Category Archives: Backpacking

Phnom Penh to Kampot, Cambodia

Backpacking, Cambodia, Flashpacking, Travel, , , ,

5/30 – We are looking forward to getting out of the noisy bustle of Phnom Penh, and seeing the Cambodian countryside.  It seems that the more we travel, the less we like big cities.  Even 9000 miles from home, cities have a sameness in their traffic, squalor, shops, hawkers, taxi drivers and press of people.

Several travelers suggested that we head south to check out the adjoining towns of Kampot and Kep.  This is easily done by booking a $6.00 ticket on a bus heading south, and today is our travel day.  We were told the ride would take three hours, but it took five.  Nothing wrong; we have become accustomed to the exaggeration of ticket sellers who want you to think that their bus line can get you there faster than the line next door.  The bus curtains were closed against the heat of the day for most of the trip, so only a few pix of the countryside.  Lots of skinny white cows foraging at the roadside or grazing in the fields.imageimage image

The bus stopped first in Kep, and most of the young tourists got off there, right at the oceanfront.  We stayed on, as our lodging for the next three days is in Kampot.

The tuk-tuk brought us right to the door of the Kampot Manor, a beautiful French colonial on a quiet road outside of town.  image

Our host David was surprised to see us, and told us that perhaps an error was made at Booking.com, as he did not have our reservation.  No worries (he is Australian); he asked us to wait while a room was made up for us, and we were settled in no time.  Come to find out, we had mistakenly booked online for June 30 instead of May 30.  Darn these new-fangled computers! David got it all sorted out.

Our room was on the upper floor, with a wrap-around veranda.  We ordered supper (David is an excellent chef), and he delivered it up to the veranda so we could watch the sunset.  We were not disappointed – what a stunner!imageimage image

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Tomorrow, the town!

Ishiyama, Japan to Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia

Backpacking, Cambodia, Flashpacking, Japan, Thailand, Travel, , , , ,

5/22 – Our stay in Japan was too short. Today we took the train back to Osaka, where we met Jim’s friend Carl for breakfast. Then it was on to the Kansai Osaka Airport where we arrived at noon. What to do until our flight at midnight? We went back to the posh airport hotel. They have a huge lobby with couches, easy chairs, strong wifi, and a piano that plays by itself 24/7. We settled in for a long afternoon and evening. I got a whole book read!

Midnight flight back to Bangkok, Thailand, then a layover from 4am until our Siem Riep flight at 10am. We got to see the sun rise from the Bangkok observation deck.image

It was nice to fly during daylight. Pretty clouds and blue sky.image

Getting off the plane in Siem Reap, the heat and humidity smacked us right in the face. Couldn’t wait to get back into shorts and sandals. The airport is very Asian.image

We got our visas at the airport, where the $30.00 payment was requested in U.S. dollars. As we only had Thai baht, we paid the equivalent of $35.00 each. Bring dollars if you travel here – the Cambodians use their own money as change only. 1000 riel is worth 25 cents. All prices are given in dollars, and the ATMs dispense dollars too. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Andrew Jackson on a $20!

We got a tuk-tuk ride into town, and passed several luxurious resort hotels, which look out of place next to the little shops and shacks on the dusty street. Due to its proximity to the Angkor Wat temples, Siem Reap hosts over two million tourists a year, and accommodates all comfort levels.image

Now we are settled in at the Banyan Leaf Hotel, with its lovely pool and sumptuous breakfast buffet, all for $20.00 a night. We had a lovely supper for $1.50, and a beer for 50 cents. You could live here forever!image

Hiking the Kumano Kodo – Katsuura to Ishiyama

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Hiking, Japan, Travel, , , , , ,

5/19 – Our last hiking day dawned grey and rainy, but a little weather would not keep us from our appointed hike! We took a bus from Katsuura to Daimon Zaka, a stone stairway that led up to the Nachi Taisha, our third Shinto shrine.

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We entered the torii gate, and kept climbing upwards.
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The Grand Shrine:
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Do fish care if it’s raining? Sorry for the blurry pix – blame the weather!image

The site contained a huge, old spirit tree, covered with moss:
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We spent the morning with Max, from Quebec:image

Right next to the Shinto shrine was a Buddhist temple. One stop shopping for the religion of your choice – the Japanese often incorporate beliefs from both.image

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We continued walking, downhill now, past a three-storied pagoda, on our way to the Nachi Waterfall, which is also a sacred site. It was beautiful in the mist.image

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Then it was time to walk back up the hill to catch a bus back to Kii-Katsuura, and a train to The Kyoto suburb of Ishiyama, where we are spending the night. Sorry again for blurry pix.image

This is the end of our Kumano Kodo adventure. If you ever get the opportunity, it is a beautiful journey, customizable based on how many days and how far you wish to walk. A damp, but lovely day!

5/20 – Today we were agenda-free, relaxing and catching up on our reading and blogging. We took a walk to see the shore of Lake Biwa.image

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Even here in the city, we find shrines:


This is Kwan Yin, goddess of Mercy:
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I’ve loved being in Japan, with its friendly, helpful people, polite manners, orderly queuing, and advanced technology toilet seats. It’s been great to visit
a “first-world” country again. Soon we will travel back to Osaka Kansai Airport for our flight back to Bangkok, then on Cambodia. Our next post will be from Siem Riep!

Hiking the Kumano Kodo – Yunomine Onsen to Shingu to Katsuura

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Hiking, Japan, Travel, , , , , , ,

5/18 – Took a bus this morning from Yunomine Onsen to Shingu, to take a ride in a traditional flat-bottomed boat used historically by pilgrims on the Kumano River to visit the Hayatama Taisha, the second of the three grand shrines. We donned life jackets and straw hats to get into the spirit.image
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We were the only gaijin (foreigners) on the boat, but our guide Kyoko-San translated most of the highlights for us.

We got out of the boat at a small island to touch “the monster’s spine”, assuring us of strength and long life.image
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It was a gorgeous morning for a boat ride.image

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Kyoko-San played a traditional flute as we drifted past the cliff faces in the clear turquoise water.image

We disembarked in Shingu, and walked toward the Hayatama Taisha. We were surprised that the Japanese tourists opted to get on a bus back to the station instead. We entered at the torii gate. image
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Near the Hayatama Taisha is a long flight of rock steps up Mount Gongen, where runners holding torches race during the annual fire festival. Can’t imagine racing up these steps in the dark…imageimage

The steps lead up to a small shrine at a sacred rock where the three deities are believed to have come down to earth.

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We watched many come to pray and meditate here.image

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The overlook gave us a great view of the city below, and the Pacific Ocean beyond.image

We took a short train ride to Kii-Katsuura, where we spent the night in a western hotel. Yay for mattresses! Tomorrow we will visit our third shrine.

Hiking the Kumano Kodo – Chikatsuyu to Yunomine Onsen

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Hiking, Japan, Travel, , , ,

5/15 – A beautiful, sunny day for a hike.  We stopped in at the Cultural Center at the beginning of today’s walk, and discovered an old, familiar friend – the Camino shell!  Turns out that Tanabe and Santiago de Compostela are sister cities; each hosting a pilgrimage.

Today we saw some beautiful mountains:image

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Serene wooded paths:

And little shrines along the paths:

Beautiful trees and flowers:image

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We saw the cultivation of tea:

We walked through an area known for folk wood carvings, which were displayed in front of many houses.

We knew we were near Yunomine Onsen when we could smell the sulphur in the air. A natural hot spring runs through the town, and we are staying three nights at small guesthouses right on the spring, with deep hot-water baths. A new experience! image

Hiking the Kumano Kodo – Takahara to Chikatsuyu

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Hiking, Japan, Travel, , , ,

5/14 – The Takahara Lodge is famous for being the place to witness the Mist on the Mountain.  What wonderful grace that the mist greeted us when we arose in the morning, right outside our bedroom window!image image image

Within in a half hour, the sun was up, and the mist was gone.image

After a wonderful breakfast that included eating a whole fish – eyes, tail, little bones and all – we set out for our day’s walk. Two couples from Australia kept us company for part of the way. We passed flooded fields with newly planted rice seedlings.image

The trail was shady and wooded for most of the day.

There were musical streams:

And we stopped to admire the many small shrines and statues called Jizo that lined the trail. Jizo are bodhisattva who protect travelers, women and children.

By mid afternoon we arrived at our new home, the Nakano Guesthouse.image

Here we got a taste of true Japanese living. Of course, we removed our shoes at the door, and were given a pair of house slippers. The slippers had to be removed at the door to our room, as only bare feet walk on the tatami mats. When using the bathroom, special bathroom slippers must be worn. It got confusing pretty quickly. I’m sure I offended within minutes of our arrival. This was our room.image

After sitting on the cushions to have some tea, we moved the table aside and pulled our futons out of the closet to make up our beds. I’m too old to sleep on the floor! The little pillows were hard and filled with beans. We had a traditional supper, also sitting on the floor. We chatted with Jenna from Canada, a young girl traveling solo. After about 20 minutes my legs fell asleep, but the food was wonderful!image

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Kyoto, Japan to Tanabe, Japan – the Kumano Kodo

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Hiking, Japan, Travel, , , , , ,

5/13 – Got an early start this morning to catch the 8:36 train to Kii-Tanabe. The Kyoto train station was busy on a weekday morning. image
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When our train was called, everyone lined up in two rows, just like it said on the sign. The Japanese are an orderly people. I felt badly for the businessmen, dressed in their identical black suits and white shirts. With the glum looks on their faces, it was easy to imagine they were all on their way to an undertakers convention!

We passed some beautiful beaches on the way, with swimmers and surfers.image

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Two and a half hours later, we arrived at Kii-Tanabe, had a yummy pork and noodle soup lunch, and waited for a bus to Takijiri, where our Kumano Kodo hike began.imageimage

Here’s what you do while waiting for the bus.

It was already mid-afternoon by the time we arrived, so it was nice that the day’s hike was planned for only 3.7km/ 2.3mi. Here is the entrance to the trail. We will walk to visit three major Shinto shrines this week.image
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Pilgrims ritually wash themselves at the beginning of the walk.image

The first part of the hike was totally uphill – climbing, climbing, then climbing some more! image

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We saw several small shrines in the forest,which is what the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage is all about.  Several were Jizo, or Buddhist bodhisattva, which help travelers to attain enlightenment.  The mixture of Buddhist and Shinto symbols is common in Japan.

We arrived at the Takahara Lodge at 4:30pm and were welcomed by the delightful owner. I had my very first Japanese communal bath – men and women bathe separately here. After sitting down on a little stool to shampoo and wash, we climbed into a deep pool, lined with stones, for a hot soak. It was lovely!image

We went down to supper freshly washed and wearing our kimonos. The meal was amazing, with little bites of different vegetables, sashimi, grilled fish and Kobe beef cooked at the table, so tender it just melted in your mouth. Fruit sorbet for dessert. So delicious!image

We met two couples from Australia who will be walking our route tomorrow. We retired to our room with the beautiful view of the mountainside. Tomorrow is a hiking day! 

 

   

  

Bangkok, Thailand to Osaka, Japan to Kyoto, Japan

Backpacking, Japan, Thailand, Travel, , , , , ,

5/9 – Time to boogie out of Bangkok. Bangkok is an airport hub, with less-expensive flights than can be had out of northern Thailand, which is why we traveled here. Today we fly to Osaka, Japan, for our long-awaited Kumano Kodo pilgrimage hike. We had originally planned this hike for earlier in the spring, but delayed it as we waited for my broken arm to heal. Happy to say, after two weeks of daily swim therapy in Pai, my shoulder is almost good as new, and I’m ready to hike. Japan had a cold, wet spring, so it is just as well that we waited to travel.

After our wonderful experience with Bangkok Air, I had an expectation that we would be given a meal on our 5 hour Air Asia flight – no such luck. We had to purchase our entree (the size of a cell phone) and water, accepting what was left when the meals we wanted were sold out. No movie, no nothing. image Chicken with one carrot and one potato.

We arrived at Osaka at 10:30pm, and queued to have our fingerprints and photos taken, then again for baggage inspection. The two guys in front of us had their baggage opened and spread out for all to see, but they let us walk on through (guess we don’t fit the drug smuggler profile). There were lots of nervous, agitated people in line, as the last bus and metro train leave at 11:30pm, and then all mass transportation shuts down until morning. We cleared the last queue just at 11:30, and congratulated ourselves for booking a room at the airport hotel, although the cost for one night is what we usually spend for a week’s lodging…

All the airport restaurants were closed, but we found a 24 hour Burger King, so we chowed down on our first Whoppers in over a year. It was served at table, with complimentary water and much bowing. After we finished every bite, we weren’t hungry anymore.

Our room was tiny, but the bed was soft, and we slept like the dead. We didn’t wake up until after 9am – very unusual for us. The shower was strong and hot. What do I love about Japan? You can drink the tap water, and plug your chargers right into the wall without an adapter! I usually have to rotate charging my iPad, phone and camera batteries, but here I can charge them all at the same time!

We found a restaurant full of folks eating breakfast, so figured this would be a good place to eat. The woman behind the counter motioned us over to a machine in the corner, where we could select what we wanted to eat by pressing a button, pay, then receive a ticket to present for our food. We couldn’t figure out how the machine worked, but a man came in, and we watched him navigate it, then followed suit.  (Put in money first, and available selections will light up.)image

Not sure what I ordered, but I ate it all – after using spoon and fork in Thailand, we are back to using chopsticks here.

After checking out at noon, we walked to the train station for our ride to Kyoto. Once again, there was a machine with only Japanese characters that had to be navigated to give us our tickets. Luckily, the nice man in front of us helped us, and showed us which track was ours. 90 minutes later, we were in Kyoto!image

We settled in at a nice apartment with a kitchen and a washing machine, so we are getting all our clothes clean while we are here. Know what else I love about Japan? Not only does the toilet seat heat up for your comfort, and make the sound of a babbling brook for those with shy bladders, and a refreshing warm rinse available when your business is complete (separate buttons aimed for ladies #1, or #2), along with a discreet fan feature, but after flushing, the clean water filling the tank is presented so you do not waste water turning on the sink to wash your hands! I’m definitely getting one of these babies when I get home!image

We met Jim’s friend and fellow college professor Carl for supper, for lovely food and to catch up on old times. A long and wonderful day!image

Pai to Chiang Mai to Bangkok, Thailand

Backpacking, Hiking, Thailand, Travel, , , , ,

5/4 – Our do-nothing vacation in Pai comes to an end tomorrow. As we enjoy one more swim in the pool and one more climb to see the sunset, here are a few things we opted not to do in Pai:

Seeing the Long Neck Karen tribe: as tempting as this was for a short-necked Karen like me, we read too much about the exploitation of these Burmese refugees, who are paid to disfigure their women with neck rings to be ogled by tourists. I remember reading about them in Ripley’s Believe It or Not as a child (a long, LONG time ago!). Really didn’t want to view humans the way we view zoo animals, and the tribe does not benefit from the admission prices charged by the tour promoters. Here are pix off the advertising poster in town:

Riding an Elephant: there are lots of places in Thailand offering to let you ride/bathe/train elephants. Most of these places use bull hooks to jab the elephants, torturing them repeatedly to make them docile enough for tourists. We decided not to be part of that exploitation. The exception is the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, where abused elephants are rehabilitated and never ridden. We tried to book a trip there when we were in Chiang Mai, but the waiting list was several weeks long, and we were not able to go. If you really want to see elephants, book early and support ElephantNaturePark.org. image

I’ve been keeping my sister AJ in mind as we tour Thailand, as she and her husband would like to travel here some day. They are vegetarians. Don’t know how they would feel about the vegetarian restaurants here, which all seem to serve meat, like the House of Pork Vegetarian Cafe:image

Same problem at the grocery store, offering vegetarian shredded meat:image

Don’t worry AJ and Bob – you can always eat rice!

5/5 – Back to the bus station this morning for our 3 hour mini- bus ride back to Chiang Mai. Met John while we waited, a Vietnam vet. He and Jim traded old war stories – Bangkok was the place Vietnam vets went for R&R, and its proximity brought back lots of memories for them both. Arrived at Chiang Mai with three hours before our train to Bangkok, so we has a leisurely lunch and chatted with two young Aussies from Melbourne. Turns out they were taking the same train.image

 

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We were not able to book air conditioned berths on the overnight sleeper to Bangkok, so we are anticipating a steamy night. The windows on the train are all wide open – hope there is a breeze! image

This is the first long distance train we’ve been on that does not have compartments. The seats convert to upper and lower berths on both sides of the car, with curtains in front, like in old movies (Some Like It Hot comes to mind!) Here’s the sunset out the open train window. image

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5/6 – After a long, sticky night, we approached Bangkok, as the scenery changed from rural to urban.image

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Pai, we miss you!

Chiang Mai to Pai, Thailand

Backpacking, Thailand, Travel, , , ,

4/17 – Well, the party’s over in Chiang Mai, so we may as well move on… We heard about a little town called Pai, (pronounced Buy) three hours to the north, where there’s not much going on, and folks just go to relax. Sounds like just what we need!

We tuk-tukked to the Arcade bus station in the morning, figuring we could purchase a ticket and just hop on the next bus. No such luck! Seems that lots of people want to go to Pai today. The only big bus was already gone (leaves daily at 7am), so our option was a minibus with a two hour wait. What do I do while I wait at the station? Get my hair cut, of course! Thank you, nice little lady with no English!image

We boarded the minibus at 11:15.  It was full, so our packs had to be stored on the roof – hope I don’t have a chocolate bar in there with the 100 degree sun beating down! image

Our driver was a wild and crazy guy who liked to take mountain corners on two wheels.  He announced, “Music!”, and popped a 70s greatest hits CD into his stereo.  We cruised to Pai on the BeeGees, Eagles, and Donna Summers – he didn’t know any English, but that didn’t stop him from phonetically singing along.  He, Jim and I were the only passengers who were alive in the 70s – the kids who filled the van could have been listening to Mozart – ancient history.

We stopped midway for a potty break – anybody want some chicken?image

And now we are in Pai, a sleepy hippie town filled with young folks on motor bikes, or brandishing bandages from falls off motorbikes. image
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We are staying at the Hotel Pailifornia (apologies to the Eagles).image

We could have chosen the Pairidise Guest a house instead – the mind boggles at all the bad puns that could be made here!image

How about Pai in the Sky? image

Our hotel is brimming with beautiful flowers and singing birds.

There is also a small spirit house, where fresh offerings are left every day. There is even a ladder, in case the little spirits have trouble climbing up!image

Although the hawkers on the main walking street have plenty of adventures to sell – ride to waterfall! elephant ride! see the best place for sunset! see native peoples! – it is our intention to take a vacation from our vacation and just hunker down and relax for a while. We had supper at a first-rate Japanese restaurant (Pai Su Shi), and it looks like we can stay a long time without running out of cuisine choices. I’ll let you know if we decide to do anything interesting!