The End of the Trip (and what happened after)

It's been a busy week. I'm in America now, so I'm no longer abroad and therefore the blog will be going dormant. Until next time. but first let's wrap up our little tale.

Fuji Rock!

Fuji Rock Festival is a three day music festival held at the Naeba ski resort, which is nowhere near Fuji in any discernible sense. According to my research, the festival was held at Fuji only once, in its first year, and that went horribly so they moved it but kept the name. Um, oh, point is: we went to it yesterday.

The Last of Nikko: Onward to Friendship, and More!

In which our heroes relax in Nikko before departing from the new friends they had made there in order to travel by train to Fukushima, where they meet up with an old friend and meet new friends in a blizzard of fun and adventure with foreign medical services, foods, and caves, all before finally making their way back to Tokyo city to explore and await the coming madness.

More Nikko

Today we went down to "touristy Nikko" as Scout calls it, which is the area closer to the UNESCO world heritage site. But we managed to find some hidden gems away from the crowds...and by hidden gems I mean they were clearly labeled on the map with along a suggested "walking tour" but I guess because its away from the UNESCO temples no one cared. We liked it.

The Grass Here is Greener: Nikko

On Friday we headed out into the rain for a long train voyage. Our destination was a place called Nikko, which I literally knew nothing about because Christian did all the planning for it and I had been too sick to really care. Well, good job Christian.

The Little Engine That Decided Not To (But Totally Could Have if He'd Wanted)

Today we are in Kyoto, and we've been here several days now. The recent theme of our travels is "being tired." However, we push on and do outings every day to see new things. The outings tend to run out of gas early though, and then we go watch anime movies in the hotel. But let's travel back in time to Hiroshima and catch up:

More Catching Up: Osaka to Hiroshima

My only picture from the aquarium on my last post was a Capybara. Here's something more aquatic.

Whale Shark

I've Got So Much Catching Up To Do

So today is the 9th, I'm in Osaka, Japan. My last post was on the third back in Siem Reap, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. Unfortunately a lot of great GoPro pictures aren't going to be included because...eh, that's a lot of work and my workspace at this hostel isn't very comfortable.

Siem Reap 1

Today we went up a mountain to Phnom Kulen, which is near Siem Reap. It's full of rich historical and religious significance which, in the true spirit of this blog's name, I don't understand any of and can't pass on any information to you.

Here's a wiki page though.  

Bangkok Part 2

June 30 - We Go to the Zoo

I read that the Zoo in Bangkok costs 100 baht, which is roughly three dollars. This sounded like a reasonable way to spend time, so we took the train up to the Victory Monument and went for a long walk from there to reach the zoo.

Bangkok Part 1

After our elephant adventure Saturday, it was time to leave Chiang Mai. Sunday morning we came to the airport and departed on a flight to Bangkok. We've had a whirl of little adventures since then, trying to figure this city out.

Elephants

A Day Out of Chiang Mai

Today was our main event in norther Thailand. We had booked an elephant day upon arrival into Chiang Mai with Elephant Jungle Sanctuary(and here's our photos on their facebook) high in the mountains near the city. At 8 am we were picked up by a...erm...pickup truck. We climbed into the back onto the padded benches and imagined all the wonderful things that might await us

Chiang Mai's Many Temples (Etc.)

In Chiang Mai there are temples at every corner--not literally, but the city is so rich with them that you can walk twenty minutes and go past a half dozen of the things. So that's what we did today.

Phi Phi Pics & More Boring Text

Pictures from the other day...

Here's Christian and I enjoying our Phi Phi island hopping and snorkeling adventure, I wish I could ever have stable enough internet to upload video! But this will have to do:

Ko Phi Phi Part 3: The highs and lows

6/21

We again didn't do much today. On the evening before, we had decided to do the obligatory beach party thing (watching more fire dancing, ), thus in the morning we needed some recuperation and laid low. Our main events today were to eat, rest, and sign up for an all-day boat tour thingy for the next day. Woooooo.

Ko Phi Phi Part 2

Today, 6/20

We didn't get up to too much so far today. We slept in, washed some clothes in the sink, bought some unexciting logistical bits and pieces from a convenience store. Things got better later, and I have some pictures! But first things first...

Krabi Town & Ko Phi Phi

Our main interest in Krabi is that Krabi town has an airport, and a ferry dock that is constantly porting travelers over to Ko Phi Phi. Phi Phi is the hot island destination for young travelers, it seems. Indeed, it seems we've finally found where the white people hang out. Dozens and dozens of them. Flocks you might say. European youths are everywhere. It's a party island.

Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Lankawi is an archipelago of 100ish islands found on the west coast of Malaysia close to Thailand. It is also the name of the biggest island (which is fairly big, apparently about 187 square miles, so smaller than most Hawaiian islands you'd visit, but big enough to make getting around troublesome).

End of KL, Into Cameron Highlands

Leaving Batu Caves, we took the same line back into the city and cleverly realized we could get off a stop earlier than we had thought to take a shortcut back to the hostel, where we only stopped for a moment before hopping aboard one of KL's sweet free bus services to the "Bukit Bintang" shopping centre. It rained a bit on the way to the bus, but no big deal.

In KL: Batu Caves

Our next day in KL we got up and had toast (so many hostels offer breakfast which always consists of toast, with butter, jam, peanut butter, or other toppings). Toast isn't all that filling, even if you eat 5 of it.

Our first destination was just a bit north of town, a place called Batu Caves. We took a train up to it, it was obvious when we were arriving because there was a big rocky hill thing jutting up from the middle of flat nothing.

To Kuala Lumpur

The airport in Yogyakarta is not exactly a masterpiece of human infrastructure. Internation and domestic terminals are contained in a single large room about the size of...two tennis courts stuck together...(NB; I don't know why I have been describing space with such random analogies, but that's just the way it's gonna be I guess).

Yogyakarta

We arrived in yogyakarta on the 8th. As mentioned we spent most of that day waiting for check-in. But we arranged for a sunrise tour at Borobudur so we went to bed early.

Next morning at 4 we were waiting on the main street near the hostel for our ride. "Why did we keep doing sunrise things?" we lamented.

The Journey to Ijen, chapter Three (epilogue?)

Descending Kawah Ijen in the light of day proves to be yet another unique and beautiful experience. Though my legs feel heavy, and occasionally my poor footwear slips on loose dirt (I never fall, though once I happened to slip in a sort of slapstick manner right next to some climbing Indonesians, who reached out to catch me).

The clouds are below us, which is a neat sight, with a lonesome peak floating out in the clouds ahead of us.

The Journey to Ijen, chapter 2

12:30 AM: I'm sitting on the edge of my bed, listening to insects outside in the dark. I'd only gone to bed about 5 hours before and hadn't slept great, but I feel fine. Already dressed for the climb. It is supposed to be a bit cold and quite windy at the top, so I was glad to have my rain-jacket to stop the wind.

The Journey to Ijen, chapter 1

Kawah Ijen is a volcano on the east end of Java. It is located above a town called Banyuwangi. The past few days have been crazy, so I'll try to write it all out, but I'm on my phone right now so this post won't be the whole story.

Ubud, Bali

We took AirAsia to Denpasar, and from there we had arranged for a taxi that would take us to Ubud directly to where we were staying (a homestay, which is kind of like a hotel...mostly...but cheaper). This was a great choice, because it was already dark by the time we were leaving Denpasar.

Singapore Part II

Tuesday 

We woke up and had breakfast provided in the hostel lobby area, consisting of toast, watermelon, oranges slices, and dragon fruit. Also coffee. This is gonna be a long post, so you might want a coffee yourself before continuing.

Singapore Part 1

We arrived in Singapore. In the airport we got some local dollars from an ATM, bought a coffee to split the change into smaller bills, and picked up a three day tourist pass for the public transit - MRT (you can probably make a good guess as to what that stands for)...or SMRT if you want to add Singapore to the beginning and make it almost "smart." I basically don't consider any trip to really begin until you get out of the airport. So ended our 24 hour transit.

And so began our adventures.

Taipei

Writing this from my phone, so who knows how that will turn out. We are in Taipei. It is currently 5:30am and our next flight is at 8 something. Here's what the gate looks like:

Totally empty. Airport's eerie, empty. Possible langoliers situation.

In about...7 hours we'll be in Singapore.

Four(ish) Days to Launch

Departure this Saturday night! Packing and cleaning has commenced. Jobs are being left.

Visas are secured where necessary. Japan Rail tickets have been bought. Our first hostel is booked in Singapore. We've even planned a loose itinerary for destinations. If everything goes according to plan (ha!) we'll travel through Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Japan.

I'm going to use a "jump break" here...maybe it will look good on the main page. See below for a nice picture I took while packing. 

Post Number 2

Alright, I'm gonna write a post now about this trip, because I really like writing things.

Okay I made this thing

A couple years ago I went to Europe with Christian Neff and did a blog so people back home could follow along. Subscriptions numbered well into the slightly-less-than-tens, including at least one person who was not directly related to either of the travelers.