Images from Japan and Korea

Would you believe it, in the 3 most sophisticated countries we've been to -America, Japan and Korea- we've had the most trouble with internet connections (why did you curse us with windows 98, Microsoft, why?). We're now in Vietnam, its hot and sticky and bizarely has the best duty free in the world (Johnnie Walker gold for 14gbp a bottle, online its 60gbp).

Starting from Seattle, this is Mount Rainier (actually quite dry when we went), from the air:


No props were used in the taking of this photo. Landing in Kyoto, we immediately went on a sightseeing spree finding places like the Golden Pavilion (Ginkaku Ji I think, my Japanese isn't that great):


Lucky dragon statues:


Beer vending machines:


Imperial castles:

This one's actually historically important. The Shogun really ruled the country for centuaries, with the Emperor - a figurehead, after he lost control of the armies- safely locked up in Kyoto Imperial Palace (the Shogun ruled from Edo, now Tokyo). When the Shogun came to visit the Emperor, he stayed in this very big defensible castle, the Emperor tucked away in a huge park just north of here.

Japanese food:


Ah, I haven't mentioned Korea yet. I wasn't convinced by Seoul (insert obligatory, obvious pun of your choice here), it was a big city with some palaces. Kimchi is the national food, its a pickled fermented cabbage-radish concoction eaten with everything (mmmmm). I'll have to look into Korean history a bit, because as far as I can see everyone in the world has invaded it (mysterious gaps in national museum accounts, then "and the restoration of the palace started again in"). Of course, they are slightly paranoid about the recent oil deposits found in North Korea and its apalling record on chemicals of mass combustion.

They also have the biggest underground shopping mall in Asia, don't you know. We watched War of the Worlds (How Alien Invasion Bonds Families) down there, slightly spookily that night there was the biggest, loudest lightning storm I have ever heard -the thunder was rattling the entire building.

Something out of Crouching Tiger (actually the Korean Imperial Palace (mark III) changing of the guard)



They didn't give us views like this on United/Air Canada, these Asian airlines really know their stuff. Anyway, we have now landed in Ha Noi (of the famous tower of hanoi puzzle), its 35'C (93'F), 100% humidity, and back to cheap. Tomorrow, Halong bay and a week on a beach.

Japan

This is the whistlestop part of the trip. We've been in Japan for 3 days now (Kyoto), we fly out to Korea (Seoul) tomorrow for 3 days, then Vietnam (Hannoi).

Kyoto is the old imperial capital of Japan, where the Shoguns kept their Emperor in a nice safe palace away from the power in Tokyo (Kyo means capital, Tokyo is eastern capital and Kyo-to is western capital? Any Japanese experts out there?)

Its full of sights, 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, museums, imperial castles and palaces. Its also incredibly hot and humid. The internet here is fast but expensive, so photos will have to wait for a cheap country.

Everyone always comments about how expensive Japan is, I haven't found it too bad - on a par with London. Sushi in particular is excellent and cheap, we ate out at a great local restaurant, a huge plate of sushi for 4gbp. I think it was a lunchtime set menu, nothing was in english (there was quite a bit of apprehension as we couldn't read the price on the menu - pleasant surprise there). There are simply too many temples to see, each of them charging 2gbp to get in.

First jet lag in the trip - 8 timezones in 10 hours. We left at 13:00, arrived at 15:00, 10 hours later on the next day. So my watch said 2 hours had passed, my body clock said it was midnight, the calendar said it was the next day and in reality it was only 10 hours. The shortest day of my life that.

Seattle (again)

We've basically been crashing up here, time seems to have flown by with home comforts and internet connections. We're staying with these guys,

Anna and Jon. We've also been out to the Olympics national park, with temperate rain forest and stunning, 360' views of mountains clouds. And some spooky trees;

On the imaginatively named Beach 2 (yup, next to Beaches 3 and 1) there were tons of starfish:

The Plan

We go to Japan - Kyoto next wednesday, for 4 days. We then fly to Korea - Seoul for a few days, then on to Vietnam - Hannoi. Then its overland to Thailand - Bangkok, either via Laos or Cambodia (we thought Cambodia for the beaches, but everyone's raved about Laos). On the 26th Oct we fly to Nepal - Kathmandu, we have a month there, then head overmountain to India for another month. We'll be getting back halfway through December.

A couple of people have asked how the ticket works, so here goes. Its a Star Alliance 29,000 mile ticket, which costs about 1400 pounds and can be bought from most travel agents. As the name suggests, you have 29,000 miles on any of the Star Alliance airlines - United, Lufthansa, Varig (Brazil's), ANA (Japan's), Austrian, Thai, SAS, Singapore etc. There are some restrictions like no backtracking in the same continent, you can do round the world or big loops e.g. down to Australia and back. There are also 34,000 and 39,000 mile tickets for I think 1600 and 1800 pounds. 29,000 miles is basically round the equator with one dip into e.g. Buenos Aires, its quite tricky to get a route under 29,000 (it took us days of pruning). You can also go with the One World alliance (British Airways and friends), or there's a couple of 800 pound tickets for the Thailand - Australia - L.A. - London routes. With the Star alliance, you tend to end up flying through Singapore, Vienna, Japan, Korea (Asiana air), Bangkok, Sao Paulo and Los Angeles- all the hub cities for the national airlines. Some places e.g. New Zealand can be tricky because one airline will fly in but no one else will fly out to a different destination, or they'll route you via Los Angeles which adds 15,000 miles.

You have to book all the dates of all the flights when you buy the ticket. You are technically allowed to change the dates for free at any star alliance member's ticket office (anywhere that can print a ticket) - some are more helpful than others. Changing destinations is a 50 pound fee, which is cheaper than buying a separate ticket although can add to the mileage. Business class tickets start at about 3000 pounds I think.

We seriously considered just a return to Buenos Aires, and a return to Bangkok - would have been cheaper, but we'd have missed out on all the "free" travel inbetween e.g. Japan, Nepal, America etc.

Seattle

We're now in Seattle, staying at a friend's house (Anna and Jon). Seattle is a nice city with good beer (never thought I'd say that in America) and smoke free bars, which is one trend that we should copy.

Strange how things just seem to fall into place, the only flight connection we could get being in Toronto, right next to Niagara falls and Pati's place.

From left to right: Mike (Lizzie's brother), Lizzie, Matt (Me), Bruno (Pati's husband), Pati (Pati's Pati), Jill (Lizzie's mum), Andrew, Nicholas and Benjamin(Pati's and Bruno's sons)

This is Pati's panorama of Niagara falls. In a slightly shocking moment, we realised that the Canadian side is actually more touristy than the American side.

Some more photos from the last leg:

The twins, Benjamin and Nicholas.

Pati's house.



Maid of the mist, the boat that goes up to Niagara falls.

America, Land of the Free $6 Entry Fee

July 4th, Independance Day, in war torn, devastated America. Ever since George W changed the declaration to read "life, shopping and the pursuit of criminals" the nation has gone steadily downhill. The military has collapsed after the ill-fated "America needs YOU to fight for its oil profits" campaign folded. People are forced to excercise their right to arm bears, because if Mexico invades, it'll be the last thing they expect. The campaign against potential terrorists (aka foreigners) requires all suspects to be fingerprinted, photographed and charged for the privilege; the fewer people that get in, the fewer trouble makers there will be.
Unpatriotic acts of dissidence, such as sending up fireworks in the old British colours of red, white and blue are tolerated for now, but a crack down could come at any time. Food is sold by what it isn't; lo-carb bread, no-sugar sugar and organic no sugar no carb no fat dolphin friendly "soy good" chocolate. Complaints by people who want dolphin unfriendly chocolate have gone unheeded.


In soviet russia, freedom of speech. In America, freedom after speech also -Yakov Smirnoff

Rochester NY/Canandaigua

Well, we've finally made it to America!

Pati (Liz's cousin) writes;



Surprisingly Matt is still able to go to the next destination after this mishap! We do know that he got a bit "waterblogged".... but since we've had limited internet access in this backward area, he's been unable to get on here to share. Now these two particular photos have been painstakingly kept secret from him, and he is beyond incredibly suspicious, so expect some nasty backlash comments to appear.... that is if he is man enough to let this all stand! ;0)







In the boat enjoying the show are Michael Roe, Zachary Ball (1st cousin once removed), Andrew (Ball) Primerano (also 1COR) and Will Ball, cousin at the wheel.



Here we'll show the happier side of lake life for Matt, riding on the jetski with Will. Now, he did manage to get thrown off this conveyance as well, but we thought we'd leave that one off...





This is our "Jillin chillin'" photo...... Mum, we love you, and we had a wonderful time visiting with you for a few short days in the US, so please don't get TOO mad about this photo!

We'll have more later.....