nothing but beach
Sometimes all a person needs is a weekend to relax and that is exactly what I did last weekend. All the recent travel has really taken a toll on me so I took the weekend to recharge. I didn't really have any plans for the weekend and it was a welcome change of pace. It turns out that Friday night I got to spend with Megan and Jamie for dinner and helping them do some grunt work for the upcoming Tokyo Scavenger hunt that I will be missing. Saturday was spent at Maki beach just relaxing and having a small picnic in the sun. The next day was supposed to be the same but in Kashiwazki. However it rained on Sunday so Jamie, Eisuke and I grabbed some coffee. Before I headed back to Sanjo Eisuke and I got some dinner and went to an arcade. Nothing to exciting but a pleasant weekend and it was just what I needed.
men in thongs
Again I got to spend a great weekend with the crazies! Megan, Jamie and I all went down to Tokyo together on Friday because Michelle was already there with her family. The main reason for going down was to seen sumo but that obviously doesn’t mean that was the only thing we did all weekend. When we arrived all of us headed to ni chome in Shinjuku, which is the gay district of Tokyo. The great thing about this area is that there is constantly a happy hour, which is a rare thing in Japan, going on Fridays. It was the girls first time to ni chome so I had to show them a good time. First we went to an open bar called Advocates for the start of the night. Once there, we started socializing with lots people, new and familiar, and generally had a great time. The atmosphere was fun but we headed to the next bar, called Arty Farty, because they had the next happy hour and a dance floor. Before we knew it the night of drinking and dancing was over and everyone crashed.
The next morning I was with Shaun, a great guy I had met the night before and clicked with, to walk around Tokyo for a bit. After much debate, we ended up getting lunch at Subway and it was amazing. It is surprising how much I miss a good sub sandwich in this country. Then it was off to Shinjuku Park to bask in the beautiful day, talk and just hang out. Then we did a little bit of shopping. Shaun needed to get a book for the plane and I needed to get a late birthday present, sorry Matty. Afterwards Shaun was meeting a friend to go to Disneyland and I had sumo. We parted ways and I went to meet the crew at sumo, only to meet up a bit later to say goodbye before he headed back to Australia. People enter each others lives for a reason but it is never easy when there is something there and you have to let it go.
Sumo was awesome! Megan, Jamie, John, and I all went together. We had seats in the balcony of the small stadium. Before hand we grabbed some beer at the nearby convenience store and did some mid-afternoon drinking, which is actually not strange when watching sumo. We decided to add to the event by naming the wrestlers and placing bets on who would win. The amateurs were fine but the professional wrestlers were amazing and the bouts were pretty intense. It was a fun afternoon before we headed out for the evening.
That night we went to a place called MoMo Paradise for sukiyaki (Japanese stew) and all you can eat and drink. We were a little ridiculous and went near closing so we stuffed our faces and drank as much as we could, full throttle as we put it. Meanwhile Michelle and her family were nearby so they occasionally stopped by and probably wondered why we had some many drinks with so much food. Afterwards Jamie, Megan, Michelle, Nicole, and I all went out to dance. Of course I got kicked out of the club for wearing sandals, one of these days I will wise up and brings shoes to Tokyo, so I crashed early that night. The next day we got up a little late but still managed to do some last minute shopping before heading back to Niigata. All in all, another insanely busy weekend of fun in Tokyo.
not sorry
Last weekend was the first in a long time that I have gotten the chance to just relax. It was much needed since all my traveling definitely wore me out, actually to the point of getting sick. On Friday I took the opportunity to meet up with Megan and Jamie for dinner and games in Kashiwazaki. Also, I got to meet their friend Eisuke while I was there. The four of us took the opportunity to visit the beach bar Nagisa and engage in a healthy couple games of Sorry! Getting a few competitive people together to play a game of pure luck always gets interesting. Admittedly I won once but Eisuke, the newcomer, won twice and the girls didn't seem to have much luck that night. The next day we dragged our butts out of bed to grab some ramen at Hase’s, another Japanese friend. Then I was back to Sanjo for a weekend of lying around and watching movies. An amazing weekend!
life is rough
The following morning Melissa and I took an early morning flight to Phuket Island, which is one of only two ports that has access to Ko Phi Phi, We quickly grabbed our luggage and grabbed a taxi to the marina where we took the first boat to Ko Phi Phi. After a two hour ride we finally arrived at Ko Phi Phi and it was gorgeous! There is just no other way to describe it. Once we unloaded a person from our hotel, the Ko Phi Phi Viewpoint Resort, was waiting for us to take our baggage and show us to our accommodations for the week. Thanks to a recommendation from one of Melissa’s friend, we got a great location with an amazing view.
Every morning we would wake up, open the curtains, and be in awe of our surroundings. The island was full of Europeans, in fact we only ran into one other American the whole week, but it was interesting to be around so many bilingual and trilingual people. Three meals a day and I can’t remember a bad meal. Thai food is absolutely delicious and, despite it probably being tamed down for foreigners, it was not as spicy as I had expected. For the most part Melissa and I always had meals together but it wasn’t uncommon for us to split up during the day to do various things. Almost every afternoon I was at the beach playing volleyball and did my best to get a tan, although I did burn more than I would have liked.
One day we spent on a boat tour around Ko Phi Phi and nearby Phi Phi Lei, where the movie The Beach was filmed. There were multiple stops throughout the day so we could do plenty of snorkeling and swimming. The boat even had a pseudo diving board off the side, which I only went off to show up the guys who thought they were so cool going off it. We also met a guy from Norway, named Andre that was fluent in English. In fact, if he had not told us he wasn’t from Norway, I probably would have guess he was from the states. Really fun laid back guy that was traveling around Southeast Asia for a few months.
On a different day we took a hike up to a place called the viewpoint, after which our hotel was named after. At the top of this hill is a gorgeous view of the inhabited half of Ko Phi Phi and being able to see both bays. Words can’t do the picture justice and let’s just say it was worth the trek through the woods to get there, little did we know there was an actual paved path that we took on the way down.
There was lots of random socializing between volleyball, the beach, and the bar. The people there intrigued me a lot and it was great to be able to meet people from across the world. One night Melissa were at our hotel bar and met this couple from Sweden that were really fun and taking their honeymoon after three kids and almost 8 years of being married. Then our last full day there I met a guy from Israel, Shahar, and his two lady friends. We ended up having a blast on my last night on Ko Phi Phi.
Obviously there were plenty of nights out, although admittedly not as many as usual, and there was pretty much a pattern that all the tourists took throughout a given night. First was the Reggae Bar but don’t be fooled by the title because there was no reggae music only Thai boxing. The second stop was always Apache Bar that was a multi tiered dance club. Finally everyone went to the hippie bar that seemed to be really chill and there was a little hamburger stand that I liked to hit up before the walk home.
My actual birthday was anything but fun. Thankfully Melissa bought us some manicures and pedicures before we left the island so we were relaxed for beginning of our trek, it was a great birthday present! Forty hours later after taking a boat, two planes, and two trains we had traveled from Ko Phi Phi to Sanjo. The most exciting part of my day was taking a shower and I had a nice birthday dinner of sushi go around. I figure Thailand was one big birthday present to myself. Basically the trip was very relaxing. I am glad we got in one last big trip before my family comes out and my life in Japan comes to an end. In some ways it is still difficult to believe it actually happened.
here i go again
Over Golden Week (a string of about 4 national holidays in one week) Melissa and I left Niigata to venture out to Thailand. Since I had a bit more nenkyuu (paid vacation) than Melissa, I went a day earlier to see Bangkok. Originally another guy, Phil, was supposed to join us be he had a small accident the week before and couldn't make the trip. In any case, that left me to travel alone the first day. It is the first time I have been alone in a foreign county that I didn't speak the language. In Japan Northwest had actually over booked my flight so the gave me some vouchers and sent me over the United to take an earlier flight to Bangkok. After arriving to Bangkok International Airport at around 11:30 I somehow figured out how to board the bus and get off at my stop. Of course I rode the bus the whole way and ended up missing my stop. Luckily the driver was really nice and dropped me off on his way back to the airport. It was so late that I only managed to check in that night and I was just thankful I made it there.
Needless to say Bangkok is one big tourist trap but being warned of that before hand is a small help. There are normal taxis in Bangkok along with motorcycle taxis and something called a tuktuk. A tuktuk is this scooter type vehicle that has a decent, and by decent I mean for maybe 2 or 3 people, sized covered seating area. They are one of the easiest modes of transportation but also one of the easiest to get ripped off by. Getting ripped off by a taxi driver in Thailand is the difference between paying $1 or $3. Granted it is not much but I think it is more the concept of being taken advantage of than actually paying.
The next day I tried to get up at a decent hour explore Bangkok. Grabbed a tuktuk in front of the hotel and headed into the city. There are so many things to see in Bangkok that I ended up seeing the biggest tourist places, which I think is fine when you only have one day to pack it all in. First I headed to a place called the Grand Palace. It is a massive grounds that previous kings have built elaborate buildings and Buddha's in. The buildings inside were very elaborate, even down to the intricate tile work that each pillar had on it. I spent my time slowly meandering around and through the buildings. It also gave me a chance to shoot some amazing pictures of some Thai architecture. Sadly some of the grounds were being renovated so I couldn't see everything but it was still worth it.
Afterwards a nice man at the exit of the Grand Palace got a cheap tuktuk for me to head to the Golden Mount and back. The Golden Mount is basically what it sounds like, a giant mound in the middle of the city that rises up and has a temple at the top. It was apparent that the whole structure was man made but it was still very impressive and had a great view of the city. There was also a nice temple next door that I took some time to visit and enjoy yet another Buddha.
Once the tuktuk finally got me back, after a few sketchy stops around the city, there was a temple across the river that I wanted to see. In order to get there I had to go through a small port area and catch a ferry to cross the river. It was a nice change of pace to ride the boat and the site of Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) was spectacular. After walking around all morning, wandering around the temple at a leisurely pace was all I could manage. I didn't spend a whole lot of time there because it was midday and the sun was killer. A short break at a coffee shop, where I met a random guy from Scotland, and then it was back on the ferry to find some lunch on the other side of the river.
Luckily there was a restaurant in the small port area that I was able to get a seat readily and some of the people spoke English. One of them was a college student and he spoke good English with a British accent. Since I was avoiding the sun and walking it was a nice afternoon conversation that lasted a couple hours. In the end they ended up giving me my lunch for free, which I was thankful for.
Then I headed to Wat Po, which has a massive reclining Buddha displayed in one of the buildings. It was unreal how huge this Buddha was and I spent plenty of time in that building just staring at it. From what I picked up from random tour guides, it was apparently reconstructed inside and was almost too big for the building. However it is obviously ok now. I also made a donation and was give small coins to drop in around a hundred metal bowls. It was kind of cool because it filed the hall with metallic sounds as people viewed the statue. On the same grounds as the Buddha is a Thai massage school and after a long day of walking it was time to experience the relaxing side of Thailand. A one hour Thai massage was exactly what I needed to finish out my day of touring about Bangkok. Afterwards I walked a bit to find a tuktuk that wasn't trying to make a small fortune off of me and made my way back to the hotel.
The last thing on my list of things to do was get some items people requested from an area called Khao San Road. It was full of foreigners but that also meant that there were plenty of shops and stalls for me to browse through. I was tempted to stay out a bit but I was totally exhausted from the day and there was plenty of vacation left. However, after buying some necklaces and fisherman pants it was time to return to the hotel where Melissa had just gotten into Bangkok. Ko Phi Phi here we come!
