Skybert's blog

Day... 1? Back to life as we know it.

2010-10-03T07:53:00.002+02:00

Well, it's fall. We decided to turn the heater on this morning, because it's so freakin' cold here! What happened while we were away? The weather report predicts 9 C (48 F) and rain today, and even snow in the interior. There are some nice colors out, though, and we've decided to take a walk and be happy, no matter what.

Day 23 - Saturday - Wakeup call

2010-10-02T06:24:00.005+02:00

We didn't really have to set our alarm clocks this morning. When we woke up at 5:45 AM, there was a cacophony of calls to prayer all over the city. Our room was at the top of the Green Anka hotel (which is kind of shabby, but perfect for a short sleepover, only 15 minutes from the airport), so we had a panoramic view to Istanbul and surround sound...

A quick breakfast at the aiport and home sweet home here we come!

For reasons unknown, the movie they played on the way home from Istanbul included a shooting scene in an aircraft (which they paused, telling us to fasten our seatbelts) where the pilots where shot. The plane (in the movie) was forced to make an emergency landing, and exploded shortly after crashlanding in a field and being divided in three.

When we entered Norway, Bjørn Erlend, a friend of ours, was working in immigrations and welcomed us home. Thanks to Elisabeth and Liv for picking us up at the airport!

Day 22 - Friday - The longest day

2010-10-01T01:02:00.006+02:00

We got up at 7:30 AM, which is 30 minutes past midnight at home, and 1:30 AM in Turkey. We'll check in at the hotel tonight around 7 PM, 17.5 hours later. That'll be a long day. But first, breakfast, and then, the brand new Skyliner express train! :-)

Did you know that Narita airport has free wireless internet? At least in certain spots... Like this one. Our plane is delayed by a couple of hours, so this is great :-)

And a little commercial: Métro is a GREAT application for EVERYONE who travels to a place with a SUBWAY and needs how to get from one station to the next. It's free, quick, and easy to use and works on a WIDE range of smartphones. Check it out.

Day 21 - Thursday - It ain't over till it's over

2010-09-30T13:14:00.007+02:00

Aaaah... What a vacation! We didn't have any plans today but to relax and go shopping for some casual clothing, so we went back to Shibuya. You know, the busy crossing. We had lunch at a French crêperie named with the descriptive name Galettoria and headed back home to Sakura hostel at Jimbocho for a beauty sleep. Later on, we had a great dinner nearby at Oriental Dining (gotairiku), a chain restaurant serving great food to a reasonable price. Finally, we picked up a Japanese copy of Haruki Murakami's book Norwegian Wood. Not that we'll ever be able to read it...

We're leaving the country tomorrow, but we're happy to conclude that this has been a great vacation. But what happened to our bags? There's not room for all the stuff anymore!!!

Day 20 - Wednesday - Pregnant with Beauty

2010-09-29T14:54:00.007+02:00

We thought this would be a quiet day, but we managed to squeeze in a photo session in the imperial garden and a visit to Asakusa. Asakusa has one of the most famous temples in Tokyo, and a huge street market surrounding the temple grounds. Add breakfast, coffee, reconnaissance for the airport express train and ticket purchase, lunch, more coffee, and dinner, plus subway rides, and 9 hours on foot has taken its toll. It was a great day, though, and we're happy to have seen the Asakusa district.

Day 19 - Tuesday - Return to Tokyo

2010-09-28T01:02:00.006+02:00

It's still raining and the weather report for today in Tokyo is rain and 24 C (75 F). Tomorrow looks better, though! Breakfast and a two-hour drive awaits us before we check in at Sakura Hotel near Jimbocho station... again :-)

I got 2000 yen BACK in CASH when returning the car, and we had a lovely Japanese (?) lunch at a Spanish (?) restaurant. Astrid had a hot vegetable curry, and I had fried (!) hamburger.

We have driven 2500 kilometers! Phew! Now heading for a modern art exhibition on the 52nd floor somewhere in Tokyo. On foot. And by subway, of course.

***

The exhibition was located on the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower and displayed various installations inspired by Japanese nature. The view of the city was excellent - we had access to windows all around the building, giving us a 360 degrees panoramic view to the city. They also served smoothies and gave away dinosaurs. At the end of the day, we had a cuban style meal in the Roppongi district.

Day 18 - Monday - Fuji

2010-09-27T02:58:00.003+02:00

Clouds. Mist. Fog. More clouds! In addition to lakes and resorts, this is what surrounds Mount Fuji these days. The friendly staff at Sunnide Resort, which consists of a hotel, some cottages, and an onsen with a view to a lake and, normally, the famous mountain, had a Japanese style room available today, so we checked out of the western style room and left the building (we can't check in until 3 PM).

Even though we were told that the mountain probably wouldn't be visible all day, we plotted in the top of the mountain on our GPS and decided to drive to wherever the road ended, which was at a temple. The toll, 2000 yen, was worth it. On the way up, the road plays music! Just as rippled strips on highways make signal sounds when you go too far out of your lane, ripples in the road made music. Fun! We spent two hours browsing souvenir shops, eating a hot dog, and writing post cards, and then, just when we were about to leave, the curtain of clouds opened up and Mount Fuji stood out in all its splendor. The day was saved! 15 minutes later, the photo session was over, and the fog was back.

The view from our bedroom. The clouds are tracing Mount Fuji.

We're back at the hotel now, ready to relax at the onsen, have dinner, and sleep in before we head back to Tokyo in the morning.

Day 17 - Sunday - Meeting the samurais

2010-09-26T02:00:00.002+02:00

We met two real samurais in Nagoya. Mr and Mrs Nakamura are both born and raised in Nagoya, so my personal belief is that they have to have some samurai blood flowing through their veins! They let us stay in their guest room, and we had a nice day together with a modern Japanese breakfast, tea at the Tokugawa Art Museum, lunch at a Japanese restaurant, and coffee somewhere nice. We had a lot of fun! Many thanks for the great hospitality.

Day 16 - Saturday - Breaking the waves

2010-09-25T02:00:00.005+02:00

Today, there is a week left of the vacation…. It is passing to soon. Anyway, we woke up early. While Anders joined the other divers at the diving center, Astrid went to a nearby hotel to have breakfast and use their onsen. The onsen is closed between 9 and 11 am, so Astrid spent the time on the beach watching the waves.

The onsen is great, with a larger pool and several smaller ones, one even with yellowish water for meditation. Otherwise, I guess we both agree, this is the most shabby upscale hotel we have ever seen! Well, it is 11 o'clock - time for a warm bath with a sea view :=)

Day 15 - Friday - Whirlpool

2010-09-24T02:00:00.003+02:00

Anders' version:

After a couple of nights in Kobe, we crossed the gigantic Akashi-Kaikyō suspension bridge (明石海峡大橋), a.k.a. Pearl Bridge, which has the longest central span in the world; 1991 meters or 6532 feet. After a short break at the nearby rest stop, we crossed the Awaji Island and made another stop under the Naruto bridge to spot a vortex, a natural whirlpool, which is created when the tide flows through the narrow straight at a speed of up to 20 km/h (.Due to the narrowness of the strait, the water rushes through the Naruto channel at a speed of about 13-15 km/h four times per day, twice flowing in and twice flowing out. During a spring tide, the speed of the water may reach 20 km/h or 12 mph, creating vortices up to 20 m in diameter. The current in the strait is the fastest in Japan and the fourth fastest in the world after the Saltstraumen outside Bodø in Norway and three others :-)

We made a quick stop a local scuba shop in a small town along the road, and later at the tourist office in Tokushima city, who both pointed us in the direction of the tiny village Shishikui (宍喰町), which was a town located in Kaifu District, Tokushima, Japan.
On March 31, 2006 Shishikui was merged with the towns of Kaifu and Kainan, all from Kaifu District, to form the new town of Kaiyo. So we actually went to Kaiyo, I guess.

We booked scuba diving for the next day they found a place for us to sleep. It was a ryokan, and a very basic one, in the residential area of Shishikui. The family that runs the place was very kind.

***

Astrid's version:

We left Kobe early this morning, heading south to Shikoku. On Shikoku island, there are 88 temples and there are still pilgrims walking the more than 1000 year old pilgrim trail. We spotted the 23rd temple, which has special powers to ward off ill fortune. In particular, you should visit this temple when you are 42 years old if you are male or 33 year old if you are a female, as these are the unluckiest years.

Our main goals however, were the whirlpools and the beach. After about an hour, we crossed the Naruto channel. Naruto is known for the whirlpools and the bridge to the Shikoku island had a walking passage underneath for whirlpool watching.

On our way further south, we drove past Ohama beach were sea turtles come to lay eggs. Unfortunately, we were a little to late, as this happens between May and August. The scenery is marvelous! Sandy beaches, steep cliffs, and green, green hills….

Finally, we reached a fishing village named Shishikui, in Tokushima-Ken, were there is a small diving center. Anders booked two dives and gear for tomorrow morning. They also reserved a room in a small ryokan for us. The room looks like someones living room, but the family who rent it out is nice. The lady is giggling hysterically as we don't understand Japanese.

Tomorrow, we will head back north. We were planning on stopping by Nara to see the famous Buddha, but instead we will go directly to Nagoya to meet Junichi. We first met Junichi at Prekestolhytta a couple of years back.

Astrid's belly is getting bigger by the hour, and there is a lot of crawling around, kicking, and hick ups!

Day 14 - Thursday - Autumnal equinox

2010-09-23T00:55:00.008+02:00

Autumnal equinox (秋分の日 Shūbun no Hi): This national holiday was established in 1948 as a day on which to honor one's ancestors and remember the dead.

This holiday actually gave us an extra hour of sleep, or at least an extra hour at the parking lot (for free!!!). We have to take our car out, and then park it again at the same place, or it'll cost us 100 yen per fifteen minutes all day, instead of 1800 yen for 24 additional hours.

We visited the Sake museum in Kobe and did a little shopping downtown today. We had a pleasant and moderately priced buffet lunch at an Italian place and roamed the streets, as usual. I don't think we'll try the cable car going up to Rokko mountain, where there's supposed to be a rock park and a superb view of the city by night. It's been raining and is cloudy today. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

After a refreshing afternoon nap, we had dinner at Steakland Kobe. The Kobe beef was tender and tasty, and the sides were great. Astrid had fresh (like, alive) shrimps fried perfectly, and she, too, loved the BBQ sauce. We took a walk in search for the Kobe Tower, but didn't find it, so we returned to "the strip" for some ice cream. Aaaah what a night :-)

Day 13 - Wednesday - On the Road Again

2010-09-22T01:15:00.009+02:00

Many thanks to Muyujyu Sato who made our stay at White Hotel in Kyoto a very pleasant one. Mister Anders and Madame are very satisfied :-)

For those who are considering a trip to Kyoto, why not check out a brand new isakaya (Japanese-style eatery) which will become part of the Watami franchise on October 3rd. I met the owner, a hard-working fellow who does speak english, who seemed like a hard-working guy eager to take on a venture. His name is Yasumasa Ohnaga.

***

Here's a shot of Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺 Temple of the Golden Pavilion), which indeed was beautiful. It is located in the north-east corner of Kyoto. We were told that we should go there, and we didn't regret it.

We followed the highway - the slow route - from Kyoto to Kobe, ignoring the GPS and randomly pusing buttons with Japanese text until it finally gave in and supplied us with the non-toll directions. There was absolutely no country side between Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe - the cities are closely knitted together by populous suburbs. Just take a look at a satellite photograph of this area, and you'll see what we mean.

We're staying at Hotel Tor Road, where we got surprisingly much for the money. A room at the top floor with everything we could ask for, great standard, and downtown. We found a great "resort style" place called Bora Bora pretty much next door, which serves fun food and drinks, and even has karaoke rooms of good standard upstairs with or without video games, ping pong, darts, or billiards. We had to try the karaoke, and it was a lot of fun :-)

There's also a degree of dodgyness about the area - we couldn't help but notice a number of prostitutes lingering, and, of course, a certain presence of customers that could be less polite than what we've gotten used to...

Day 12 - Tuesday - Flee market!

2010-09-21T02:08:00.009+02:00

We're going to the flea market today. I wonder if we'll find something to bring back home with us?

***

The flea market wasn't really a flea market, but rather an antique market which had a lot of very nice fabrics, kimonos, Japanese china etc etc. This has been another hot day. After lunch we headed to a temple north of the city center, Kiyomizu-dera to see the Tainai-meguri. Entering the Tainai-merguri, you are entering "the womb" of Daisuigu Bosatsu who has the power to grant any human wishes. Inside, you turn a large sphere shaped stone clockwise while making your wish. We both turned it counter clockwise, so we'll see what happens...

Anders got himself a new pair of glasses - they're sold as a set including frames, lenses, and a box, adjusted and fitted within the hour at the Æon mall near Kyoto station. And a bargain, too!

After buying a woodblock print by Kiyoharu Yamada at a gallery in a huge roofed street mall downtown, and enjoying some tea and cookies over a chat with the artist, we enjoyed a great Italian meal in a narrow alley near the river.

Tomorrow, we'll leave Kyoto. We don't know where we're going, but Kobe is a safe bet. Or Osaka. Or both. They seem to run together on the map. We might sleep in the city, or head for another island. Somebody is ready for another beach before we head for Nagoya, Fuji, and Tokyo again...

Day 11 - Monday - Respect-for-the-Aged Day

2010-09-19T23:35:00.007+02:00

First, a little announcement: Our little boy or girl is 27 weeks on his or her way to the world today! Yea!!! And then...

Respect-for-the-Aged Day (敬老の日 Keirō no hi) is a Japanese holiday celebrated annually to honor elderly citizens.[1] A national holiday since 1966, this used to be held on September 15. Beginning in 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the third Monday of September due to the Happy Monday System.

This is a shot from a beach near Niigata.

So, we're in Kyoto, staying at a Ryokan. Here's everything you need to know about staying in one. It's a Japanese-style hotel where you have to take your shoes off whenentering and step into slippers which they provide. The slippers can be left outside the room, or in the corner by the door in the room, which is covered by mats made out of woven rice straw. There's a really low table with a tea pot and some cups in a little box, some oblong futons made up to sleep on, and a few pillows to sit on near the table. There's normally air conditioning and a TV, and this room has a wired internet connection. The bathroom is equipped with bathroom slippers, a deep bath tub with a shower, soap, and a regular
toilet. The windows are covered by rice paper framed by wooden squares. In the room, there's cotton robes provided for wearing in and around the hotel.

We visited the national treasures of the Sanjusangen-do temple and biked around town today. It was nice.

***

We decided to go to the cinema and see a movie with English soundtrack or subtitles. The cashier mistook "original soundtrack" for "English soundtrack", so we ended up having an entire movie theater to ourselves, with deep love seats, which could have been great, hadn't it been for Korean soundtrack and Japanese subtitles. Maybe we'll see The Secret some other time.

I read that it'll cost you about 10 USD per head to enter the Kyoto Tower. If you'd like to see a panoramic view of the city for free, just take the most awesome escalators to the top of Kyoto Station, and pick up some scrumptious donuts on the way up - or grab something else to eat or drink in one of the restaurants in floors 1 through 12. Once up, cuddle in the little park area on top :-)

Day 10 - Sunday - Kyoto, finally

2010-09-19T14:12:00.006+02:00

We decided to leave Kazawa, no, Kanazaga, no, Kanazawa! but quickly changed our minds and stayed for a few more hours. After all, we needed cash before entering the expressway, and we owed the city a second (or first, actually) look. We went to see the Kenrokuen Garden, which was beautiful. And then, we blew that joint and headed for Kyoto. A two hour drive (according to Anders) became a five hour drive (because of heavy traffic from half-way there on out). We called early on (well, as early as possible, considering our excellent organizational skills) to let the hotel know we'd be there on time, but they were very welcoming although we were three hours late. They even gave us a 50% discount on bicycle rental, and two special pairs of slippers labeled FOREIGNERS. We've got LAN in our room and a place in their parking lot - all for 8000 yen per night. Maybe Japan isn't that expensive after all when you think about it. The service is GREAT anyways. We were thinking about going to a movie tonight, but since tonight is already getting late, we might just go and get something to eat!

Just in case please leave your valuable staff at reception desk.
We won't take any kind of responsibility from any kind of accident.

Day 9 - Saturday - Now what?

2010-09-18T14:11:00.000+02:00

We turned 180 degrees and set sails for Kyoto, planning to be there on Sunday, maybe. On the way through beach land, which is about an hour north of Nagano (remember the Olympics?), we passed through a number of friendly towns, including one which had a museum for children on nuclear power: Atomuseum.

Anders finally had his wish come true: A swim in the ocean! Unfortunately, there were jellyfish, and after getting stung twice, sunbathing seemed like a better choice. Some of you have postcards coming.

At the end of the day, we stopped in the city Kanazawa. The hotel we chose from the GPS was full, and so was one close by, so we took a right and a left and who knows what and picked a hotel that looked like a… hotel. It turns out this is a LOVE HOTEL! We probably would never have picked one in the first place, but we can absolutely recommend it. It might on the high side, pricewise, at 16000 yen for a night, but it's great fun. (Problem was - the hotel did not accept OUR Visa - debit nor credit - or MasterCard, and after one our of roaming the neighborhood, Anders gave up finding an ATM that would. Coming back to the room, sorry to say that we'd have to leave, it turned out Astrid had dug out exactly 16400 yen - enough for the room and two drinks! No dinner.) Our room looks kind of… crazy! It has a little doll house with an animal family (think Hello Kitty), TV in the bathroom, a toilet which not only gives you a squirt, but also has a drier, karaoke, and a lot of other things in all the colors of the rainbow. The name of the place is Aine or http://www.aineworld.co.jp As always, the staff was very friendly and understanding, and we managed to have a conversation in English :-)

Day 8 - Friday - Heading West

2010-09-16T22:58:00.007+02:00

Or south, maybe. Wow, it's 6 AM right now, and all of a sudden, fireworks are being shot! It's September 17th, which might mean something. Let's see...We don't know. Wednesday was respect for the elders day, but maybe it was just a thank God it's Friday celebration.

This crazy phone is on display down in the reception. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it before reporting it, and the staff quickly realized that "out of order" would be the proper way of labeling the phone, so this one is now history. We've got more, though :-)

It's important to note that Astrid and I are not the only ones on this trip. Astrid is carrying a little passenger who seems to be getting more active each day. Yesterday, he/she kicked, or rather pushed so hard that her stomach had a substantial bump for a second! That made our day :-)

***

Before leaving Nikko, we had to try their local specialty; shaved natural ice. As a matter of fact, it was delicious. Maybe because of the source, which is spring water and special preparation of the ice blocks themselves, but mostly because they put blueberries in Astrid's portion and strawberries in Anders'.

Anders had decided it was time to go to the beach, so we went straight through Japan, right on, northwestwards, until we had to turn left at the Sea of Japan. All of a sudden, we were amidst picturesque villages and abundant sandy beaches. Everything was closed, though, since the short Japanese summer holidays leave the beach resorts as ghost towns even in warm September. Darkness was descending upon us, so we had to find somewhere to stay, and fast. We were pointed in the direction of a Japanese-style hotel, a ryokan. And not only was it a traditional kind of hotel, it was also an onset! That means it has warm baths… After a quick guidance as to how to unpack the beds, find the bath robes (which you can wear everywhere and anytime in the ryokan), and change shoes at the proper places, we jumped in the water while some elves mysteriously made up our beds (freely plagiarizing Lonely Planet, which did not mention this part of Japan with one word) and had a wonderful sushi and fried fish supper. We made plenty of mistakes, but learned a lot! Here's their home page: http://www.h-sumiyoshiya.no

The town's name is Teradomari.

Day 7 - Thursday - That's one of three weeks!

2010-09-16T13:17:00.007+02:00

We went to a Shinto shrine (as opposed to a Buddhist temple) in Nikko today, not far from the hotel. We had some trouble finding it by car. It would have been a lot easier by foot - just follow the main road, walk over a picturesque red bridge, through a gate and up some mossy steps. Thousands of other visitors didn't seem to have had the same problem, though. The place was beautiful, but very crowded. Next time, we'll visit a deserted place. Here's the hotel's website

Afterwards, we followed the road up the mountains to a waterfall. Here it is. You park your car (or bus), take the elevator 300 feet down, and marvel at the gaze. Then you go back up. We tried to find a hot spring nearby, but since we have no idea what a hot spring actually looks like, or if it's even overground, we utterly failed at our mission. We did find a post office, though. I said I wanted ten stamps, but when I changed my mind, and wanted 10 stamps with pictures on them, the lady had already prepared my ten regular (and sort of boring) stamps,and seemed to have a hard time telling me that it was too late for me to change my mind. So I just bought 20 stamps. This obviously made her happy, or ashamed, or maybe a little of both, because she quickly decided to give me two gifts - a pack of paper tissues and a towel! On the way back down from the mountain to the valley (?), we came across a monkey family.

Day 6 - Wednesday - Discovering an Onsen

2010-09-15T13:28:00.004+02:00

We nearly overslept this morning, but in 2 hours we'd showered, packed, washed and semi-dried a load of clothes, had breakfast and picked up our rental car with a bilingual GPS. The car also has a little device which says something in Japanese every time there's construction work and when it's time to pay toll, which costs a fortune by any standard (about 5000 yen for the two-hour ride from Tokyo to Nikko). We took a warm bath at a nearby onsen - a building with four small pools - two for each sex, one inside and one outside - and a lot of different kinds of shampoo and conditioner. They also had a small eatery, which served great food.It was right here.

Day 5 - Tuesday - Morning at the fish market

2010-09-14T06:49:00.008+02:00

Anders, who's got a built in clockwork that says DON'T SLEEP, decided to get up at 6 AM and go to the fish market at Tsukiji. Astrid, who's the most sporty person on the planet, decided to come with him.

The fish market - contrary to the rest of Tokyo, which is modern, high tech, and slightly weird - was just what one expects a fish market to be:
Traditional, filled with tough fishermen (with a sense of humor), and bustling with people preparing, trading, and transporting fish.

After a power nap (for one of us) and some research on camcorders (for the other), we're heading out to Shibuya to catch the neons at sunset.

Day 3, uh, 4 - Monday - Tokyo

2010-09-13T15:21:00.003+02:00

There are a couple of striking differences between Istanbul and Tokyo. First, Tokyo is tidy. There are no garbage cans, but the streets are spotless. It looks like everything has a designated space for it, and nothing is out of order. The people are neat, and structured. You don't need anyone telling you that you have to stand on the left side and walk to the right when riding the escalator - you will stand out in the crowd if you don't. Also, people are nice and polite. Even though we don't speak much japanese:)

We arrived yesterday around noon and took the slow train to the city. We checked in at the hotel to find the smallest room we've ever seen (with one possible exception). Today, we walked to the Imperial Palace, which is close to the hotel. It was closed on Mondays, but we had a nice walk down to the shopping district Ginza. We spent the afternoon strolling through huge department stores and chic stores.

We have seen some interesting signs here as well. Our favorite in China was the sign in a museum describing an item as "A jar with pricks all over". Our favorite so far in Tokyo is " No smoking all over the toilet", followed by "Once the fire alarm in the toilet has functioned, a guard will rush to the site and check it out".

Today, we are in the 26th week, which is kind of nice. When coming home, we will be in the third trimester.

Day 3 - Sunday - Konnichiwa!

2010-09-12T12:33:00.002+02:00

Ouch. The jet lag is caving in on us, but we're still not sleeping. Nor are we awake. Narita airport was surprisingly quiet, the train was not crowded, people downtown Tokyo weren't in a rush and the hotel was not hard to find. The room isn't big, either. It clean, though, and the receptionists are very helpful and people are generally very kind. It's warm and humid and we're looking forward to what tomorrow will bring :-)

Day 2 - Saturday - Istanbul Streetwise

2010-09-10T18:00:00.000+02:00

Walk - Skate

The hotel being right in the middle of "everything" - at least for tourists like us , we have spent the last one and a half day wandering the souks of the old City of Istanbul. Our goal for today was to visit the Grand Bazaar to look for a couple of futons for our living room. We saw some nice ones in Morocco, and were thinking that we might find some nice ones here as well. These weren't as nice though, so we have decided to go back to Marrakech some time soon.

The Grand Bazaar was closed because of the Islam holidays following Ramadan.

Day 1 - Friday - Exit Oslo, Enter Istanbul

2010-09-09T18:00:00.000+02:00

Throw out trash? Check. Find charger? Check. Do a whole bunch of other stuff I should've done? Check. Pack? Astrid did that. OK, we're ready to go!

Miracle hazelnuts.

Actually, the departure was painless. It kind of stings you in the eye, though, when you board a Turkish Airways flight, and are overwhelmed by azure seats and blonde non-blondes who do their best to smile while all they want to do is to bite your head off. In a nice way. Here's a good example: I ordered Efes with my meal, and was met with "We're out of Efes! And Tuborg! The Norwegians drank all the beer! Why do all Norwegians drink so much beer?". We were sitting in row 15, halfway down the aircraft… After trying to joke about our viking past, I order a minuscule bottle of cabernet sauvignon and a GT, which makes her eyeball me and go "What? Both wine and GT?" Well, Astrid had a point in Norwegians often drinking too much, so we just smiled and waited for the coffee. When served, stupid me tried to make a joke again, and ordered coffee with Irish cream. She probably thought I was being a pita, and said "Are you trying to MEAN something to me?" And I was not, so I shut up.

Hagia Sofia.

After a race in a taxi styled up with alligator imitation seats, we arrived in the Fatih borough, which is the honorable old town Istanbul, in walking distance from the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and the Grand Bazaar. We'll stay here until it's time to fly East.

The day before the day

2010-09-09T07:29:00.002+02:00

This is almost always the most exciting day. Problem is, I'm sick (and tired) (no, but really) and Astrid's a bit worried she might catch a cold as well, her immune defenses weakened and all (25 weeks). I think we'll make it, though.

It's been a while... but we've got plans!

2010-08-01T20:55:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been one year since...

Hemsedal (June 2009)

Morocco (August 2009)

Paris (October 2009)

USA (November 2009)

Ustaoset and Gol (Christmas 2009 and New Year's Eve)

Berlin (January 2010)

Warsaw (February 2010)

Riga (March 2010)

England (March 2010)

Paris (April 2010)

We spent a few months in Oslo, because of this:

... but we're starting to feel ready to travel again!

Next stop:

September 2010

Zürich... and Oslo

2009-08-03T00:57:00.001+02:00

Torremolinos, Malaga

2009-08-03T00:57:00.000+02:00

Algeciras

2009-08-01T14:21:00.001+02:00

A lot of empty posts... we will fill them in later. Right now, though, we have just come back to Europe from Africa (yeah baby) after a rather stressfull day. We woke up at 8, an hour later than we should have, since I (Mr A) turned off the alarm at 7. We reached Tangier at 10, had a small argument about how full of gas the car should be upon returning the rental car, and finally made a run for the boat. Passports, forms (10 dirham solved this for us), and tickets (argh) checked - and we made it to Spain!! We are taking the bus to Malaga in 20 minutes, where we will chill out on the beach before returning home tomorrow night.

Gotta go!

Larache, Morocco

2009-07-31T18:00:00.000+02:00

Moulay-Idriss, Volubilis

2009-07-31T12:00:00.000+02:00

Merzouga, Sahara

2009-07-30T18:00:00.001+02:00

Meknes

2009-07-30T18:00:00.000+02:00

A hot spring - but where was it?

2009-07-30T14:00:00.002+02:00

Somewhere about 30-45 minutes North of Er Rachidia, 30 minutes past the lake Barrage de Hassan Addakhil, where the road curves left along the North-East bank of the river (probably not far from Kerrandou), a lot of people (and goats) where gathered. Anders pulled over instantly and went to have a bath. Some old people (men only) where having a cure bath in a hot source next to the river.

Marrakesh

2009-07-28T19:04:00.002+02:00

Colonization... The British write souks, Fez, and Marrakesh. The French write souqs, Fes, and Marrakech.

Anyway... We have spent hot days and nights in hotels and car seats without air conditioning, and strolled through the busy alleys of the medinas of Fez and Marrakesh. We had a lunch break in Rabat, the capital, which is the cleanest city we have seen so far, and by far the one with most police in it.

We decided to spend another night in Marrakesh - partly because we needed some time off the road, and we checked into a hotel with cold air this time. We had a much needed nap - no sweat - and we are walking around in Ville Nouvelle right now - where there is a lot less hustle and no bargaining compared to the old town.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive to Sahara, or at least to the outskirts of the vast desert to see some sand dunes.

Rabat

2009-07-27T14:00:00.001+02:00

We left Fes in the morning, after a quick breakfast consisting of orange juice, coffee, and croissants downtown. Of course, we started out in the wrong direction, inched our way through some back-alleys with workshops, small markets, and poor and rich neighborhoods, but some helpful men pointed us in the right direction and we were off to Rabat, the capital.

We stopped in Rabat for lunch - it's funny how the main roads almost slow down to a halt when they enter a city (and they always do). The speed limits vary between 120 (toll road), 100 (highway), 80, 60 (getting closer to a city), 40 (in the city), and 20 (near a control post) km/h.

Rabat must have been the cleanest city we visited, and they had nice beaches, altough the beach was a good 100 m from the sea, with rocky cliffs in between.

Fes, Morocco

2009-07-26T18:51:00.007+02:00

We arrived in Morocco yesterday night, a couple of hours behind schedule, and spent the night in Tanger. I guess the highlights of the day were the ferry and the bus ride through Costa del Sol. Costa del Sol must be its own shadow today, compared to the 80s. It looked relatively deserted (in retrospectiv, we found that it was not - A). Today we picked up a rental car and drove to Fez. Anders was pulled over for speeding, but talked about the hot weather (it was 49 C, according to the officer) and was forgiven. We have found a hostel in the Medina, and plan to spend the night wandering around in the souks :0

After posting this, we bought a spice mix (chili and bell pepper or something like that) from an old chap who was actually in a former version of Lonely Planet, and who claimed that the price was fixed (50 dirham per 100 grams) - so we only bought 50 grams (a few days later, we found that spice was about 80% cheaper at the supermarket). The spice was rendered useless by heat and humidity after a few days...

Later on, we tried a round of water pipe and mint tea. The tea was great, and the water pipe was... smokin'

Not gonna miss this...

2009-07-25T05:29:00.002+02:00

Oslo, Saturday @ 5:30 AM. We're clean. I've got hickups. Astrid is putting on makeup while sighing deeply. It's raining outside, and we're leaving Oslo's lows of 11 degrees C and highs of 22 for Marrakech' lows of 22 and highs of 44!

We've reserved a car through Avis - it should be 3500 dirham for a week including free mileage, theft protection and insurance, plus an eventual super collision damage waiver which sets the liability to zero. Kinda sounds nice.

We'll be in Malaga, Spain around noon, and try to make it to Tangier as soon as possible after that. The time difference is one or two hours from here. One. They're one hour behind us. Same as GMT, in other words.

Uuuhhh... my body is not ready for breakfast, or anything, really.

We're leaving Norway in 12 hours! Time to pack?

2009-07-24T20:22:00.003+02:00

Astrid has got all of her stash ready and her backpack is ready to get stuffed. I have not. I'm going to, though. Just need to find something to pack in first. Well, since we need to get up at about 5 am on Saturday morning, I don't have any excuse for a nap right now, so I guess I don't have any excuse for not packing, either. Here we go...

Rerouting to... Morocco! (And that's final)

2009-06-21T19:03:00.005+02:00

Well, it turns out we're not going to Barcelona with Olav and Mona this year, we'll take a rain check on that, and so, we started to do some thinking. Should we go back to the St. Petersburg plan? (We'd like to see it during summer, since we froze our butts off last time when we went there in February!) Or should we visit Italy? Or...? Or...?

Astrid came up with a very good idea, namely Morocco! We're going to make this trip on a tight schedule and a tight budget (of course, we don't really use a budget, because we're light years beyond budgeting). So here's the deal:

Fly as cheap and fast and early as possible (OK, not too early) to Malaga, Spain.
Go to Algerica by bus or train - it's about an hour from Malaga.
Take the ferry to Tangier, Morocco.

But first, maybe a visit to Gibraltar? We could stay at Emile Hostel, 30 minutes walk from the border and 100m from Casemates square, the heart of the town.

Up next: Barcelona!

2009-06-13T09:41:00.000+02:00

Yahoo! (As in yahoo! and not search engine!) We're going to Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, Spain! This time, we'll be traveling together with Olav and Mona, and we've decided to make it a low budget trip. So, what are we going to do? Let's start planning...

Catalonia
Wiki Catalonia

Barcelona
Wiki Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia, a magnificent cathedral which has been in construction since since 1882
www.sagradafamilia.cat

Montserrat, a Benedictine monastery built on a worn and torn limestone mountain, provides a view to the Pyrenees, Barcelona, and even Mallorca on a clear day
http://www.climb-europe.com/spain/RockClimbingMontserrat.htm

In vino veritas...
Torres
Cordorniu located in Sant Sadurni D’Noia (Penedes)
Caves Colomer
Freixenet cava bodega (near Sant Sadurni, there are more wineries in Sant Sadurni)

Train schedule
This is the official Renfe train company home page - which is crap, unfortunately
www.renfe.es
Better google it... Here's an example
Vilafranca del Penedès by train

Snow in Oslo

2009-01-19T08:41:00.000+01:00

You'd have thought we'd be used to snow, but we're always taken by surprise when, over a few hours, everything outside is covered in a thick layer of white powder. It's a month since we left Oslo for Thailand now, and we've been back for two weeks. The warm air and dry streets feels like a distant memory. Here I am in a crowded, no, packed tram wagon which is inching it's way to the city center. Cars are stuck in big piles of snow along the road, their owners trying to free them without a shovel... Just like last year :-)

Oslo b(e)lows

2009-01-05T16:33:00.000+01:00

Just when we thought Istanbul was cold with its snowfall, and had gotten used to wearing jackets in Alanya, we discovered that it was 15 C below in Oslo! I shivered my way to and from work and have (almost) decided to buy one of those daylight lamps which might save me from the darkness that eats most of the day... All is well, though. It was nice to be home in a warm apartment, spending Sunday mostly in the couch, and no crisis were waiting at work.

Turkey was a bit sleepy, by the way. Few tourists, although the planes where packed. We did have a fun new years eve, with champagne and raki, and some good rounds of Red Alert 3! We also had time to read some books and enjoyed a fantastic sea view from Olav's apartment.

Sour airplane crew, sweet restaurant owners in Istanbul

2008-12-28T23:15:00.003+01:00

Just a short update, since I'm nearly passing out in need of sleep... Turkish Airlines was OK - they had alright seats (except the turquoise color) with individual media centers and had a good choice of food and drinks. However, the crew was rather unpleasant, which pulls down my rating.

We made it to the hotel on time (11 pm), but Olav had gone to bed early with the flu, so we chilled in the jazz bar of the hotel for a little while and went to bed. I had trouble sleeping long, so I got up, out, and about to catch the sunrise. A nice taxi driver drove me out along the Bosporous Straight, and let me off somewhere near the bridge north of Bosporous Bridge, where a restaurant owner and his companion wondered what I was doing walking aimlessly around in the rain. They invited me inside even though they didn't open until 8 (almost 1.5 hours later), and we had a chat over three cups of tea and breakfast. Four policemen popped by as well, and when I was leaving, they refused to let me pay. I took the dolmus/bus back to Taksim Square and the hotel.

Olav, Astrid, and I had lunch before window shopping at a mall, and then we paid a visit to one of the seven wonders of the world; Hagia Sophia. It was really amazing. Read about the 1500 year-old cathedral/mosque in Wikipedia...

At the end of the day, we went back to the hotel and played Red Alert 3 until midnight :-)

next stop Istanbul

2008-12-27T03:30:00.000+01:00

our last night in Bangkok was a good one. We had a simple dinner at Beer Palace (which offers a whooping 4 kinds of beer!), a visit to a karaoke bar which charged us double price for our own drinks as well as those they themselves offered to the tout and the dj/midi operator. Since we didn't even take advantage of their services (which consisted of lining up pretty girls in long skirts for incoming farang so they could pick one) and were the only ones making entertainment, we had a minor argument with the boss, paid half price, and got out. We had our night cap at a great place near the Silom night-market, where we turned down near 100 pussy ping-pong touts throughout the night. Is the demand that high? Our bed at the hip and minimalist HQ hostel at Silom soi 3 slept great, and the room was functional except there was no room for our stuff. Friendly staff, corn flakes included. $40 a night.

We head for Turkey this afternoon, so we've got a few hours available. Looking forward to meet Olav there tonight, and take on Istanbul. We're gonna need a lot of coffee!

three strikes, you're out (of battery)

2008-12-26T14:35:00.001+01:00

our lucky day...? Um, no. We did have some initial luck in catching the ferry, but I was caught pants down (figure of speech) speeding. Third ticket in Thailand! The officer even gave me a discount. We stopped in Pattaya for a late lunch and continued to Bangkok on the new motorway. It's normally a 2 hour drive max, but we got creative at the end. Add an hour and a half :-) When we finally reached the Silom quarter, where we'd decided to stay, guess what... THE DANG CAR IS FLAT OUT OF BATTERY! So, thanks to HQ hostel's wifi, I'm now able to kill some time while waiting for the mechanic.

Own very own guard dog

2008-12-25T13:16:00.000+01:00

the first thing Anders told me about Thailand was that dogs were very aggressive. "You should always carry a stick when walking alone. There are dogs everywhere, one at every driveway." There's one where we stay as well. This dog seems to have a liking in us. The other day, she walked us to the main road and back. Yesterday, she followed us to our bungalow, spent the night on our doormat, and welcomed each of us in the morning. She seems to be our devouted servant and guard dog. She even follows us to the table and sits under my hammoc.

Christmas island

2008-12-25T03:00:00.002+01:00

We're at Ko Chang, the second largest island in Thailand located in the south-east, near Cambodia. We cancelled Cambodia, partly because we couldn't take the rental car there. We met a Swede in Trat who'd been bussing around Thailand and Cambodia for weeks, so we're thinking about doing Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand by bus next time.

Monday 22: We were 25 minutes late for the last ferry to Ko Chang (running 6:30 am through 7 pm every 45 minutes), so we spent a night in Trat in a room with a bed that was 2m long and 3m wide! A/C, warm water, TV, and wifi for less than $15... The next morning, we took the ferry over and shopped for a room. We ended up in a modern bungalow with sea view next to a small beach where they make the best mango smoothies. The name of the place is Ko Chang Bailan Beach Resort. Price: $30 per night. The service is great.

Tuesday 23: We spent the first day on the beach and shopped around a bit. The island is not crowded at all, but this is highly likely partly due to the world economic situation and the unfortunate political issues that have weakened Thailand's image a bit over the last three years. The short-term result is that lonely beach again fits it's name and that getting a room, a table, or a stool is almost too easy.

For the second time on this trip, I was caught breaking the law. We we're northbound on the road :-) and were stopped in a routine traffic control. I'd left my wallet in the room while swimming earlier, so it was time to pay another 200 baht to uncle police. Yes!

Wednesday 24: Astrid got a foot massage and had 20 nails done. She spent the rest of the day in a hammoc. Anders went scuba diving all day - two great dives with a professional Thai crew from The Dive Experience. We had our Christmas dinner together accompanied by Blues Brothers (just the movie) including the worst t-bone steak ever, but it was perfectly leveled with my expectations, so no harm done. Just remember to order fish or chicken if you want good food! We spent the rest of Christmas Eve in each our hammoc with wine coolers and fried banana in crack powder :-)

Thursday 25: Merry Christmas to all Americans! It's time for breakfast (Astrid is finally up) and this blog will be continued soon... Thanks for following us!

Wedding, silk, ancient history, and thai boxing

2008-12-20T13:12:00.002+01:00

This day has been long and eventfull. We got up before 7 and left around 7:30 for a wedding in Nong Bua Daeng, another village in Chaiyaphum. A friend of mine from last year's trip to Bangkok, Aoy, married Joachim from Ganz in Austria. We didn't have time to stay long (I would have loved to see more), but what we saw was beautiful and fun. Before lunch, we made it to the silk village Ban Khwao - a place where one should have a guide. We bought some stuff and set course south.

After a short stop in Chaiyaphum city for KFC (yes!), we drove to Nakhon Ratchasima, or Korat, to see the 1000-year old Khmer temple Phrasat Phi Mai. It's about three hours from "home" in Huai Mak Daeng, so we didn't arrive before dark. And I just had to stop and feed an elephant on the way ;-p After dinner, we're going to watch the local thai boxing tournament, which starts about now...

Chaiyaphum

2008-12-18T15:50:00.004+01:00

We're in a small village where pizza ingredients cost about two days' pay. You can of course buy the ingredients at the K Mart equvivalent. It is winter, which means that we need to put on a sweater during the evening. The city of Chaiyaphum looks like three villages thrown together into one. Where we live, they make rubber, eukalyptus (I don't know what that is in English), and some kind of root vegetable (like potato but not the same). I don't know what they call it. Cassava! They could have made more, but as they don't have enough trucks for transportation, they don't.

Money means a lot. The money is in Bangkok. In Bangkok, you can rent a hole in the wall place to make and sell stuff. Or work within tourism. Clothes are made in hole in the wall places (the same shirt in hundreds of them) and bought by people that somehow get to sell the clothes for export.

As everywhere except Norway and Germany, tomorrow may mean tomorrow, the day after, or never. What is for certain, is that tomorrow (!) we will go and look for a traditional Thai instrument in Chaiyaphum.

A rental car named Chaiyaphum

2008-12-18T07:20:00.004+01:00

Anders woke up early and decided to be efficient. He went to the rental car office. He also forgot the map and reservation number, but Wireless road is not far from Sukhumvit soi 11 - only the rental car office is on a street off of Wireless road - which is not named Wireless road at all in Thai, but something like Radio road. Anyway... he actually managed to get a car. And drove back. Well, not entirely. There are traffic regulations in Bangkok as well, which should be followed when the police is present. This is a picture of the intersection (Anders demonstrated full knowledge of the rules a few days earlier when he explained them in detail to Astrid who was eagerly listening). Here are the rules: All traffic except buses and taxi must turn left. And onto the highway. Anders didn't want to do that, but was promptly pulled over and relieved of his driving license, which could be picked up later at the police station on Wireless road (yes!) Afterwards, he could go on (straight) and pick up Astrid and the luggage. Then, we went to the police station and paid the fine (200 baht / 40 kr / $7) and set course for Chaiyaphum. Bangkok-Chaiyaphum took 5 and a half hours, including a half hour lunch. We made Chaiyaphum city by dark, and easily found the way towards Tat Tone (waterfall) and Huai Mak Daeng.

Second or third day

2008-12-16T15:36:00.002+01:00

I don't know what we did the first day we were here... I am not sure if I was awake or asleep:) Some taxi and tuktuk drivers managed to fool us anyway, so I guess I was asleep. No, not really... We were sort of willingly mislead... We didn't really know where we were, so we decided to take a cab. Of course, they wouldn't take us unless we agreed to stop a few places on the way. When we refused, we had to stop to have a serious talk, and then we agreed.

But we have seen the boat from the movie, Bangkok Dangerous (which by the way is a title we love) which is rainbow colored, has a large motor at the back, and can be used to smash things with if you're the cool kind of guy (Nicholas Cage).

Don't book rental cars at the last minute during Christmas. It might not work our entirely as planned. We'll have an exciting morning ahead of us:)

Astrid

One night in Bangkok...

2008-12-16T15:21:00.002+01:00

Well, three nights, actually. After a long (15 hour) haul from Oslo through Munich to Bangkok, with separate seats since the AirBerlin carrier was full, finding a taxi and checking into a hotel was a breeze. No need to book a room in advance, 900 baht per night. We're staying at Sukhumvit Soi 11/1, one of the central parts of Bangkok. A few stops from the main shopping malls by Skytrain or Metro, and with lots of places to eat and drink on our doorstep, it's an alright place to stay. Sure, the Marriot across the street offers more luxury, but for at least 7 times the price. Unfortunately, I wished I slept there tonight, because a party of load africans had decided to not stop partying until 7 am this morning...

We've seen the Grand Palace, taken a river boat, visited Dow's sister (my aunt, in a way), and, of course, had some state-of-the-art massage :-)

Yahoo!! We're leaving tomorrow morning!

2008-12-12T18:29:00.001+01:00

On my desktop, I've got weather reports from Oslo (-4 C), Chaiyaphum (21), Bangkok (24), Istanbul (11), Alanya (13), Columbia (8), and Nashville (2). I just removed Honolulu, which we visited about a year ago (sigh).

Astrid has placed clothes and stuff in small piles all over the livingroom floor. I've made a pile of sunglasses, mp3-player, camera, and earplugs.

We still need to pack, but first, we have a party to join for a few hours and maybe a last visit to cafe Copa Con Oro pending.

Thailand, Cambodia, and Turkey next

2008-12-07T16:29:00.001+01:00

It's business as usual this week, that is, full throttle at school, work, and home. I'm finishing up the End of Month tasks at work and taking a course in SAS Data Integration Studio, while Astrid is going to Trondheim for a meeting related to her MSc and she'll finish up some work at BNP Paribas. It seems something is up every night, and then, finally, on Saturday we're OUT OF HERE and on our way south...

We're still alive (barely)

2008-10-01T12:17:00.002+02:00

Maybe one should blog a little everyday. We only blog on vacation. So, here's for preparing the next one! We're planning a trip to Thailand. Having become totally paranoid, I won't post the actual dates here and now.

Anyways... If you ever think about going there, you might find these sites useful:
thai-language.com - dictionaries (Thai-English, English-Thai), phrases, pronounciation, etc, etc. A really good site.
maps.google.com - Not only maps, but driving directions as well.
-instructions on how to pee and poo

We're going to rent a car, using one of the major companies. Keep in mind that they use every inch of the road, drive on the left, and that when a police officer is waving his hand up and down at you, it might mean stop or go. It's all in the wrist (stiff=stop, loose=go), and when they follow you with blue lights on, it might not have anything to do with you. Paranoia, here we come!

homecoming

2008-07-24T23:59:00.000+02:00

we had to pack our bags this morning and wrap up the instrument. It was hot, we'd accumulated some heavy goods over the last couple of weeks, we had trouble getting a taxi, and we were already late. This did not stop Anders from making a last visit to the post office for mailing his last post cards. After passing some heavy traffic (using the road shoulder and the empty yet restricted olympic lane creatively), we arrived just in time at the airport and avoided the all too familiar loudspeaker message: Can Mr Eggum and Mrs Melby please go to gate, you are delaying the flight! We spent a couple of hours in downtown Amsterdam, and was picked up by Olav at Oslo airport around 11 pm. It's way past midnight now, we've eaten a sleeping pill each, and Astrid is already in dream land. Thanks for following us!

sightseeing Beijing

2008-07-23T23:59:00.000+02:00

we actually managed to keep our schedule. First, we biked to the post office to buy cardboard and had breakfast. After returning the bikes to the apartment, we took a cab to the Summer Palace. Our schedule for the rest of the day was as follows (and we are no earlybirds): Visit the Forbidden city, shop silk at the Clothing Market (we actually bought quite a few souvenirs and had to make another stop at home to unload), bike to the station, take the train closer to downtown and walk to the music instrument store - we lost our way, and reached the store at about 9 pm. We (or 360 yuans for two flutes, 40 for a lesson, and 30 for taxi) convinced them to stay open for a while longer so that Astrid got her guzhong (?)lesson . The guy was very talented. He played almost all of the instruments they had, and if did it well. Great! Dinner at last. Two drunk chicks tried to pick up Anders,convincing him that they were all out of money and really drunk. Tough luck! We took a taxi to our bikes, biked home (but stopped by the friendly neighbourhood kiosk) and fell fast asleep.

Back(packers) to Beijing

2008-07-22T01:00:00.001+02:00

As you can see, Astrid is now very comfortable with chopsticks. We're at Hong Kong airport, waiting for the 11:55 flight to Beijing. When she finished her noodles, her first words were Lets find Starbucks! We're aiming to wash our clothes, visit the Summer Palace, learn how to play the instrument we bought last week, and do some shopping today. Tough schedule! Nothing is mandatory, though - as usual :-)

There are at least 9 million bicycles in Beijing, and they all have different sounds. The bell seems to mean "I'm here", the more radiant "watch out", or simply "move!". You can load anything on your bike, cardboard (several square metres of it), garbage, fruit, your fridge, your wife, your wife and family... My bike is pink and has one bell. I try not to look behind me, and the crowd of people in front of me seems to know what they are doing. Anders has got two bells on his orange bike (of course included in the bargain price). Our bikes are the ONLY bikes with color. All other bikes are grey or black or something in between. Around where we live, Chinese people seem to live as well (live, work... I am not sure about the difference, and that is not entirely in a bad way) each in their own store. It turns out that some of them speak English, for instance the son of our friend at the store next to the bike store. Closer to the Summer Palace, which is where we went this afternoon, the side of the roads are all covered with cardboard woods and olympic pennants. We stopped at a restaurant where you boil your own food in soup. They had to bring us the menu "in flesh" to be able to take our order, and cook various food for us to show us how to prepare it. Tomorrow will be a busy day, the number one and two priorities being going back to the music store and getting hold of cardboard to wrap what we bought at our last visit there.

Opal mine, Ladies market, and jazz

2008-07-21T23:55:00.000+02:00

After a simple Chinese breakfast on 17 Wellington street, we headed over to Kowloon and visited Gary and his wife Annie, who treated us with an outstanding lunch, Cantonese style, in a great restaurant. We also visited the Opal Mine, their jewellery store, which is designed like a mine where you can a lot about opals. Astrid got a beautiful ring there, too. After lunch, we did some shopping at Ladies market, and walked down Nathan road to Kowloon pier, where we saw the whole 8 pm lightshow. Again. :-) We marked the end of our stay in Hong Kong with a visit to a jazz club in Soho. The live band was lousy, but we were the only guests that monday night. We had a good time, though!

Split

2008-07-20T00:00:00.003+02:00

Anders took boat, train, and bus as far away from the city as possible, while Astrid explored the streets South of Hollywood road, including antique markets, art galleries, temple, and other treats.

Anders: Caught the star ferry from Hong Kong island to Kowloon, where I went to Opalmine to visit a friend I made in Thailand last year. He was there! Meeting him and his family for lunch tomorrow. Continued by train and bus to Sai Wung, a fisherman village famous for its restaurants where you can pick fresh catch from the boat and have it prepared your way - this was not cheap, though! Just wanting breakfast, I opted for the other end of the scale, and ended up with sweet and sour pig knuckles and tea. They forgot my rice, so I didn't eat a lot, eventually. Another bus ride later, I reached my destination, but the water was more suitable for sailing, windsurfing, and cayaking than snorkeling or diving, and I needed license or course reservation for the former, so I just took in the beautiful scenery and began my journey back home. Learned that buses only accept exact fare, ie don't give change, the hard way. Dropped a 20 HK$ bill into the coin slot the first time, easily more than doubling the fare...

Astrid: Had morning tea in the window of our room on the 24th floor, looking at the boats crossing over from Central to Kowloon. Walked around the neighbourhood (Soho), went to oldest temple in HK, visited contemporary art galleries and the antique market in Hollywood Road.

After meeting up, having pizza, and relaxing a little bit, we took the ferry to Kowloon to see the 8 pm lightshow on the skyscrapers on Hong Kong from a distance.

Hong Kong

2008-07-19T07:13:00.002+02:00

The view from our room on the 24th floor
We arrived in Shenzhen this morning, and entered Hong Kong through immigration a few minutes later. This is the cleanest city we've visited so far. Prices are high, almost the same as in Norway for food and hotel. We'll be staying here for three nights before returning to Beijing.

We took the Peak Tram to the top of Hong Kong, where we were funneled straight into a shopping mall. Apart from banking and finance, it seems to be all about shopping here. The city is full of exclusive brands (which makes them less exclusive?), so this is not the place for making a bargain, considering that we're going back to Beijing on Tuesday (thanks to Olav, who helped us book tickets Saturday night). This city is breaking our budget, but it's a fun place. We had a great Italian dinner with a rose wine and a delicious dessert. According to an Aussie who's been working here for a couple of years, many people are a-holes here. We haven't met any, but it's my impression that foreigners don't always mix with the locals. We are lucky, though, since everyone we've met have been sweet as sugar :-)

Staring contest

2008-07-18T07:35:00.004+02:00

Astrid writes: For 2 days, we have seen only 1 white person - an American - except each other. My eyes are amazingly blue all of a sudden, and we are the tallest people on the planet. Today we arrived in Wuchang/Wuhan by train. I slept all night, but Anders had some trouble sleeping - partly due to bad dreams about Chinese characters (which we enjoy) and partly due to increasingly stomach problems. Wuhan is a city of about 12 million people in the mid south (still the only white people). The city is located om the Yangtze river. Upon arrival, we were met by a huge construction site, forcing us to walk for at least 20 minutes around the train station (entrance on one side - way out on the other!) in 35 degrees C and extreme humidity. The ticket office was on the front side of the building, outside, of course. We bought tickets for Shenzhen for the same night, and checked in to the closest hotel to take a day off. (RMB 85). After sleeping for a couple of hours, we headed downtown to get something to eat. We took a cab to Snack Street, a street filled with snack bars and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Actually, the entire city (at least the part we saw) consists of hole-in-the-wall places, offering chili, foodish stuff, pots and pans, and everything else that anyone could possibly buy. We did not go to the city centre, though. We seem to have gotten a two-bed coupe for tonight, which we are very happy about. Today, we actually managed to buy the tickets we wanted, without any English (not entirely true, since a helpful woman in the line did assist us a little bit). Chinese people are extremely kind, helping us getting cabs and being very understanding about our general level of confusion. Taxi drivers, however, are not particularily fond of foreigners... Many refuse to take us.

9th wonder of the world?

2008-07-17T08:10:00.005+02:00

Yesterday, we didn't really know what kind of tickets we had and when we were going exactly (besides the direction), but we managed to upgrade our seat tickets to beds aboard the train.

more to come on the 9th wonder: Longmen caves.

We got up early, skipped breakfast and took a taxi from the hostel in Xian centre to the train station right outside the city wall. We had no problems boarding, and met a nice, English speaking chef onboard. He was going to some nearby mountains to hike. He asked some other travel companions to tell us when to get off, which they did about 5 hours later. Luongyang did not seem like a small city at all to us. Many tall buildings were spread out across a vast area, with lots of wide, long roads. We had to bargain for a cab - with a middleman - who kind of lost. The fare to the caves was just 4 yuan more than the meter said. Total 35! We walked to the grottoes, a myriad of Buddha statues in sizes ranging from dwarf to giant carved into the side of the mountain. We also visited a temple on the other side of the river. Returning to the station were we bought new train tickets, Astrid encountered a real public toilet - meaning a hole in the floor, no door, and the next needy within the same three walls before the pants were back on! Our train ticket would take us somewhere, hopefully in the right direction, seating standard unknown for 150 yuan. We later found out that the city was Wuchang, about 10 hours away, and we could upgrade our tickets onboard to beds for only 150 yuan. What a stroke of luck!

Eight wonder of the world

2008-07-16T15:22:00.002+02:00

We went on a guided tour to the excavation site of the Terracotta Warriors today. It was quite a sight. Nearby, there is a huge grave, where emperor Qin lies burried. The grave is actually a hill built by humans, with more than 2000 years worth of natural landskaping on it. On the way, we were told that the city walls of Xian are about 30 kilometers long, and you can bicycle on it - the roundtrip takes about 100 minutes. On the way to the main attraction, we visited Bampo village, a 6000 years old excavation site where foundations, mugs, and remains of the villagers where exhibited. We also visited a factory where they make terracotta stuff (such as souvenir warriors) and a silk factory where we could see how silk is prepared from the silk worm cocoon to finished goods.

After returning to the hostel, we went to a cheap restaurant selling scrumptious wheat noodles which we still had a craving for after a good lunch at the silk factory. A simple dinner for two cost about a dollar fifty! This was NOT a tourist place, though :-)

Tibet? Yes! No!!

2008-07-16T03:13:00.002+02:00

Still at Starbucks... Staying in a twin room at a nice hostel with a view to the Bell Tower in the centre of Xian. They speak English fluently, and are very helpful and service minded. We almost got tickets to Tibet, too - including flights in and out, hotel, and guides - agreed on a schedule and went to the bank to unload about $3000 in cash, only to come back and be told that the rules had changed at the Tibet office: Papers must be sent by mail, not fax anymore. That added a few more days which we don't have, so we'll still have to go somewhere else. Oh well. Coffee break is over! Off to the terracotta warriors!

Coffee addicts Anonymous

2008-07-15T08:11:00.005+02:00

Chinese may not drink much coffee, but Astrid's worst nightmare did not come true. We've found Starbucks in Beijing and Xian, which means free wireless as well :-)

Xian, an earlier Chinese capital now famous for the army of terracotta warriors, was the start and end of the silk road to the West. The city centre is surrounded by the still intact city walls, with the drum and bell towers in the middle.

The flight time to Xian was about 1.5 hours (exactly on time), English was not a problem, and everything is just great...

Looking back on Tuesday, we really liked the muslim quarter, thriving with life day and night. There were great shows in both the Drum and Bell towers (I liked the drums best). We took an electric rickshaw to the train station (no taxis want to give us a ride here - we have no idea why) and bought train tickets. The station is the noisiest place... All of the ticket counters use microphones/loudspeakers turned to max, and they don't exactly whisper! We waited in line twice, and got tickets to Luoyang for Thursday morning. It cost abot 10 USD for a three-hour train ride, but we must stand all the way (restaurant wagon here we come).

Hooters

2008-07-14T12:00:00.005+02:00

Fog had replaced the blue sky this morning, and it was raining a little bit most of the day. At the start of the day, we thought we'd bet getting on a train to Xian tonight - that's where the terracotta warriors are. However, there was no train route allowing our planned stops, so we decided on taking a plane instead. We're not going to Tibet, since it takes at least a week to get all the formalities in order... Unfortunately, the Chinese embassy in Norway didn't anwer our question about what we should have done in advance. Oh well...

After eating some hot donkey for lunch, we went to a local travel agent and bought tickets for a flight to Xian for the next morning. The price was alright, until they added their fees to the total. Fine. Then, we requested the total price of tickets from Xian to Hong Kong. The guy asked who the tickets was for (!!) and gave us a price of 2400 Yuan, which was OK for the both of us. When he booked the tickets, though, it turned out that this was the price for one person, so he claimed that we owed him 4800 RMB (same currency, just a different name). We didn't want those tickets, but they had been booked, and I didn't even want to pay for cancelling tickets I hadn't ordered, and the fight had started. After about an hour, and both me and the agent threatening with police, Astrid pushed for just paying the 100 Yuan fee (about $16) and get going, which we did, and then everyone was friends and none of us had actually called the police, and it was all a big misunderstanding. Smile!

Finally, we checked out the Chinese Hooters, Anders had his hot breaded chicken wings, and then we could go shopping. On the way home, the weather got a little more nasty, so I biked home in shorts and socks.

Great Wall of China and Peking Duck

2008-07-13T12:00:00.002+02:00

Having a simple and nutritious rice or wheat porridge breakfast with
honey melon and mango on the side at home.
Rented a cab for 700 Y. Met driver at 8. Paid when back home. No
tipping. Got a lesson on taxi fares.
Brought fruit which we bought on the street last night.
Went to Great Wall at Simtai, 120 km out of Beijing by the Jing-Cheng
Freeway. See www.simatai-greatwall.net.
Entrance 40 Y, took the quick way down - threw ourselves out of a
cliff James Bond style: by wire.
Left camera in cab, driver called. Remember receipt!
After a quick shower back home, we went to a superb restaurant
(Da Dong Roast Duck restaurant) and had Peking duck and a few other
things. It was great. Finally, we took a walk on Tiananmen Square,
where we bought a wristwatch featuring Mao waving his hand, and some
paper kites, which I tested. A lot of fun :-) We're home again now,
trying to plan the next week...

Laugh, bid insanely low, walk away, flash the money, agree

2008-07-12T12:00:00.001+02:00

Starting out with a clear and blue sky, this day gave us a view of the
mountains West of Beijing from our friend's bedroom window in the
Haidian district (university
area, Northwest in the capital). The foot of the mountains is about 45
minutes away from here by bus, and such a view is not an everyday
treat. We took the bikes for a roll and had breakfast near the
light-rail or overground metro. We had various porridge (sweet, salty)
粥 zhou, soy milk 豆浆 doujiang, mushrooms 木耳 muer and tofu skin 豆皮, and
sticky rice with ham. After a few stops on the metro, we took the taxi
to the antique market on the South side, where we did some bargaining
on Mao's little red book and some posters, a painting, and some
incense. [I should make some comments on bargaining] Everyone knows
that shopping makes you hungry, so Liv had picked out a great
restaurants for true vegetarians. The only animal course they had was
a dessert that contained eggs. Some courses closely resembled meat,
though - like (not) lamb kebab, (not) beef in brown sauce, and fried
chicken (not). Finally, we found ourselves knocked out by the heat,
and took a taxi home in order to take a nap. The sky was still blue,
and a calm wind was brushing through the city. Later on, we took a "private"
taxi to back to the station, and picked up our bikes which were parked for
0.20 Y for one day. We checked out the menu at a Korean BBQ, but
since they had no dogs, only cows, neither Anders nor Astrid wanted
to eat there, so we went Japanese instead. Great food. After loading up
fruit for the next day's field trip and stopping by the owner of a convenience
store, who met the day before for a chat, we went home.

Not so fun, but still a fact: Damned if you do it, damned if you
don't... Many taxi drivers don't wear their seat belt, but pretend
that they do. If they don't, they'll get a ticket. If they do, they
run a chance of being strangled for a few Yuan... As for passenger
seat belts - you're lucky if you find a cab that has them.

It's my birthday

2008-07-11T12:00:00.001+02:00

The pollution really isn't that bad for the moment - better than
expected, at least. The line of sight was very limited, though, due to
high humidity and little wind. After unloading our bags at our friend
Liv's apartment, we bought a couple of cheap bicycles yesterday,
complete with bells, locks, and baskets. [I should make some comments
on how brakes work] My bike is orange and very small for me, and
Astrid's bike is pink. We also bought a musical instrument: 古筝
"guzheng". It has 21 strings and makes beautiful sounds, featuring a
few scales of do-re-mi-so-la (omitting fa and ti), starting on D. We
also went by the bank (cash is king), had a more or less traditional
Chinese dinner with sweet and sour chicken, sichuan chicken (somewhat
hot), broccoli, and pork and white cabbage dumplings, crushed cucumber
with salt and garlic, and jasmine tea, of course. Finally, we went
strolling near 前海 Qianhai lake and had a drink at a bar looking over
one of the three lakes nearby the Lama temple.

Fun fact: Coca Cola is named (not just called) something like 可口可乐
kekou kele, which means "tastes nice and makes you happy" directly
translated!

The last coffee?

2008-07-10T12:00:00.002+02:00

Bought new toothbrushes, packed lightly, and left Oslo at 15:05. Had a
short stop in Amsterdam, and continued at 18:30. Arrived at terminal 2
in Beijing 10 hours later, on Friday morning.

Time mosquitoes

2008-05-20T13:06:00.002+02:00

I was going to say flies, but... I'm such a baby. Hey, here's the new google thing: Translate everything from Norwegian (I don't say to, because I wouldn't mind everyone speaking the same language, and I don't think the majority of the world's population would vote for Norwegian)! Here's a link: translate.google.com

Google addict

2007-12-05T22:16:00.000+01:00

I'm obviously totally hooked on Google. Eggum Net is now hosted by google, I do my shopping through Google, I google everything from work to vacation (yes, to google is a verb).

Nutcracker

2007-12-05T22:12:00.001+01:00

We went to the Nutcracker ballet with Iselin and Thomas tonight. It was great! If I was a kid, I would have hated it. But now, I'd like to show it to my kids. Good luck for them they don't exist!

No 1

2007-12-05T21:51:00.000+01:00

My first post. Next!