting for wood. We also saw lots of pineapple farms. I had no idea how pineapples grew, but I know now!

On the way, we stopped for a great lunch at a beautiful BnB in Piet Retief. The restaurant was called Munch. The Chicken salad sandwich was amazing!

I noted at the hotel – and verbalized at the restaurant, how the other family on the tour with us had no reservation drinking tap water and drinks with ice and fresh fruit and veg, unlike what the US doctors had told us (NONE OF THOSE). It took me a few days but I started following their lead. I still didn’t drink tap water but wasn’t afraid of some lettuce and tomato on my sandwich, or an apple here and there. It all turned out fine!

The roadway was paved most of the way to Hluhluwe. One part (say 30 minutes?) was very much NOT paved and rather rough. In Africa, they call this ‘African Massage’. HA. Not so soothing.

We had lots to look at along the way. Cows, with babies, and goats, all around, wandering ‘free’, sometimes in the road! HA. We saw lots of schoolchildren walking to and from school, all of them in uniform. At one place, the school let out and kids were walking near a bus stop, and right next to the bus stop was a cow with a baby calf. So adorable.

We arrived at Hluhluwe park in the middle of the afternoon, after a stop for some supplies (food for meals, which Colin and Gordon were buying), snacks and drinks for us. 🙂

Our first experience at the park was awesome. To set the stage, know that the parks are large areas in various sizes, with fences to keep the animals in the designated area, for their own safety. There are roads through the parks, where the cars drive, and the animals wander roads and non-roads alike. This particular park is the oldest in South Africa and is 960 sq km in size.

The first animals we saw was a family of warthogs (think Pumba, from the Lion King) – a mom and a few babies, very close to our vehicle. We also saw a group of buffalo, fairly close. Then a group of rhinos at a distance. Maybe 3 or 4 of them. We saw zebras as well as giraffes (we saw more of both, closer, later in the day). We even spotted 3 male lions, napping under a tree, and apparently bothered by bugs – they were getting irritated, flicking their tails, etc. The pictures of those lions are by our tour mate Andy. He had an incredible camera. We could see the lions like this but only through binoculars.

The giraffes above are babies. That is why they are smaller than the zebras. Ha.

. We saw groups of impalas and inyalas. These are both gazelle-type animals. Impalas have a black M on their tail which they use to follow each other during the day. At night, they flip their tails up, to show white, again to make it easy to follow each other. Very cool. A South African joke is that impalas have an M on their tail because they are like McDonald’s – ‘fast food’ for the lions. HA. Inyalas look a little different, they are striped. Male impalas look similar to the females, but with horns. Inyalas, the male looks completely different.

We took a break in this park, at a place with a beautiful view. It overlooks a huge expanse of the park. There is a lodge there as well, and it would be amazing to sit and watch this area while eating dinner or having coffee. As soon as we arrive, I spot an ornery monkey messing around in a nearby parked vehicle. He’s inside, on the mirrors, on the hood. Of course, it draws a crowd and we all take pics. SO CUTE! We learn later how ANNOYING they can be (but they are still cute). We take a few pictures of the view, have some coffee, and get back in the car for more animal spotting.

We are now on the way to our campground, and I am wanting to spot an elephant! This is Jeannine’s ABSOLUTE FAVORITE ANIMAL SINCE SHE WAS A KID! We didn’t see any that day. We saw rhinos very close to the road. Inyalas too. And a lone buffalo who is likely old and will soon be a lions meal. So we are told. Lone animals don’t do well in the wild.

We get to our campsite, set up our tents. We learn we have access to the small cabins as our ‘bathrooms’ and decide to leave our suitcases in those cabins because I’m not sure we could fit in our tents with our suitcases anyway. Yikes, this is going to be interesting!

Around the campfire after dinner that night (turns out Colin is an amazing cook, and I think I may have put on a few pounds, HA!) – we hear owls talking to each other. So cool. We made up some ‘dialog’ for the owls which ended with them ‘hooking up’. HA. We also hear another sound and decide it’s a big bullfrog in the distance. There are monkeys everywhere in this campground. In fact, someone needs to be in the kitchen area at all times when food is out because otherwise, they will invade! HA!. If you look in the trees you can see the limbs moving from the monkeys jumping around. They aren’t hard to spot at all.

The next morning we pack up camp and head to a traditional Zulu Villiage. We ‘ring the doorbell’ by banging a drum, are allowed entrance. We are taught a few words in Kulu, like “hello”, “I’m good, how are you?”, and “thank you”. We are shown around, and we see how they live and dress. What married women wear (red hats and conservative clothes) versus unmarried women (show more skin, like shoulders and legs, and no hat). We see the Medicine man. We are shown the creation of weapons and shields. The Kulu traditional homes are round with thatched roofs. We see some traditional dancing and a mock wedding ceremony. We also drink homemade Kulu beer, which tastes very yeast-y.

After visiting the Kulu village, we head to Kosi Bay Lodge. When we get there and check in we meet the local pets. A dog and some cats. Lane loves the young cat who is very soon chased into a tree by the dog. Ha. Now, he’s freaking out and I can’t get him to leave the cat – he fears the dog will hurt it. HA.

YAY! Rooms and Power! And an attached bathroom! HA! We are offered, and elect to go on, a boat ride and look for hippos. We are lucky, we see 3 right away and another 2-3 later on. They are mostly submerged to stay cool and out of the sun. When they start to feel threatened or have had enough of our presence, they open their mouths. We got some great pics. I can’t imagine what kind of damage those teeth would do. Very intimidating for an herbivore. HA. They must be as dangerous as their reputation, though, because even though we are on a MOTOR BOAT and are still a good distance away, when a hippo makes this aggressive gesture, we high-tail it out of there. The locals don’t mess with hippos!

We also see some cool birds like cormorants and kingfisher. And we learn about the fishing methods of the Tonga people.

We have dinner and drinks as a group at the lodge.

The next day we head out for kayaking and snorkeling at Kosi Bay. First, it’s a bit of a drive to a lookout point, then down to the bay area. It’s all dirt roads, and a 4-wheel-drive is essential. Sugar Sand, they would call it in NJ. Deep, dry sand that is easy to get stuck in.

In the picture above, off the tip of that driftwood tree, in the ‘sandbar island’ is what remains of a dead whale. It was pretty awful when you were downwind of it. Local people walked miles in the crazy heat and hacked off pieces of bone to bring to the medicine man for money. I couldn’t get within 50 feet of it and they were knee and elbow deep!!

The bay is beautiful and feels SO remote. The kayaking isn’t too fun because it’s so windy. Going one way was good, coming back was impossible. HA. We have a box type lunch then head out for snorkeling. The snorkeling is great. We saw probably 40 different kinds of fish. Including triggerfish, lionfish, lots of eels (white spotted and red), angel fish, lots of tangs. Supposedly 200 different species of fish live here. Lane also found a crab in the sand. It was a little chilly, both the water and the air because it was so windy.

Lane got some great underwater shots with the go Pro.

After we’ve snorkeled the area a few times (the current takes us inland, we walk back toward the sea each time to take another pass – swimming against the current is just impossible and we’re also not wearing fins) – we take a swim in the Indian Ocean – it is beautiful blue and great but so VERY rough. Big waves. Big rip current. We don’t swim long, the tide is coming in, and the ‘bay’ we are in is getting filled up with water rather quickly. What was a ‘walk’ from to the shore/mainland is now a swim to get back. With some fast-moving water. It’s a challenge to get back to the shore, and a bit scary at times. The water is rushing so much that, at waist high, you can’t really make progress walking against it. We walk perpendicular to it and get there eventually. WHEW!

A group of people who stayed at the beach longer than us needs to be ‘rescued’ by some locals in kayaks. The people are brought back but their belongings are left on the beach.

Unfortunately, we are little late getting back to the lodge, so I miss out on the massage that we had booked. Jeannine manages to fit hers in and I am glad it’s her. I plan to get massages OFTEN in Thailand. HA.

Notice the band-aid on my toe. I was not the only one to sustain injuries during the snorkeling. It was a bit difficult walking back to the starting point. Lane fell at one point and got pretty scraped up from the oyster beds and coral. At one point we were swimming above the oyster beds and Lane grabbed my legs and I promptly gashed my thigh on the oysters or coral. Not to worry though between our guides and my first aid kit and people nearby we were easily patched up. Ha! This is me chilling by the pool before dinner.

Once again dinner is great. We eat at the lodge and I have shrimp curry. YUM. And a great white wine. South African of course. Some Chardonnay, some Sauvignon Blanc. And so cheap. Like a couple dollars per glass. LOVE SA! The wine is from a winery called Spier. Get it if you can.

The next day we are back in the car headed to a campground with no power. Yikes!!

We are headed to Hlane Royal National Park in Swaziland. Swaziland is a small kingdom bordered by South Africa and Mozambique. The border crossing is mostly uneventful. As it was coming into South Africa, they require special paperwork for Lane, as a minor traveling with just one parent. Seems I have it all so we’re all good.

We arrive at our campground and it’s beautiful. There are even some game animals (impala, inyala types, not lions) wandering around the tent and restaurant area. We learn there are no evening/night game drives available, so we opt to sit by the waterhole in Adirondack chairs with a drink! TOUGH LIFE! I couldn’t be happier as we watch hippos in the water. Elephants wandering around. Inyala. Waterbucks. Rhinos. Amazing!

The next morning we have signed up for a rhino drive. Never did I even imagine we would get OUT OF OUR VEHICLE and stand within 10 feet of rhinos. It was one thing when they were laying down sleeping. When they got up and walked towards us I thought I was going to die!!

Above, the Rhino behind the dead tree, this picture was taken by my iPhone. No Zoom. So you know how close this one was! Crazy! I was a little nervous. HA.

Later in the day we go for an evening drive and see LIONS! 5 of them. It’s a grandma, a mom, and 3 young males. So close they could eat us!! At one point, they have surrounded the vehicle. This made me a little nervous. It wasn’t in an aggressive way – as far as I can tell, but what do I know???. Two of the young males were lying in the road ahead of us. The other 3 lions had wandered off and were behind us. We started to turn around, but the young males in front of us moved, then, so we headed forward. Little did we know they would CHASE THE TRUCK! OK, little scary. I mean, these things can jump into the truck at any time! Perhaps they were just playing, perhaps not. The only other thing we saw in the lion section of the park was ‘lion food’. Yup. impalas, inyalas. Just a couple.

In the picture above, you can see how this male lion is not yet fully developed – he has something like ‘half’ of a mane of a full grown lion.

In the video below, the lions were closer when they started chasing. They were both beside and behind the truck.

It’s interesting to know that, in this park, they arranged the animals one way, originally, then had to change. Due to rhino poachers, the rhinos, elephants, hippos and other game animals were moved into the circle immediately surrounding the camp. And the lions were moved outside of that, so the park staff could keep close watch on the rhinos, and be able to care for them – without worrying about the lions 🙂

At night, in Hlane, we can hear lions at night. It’s not really a roar, but more of a growl or a grumble. We hear it every night and it wakes me up a few times a night. I must be exhausted though because I don’t stay awake for long. I fall right back to sleep. HA! Worried? Who me? HA! Later, in Kruger, I understand what the sound was.

The next day we leave for Kruger National Park. On our drive into our campsite (which is inside of Kruger, though surrounded by fences) we see LOTS of animals, including LOTS of elephants – I am overjoyed with happiness for all of us – but mostly for Jeannine.

We also saw some very large crocodiles. We were on a bridge looking down at them. This was the biggest of them

We arrived in our camp as the sun was setting. By the time we registered for our campsite and arranged tours for the next day it was seriously getting dark. YAY – setting up tents in the dark! HA! Well, it turned out to be even MORE interesting because there was no space for us. The campground was ‘full’. We eventually were assigned an area and managed to set up our tents in the dark, with lots of flying beetles around. In case you didn’t know, Lane is not a big fan of insects, bees in particular, and although I could show him these were beetles, he was still pretty much freaking out. #challenges.

We had a quick dinner and went to bed. The three adult women had signed up for a morning bush walk, and needed to be at the meeting place at 4:15am!! YIKES! That would be followed by a day game drive (8/9 to 4/5) and then a night drive (8-10/11). LONG DAY!

What a wonderful experience it all was! The morning walk we saw elephants from a distance. Unlike the Hlane park, these guides carried rifles and were much more hesitant to get near the animals. I think this is because of the size of Kruger, it’s not as likely that the animals have had regular contact/interaction/sight of humans and thus are less predictable. Anyway, in addition to elephants we got to see some cool flowers, and spiders, and a pair of dung beetles in action. I know, doesn’t sound like much compared to lions, etc, but it was actually really cool watching these dung beetles try to get the ball of dung out of the hole they had made. HA!

We also saw a beautiful sunrise!!

The day drive was a lot of driving, our guide was desperately seeking ‘cats’, which are the hardest animals to see. We saw TONS of impalas. It got to be like National Lampoon’s European Vacation – only instead of ‘hey kids, look, it’s big ben’ – it was ‘hey look, impala’. Seriously, they were everywhere. We saw more elephants, and monkeys, and baboons, and zebra. Unfortunately, no lions, though. Can’t say we didn’t try.

Literally, the cutest thing I ever saw in my life was the small elephant running to catch up with his/her mother, and its trunk started swinging wildly. Flopping about. It was obvious that the baby had little control over the trunk but was enjoying the experience nonetheless. It was so adorable to see these animals wild, free, and happy. Nothing like seeing them in captivity.

Also very cool, as you saw above, was watching baboons and monkeys carry their babies around

And the hyenas you see, some of those are babies, which just makes them so CUTE. Though they are not known for being attractive animals.

Another great dinner by Colin and we headed out on our night drive. I have to say I was pretty tired and a little cranky by this time (I’m not that good without sufficient sleep, HA). Lane was even falling asleep on the drive. I had no idea what to expect of this trip – and my phone battery was low, so I left it in the shared kitchen are to charge (no opportunity to charge while I slept as I usually do – no power in our tents, obviously). So I didn’t have my phone/camera. Fortunately, Jeannine did, because we saw LIONS! EATING THEIR PREY! from less than 10 feet away! Our guides were smart enough to know that when we saw hundreds of buffalo moving a bit urgently in one direction, that something had clearly spooked them. Looping around to where they were running from, we found the loins. They had killed a small buffalo. THEN, after watching the lions a while, on our way home to the campground, we FINALLY SAW A LEOPARD! We completed the Big 5 and we were all so so excited!! WHOO HOO! I think it’s pretty unusual to see them all on such a relatively short trip. Colin and Gordon kept saying how lucky we were!

WHOO HOO! We all went to bed feeling so happy and fulfilled. We did it. Well, it was done for us. HA. I firmly believe that Doris (my Mom) and Ray (Jeannine’s Dad) made this happen for us. Both Jeannine and I teared up more than once during this trip thinking of them. They were both powerful in their own way.

The next day we were up and out and on our way to Blyde River Canyon, the 3rd largest canyon in the world. AND, we were to stay in a LODGE! En Suite! WITH POWER and EVERYTHING! HA!

Blyde River Canyon we visited 3 main viewing spots and they were all beautiful. We saw God’s Window, the Three Rondavels, and Bourke’s Luck Potholes.

In the picture above are the 3 Rondavels. These are 3 natural formations that look a lot like the traditional Zulu huts. They are round with a peaked roof (though, on the one on the right still looks peaked). During the ‘viewpoint sightseeing’ Lane mostly tried to find shade, wherever he could HA! Above Lane is another tourmate, Alex. It was good for Lane to have someone his age for a while.

These round holes in the rock are formed over time by swirling water and are called the potholes. Aptly named, I think. We also had a chance to do some shopping from the locals selling various crafts and wares at those spots. Perfect. Jeannine and I had decided to buy a suitcase to get them all home so for the first time, I was able to buy some souvenirs. YAY. After the Blyde River Canyon viewing, we headed back to the lodge and the kids were stoked to do the zip line and swing. The swing is like a bungee jump only it’s not bouncy, and it’s mounted from the centre of the canyon. You jump from one side of the canyon, so when you stop the free-fall, the momentum sends you swinging, at the bottom of the rope, to the other side of the canyon, and back and forth until it’s only a small arc and you get lowered to the ground. The free fall was CRAZY!! Like maybe 4 seconds. So scary falling from that platform. SO exhilarating. I love that I did this with one of my BFF’s Jeannine. The whole trip was made SO much more amazing by her presence, but this in particular!

This, above, FAVORITE PICTURE EVER!! HA!

The next day, we decided to do the swing again. HA! Yes, we’re that dumb. You know that NONE of the guys who works the swing has ever done it!? What does THAT tell you?! HA. Anyway, it was just as great the second time.

Then, we were off to head to Jo’burg and wrap up our trip. Once again, Jeannine, Lane and I shared a very small room. HA. Rather amicably if I may say so. Lane’s long-awaited movie had just come out (Carmilla) so she stayed in the room while Jeannine and I headed out to another great dinner (and a bit of shopping) at Nelson Mandella square in Sandton City, I believe a section of Jo’burg.

The next day, Jeannine’s flight was a little earlier, so we saw her off, got ourselves ready and packed, and went to the airport to ready ourselves for a LONG DAY OF TRAVEL. Of course, we’re at the airport like 3 hours before our flight (Jo’burg struggles with occasional bad traffic, so the trip was 30 minutes but could have been 2 hours) – and our flight to Doha would be 8 hours, with a 2 hour layover, then a 10 hour flight to Tokyo, with a 12 hour layover, then a 1 hour hop to Osaka. WHEW! This is going to be fun! Who booked this anyway, and what was she THINKING???? HA.

Ireland

Our flight is delayed by an hour or so. Not a big deal. We aren’t on a schedule.

We arrive into Dublin by plane. We make our way through immigration and baggage claim and customs. Though not without some drama and aggravation. It seems the passports fell out of someone’s pockets while on the plane and so we don’t have them when we get to immigration. An airport employee tells us to wait in line for immigration and that they will let us through to get to the airline desk to inquire to see if they have been found. Turns out this is true. Of course, though, because we are not European, we are escorted and our immigration escort waits with us for the passports to show up. And that takes about 45 minutes. We have a nice chat while we wait. He is quite friendly, I think, although Lane tells me later he got a strange ‘not trusting’ vibe from him. Like he thought we were lying. I suppose what he passed as conversation may have been a bit of a test – a light investigation of us. In case the passports were not immediately found he would have as much information as possible to make a judgement call of what to do with us. This kind of thing doesn’t bother me at all. I have literally nothing to hide and feel our ‘story’ is a good, honest, positive one.

Our host meets us at the door of our airbnb and shows us around. I am immediately out to get some groceries. The Uber driver told us tonight is when 15 and 16 year olds get their exam results so it might be a little crazy out. I am definitely cooking. Plus I haven’t cooked anything substantial in a while.

Lane enjoys some alone time in the bedroom and I enjoy some wine and cooking. It was a nice chill night. Don our host comes and goes while I talk to Matt and Dad on FaceTime. I don’t think either of them (Matt or Dad) is too happy about us staying in a guys apartment but Don was great and I don’t think posed any threat to us if you know what I mean.

I manage to get a load of laundry done. Much needed. Ha.

A quiet night followed by a slow morning. It’s amazing what travel takes out of you! And the last couple places we were only there a few nights each so we have had more then our share of travel days lately.

We finally get out around early afternoon. We wander to the Temple Bar area though intermittent heavy rain. And I try to find this pedestrian street I visited with Bob and Jeannine when we were here years ago (1999). I think I found it but it’s not the same. No biggie. Lane spots a merengue (bezy) bigger than his head in a shop window so we go in. I notice the food smells GREAT and it’s a hot and cold buffet at a tiny restaurant so I get a few things. So glad I did- it was awesome. I realize everything is house made with no preservatives. This is why it smells and tastes so good. It’s not cheap but it’s so worth it. I want to eat here every day. Ha.

After that Lane and I do some shopping. At H and M as usual. We both get a couple new tops. We are SO SICK of the clothes we have. Lane is much more tolerant of this than I am. And he has probably only 60% of the clothes I have. I do miss my wardrobe at home. I can buy new stuff but then I have to get rid of something. That can be hard. Plus I don’t want to pay a lot for anything because at some point THAT ITEM will be in the toss pile. Ah well. I know you don’t feel one bit bad for me. Ha.

We stop at a cool microbrewery and pub for a rest then head home to drop our stuff.

We head to Bram Stokers Castle Dracula. Unfortunately, it only opens on Friday and Saturday nights. So we head back home and I prepare some dinner. I manage to convince Don we have enough food for him too so we have dinner together, the three of us. Don is in software similar to me but I think he’s a developer. We also share a passion for living below our means and saving money. I guess that’s why he opens his home to airbnb-ers . For the extra cash.

We head to bed and get up the next morning pack up and head to catch our bus to Galway. Can’t wait to see the Cliffs of Moher and do some caving. Whatever that is. Ha. ITS MY BIRTHDAY!! I pop around the corner from the bus station to get Lane a subway and realize I’m close to that great buffet restaurant again so I get their AMAZING chicken salad to go. Yay!

Arriving in Galway at the bus station we pick up a taxi and are dropped at our airbnb. Paul is very welcoming and shows us to our room and shows us how the hot water and shower work. Our room is very small and our mattress is on the floor. It’s going to be a cramped few nights. It’s not my favorite place ever. It feels a bit like college kids live here although I suspect Paul is much older than that. Paul tells us that his band will be playing traditional Irish music at a local pub tonight and I say we would love to go see them. He texts me the name of the place and then Lane and I go in our room to relax a bit. It is at this point, we ask Paul and find out there is no wifi in the house. YIKES. You might think this is no big deal but it kind of is. It’s not like in the US where your phone does pretty much everything you need, though maybe a little slow. Many times things don’t work at all on my phone and Lane has no service at all. To get around we will need google maps, bus schedules, etc. hmm. Plus Lane needs a new book to read and his schoolwork is wifi dependent. We put our stuff in a bag and decide to walk to the center of town. We see a bus at the bus stop and decide to give it a shot. It’s the bus stop the taxi driver told us to use to get into town. But many bus stops have multiple bus routes but take a chance. We pay and sit and feel like we are going in the right direction. And we are, and we get off at Eyre Square and walk into the bustle of things. I saw the pub where our hosts are playing tonight on our way there. So that’s settled. We pick up a few necessities at the pharmacy then I spot a vodaphone store. I say let’s go see about a SIM card. Lane is skeptical because it wasn’t easy getting one in Germany but I say we give it another shot. This time it’s so much smoother!! We even get extra data because Lane is a student and I have our passport cards to prove it. So now we have data. Lane’s phone is now WAY faster than mine and we are told the data is good for 30 days in all of Europe. Perfect. We will be in Europe for almost exactly 30 more days.

We do a bit of window shopping and wandering around then we head to the pub just in time for the 6 pm start. We order drinks (Latte for Lane) and eventually dinner and we enjoy the music. It was very nice. Our host Paul is playing a single drum that he holds. His roommate Tara is playing fiddle and a guy we never meet plays the guitar and I think a banjo. After that we wander a bit. Try to get on a bus but it goes the wrong way so we get off and grab a taxi home.

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The next day we have a bit of an adventure planned. A small group tour to include the cliffs of moher, caving, and cliff diving. Oh and lunch 🙂

It was a great tour, by the way. If you’re headed to Galway and looking for a great adventure tour experience, check out www.epicireland.com. Also search for videos on youtube!

The tour picks us up at our Airbnb early, like 8am. We pick up a few more people and take about an hour drive out to what seems like the middle of nowhere. We are ‘geared up’ in what, to us, seems like striper gear. Waterproof jackets and pants, and boots. We are given helmets with headlamps. And we walk a ways up the ‘road’, into the beautiful woods, and Emma, as it’s her birthday, is told to go first into the cave entrance, which looks very small, and muddy, and Emma says it smells bad. Yuck. I’m not sure I’m up for this! Micheal says it opens up inside. Well, he has Emma turn around for a picture and then announces “We’re not going in there! Are you nuts!? It’s awful! Get out of there Emma!” He was just kidding but Emma got to get all muddy. HA. Poor Emma. Anyway, he then led us further to a more respectable looking cave entrance. It was in a hole in the ground and water was coming down by the opening. But it at least looked like you could walk into it (not crawl like Emma did).

Off we went into the cave. Micheal asked if anyone was claustrophobic. We all said no. He said we would know in the first 5 minutes if it was an issue. We entered the cave, it was walkable height, but very narrow. It was really cool. The water had been running through this path for thousands of years, which created the cave in the limestone. The bedrock, above our heads, was as flat as a ceiling in your house. That rock is too hard to be dissolved by the water, apparently.

In walking through the caves, and we did walk most of the time, sometimes you needed to walk sideways to fit, with your butt inching alone one wall while your feet braced the floor edge on the other side. At times we had to climb up, like up a water fall. Or crawl through a small crevice. Not too often, though. There were great formations above and around us. And often a white line on the floor, the calcite, I think it’s called. At one point, we turned around and headed back, and then Micheal put me in the lead (we all took turns leading through the whole 2-hour period) and he told us all to grab the person in front of us by the shoulder and turn off our headlamps. We walked in complete darkness. I was in the lead so was careful with my steps, and, as Micheal instructed, told the person behind me what to expect. We had done this all along but it was more important in complete darkness. WOW. what an experience. It was messy, wet, muddy, and cramped, but really really fun!

After that, we removed all our gear, changed into dry clothes (at times we walked through water a foot deep, so it went OVER our boots and our feet and lower legs were wet), and Micheal drove us to a small cafe in Doolin. We had an AMAZING lunch of home made soup and chicken salad sandwiches on the famous Brown Bread of Ireland. Then, he drove us to the Cliffs of Moher.

What an amazing sight. Not only that, but Micheal knew of some quiet places to go to see it. He dropped us at a gate and pointed in the direction to go. He said ‘when you see signs telling you not to go, that it’s dangerous, just keep going’. HA. This is my kind of guy. There was hardly anyone around. I felt so privileged . While we were viewing the Cliffs from a glorious spot – quiet and hardly anyone there but the 6 of us – we could see people walking the top of the Cliff. Surely that is fun and interesting, but, really, the viewpoint we had was so much better. We could SEE the Cliffs, not look down on them. The spot was completely ‘hidden in plain view’. It was basically a walk from the road through a farmer’s land full of cows. Apparently it’s OK with the farmer. HA.

SO the down side was, it started to rain, so Lane and I started to hustle back down the path to get to the bus. AND, Lane twisted his ankle. Badly enough that he pretty much could NOT walk. I carried hiima bit, then Emma and Rachael came back and took turns carrying her (piggy back style). It was so sweet of them. I could not have done it myself.

Next up was to be the cliff diving. Lane had already decided he didn’t want to jump in the cold Atlantic water, but he had planned to go with us and watch us do it (Emma, Rachael and I. There was another couple with us for caving but they opted to do the Cliffs hike instead of the cliff diving). Well, clearly Lane could NOT make the 20 minute hike to the diving spot, so he bravely and selflessly told me to go while he stayed in the van, parked at the Doolin Inn (no, it was not dangerous to leave hi, there, trust me, i was there).

Well, the hike there was a bit strenuous for this American. Not for the Irish folks, though. They are so much more used to walking and treacherous ground than I am ! HA. I managed to keep up and not look like the ‘old person’ which I was now that the other couple had left us for the hike. HA.

We got there, and expected it to be deserted, but there was a group of guys there, wrapping up doing what we were about to start. We donned bathing suits and wetsuits – I was cold just from the walk! The idea of jumping into the water did not appeal to me, but I knew I had to do it. Micheal had mentioned a cave in the water that we could jump from the top. I looked at that cave and my heart fell into my stomach. It was pretty darn high! and the ocean looked a bit treacherous to me.

Emma and Rachael had no intention of jumping from any kind of height so Micheal pointed them to a low cliff and told me to follow him. Well, there is no record of this first jump and it’s just as well. I was terrified, of course, but I had no idea what I was doing. Micheal tried to explain, definitely land on your feet NOT your back or butt or you will DEFINITELY FEEL IT. Guess what I did? Not intentionally, of course, but I landed on my butt. Even with a wetsuit, I swear I haven’t felt that kind of sting EVER in my life. Followed, of course, by the shock of the cold water! Yikes! I couldn’t move my legs for about 5 minutes while I merely paddled to the nearest rock. The sting VERY SLOWLY wore off. While we jumped from some lower cliffs. Then, it was time to jump from the top of the cave. I think it’s about the same height as the first jump. But now, I am equipped with the knowledge of how much it hurts if you land badly. HA!

Well, I did it. it was awesome. still makes my heart pound thinking about it, and it was like a month ago now!

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We headed back to the van, Lane was completely content having had some screen time and rest for his ankle. Michael was kind enough to stop by a store for us on the way to dropping us home, to get some food (and wine) for the night, knowing we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without a car.

WOW what a day.

The next day we were going to do something. Micheal had offered to take us on his other adventure tour, free of charge, but Lane couldn’t walk, so we chilled at home. I got Lane a cane to help him walk (but he refused to use it so we left it there, HA).

The next morning, we were out of there. Bus to Dublin, Flight to Barcelona!