First stop was “Argyle” where I found a pho restaurant with really good reviews. I didn’t realise it was the Vietnamese district if you want to call it that until I got there. From my friends place to there took about an hour but it was definitely worth it.

The pho restaurant was called Pho 777 and it was very good. The portion and broth were good and the spring rolls were tasty. I would try other things too but I don’t have two stomachs like a cow.

After lunch I went back to down town to the North Face store to purchase some more goods before heading back.

In the afternoon I was helping a friend move apartments as she needed muscle power. Its not often you’d adopt the role as a removalist on vacation but I had nothing else to do and besides I would get a free lift to the airport in return. Sounds like a good deal to me … I spent about 2 hours doing that before catching a lift to the airport bound for London.

Chicago O’hare airport terminal 5 is rubbish. It’s supposed to be a proper international airport but its somewhat lacking in the customer entertainment and restaurant category. The main terminal fares much better and up to international standards but they need to work on terminal 5. All the restaurants are before you check in actually its next to check in. Once inside you only have a trolley shop to buy anything.

When I boarded the flight my plan was to sleep as much as possible as when I land I was going to head into the office to do important work for my client. When I discovered the 2 seats next to me were empty, I was extremely happy as I could stretch out and sleep … that was until later on in the flight, some old man asked if he could sit on the aisle. Sleep fail.

Smiles

I was looking forward to the wedding and catching up with friends from my past travels.

We began the day with a hearty breakfast downtown at Meli Cafe & Juice Bar. I ordered a “Mana Mou”, it was like a mash up of potatoes, peppers, mushrooms and steak, yes steak smothered with layer of cheese. It was delicious! I can’t say the same about the fresh orange juice as it wasn’t sweet, needed some sugar and some ice.

The location of the wedding took place at Morton Arboretum which I guess is like a botanical garden. The wedding venue and setup was quite simple and pleasant. A small gathering of family and friends, that’s all you need really. I remember some weddings especially Asian ones where about 300+ people gathered. I think that is a bit much, especially when most of those people are friends of the parents and not anyone close to you. Its like they are there to make up the numbers.

It was quite a cloudy day and it even rained but when my friend and bride walked towards everyone and to her husband to be, then the sun came out and it was a lovely ceremony.

After the ceremony we all gathered at the reception venue which was a Brazilian steak house selected by my friend whom loves to eat but you couldn’t tell by her physique. I had no idea we were going to a steak house so I was in for a mouth watering treat and celebration. I did also manage to get the macaroon tower from my friends place to the wedding reception without a single macaroon falling from the tower and nothing collapsing.

The Brazilian steak house had an etiquette for eating or rather being ‘served’. On your table is a card, on one side its green meaning yes ‘give me food, now’ and on the other side red meaning ‘crap I can’t eat anymore, please stop!’. It was basically all you can eat carvery with waiters coming around your table with long skewers and if you wanted that particular meat, you’d ask for a slice which they’d cut from the skewer. All up there were about 10 types of meat to choose from plus a huge salad bar. You could order any drink you like so I just stuck to Coronas and celebrated with everyone. This by far is up there with the best reception I’ve been too! The hospitality and atmosphere was second to none and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Oh and no one ate the macaroons from the macaroon tower. All that effort!

After all that eating on the way home my friend suggested we get some more dessert! What a crazy idea that was. Instead of buying stuff we opted to bake something at home and that particular thing was ‘whoopie pie’. It was the first I heard of it and was going to give it a try. A whoopie pie is basically two macaroon large biscuits (by large I mean 5x size of macaroon then stacked twice) which was filled with a sweet butter style cream. Essentially I think of it as a giant macaroon. How did it taste? A bit on the salty side for me. I think my friend added a touch too much salt.

Smiles

The plan in Chicago was to attend a wedding, do some last minute shopping and chill out for a few days before flying back to London.

I eventually board the flight about 1.5 hours after it was scheduled so it wasn’t too bad. The flight itself was around an hour and a bit.

I am staying with my friend in Chicago and the first duties involved that afternoon was picking up sweets and cakes for the wedding. My task was to handle the macaroon tower and make sure it doesn’t fall while driving. Originally we had the plan to ride bikes to the cake store but luckily we didn’t as there would be no way to carry these things let alone a macaroon tower. Despite a few scares in the car due to some bad braking the tower made it back to my friends place all in tact.

For dinner tonight I requested to try out Deep Dish pizza which is a chicago speciality. We headed on over to Pequads where it got quite busy with a long queue despite being a two level restaurant. It must be a very popular establishment for deep dish pizza. My friend also brought her friend along from Church, she was the most beautiful and amazing girl in America (I’ve been conned into to writing this – haha). For dessert we went to this unique ice cream place called Cloud 9 where the ice was shaven from a huge block of flavored ice and then toppings of chocolate and nuts were added. I cannot say I’ve tried this before and the closest thing I’ve come to it is probably ice-kachang in Malaysia.

Smiles

The first stop was definitely the Reading Terminal Market with so many places and cuisines to eat from. The difficulty was choosing which one places to eat from and how much food I can take. I had to do about 3 laps of the place first then decide on what to eat.

I tried a pretzel dog, a beef roll and a peanut butter cookie. That’s all I could handle but was tempted to sample the chicken wings and a few other goodies. I did sample gator gumbo which is like a stew with alligator meat. Gator itself has texture like fish but taste like chicken, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.

To burn what I just had eaten I decided to walk endlessly to the Delaware River and check out what was there. Its a very quiet city (people-wise) as I had expected more people in Philadelphia. Perhaps most people are indoors studying or working. Nothing exciting goes on here as far as I can tell, maybe its the wrong day of the week.

In the afternoon I caught up with my friend and I got shown around the University of Pennsylvania. We tried some tacos and pork buns from this food truck which weren’t bad. There wasn’t any seating around where the truck was so we basically sat on the side of the road tucking into our food.

Dinner tonight was at Morimoto’s which I was very excited about. I wanted to eat from an Iron Chef’s restaurant and sample the strange and not so strange delights. The decor is very modern inside and they could have been more creative with the table lamps as they look like phallus’. The price isn’t too bad but it just depends on what you eat. We got some yummy oysters followed by a bunch of sushi rolls and for the main I got a giant seafood platter.

Afterwards we all went to sample some beers at a quiet pub called Eulogy and then we went to a famous ice cream parlour called Franklin Fountain afterwards with its “Mt. Vesuvius” item as seen on man v food. There’s no way I’d attempt that, its simply too much dairy! Apparently the root beer and ice cream is nice but just the sound of it makes it unappetising for me. Only one of us ordered that. I just went for a waffle and 2 flavors of ice cream.

Smiles

I found it very difficult to get to La Guardia airport as I didn’t read the map properly or that there are no trains that go directly there. I think you can get a train and then get a bus which I tried to do and failed.

After waiting around for a bus I gave up and hailed down a taxi instead which was fast and cheerful. Actually no one said anything to each other.

I flew on a small plane to Philadelphia which flies at a lower altitude and slower than the bigger planes. There were only about 20 people on there and I assume the rest were on a train or a bus.

I took a taxi to the hotel as I didn’t really want to mess about catching trains and el trains and then getting lost. The taxi ended up being about $35 including tip for what appeared to be a very short trip! I didn’t know what to expect in Philadelphia and I did not expect it to be so humid!

I stayed right in the heart of Philli and everything was a stones throw away which was nice. I was really looking forward to the Reading Terminal Market which was a food mecca for the locals and tourists alike but that was tomorrows outing.

Before meeting my friend for dinner I was just wandering around to see if there was anything interesting to see. The first thing I did see was the North Face store. For the next hour I was trying things on and buying up the place. The clothes were so cheap compared to London as its hugely marked up.

For dinner we went to a spanish tapas restaurant. As it was restaurant month many restaurants had special menus on and at discounted prices so my friend opted to choose this particular place. The food was amazing trying different types of tapas meant we could choose almost everything off the menu. It was a very popular place and was packed.

We didn’t do anything after dinner as my friend had class the next day. The university of Pennsylvania sits in Philadelphia and in some ways almost integrates into it. Downtown is only divided by a bridge.

Smiles

On the subway I witnessed a blatant act of criminality which the perpetrators didn’t really care about who was watching. These two guys came on to the train. One guy sat down and proceeded to take off his shoe and then socks. He then took a small bag from his pocket which we all knew was drugs probably heroin or cocaine. He then put this small packet between his toes, slid the sock back over and then feet tucked back into the shoe. Next he took out a cigarette box, and pulled out a wad of cash and started counting it. This was done inside a carriage of a train with kids, parents and commuters watching. What a brave foot soldier!

I ended up getting another bowl of Pho as I thought when I would get another chance to get this tasty dish back in London as its not the same.

I shopped at JCPenny to see if I could find some cool shirts. It was a bit disappointing as I thought there would be more variety and things to buy. I did buy a few shirts but nothing else. I went to Macy’s which felt a bit like Myers/John Lewis/Harrods all rolled into one. Mostly expensive brand names which I wasn’t really interested so I rode the escalator to every floor to see what was there. I see why women love shoes as Macys has two floors of shoes for women yet only a block of space for men’s shoes.

By the time I had finished shopping I had to rush back to the apartment to drop things off before heading to the Bronx to see a Yankees game. I managed to get some sweet tickets for about $50Us which was great. The last baseball game I seen live was at Wrigley stadium in Chicago. This place had a different feel to it, much bigger and grander than that of Wrigley stadium.

The game went on for about 2 hours and in the midst of it, plenty of hot dogs and beer were consumed, all at inflated prices of course. The Yankees did up winning the match.

Smiles

I met up with my friend in downtown and we navigated our way around the metro and headed towards Flushing Meadows where the US open is at. Upon arriving at Flushing you could actually smell the Chinatown from the subway. Its a unique smell, one of grease, of spices and instantly you think, what am I going to eat?!

First we headed to a food court with 20 or so asian cuisine stores which served japanese, vietnamese, chinese and taiwanese food to name a few. Food was made to order so it wasn’t the rubbish you see sitting in the windows at a buffet. I wanted to eat here but my friend insisted we find the proper traditional food court where you eat with the locals and you just sit on stools.

It took us a while to find this place going up and down Main street and still we couldn’t find it. Google had to intervene to restore our mission and eventually we found it. We had asked this store owner earlier where it was but she had no idea! The food court was where she was but you had to go down a narrow hallway then down a flight of stairs to find this eatery.

My mate was right, this place was really authentic and I felt like I was in a foreign asian country with all eyes on me as I was not meant to be here. Everyone was old and just sitting around on stools or sitting on tables inside tiny restaurants that could fit at most 10 people. The area was a food court but it was tiny, somewhat claustrophobic. All the restaurants seem to have no english menu’s so it was going to be difficult to work out and know what we were going to eat. I felt really uncomfortable here in this tiny food court and while my friend was keen to give it a go, I opted to get out while I could! I was not ready and willing to risk getting sick on this trip. So the destination for lunch was the original food court which was a great option as I ordered a lobster for dirt cheap and boy was it delicious. Our appetites were not satisfied after the food we consumed at the food court so we walked around chinatown and tried different types of nibbles like dumplings, buns and other treats.

Next stop was going back to Manhattan and checking out the awesome views from the Rockefeller Center. I wanted an uninterrupted view of New York City skyline and this place delivered. I didn’t want to go to Empire State Building because it’s more busy and I think there would be interrupted views and the crowds would be heaving. I managed to get some nice panorama shots of the city but didn’t quite get the full 360 views. I probably got 190.75522 degrees of the city skyline.

From Rockefeller Center I went onwards to the Brooklyn Bridge while my mate opted to go home to rest. While he hadn’t planned anything tonight, I gave him the offer of meeting at Katz Deli for dinner! Who can refuse a delightful pastrami sandwich on rye bread? Well not me.

So I ventured down to Brooklyn and wandered around. I saw a film or tv show being shot in the neighbourhood then made my way to the river. Locals were riding about and running along the track. The UN meeting was also on so the skies were littered with Chinooks and helicopters ferrying the delegates to the UN headquarters. The police and other military were on manned gun boats in the water so security was pretty tight.

I could see the Statue of Liberty from where I was just below the Brooklyn Bridge. After taking what appeared to be hundreds of photos, I climbed the bridge (more like walk around to the start) and then walked across the Bridge. One lane was for cyclists while the other was for pedestrians. People were walking in all sorts of directions and this New Yorker dude told me off for walking on the wrong side. Tell this to the others as well so it makes some sense mate!

Katz Deli was the venue for dinner and it has been something I’ve been looking forward to here in NYC. I ordered the famous pastrami sandwich on rye bread and it was mouth watering. While they build your sandwich they cut you a small slice of pastrami and this delicious piece of meat simply melts in your mouth. The sandwich is not easy to finish, after having the first half I struggled to eat the second half as I had being overcome by the amount of meat in the sandwich however my friend was happy to polish it off.

Smiles

Both popular restaurants and both located down near the lower east side which happens to be where my second food tour covers.

Ippudo is an extremely busy establishment with a bar designed with glass table tops and ramen/noodles placed beneath the glass. The queue snakes from inside the restaurant and pours out on to the street. Never have I seen a such a long queue for ramen.

I went inside and put my name on the list for a table for 1. Within 5 minutes I scored a seat at the bench where the chefs cook in front of you. Ippudo is authentic, it really felt like I was back in Japan. When a customer walks in all the japanese waitresses and chef scream out ‘welcome’. Both the chefs and waitresses communicate really well together and bring food to the customers in a matter of minutes.

I ordered the ramen house special with no sides as I knew another meal a few blocks away was waiting for me. The ramen broth was light and delicious. The ramen itself was soft and the pork almost broke into bits when you poke at them with your chopsticks. A perfect meal for lunch in a nice surrounding and highly recommended!

I walked a few blocks down only to backtrack the other way. I’d gone in the opposite direction to that of Momofuku. The decor and atmosphere wasn’t the same as Ippudo, it was much more modern and had a decadent feel to it. Again I was seated in front of the chefs which was great as I could see what they were doing and what they were cooking.

From the menu I ordered the shrimp bun and also the ramen house special. The shrimp bun was delicious and I felt that the ramen here was richer and had a slightly bitter taste to it. I didn’t manage to eat all of this ramen.

With a full stomach I proceeded to my food tour of the lower east side. I had to ask the guide if we were having full meals or just sample size portions. Thankfully my stomach was happy to know that it was the latter.

First we had some kinish (potato), then some postrami from the famous katz deli, followed by a slice of pizza at johns pizza, then some sweets at candy store, then some dumplings from this hole in the wall eatery, then some pickled cucumber and condiments from the pickle brothers and finally some tasty donuts from this bakery. Good god that is a lot of food, especially with dinner around the corner.

After the food tour I wanted to go across Brooklyn bridge and then walk around and walk back to burn off some food. What I thought was the Brooklyn bridge turned out to be another bridge so I wandered around the area anyway to see if there was anything interesting to see. Nothing much really.

I met my mate downtown at a restaurant called Blue Smoke. It was like a jazz pub/restaurant which was recommended by my mate’s landlord and also my client here in London. They apparently are famous for their tasty ribs. We didn’t have a booking so had to patiently wait for an hour drinking beer before we got a table. It was worth the wait as the ribs were probably the best I’ve ever eaten.

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My legs decided to walk from 46th street all the way down past 1st to Grand st and explore Chinatown. Actually I really wanted to go there to see how my favorite vietnamese dish Pho measures up in New York City. I also wanted to sample Banh Mi sandwiches and see if there’s any difference in flavor or taste.

The best way to explore any city is using your feet. It took me about 1.5 hours to get to my destination but along the way I can see the different shops and department stores I wanted to shop at towards the end of the trip and entering the different “towns” in the city i.e Korea town, \srab town, little Italy etc.

I had to strategically eat my way through the day today as I had a food tour at 1430 so it wasn’t going to be an easy task. Ideally I wanted to eat at 11, walk off the food by 1430, eat till 1730, walk that off and prepare the stomach for dinner at 1930. Obviously that never went to plan, my stomach has a mind of its own and it doesn’t talk to the brain properly or ignores it.

Just before I got to Chinatown I noticed a few marquees up and herds of people gathering around a square. It turns out today was also the annual NYC Dumpling Festival. This unplanned food event was an obstacle that I did not see coming and as a result had to think about how to consume these dumplings with the tight food schedule already in place. I may not have any room left in my belly for the treats later on.

I powered on past the festival and thought about whether I could or couldn’t do it. However I know one thing for sure that there was absolutely no way I’d enter the dumpling eating challenge.

When you get to Chinatown in lower east side you can definitely smell it in the air. Its not a bad smell but you can smell the grease, the concoction of ingredients being cooked and perhaps even a hint of MSG.

The first item I had for the day was Vietnamese Banh Mi, which basically is a freshly baked baguette filled with goodness. The goodness comprises of pickled carrot, daikon, your choice of meat, coriander, cucumber and some spreads like egg butter or mayonnaise. I opted for the bbq pork which was the preferred choice on the menu. It was a bad choice I thought as the meat balls look a lot better. The sandwich itself was crunchy and the filling was very tasty. The only thing I didn’t like was the bbq pork as it was very dry and the texture made it almost inedible had I not removed some of the meat.

Next up was Pho with rare beef and cooked brisket. The broth was clear and there wasn’t large amounts of MSG in there, which was good. The noodles were very thin and I could do with a bit more of it. Overall I think the Pho was good but not exceptional, I just though maybe they could have been more generous with the meat.

I could not fit any more food at this point so I spent the next hour or so watching the locals play soccer. I thought this would give me time to digest the food before the food tour in 2 hours. Despite it being a friendly game, it got very competitive and some players even sustained injuries.

After about an hour sitting down under tree, I started walking back towards the dumpling festival where the idea was just to take photos and not eat anything otherwise I can forget about the food tour. When I arrived there, the eating competition was about to start. The person who could eat the most dumplings in 2 minutes was going to have their names in the guiness world record books for just that. The rules were simple, no water, only eat and finish a dumpling before you can continue to next one and the judge will check the contents of your mouth before continuing on. The lowest number eaten was a measley 5, the average was about 10 and the winner consumed 18. Personally I would have done about the average as well.

The food truck tour started at the elevated railway bridge. We continued walking on this bridge for a good mile or so. The railway track and bridges have been converted all into a walkway with plants, art features and various other things. Its a nice place to go for a walk without crossing the street and looking out for cars.

At the end of the track there is an area where you can eat food from a food truck. The food trucks here are not your average corner trucks. These ones come with chefs and bigger kitchens to cater for the large crowds that gather. Some of these trucks earn about $100k per year and up to even $1m if you become that popular.

I befriended a nice local couple on the tour and so we went for drinks at a sports bar to watch some college football. They wrote down a list of restaurants and roof top bars to visit which was nice of them. Turns out they both lived in london for a short while so there was something in common.

I was really tired at this point and I still had to go meet my friend for dinner in Harlem. I hadn’t read much on the area so was bit nervous whether or not it was hostile there. Dinner was at the famous Sylvia’s restaurant serving soul food which I’d never had before. I was very much looking forward to this place after the tv shows and adverts about this place.

Once I arrived at Harlem and got to the road level there were four policeman standing in front of starbucks and several african-american guys next to them. I just thought here we go! I stood there waiting for my friend constantly spinning around to see what was around me. I was probably over-reacting from all the things I’ve heard about this place but really with the amount of people around, its not as bad as it sounds at the time. I even spotted one guy in drag, which was totally out of the ordinary.

Sylvias is about a stones throw away from the subway station so after meeting my mate we didn’t have too far to walk. Upon arrival we had to wait for a table so we got chatting with the bar guy who poured us drinks and we spoke about football. He is a Chelsea supporter so the taunts from him were forthcoming, friendly of course for a rival supporter. Once we were seated we ordered a combination of things so we could sample all that is Sylvias. We got cat fish, deep fried chicken, ribs, mac n cheese, corn bread, coleslaw, rice and some collards?. The food was great and I could have easily done another set of ribs. Upon leaving the restauran I shook the bar man’s hand and he vowed Chelsea is the team to beat in the 2011-2012 season.

After the sylvias we were going to hit the bars and clubs at the meat packing district which apparently from my mates research had plenty of these. I really wanted to go to a rooftop bar so we went to one called Rooslvelt Bar recommended by the couple I’d met earlier. The decor inside this bar and the outside area is superb. The views are just as good overlooking other sky scrapers. This place would be nice for after work drinks. However it is quite expensive for the simplest of drinks from the menu but you’re paying for the view.

Smiles

Unlike travelling to the east coast of the States from my home town Melbourne, which takes at least 24 hours, going from London to NYC takes about 6-7 hours or around 3 movies.

The main purpose of this trip is to attend a wedding in Chicago but before that its gorging the amazing food of all different cuisines in NYC as well as Philadelphia.

It takes so long to get passport control at NYC despite being the only plane load of people coming through at the time. Passengers forgetting to fill out forms, passengers filling out the wrong forms, passengers must give electronic finger prints and last but not least some passengers are required to eye scans. No wonder it takes so long! This old indian couple tried to push in the line only to be told to get back to end of the line and fill out the missing form, queue-jumpers!

I know NYC is coined as the concrete jungle but you have to be on a plane (window side) to really see what its like. It is mesmerising that a whole island (Manhattan) are just filled with skyscrapers and concrete buildings with the exception of central park of course which seemed out of place. Its a sight to behold and to understand what a concrete jungle really is.

I arrived at the airport trains but didn’t know where they went or where I’m supposed to go or how they work. I was looking for ticket machines and maps but nothing. Eventually I found out I had to be at Jamaica station and on the exit at Jamaica station you can buy a train pass plus pay for the airport train upon exit of the Jamaica station by paying $5 (no tip).

I had to go to 7th Ave / 51st and the closest station was 50th so off I went. The subways in New York City are quite humid and a touch on the damp side. The train themselves are all air conditioned and a relief from the humidity. I don’t know what I would prefer more, the humid subways and air conditioned trains of New York City or the hot subways and hot trains of London. I think I would prefer the former as air conditioned trains are the best thing since sliced bread. It can get quite cold in the carriages but that’s the beauty of it.

Also the New York City subway is confusing compared to the london underground. A few trains can enter on the same platform but go to different destinations. You don’t have any idea which direction the train is going and there’s never a clear map to show the next station or list of stations on those particular lines.

I had to pick up keys from my friends work colleague and it was difficult to get a hold of him. After about an hour of trying to call and email I finally got in touch and got the keys to the apartment which I was staying at for the entire NYC trip.

I was still getting used to the grid-like streets and working out the number avenue and street. The beauty about this system is that you will always know that you’re walking in the wrong direction as the numbers increase or decrease.

After wandering the streets I finally found the apartment and settled in. I packed my cameras in my bag and set off on exploring the streets of new york city. I didn’t know where I was going or what I wanted to see but I definitely wanted to sample some food. The aim of this trip was to try as many restaurants as I could and eat as much I could so my first item on the food menu was the good old hot dog from one of the hundreds of makeshift trolley stores that lie on the corner streets.

I couldn’t do sample the food on my own so I met up with my friend’s friend that evening drinking at a bar/restaurant and organising the places to eat for the next couple of days. I couldn’t wait to taste the food from the restaurants we selected!

After a couple of Blue Moon’s (beer) and a long day traveling, I was exhausted and tired so I had to retire early that night for tomorrow is another adventure.

Smiles

Take some drivers who try to squash everyone in a bus like sardines, or how some drivers supposedly forget to stop at a bus stop even when alerted by the ding noise. Some even stop at the wrong bus stop, allow passengers on and then go in the wrong and opposite direction they want to go.

But this clown bus driver takes the cake and the ice cream too.

I was waiting at my designated bus stop as per normal each evening on the running tide home when this double decker bus stopped at the bus stop. It wasnt my bus but I was just observing the bus drivers performance of stopping the bus, allowing passengers on and then moving on to collect the next herd, as you do.

This bus driver didnt know the simple rules to driving a bus or should I say stop, drop, collect and move. Instead he wanted to be a tourist guide and allow someone to ask for directions or a place of interest.

Normally a bus driver would know instantly where everything is or simply say wrong bus mate. However this driver took out a map, spoke to this person for what seemed like 5-8 minutes. Meanwhile this oblivious fool failed to look at what was behind him or see the chaos he was causing due to being a hopeless tourist guide.

What he had caused was a major bottleneck of traffic stretching as far as the eye could see and what appeared to be like half of londons peak hour traffic up his arse. Every bus, taxi and car behind him was beeping their horns like mad but this guy was in his own world clearly captivated by his immaculate interpersonal and mapping skills.

Once the passenger was satisified about the directions given, they sat down in the bus and he finally closed the bus door and moved on still unaware of the commotion he was passing on to others with the traffic and delays.

While I would like my 30 minutes back from this delay, I would happily trade those 30 mins to beat the crap out of him and remind him he is a bus driver and not a tourist guide.

Smiles

Together with my friends from Australia, we basically shopped until we dropped both in Macau and Hong Kong. I’ve never done this before on my travels and I think its more tiring then hiking a mountain. You try on these clothes and then get them tailored to your specifications. This goes on every day and by the time you are done your suitcase is so full of clothes you need to ask the airline for a luggage weight policy changed.

I would bore you to death writing about the rest of my time in Hong Kong when all I did was shop, hang out with my mates, shop, drink and eat the most amazing food and shop some more. Did I mention the shopping? It’s amazing, I won’t have to buy clothes for another year at least.

OK during those days I did go to Macau and hang out at the Venetian Macau casino for dinner, and wander around Macau old town. I went to Lantau Island to eat at one of the seafood restaurants on that seafood restaurant strip. They have their very on boat/ferry that takes you there from Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) which is free.

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Wu-lai is about an hour from Taipei using the MRT train from Taipei Central to Xindian which is about 20 minutes and then bus 1603 to Wu-lai which is about a 40 minute journey (last stop on bus). You could probably take a taxi from Taipei Central but the prices vary with different drivers.

While waiting for the bus at Xindian to Wu-Lai we got a discount taxi fare with another couple to Wu-lai which ended up being $100 each instead of the usual fare of $600.

We got back very late from Wu-lai and we were very short on time but we really wanted to see and go up to Taipei 101. We did eventually get up to the very top of Taipei 101 including the open air area but didn’t stay long as we had a plane to catch. I guess we didn’t appreciate the sheer size of the building enough as we simply didn’t have enough time.

Once we saw what we could at Taipei 101 we had to make a mad dash back to the hotel and find our bus. We were only told to meet the bus dude at the front of KFC. There’s a hundred KFC’s around so we just prayed the bus driver would wait for us! We had about 20 minutes to get to the hotel and from Taipei 101 things weren’t looking good to get our 4pm bus.

We hailed for a cab and asked him to drive as fast as possible back to the hotel. If he did so I would have tipped him handsomely. Each time we stopped at a red light we lose 90 seconds as the countdown timer clearly shows. It was going to be a miracle if we were going to make it. It didn’t help that the taxi driver’s clock was 4 minutes faster and the fact that we were stuck in traffic. Slowly and gradually we crawled our way to the hotel and once we got there we bolted to the hotel to get our luggage only to find our luggage locked away in the kitchen!

So the plan was to get the lift to the lobby but just when we were about to walk in, the lady with the key came through and we managed to get our luggage out and frantically ran to the main road in search for the KFC joint. Of course it felt like amazing race but there were no rewards, only an expensive new flight was the reward or should I say failure.

As we got to the KFC the bus driver was already there waiting for us and waved us down. Somehow we were a couple of minutes early but as I sat on the bus I thought could he have left earlier than 4pm? This was so reminiscent of the bus in France that left 15 minutes early and left us with a 270Euro taxi bill to the airport but the Taiwanese people are actually nice unlike the arrogant French who don’t have any patience.

We made it to the airport, checked in, ate some more food and flew back into Hong Kong to meet up with some more Australian friends.

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We only had to wait about 10 minutes until we got a table. Inside it was organised chaos with not an empty seat in sight. Waiters and waitresses running around delivering food to the many tables. The chefs all in one room busy making the famous dumplings namely the Xiao Long Bao or XLB for short. We ordered one too many dishes but somehow still managed to eat everything that was ordered.

On each table there is a card which instructs you on how to eat the XLB. Well let’s just say I didn’t read the instructions properly and missed out on one step. That proved to be quite embarrassing to say the least when all the XLB broth inside went all over my pants/trousers! Step 3 says to pierce the XLB so the broth goes into your spoon and then you eat it. If you don’t pierce like this idiot, then the broth will just squirt in whatever direction it pleases and in this case down onto my pants.

Needless to say I couldn’t dry my pants/trousers and even if I did it would be stained. As we finished up, I had to walk out the restaurant so the customers eating and those waiting in the long queue couldn’t see the little accident I had or perhaps they would of thought this guy just got a bit too excited over some XLB’s!

We located some shops nearby and I got myself some pants/trousers. Just to rub it in, the store offered a 2 for 1 deal just in case something like this was to happen again. haha.

Next stop we headed to Danshui, a town by the sea/coast which looked interesting to visit despite being severely overcast with rain imminent. Like any other town, Danshui had its market strip selling food among other things. You can get a ferry to see the area but since it was so gloomy there wasn’t really any point.

The only interesting thing I found there was the fishing and the numerous locals trying to catch fish on the tourist strip with relatively great success. I believe they were catching what looked like mullet but they only kept the large ones > 1kg and kicked back the ones that weren’t that sorta size.

Before heading back to the hotel we stopped by Xinbeitou to try out one of the hot springs but we got knocked back because you weren’t allowed to wear shorts but only bathers which I assume is bike shorts or even budgie smugglers. Clearly in the photos however there were photos of people in shorts. Instead of arguing with them, we just accepted their decision and just wandered back to the train station to head back to the hotel.

For dinner we decided to go to this beef noodle restaurant in Taipei city center. We thought to go without any maps or guides and boy was that a bad decision. We wandered around endlessly in circles trying to find the restaurant when they all looked the same. In the end we just went to this Japanese noodle house and saved the other place for tomorrow. We didn’t fill ourselves too full because we were going to another night market straight away near our hotel.

The market wasn’t anything special only that most of it was indoors and it was labeled the tourist night market. On the streets they sell the food whilst in the main strip there were art shops, souvenir shops, bag shops restaurants, places to eat turtle, eat snake and god knows what else to eat!

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Instead we went to another famous restaurant called Past Small Moon (yes, you guessed it – the sign didn’t say that either) where the queues were a lot smaller and we had time to wait. The food was suprisingly delicious and didn’t disappoint. We had the noodles in soup, pork sausage, lobster egg roll, fried prawn roll and braised pork on rice. Lunch was around £12 for two, again awesome! My favorite was definitely by a hundred miles the fried prawn roll, mouth watering.

Today our main desination was Jiufen, a mountain town in the north of Taiwan. Seeing as the weather was sunny, its an ideal place to go! We scrapped our plans to Sun Moon Lake after I found out its a 9 hour round trip which I think it wasn’t worth it. Trains from Taipei Main station to Jiufen (via the Huanlien line) were $78twd each and takes about 30 minutes.

The train stops at Ruifang where you disembark and then find the bus to Jiufen which can be found directly opposite the train station in front of the lights. Just simply look out for the people queuing up by the traffic lights and just make sure the bus heads in left direction. There were alot of traffic coming up to Jiufen so we decided to hop off the bus early and somehow ended up at the tourist information center.

I wanted to climb the Jiufen peak and asked them how to get up there and how long it was going to take. The response was 20 minutes to 7 Eleven and 40 minutes to the peak. This was coming from an old lady so we managed to get up there in half that time and the sun still up but setting fast.

The hike up there isn’t that bad but you’ll still have a good sweaty workout. Remember to bring some water, buy it from 7 Eleven before you head up there. There are two paths up, one that goes around then up or one straight up. The path goes around is meant to be easier but covers double the distance whereas the shorter one has a steep climb and much quicker. We chose to do the former as we had plenty of time.

Afterwards I grabbed a local Taiwanese beer and rested my weary legs whilst eating ritz biscuits and hot waffles. We wandered around Jiufen exploring the narrow roads filled with hawker style stalls selling mainly food and other souvenirs. The food looked amazing but there was one item in particular which stank so badly that I wanted to vomit. It had a really foul smell and this item was some sort of tofu, god it was ghastly and you could smell it a mile away, it defintely grossed me out! How can tofu smell that rotten. My friend told me it actually tastes nicer than it smells. No way jose!

The next two trains back to Taipei were full so we had to wait 2 hours for the next available one from Rueifang. Ruifang is a tiny place so it was difficult to find something to do for two whole hours! So we naturally ate and ate then sat in the square watching life go by.

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For breakfast we went to eat at the local restaurant which is in the middle of all the residential high rise flats. Old women doing tai chi and lots of people enjoying the morning sun and fresh breeze. On the menu was noodles with beef, egg sandwich and red tea (this was quite a common breakfast for the locals). I followed this up with a bbq roast pork bun and some sort of pineapple bun. They were both delicious especially the fresh roast pork bun. All this food for around £2! Since my mate lives locally it does help when ordering food and getting around because they speak the language as out here there are no english menus so I would have no idea what I would be ordering – although hong kong food roulette might not be such a bad thing.

I’m surprise they still use bamboo and string for scaffolding in this day and age! In London its metal bars everywhere and to see that they still use bamboo here is amazing. I’m not sure how stable it is but it appears to do the job and it appears that it doesn’t matter how tall the buildings are. What will work safe or the health and safety authority think? Perhaps also the bamboo can support the HK tradesman who are usually of skinny build whereas in London the tradies are usually have a bit more meat on them so just maybe the bamboo cannot support their weight! haha.

I arrived in Taipei and took a bus from airport to Taipei main station. The bus took about an hour but felt like a couple of hours as I was tired and sleep deprived made worst by the traffic congestion. At Taipei station we got a train to Ximen where the hotel was located. It was like a maze down there at Taipei main station with 3 different types of train systems. You have the metro network (MRT), then you have normal rail going city to city (TRA) and then high speed rail (HSA) network. Just get me to my hotel damnit!

Ximen is suprisingly cosmopolitan with a younger crowd. As we got there in the evening DJ’s were playing in the open square, crowds gathered around buskers and the Ximen Market was quite packed with revellers, shoppers and diners alike. I felt Xinen was a mixture of tokyo, hong kong and penang bundled into one, its a great place!

There is no way I would have been able to find this hotel on my own. It hasn’t even got any english lettering only chinese symbols! I was supposed to find the Han She Hotel. The hotel room is really nice though, 2 large double beds and one with a tv facing it. I called shotgun on it

Dinner was at this local tiny mum and dad owned restaurant packed to the rim. It was clearly to us that going to popular local restaurants was going to be more enjoyable and a fraction of the price compared to the western touristy places to eat. However you can only go to these local places if you know chinese in this case mandarin otherwise you would have no idea what you would be ordering and how to communicate to the waiters! Dinner for 2 which was 5 dishes and 2 drinks was only £5.

We wandered around after dinner checking out the shops and streets then gorged ourselves at the Shilin Market which is a hawker style food mecca. There were so many people in the area it was a bit mad. The food was mouth watering and the narrow hallways were quite hot because of the close promixity to you and the flaming hot wok! You can get extremely close to them. People are screaming at you literally to come eat at their store. The best thing I got was a rice sausage cut in half and filled with condiments and then a pork sausage inserted in between so it was like a sausage hotdog! It was awesome!!

Afterwards we ventured somewhere near the Taipei 101 to get some night shots but sadly the Taipei 101 was disappointing at night as I thought it would be lit up during the night but sadly it wasn’t! There were only a couple of lights on the building so there wasn’t enough light to take the photo. Sad.

Smiles

I flew from London Heathrow direct to Hong Kong with my favorite airline Cathay Pacific. I sat next to an elderly couple who funnily enough worked for the NHS but now retired so we had a good chat and of course whinge about how bad the NHS is! haha. It was also quite random that she’s been to the hospital I work at for meetings.

I had no issues going through customs and went straight to ticket help desk. The ticket guy didn’t even say a word. I handed him $500hkd and said “Wong Tai Sin”. He pulled out their version of tube/train map, drew 4 circles, handed me $350hkd back and waved at the next customer! Lovely customer service when they don’t need to say anything at all and everything makes sense.

First stop was Tsing Yi. I wandered around endlessly going up and down lifts and escalators only to find myself in the same place I started. Next to the barrier gate you can measure your luggage as the barrier gate is quite narrow. I thought my bag would fit easily and it did but that wasn’t the problem! The ticket barrier is a turnstyle so I swiped my card and proceeded in, luggage first and myself second. Can you see the problem? I was stuck. The luggage was on one side of the ticket barrier, then it was the turnstyle and then it was me on the other side. You can’t swipe in twice, so I had to lift the luggage over the barrier and found the train lady. I performed some charades to explain what happened which she understood then she led me past this secret door and I was on my way to Wong Tai Sin.

Actually not quite. I was busy typing away on the blackberry and managed to miss my stop at Lai King. It was only 1 stop but I still managed to forget to disembark. Instead I ended up at Nam Cheong and had to get the train back and navigate through the maze to get back on the correct platform. I was already late as it was meeting my mate at Wong Tai Sin.

I found my mate at Wong Tai Sin and then proceeded to eat at a local restaurant. We ordered a 3 course meal at a bargain price of £8! If you were to go to a western or touristy restaurant expect to pay triple or more.

After dinner we headed back to my mates apartment where I could clean up a bit and brush my teeth. At 11pm we went to meet some friends from Australia and go for a few drinks in Lan Kwai Fong where all the bars and clubs are for the Westerners. It took hours to find each other as we didn’t communicate properly and ended up at different stations!

We ended up bypassing the western bars as they were so trashy and loud. Instead we went to an empty bar and had a few cocktails which was a more quiet affair. I Didn’t get back to the apartment till 2am and the sleep deprivation was getting to me. Mind you I have to get up in a few hours to get to the airport to go to Taiwan!

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Eventually the only people left on the train is the person sitting next to you and the remainder of the train carriage is empty. You have a few stops to go, do you stand up and move to another seat? They might take offense and think gosh do I smell? Why did he just stand up and move seats like that? The other option is to sit there until you get off and make it as though you didn’t really notice the train carriage is empty.

It is an awkward position to be in especially the person seated next to you is the same sex. I’ve often just chosen to sit still and not move. Why should I move? I’ve sat there quite comfortably, the seat has molded around my butt nicely so if anyone wants to move the person next to me can decide that move. To hell with awkwardness! The person next to me is probably thinking the same or they could be thinking there are so many seats to choose from on this carriage, why the hell is this idiot still sitting next to me. He should be moving because I ain’t!

What is the etiquette?

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Well I just didn’t bump into one, it happened to be my waiter. I guess we kind of made a mistake by getting a bit too friendly with this dude and by the end of the night we knew what he does, where exactly he is from, why he is here, his ambitions and his future plans for the next 12 months. If we stayed any longer, we could have got his bank account details, what size shoes he wears, whether he wipes his ass with his left hand or right. Mate, we just want our food and drinks, not your life story.

Engineer by profession, talking bullshit, serving food and drinks by day at the local gastro pub in Totteridge. Lives in the most boringest city in Australia, I think you already know what that place is so I don’t even need to mention it. Actually, I’ll give you a clue, it starts with Canberra.

I don’t know about you but at the point where you call your waiter by their first name instead of getting their attention by other means it becomes socially awkward. I mean if you were a waiter, would you like it if someone called you out loud by your first name? “Wilson, fetch me some scallops and bacon will ya, and hurry up? Make the bacon extra crispy, I don’t want that soft shit, cheers mate” or “John mate, wtf is this dish? its rubbish! it’s missing the bacon, read the menu properly mate!”

I think a menu should have the following items of things you can order at a restaurant apart from the usual:

Entree – Introduction to your waiter £2.99

Main – Life story so far £9.99

Dessert – Future plans with a topping of what my next job will be £4.99

Customers may order any of the above but only limit to 1 per table, do you really want to hear the same story repeated to everyone? Yes, I didn’t thinkso. If the waiter is lucky and our ears don’t bleed by the end of the night then we might just cast a vote for him to win a bottle of Moet. Forget tips, the waiter insisted on the votes.

It was meant to be a dessert but remind me again, aren’t desserts meant to be cold rather than hot? Ok you have some hot dishes like apple pies but you complement it with something cold like ice cream. Well this isn’t quite the same for the rice pudding.

The best I can describe a rice pudding is that it is like a risotto. In fact I’m pretty sure I had a piping hot risotto. It was not savoury but sweet. It was cheesy and not creamy. I couldn’t see mushrooms or chicken pieces. It looked a bit like porridge but the rice looked undercooked. It had 1 and a half grapes on it as a garnish. Come on what happened to the last quarter of it?

Grapes and rice … what? As far as I know I don’t suffer from Synesthesia and my senses are fine so why would I eat grapes and rice like some synesthesian souls eat chicken with ice cream.

A complaint was made about the rice pudding and so the owner brought down the chef and he said he had forgotten the cinnamon … sorry buddy adding the cinnamon to the rice pudding will still make it a shitty rice pudding.

The replacement chocolate mousse well could only be described as the same texture as a willy wonka chocolate bar. Sadly we give away the golden ticket because we don’t plan to head back to charlie and the shitty dessert factory.

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What presents are people supposed to bring? Sex and the city box set? Entourage box set? A new facebook account or a subscription to a few dating sites?

What would the mood be like? Sad, happy, or party atmosphere? An ensemble of cocktails or perhaps a jager train where by each glass represents the days you have been married.

The news article I read continued on and said that the ex-husband murdered his ex-wife before the party took place.

Shocking

You come into a supermarket to buy some groceries. You get a basket to put the items of purchase in so its easier to carry around the shop floor and it doubles up as a precaution so you do not drop any products yet to be paid for. When all the items are collected you go up to the checkout to pay for the items.

Then the checkout person asks, would you like some bags?

What?! No, please don’t give me any plastic bags, I’m going to pollute the earth, what a stupid question to ask. Let me juggle those items home like a circus performer and wow the passers by. Give me those damn bags already!

You’re at a restaurant eating with friends. You’ve chosen a delightful dish of which you eat like you haven’t eaten for a week. So you clean the plate, okay maybe you left a grain of rice or a speckle of salad on the plate. Your knives and forks are then deposited on the plate and you wait for the waiter/waitress to clear the table.

Hello, are you done? Can I take your plate?

What?! No, please let me lick my plate clean so you won’t have to wash the plate and reuse it for the next customer. Take my plates away already!! No tip for you.

You wander into a train station and look around for a quick bite like a sandwich or bap. You choose the cumberland sausage roll that is on display and you know that its cold as there are about a dozen there. You say, can I please have one of those, thanks.

Would you like that hot?

What?! Why no, I’d love a cold sausage on this cold day. Who eats a cold sausage any way? Hurry up and toast the bloody thing and stop asking moronic questions, I have a train to catch!

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Our bus back to Montiers was in the afternoon so for most of the day we did absolutely nothing. I could have died of boredom, it was that boring.

When we did arrive to Montiers we were about an hour early for our connecting bus to Lyon airport. Instead of waiting outside at the bus terminal, we waited indoors as it was warmer. When it was about 20 mins to go until the bus was due to depart we started walking to where the bus was due to pick up passengers.

Little did we know that the bus left 15 minutes earlier then the scheduled departure time so we stood out there waiting for no particular reason. If any transportation is scheduled to depart at a certain time, it should depart at that time or later. It should not depart 15 minutes earlier or 1 min earlier for that matter.

When we spoke to the bus company in charge, they said the bus left on time but we were standing there in front of the bus stop so how could this be. They were lying through their teeth by saying it left on time, and one of them even said they were on the bus at the departure time. It was utter nonsense and a load of shit what they were saying.

The argument went on for about 20 minutes and our voices got even louder screaming at each other. It got to a stage where the lady started pushing me. I could have thrown her back to the top of the 3 valleys, I was that angry.

Since our flight was due to take off in 3 hours and we were about 160km from the airport, standing around arguing was not the best thing to do. We could not get a refund or alternative transportation from these disgusting pigs so we had to find a taxi driver willing to drive us to Lyon airport which was about 1.5 hours away.

We did find a friendly taxi driver and got a quote for €250. This is the most expensive cab that I’ve ever been in but its no surprise if the trip is 160 km! As we were short on time, we did ask the taxi driver to drive like “Schumacher”. That’s the only way we could describe how to drive fast and speed as he didn’t speak english and we didn’t know french. He laughed when we mentioned Schumacher and he responded by putting his pedals to the metal when the opportunities arose to do so.

We went through numerous toll booths and at each toll booth he would comment on the lady collecting his money by saying oh magnifeco! The old geezer was a pervert after all. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare thanks to this old man. There were no more drama’s to follow as our plane took off on time and landed earlier than expected.

It was an awesome ski trip in the 3 Valleys albeit the cancellations and dramas that ensued. Would I go there again? Probably not as there are other resorts to explore. If you haven’t been the I highly recommend the 3 Valleys!

One final thing I would like to say is I will never do business with that stupid bus company again. Good riddance!

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I did spend most of my time in Courchevelle winding down the red runs and taking some final snaps of the trip. The red runs weren’t that difficult but you still had to be a little bit careful as majority of it were steep. The snow was rather fluffy and like some of the old geezers on the mountain said “best snow they’ve skied on for a while”.

I did spend some time in the family park watching the others do their tricks and cameos on the obstacles laid out on the course. I was also taking photos of them doing their tricks but the tricks were quite novice so the end result was not very good photos! I wanted them to fly off the beams or somersault over the jumps but I got nothing, just measly little jumps that I could have done myself. I better to some improvements next time.

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Again visibility was very poor but I was hoping that if I ventured to Meribel the visibility would be abit better as many blue/red runs were at an altitude where it was okay to see. I can’t figure out if its lower or higher but it also might depend on conditions like the wind, temperature and so on. Ok getting too technical.

The Meribel side was adequate for skiing, I could actually see the runs and the weather even began to get a bit better with sunny spells. We even went back to Val Thorens to do some of the runs we didn’t do first time around. The only memorable run was going up the fenicular and once we got there, the winds were howling and I felt sorry for those who didn’t have helmets or goggles. That ice really hurt!

We were literally skiing down blind, you couldn’t see anything at all. The wind was so strong up there that it moves you in the direction its blowing. The ice was screaming out to hurt you and it was relentless for the entire run. Only when we made it to a lower altitude the conditions became powerless to hurt us. Despite the obstacles it was definitely a challenge run to fly down without hurting yourself or dislodging your ski’s across the mountain face.

We left Val Thorens a tiny bit earlier this time so that we don’t repeat what we did the other day by missing the lift for tomorrow is the last day of skiing in the 3 valleys.

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As blind as I am already, I could probably see about 2 meters in front of me. What made it worse was that the everything was white. You could not see any contours, patches of snow or even the nearest skier. Everything looked flat so you were skiing under the false impression that the run had no bumps whatsoever. If you hit a bump, you wouldn’t know of it until you smack into the ground.

I spent half the day in Courchevel trying to ski down fluffy blue runs. It did feel like the blue runs had suddenly changed to red so I was extra careful not to slam into a tree or someone else.

It was a difficult day of skiing but it was good in a way to learn how to ski in those kind of conditions.

Instead of eating in that night, we headed to the Courchevel resort which was a much bigger town with many more restaurants (expensive) and bars.

First we checked out a ski shop with ridiculous price ski’s. They were going at about 5000 euro’s a pop. You wouldn’t even want to put them on your feet to ski with them! One scratch and its depreciation value will be dropping down to nought. Despite the price tag, the ski’s did look pretty cool and some of them were as light as a pillow, that’s carbon fiber technology for you.

There was even a snow board covered in gold, okay not real gold but you get the idea. You couldn’t possibly go down a piste or off piste with a board covered in gold, it’ll just be too heavy to turn. You’d sink in an inch of snow and buried in a meter of snow. There would be no bouancy or balance whatsoever. Everyone would be chasing you to get a slice of that gold.

It took us a while to find an adequate restaurant, some places were too extravagant, other places didn’t serve food and we just happen to choose a restaurant where the theme for the night was … pirates. We had an annoying male waiter who acted like a Pirate for the whole night, he just couldn’t get out his Pirate cosplay role. The female pirate waiters although dressed in pirate gear were however normal and didn’t say ARGH every sentence.

Some of us were craving some iron so a burger was on the cards. I ordered a mixed make your own fajita (chicken beef). Damn that was tasty with my capirinha drink.

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With our packed lunches in my rucksack, we were going to have a full day on the mountain. At VT, we went up to the highest point in the 3 Valleys that the ski lift or gondola could take us. Actually I lied, I reached Cimo Caren which was at 3200m, while the others went to the glacier which was 20m higher but the runs going back down to terra firma were mostly black runs, which I couldn’t brave just yet.

After taking photos at the highest point of the trip, I had to venture down what was the hardest run that I’ve had to do so far (actually ever). It was a red run and from the gondola I did see a precarious drop and my eyes were not deceiving me as I approached the cliff face. You couldn’t go around it, the only way was down and down I went.

I started off slow by going far wide as possible then turning sharply and repeating the process until I got more comfortable and skied till the half way point. It wasn’t terribly hard as I would have imagined, it was like a blue run but only a tad steeper and a bit more ice. Other than it was a perfectly fine run and after doing that, any red run could be done!

I started making my way back to La Tania and it was going to take me at least 2 hours from Val Thorens and I had to make the last lift at 430 in Meribel otherwise I would be stranded with no easy way to get back apart from a bus or a taxi if it was operating or did that route.

I thought I would easily make it back but after taking 2 incorrect chair lifts, I was in strife and it was going to be somewhat of a miracle if I were to make the last chair lift from Meribel. I thought the only way I was going to have a chance was if I were to do as many red runs as possible, so I did.

Just by chance, the others were running late to and we somehow managed to bump into each other on the final red run before the lift. I was absolutely knackered at that point and I still had another run to go. By this time it was about 430 and our chances of getting on to the last chair lift were far fetched. So just as I thought, the lift was closed when we got there, perfect!

My contingency plan was to ski to the bottom of the village and get a bus. The others had different ideas and thought going through the woods through unknown terrain and duration was the way to go.

You would think that my plan is a far better alternative then venturing through the woods but my plan is not superior when you miss a couple of signs and get terribly lost on a cross country track (well that’s what I had thought at the time).

It was getting quite dark when I got lost and I had no idea where I was going. Some signs say to go this way, other signs that way. I was skiing on what looked like a cross country track but it was more like a walking trail covered in snow. There were benches here and there so I knew I was close to civilization. I stopped skiing once the tracks got too narrow and just started walking in the boots.

When the trail stopped there were abandoned houses and houses in mid construction. Once I saw people, I knew I had made it, made it to Meribel Village which is not the main resort, an off cut almost. I found the bus stop and waited for about 30 minutes without any luck.
Meanwhile back in the woods, the others were still trekking through the snow with their gear in hand. It was pitch black now and they’d almost made it to La Tania by following the signs, Eventually they got out of the woods and made it onto the main blue run of La Tania.

Back in Meribel Village I was still waiting for the bus, the timetable was nonsense and I really had no idea what its route was or even if it went to La Tania at all. However I did manage to spot a sticked on the bus timetable of a taxi company. I called and asked if they spoke english and whether or not they could take me back to La Tania.

The taxi driver said yes and he arrived within 5 minutes. The taxi drive to La Tania was at most 5km and it cost me €26. Ouch! But at least I made it back to the apartment.

The others had already arrived back and taken my order for pizza’s. As I walked up to the apartment, we met again only this time they got back with some effort while I was €26 poorer. What an eventful day!!!!

I skied the blue runs mainly in the Meribel area and this by far is my favorite resort. My favorite run is the Pelozet from the top of Tougnette 2 all the way down to St Martin de Belleville. This run went on for about 20-30 minutes going at a moderate pace. I had to stop every 5 minutes just so my legs could rest especially the quads as the turns do really put immense pressure on it.

Meribel has many long Blue runs and there are plenty of lifts that operate this area connecting many runs together. My aim was to do every blue run before tackling any reds. But this wasn’t going to take more than 1 day so I did as much as I could before lunch.

It’s always a bit of a trek going from 1 resort to the other but thankfully the 3 valleys ski lifts are well connected to get you to whereever it is you need to go. From Meribel back to apartment in La Tania, it takes at least an hour depending on where you are.

Its good to come back to the apartment for lunch if your are in the vicinity or if the travel time back is about an hour. However if its more than an hour then its not worth traveling back. Pack a decent lunch and spend more time on the mountain, after all ski lifts are only opened between about 900-1630!

Food is definitely expensive on the mountain even in the local supermarket, so a healthy budget is required if you want some decent food.

Once lunch was devoured, I was back on the mountain trying to clear all the Blue runs on the Courchevel side. All runs are sign posted quite well with the name of the run and also a number. The lower you go down the mountain and down a particular run, the number decreases. This is a good system as its easy if you need to meet someone at a particular point or in case you have an accident and if you are still conscious, you can roughly give your location to emergency services (provided you can speak french or if they understand English).

The best part about skiing these runs is the peace and tranquility. I hardly saw anyone on the runs and some runs there weren’t anyone on it. I guess one of the reasons why no one is on the piste or mountain is because their planes have probably been cancelled just like us!

There isn’t much of things to do at night in La Tania. The only thing opened are the pubs and restaurants. Most shops close before 8pm and there isn’t really much that’s going on. I’m surprised there’s a Michelin star restaurant in the town and there’s only about 5 restaurants in total. You’re going to have to pay through the roof to eat at a restaurant and even more if its a Michelin star one. The best option for dinner that night was an adequate size pizza, with a bottle of wine (good wine and cheap) and watching the African’s Cup on tele.

Meanwhile the others arrived back later than usual and the reason being was that they missed the last ski lift back to La Tania. They waited around for the bus but it never came so they managed to hitch a ride back to the apartment!

The weather was perfect today, nice and sunny and such a different contrast to the last couple of days in London where its been miserable but there should be no surprises there.

A 3 valleys 6 day lift pass will set you back about €223. It will let you ski Courchevelle, Meribel, and Val Thorens which are the main resorts. The lift pass will also allow you to ski other resorts inbetween those 3 resorts including La Tania, St Martin, Les Menuires and La Masse.

I spent most of the day around La Tania and Courchevelle 1550 skiing the green and blue runs. I have never skied on ski runs (piste) that are longer than a few minutes. These runs lasted 10-15 minutes and I would have to take a break every 5 minutes to catch my breathe and loosen my legs as they were sore and strained due to the pressures of turning constantly.

The scenery in the 3 Valleys are stunning and it was difficult to stop the temptation of taking photos every 5 minutes. Around every turn or down a new piste is a photo oppurtunity.

By the end of the day I was quite sore and I’m sure most people will feel the same after the first day of a skiing trip. Stretching and warming down defitenely helps ease the pain. Also a nice pizza and beer tops off the first day of skiing.

Before leaving to go to the airport, we checked the EasyJet flight to Lyon, France departing 630am and it was still scheduled to fly and all looked well. We arrived at Gatwick Airport at about 5am and checked all our baggage in and headed to waiting lounge.

You would think that if you are waiting to board a flight it is scheduled to fly and everything is ready to go. Shortly after buying some breakfast, we glanced at the departure flight screen to find our flight had been cancelled!

We spoke to the airline staff whom weren’t very helpful. The reason due to cancellation is due to the shortage of crew members. They said because of the snow, the staff couldn’t make it to work. Surely they would know this before checking passengers on a flight.

So we left the waiting lounge, walked through a few doors and ended up at baggage carousel. We got our luggage then proceeded to walk to EasyJet helpdesk to claim a refund or change flights.

The airline staff said the flight was going to be rescheduled to 1630 and we knew straight away that flight was going to be cancelled with further snow expected.

While waiting in the long line to speak to EasyJet staff about a new flight, the guy standing behind us ripped the smelliest fart ever! I turned around and bang, this smell just hit me in the face; it was ruthless!

We gave up lining up at the EasyJet line because we knew it was a waste of time and all flights today by EasyJet would be cancelled. Non budget airlines however had a far better chance of flying so we headed to the North Terminal and spoke to British Airways.

Our new plan was to fly to Geneva, Switzerland and somehow use our connecting bus ticket orginally issued for Lyon and use it in Geneva because they were the same bus company.

British Airways quoted us £150 one way flight to Geneva at 1030am which was quite expensive considering we paid £50 return to Lyon. There was also a BA flight at 2pm for £125 which was too late.

Instead we ran around the terminal and spoke to any travel company that flew to Geneva. By chance the first person we spoke to said there were available seats and the flight was leaving at 830am for £100, so we agreed. Since the flight was non budget, we knew we’d go to Geneva!

The flight was delayed by perhaps 1 hour so we managed to arrive in Geneva at about midday. We gained momentum in the luck stakes as we managed to get bus tickets to La Tania at no extra cost when it should have beem more.

We arrived at the apartment at approximately 4pm and this was only 1 hour late if we had caught the original Lyon flight, so its not a bad effort.

I couldn’t help but notice the man and his luggage. Everyone was rolling around standard size suitcases or walking with back packs but not this character. He was wheeling around a tiny suitcase of which 250 ply sheets of toilet paper could be the only thing that could fit in there.

Does he not like backpacks? Or will his poor shoulders scream murder for carrying a lightweight pack?

This man or any other man should not be using these suitcases! They should be handed back to their rightful owners, spoilt little kids who can pack their own powdered milk so they can nourish themselves throughout their holiday.

We’ll spare this guy the ruler this time, if there is a repeat, send him to China where an act like this could face the lethal injection. Do the crime, you don’t have much time!

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This is a cool birthday gift. Ramblings at any time.

The bus from Shinjuku to Tokyo Narita airport takes about 1-1.5 hours on the bus. The train I believe takes just as long and I would guess be a bit more expensive. The bus costs 3000 yen one way and since there are two/three terminals at the airport, they categorize your bag with different colored tags so you know when to get off. I thought it was a great system.

It is a bit sad to leave Tokyo and even more depressing knowing that you’ll be back into London in 12 hours, eat dinner, sleep and be at your office desk the next day.

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Today was the busiest day in Tokyo, I wanted to do so many things before leaving Tokyo and luckily the weather today was perfect; hot and sunny.

First stop was back to Roppongi to visit the Sky Deck. I had actually called them in the morning to confirm it was opened otherwise I wouldn’t have been. The view from the Sky Deck of Tokyo is amazing, it is so DENSE! It seems like there is no room left to build anything whatsoever.

On the way to Yoyogi Park, my friend suggested I visit Meiji Shrine. This park/shrine is a welcome sight from all the apartments, skyscrapers and people crammed in Tokyo. It is particularly nice on a hot day like today to walk amongst the trees and shade. At Meiji Shrine I witnessed a marriage but it felt like a funeral procession, cheer up people!

I wanted to check out the freaks or should I say the EMO’s at Yoyogi Park dressed in their Manga attire. I know Sundays are usually when they’re out and about but I was hoping some would appear on Saturdays. Sadly, they’re only out on Sundays as I couldn’t find anyone around dressed up.

Instead I witnessed a show involving skaters and bike riders in a game of reverse limbo whereby the skater/biker would jump the pole and slowly the height would increase until everyone who participated was eliminated. This was all on a stage, with a DJ spinning the decks in the background. I don’t think it was an organized event; it was like these guys rocked up, set up some decks on a stage sitting in the middle of nowhere and began to draw the crowd including skaters and bikers.

It was an entertaining event nonetheless with the BMX easily clearing the bar and eliminating his opponents. I’m not sure what he won in the end, probably a sushi set.

Next up was the shopping district mecca of Harajaku and also Shibuya. I have never seen so much people in my life just wandering up and down the streets in the same vicinity. I thought London was congested, this area and Tokyo in general was like a global gathering.

Here I did see some girls dressed up in Manga costumes but it seemed to me like they were there to make money, i.e. take a picture with me and pay me X amount of yen but I could be wrong as I didn’t approach them. I couldn’t help but do some shopping myself so I entered this cool T-shirt store and bought about 3 T-shirts just to fit into the crowd (I’m joking).

I’m waiting to see how the Oxford Street / Regent Street crossing is like when it becomes transformed into a street crossing like in Tokyo. I want to see if it gets as busy as Shibuya. Somehow I don’t think it can compete to the sheer number of people crossing the road in 20 different directions dodging each other in the process. It would have to be the longest wait in front of the traffic lights for someone driving a vehicle.

That night I headed to Daiba, where the Fuji TV station is situation and also Rainbow Bridge. I was here mainly to take some night photos of the bridge and as much of the Tokyo city skyline as possible which was dependent on which buildings had their lights or rather neon lights on.

Daiba is on an island that is connected to Tokyo via the Rainbow Bridge. It’s quite a nice place to chill out by the water on a summer night and relatively easy to get to on the Tokyo Metro trains.

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I was out of the hotel door at 5am and headed to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market to explore the premises, examine the seafood that was on offer and see what the fuss is all about in regards to the Tuna auctions. It is quite busy at the seafood market with funny looking and operated vehicles dashing up and down the aisles filling orders for the businesses.

I can’t believe how much fresh seafood was here, it was definitely seafood heaven and it was by far the freshest seafood I’ve ever seen in the world so far at a market apart from the frozen tuna. Fish were still swimming around in their containers; it was like they’d just been thrown in a box straight from the sea. I really can’t say if the produce is expensive or inexpensive as I didn’t take notice of the price. I was too busy taking photos of the seafood being sold and admiring the size of the scallops – gigantic!

I didn’t find the tuna auction interesting at all. It was just a bloke standing in the center of the room taking bids and offers. He was surrounded by a large group of blokes raising their hands and that was pretty much it. The tuna was all frozen and once sold would just be loaded onto a wooden cart and wheeled away to one of the many seafood businesses selling this on to their customers. Some stores would sell the tuna whole, others would saw it in half literally, while others chopped and filleted their pieces of tuna to manageable and consumable sizes.
On the outskirts of the market are restaurants that serve ramen noodles as well sushi and all things seafood. I couldn’t stomach sushi so early in the morning so after eyeing where I wanted to go for lunch, I headed back to the hotel for a nap.

I returned later to a restaurant called Sushizanmai and got a plate full of sushi with different types of fish. Most sushi items I knew what they were but there were some I had no idea but I still ate it anyway. There was raw tuna, snapper, eel, crab, fish roe and many others.

This place is by far the best place I’ve ever had Sushi and everything I ate was so soft and delicious. The fish were delicate and the wasabi just right burning through my nostril. The best thing was that it only cost me around £13 and I was completely satisfied, it touched the spot (my stomach) nicely.

Roppongi was my next destination. Roppongi is the city or suburb where all the international shops and restaurants are located. I wasn’t interested in those particular places but instead I was looking to go up to the Sky Deck to see Tokyo from above. Unfortunately due to the weather that day, the Sky Deck was closed but you could go to the observation deck. Well to me that was pointless, if I can’t go to the top floor/terrace and have non obstructed views then there was no point going up there!

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I went back to Akihabara to pick up some camera gear specifically filters that I’d broken in Norway as well as missing hoods and caps I’d lost in Chicago. I thought the prices were quite cheap compared to what they sell elsewhere and best of all I could try out different lenses and cameras they had.

Now stocked up with the camera goods I made my way to the Imperial Palace and entered its premises. Yesterday I got as far as the foot bridge but today I got to go inside and the best thing, entry was free. The Imperial Palace is not that great of a place to visit as there wasn’t much to see inside; it was quite baron to be honest. There is a park inside the palace that sort of overlooks the city but you can’t see over the skyscrapers. The Imperial Palace sits just on the outskirts of the main CBD where all the finance buildings are located so you only have a good view of this.

The plan tonight was to do some night photography so I packed the bag with the tripod and camera gear. Due to the adverse weather conditions (i.e. rain) I decided only to go as far as Shinjuku’s food court. I stocked up on dumplings, a box of inari-sushi and some fried prawns. I headed back to the hotel, watched the Mummy 3 and cleaned out the food that I purchased.

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In the morning it was time to leave Lake Kawaguchiko and head back into Tokyo to explore the city. I thought coming back into the city was going to take twice the amount of time because the traffic would be really congested even though the bus is driving on the elevated highway. I arrived in Tokyo at around midday and headed for the hotel in Shinjuku. Unfortunately they didn’t let me check in yet so I just dropped off my bags and decided to come back later in the evening.

I didn’t have any sort of guide books with me or have any idea what to do in Tokyo so the first stop was the Tokyo Metropolitan Office. You probably don’t walk from the underground train to the Metro Office but most likely from street level. From the underground station to the Metro Office there are a large number of homeless people sleeping around near the entrances to Metro Offices. These homeless people set up mini cardboard camps that are separated about 3 meters from each other. I am surprised that these homeless people sleep here in the confines of government/metropolitan offices.

I didn’t want to spend at the Metropolitan Office so when I got inside, I just grabbed 20 brochures and left the premises in order to meet my friend on time at Shinjuku. I got lost at the labyrinth that is of Shinjuku Station. While trying to find the Central East exit to meet my friend, I found a great food court selling some amazing food (sushi, dumplings, fried goodies) and took note of it to come back later and buy dinner or lunch.

The afternoon was spent around Electric Town aka Akihabara, checking out the Manga stores and electronic shops. We then headed to the Imperial Palace when it started to rain and by the time we got there it was about to close so we made our way back to Shinjuku for dinner.

We chose a random restaurant in Shinjuku just because it looked good from the menu. It was difficult to communicate with the waiter as he spoke little English. Then out of nowhere a Bangladeshi came out from the kitchen to our table and explained some of the dishes to us. What we ordered was mainly pork in its different sauces as well as some very odd entrée servings of raw octopus, fish guts (or cuttlefish) and picked prawns. Steer clear of the first two delicacies as they were horrible.

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It was a very overcast day in Lake Kawaguchiko but a couple of us from the Hostel decided to hire some bicycles and ride around the lakes. There are 5 lakes in total hence this area is called the five lakes, duh. I wanted to go to all of them but that was not feasible on the bikes we had so we just decided to go around Lake Kawaguchiko and Lake Saiko. For most of the ride, it was on a designated cycle path but there are parts of the ride where you have to ride on the road.

It was fairly quiet on the roads so you should be fine. The terrain is quite flat for most of the journey but just as you move to Lake Saiko, there is a relatively steep climb. It’s only a short climb so if you have nothing to do in Lake Kawaguchiko, riding a bike is a great way to explore the area. You don’t even need a helmet, just bring a backpack with some water, nibbles and you’re set for the day.

There’s some splendid views to enjoy while you ride around the country side. We visited one of bat caves and it was quite possibly one of the worst tourist attractions ever. The cave is tiny, you can walk and crawl around in a matter of minutes. There wasn’t a bat in sight, I guess for obvious reasons and supposedly where the bats hibernate, they’ve blocked off the tunnel entrance.  If you fancy stopping at the caves, feel free to do so. The only benefit I can see from visiting these caves is to cool down from the heat, natural air conditioning.

The biking adventure took about 6-7 hours and you really get a sore ass sitting on those rented bikes. It’s not as bad as the time I rode from San Francisco to Muir Woods but it was uncomfortable nonetheless.

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We took several rests along the way to the summit but the longest rest was at the 8th station at 3am. It was freezing up there and because we didn’t have adequate gear, it wasn’t a good idea to summit too early and freeze at the higher altitude. Even at the 8th station, the cold was unbearable and the howling winds made it even worse. There are benches you can sit on at each station so at the 8th station benches we wanted to take at least 45 minutes of rest or even nap. To counter the cold, we three strangers huddled up and shared our body warmth (still dressed of course). Everyone walking past would think, wtf are these guys doing? I managed to sleep for 10 minutes despite shivering for most of that time. All I had one was a t-shirt, thin north face jacket and trousers. I was barely warm in those clothes and I kept thinking when is the sun going to rise so I can get some warmth!

At 4:45am the sun broke over the horizon and the summit was edging closer. We sat on the side of the mountain taking in the sun rise and wondering to ourselves, if this has been all worth it? As the sun rose higher and higher above the horizon, we too got closer and closer to the summit. The queue to the summit at this point felt like it was taking longer than at any other stage. I was definitely fatigued and with only 4 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours, I started to feel weary and got a bit of a headache due to the higher altitude.

At 6:00am we reached Mt Fuji Summit and all we could think about was lets hurry up and get out of this wind and descend back to the 5th station. After a few photos we did make our way back down to the Bus. I thought making the descent was far more difficult than ascending to the summit. The reasons being that the road back down was quite slippery with loose rocks and since you were so fatigue it was easy to roll and ankle or tumble and hurt yourself. The entire descent was steep zig zags which felt never ending and I just kept thinking when this shit is going to end. It didn’t help that the others were waiting for me at the end of each zig zag because I was going so slow, sorry guys!!!

I was truly spent near the bottoms end and any amount of energy left was zapped away with the sun now heating me up and burning my face. My legs felt like they were going to collapse on me, I almost rolled my left ankle slipping on a rock and the final steps back to the 5th station felt like the steepest part of the journey. Everyone on the bus was sleeping except for the business men who were standing. We reached the hostel at approximately 10:30am and we only knew of one thing to do and that was to clean up and get some sleep!

My body felt hot like it had a fever when I woke up, my legs felt like they were missing and how I could only got 4 hours sleep was beyond me. My room mate who did the climb said people came into clean and vacuum making lots of noise but I was oblivious too it all. Had I been woken up by these cleaners, I too would have given them dirty looks like she did!

I did nothing for the rest of the evening as there wasn’t much to do in this little town! My fellow Mt Fuji climber and room mates decided to go for a walk and find a restaurant for dinner. We found a Ramen restaurant, ordered a banquet with some beers and enjoyed each others company.

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The Airport Bus from Jason’s place was so convenient. The only problem was that I didn’t understand a word the driver said so when we did arrive at the airport, no one was flying international so I ended up at the domestic airport – thanks driver. I think there was a free bus shuttle service which runs around the airport but I didn’t want to wait around so instead I had to walk about 15-20 minutes to the International Airport with all my gear.

Check-in was straight forward but the only thing that left me a little baffled was when the check-in desk clerk said “please take a seat for 5 minutes while we inspect your bag”. The problem wasn’t checking of the bag but it was how do you know if they have checked it and you were good to go. After about 15 minutes I did see a crowd gather to the side of the check-in desks and it was at this spot that you were able to see customs checking your bags. If you can spot your bag on the desk then that would mean your bag had a problem. I didn’t spot my bag there so just to be sure I confirmed it with one of the check-in managers. Why couldn’t they just tell all passengers before-hand? What if a passenger goes into security and their bags had something suspicious inside? Do they need to come out again or would they just not see their luggage on arrival at the destination?

I fell asleep for most of the flight over to Tokyo and almost missed breakfast. The tail wind coming into Tokyo was very high so it made landing quite difficult. Just before we were about to touch down, the pilot (so I think) had to move the wing slightly upwards before balancing the plane to land. I could see many people hold their breathes or holding tightly on to their front chairs and praying nothing was going happen to the plane. I wouldn’t be surprised if even a little bit of wee came out.

The train to Tokyo and in between was sheer madness. I thought the tube trains got busy but I have to say this is even worse. The sheer number of people moving from one platform to another, cramming into the train, it’s just crazier then I’d ever imagined. My destination was Shinjuku where I was to board a bus and travel a further 1.5 hours to Kawaguchiko for my final destination for the day. Trying to find the Express Bus Terminal at Shinjuku is an adventure in itself and made worse only by the gear I was carrying and the amount of people rushing in all directions. Shinjuku train station is almost like a mega-city in itself and trying to find anything is near impossible. I was walking up stairs, across different terminals and even surfacing to the main streets all to find buses that either go to the airport or somewhere local in Tokyo. It was only until I asked for help that I eventually located the bus terminal to Kawaguchiko.

The journey from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko takes about 1.5 hours at a cost of 1700 yen which is quite cheap. You can take the train there but it is about 3 times more expensive and takes an hour longer.

I stayed at K’s House Mt Fuji hostel and it is quite a clean hostel compared to most hostels I’ve been to. While checking in, I managed to find 2 people to climb Mt Fuji with. I looked at the weather forecast and thought tonight was the only night possible to climb to the summit and see the sun rise.

• We started the journey at 6pm and walked to the bus stop.
• The bus left at 7pm to the 5th Station which took about 50 minutes.
• We began walking to the summit at 8pm.
• We were all under dressed and weren’t prepared for the weather conditions as we climbed higher and higher.
• There were too many people climbing to the summit, I would say about 1000 people and lining up behind one another and climbing meant the hike/climb will take twice the time.
• Stupid American teenagers pushing in and it was annoying that they were so loud and causing a fracas. I only hope they froze once they got to the summit as a number of them too were under-dressed.
• If I had the chance, I would knock every one of those little shits back to the 5th station. Americans already have a bad reputation as travelers, these freshman’s add to that bad rep.
• Climbing wasn’t difficult as you couldn’t go at your own pace. Until someone moved up and took a step, then you can take a step and go up. This was repeated for about 10 hours until the summit.

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Luckily before I went to bed that night I double checked my flight details otherwise I would have missed my flight. I thought the flight was at 12:00pm but actually it was at 9:20am so that meant I had to leave the apartment at 6am to have sufficient time to check in. There is a bus below Jason’s apartment that goes directly to Gimpo Airport. That is very convenient and saves me going on the metro train swapping and changing about 3 times. The bus was only 6000 won, a damn bargain and it only takes 50 minutes whereas the train would take about 1.5 hours.

The only thing bad about the bus is that it doesn’t let you know when to get off. So instead of dropping me off at the International Airport, I arrived at the Domestic Airport which resembled a ghost town and then walked for about 15 minutes to the International Airport where there was just a few more people (mainly Japanese) wheeling their suitcases around. Gimpo airport even has its own cinema, now that’s another first. I couldn’t possibly watch a movie at 7am in the morning. I wonder if there’s a side screen which displays flight times for those travelers’ killing time in the cinema and waiting to board that plane. I’m surprised it was even open this early and even the snack bar was open with the beautiful aroma of fresh popcorn.

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I didn’t do much today and just decided to kick back at Jason’s place. We just went to try out some Vietnamese cuisine downstairs. Vietnamese is quite popular here especially the noodle soups (pho), why wouldn’t it be popular? Everyone loves that MSG goodness. Later in the evening when the rain began to ease, we jumped on the Metro line for 1 stop to a suburb called Ori. There we went to the local plaza to watch Transformers 2. Tickets are 8000 won and we got 3rd row seats. 3rd from the front I mean so it wasn’t the greatest seat in the world.

In Seoul particularly at department stores they have this machine that allows you to insert your wet umbrella into some plastic so it doesn’t drip and leak water all over the shop. It’s a great idea but may be costly to provide the plastic, someone must be paying for that! These machines only work for the long umbrellas and not the retractable ones. It’s a very simple device; it’s just like placing a long plastic bag over the umbrella so that water doesn’t go all over the floor. I will assume they throw away the plastic in the bin once they’re finished at the department store.

I find it amusing that at most if not all train stations there are full body size mirrors which you can use to groom yourself, check your hair, your make up and so on.

There are so many underground markets in Seoul. Long labyrinths and networks of stalls that usually connect up with a train station. Above ground there may be department stores and fancy shops but just below where you stand, you can find similar stores but I think they’re predominantly stores that sell cheaper products and different sorts of items. You’ll always find a store somewhere in Seoul even in the oddest of places. Sometimes I think anyone can set up a store and sell something but surely there is some sort of regulation or license required in order to sell goods.

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The torrential rain came in again today so while Jason was teaching at the local school I headed to TechnoMart; a large electronic department store in Gangbyeon to look at some goods. I can only describe TechnoMart as a sophisticated swap meet or computer fair where you can bargain with the shop/stall owners. There are about 8 floors of consumer goods ranging from cameras, white goods, PC peripherals and other things. The shops themselves are like mobile phone outlets in shopping centers so if you were thinking tables with goods laid out on them then you’re mistaken. The 9/10 floors house the restaurants and also the cinema complex. The goods are cheap and I managed to buy a wireless router for about 37000 WON which is roughly about $37US.

For dinner we headed to Seohyeon which was about 2 stops from Migeum to a restaurant serving pork and a million side dishes. The pork was basically fried on the hot plate in the middle of the table, together with some onion, mushrooms and also kim chi. Our table wasn’t very big but they managed to fill every inch with a side plate of food. That’s what happens when you eat at a Korean restaurant, although you may just order some meat dish, it will come with about 6-10 side dishes.

After dinner we decided to check out the night life in Seohyeon, the first bar we went to was called Lose Control. The music was rap and very loud, the venue itself was very dark and the crowd was mixed between locals and foreigners. After 1 drink we decided to leave and head to an Irish bar to meet up with J’s work colleagues and friends. This venue was much better with softer music and the crowd consisted of more foreigners than locals like you’d expect. We drank and drank and spoke till the early morning before taking a taxi back home.

Taxi’s are dirt cheap here, our trip was only about 5-8 km at most and it only cost about 1500 WON which is about $1.50! For some reason I just had the thought of taxi’s being really expensive here but I was quite wrong by a long way. I just wonder if taxi drivers make any money at all if the rates are that low?

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To make the most of another sunny day I decided to head to the seaside city called Incheon and Wolmido Island. I envisioned a nice beach town with sand and blue water but I was totally misinformed. Incheon itself is just a port town and Wolmido Island is renowned for its seafood restaurants and amusement park. There are no beaches to speak of, the water is green and murky. You can’t even get close to the water as the walls are built up quite high. There are people fishing by these walls but I don’t see them catching any sort of fish in these waters. On the water itself were a couple of container ships and smaller ships ferrying cars and passengers to different islands.

Wolmido Island is still under construction. The latest feature is a monorail which runs around the entire island so in the future you will have the choice of this monorail or the bus. I didn’t know there was a tourist ferry which takes you around the vicinity. I just missed the boat as I was trying to read where it goes and how much it costs. When you buy a ticket, you don’t see the sales person which is weird. There is a small opening in which I think you slide money under and the sales person will hand you the tickets. I pushed the money through but I didn’t get any response despite her hands there counting the money. Was I doing something wrong? what is the etiquette? I still hadn’t work out how to get tickets so the boat left without me.

After wandering around the area, I got myself a slurpee to cool off and studied the local map of the area on the giant board. Then the most bizarre thing happened while I was standing there reading the map. The map had to be about 3 metres wide and 2 meters high. The closest shop to me was about 10 meters behind me and about 5 meters on both sides. There was no one around this area so to say it was crowded is absurd. As I stood there sipping my slurpee, I heard some feet shuffle and then all of a sudden I heard someone scream really loud. I turned around to see what the fracas was all about and then immediately I saw this old lady on the floor almost face first into the ground.

I then thought what the fuck happened? I then helped pick up the old lady when I noticed her injuries looked quite painful. Her injuries include a grazed knee, elbow and hand. I thought she may have just slipped and landed like that but her friend pointed to my bag. Did I knock her over with my bag without even realising? surely I would have felt a bit of force if I happened to knock someone over. Sorry old lady but I don’t think it was my fault. Due to the space and surroundings, why would you be that close to someone or how would you bump into someone when if its not even crowded!

That evening I checked out of the hotel and headed towards the Bandung region for a city called Migeum where my high school friend has been staying for the past 2 years teaching English. I was going to crash at his apartment until I leave Seoul and get him to show me around the area.

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Finally the sun came out today and the temperature was around 30 degrees Celsius with humidity up in the 95% range. To summarise, it was going to be really hot and humid day but I needed to make the most of it so I decided to climb my first mountain in South Korea called Dobongsan which was in the Bukhansan National Park, north of Seoul (about 40 minutes by train on Line 1).

Arriving in Dobongsan, all I could see was old people donning backpacks, hiking books and poles. There wasn’t many young people, one reason being they’re all at work and the other reason could be that they’re not interested in this sort of activity.

Before you even start climbing the mountain, you have to walk through a series of eateries and outdoor stores. You will find local stores to international stores selling all the outdoor gear that you need. Talk about commercialism in this area, it’s well prepared to feed and cloth those venturing into the national park. You can even have some chicken feet before you climb up to the peak! (Gross)

The national park is well maintained and the locals take pride in making it clean for others including tourists. If trees have fallen and are blocking the walking path, they will be cut down immediately. There are also path sweepers at the lower reaches of the park where its concreted and there are plenty of people who pick up and clean rubbish anywhere on the mountain.

I spoke to one of the park rangers about the best route to take to get to Dobongsan Peak. He outlined on a map for me the best route to take and said it was going to take 2 hours. The distance was only 3km so I sort of questioned why it was going to take me 2 hours to get up there. The climb up to Dobongsan can get really busy during the holiday season which is now and starting next week. I’ve heard that sometimes you need to queue in order to get up there because there is so many people climbing it. I cannot imagine that a national park can get this busy but can see it happening due to the sheer population of Seoul and ease of transportation to get here.

The first 2.3km of the hike was a walk in the park and I thought that there was no way it was going to take 2 hours to get up to the peak, at most 1 hour! The next 0.2 km was a bit of a struggle and the final 0.5km took about an hour, I couldn’t believe it. It started to become more of a mountain climb as opposed to a mountain hike. To be honest I struggled to get to the top, the humidity was a killer and the sweat was uncontrollable – I mean when is it controllable? I have to respect all the oldies climbing the same area, they got up there without too much effort. In total it took about 1.45 hours to get up there but it’s definitely worth it. The breeze to cool you down, the 360 degrees view and a nice place to eat some grub.

The descent of the mountain is possibly more dangerous than ascending. It is quite easily to slip on the rocks and go for a heavy tumble which may result in broken bones, concussions and possibly even death. If someone elderly took a tumble, I hope they’ve prepared some sort of will. It was very tempting at times walking past the stream and thinking about taking the plunge. It would have been bliss just to cool off like that and lie in there for hours. I know you are allowed to but unless you brought a change of clothes, you won’t dry off any time soon.

The hike took 3 hours in total and one of the more difficult climbs I’ve done due to the heat and climb. After the climb, I didn’t want to do anything else but get back to the hotel, shower and took a nap.

Dinner was in central Seoul with my friend J. Before that though we headed up to Namsan Seoul Tower to admire the city of Seoul or rather what was visible of Seoul in amongst all that smog. On the terrace of the Namsan Seoul Tower is the famous display of locks, padlocks and notes of love/wishes secured on the fences of the terrace. I don’t know how this started but I think its a bit of an eyesore. I wonder if they’ll remove all the locks at some point if the rust becomes too much?

I don’t know the name of the restaurant or what the dishes we had were called. The dishes were spicy as usual but any hotter I wouldn’t have been able to handle. We had some chicken, cooked in a stew almost with translucent noodles which sat over a hot grill of course. I also got some fried rice with this dish but what they actually do is, once the chicken and noodles are about done, the remainder is put in a small bowl. Then the grill is switched back on, the rice is then put back into the remaining liquid and mixed together almost like a risotto. Great way to re-use the food but it was a bit strange cooking the same dish twice with slightly different ingredients blended together.

smiles

I’ve never ever experienced rain like this before. It was torrential rain and it was like god had turned his shower on for the entire day. In this weather you couldn’t do anything but stay indoors. Forget hiking, you’d be slipping and sliding on the rocks down the nearest cliff. Forget sight seeing, it would be hard enough to hold an umbrella to keep dry let alone take a photo. The puddles were no longer small enough to jump, they became more like torrents rushing down from the hill. In amongst all this water and flooding pandemonium, all public transport were still running as normal unlike London where you’ll be delayed to a drop of rain or a flake of snow.

All I did for most of the day was watch TV in my hotel room and visited the local Internet Cafe. The internet cafe is quite popular with the gamers and to find an internet cafe in Seoul, just look for the “PC” signs. It’s relatively cheap as well and compared to what the hotel charges it’s dirt cheap. The hotel charges 5000 won for 30 mins or 12,000 won for 24 hours and the internet is really, really slow. The internet/gaming cafe across the road charges 1200 won per hour and its very fast. The cafe is split into two, 1 for smokers and 1 for non smokers although the smoke does drift into the non smokers room.

I didn’t know how to log on to the computer at first but once the worker showed me, it was straight forward. Just enter the number on your card, which you get at the front desk on to the computer login box and you’ve logged in. All the PC’s had 24″ LCDs and the chairs are quite comfortable. It’ll need to be for those hardcore gamers. If you ever want food like pot noodles or a drink, there is a button on your desk which you can press to get some food or assistance. What a great service!

For dinner I met up with my friend Jason who has been in Korea for about 2 years teaching english. We were to meet in Gangnam which is known as the Chapel St or Regent St of Seoul with all the expensive labels. The internet cafe was about 25m to the underground metro station but it was just bucketing down. I couldn’t run to the station just incase I’d slip with the thongs (flip-flops) I was wearing.  So I walked briskly to the station and by the time I got there … I was absolutely soaked, dripping from head to toe. Even on the train I was still dripping while pretty much everyone else was dry and looking at this idiot who doesn’t know what an umbrella is.

On arrival at Gangnam I was already late and it was made even worse because I didn’t read the last part of them email. The last part of the email stated at which exit to meet. There are about 9 exits at Gangnam Station so I went from exit to exit and finally found my friend at exit 6. At each exit it was chaotic with the people waiting on the stairs waiting for the rain to ease but that wasn’t going to happen any time that evening. At exit 4 I walked up the stairs to the streets and waited on the corner. Bad idea. There was a huge puddle on the side of the road which I didn’t see until a car whizzed past and a wave of water hit me on the back, perfect.

Jason wasn’t familiar with this place so finding a restaurant was going to be difficult especially in this rain. I was holding the umbrella while Jason was speaking to his girlfriend on the phone. We were dodging waterfalls and rivers until we found a suitable restaurant and just walked in. The restaurant we entered was quite traditional in that you had sit on the floor to eat and there was no english menu whatsoever. Luckily Jason knows some Korean so we ordered the usual dishes. I don’t know how you can sit in this position and eat for an hour or so without stretching your legs. By dinners end when I got up, I couldn’t feel my legs whatsoever.

smiles

11 hours of sleep were plentiful and quite adequate for todays adventures. The plan was to go to Seoul Station and just wander around until my legs were tired.

Morning rush hour is crazy in the underground train stations, guys in suits & women in their heels running from platform to platform, they can’t all be late for work? perhaps it is morning exercise, who knows. The trains are awesome, air conditioned, almost twice the size of an underground tube train so it is quite spacious. So the race begins for everyone once those doors open, they first need to run up about 50 steps, then race along the horizontal escalators and finally wait in queue in lines on the next platform interchange. The winner probably gets a bowl of Kim Chi from the train operator or their boss! I’m surprised those heels don’t get stuck between each escalator platform.

Ok the signs are a bit hard to read so if you end up walking or running with everyone to one platform and then realising you’re on the wrong one you have to drag your ass back the way you came and then look at the map. I did this throughout the day, clearly I am an experienced traveller. Seoul Station didn’t seem all that special but that was because I came out at some weird exit, walked another 30 minutes and realised I went in the wrong direction. If peak hour traffic is going in one direction then you know they are heading towards the city (where I wanted to be). If you are walking in the opposite direction and hoping to reach the city center then you are a fool.

It wasn’t all a lost cause for this fool to walk these uncharted roads as I managed to pass a Women’s only university and walked along the sides of the roads with an elderly citizens brigade going for a walk with tongs in their hand cleaning up the streets. No wonder the streets are spotless. I’m sure if you drop any sort of rubbish in front of them and before it even touches the ground, they’d Twakaendo your ass then clean up the mess and also your lifeless body after a severe beating.

Outside of Seoul Station there are herds of elderly people sitting around, sleeping around or fighting with each other. I saw two old guys pushing each other after one of them threw the other’s hat into the puddle. The police officer also got involved and before I could see a round of Street Fighter take place outside of Seoul Station, it just became verbal stoush.

I came upon a Market called Namdaemun with rows and rows of stalls selling clothes, to food and various other oddities. From that market I ended up at the main shopping district wandering from street to street. I couldn’t decide where to eat for lunch but I just had to make sure they had an English menu. I ended up at some restaurant where they cook for you on your table. I had some charcoal chicken fried with vegies, rice and a spicy sauce. Thankfully it wasn’t flaming hot.

At first I didn’t know how to eat it, like was I suppose to eat from the plate they cooked on or was I missing cutlery? how would I ask? I found the cutlery on the chair but i couldn’t find a plate so I ate from the pan. I looked at everyone else and they weren’t eating off a pan but instead some sort of bowl/plate.

My cup was first stacked on this bowl/plate, so I thought it was for the cup but in actual fact it doubled up as a plate/bowl? way to go doushe-bag. Despite that embarrassing problem, the food was delicious even though it was a tad spicy! I don’t know how to say “mild only please” (“mild” probably doesn’t exist – they’ll probably be thinking, don’t be a pansy!!).

Cheonggyecheon Stream runs through the city, it appears to be man made but it’s a nice place to relax especially under the bridges away from the heat. It’s definitely popular place with the locals and in this heat, it is a cool retreat especially if you tip your toes into the water which you can do.

Despite being a cloudy day, the sun was still making the walking trip quite unpleasant. The humidity is something like 96%, I don’t know what the percentage means on my thermometer its ridiculously hot! I was sweating buckets and my face was constantly leaking from its pores and keeping it constantly wet. So it wasn’t smart then taking a tour of the Gyeongbokgung Palace walking around in the sun but it beats the rain!

Gyeongbokgung is such a huge palace, I took a 1 hour guided tour but I got bored of it so I wandered around the kingdom myself. The only bad thing about this walk was that my pants kept sticking too my legs due to the sweat and they kept slipping down, seriously they’re meant to fit around my waist without a belt.

I might be naive but I can’t see any South Korean citizens steal or pickpocket like how it is so common in England or many Europeans country for that matter. I’ve seen delivery guys on motorcycles leave their helmets on the handle bars when performing the deliveries. Shit, I’ve also saw LCD’s on the back of bikes on the footpath while someone does a delivery. If this was in London, Bucharest or Rome, they’ll probably be on EBAY in minutes including the motorcycle.

I was done after the Palace, after 6 hours of walking I’d had enough and ended up going back to the hotel to shower and rest my legs. Before I took a shower, the hotel reception called me and asked if I could change rooms. I said I’ll only move if I get a bigger room and with the same view so they agreed. I drank 2 cans of coke and 2 bottles of water from the mini-fridge, do I still declare them in my new room? They can give me those for free due to this inconvenience.

I didn’t rest for long as I headed back to Cheonggyecheon Stream for some night photography. Even though it started to rain, I was hoping it would stop by the time I got there. The weather gods did as I asked and I had an hour of photography time down there before it started to bucket down again.

FFS PLEASE STOP RAINING!

smiles

Mon 13/07/2009

I couldn’t sleep on this flight, I had an aisle seat and despite trying a few times to get to sleep, I just couldn’t do it. Instead I watched a movie marathon consisting of 5 movies and they are in no particular order, Quantum of Solace, Monsters vs Alians, Slumdog Millionaire, Yes Man and Madagascar 2. By the time I finished all these movies, I had arrived at Seoul rather sleep deprived. Now I hope the same movies are not shown on the flight back, please show different ones!

I have been on nearly 100 flights but I hadn’t seen what I had seen mid-flight on this plane ever. There was a “self-service” of food and beverages during mid flight, I have never seen so many passengers queue up for some pot noodles. The queues were snaking down the aisle, this must be a stereotype thing so I’d join in on the fun and queued up to see what the fuss was all about. I got my pot noodle fix, together with some chocolate Hergan Dans ice cream.

Arriving in Seoul 1hr late, I met up with J at the airport. The airport was like a ghost-town, there was hardly anyone there. Was it because it was Sunday? or no one was flying anywhere that day? This is supposed to be the worlds #1 airport. I the criteria for being #1 doesn’t mean it has to be the busiest but rather the cleanliness, spacious and uber array of gadgets and electronics. Once we boarded the train into the city, it was bucketing down. This was no ordinary rain, it was like monsoonal rain and it didn’t look like it was going to stop at all today.

We arrived at J’s sister’s place shortly after and it’s a nice cosy 3 bedroom apartment next to a market. Morning brunch was interesting with an abundance of small dishes of vegies, kim chi and various other delicacies I couldn’t recognise. I just kept eating the Kim Chi and the omlette with seaweed in between which I thought was an interesting twist but very tasty!

With the heavy downpour, I couldn’t do much but watch UFC 100 on TV and hanging out with J’s Nephew who drew a cool picture of me on paper. This will now be my new profile photo on facebook. The plan was to get some sleep and then make my way to the hotel and then dinner with J’s Australian friend at the Korean BBQ restaurant near the hotel. J got some sleep but I wanted to power through and not sleep at all or else I will succumb to further jet lag.

Korean BBQ was pretty much the same at home but the only difference I see is that the waiter cooks everything for you from preparing it to the food being ready. I thought that from the menu, we only ordered the pork and we didn’t get any sides. But it turns out they trolley came past not only with the marinated pork, but about 20 other side dishes ranging from salads, kim chi to seaweed and even corn and macaroni, wtf? That must be an american adaptation or something.

After dinner I just went straight to sleep. I couldn’t handle staying up for any longer, it has been almost 32 hours so I just crashed.

smiles

Regardless, I click on the folder where all the redirected emails get sent, right click on the folder and mark them all as read. Now I feel complete and comfortable knowing that I have 0 emails in my inbox! Even on my gmail account I do the same thing. Now there isn’t as many emails flying through but the Spam folder does get very large. Instead of seeing the Spam (528), I make sure all that spam email gets deleted.

I’m sure some of you out there do what I do. Obsessive compulsive? Too much time in front of the computer?

Talk about being a nerd. Stop procrastinating please.

smiles