Shay and Maayan's 80 Days around the world

Party the Aachen style

2008-09-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

We arrived to Aachen just in time for the graduation party:

It was a great party, but we were too jetlagged from China, so we only stayed a couple of hours :(

Shay being bartender:

And Maayan playing with Noah (Wolf's son)

From China to Wiesbaden

2008-09-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

We had a short 9 hours flight from China to Frankfurt. Upon our arrival we went to see Tanya who works at a nice hotel at the city center. It is on the 22nd floor, which is quite unique to Frankfurt, since there are almost no skyscrapers there.
So, while we were waiting for Tanya to finish her shift, we enjoyed the lovely view:

We then took a train to Wiesbaden. A beautiful area which is only 30 minutes by train. Tanya was very kind and took us to dinner at a typical German resturant. We had a huge schnitzel and Shay was extremely happy because of two things:
1. He likes German food (and it was also a refreshing change after three month of asian food)
2. At the enterance to the resturant there were the two old gizzers from the Muppet Show!

And here is a group photo...

Of Mao and Kite

2008-09-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

This morning we decided to pay our respects to Chairman Mao.
We walked to Tiananmen square and were about to enter the Mausoleum but where told we needed to deposit our bag and camera. Maayan decided to wait outside, having no interest in mummified bodies in the first place, and not being in the mood to run back and forth to deposit the bag (not even in the same building but across the street and through the security check- twice).
Shay went in to pay his respects and reported that either the wax copy of the body was on display today, or else they did a very good job in making the preserved body of Chairman Mao look like wax.
This is the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall from the outside:

From there we went on to visit the forbidden city, passing on our way through The Gate of Heavenly Peace (this is truly its name):

In the courtyard, the soldiers were learning to march

So we went on, passing The Gate of Supreme Harmony:

At the innermost part of the forbidden city lie the three sacred halls: the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall o Preserving Harmony.
They were once nicely decorated but are now badly renovated and not as impressive as they might have been 500 years ago.

Through the Gate of Heavenly Purity and around the Palace of Heavenly Purity and Palace of Earthly Tranquility we arrived at the Imperial Garden and left the city through the Gate of Divine Prowess.

The nicest thing about the forbidden city is the grand names the gave things in it Other then that, maybe they would have done better to keep it forbidden and save us the time and money spent on walking through it.

We bought a kite and walked to the Olympic Park to see it for ourselves. On the way, we found a bunch of Kite Experts flying their kites and decided to try our new kite.

Shay assembled it

And the experts assembled around us and gave us advice

It turned out we needed plenty of advice and a lot of help as the kite did not fly. We added a tail, changed the string, went further and further but no luck. The Experts tried too

and eventually we all decided we need a new Kite. A better one.
So tomorrow we are going shopping :)

After the kite flying we went to see the bird's nest:

Note: the Beijiners are all driving electric scooters:

The Great Wall and the peking duck

2008-09-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

Early in the morning, we took the subway to the bus station where we boarded the bus that would take us half way to the wall. From there we were to take a taxi, but we were woken up brutally from the nap we caught on the bus and told to get off, only to find out we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere. It was the usual tourist trap. Maayan naively answered "yes" at the bus station in the morning when asked by a woman if we were going to walk on the wall. The woman then spoke to the bus driver, who delivered us to her friends who were waiting eagerly in the "middle of nowhere" in which we were dropped.

Got it?

So, here we were, surrounded by "taxi" drivers willing to take us all the way to the start of the hike, then pick us up at the end of it (some 10 km away). Sweet.
Shay haggled like there is no tomorrow, then got them down to less then half the original price. It was actually not to bad to be driven there and back instead o taking the usually over-crowded minibus (last minibus ride Maayan had chickens under her seat and- no offense, the locals stinck!).

We arrived at the Great Chinese Wall a lot earlier then we expected (it took almost 3 hours to get there as it was) and ater the initial climb from the parking lot, we started walking on the wall itself.

It is beautiul!

The 10km section on which we walked is not the widest part on the wall - no more then 5 meters at the widest point and as little as 2 in places. It is only renovated at the areas closest to the villages - at the beginning and end of the hike - the rest is somewhat crumbly.
This is one of the renovated parts:

The hike is all up and down :) the wall is on top of the ridge and gaurd towers are located at the highest and lowest points in irregular intervals. And mountains and valleys all around!

There are stairs whenever the decline/acsent is steep - stair size varies from mini-step to Extra-Large Giant-step. And I mean Giant. Some stairs were more then knee-high (for Maayan. Shay was later heard to comment "the stairs where not so tall").

All the way, the locals are sitting on the wall, selling anything from T-shirts and souveniers to ice water and cold beer.

Some of the towers are ruined. The local villagers took a lot of the bricks from the Great Wall to builed their homes (which is why only sections of the wall survived while others are completely gone).

At this part, the wall is only an elevated road, really. The batresses are missing

At the river, you pay to cross or walk back the way you came...

Ater a 3 hour hike, our driver was waiting for us at the end of the trail and happily inquired if we had lunch (probably wanted to take us to eat at his uncle's place), then took us back to the bus.

We arrived in Beijing in early afternoon and after a rest went out to try some more of the local cuisin
Peking Duck

The duck is served sliced: skin (suculent, said Shay), lean meat, and fat meat - each served on a separate dish, with all that was left of the duck (bones, fat and other parts) served later ater being deep-fried. You also get flat pancakes, sliced cucumber and scollions and a sauce.

1. Spread sauce on pancake
2. lay on the pancake your choice of duck, cucumber and onion
3. roll
4. eat

Look how much Shay is enjoying himself:

Arrival to Beijing

2008-09-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

We landed in Beijing at noon. Left our big bags at the Airport's left luggage (A GREAT INVENTION!) and went to check out how Beijing looks like after the Olympics.
The Airport is quite beautiful. It has three HUGE terminals and gives you the sensation of a really big hall without any supporting columns.

By the time we finally arrived and settled down, it was already dark. We found our way to the famous Tiananmen square and to the entrance of the forbidden city (which we'll probably see in a few days):

Our main goal for this night was to find the famous night market that appeared in Gidi-Gov's show. They sell a lot of weird stuff there. For example - scorpions and sea horses on a stick!
This is food, mind you, so no yuck noises!

No. We skipped those ones and tasted something more conventional :)

This guy tried the sea horses...Gotta love his face!

It is a very long street, and it is a feast to the eyes!

Weird dumplings ?

On the top right corner - MARBE RAGLAYIM (centipede).
Bottom right - GLAMIM, and bottom left - sea stars. All can be deep fried and served on a stick.

OK. Tomorrow we are going to check the great wall. Stay tuned!

More of Xian (The Muslim Area)

2008-09-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

If there is something which totally looks wrong - it is a Muslim Chinese.
Nevertheless, we found the Muslim quarter (area?) to be most interesting. It had many small stalls with a wide variety of tasty street food, such as this candy which they prepared on the spot:

The meat looked like it was lying there for too much time...

But... at least they do not cook dogs, cats or pigs there...

All completely Kosher ;)

We only had a day to spend in Xian since the main attraction we came to see was the Warriors, but we were very happy that we also managed to do the Muslim walk around. We also got a glimpse of some nice towers (Pagodas):

Next morning - Will find us on our way to our final destination in China - BEIJING!

Army of Terracota Warriors

2008-09-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

We saw the movie The Mummy III in Korea which displayed an amazing animation of the Army of Terracotta Warriors. Obviously, we had to see them in person to make sure Hollywood wasn't bluffing.

Well - They kinda did.

First, the famous horses with the carriage are not life-size, but very small (maybe 1 meter high):

They were displayed in a small museum with several other artifacts that were excavated like bronze arrows and bows, spears, harnesses etc. all belonging to the warriors.

The museum also displayed other items such as a special exhibit for the Olympics - showing the history of sports and leisure as depicted in art. See the statue of a musician:

We did not despair and continued to check out the so called "Pits" (where the warriors were actually discovered and are still being excavated, though the work did not seem to have progressed much since the site was opened).

So apparently, the warriors were placed in these pits - underground halls that were dug for this purpose, then walled, roofed and recovered in dirt after the warriors were put in. What we found striking was the fact that no one knew about them until they were discovered by mistake by a farmer digging a well - he found a terracotta head, they say. This was the mistake of his life, since though his village stood here at the time (1974), nothing is left of the village as the farmers must have been sent packing when the archeological excavation started.

Anyway, the warriors are standing in these pits - 4 in a raw, line after line after line of them - and only a small portion of the site was uncovered the rest is still there.
A lot of them were completely broken (they are hollow) and only some were put together for the exhibition. Most are still either covered, or are lying in pieces in the pits.

It is rather amazing as each of the warriors is completely different - there are really no two alike!!!
Some are skinny, some chubby. Short and tall, uniform according to rank and place and the nicest thing is their expressions. There was one who was standing so tightly he looked like a nervous new recruit - tight and tense, his facial expression showing great stress.

This is an archer who lost his bow:

there was a smaller pit with mostly cavalry men (some of which lost their heads) and their horses:

The officers seem to be amused:

Here you can see the larger pit - as you see, long halls were dug in which they were placed. The walls between the lines of warriors held the roof (which caved in when the wood beams got completely rotten and then the warriors were smashed).

Visitors cannot really go near the warriors - you walk around the pit. It was rather challenging for Shay who was trying to take pictures.

All the warriors were once painted in bright colors - you may be able to notice the yellow scarf of one at the right of this picture.

Outside, at the gift-shop, they had warriors for sale, some of which were trying out for the next Olympics:

From Lijiang to Xian

2008-09-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

We left Lijiang on a plane, only to discover that we are not actually flying to Xian, but to Kunming...
You see, sometimes flying in China is like taking a bus. You get on board one and in the middle you discover that there is a connection :)

Arriving to Xian, we went out to dinner, where we found a curious boy who looked at those strange foreigners:

Next morning we had to make a brief stop at the supermarket to buy tooth paste. However, we encountered the Great Potato Rush... unbelievable!

You think this is chaos? Take a look at Xian train station!

Last (shopping) day in Lijiang

2008-08-31T06:39:00.000-07:00

We woke up late in the morning and had an excellent breakfast at N's Kitchen.
The sun was out, and the view from the near by window had an incredible lighting.

We roamed the streets and bought a cool chopsticks set, as well as several beautiful other presents for family and friends.
We stopped to eat lunch at one of the street stalls. A lady prepared delicious dumplings with a side dish - LAG BAOMER potatoes!

It looks like everyone in Lijiang is so talent. Its not only that there are a huge amount of shops selling stuff. The shop owners are also the ones who produce these stuff, whether it is paintings, wood carvings, bells, jewelery,...

We took some pictures of a portrait art gallery for Maayan's mother:

We lost our way and found the Three Pit Well. In ancient times the first was used for drinking, the second for washing food and the third for laundry. Nowadays, only the second one is used to wash vegetables.

And here is yet another talented person playing a local Sitar-like instrument:

That's it. Tomorrow we take a flight from Lijiang to Xian, where we'll see the famous Terracotta warriors.

More groups

2008-08-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Party, the Lijiang style...

2008-08-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

We came back to Lijiang after a long day at the Tiger Leaping Gorge. But, the night was still young, so we went to one of the local disco clubs to meet with Daniel and David.
Daniel described the place in a higly accurate fashion - "IT IS CRAZY"!

And we thought the japanese knew how to parry... Take a look at these Chinese cow-girls...

The music was terrible. One of the worst D.Js we have ever listened to. The sound was about 200 Decibel louder than the upper limit of the human ear, and a beer cost 40 RMB (Fucking Nuts!). So, we decided to leave pretty early.

The gorge is gorgeous (Tiger Leaping Gorge Hike)

2008-08-28T07:14:00.001-07:00

We stayed in Lijiang two days for the weather to clear up before starting the hike.

We took the first bus from Li-jiang to make an early start. We arrived at the start of the path at around 09:30, and the view was spectacular!

We went along the road that went up the mountain. After half an hour we met a farmer who wanted to be our guide. We kindly refused, but he still showed us a "shortcut". The shortcut turned out to be a 1.5h detour from the path. Luckily, somehow we managed to get back on track, and we continued with increased pace to compensate for the delay.

The track starts at about 1900m and goes all the way up to 2600m. It was a difficult climb, with little air to breath.

There were occasional showers, and mud was abundant:

As we went on the gorge revealed itself little by little. We passed several small villages along the way:

The gorge is actually a very deep valley. On one side is the path (and Haba-mountain, which peaks at 5300m), and on the other is Yulong mountain that peaks at around 5500m. It was covered with clouds most of the way:

We made a brief stop, cooking noodles, and continued with increased pace. The path has many arrows showing the way and commercial for guest houses to stay the night. We decided to aim for the one called "Halfway Inn":

There were several small streams that kept crossing the road...

Finally, after about 8.5h hiking, we finally arrived to Halfway Inn, which has a fantastic view of Yulong mountain.

The room as pretty basic, but the food was great! (specially the garlic Ba-Ba).

The staff was always busy in the small kitchen:

In the Inn we met David, Daniel (from Germany) and Ana (from Spain).

We also met three Americans and two Israelis. We all set for dinner and had funny drinking games (i.e., CIRCLE OF DEATH!!!)

Next morning, we started at about 08:30 with David, Daniel and Ana:

The view was awesome. We could see how the river bends and becomes narrower and narrower along the gorge. The water are brown due to the mud, and they go FAST!

It seems that the track on the second day was more interesting. The path went more along the actual cliff:

And crossed several streams that went down to the river. At times, it was necessary to cross them and get wet:

After about 2 hours we finally arrived to a Guesthouse called "Tina's", which was the end of the hike, but also the start of another short one that lead to the Tiger Leaping Stone. This short hike (3 hours) goes all the way down to the river and to a stone that, according the legend, a tiger leaped from one side of the river to the other. We stopped at Tina's for lunch, and had some trouble deciding what to order from the interesting menu:

And here is the Doc, inspecting the menu as well...

Mai got mint tee, while Shay got a black one. Both arrived with a smile and a nose :)

After lunch, we started the hike down to the river:

David & Daniel kept us company and made us laugh all the way.

Here is a snap shot of how the river looks like from the bottom of the gorge. The big stone in the river is the Tiger Leaping Stone.

It was a beautiful weather, so we stopped to take pictures

Finally, we arrived at the stone:

At a first glance, it seemed like you can not cross, since the river flooded the short path to it.

The water looked terrible. There were turbulence and huge mud waves going extremely fast:

However, it didn't kept David and Daniel to try and crossing it to the stone. CRAZY GERMANS!!!

After the stone, we climbed back up, but not before Mai found yet another cat to adopt:

The way up had a funny path. At a certain point there was a sign saying "SAFE WAY" (to the left) or "LADDER" to the right. Obviously, we choose right...

We stopped along to way to take a breath, and contemplated whether people can actually reach their nose with their lips:

We also met Ana along the way (She didn't come with us, since she wanted to find out some information about another trek). Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for her to go all the way down, so she climbed back with us.

The landscape was gorgeous! Sun came out, and all the mountains were revealed in their glory:

One last group photo!

From Guilin to Lijiang

2008-08-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

We decided to spoil ourselves from here on, and instead of taking +20 hours bus rides, we are going to fly!

Unfortunately, there weren't any available tickets to Lijiang (where we wanted to go), so we had to settle for a ticket going from Guilin to Kunming, which is about 8 hours drive from Lijiang.
We headed to Guilin airport, happier than ever!

At the airport, we found clerks to be very busy and working actively:

We arrived to Kunming, and had to go through the typical hassle at the airport, where an official information officer told us that to get to the bus station we need to take their minibus (which cost 40 per person), while our guide specifically said that a taxi cost no more than 15....
Anyhow, we went to the bus station to buy tickets from Kunmin to Lijiang, and when we got there we discovered that there is a sleeper bus that leaves in two hours. We thought about it and then decided to take it to save a day. That was a mistake...
We waited in the bus for nearly an hour (after the alleged departure time). During which, we discovered that the bus was infested with flies and cockroaches.
We escaped from the bus in the last minute, went to complain about the horrible conditions at the ticket office and exchanged our tickets for an early express bus (which we hoped, was without the extra stow-away passengers on board).

We woke up next morning, went again to the bus station and were very happy to find a good bus that took us to Lijiang.
The way from Kunming to Lijiang is AMAZING!!!! going through the beautiful city called Dali.
Maayan spent most of the time trying to take pictures during the ride:

After 8 hours we finally arrived to Lijiang. We went to the old town area, where we found beautiful old houses with Chinese architecture. Note the mountain at the background, it is 5400m!!! The town itself lies at 2400m.

We found a nice cosy little guest house with a nice window view:

and a good place to eat breakfast:

We roamed the streets (truly, a labyrinth):

In each street there are dozens of small shops that sell anything from scarves, bags from Yak leather, bells and spectacular carved paintings.
Maayan hassled the shop keepers and inquired how to play a Chinese game:

while Shay found interesting people to photograph:

Here is a typical street with shops on both sides:

And some beautiful wood carved pictures:

We ate at a nice restaurant with an inner yard that had the symbol of long life.
The circular one represents the heaven, while the square represents the earth, and they are connected. Just beautiful!

NO

2008-08-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

Typical conversation between Maayan and a random Chinese waiter:

M: "I'll have the banana pancake."
W: "No."
M: "No?"
W: "Yes."
M: "So banana pancake."
W: "No."
M: "No banana pancake?"
W: "Yes."
M: "OK, then ehmmmm..... a Yogurt Musli."
W: "No."
M: "No?"
W: "Yes. Egg."
M: "Egg?"
W: "Yes. Egg."
Shay: "Just get the chicken."
M: "I'll have the chicken."
W: "Yes."

The missing chapter

2008-08-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

It seems that when Mao was working on re-educating the Chinese and publishing his little red book, he either forgot or somehow missed sending to print the chapter about manners.

The Chinese not only spit in the street, they use the street as their privet toilet - really.
When you see a pile of shit in the street it is more often than not human, and not canine or otherwise.
Curb your dog? Curb yourself should be the signs here.

Dragon rice terraces (Longji "near" Guilin)

2008-08-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

Maayan's legs still itched and she could not move away from the AC (Mazgan), so Shay left her there and went to Dragon rice terraces. It was supposed to be 1.5 hours from Guilin. But, as we all know, a 1.5 hours drive in China is not 1.5 hours... It took nearly 4 hours, which included several bus transfers (a.k.a, connections?), transfer of a pig to the roof top of the bus, and a stop due to a car crash that fell into abyss.

Arriving at the dragon terraces, Shay saw some lazy ass local tourists which were carried by the local farmers to the top of the terraces:

Shay continued to the top (without being carried!!!), and arrived at viewpoint 1:

But, he also lost his way, so he had to rent a guide to take him through the maze of terraces.
They went on, going from one viewpoint to the next:

The guide, leading...

A curved terrace?

And after three strenuous hours, they arrived to viewpoint III:

Shay managed to take the last bus from the terraces to the nearest local town, only to find out that there were no more buses back to Guilin (where Maayan was). It was only 19:00, but the doors of the bus station were closed!
What to do? what to do? thought Shay to himself.
No buses, no way to contact Maayan...
After some questioning, Shay managed to find a brave Taxi driver to take him back to Guilin (note, its a 2 hours drive!) for a bargain price of $15.

It was one hack of a ride, notably because the taxi looked like this:

Groups? Sets? (CoSets?) in China (no words needed)

2008-08-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

Yangdi to Xingping hike

2008-08-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

A spectacular 24km hike along the Li River, says the Lonely Planet guidebook.

We started at Yangdi, a tiny place with nothing but a ferry to take us to the other side of the river. Before starting, the bus driver showed us the map of the hike. As you can see, we had to cross the river several times before reaching the end:

Many small bamboo boats are roaming across the river. Actually, the ONLY phrase the locals can say is "Hello, Bamboo?", and EVERYONE is asking you, whether it is a lady selling food, or a person working in a store!

We crossed in a ferry, a bit larger than the bamboo one:

And with unbearable heat, we started our hike.

Notice the new bags we bought in Guilin. They were pretty cheap, weigh almost nothing and have a good back system. Excellent for short hikes.

The scenery is breath taking!

After hiking for about one hour, we reached a local village.

where an old lady (literally) jumped out of her house and offered some fruit:

Along the way, the most common view is of crops that are being dried.

We mainly encountered rice, corn and red peppers. They are dried on large concrete platforms.

Local people are extremely poor. Notice the clothes drying as well:

Moving on, one can not be impressed with the landscapes:

Just as we were thinking about preparing lunch (i.e., noodles), we found a lovely local restaurant.

We eat one of the local specials - Beer fish (p.s., we know how to cook it already!)

A local boy pointed us the way, and was glad to be photographed:

Shay also got a new backpack, and its yellow! (well, portions of it)

Roughly at that time, we stopped to take a break near the river. There were several tiny black bugs that flew around us, but we paid little attention, since they didn't seem to sting us.

Oh, how wrong we were.... (continue reading...)

Finally, we reached a gorgeous place and decided to make camp. It was near a tiny local restaurant, and the people did not understand where we landed...

Near by, there was a stream and both of us took bath in the wild. How refreshing in the unbearable heat!

We talked to the owners of the local restaurant and Mai showed them the bug bites we got in Xiamen. They laughed and showed us the local medicine they use as bug repellent. We took a picture to buy one in the future...

During the night, we discovered that the tiny black bugs did actually bite us, and that their bites are much more painful than regular mosquitoes. Shay's elbow and back were covered by several dozens bites, and Mai legs as well. Oh, the horror, the horror! If you want to see, continue reading...

Anyhow, we got up next morning, and continued the hike:

Crossed the river once again:

Went through some more tiny villages,

And finally reached Xingping, where we took a minibus to Guilin. A minibus, mind you, that actually hold more than the capacity of a regular bus!

Back in Guilin, we realized how bad the bug bites were. We couldn't MOVE!

Notice, the following pictures are not for the faint of heart...

(Note, this is just a small portion of the leg. We spare you the rest...

Mai went to search for Anti-Histaminim, but found something only the next day. She sufferred all night and got almost no sleep.

Day III in Yangshuo, and the amazing impressions

2008-08-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

We started our day by finding out that our hotel receptionist is also fond of harmonica.
Shay showed him a few notes and they played together:

We then left to roam the streets of Yangshuo. Alas, we only found the Li river,

And some water Buffalo

And some Comorans enjoying the sunny day (did we mention it was about 35C?)

And this point, Shay spotted a huge green snake coming out from the water, so we decided
to stop the hike since we were in Sandals...

We called one of the bamboo rafts and it picked us up and dropped us on the other bank.

At night, we decided to check out one of the local shows called "Impression on Sanjie Liu". It takes place ON (literally!) the Li river. When we arrived to the entrance, it was packed with people:

Later, we found our seats:

Then, everything went black, and the mountains in the background lit up!

More than 600 people participate in the show. That's a lot of people!]
It starts with fisherman boats going out to fish at night:

Then, they organize in rows and pick up a huge large red canvas:

The show is truly amazing. It was directed by the same guy who was in charge of the chirography of the Olympics opening ceremony.
For those of you who are interested in the plot, you can find it here.

One note about the Chinese audience - they suck!
They don't clap, they won't shut up for a minute during the show, and
worse of all - they leave 15 minutes before the end of the show. And the ones who actually stayed 'till the end - don't clap! nothing! they just cram to get out of there. Not nice...

For those who missed the show, no worries. We bought the DVD!

Day II in Yangshuo

2008-08-21T00:04:00.001-07:00

It is very hot during daytime and the streets of Yangshuo fill only after dark. And so, walking the tourist street in the evening, we were approached by a local girl asking us in English for our help. It was her friend's birthday, she said, and she wanted us to surprise him by greeting him in English over the phone.
Her English teacher and others from her class clustered around us and we talked some. Here they all are surrounding Shay:

We rented bikes from the guesthouse and went for a ride in the countryside. Mai is in all the pictures, as Shay was once again charged with carrying the camera (and being a far better bike rider then me, he took pictures while riding. I would have dropped the camera or had fallen on my face. As it was, I ended the say with a sore bottom from the bumps in the road).

In Yangshuo, the locals must think that the way to greet someone in English is by cries of "Hello! Bamboo?!"
They have these lovely bamboo rafts they sail on the Li River (some are not made from bamboo but rather from painted PVC pipes!). Originally used as a transportation method and fishing boat, they are now used mostly to ferry tourists around. Any local will be happy to either sail you himself or negotiate for his neighbour/cousin/random bamboo-boat owner for the right to take you as far as possible on a bamboo raft.

And so, everywhere we went we were greeted by "Hello! Bamboo?!" - old ladies in villages a mile or more from the river yelled at us as we were passing "Hello! Bamboo?!" Men turned their motorbike around and slowed to ride by us with "Hello! Bamboo?!" Farmers hewing or digging straightened up from their work with waives and "Hello! Bamboo?!"

"Hello! Bamboo?!"

We parked our bikes at the foot of Moon Hill - what was once a Karst cave (Me'arat Netifim), is now a hill with a hole that looks like the moon on its different phases depending on where the looker stands and on the season of the year.

We climbed up the 1251 stairs to the hole (no, we didn't count. The number was supplied by the bible - that is Lonely Planet) and got a beautiful view as a reword.
Making faces at the camera:

View on the other side of the hole:

Back at the foot of the hill we stopped for lunch with a view

then continued our ride:

Back in town of an evening:

Pretty, isn't it?

yangshuo

2008-08-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

Yangshou truely holds one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world.
The hills are high and have sharp profiles and are quite different from "regular" hills one knows.

The small town is a backpackers heaven, with many small resturants and hostels that offer a wide range of activities (day trips, river excursions, rock climbing, cooking lessons,etc.).
Yet, sometimes, you just want to rest in front of the amazing view:

so cute!

Readers have requested pictures of small children, so here is one:

Since Shay already visited this town, he suggested to lead the way, but soon realized he forgot how to navigate through the small streets.

We wanted to take a cooking lesson in Japan, but failed to find a proper course.
There was one in Korea - but who wants to learn how to make Kimchi?!?!?
Finally, we found a cooking class in China. We learned to make three interesting dishes - Chicken with peanuts, Beer fish and dumplings.

The class took place on the rooftop of one of the local resturants, so we had wonderful views while cooking:

Guilin

2008-08-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

We showered and slept, had breakfast and checked out of the room we had just checked into 4 hours before.
Shay remembered a beautiful karst cave from his last visit to Guilin and we took a bus so that Mai can see this wonder as well.

This is the Reed flute cave.

It is huge!
And beautiful!

have a look:

Elad, note that Maayan is holding a small box. This is for you. Guess what is in it...

Outside we found a magnificant butterfly. Note the yellow tongue-like thing it uses to suck flower nectar.

The broken bridge

2008-08-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

we got up early and headed for the long-distance bus station, where we waited with the crowd for our bus to Guilin. A short, 17 hour bus ride...

It was once again a sleeper-bus and we expected to arrive in Guilin around 2AM so have made a reservation at a youth hostel.
We stopped for lunch, we stopped for dinner, we stopped to pick-up and drop-off passangers and packages in quick, off the highway-on the highway stops (people were waiting just outside the highway toll-gates in most cases).
The driver and crew smoked non-stop, the toilet on the bus gave a terrible smell that spread throughout, and at one point we got off the highway and did not return to it.
From this point on - just after dinner - the road got bumpy and full of twists and turns. Sleeping was out of the question. 1am came and went, 2am, 3am,... and we did not seem to be anywhere near our destination.
A student of business English who approached us to practice her English explained to us that the bus was taking the long rout to Guilin since the bridge was broke and there was no passage on the highway. And so at long last we arrived at Guilin at 6 in the morning, after 22 hours on the bus.

Next time, we are taking a flight!

This is me eating gepufte weizenkost (puffed wheat - Shalva)

Oh, and did we say we were eaten alive by some mysterious bug? Look at these clusters of bites. Better then an olimpic snipper.

Xiamen and Gulang-Yu

2008-08-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

We took another sleeper-bus from Shanghai to Xiamen in the Fujian province and arrived at our selected guesthouse just in time for breakfast.
As we waited for a room to become available, Mai went shopping for Yogurt and milk to go with the granola we had.
The guesthouse, though located between two universities and by a busy junscion, had a quite and tranquile atmosphere and a beautiful yard with tables, chairs, and a cat family :)
Could anyone ask for more?

We spent our first day relaxing in the yard, playing with the kittens and watching the olimpic games on intervals...
This is a part of the yard in the evening:

The next day we went to Gulang-Yu. This is a tiny island which used to be inhabited by foreigners and with colonial arcitechture mixed with chinese.
A 10 minute ferry ride and we were at this place of reported beauty and quite, a place where piano music is heard from every house and where no cars are allowed to preserve the peace and clean air...

It is beautiful, alright, but not much else.
Far too many tourists and far too many street-hawkers selling everything and anything to eager tourists. Temperatures high over 30 (deg. cel), 80% humidity and the water filthy with the oil of cargo ships.
And look at the poor turtle:

So we decided to stay away from the different tourist atractions and took a walk on a route circling the island (6.5 km). Less touristic, and far, far more interesting.

We didn't walk all the way around as we were pulled back to the touristic parts in search of food, but we walked a good bit.
Maayan wanted ice cream and bought what seemed to be vanilla-choclate cone, but ALAS, it was vanila with red-beans!

YUMMY!

And Shay bought himself a big knife. Look how proud and happy he is:

The next day brought to us a new friend; a belgian named Florence who came with us for a walk on the beach. She went for a swim, the brave girl!
the chinese have managed to ruin this potentially beautiful stretch of sand - it is full of garbage, brocken glass and the water is filthy here as well.

Due to the olympics, chineese poeople are now much better with their English:

I love... China ?

I love... the beach ?

I love... traveling ?

I love...

Shanghai, Day III

2008-08-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

We started day III by taking a ferry to the other side of the river, where we could take a closer look at the skyscrapers:

We then visited one of the Shanghai's biggest shopping malls just to get some air-condition.

Inside the mall Maayan found a cardboard model of a neighborhood that is being built. She took several pictures for Yael so she could see how it is done:

And yes. Here is another big screen showing live Olympic events at the shopping mall:

Escaping from all those expensive shops from the mall, we went to the river-side promenade:

Then, took a subway to an area called "The French Consession", where we found yet another huge TV screen to watch some olympic games... (everybody was gathering to watch from the air-conditioned entrance to the nearby mall, but the squere remained empty for the heat)

And see how dumplings are being prepared (yummi!)

Long days must come to an end, and here we are, back on another sleepers bus on our way to Xiamen, where we will update you guys again next time...

Shanghai - Day II

2008-08-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

we spent the entire morning of our second day in Shanghai searching for the Long Distance Bus Station. After roaming the streets endlessly, we finialy managed to find it, only to discover that it was actually the same bus station at which we arrived in Shanghai.

Anyhow, we then went to check out the Old Town area. It has many pagoda style houses, and shit loads of tourists (surprizingly mostly chinese)!

It was pretty crowded, so we decided to visit a garden called Yu-Yuan.

Wiki says:

The garden was reportedly first established in 1559 as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years building a garden to please his father Pan En, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, during his father's old age. Over the years, the gardens fell into disrepair until about 1760 when bought by merchants, then suffered extensive damage in the 19th century. In 1842, during the Opium Wars, the British army occupied the Town God Temple for five days. During the Taiping Rebellion the gardens were occupied by imperial troops, and damaged again by the Japanese in 1942. They were repaired by the Shanghai government from 1956-1961, opened to the public in 1961, and declared a national monument in 1982.

We found it to be a truely beautiful garden with lovely ponds and small wooden houses:

And of course - some chinglish:

Toward sunset, we returned to the bund to take some pictures of the skyscrapers across the river with good lighting:

Back at the guesthouse, we hooked up with two funny Israeli guys (Yoav and Nadav) and a British girl (Daniel, who will start her Neuroscience PhD in Oct... coincidence?! I think NOT! ). After a couple of beers and some pool, Shay, Yoav and Danidel decided to check out the local pub scene in Shanghai. They found a cool jazz club that played Yoav's favourite song - The MOJO hand!

Shanghai - Day I

2008-08-11T02:01:00.002-07:00

It was a long 16hour bus ride from Weihai (port city in China) to Shanghai. Luckily, we got a sleepers bus:

It has three rows, and in each one an upper and lower bunk beds. Some are better than others, and you can really stretch your legs all the way down.

Here is yet another sign, saying "You are not in Japan anymore...":

We arrived to Shanghai at 06:00AM, took a taxi to the guesthouse, unpacked, and went stralling the streets. First, we checked out the Bund:

The Bund (simplified Chinese: 外滩; traditional Chinese: 外灘; pinyin: Wàitān) is an area of Huangpu District in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road (East-1 Zhongshan Road) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas.

It has monumental buildings and beautiful skyscrapers:

And, as you can see, Shanghai is still under (HEAVY!) construction.

We then checked out Nanjing road, a very famous pedestrian zone:

\
with dog trains... of course...

We continued to roam the streets and take pictures of the lovely buildings around:

but, you can't be too safe in Shanghai with all those sharks:

Finally, we made our way to Shanghai Mueseum. A truely must-see museum. It has several exhibitions, including one on pottery and Porcelain.

Here are some random items:

Colored pottery figure, Eastern Han, A.D. 25-220

Celadon jar with modeled human figures, Wu state of three kindoms, A.D. 222-280

Figure of a man on a camel blowing musical instrument, Tang Dynesty, A.D. 618-907

Polychrome glazed pottery figure of civil official, Tang Dynesty, A.D. 618-907

Man leading a camel (not shown), Tang Dynesty, A.D. 618-907:

Vase with reserved underglaze red design of figures, Jingdezhen ware, Hongwu Reign, A.D. 1368-1398, Ming Dynesty:

Prince, stone, Song Dynesty, A.D. 960 - 1279

Thousand Buddhas stele, stone, Northern Zhou, A.D. 557-581:

Ain't it a beauty?!

Recap...Seoul

2008-08-11T01:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we haven't had a chance to write about our last day in Seoul, with all the olympic excitment going on...So here is a short recap:

We went to see the war memorial museum, which has a huge display of weapons on its outside yard, as well as some nice statues:

They also have an automatic blood pressure machine, so we tested to verify that we indeed have a blood pressure:

Outside, there were tons of policemen and armed vehicles. We barely managed to get into the subway, a second before they closed it:

We then learned why: look who stopped for a visit...

After picking our bags from the guesthouse, we took a LONG (almost 2 hours) subway ride, and searched for the pier. No signs were in sight. It took us more than an hour to find the damn place! But, the boat turned out to be very nice. It wasn't one large tatami room, but rather bunk beds and a great shower!

Next morning we woke up and found ourselves next to China's coastline!

The opening ceremony - a bust (BIZAYON!)

2008-08-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

There we were, standing at Shanghai's largest square in front of two huge TV screens, waiting for the kickoff of the opening ceremony. It was 20:07, one minute before and the crowd went wild, flags and everything, and...

NOTHING HAPPENS!

The screens stay black.
At the back, a youngster had a cell phone with a TV, and yelled - hey - its already started!

And... the screen stayed black.

We waited for 20 minutes like morons. Every now and again thinking it will start, but... nothing!
Eventually, hundreds of people started to walk away, and we decided to run back to our guest house and catch what was left of the opening ceremony.

On the way back we managed to get a glimpse at what we were missing, as everyone crowded against every TV they could find (even at a bag store):

Finally, we arrived and squeezed ourselves in front of all other tourists that were already watching it at the guesthouse. It was very nice, when each delegation entered, you could hear someone from that country cheering them up.

It got pretty boring after an hour, so we went to sleep :)

We'll update soon with sights of AMAZING shanghai. Truly. it is one of the most beautiful Asian cities we have been to so far (architectural speaking):

Opening Ceremony

2008-08-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

After spending 16 hours in the ferry from Korea to China, we took a bus at Weihai to Shanghai. It took another 15 hours, but we finally made it!
We will post pictures shortly, but right now we are going to see the opening ceremony at one of Shanghai biggest roads, where a huge screen will display live TV for the masses...
So far, there is much excitment, even in our guest house. TV shows live feed from Beijing, showing terrible haze and pollution :)
For those of you who thought we are actually going to Beijing - forget about it. Prices have not doubled, but went 6 times fold the normal price (these are the rumors here in Shanghai), not to mention the minor entry fee for the opening ceremony - 2000 EUR (that's for the shitty places. its about 4000 EUR for a good seat).

OK, stay tuned, and we will update shortly with many pictures!

Beijing Olympics 2008 - here we come!

2008-08-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

So long Korea. China - here we come!

But before we take the ferry, some last comments about Korea by Maayan:

1. Pishi Cafe - we asked at the information center about using the internet and got instructions on how to get to Pishi Cafe. We were joking all the way that that is exactly what coffee tastes like in Korea - Pee (no offense, my Korean friends). We got to the street corner where we thought the internet cafe should be, but there was nothing looking like an internet cafe there, and no sign for Pishi. So we asked at the corner store about internet.
"No! No! 2nd Floor!" was the reply we got.
So up we went to the second floor. And there it was: a PC cafe...

2. Korean women - it seems to us outsiders, that the Korean aging process is somewhat different then elsewhere in the world. Young girls and women mostly have dark, straight hair - much like the japanese do. As they grow older, however, their hair begins to curl, receiving a redish tinge and is mostly worn short, and puffed. Fashion? Perhaps.

3. Manners - we have said before that where manners are concerned, Korea is much like Israel. But really! In the last few weeks I have been pushed so much, got stepped on, nearly spat on by passing men - all more often then I care to remember.

4. The young - it seems that though more people here speak English then in Japan. However, the only ones who have showed an interest in using this means of communicating with foreigners, are the very young. Children yelled at us from across the street "Hi!" or "Hello! Have a nice day!" It is also noteworthy that they mostly approached Shay and not me "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" "How old are you?"

Seoul

2008-08-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

The 3.5 hours bus drive from Sokcho to Seoul turned our to be a 6 hours drive due to heavy traffic jams. Mental note - never leave a touristic town on a weekend!

Anyhow, we arrived to Seoul and went to explore this enormous metropolitan area. Wiki says "Seoul (listen (help·info) IPA: [sʌul]) is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With over ten million people, Seoul is one of the world's largest cities. It is also the world's third largest metropolitan area, the Seoul National Capital Area - which includes the major port city of Incheon and satellite towns in Gyeonggi-do, having almost 23 million inhabitants".

Indeed, it is HUGE!. You can walk miles and miles and enter different shopping malls, night clubs, resturants, ...

Here are some random photos from the three days we spent there:

Shay is leading a military march:

Shay is sitting on a red chair:

Shay is looking up while sitting on the red chair...

Shay is sad because Mai told him to sit on the small red chair:

For all those Neuroscience readers out there... Here are a few examples of urban neurons:

You might have noticed that Shay's hair got longer during the trip. A quick visit to a local hair dresser fixed that up:

Too short.

Looks like Haifa's downtown, eh ?

One of the nicest things about Seoul is a river that flows in the middle of the city. It was renovated a few years ago, and there is now a 5.6 km promenade near the stream, with beautiful waterfalls, paintings and vegetation:

Something old, something new:

And finally - a glass of cold beer at one of the pubs near the student's district.

A peaceful day in Sokcho

2008-08-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's hike, we needed a rest, so we headed to the local town (Sokcho), which has many of the characteristics of Eilat. It's hot, filled with tourists, noise and over crowded beaches.
But, you must admire the hotels' architecture...

Columbia equipment sucks!

2008-08-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you invest your money in a brand name since you think it guarentees performance:
In our case, Mai learned that Columbia failed the expectations:

Look how dissapointed she looks:

But, no worries. Back at the camp site - nothing that some superglue and some sewing can't fix:

Let us hope they last until our return!

Seoraksan camp site

2008-08-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

The camp site near Seoraksan mountain was lovely but quite crowded. It is high season, and hundreds of tents were all over the place. Koreans really like to go outdoors - and bring their entire house with them. They have HUGE tents and tons of equipment.
We felt quite modest with our little MSR...

Our local chef prepared the much required dinner after the long hike:

Yep, all those cooking lessions really paid off!

BTW - we finally found the creatures that make that aweful noise in the forest. The sound is similar to cricket, but much much stronger and has a different rythm.
We found one near our tent, but the picture isn't that good (maybe if you click and zoom in you will be able to see the little monster) :

The hike to Seoraksan mountain

2008-08-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia says:
"Seoraksan is the highest mountain in the Taebaek mountain range (태백산맥) in the Gangwon province in eastern South Korea. It is located in a national park near the city of Sokcho. After the Hallasan volcano on Jeju Island and Jirisan in the south, Seoraksan is the third highest mountain in South Korea. The Daechongbong Peak (대청봉) of Seoraksan reaches 1,708 metres (5,603 feet). The Taebaek mountain chain is often considered the backbone of the Korean peninsula."

Infact, the park is considered one of the most beautiful ones in Korea.
We started at sunrise, without actually knowing how long it takes to reach the summit, since no information was available to us. Actually, the only piece of information we did have from the Lonely planet was that the peak is closed. Well, LP Korea was again incorrect...

When we reached the park entrance, we finally learned some more details about the available trails. We also learned that it takes about 7 hours to reach the peak (and another 6 to come back)

At the entrance there is a nice Buddha statue (about 15m high):

And from a first glance, you don't understand what is all the fuss about, since there seem to be no water in the river:

But, after half hour's hike, you start to get the picture, and it is a beautiful one:

Water are running everywhere! There are numerous waterfalls and the entire scene is spectacular:

Obviously, we took great care to protect the poor bears from fallen rocks:

The hike is along a narrow valley ("Death Valley"), and as you reach a height of about 500m (notice, the hike starts at about 100m or so), a gorgeous rocky ridge appears:

A quick stop at the first Shelter. Hmm... What's up doc?

And we continued upwards:

Near the second shelter, at a height of 1050m, this is what we saw:

The summit was covered with thick rain clouds. After hiking for about 5 hours, we learned that it will take about 3 hours to reach the top, and that the last part involves an ascend of 500 m that should be covered in 2 hours. At this point, we decided to give up the climb to the summit. Mai was quite exausted and Shay thought nothing should be seen from the top, so we started our descent and enjoyed the landscape around us.

At the basecamp, we found an artist who draws on wood using a welding torch. Amazing!

Mt. Jirisan & Mr. Park

2008-08-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

We had quite enough of Jeon-ju, and decided to change our original plan, and go south again to a national park with the second highest mountain in Korea (we already climbed the higest one, which was Hallasan in Jeju island).

We reached the area at 17:00 and at first, we actually thought we arrived to the wrong place, because all the signs did not show the name Jirisan, but Sancheong.

When we asked where is the nearest tourist information, someone pointed along a really steep road, and said it is about 30 minutes walk. Since we weren't sure it was even the right place, Shay went on a reconnaissance and on his way, took a wrong turn and ended up in a place that looked like a reasturant. However, upon approach, a man came out and said the place is his home. His name was Mr. Park, and this is his story:

He is a hermit, who has been living for the last 11 years in a lovely wooden house at the foot of Jirisan mountain (so, we actually did reach the right place afterall). He is well educated and spoke better English than most Koreans we have met. He was an engineer in Hyundai, but at the age of 32 decided Hi-tech was not for him. He fell in love with this mountain. After climbing it 40 times in one year, he decided to quit his job and move there. He just came to his boss one day and said - I quit! The boss did not believe him. He called him the next day and asked - where are you Mr. Park?, and Mr. Park answered - I am in Jirisan.
The boss actually came to the mountain because he did not believe the guy. But after he arrived, he understood why this guy decided to quit everything and move there.

Anyhow....

Mr. Park was so nice, he invited Shay to stay on his premesis. So, Shay went all the way down, took his bag and wife, and climbed up again.

Here is Mr. Park estate:

Upon arrival, he offerred us Coffie, then beer and snacks, and after we calmed down from the difficult climb, he showed us to his guest quarters and we took a hot shower (yeppi!)

We then prepared dinner, and afterward Mr. Park invited us a traditional Korean tea ceremony with tea he made by himself from mountain flowers. We then walked to a near by reasutrant and drank the local Korean wine with him (note - Korean wine is nothing like a western style wine.....
It is made of rice and is not clear like the Japanese Sake).

We woke up at 5am and started the strenuous climb. The sun was just starting to show its face, and the sky were clear blue:

It was a difficult climb,

but after about 3 hours we reached a mountain shelter and a near by temple.

At this point, we were above the clouds, and it was starting to get foggy.
A Korean woman blocked the one second in which the view was clear....

The road is makred pretty well with these poles every couple of hundred of meters.
Notice how many dragonflys there are on the pole:

Two hours after the shelter, we finally reached the summit!

And drank water to celebrate the occasion:

The way down was hard on the knees, but we did have a chance to meet some of the wild creatures around:

Back at Mr. Park's place, we took another shower and said our farewell!

The hike to Naejangsan (nine peaks ridge)

2008-08-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

After the hike to Deadunsan, Mai decided to stay and rest another day at the hotel in Jeon-ju, while Shay went hiking along to the beautiful Naejangsan ngsan national park.

If you wandered how can it be that we do so many hikes in Korea, well...

There are parks everywhere you go!

Naejangsan is an interesting place. It is shaped like a horse-shoe, and the ridge contains nine peaks:

The green trail is where I hiked.

At the basecamp, there is a wonderful camp area with authmn colors trees:

A temple (a must...)

As you climb up, once in a while you can get a glimpse of the surronding mountains through the thick growth:

It was a really hot day (about 30+ deg) , 120% humidity, and the sun actually showed its face, so by the time I reached the top, I was exhausted:

The summit was infested with (thousands of) dragonflys:

The angle along the ridge was so steep that even the bears have a problem keeping their balance:

Is this a mushroom?

And, finally, back to the camp site at ground level, there is a lovely lake with a small gazibu, so if you are Jesus, and can walk on water, there is no problem reaching it!

What's with the J?

2008-08-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

There are so many places in Korea that sound the same. And all start with a J!

Jeju, Jeon-ju, Jirisan, Jinan, Jinju,...

HELP!

Hike to Daedunsan, with stairways to (foggy) heaven

2008-08-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

On July 26th we hiked Daedunsan.

At the begining of the trail we walked near, around, accros and in a stream of crystal clear water.
In Korea, as in Japan, the National Parks have marked trails going up, down and around mountains. And in both countries they insist on building rediculous stairs everywhere. So instead of climbing on good-old dirt and mud and rock you walk on cement or pavment or even metal bridges.

In this park however, they have managed to keep the pavments to a minimum and made the bridges and stairs into an atraction.

So we climbed at first through and by the stream

Maayan is chewing an energy bar and Shay is taking pictures of spiderwebs:

We met some bizzare worm-like creature only with an anvil-like head and bright yellow. Disgusting!

As we continued the climb we left the stream-bed behind us and got a nice view between the trees.

We suddenly heard screems from above us, and looking up, this is what we saw:

So we continued on up, looking for this bridge we saw from below and an half hour later....

At this point, the bridge is somewhat behind and below us, but if you look carefully, right above Maayan's head, you can see another bridge. This is infact a stairway above an even higher and deeper gorge, and about another half hour's climb from where we are here.

Zoom to the stairway:

But it started raining, and Mai didn't have her Jacket with her (big mistake) - So we split up - Mai to wait at the cable car station near the bridge, Shay to climb on up.

The second bridge was quite scary and unstable. It is about 30m high, and by the time Shay got there, clouds were everywhere. It was like climbing stairways to heaven!
Before the climb, one encounters this very important caution sign (read no. 3)

We assure you, Shay did not pass any drunks on his way up!

It was another 40 strenous minutes to the summit, and by the time Shay got there, everything was foggy and cloudy that nothing could be seen.
So, after going down (not via the bridges, since, as we discovered, they are only one-way...), we descended back to base-camp, and took the bus back to Jeon-ju.

Yet another boring day at the office.... :)

And the winner for the second sign trivia is...

2008-08-01T07:32:00.000-07:00

Matan! (sorry Ariel...maybe next time)

Here is your cool present that will be shipped as soon as we know your address (Mai does not remember it, so if you be so kind to send it to us we will ship this lovely folding fan ASAP!)

Triangle - the right way to do it!

2008-07-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

Remember how Shay demonstrated how to eat a rice triangle surprise?
(http://shaymaayan.blogspot.com/2008/07/hike-to-hallisan.html)

Well, after Maayan taught him the right way to do it, he now demonstrates it again:

The missing floor

2008-07-30T07:32:00.002-07:00

Anyone knows where is the fourth floor ?!?!?!?

Apparently, 4 is like 13 in Korea. It is a BAD omen. Never sleep on that floor. You may never wake up!

Jeonju

2008-07-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

Jeonju, the main transport hub to most national parks and attractions in central Korea is a nice town. It has a Historical area with many old-style houses and temples:

(and, of course - ants!)

We visited a wine museum with paper made figures displaying the joyful process of making wine:

Outside, Shay found a new drinking buddy:

VERY IMPORTANT:

How to order food without knowing korean:

1. Look outside the resturant for pictures that look tasty.

2. Take a picture of them:

3. Show the picture in the camera to the waiter and point to the one you want.

It is the easiest way to go!

The hike to Maayan's mountain - Maisan

2008-07-24T23:08:00.002-07:00

Having reached Jeonju, Maayan insisted we go to her mountain.

The bus station was busy as usual, and all eyes were on the two miserable foreigners:

But, eventually we reached the national park. It has two peaks (about 700m each):

The hike was pretty easy, and we stopped to give some loving' to the horses:

Mai is explaining all about her mountain:

And here is one of th peaks from the narrow ridge between:

Note the similarity!

There was a small cave with cool air coming, we stopped and rested a bit.

Koreans have a weird habbit of putting wodden stairs all over the hike trails:

We got down from the ridge and found beautiful pagoda craftmanship,

Buddha statues (a must),

and a huge drum. Someone told us we should only hit it three times. We followed the instructions with an exact precision:

Few meters ahead, we found a temple dedicated to a monk who lived there. His habbit was to build stone pillars (without any cement). They are still standing, long after the monk died:

Mai found another dog to play with:

Ferry from Jeju island to Korea mainland

2008-07-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

We left Jeju island and headed to korea's mainland with a ferry. It was not as fancy as the one we took from Busan to Jeju, and had just one large Tatami style room to host all passangers:

On the main deck, the weather changed from sunny to hazy.

Meanwhile, down at the main hall:

Maayan fell in love with a tiny puppy (look, it actually has a dress!!!).

Hike to Hallisan

2008-07-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

OK, so the vacation from the vacation is over. Shay felt he was degenerating by the moment, so we packed our day hike bags, filled 3L of water and headed to Hallisan - the mountain that lies at the center of Jeju island. We started at 800m, and climbed steadily to the summit, located at 1970m.

Most of the way, we were covered with deep forest:

but at 1500m, some butterflies appeared.

so we stopped for lunch. Here is shay trying to explain how to eat the lovely rice triangles (without actually having the skill to open them...)

Almost there...

And finally, some views from the summit:

A beautiful crater lake was discovered at the top:

Along with some blisters and soar angle:

We had two options, either to climb down the way we came from, or to desecnd from another trail (about 9km) that went all the way down to 500m. We took the latter, and found spectacular views as well:

Toward 15:00, things started to get a bit foggy:

Near the finish line we found a nice bridge:

And look at this happy smile after we finished!

BTW, the hiking poles we got really helped! too bad we only got two of them.

But now we know what features we like and which ones we don't. Maybe we'll buy another pair in Seuol.

Oh, another funny thing we encountered was a small and weird track that ran along the entire mountain. We speculated that it is used to carry heavy loads to the top, and indeed, at some point we found the small car that is attached to it. It looks rather funny, like a rollercoaster with two bunk beds attached at the rear.

Teddy bear heaven

2008-07-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Jejudo boasts one of the largest Teddybear Museums in the world.
And here is another chance for you to win a prize. Can you name the person or character/artwork/historical site or event depicted in these picture-bears?

1.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

BTW - the prize will not be a teddybear!

Oh yes, and we are still waiting for some more funny answers on our second sign trivia.

You are all lazy commenters. We are very disappointed.

Jeju Island

2008-07-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

We had enough of smelly Busan and decided to leave for Jeju island for a short vacation.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term "Vacation from your vacation" - well, after travelling for one month, moving from one place to the other every two days, climbing up and down mountains, searching for presents for trivia winners, and on and on... you kinda get tired and want to sit back and do nothing for a while.

So, we took a ferry to a lovely island called Jeju (or HoneyMoon Island - how appropriate!)

Jeju is a rather small island, located south of Korea. It has an oval shape (for the more mathematical oriented guys, a=70km, b=40km).

There are regions with fancy hotels, where a parasol (Shimshia) rents for $20!!!

We first went to Jungmon beach, but found it to be terrible:

We did find some nice Korean youngsters who circle the island on their bicycles.
It can take several days, so they stop and make camp when the weather gets too terrible.

Many years ago, people found a weird staue on the island, and decided it to be their symbol (logo). So, you can find many replicas of it all across the island. It looks like an old man with a big nose who is holding his belly.

We left the terrible beach and found a better, nicer one on the eastern side of the island, which is less touristic. We stayed at a Minbak (sound like Minba), which is a room rented by a family (usually on another floor). Accomodation in Korea is much cheaper than Japan. The room cost us about $20 per night (this is actually the typical price of a guest house or a cheap hotel).
The Minbak was 30 meters from the beach, and the lady owner kept spoiling us by brining sweets, water mellon, canned soda, and other stuff to keep us there!
The view from the beach was beautiful!

But we found it hard to get along with the local food. That is - until we found a someone who sold roasted chicken from the back of his truck. So, we had a chicken dinner in front of the TV.
Chicken - GOOOOOD!!

Most of the time, the weather was hectic. For those of you who have never been in a place during Monsoon season, here is how it is like:

(and for the non-hebrew speakers, the dubbed version would say - Winter, Summer, Winter, Summer....)

The beach we were at has very impressive tides. In low tide, the beach strip is over 100 meters wider and small pools among the rocks are revealed. Though at first glace all you see is sand, black volcanic rock and seaweed, a closer look reveals that almost everything in these pools is alive and moving. Have a look:

Korea (Busan)

2008-07-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

We left japan after we could no longer use our rail-pass. We took the Camellia line ferry from Hakata in Japan to Busan in Korea. It took about 6 hours, and we had fine weather which allowed Shay to tan outside:

The ferry was well equipted, and we stayed most of the time in the Lobby area:

When we reached Korea, we immediatly noticed the (not so) subtle differences between the Korean people and Japanese:
1. Koreans push you in the subway (we were amazed and shocked at this RUDE behavior, having spent a month in the land of perfect order).
2. Koreans are laud like Israelis
3. Korean food is HOT, and we much prefer the Japanese cuisine.
4. Koreans do not apologize all the time like the Japanese do. However, they do know a little bit more English than the average Japanese. They are more talkative and hospitable and try to practice their English.

Busan looked very much like Tel-aviv. A lot of traffic, trash on the streets, and a nice beach!

Mai got a new pair flip-flops at the bargain price of 2000 WON (might sound like a lot, but is actually $2).

Shay found an interesting fruit. It is yellow with white stripes, shaped roughly like a pear but is hard on the outside. We carried it for 2 days and eventually cut it open only to find out it is a miniature mellon. And not as sweet and succulent as a big one...

We found some funny vending machines in the Subway. This one sells books (in Korean):

And at night, we went to see the harbor lights. Look what happens when you shake your camera while taking a picture!!!

So long (Japan), and thanks for all the fish

2008-07-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

Japan - we thank you for the Railpass!

For those of you who don't know, the Rail-pass is a train ticket, valid for 21 days, that entitles you to take (almost) ANY train in Japan (including the very expensive Shinkansen, bullet trains). It cost about $570, but if you consider the fact that a single train ride from Kyoto to Tokyo costs about $200, the investment really paid off!

Now that we say our farewell, we dream about our next visit to Japan. We still have SO many things to see there!

1. Hike to Fuji (we did not hike there since, as the Japanese say - there were BAD CONDITIONS)
2. visit Shiretoko National park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiretoko_National_Park
3. Go to a Japanese baseball game!
4. See a sumo fight and a Kabuki show

Oh well, these will have to wait. Korea is next!

First trivia winner, the prize and a second trivia!

2008-07-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

And the winner is..... Brooke!

The grand prize is : one of the finest Japanese chop-sticks boxed set!

(will arrive shortly at the Wilson parents house, as that was the address we had handy)

We found it so funny that we collected some more, and we are now offering a second trivia.

So, come on! let us hear your thoughts!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

8.

9.

The winner will probably get something awesome from Korea!

Specialized Shops

2008-07-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

Japanese are crazy people. Period.
They have specialized shops for EVERYTHING!
Damn, we found in the town of Yufuin three consecutive stores. The first was only cats, the second, only dogs, and the third - only owls (not the actual animals, but accessories). CRAZY!!!

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010320.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010323.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010324.MOV

Oh yes, the forth one was toads:

And in another shopping mall, there was a shop only for stones:

Some additional specialized shops:

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010382.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010391.MOV

Yufu Dake

2008-07-12T17:07:00.000-07:00

After Fokuka, we wanted to see some more nature, so we went south to a town called Beppu, and from there to Yufuin, a small town near the double peaks of Yufu-Dake mountain.

When we started, it was still a bit foggy at the summit:

But Maayan was convinced to reach the top!

There are some really nice blue flowers (too bad our camera caught the green better than the blue):

It was a hot humid day! See the towel on Shay's neck? Douglas Adams was a genius.

Movies:

They show us getting lost in the never ending grass fields during the descent from the mountain, and the exact moment that Shay reached the summit!

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010285.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010291.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010301.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010312.MOV

Fokuka

2008-07-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

We arrived to Fokuka to find the Naked-Butt Festival (or Matsuri, the more official name).

We did not find too much details about this festival, but you must agree its a sight!

If you ever wondered how Shay would look like in one of those suits:

We spent a night in a nice guest house, where Shay found a big rubber ball to sit and jump:

(notice the coordination, not only jumping, but also talking on the phone with mom!)

We contemplated where to go. Luckily, we managed to find this AMAZING book:

too bad only the title was in English...

Here are some additional photos from the city life there:

Roni - this is for you:

And here are some more funny movies:

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010239.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010240.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010364.MOV

Rafting in Shikoku

2008-07-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

We went rafting with four Japanese girls (one was extremely funny), in a river with some nice rapids on the island of Shikoku.

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/099_PANA/IMGP0697.MOV

Here is the funny Japanese doing her Taikwando position:

We reached a large rock in the middle of the stream and jumped from there:

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/099_PANA/IMGP0759.MOV

This is Shay, holding his nose!

And here is the crazy Japanese again...

Don't we look lovely?

Group photo!

Doing the backward dive flip:

We liked it so much, we decided we should do it again. Maybe we'll find a place in Korea. If not, we are pretty sure we will find plenty of places in California.

Shikoku

2008-07-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

We left Hiroshima in the morning and traveled the long way around to Shikoku Island. We decided to go camping in an area called Kazura-bashi after a vine-bridge of the same name. We arrived at the Oboke train station just in time to catch the last bus to Kazorabashi and then walked to the campsite (a long climb downhill, followed by a long climb up and then another climb down....)

However, when we arrived at the camp site there was a chain with a sign in Japanese at the entrance and the campsite looked abandoned. Having nowhere else o go and not wishing to bother anyway, we crosed the chain and entered the campsite. There was hot water in the showers and the lights turned on with no problem so we had ejoyed the first night there

In the morning, we read in the maps we got from the trainstation that the campsite is closed on Tuesdays. The keeper arrived and asked that we pay for the night....
I

This is Kazurabashi, the vine bridge. It was handy to have the bridge made of vine as you could cut it from under the feet of your enemy and have him fall to the river below. (there is a movie link below if you want to see it more closely)

The next day we declared a holiday and walked 4km to an Onsen (spa), where we spoiled ourselves.
The spa was amazing! It was sex-segregated and had for each sex huge facilities: a locker-dressing room equiped with lotions, creams and disposable hairbrushes, a shower, huge hot-bath (34deg. C), a small bath with water at 39degrees, a cold bath, a steam-room, water fountains, an outdoor hot-bath etc.
We spent an hour washing and scrabing and met in the loby.
We had lunch at the place then made use of their quite-room where there are matresses, blankets and reclining-chairs for anyone needing a nap.
After our nap we moved to the massage-chairs!
We got a ride back to the camp from two nice japanese who had spent their day pretty much as we did.
How fun!

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010152.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010225.MOV

Hiroshima

2008-07-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 63 years since the Americans have dropped Little-boy on Hiroshima, and there is hardly a trace except for the monuments and the A-bomb Dome (which is a building that survived the blast):

In the area, you can also spot some peace posters made of small paper cranes:

The museum has a small model of the city before and after the bomb:

So, this is Hiroshima at 8 Aug 1945 (notice the small building with the dome on the right)

and here is how it looked a few seconds later...

We stayed in Hiroshima at a very nice place called "World Friendship Center", which is (currently) run by two lovely Americans (Kent and Sarah). The center is sponsored by a Japanese non-profit organization that sends every two years two different volunteers to Japan. They run the guest-house and do various works that are related to educating the youngsters not to drop A-bombs anymore.

Other than the depressing stuff, we walked around and visited a nice castle:

This is how it looks from the inside (- Abbuy, notice the stairs):

Shay did his best at spelling his favorite Japanese word:

(I did it!)

And Maayan was busy eating the local delicacy, a dish which is composed of fried noodles,
egg, several unidentified sauces, some green topping, and... oh well, judge yourself and let us know if Maayan seem to like it or not :)

Oh yes. We have uploaded too many movies to the blog, so our space is running out.
This is why from now on (maybe?) we will store the movies on another server.
You will need to click on of the links below to download and watch them. Please allow several minutes to download them.

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010014.MOV

http://brainstory.info/PhotosFromTrip/101_PANA/P1010099.MOV

Trivia reminder!

2008-07-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

Just to remind you guys... look down and search for our signs trivia!
Gabi posted some interesting hypothses. We are still waiting to hear from everyone else!

Toya and Hakodate July 4th and 5th

2008-07-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

So, as we left Deisetzu-san at midday, we had time enough to make our way towards the gate to Hokkaido island - namely, a town called Hakodate. We didn't make it all in one day, off course. By evening, we were back to Sapporo and then in the morning (July 5th) took a train to Hakodate. We stopped at a place called Toya on the way to see another active volcano (mount Usu). This one erupted on 2000 causing ruin to 6 villages. Toya town is hosting the G8 conference on matters of the environment (7-9 of July) and they were preparing for masses of tourists. They had high-school kids who speak some english walking around in white STAFF vests offer help to lost-looking people.

The girl here was explaining to us the "in Japan, owl means happiness"

We then went on to Hakodate where we walked around taking pictures of sewer-covers.

In Hokkaido, at lake Akan, they have a unique algea that grows in ball-shaped clumps. They have therefore created an algea character (note the balls)

There is a huge shopping area with souveniers and art:
Music boxes,

Owls,

etc.

To leave Hokkaido by train, you travel through an underwater tunnel (click on the pictures to see it large enough to read the details):

And so, on July 5th we have spent another day on trains going all the way south to Hiroshima.

Dai Setzu Zen Hike - July 3rd and 4th

2008-07-06T06:07:00.001-07:00

With Natalie and Nadim's recommendation, we made our way towards Deisetzu-san national park. We arrived at the closest town well after dark and again after the last bus had long been parked, washed and put to rest for the night...
Again, we hitch-hiked.
When a car finnaly stopped, the driver was less surprised to see us and more surprised that he had actually stopped for us!
Infact, he was so surprised, that when he heard where we were headed, he took us all the way there, though it was obvious he was not planning to go that far (about 25km detour!!!)

We arrived at the campsite at around 21 (9PM), put up our tent and Shay cooked pasta with tomato sauce and salmon (which he had bought fresh that afternoon) - it was the best meal we have had here! Yummie!

See the sign that greeted us there:

Rain was pouring all night, but it seemed to clear a little in the morning. We moved our stuff to the youth hostel (though they wanted an absurd price), and walked to the ropeway which took us up the mountain.

I had hurt my ankle a few days back and did not feel up to the climb, so I waited at the ropeway station while Shay climbed by his lonesome. The weather was crappy - cold and rainy, and visibility was great as you can see:

Halfway to the top, it started raining so hard and the winds were blowing so cold, that without proper winter-gear it was foolish to go on.
Shay turned back and ran all the way down the mountain - making the decent in record time!
There are bears on this mountain (as in many of the woods in Japan), and people are advised to carry bear-bells to scare them away.
At places, the trail goes through marshes, and there are wooden plankes laid down to prevent accidents.

We ended up back at the youth hostel at noon, so we decided to take the next bus off the mountain instead of staying there another night.

The hike to Akan-Dake July 1st and 2nd

2008-07-06T06:04:00.001-07:00

We left the hostel at 6:20 in the morning and made our way to Akan national park with a subway (30 min.), a train to Kushiro (3.5 hours) and a bus to Akan-ko (2 hours). We actually tried to rent a car at Kushiro, but they did not like the Israeli driver's license and we missed one bus and had to wait nearly 2 hours for the next.
It took us longer then we had hoped to get to the Akan lake, and so arrived there after the last bus had left to lake Onneto (which should take another half hour or so). So we hitched-hike to the lake and eventually made it there. The first ride was with a chinese couple, the second with a Japanese man who spoke not a word in English but fed us with candy, and the last ride was with a Japanese couple who knew 2 words in English and ended up taking us all the way to the campsite even though they were going somewhere else (we actually met them on the trail the following day).

The campsite keeper is an old man who knows one word in English, and manages to say it so it took me 15 minutes, a short walk and some hand signes to understand that he was pointing at the toilets. Only problem was, her kept saying "Toirrrets, Toirrrets..." ( rolling his L into Rs).
So I took Shay to see the "toirrrets" - and as we were coming back we met Nadim and Natalie (Jordanian and Canadian respectively). We were thrilled to meet some English speakers and had exchanged "war stories" of our Japan experiences at the campfire we have made.

In the morning we climbed one mountain while the climbed another. These are some pictures from "our" mountain, an active volcano.

We must say, this was the most beautiful place we have ever been to. Shay now rated it in the top 5 trails he did, but while sitting at the summit he was exclaiming "this is the best hike I have ever done!!! Ever!"

This is how the mountain looks from the shore of Onneto lake. We climbed the one on the left.

Just at the end of the trail there is an Onsen (a hot spa) so we stopped for a bath and walked the remaining 3km around the lake to the campsite.

When we arrived there - exhausted, I might add - we found out that our peacful resort had been invaded by campers: summer camp for about 50 noissy 13year olds.

In the morning, on the 3rd of July, Nadim and Natalie gave us a ride to the train station in Kushiro. We would be forever grateful!

Sapporo June 30th

2008-07-06T05:52:00.001-07:00

After a long day of travel, we decided to take a day to relax and walk around the city.
Sapporo is the largest city of Hokkaido, but other then being big it doesn't have a "big city feeling."
So we walked around, we met some fellow hikers (smurrfs - Dardasim), and Shay vented his dilema

(to hike/travel or to study)

We met a 60 US $ watermellon,

And a variety of sea creatures, which Shay was looking for a place to eat

Shay bought a used Hawaiian shirt and I ate some "Tiras Ham" (hot corn).

Near the TV tower, Shay was trying to befriend a local bear

We visited the local brewry and tasted the delicious Sapporo beer

these are beer commercials from the 30th (note the Geishas)

And then we took the subway back to Ino's Place, where we stayed

Kyoto -> Sapporo June 29th

2008-07-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

So we left Kyoto last Sunday and arrived at Sapporo in the northern island (Hokkaido) at 22 (10PM).

Some of you might not appreciate the great distances we are covering.

After leaving Kyoto, we travelled on a single day about 2000km (in about 15 hours), using various trains (regular, Shinaknsen, subway...):

Here is a map, so you can understand from where we left and where we arrived:

(you should probably click to see it in full resolution)

Signs in Japan - The official trivia!

2008-07-06T05:02:00.000-07:00

After spending three weeks in japan, we came to an understanding that we actually do not understand any of the signs. Can the community help and explain to us what each of the following signs mean?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

(BTW: this was not taken at a zoo, nor any place close to one....)

7.

8.

A prize will be given to the one with the most humorus answers!

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow!