Rolling with the punches

Let the punches begin!

Dec 20: I go to withdraw money at an ATM in Phuket and can't find my debit card in my wallet!  My wallet sometimes pops open and things fall out, but its not in my bag.  I don't think it was stolen because I still have cash and my 2 credit cards.  The last I remembered using it was at the airport in Phuket.  I opened my wallet that day in Phi Phi Island and on a taxi ride from my first hostel to my second hostel.

I called the first hostel to see if I left it in the car.  I can't communicate in English with the worker so my hostel's receptionists asks for me.  He went to his car to check but didn't see it.

I called the airport to see if there is a lost and found.  Again, I don't think they understand me so the receptionist speaks to them.  "They say they are busy now because there is trouble on the runway" is what she says they told her.

I call Bank of America.  After getting bad and wrong advice to cancel my card, and new card will be overnighted to me, I place a hold on my card (in case it turns up later), and am advised to withdraw money using my credit card.  I don't know my credit card's pin number.  BOA can mail it to my sister though, only it would take 7 days with the holiday.  I'm told to go to the nearest bank with my passport to withdraw money.

Dec 21: I got money from my credit card at the bank.  Thank you God!  I was so happy they got suspicious and rescanned my credit card, and examined my signature with extra caution.

I try to book a tour to Phang Nga bay.  I see one online at the site Nita told me about for 1100 baht.  I ask the receptionist to use her phone but she says "Why not book with us?".  I said, "I only have 1100 baht to spend".  She convinces me though by showing me a brochure of a tour for 2800 baht that she'll book for me for 1400.  I was satisfied I wasn't being ripped off.  After time passes, I check my voucher and brochure and its a different brochure than the one she showed me!  This brochure's tour is 1400, so I am getting ripped off!  I told her to cancel it and book the first one I wanted.  By this time, its too late.  I didn't go to Phang Nga Bay.

Dec 22: I check at the airport losts and found.  There are stacks of credit cards but mine isn't there. I also by booked a flight from Siem Ream to Hanoi for 420 thinking it wasn't in USD currency.  I hope the airlines give me a refund!  But now I don't know how I'm getting to Hanoi.  I may have to fly from Siem Ream to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Hanoi.   Or take the train and deal with board patrol officers with reputations for dishonesty.  I also tried without success to cancel a tour I mistakenly booked to Ayutthaya for tomorrow.  It is a nice tour, just too expensive and I intended to book a floating market tour instead.

But even with these "punches" I'm marching on.  Nothing will ever stop me from traveling!

Phuket - Ko Phi Phi Island

All I can think about right now is that I can’t believe I’m here in a hostel room with 4 guys.  I’m lying on the top bunk of my bunk bed and can see into the second floor of what appears to be another hostel across the street.  I don’t feel unsafe.  I just feel out of my comfort zone.  It’s been years since I've done this!  One is from Australia, another is from Holland, and I haven’t yet spoken to the other two, even though they are lying in the bunk beds within arm’s reach of me. 

My day was made special by an Indonesian family I spent the day with on a tour of Ko Phi Phi Island.  The mom, Nita, and I chatted the whole way from Patong Pier to the island.  I was really happy to ask her questions about Indonesia since I plan on going there in a couple of weeks.  I told her one of my favorite parts of traveling was food and asked what dishes I should eat while in Indonesia.  She wrote them in my notebook: Ayam betutu, nasi jingo, sate ayam, and babi guling. 

She has a spa just outside of Bali, and owns a store in Jakarta, where they live.  During her stay in Bangkok before coming to Phuket, she bought several women’s items for her store.  I was trilled to ask her about Bangkok.  She told me what I should see, and I should go to the ticket office near the Grand Palace to get cheaper tickets.  She told me not to pay more than 300 bhats to take a tour of the Floating Market.  At the markets of Chachuta, she said to bargain until half parice.  She also told me about Siam Ocean World, where you put your feet in a fish tank with fish.  I’ve seen it on Samantha Brown travel shows!

We got to Maya bay where we anchored to go snorkeling.  I wore a life jacket, and secured my camera in its water proof case though one of the buckles of my jacket.  I was a little nervous to get into the water even with the life jacket!  

Of course, once I got in, it was great.  I put my head in the water and hundreds of fish were swimming right below me!  I started hyperventilating!  I've never swam around so many fish!  The people on the boat threw bread into the water to attract the fish.  It took a couple of minutes to feel relaxed snorkeling around so many fish.  Most were about 6 inches long, and a few were about 1 foot long.  I saw sea urchins on the bottom of the ocean floor, 4 meters below. 

 

Huge limestone formations enclosed the bay.  Several boats and kayakers were enjoying the water with us.

  

As an aside, Maya Bay was the location of the movie The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

We got back into the boat and went to Ley Island where we had a buffet lunch!  I scooped mounds of rice, curry chicken, noodles on my plate, and got a bowl of soup with prawn meatballs.  I was grinning ear to ear.  The setting was so beautiful.  We could see the mountains rising out of the sea, with lush vegetation and houses, trees with yellow flowers, and of course the sea.  It felt like Paradise.

Nita told me one of her life’s motto: “If you want to travel, you have to pay.  But when you come back, the memories are priceless.”  I told her I was going to write it in my blog.  So for the rest of the day, I would smile and say, “This is priceless”. 

After our lunch, we went down to the beach.  Nita's husband and her daughter went swimming while Nita, her mother, and I sat chatting and relaxing on the lounge chairs.

I told Nita I stayed with a couchsurfer in Japan.  She said, “Oh!  I’ve wanted to do that!  I love meeting people from other countries but I live so far from the center of Jakarta.”  I told her how a friend told me that her friend thought that there wouldn’t be many couchsurfers in Malaysia because a lot of them are conservative.  She said, “Well I’m Muslim, but my best friend is a male who has a male partner.  We eat dinner together.  My religion is between God and me.”  She told me she has a friend in Jakarta who is an actress and a couchsurfer.  I will try to find her! 

I also loved her sense of humor.  I told her how orderly people are in Japan.  They wait for the train to come in single file lines.  She said it was the same thing when there was a tsunami warning issued for Japan.  “In Indonesia, people go, AHHHHHH!!!!! TSUNAMI!!! And there are stampedes.  In Japan, people go, “Okay, a tsunami.”

She said that it is almost impossible for Indonesians to get visas to visit the United States.  Isn’t that something?  And they don’t ask us for visas.  The US will ask for money, proof that you have a house, and then they still won’t grant a visa.  She also told me that President Obama went to school in Jakarta and everyone celebrated when he won the reelection. 

When we got back to the Pier I gave them hugs goodbye.  We both said it was really nice to have met each other.

I still haven’t had luck yet finding a host in Bangkok.  One girl said she can’t host me but is free to hang out.  I will for sure take her up on that offer.  It it’s a popular time of year to travel to Thailand and I’m contact people at the last minute so it makes finding a host very hard.  The problem is, I’m so indecisive on where I want to go!  When I left Osaka, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be in Malaysia or Phuket.  It was at the airport that I booked my hostel in Phuket and almost everything was full for that night!  I nearly had a heart attack!  I ended up booking a double room in a hotel for $30 for the first night and then my current hostel for $8 for the rest of my stay. 

High travel season really takes the spontaneity out of travel.  After today’s trip to Ko Phi Phi, I was satisfied with my experience in Phuket and would have flown to Bangkok tomorrow but my flight is already booked for Saturday. 

I don’t know any other experience I have here will top the one I had today.  And it wasn’t really because I was at Ko Phi Phi, it was because I learned so much about another culture and got to share some of my own.  I told myself when I set out, “Nisha, make a new friend”.  Its great, but then its really sad to say goodbye!  I bond with people too easily!   Who knows what tomorrow will bring or what other amazing person I will meet.  I hope I don’t have to spend tomorrow by myself. 

Kyoto!

Kyoto wasn’t as much fun as Tokyo.  When Chihiro and I said our goodbyes my last day, I told her the rest of my trip was going to be so boring without her!  And I was right about that at Kyoto.  I hope I can find couchsurfers for the remainder of my trip because they truly make the travel experience special.

I took the shinkansen train, aka the “bullet train” from Tokyo to Kyoto.  It was about $140 and Chihiro told me it would be much cheaper to take the bus.  However, I wanted to experience the famous bullet train!  The ride was so smooth it was almost unremarkable. 

After I checked into my ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), I set out for the Bamboo forest.  Bamboo trees make an almost musical sound as they sway back and forth. 

I did encounter an American traveler on my way to the Bamboo forest.  After we saw it together, we went to this monkey mountain.  On the hike up the mountain, we spotted several monkeys, the same kind I saw while visiting Mt. Fuji.  At the top of the mountain we had great views of Kyoto below.   And monkeys would walk right past our feet, as if they didn’t even see us or didn’t care we were there!  It was as a cat would walk right past your feet.  Inside a fenced-in shed, we also handed the monkeys peanuts! 

During our exchanges of pleasantries, the American traveler found out I was a medical student.  He told me a story on how he “blacked out” the day before while walking with his couchsurfer, which resulted in a deep cut under his chin.  He told me it happened after eating squid at a cheap restaurant.  “This is an awkward question” I said, “Are you having diarrhea?”

I diagnosed him with a stomach bug and gave him one of my 2 day treatment courses of Cipro.  I hope Karma comes back around.

On Tuesday I did a temple tour.  I then walked around the Gion district hoping to spot a giesha but didn’t. 

I took a train from Kyoto to Osaka Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning left early in the morning for my flight to Phuket. 

Now I’m waiting for my connecting flight in Kuala Lumpur.  I just had some Laksa and was so happy when the total was $5 USD!  In an airport!  Wooo!!!!  Its going to be great in these cheaper countries of Asia!

 Pictures to follow when I'm connected to faster internet!

Shrines, crazy fashion, onsen, and more great food!

On Sunday, I had one incredible experience after another!

Chihiro and I had breakfast at a “family restaurant”, so named because they are inexpensive places to eat.  I had a traditional Japanese breakfast—miso fish which was served with rice, seaweed with dried tuna, miso soup, and tsukemono (pickled cucumbers). 

 

I told her a traditional American breakfast would be eggs, sausage, toast with butter, and cereal with milk.  "And orange juice!" she said.  I didn't even think that that was unique to American breakfast!

We then went to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya.  We walked though a wooden gate to approach the temple.  It was a decent walk through a beautiful forest lined with trees that still had their leaves.  In the autumn they are red and yellow. 

 

 

We walked past a group of volunteers who come every day to sweep the road clean of leaves.

 

When we got to the temple we performed Omairi, a purification rite.  You take water from the basin with a wooden and pour it over your hands.  Then you put water in your mouth from your hands , swish it around, and spit it out. 

 

On reflection, it seems so interesting to me how emperors are diety figures in Japan!  Japanese will come here on large occasions like weddings, or once a year.  We did see a wedding party and Chihiro asked them if I could take pictures with them! When I joined their group, other tourist took pictures of us. I think they were jealous!

I'm with the bride and groom!  I look so happy!

Friends of the brides and groom wearing kimonos

The shrine was first built in 1912, but was rebuilt after it was destroyed during the World War II air raids on Japan.

 

 

We left the Meiji Shrine and walked over to Harajuku, the place of “crazy fashion” (and the title of a Gwen Stefani album).  Again Chihiro asked people if I could take pictures with them.

I asked, "Do they wear this every day?"  She said they do.  "Even when they go to work?" I asked again.  She said "yes".  They really rebel against norms.  They looked like they were going to Halloween costume parties.  Chihiro said you see more crazy fashion in the spring because people cover up with coats in the winter.

We walked along the fashion district, and down.  We got crepes at Santa Monica ironically named since its a Japanese crepe company.  Chihiro told me it is very famous.  I would have walked right passed it! 

This is the crepe I got.  It has vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and a slice of cheesecake!

 

We then went to Asakusa to see the famous shrine,  Sanja-sama.  It was spectacular!  This shine is what I think of when I think of Japan.  

 

Chihiro took me to get Udonn another famous Japanese dish made with noodles. 

 

 

Then I had one of the most amazing lifetime experiences—a bath at an onsen!  We got discounted tickets for 20,000 yen.  The place was beautiful beyond description.  It is very fancy inside with swimming pools, gardens, lounge chairs, and nice smelling aroma.  This must be how the wealthy in America live every day! 

Saunas are on several floors.  Each sauna has a different temperature and ambiance.   All play really relaxing music.  One of them was so hot I could barely stand on my feet.  When we entered the sauna, we laid out our towel and then lied on top of it, and fell asleep.  After we woke up, we went to a different sauna.

One of the saunas is a light therapy sauna with different color lights that you can select.  Another sauna is in a cold room which has a tank of jelly fish!  After the sauna, we relaxed on lounge chairs overlooking the skyrises and ferris wheel of Tokyo!  It was all lit up!

We spent over 2 hours in the different saunas.  Then it was time for the onsen!  We took off our robes and were completely naked the rest of the time.  All we had was a small hand towel!  Everyone walks around totally naked!  We sat on little stools to take a bath and wash our hair. 

Then we sat and relaxed in the several pools.  Each of them have different tempatures.  It could be warm, hot, or cold.  The water was brown color.  "It makes you skin look younger!" Chihiro told me.  We both put it on our faces. 

My favorite pool was located outside on a sort of roof top deck!  I thought I would freeze but it was one of my favorites because the air is so fresh. 

After the pools, we rinsed off and drank milk from the vending machine!  Why milk, I really don’t know!  But its customary.

We re-robed, sat in front of the mirror to blow dry our hair and put on lotion.  We got dressed and when it left it was just past midnight!  The onsen is open 24hrs!  Even near midnight people, some elderly, were still entering!

It was one of the best experiences of my life!  Chihiro goes once a month, and takes her sister there for her birthday.  There are even mixed saunas where you can go with your significant other.  The one we went to was all female. 

And for a cute story:

After I paid for me breakfast, I got 2 yen back in change.  100 yen is a little more than 1 dollar.  Next to the register was an empty plastic jar.  Chihiro said to me, “do you want that?” after I got my receipt and change. Naturally I assumed she meant my 2 yen, and I said, “no, not really” and thew it in the plastic jar.  “No!” she said, “I meant the receipt!” and she took out my money and put the recitp in the jar.  Haha!  I said, “Americans love to give away their money!  People can get back 80 cents in change and trhow it in the tip jar”.  She said, “Well Japanese are very stingy!”