Travelog
This diary tracks our progress along the Silk Roads, with episodes appearing in date order, most recent first. You can get to earlier entries by turning pages at the bottom of the screen.
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- Written by Andy Stone
- Category: Travelog
We have made it to Korea! After the typhoon-induced delay of 2 days at Shimonoseki, which gave me chance to try fugu (blowfish - potentially deadly due to lethal levels of tetrodotoxin) and survive (if you're interested it tasted of slightly haddocky sardine to me!), we borded our ferry, slept for most of the journey and arrived in Busan in the morning. High-tailing it to Seoul we did some orientation before headig out to a dormitory town (Bundang) to stay with a lovely family we met while at Lake Baikal. we turned up horribly late due to going in exactly the opposite direction to their town for an hour on the subway before realising, but we were still fed, watered and given a bed in what would turn out to be the start of much incredibly kind and heartfelt generosity.
Thursday was spent mostly finding the just-relocated Chinese embassy, applying for a visa and arranging ferry tickets towards Beijing. We had to settle for a single-entry 30 day visa just to be sure of getting it, which means staying here until 17th October so that we can travel fully with Ellen's sister when she gets to China. This is quite frustrating for me, as China is a huge reason for doing this trip and I'm itching to get stuck in, but on the other hand Korea, of which I still know very little, looks amazing (beautiful, very friendly, extremely different to anything else I've experienced) and now I have the chance to explore it in more detail.
Aside from doing organisational things we had time to amble around Namdaemun market, very interesting and the ideal introduction to Seoul life, and see the 'number 1 national treasure Sungnyemun city gate. Korea like Japan has an excellent prize system for its things: places areas or buildings get to be national treasures, people still alive get to be 'living treasures', and (my personal favorite) cultural or artistic things get to be 'Intangible National Assets'. Fantastic!
First impressions of Korea are very positive - the countryside is gorgeous and varied, the people seem very down to earth and relaxed (nice change from Japan!) while sharing with the Japanese an incredible sense of kindness, and the food is out of this world. Any meal consists of rice, soup, and a large number of side dishes containing anything from bean paste, salads, meat and fish but always the traditional kimchi - cold fermented chili peppers and vegetables. As a rule Korean food is pretty spicey, which suits me and is good preparation for South East Asia. My favorite thing so far is the ubiquitous bibimbap - rice mixed with vegetables and meat, served with an egg on top and some very hot bean paste. The way food comes with different items in different bowls is great for Ellen too, as she can be pretty sure of a vegetarian meal in most places.
Today has been pretty fantastic, as the family we are staying with decided to take us to the Korean Folk Village. This huge outdoor museum in beautful grounds with gardens and lakes was a repository for Korean heritage, and contained many traditional buildings and crafts. There were over 260 buildings and it was a real living history lesson - we learnt loads about Korean traditions and culture as well as seeing some pretty impressive displays of acrobatics, horse skills and a traditional wedding; head to the gallery for weird and wonderful pics!
If that wasn't enough we were then driven to a restaurant near to our host's home, where we were sat at a low table and instantly brought out 38 - thirty eight - dishes to share, practically all of which were sublime. The family clearly thought they had not yet done enough for us at that point so we then drove off to a friend of theirs who is a professional calligrapher, who gave an impromptu demonstration, a lesson to us both, and a prsent of our very own scroll wishing us (I think) love, open heartedness and good luck throughout the world on our travels. She practiced a very beautiful art and yet again I feel incredibly honoured to have had these experiences. I end today exhausted but very happy that our Chinese visa arrangements are such that we get to spend almost a whole month in this wonderful country.
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- Written by Ellen Winter
- Category: Travelog
- Details
- Written by Ellen Winter
- Category: Travelog
One of the things there is to do in Shimonoseki is go up the Very High Tower. It is very high. It costs \700 to go up, and this gets you a complimentary cup of coffee. This is where the trouble started, because not only is Andy a fan of foolhardy things, like going up Very High Towers, but he also noticed a sign for Illy coffee for the cafe on the 29th floor.
Fortunately some people have a bit of sense and the tower was closed when Andy first wanted to go up in the typhoon. However, it was open today, and in the interests of trying to get over my fear of heights before we get to Nepal, I agreed to go up. Nor was I daunted when I saw that 2 sides of the lift were glass. I merely thought to myself that it didn't matter as I would have my eyes shut anyway. Duely, as soon as the doors shut on the nice lady at the bottom, I screwed my eyes up, put my head against a poster of something or other and held on to a frame of some kind for the 70 second journey. (Note to future glass lift makers - please make sure there is a rail of some kind securely fixed to an opaque wall next to the door).
On stumbling out of the lift at the top, my brain was giving me very convincing signals that the floor was moving in some way. Nobody else seemed to percieved the immanent danger, so I send some minutes near the lift comparing the position of various tower girders with buildings on the ground. I also remembered that the tower was not one of those gobstopper on a toothpick designs, but something a bit more substantial. Eventually I was more convinced that the whole tower was not slowly tilting backwards, as my brain was trying to tell me it was, and made a tentative tour of the interior bits of the circumference.
Eventually we went to the cafe and turned in our vouchers for a drink - this turned out to be limited to an Americano coffee - no use to man nor beast. Andy ordered his longed for expresso, for which he was charged an extra \400 purely for leaving out some hot water. As I had recently had a drink, and they didn't have 'hot co-co-a', I didn't really fancy anything, and after some attempts at persuading me to drink something I really didn't want in the interests of using up my 50p voucher, I declined and refreshment, causing much consternation and background discussion. By now, being a gaijin and doing bizarre and confusing things to the Japanese psyche is pretty much second nature to us, as it happens all the time, so we didn't take much notice at the time.
We sat down, and after a few minutes a lady speaking pretty good English came and asked us very politely if I did not want a drink. Andy explained (me still being largely overcome with kneeknocking terror from the height) that I did not drink tea or coffee, and I was OK without. She was backed up by what seemed to be the entire cafe staff, and took some persuading that I really did not want tea, coffee, orange juice, water, anything else, or perhaps, tea. Perhaps it was my expression, but there were lots tender enquiries as to my wellbeing, and we said (with reasonable vehemence on my part) that we would be descending in a short while.
As soon as we made our way from the table we were ushered through a private door and into a lift. The nice English speaking lady was a little discomfited by my assumption of the head against the wall/eyes closed survival posture, but I am firmly convinved that my reaction to travelling any other way would have been more uncomfortable for both of us. We reached terra firma, and with lots of thanks and some knee-tremors on my part, left for open air. Andy stopped to take a photo and the lady rushed after him with a 100\ coin for us. I had not had my drink, so they were technically in posession of illegal money, I am sure. Rules are definately rules in Japan.
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- Written by Andy Stone
- Category: Travelog
We have finally left Kyoto, and today was spent at Hiroshima before coming in the evening to Shimonoseki, the port from which we sail to Korea. It has been windy rainy and overcast all day, exactly as I imagined my time in Hiroshima would be.
It is an extrodinary experience to stand on the site of the atomic bomb explosion, and not one I can describe here. Different to the deeply emotional experience at Auschwitz this place has just left me utterly empty and numb. I feel nothing today and am left with just some facts going round and round. Like how this was the first nuclear wepon deployed against a population. Like how it was done 1 day before Russia was due to declare war on Japan - something that would have certainly caused a surrender and thus the end of the war without having to use the bomb, but which would have left America in a worse cold war position against Russia. Like how it has been 22326 days since the first drop but only 16 days since the last nuclear weapons test (Nebraska). Like how instantly incinerated bodies left an indelible shadow in the stone of the buildings here. Like how many children died both instantly and much later on, long drawn out painful leukemia deaths and how paper cranes are still folded today in their thousands by children here, begging us not to be so damned stupid or arrogant again.
Anyway, Shimonoseki. We decided that as this was a pretty short journey we would finally get to try out the fabled shinkansen high-speed train, which didn't fail to live up to expectations: amazingly luxurious, smooth, quiet - and very very fast, surely every bit the world-beater it claims to be. We were supposed to be at the port 1 night and then onto the ferry bound for Busan, South Korea, but a pretty heavy duty typhoon has whipped up in the Pacific and its coming this way. Our ferry is cancelled and rebooked for 19th Sept, which in itself may be cancelled if we are still in the throes of typhoon. Our hostel has saved our bacon though by, despite being full tomorrow along with every other hotel and hostel in town, still managing to find us a corner to sleep in somehow. Thank you Hinoyama Youth Hostel - very accomodating and I can urge you to come here if you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods!
- Details
- Written by Andy Stone
- Category: Travelog
After Tuesday's dream-like and wonderful day spent at Fushimi Inari-taisha everything appeared to fall apart. I knew that our journey through the torii would lead us to a different world and unfortunately it seemed we had gone from one where everything was going swimmingly to a disaster zone: our long-distance financial management was looking terrible and we spent the evening bickering, then not sleeping well due to too much tension; the next day it poured down relentlessly all day and night; the overnight bus we needed to book to get to Hiroshima was full and we had to get one in the daytime which (a) cut into our Kyoto time and (b) meant paynig for a night's accomodation in Hiroshima; the choice hostel we subsequently tried to book in Hiroshima was full; the geisha walking tour we had booked, and which we got thoroughly soaked trying to get to, never happened because, I think, the guide decided he didn't fancy it in the rain (didn't stop him from not answering his phone though, or indeed not leaving a message for us); our hunt for a consolatory coffee/cocoa and cake led us a merry dance through just about every cafe in kyoto without an espresso machine.
I was soaked through, tired, feeling thoroughly let down, powerless and generally self-piteous, and worried that this new world we had shot into was terrible and we were doomed. Ellen suggested that the universe was just having a laugh at us, especially as one of the traits of the fox spirits we visited (kitsune, see previous article) is one of extreme mischief. In my susperstitious unstable head this translated as a challenge - if I could find an espresso I would win, capture the kitsune's star ball, and put an end to all this mischief. Disasters would continue until I did get my cuppa so the hunt was on - I love the way my head justifies its stubbornness! Anyway, to cut a long story short as soon as I 'realised' what the game was I found an espresso shop straight away and had 2 for good measure. Prank over, all happiness and good luck resotred instantly. We has a wonderful Nepalese curry at the nearby 'Yak and Yeti', played a most enjoyable game of Munchkin and enjoyed a good night's sleep. The next morning we managed to book a Japanese room in a great place in Hiroshima, realising that this forced extra night will enable us to explore the town much better than we otherwise would have done.
After much chocolate we headed out on our bikes into the cool, breezy air. Heading north and west we arrived at the amazing Eikan-Do (Zenrin-Ji). We had spotted it a few days ago and was on our list of 'maybe if we have time' but an email from Ellen's sister recommending it moved it to the top of our list. It was really splendid and had such a peaceful atmosphere, and as soon as we walked in through the main gate we saw for the first time on our visit the first garden that actually looked like I have imagined Japanese gardens to look like: plent of water, water-lillies, graceful weeping maples and well-placed rocks, all fading seamlessly into the wooded mountainside behind. We jsut sat and sat, totally relaxed. The buildings beautiful, some going back to the 9th century, and they climbed the mountainside connected by amazing covered suspended walkways and steps, so that the buildings felt as though they were suspended in mid-air. There was also a raked gravel garden that as my first experience of one surprised me by being really interesting and meditative rather than boring and pretentious! All in all it was a place of breath-taking beauty, so thank you Nic for having such exquisite taste!
I had to really tear myself away but udon beckoned me from a nearby noodle bar, and very tasty they were too. We just had time to stroll down the very pretty nearby Path of Philosophy (Testsugaku-no-Michi) and up to a lovely secluded Jodo temple called Honen-In that was set back into the woodland, before we parted company for a bit. Well, I strolled down the path but Ellen cycled down the lane next to it - presumably the pCycle-lane Of Psychiatry. Very zen in an instant karma kind of way, I thought. Ellen had rearranged with the geisha tour for that afternoon, and I had decided to not go: it sounded really interesting but it cost the same as our unforseen night's accomodation in Hiroshima, and besides I really don't like bullshit so I'm hardly going to give a guy who stands us up in the rain and then lies about it 3000 yen. It sounds like Ellen had a fantastic time though and I'm sure there's an article in it!
I took my time at the temple and ambled back to the beginning of the Path of Philosophy to collect my bike, exploring a couple of small shrines on the way. Deciding that my shocking sense of direction really did need a work-out I decided to eschew the map and guide book and bike slowly in roughly the right direction, stopping at anything interesting. I'm so glad I did as this took me to the magnificent Nanzen-Ji zen temple complex: large sculpted grounds containng loads of well-preserved sub-temples and the very famous Leaping Tiger Garden. Most of the buildings were closed as it was past 5, but that was OK becuase I was lucky enough to have stumbled into not only one of the reputedly most pleasant temples in Kyoto but also one with wonderful free and always open grounds to stroll in.
Soon I found myself chasing toriis again, and came to an old aqueduct that I followed into the wooded hillside behind the temples, and soon found that my path had risen high enough so that I was looking down into the aquaduct, a great an unusal experience as I saw a well ordered channel of water calmly making its way through the landscape. Further up and the complex disappears - just woodland and a stream as the light starts to fade. Eventualy I came to a shrine and small shelter in a cleft in the hillside next to a stunning waterfall, maybe 30 or 40 metres tall. I subsequently found out from the guide that this shrine and waterfall area is known as Nanzen-ji Oku-no-in, and while overlooked or just not found by the vast majority of visitors it has traditionally served as a resting place for pilgims who pray under the waterfall. I felt incredibly lucky to be in this amazing spot that felt very private - I hadn't seen another person for about an hour - and was delighted that my kooky sense of direction had come up trumps.
Another blessing was that I didn't have the camera on me as Ellen took it on her tour. I think it is a wonderful piece of kit but am very aware how much it takes over; I go to beautiful places and find myself sizing the scene up for a shot - everthing gets scored in terms of whether it would make a good picture and I sometimes forget to look for the beauty that is not necessarily photogenic. Being without the infernal contraption for a while was most liberating as I was led more by the connection between my senses and the landscape in which I could wander regardless. The afternnon has become mine in a very private way with no pictures to share, and it now exists only at that one point in time and space; I really do love the camera but have realised how much respect it must be treated with if it is to not run the show.
Oh, and in case you were wondering - there was no teacake.