Six Months of Summer

A morning in Suzhou

2009-01-15T17:19:00.010-05:00

The most interesting thing we did in Suzhou was checking out the local stores. For instance, we found a TV store...

... a kitchen supplies store (check out those wok burners!) ...

... and a bath supplies store, where you can get your own wooden bathtub.

These doors, however, were not for sale and simply up for grabs. Too bad they didn't fit in a suitcase as they would have looked great in our living room.

There were also plenty of local delicacies to try, like little birds (pigeons?) and pigs' noses. We stuck with sweet sesame dumplings.

Traditional buildings by the only remaining canal inside the town

A view of several bridges over the canal. Unfortunately most of the buildings around it were built recently and are nothing special.

The Venice of the East

2009-01-03T18:45:00.002-05:00

I couldn't understand how appropriate the above name was for the city of Suzhou until I saw some pictures on the internet after I returned. Having just two days to explore Shanghai and its outskirts was not enough, and a morning in Suzhou was the best we could do as far as getting out of Shanghai.

Suzhou looked a lot more like Venice in the old days, when the main way of transportation was by water. In the new China of automobiles most of the canals were paved over and you have to get out of Suzhou city and into the country if you want to get a glimpse of its watery past--which we weren't able to do.

Still, it was interesting to see what a smaller city looks like, and, to be fair, the center of Suzhou is still well-preserved with its narrows streets filled with traditional businesses and stores. Unfortunately, there is only the main canal left. A visitor with more time can take a leisurely walk alongside the waterway or visit the numerous gardens. We sat down at a tiny traditional restaurant and had some sweet dumplings before heading back to the metropolis.

A Walk on the Town

2009-01-02T20:44:00.006-05:00

European Architecture around the French Concession

A view into a courtyard. The two-wheeled vehicles and the laundry hanging outside are Shanghai staples.

A well-lit building downtown, opposite the historical People's Park

The lights and crowds of Nanjing Lu, where all domestic and international tourists must set foot at least once.

Another view of Nanjing Lu

Moving pictures from the temple

2008-06-28T10:46:00.004-04:00

The courtyard in the Jade Buddha temple

Past, Present and Future Buddhas

City in motion

2008-06-09T13:47:00.004-04:00

Video, at last! Nanjing Lu by night...

Bright Lights...

2008-05-28T13:36:00.001-04:00

After visiting the Yu Yuan Gardens, our guide brought us back to the French Concession, where our hotel was located. He recommended this restaurant specialized in traditional Shanghainese cuisine and left after we sat down. At first ordering was easy because they had bilingual menus. However, to order more dishes turned out to be pretty difficult, since the waiters did not speak a word (not even yes or no) of English.

My parents and I have been in many situations where we don’t speak the language of the place, but this was probably our hardest time ever trying to communicate. Gestures and pointing were somehow not working, no matter how many different waiters came to our table trying to help. We did manage to get second helpings of one dish, but getting mooncakes or watermelon for desert was a real challenge. Eventually we did get some watermelon.

It had turned out to be a nice day, so we went for a walk after lunch. Around the French Concession there are a lot of small boutiques selling very cute, original outfits for prices that give even Singapore a run for their money. Of course we did some shopping and kept walking, taking notice of the European-inspired architecture as we went along. We made our way to the river, passing the historic People’s Park and busy Nanjing-Lu, with its plethora of neon lights a la Times Square.

It was already dark by the time we got to the river, to take a different look at the Bund and the Pudong. This time it was really hard to see anything at all. Apparently, this is the busiest time of the day to come here, and so we had to hold hands to make sure we didn’t get lost in the crowd. Catching a taxi back to the hotel was difficult too.

We had a quick dinner around the hotel (my mom and I had congee--porridge) and then went to the Cotton Club. Shanghai is somewhat famous for its jazz scene. Especially well-know are the jazz sessions at the historic Peace Hotel, right on the Bund. Unfortunately, the Peace Hotel was closed for renovations, so we took our guidebook’s suggestion to check out this Cotton Club. This place is an unassuming bar not too far from the French Concession where there are live bands every night, including a lot of jazz.

On that night, there was rock and folk on the menu (performed by Americans, even though the audience was mostly Chinese), and since it was a weeknight, it wasn’t very crowded, so we had a nice view to the stage. It was a different way to experience Shanghai.

Rocks and dumplings

2008-05-05T11:33:00.012-04:00

Gardens seem to be a very important element of Asian cultures. An excellent example is the Kokoen gardens in Himeji, Japan, but it’s definitely not just a Japanese phenomenon. The Chinese gardens we’ve seen in our trips tend to be grander, rockier, and more complicated than their Japanese counterparts. The Summer Palace is a larger than life example, though the garden at the Forbidden City was another instance of a garden comprised of a number of pavilions, some trees, and many funny-shaped rocks.

The Chinese look at rocks the way we look at clouds: the imagination turns strange shapes into familiar objects or animals. In the Summer Palace, for example, there was a group of rocks names after the Chinese zodiac signs, though I couldn’t tell the monkey from the snake. If had had more time, however, I would have liked to try and find out.

In Shanghai, one of the major attractions is the YuYuan gardens. Unlike the Summer Palace or the Forbidden City, these were private gardens at a time, and belonged to a government official. For a garden that didn’t belong to the emperor, it is quite large. It is comprised of several sections (hence the plural “gardens”), and includes a few ponds, a zigzagging bridge, a corridor with a lane for ladies and another for gents, a theater, numerous courtyards, and, of course, hundreds of rocks.

On top of a white wall separating two of the gardens lays a grey dragon, undulating for many meters. Apparently the emperor was not amused when he heard of this dragon wall. After all, the dragon is the symbol of the emperor and not something commoners should be using to accessorize their gardens. The owner avoided this issue by giving only four claws to each of the dragon’s hands. It’s really a technicality, but since the emperor’s dragon has five claws, the dragon on the wall did not represent a threat.

Outside the gardens, there is a huge bazaar. It’s a whole neighborhood of buildings mimicking a traditional style and narrows streets packed with tourists. Most of the buildings house souvenir stores, but there is also a number of restaurants, including a very large one famous for its xiao long bao, or Shanghai-style dumplings. You can see the cooks at work folding many dumplings per minute, or you can go upstairs and try some yourself. They are very, very recommended.

Below are some views of the YuYuan Gardens.

The View from Huangpu Park on a Misty Day

2008-04-05T15:12:00.008-04:00

Some of the Bund's iconic buildings

Many tourists and almost as many vendors in Huangpu Park, with some of the Bund's buildings in the background. At sunset, the number of people in the park is multiplied by at least ten.

The Pudong, with the distinctive Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center a little to the right

The Old and the New

2008-04-05T15:08:00.002-04:00

If there’s one area of Shanghai that can be considered an icon of the city, it’s the banks of the Huangpu river: the old-world Bund on one side and the shiny, brand-new Pudong on the other. Flocks and flocks of tourists gather here, to the point that it’s really hard to take a picture in any direction without getting at least a couple of heads in the front. Keep an eye on you belongings and your companions! Together, the Bund and the Pudong summarize a lot of what the city was and is about.

The Bund is a water-fronted avenue, lined with buildings made by Europeans in the first decades of the 20ty century, when Shanghai was the sin city of the East. These buildings include Art-Deco type hotels, several big banks, and headquarters of large corporations, with a very European flair and every single one of them topped by a few Chinese flags (all of them belong to the government nowadays.)

On the other side of the river it’s all about the modern buildings in dramatic shapes, like the Oriental Pearl Tower, with an architecture that looks it was inspired by some old sci-fi illustration, the tall Jin Mao building, which houses the luxurious Grand Hyatt hotel and has a terrific view over the city, and the brand new Shanghai World Financial Center, the world’s third tallest building, which is still in construction.

Everything in the Pudong looks new, and I doubt there’s any building there that’s more than 15 years old. It feels like all those steel-and-glass corporate towers and the predominantly white residential buildings all suddenly sprouted of the ground like mushrooms.

A recent addition to this interesting dichotomy is a tunnel under the river, which connects the two banks via a neon-lit psychedelic-type experience. Add the even more neon-filled Nanjing Avenue nearby, and it’s like Shanghai is steadily turning into Walt Disney World.

Buddhas that aren't golden (for a change)

2008-02-28T19:06:00.013-05:00

I met my parents and the guide at Shanghai airport. Our guide was in his twenties, with an ear piercing and a flashy cell phone he had trouble putting away. In the morning of our first day he took us to the Jade Buddha temple. This temple reminded me a little of the Lama temple in Beijing. While the Lama temple is housed in a former palace, this one looks like it used to be a wealthy person’s home, in terms of architecture. And while the Lama temple features some Tibetan art and imagery, the Jade Buddha temple features, well, a Buddha made of jade. Actually, there are two.

According to the story, a monk brought about five jade statues from Burma, though three of them were more like statuettes. The two large ones—one a sitting Buddha and the other a reclining one—were actually hidden from view from the Cultural Revolution until the eighties. They’re significantly smaller than many other Buddhas I’d seen on my trips, but none the less impressive, given the material they were carved out of. Unfortunately, photos of the jade Buddhas were not allowed.

The jade statues aren’t all there is to see in the temple. I found two other interesting statues, the Laughing Buddha (also called Budai), and the armor-clad Veda. There was also a curious depiction of a female deity, Guanyin, whose particular role in the Chinese Buddhist pantheon I cannot recall.

The incense burner in the main courtyard

Depiction of Guanyin, a female deity

Another courtyard, seen from the hallway leading to the Jade Buddhas. From here, the temple really looks like a villa, I think.

Shanghai or This Blog isn't Dead

2008-02-17T12:55:00.003-05:00

Just because six months have come and gone and we have been back from Asia for quite some time now, it doesn’t mean the tale of our travels is over. It’s just that it’s harder to find both the time and the mental availability to update this blog these days. We ended up staying in Asia for one more month than the six originally planned, and aside from exploring more of Singapore, we were able to take two more trips abroad.

In late September, it was Steve’s turn not to go, this time to Shanghai. I met my parents there, who had been taking essentially the Beijing tour we’d been on back in July, except for a stop in Xi’an.

Shanghai is a very different city from Beijing. Sure, they’re both quite large and populous and undergoing and immense development, but in feel they are very apart. For all the glass and concrete skyscrapers, Beijing is still very much the stately head of the government, while Shanghai is the cosmopolitan center of business. If I had to choose one of them to live in, I wouldn’t think twice about picking Shanghai, since, at least for the time being, there is a lot more to do there, even though there are certainly less tourist attractions.

Said tourist attractions are the centered around the European-influenced Bund and French Concession, the Yu Yuan Gardens, a (then) privately-owned and more sensibly sized version of the Summer Palace, the Jade Buddha temple, and the new developments around the city, namely the Pudong.

Besides these must-see places, Shanghai is a fine place just to walk around, admiring the European and industrial-type architectures, or shopping for great bargains at a thousand little boutiques that seem to sprout like mushrooms. It’s also the original place of Dim Sum and therefore a great city to indulge your palate, not just in Chinese cuisine, but in many other types of food you’ll find in all sorts of restaurants. At night, there are several bars and shows to choose from, as well as the more traditional option of attending an acrobatics show (apparently, the acrobats are more a tradition of Shanghai than Beijing, which surprised me.)

Interestingly enough, despite a having a great number of expats and a generally international feel, it’s hard to find anyone in Shanghai—except in hotels—that will speak other languages than Mandarin. In my next posts I will go into more detail about the places we visited and the things we did. Also, I have videos.

Kokoen gardens

2007-11-17T12:04:00.000-05:00

This collection of nine gardens, albeit recent, is already the second biggest attraction of Himeji. Even if you can't understand the sometimes subtle differences between all the gardens - we were lucky to have a guide pointing them out for us -, you can always appreciate their beauty. Here are some shots.

Himeji Castle

2007-11-15T13:56:00.000-05:00

At the entrance to the castle

The castle seen from the grounds in front of the West Bailey

Inside the West Bailey, a long building shaped like a corridor with many rooms, where Princess Sen and her maids lived.

A sunken door in the West Bailey. In case of emergency, the door could be easily blocked form the inside, using the lateral stones.

Princess Sen's quarters, the Cosmetic Tower

Even in the castle grounds, the walls are thick and have holes for shooting.

One of the about fourteen gates or so you have to go through to get into the castle. A lot of them are tucked away in corners where you wouldn't think of looking.

Inside the castle proper, which was built as a fortress, many walls are lined with fire arms and bags of gunpowder.

The view from the top floor of the castle. That thing on the left is one of many amulets against fire.

When they took down the castle, they built this model of all the support beams, so they'd know how to reassemble it.

If you want to see more, you can take the this photo interactive tour.

The Egret Castle and the Nine Gardens of Himeji

2007-11-10T08:17:00.000-05:00

On our last day in Japan we took the Hikari to the the city of Himeji, not too far from Osaka. Waiting for us at the station was Ms. Misako, a retired engineer that now works as a volunteer guide in her spare time. Ms. Misako carried a small binder with a ton of information about Himeji Castle. Unlike Nijô Castle in Kyoto, Himeji Castle is a real castle, which served as a defensive station during the war times before the shogunate was established. It also served as temporary residence for princess Sen, the granddaughter of the first shogun.

The castle was built in the 14th century and, unlike almost any other castle in Japan, it has never been burned down or otherwise destroyed. However, in the 20th century it was fully disassembled and rebuilt for restoration purposes. Some of the wood and stones were replaced, but it is mostly the original that you'll see standing. The whole restoration work seems even more amazing when you actually take in the castle's full size. To completely take it down and re-assemble it exactly as it was was truly an awesome feat.

The castle is commonly called the "Egret Castle" or "White Heron Castle" due to its elegant shape. However, when you start exploring it, you realize how its function had nothing to do with elegance. The castle grounds are a maze of walls and gates devised to confuse and trap any intruders. It was most definitely not meant as a luxury noble residence. Even on the inside, you can see how the doors have been built lower than the floors, so they can be easily blocked from the inside, and there are hole and slits everywhere from which can throw stones and shoot arrows to the outside. From the top floor you can enjoy a commanding view of the city.

We actually spent about three hours exploring very nook and cranny of the castle, with the help of our knowledgeable guide so, by the time we left, we were starving. We went to the nearby Koko-en gardens and had a local meal of noodles and barbecued conger-eel sushi. Even though I usually stay away from eel, I must admit everything was pretty much delicious.

After lunch our guide took us on a short tour of the gardens. They were built in the 1990's, on the site of some former noble houses. The old walls have been restored and serve as divisions to the nine different gardens. I'm sure the Japanese visitors will be able to find a lot more contrasts in each garden than we, who are anything but Japanese garden experts, did.

Still, it's clear even to us that each garden has its own theme and features. One is a bamboo-only garden, another is a Zen-style garden, yet another one is a tea appreciation garden and has its own teahouse, a fourth one is a pine tree garden and so on. You really need two full hours to be able to fully appreciate the gardens, and we only had one before we had to rush back to catch our train, so we sort of breezed through it, and had no time for tea.

When we arrived back at Kyoto, we made our way to Kitano Tenman-gû Shrine. Yes, we had had our share of shrines and temples, but this one had a monthly market going on on that day and we wanted to take a look. The market was mostly a flea market and not a reliable place to pick up antiques or anything of that sort. Still, it was a lot of fun browsing all sorts of wares, sampling some festival-type food and watching the children play a popular fishing game, in which one must try and catch as many goldfish as you can with a thin paper membrane. It looks hard, but those kids were doing a great job. Maybe they've been practicing for years.

From the Kitano Tenman-gû shrine we took the bus to the city center, and walked around the main shopping area, where I had the chance to eat a really good Portuguese egg tart. I had no idea those were popular in Japan! Then we walked back to Ponto-Chô for a final sushi dinner and later we had a few drinks at Garbo, a local little bar whose owner (who spoke no English) and assistant were kind enough to welcome two foreigners and even have us sample a few local snacks. We ended up staying later than anticipated, and when we finally got to the hotel, we packed our suitcases quickly and went to sleep.

Hiroshima

2007-11-09T03:06:00.000-05:00

The Atomic Bomb Dome, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is the only building that has remained as it was after the bombing, and the main symbol of the destruction caused by it.

A closer look at the damage provoked by the bombing

The lower part of the Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students

The Ota river and the A-Bomb dome, surrounded by modern buildings

The Children's Peace Monument, with the statue of Sadako and the containers for thousands of paper cranes

The Peace Memorial Park and the Flame of Peace. In the background you can see the Cenotaph and the Peace Museum.

The Peace Pond and the Cenotaph, with the museum in the background

Front view of the Cenotaph, with the A-Bomb Dome in the background

Diorama: the city before...

...and the city after.

The city today: view from one of the main streets

A City's Plea for Peace

2007-11-06T11:29:00.000-05:00

After lunch, our tour guide brought us back to Hiroshima, known worldwide for being the unfortunate target of the first atomic bomb. Even though the city has long since been rebuilt and is today a thriving metropolis, the scars of the bombing haven't been forgotten.

Our first stop was at the A-Bomb Dome, which used to be known as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, before it became of of the few buildings that still stood, albeit in ruins, after the bomb was dropped. You can still tell it was a large, strong building, made of sturdy materials, which only accentuates the bomb's destructive power. The city has decided to leave it as it is, since it's the closest remaining building to the epicenter of the catastrophe. It is now a part of the Peace Memorial Park.

Right next to the A-Bomb Dome is the Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students, a monument in remembrance of all the students that were all the time fulfilling the jobs that the men had left empty when they were called to arms. Some worked on weapon factories, while others worked more regular jobs, like driving the city's trams, and many perished on that fatal morning.

Crossing the river we arrive at the Children's Peace Monument, which features a statue of Sadako Sakaki. This girl was only two when the bomb was dropped a mile away, and, about ten years later, she became sick with leukemia and was told she had only one more year to live. She then decided to start folding paper cranes. It is a Japanese belief that whoever folds one thousand cranes is granted a wish. She passed away before she completed her goal, but her friends folded the remaining cranes and buried them with her. Since then she has become a symbol of the impact of the nuclear bombing in children. The monument shows her holding a folded crane and is surrounded by several structures that keep thousands of paper cranes sent from all over the world.

South of this monument is the Pond of Peace, a man-made lake that anchors two other peace monuments: the Flame of Peace, on one end, and the Memorial Cenotaph on the other. The Cenotaph holds the names of everyone who was killed directly or indirectly by the bomb. Looking through its arch you can see both the Flame of Peace and the A-Bomb Dome. The Flame of Peace is to remain lit until all nuclear weapons on Earth are destroyed.

Finally we come to the Peace Memorial Museum. Aside from being very interesting from an architectural point of view, it's its contents that really matter. from an historical retelling of the events that lead to the dropping of the bomb, to a comprehensive exhibit about the nature and effects of nuclear weapons, the museum also presents a detailed diorama of Hiroshima right before and right after the bombing. The contrast is crushing. To harden the blow, several objects belonging to victims are displayed, and it's devastating to see the effects of the nuclear blast on a little boy's lunch box.

Hiroshima has declared itself a city of peace, hosting numerous peace conferences and remaining vocally opposed to any kind of nuclear warfare. After spending some time at the Peace Park and Museum, it's painfully clear why.

We returned to Kyoto that evening, feeling a little less light-hearted and with a lot on our minds. We ate dinner from a bento box on the train and as soon as we arrived to the hotel, we went right to sleep.

Miyajima Island

2007-11-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

The maple leaf cakes

A view of the beach, with its stone lanterns and deer

The inevitable picture with the giant torii in the background

The shrine is built on stilts, because when the tide is high, all this land is submerged, including the bottom part of the torii.

A view of the shrine, with the pagoda in the background

The giant torii and the tourists on the beach, seen from the shrine

The main altar at Itsukushima shrine

Steve down at the beach by the giant torii

This is an okonomiyaki. It certainly doesn't look very appetizing, but it's actually tasty.

This is what happened as soon as Steve bought the deer crackers. That one on the bench with him bit his shirt a few times.

They were really persistent and kept following him all around this area. People arriving from the ferry would stop to watch the show.

The Torii in the Water

2007-11-01T16:33:00.000-04:00

That Friday we took the super-fast Nozomi to Hiroshima, which only took about one and a half hours, even though it's a very long distance from Kyoto. On arrival, we were picked up by our bus and tour guide, who took us to the ferry to Miyajima island. During the bus ride, our guide introduced us to a Miyajima specialty: a small cake shaped like a maple leaf. She had bought one for everyone and they were pretty good.

The ferry ride itself took no longer than 15 minutes. It was a hot, sunny day, and all the island was perfectly visible, so we could clearly see the famous "floating" torii. Of course, the torii doesn't float at all; it's stuck on the ground, but you usually can't tell because it's hidden by the water. On that day, however, the tide was low, which dispelled the illusion.

Miyajima is considered one of the three top scenic spots in Japan. It could be from being a nice little island with great weather, lots of vegetation, and deer, but of course it has been the Itsukushima shrine that has brought it fame. The shrine is pretty big and includes a stage for theatrical and dance performances, as well as a pagoda and a few other Buddhist buildings. Evidently, the most famous part of it is the huge torii on the beach. Despite it being an extremely hot day, the sea breeze made it bearable to walk down on the wet sand to take a better look at it.

Finally, we sat down at one of many restaurants in a long row of shops and eateries, and tried okonomiyaki , something like a crépe containing noodles, veggies, and whatever else you want to put in it. Before leaving, we still had time to buy some maple-leaf cakes and Steve couldn't pass up the opportunity to be chased around and bitten by deer again... so he bought some deer crackers and I got some more interesting footage.

Gion district and around

2007-10-29T13:19:00.000-04:00

We caught the firemen doing an exercise on the street.

«Big in Japan?» I really wonder how old this house is. Even I was a little too tall for the door.

The pagoda was closed, but it was still fun just to wander around the streets in this neighborhood.

About an hour before dinnertime, a man cleans the restaurant's door panels.

These aren't geishas; just regular girls dressed in their kimonos for some special occasion.

The (shallow) river around sunset

Ponto-chô is a long row of traditional restaurants and bars. The ones on the right generally overlook the river.

Sukiyaki for dinner: the raw meat and veggies are placed inside the container over the fire, which already has a tasty broth cooking inside, and then dipped in the raw egg.

Having a drink (or two) on a terrace over stilts, overlooking the river

Kyoto tour

2007-10-25T13:08:00.000-04:00

One of the entrances to Nijô castle

Nijô castle seen from the outside

The garden at Nijô castle

The Golden Pavilion, rebuilt from scratch after the fire, at Kinkakuji

A closer look at the Golden Pavilion

The top floor of the Golden Pavilion, with the golden phoenix on the roof

The little stone pagoda at Kinkakuji

A building used for important ceremonies (coronations, etc.), at the Imperial Palace

The Japanese-style garden at the Imperial Palace

Steve standing in front of the Emperor's Study, at the Imperial Palace

The bridge over the lake at Heian-jingû. If you squint (or click on the picture) you can see a crane standing on a rock, on the left side.

Templed-out

2007-10-22T14:58:00.000-04:00

On that Thursday we had a full-day tour of Kyoto. Up to that moment I had a very romantic notion of this city, as the ancient imperial capital lost in time, a quaint place filled with palaces and temples, where geishas roamed around in their traditional outfits. Let’s say I got the palaces and temples part right. Japan’s Disneyland is in Tokyo, but Kyoto feels like a Disneyland too, with so many tourists no matter everywhere you look, and tour guides, and lines to get into any “attraction”, not to mention the numerous places you can go into to dress up like a maiko (a geisha apprentice), wig and white make-up included, and walk around the teahouse district like that.

Our tour began at Nijô castle which, in spite of its name, was more like the shogun’s official Kyoto residence. There’s actually very little that’s castle-like about it. Still, it’s worth seeing, for different reasons. Since the emperor use to live in Kyoto, the shogun kept a residence here, where he would meet with the emperor’s officers and other lords, while his family remained in Edo.

The architecture of the “castle” is a lesson is security. The floors were made squeaky on purpose (they call this device nightingale floors), so that the shogun could hear anyone approaching and the whole place is a labyrinth of meeting rooms - according to the hierarchy of the visitors - and secret rooms, where the shogun’s men would hide, waiting for the first sign of trouble to storm through the meetings and kill any attackers. Some of the sliding door panels, as well as the ceilings, are beautifully painted.

Our second stop was Kinkaku-ji, the Buddhist temple famous in all of Japan for its golden pavilion. The gold-leaf covered building, which was burned to the ground by a monk in 1950, has been rebuilt and overlooks a pond, creating a mirror-like image of itself. A few other noteworthy sights at this temple are a mini five-story pagoda made of stones and a centuries-old pine tree that has been shaped into a sailboat.

The imperial palace was next and presented more of a hassle, because, unlike the other sights, it’s not administered by the Kyoto municipality, but by the imperial family. Even though no-one lives there anymore, they still need every visitor’s information and the tourists aren’t allowed on most of the compound, which includes any building’s interiors. What’s more, they count the number of people inside the palace’s gardens at any given time and for that reason every group must wait some five to ten minutes, standing in the sun, in one of four single lines, for easy counting. It turns out there isn’t that much to see. The buildings on the outside are plain, compared to the ones in Nijô castle, and the Japanese garden, albeit big, is not that impressive.

By now we were all hot and sweaty and in need of a break, so they took us to the Kyoto Handicraft Center for a buffet lunch. After eating we had a little time to browse the center’s several floors and buy a yukata for Steve. Soon, it was time to get back on the bus, to go to Heian-jingû, one of the most important Shinto shrines in the city, unremarkable but for its vast and peaceful garden, which includes a large pond with carp. We sat in the shade of its long bridge, admiring the fish and the cranes, before we set out to the next attraction.

We almost didn’t see the next temple, as Steve declared himself fed up with so many temples and shrines and I couldn’t help but agree. Still, we decided to stay for this one more, Sanjusangen-dô. This temple, over 800 years old, houses 1001 statues of the 1000-armed Kannon deity. There are really a thousand and one statues (even though a couple were been restored or on temporary lease to some museum), but the number of arms on each statue is actually 40, based in the Buddhist idea that each arm saves 25 worlds. So the building’s main hall is a really vast repository of statues, including one big Kannon statue, 500 smaller ones on each side, and a few more representing other Hindu-Buddhist deities. Too bad there were no pictures allowed, because all those statues lined up together make for an impressive sight indeed.

And so it was that, after that, we left our tour for the day, skipping the last temple on the itinerary and instead exploring the Kyoto streets on foot, on our way to the traditional Gion district. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any geishas or maiko, except for a few tourists dressed like them – you can tell them apart because real maiko wouldn’t just go around striking poses and taking pictures of each other; if they do find themselves out of the teahouses, they’re rushing to another appointment.

We decided to have dinner at Ponto-chô, an area of traditional-looking bars and restaurants along the riverside. Most of them are quite pricy, though, and only a handful actually overlooks the river. We ended up having sukiyaki at a quaint little place without a view, and then splurged in a drink each, plus cover-charge, at a bar that had a little patio over the water.

Kasuga Taisha shrine

2007-10-16T12:23:00.000-04:00

A statue above the purification fountain honors the ~~hungry~~ sacred deer of Nara

Some of the many stone lanterns on the way up to the shrine

Kasuga Taisha's main hall

Bronze lanterns decorate the sides of the buildings. There are about 1000 of them.

More stone lanterns... There are really several hundreds of these in the shrine.

Todaiji Temple

2007-10-15T14:34:00.000-04:00

The head of a Shinkansen train at Odawara Station (Hakone.)

One of the carved giants, the Nio, at the temple's main gate.

This stylized flower, which appears at many temples and shrines throughout the country, is the emperor's crest.

Todaiji Temple's main hall, Daibutsu-den, is the largest wooden building in the world.

A closer look at the main hall's architecture

Golden statue of Kannon, to the Great Buddha's left.

From the picture you can't really tell this is the largest bronze Buddha in the world, but every finger is about as high as a regular adult human.

Wooden statue of the Guardian King of the South, inside the main hall

Going through the nostril-sized hole

The great Buddha, seen from a different angle

When you aren't carrying any food, the deer will let you do pretty much anything to them.

Steve feeding the deer, before they got a little too excited

Beware of Bambi

2007-10-12T15:29:00.000-04:00

The next morning were dropped at the Hakone train station for our first trip via Shinkansen to Kyoto. Shinkansen are the Japanese bullet trains and we were lucky to have been able to catch ours at a local station. If we had caught it at a terminal station, like Tokyo, we would have never been able to witness the Shinkansen’s full speed from the outside. We weren’t able to photograph or catch on film the first train that passed the station without stopping, but we were better prepared for the second one. What speed! There are actually three different kinds of Shinkansen: from slower to faster, they’re the Kodama, the Hikari and the Nozomi, but I was told their speed difference is mostly based on the number of stops they make.

The interior of the trains is nice and comfortable and there’s a lot more leg room than what you get on the tour buses. The Hikari from Hakone in the east to Kyoto in the west took about three hours, stopping at eleven stations, and we had the chance to get a better look at Honshu’s island landscape. Of course, Mt. Fuji stayed hidden behind the haze when we passed it, but there were plenty of other mountains, towns and rice fields to look at.

After arriving in Kyoto, we only had enough time for a quick lunch before getting on the bus to Nara. Only 30 minutes by bus from Kyoto, Nara was the first real imperial capital, back in the 8th century, and it’s still a highly popular destination thanks to housing the largest bronze Buddha statue and its famous deer park. The Buddha statue is housed at Todaiji temple and, to get there, you must first pass a few dozens of adorable deer that wonder around looking for tourists with food. After making it safely through the deer – and soon you’ll understand why I’m saying this – you arrive at Nandai-mon, a huge gate with two enormous wooden statues, a bit of larger version of the guards at Omote-mon, in Nikko.

Keep walking past the gate and you’ll come to the main hall of the temple, Daibutsu-den, which is the largest wooden structure in the world, and only two-thirds of the size of the original building. As with most temples and castles in Japan, this one has been consumed by fire and rebuilt several times. The present building was erected in 1709. If the hall itself is amazing in its size and architecture, the Buddha statue, at 16 meters tall, is awe-inspiring. The hole in one of its nostrils is big enough to fit a small human. We know this because they have made a hole at the bottom of one of the columns supporting the temple. That hole is the same size of the nostril and it is said that if you can squeeze though it, you can go to paradise. We saw actually a lot of children and even adult women go through it. I guess this means there are some advantages to being small, after all!

On our way back to the bus Steve decided to feed the deer. As soon as we approached the vendor to buy some deer crackers, we were surrounded by about twelve Bambi-like creatures, some of them with horns. They aren’t shy, and in the next 15 minutes I did my best to capture on photos and tape the way Steve was chased all around the area by numerous animals. Many pushed him, more than a couple bit him and at least one managed to get through the clothes. I am not kidding. They are greedy monsters. They made at least one little kid cry.

We eventually managed to get back on the bus – when the food was over – and rode to the nearby Kasuga Taisha shrine. I must say that by then we had seen quite a few temples and shrines on this Japan trip alone (not to mention all that we’ve seen in Singapore, Thailand and China), and the novelty was wearing off fast. What set this Shinto shrine apart from others was the fact that it was tucked away on a hill in the woods, and featured hundreds of stone lanterns, which play an important part in religious festivals. That, and more “sacred” deer. Steve insisted on getting more deer food, but this time he passed the crackers to me. Luckily, these deer were relatively more behaved than the ones at Todaiji and all they did was follow me around and nudge and push insistently. Oh, and one of them bit my shirt.

The bus dropped us back at the hotel right before it started pouring. Even though the weather had been funny for a few days, this was the first time it actually rained, so we ended up having dinner at the hotel and going to sleep early.

Hakone

2007-10-11T04:27:00.001-04:00

The moody atmosphere of Lake Ashi on a very cloudy day... the passengers, however, were still pretty excited to be there.

One aspect of the lakeside, with a temple perched on it

The gondola we were supposed to take up, seen from Lake Ashi. Since it was so windy, we ended up walking around the souvenir shops, before taking the bus to a different gondola.

Going down the gondola to Hakone; the fog is the most visible thing.

A detail of the sulfur mines, seen from above

Another view from the gondola, closer to the town

Fuji-san

2007-10-09T12:13:00.000-04:00

The top of Mt. Fuji seen from the road going up. There is barely any snow left in August.

Mt. Fuji cakes... with smiley faces, of course!

The inside of the Shinto shrine at the fifth station

A smaller shrine to the mountain. The geta (sandals) you see are based on real ones... They make them with one heel only for walking uphill (really!)

The interior of the smaller shrine, with its Tengu (mountain deities) -like figures

Squid kebabs (or yakitori, as they say in Japan) are a popular snack.

A walking trail around the fifth station

After numerous attempts, this was the best shot of Mt. Fuji we could get.

To see what the perfectly symmetrical mountain looks like on a clear day, go here. Or, check out the famous woodblock prints.

Up the mountains we go

2007-10-05T01:28:00.000-04:00

In the morning we said goodbye to Tokyo the weather was hot and sunny, which was very promising, since we were going to see the elusive Mount Fuji. It all went well until we were almost there, trying to snap partial pictures of it when we could, but certain that we’d get to get much better photos once we arrived to our destination. It turned out that by the time we got to the fifth station, which is halfway up the mountain, it was extremely cloudy and we couldn’t see much, let alone take any pictures!

We later learned that summer is actually the worst time to see Mt. Fuji because it’s the haziest time of the year! The Japanese make it a game of trying to spot the mountain, when you’re passing by it on the train. It’s like the lottery, really; some days it’s visible in all its glory and some other days you can’t glimpse it at all. As a coincidence, summer is actually the only time where there is no snow at the top of the mountain, but at the time we were there we could still see the tiniest sliver of white. All in all, it’s an amazing mountain, with a very elegant shape, and its elusiveness only makes it more attractive.

From Mt. Fuji, we proceeded to Hakone, a popular thermal area on top of the mountains. It was one of the first “vacation spots” in Japan, as the shogun would go there from Edo (Tokyo) to soak himself in the hot springs. Nowadays it’s still a well-known tourist spot for Japanese, famous for its hot springs; I’d actually say it’s a little too touristy: besides a ton of souvenir shops, there is a museum for Meissen porcelain, from Germany, and another one based on the Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. We took a short cruise on Lake Ashi (aka Ashino), which is usually a great way of seeing Mount Fuji from the nearby mountains, but the weather had definitely changed for the worse and we couldn’t even see the top of the smaller mountains around us. Still, it made for a very scenic view of the lake.

Finally, we were supposed to take a gondola up one of the mountains, but it was so windy that they had to close it. So we rode to the top of another mountain and took a different gondola down, instead. On the trip down, we could see the sulfur mines below us. After that the tour was over for the day and they dropped us at our hotel. It was supposed to have some kind hot springs in it, but as it turned out it only had the typical Japanese communal baths. As there were no restaurants or other places around, we ate at the hotel, in a little sushi place they had, which was the most affordable option, but all we could get for $30 was four pieces of sushi each. So, before bedtime, we made a little trip to the inevitable convenience store and got something else to eat…

Nikko

2007-10-04T05:33:00.000-04:00

The five-story pagoda stands between Rinnonji temple and the Toshogu shrine.

One of the giant guards on the sides of Omote-mon gate

A view of the courtyard past Omote-mon gate

Unlike the other buildings, the monkey carvings in Shinkyusha (the shrine's stable) are the only part of it that's painted.

The most famous carving in Shinkyusha: hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.

The bronze torii and, behind it, Yomei-mon gate, sided by the smaller drum and bell towers

Yomei-mon gate is the most ornate building in the whole shrine.

A detail of the carvings on Yomei-mon gate

A lateral altar in the main courtyard

The bronze torii, the inevitable souvenir stall and the stable, seen from Yomei-mon gate

The wooden torii gate sets the boundaries of Toshogu shrine.

Buddhist priests and priestesses at the entrance to Rinnonji temple

An interesting presentation for lunch: the tempura veggies are clearly seen, while the tofu, the miso and the udon noodles are "hidden" in the containers.

A view of lake Chuzenji

The Kegon waterfall

The shrine of shrines and the scenic spots of Nikko

2007-09-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

Next up on our Japan tour was a visit to Nikko, to see the Toshogu shrine and the Kegon waterfall. Nikko is a small city high up in the mountains, a few hours from Tokyo, best known for the mausoleum of the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who is buried there, in a huge compound of Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and others buildings, all hidden among the woods. Despite the tourists, it’s a quiet, relaxing place. The first building of note in the compound is the Rinnoji Buddhist temple, which looks a lot like Sensô-ji in Tokyo and so many other Buddhist temples we’ve seen, but in its dark interior it hides three massive statues of the Buddha. Going up hill you pass through a wooden torii gate and see a pagoda on your left. Beyond it is the way to Futarasan Shinto shrine, lined with stone lanterns; on the right, stone pillar bears the crest of the Tokugawa clan, a circle with three heart-shaped leaves, and straight ahead a stairway that leads to the Toshogu shrine itself, which is known by its lavishly decorated and profusely carved buildings.

You pass Omote-mon gate, which is guarded by two red-skinned, angry looking guards carved out of wood, and find yourself in a sort of plateau lined with stone lanterns, where you can see some storage buildings. You’d never believe that was their function, though, since they’re so intricately carved with exotic and mythological animals. The most famous among these buildings is Shinkyusha, which was a barn to keep sacred horses and contains the well-known three monkeys carving – hear no evil, say no evil, see no evil – as a part of a series of monkey-themed carvings. Passing under a bronze torii and up another flight of steps we come to another stage, where the drum and bell towers are located. To the left, inside Yakushi-do hall, there is a room with a dragon painted in the ceiling, which has interesting acoustic properties: when clappers are struck under the dragon you can hear a strange ringing sound. They call it the dragon’s cry.

Past the drum and bell towers is Yomei-mon gate, which has so many carvings you could spend a whole day looking at it. Nobles, poets, dragons, and all sorts of animals have been carved on it and several parts are covered in gold leaf. Going under the gate, you get to the central courtyard, where they keep the consecrated sake (and whisky!) and where you can admire another highly sculpted gate, the Karamon. Finally, beyond it lies Honden, the main shrine, composed of several dark, tatami (thick straw mats)-covered rooms, painted in gold and other rich colors with dragons, tigers and other animals. The ceilings are decorated with a mosaic of bird pictures. The whole thing has a very regal feel to it.

Having spent the whole morning walking around the site, up and down stairs, treading on uneven rocky ground, lunch was warmly welcomed. We had a traditional meal of udon noodles, tempura (fried battered vegetables), miso and yuba, a type of tofu which is a specialty of the area. Everything was quite tasty, even if some of the dishes looked funny at first. After lunch we got back on the bus and were taken up the mountains to scenic lake Chuzenji, which lent itself well to photos, especially with the clouds partially covering the mountains around it. The last stop was at the Kegon waterfall, one of the three largest waterfalls in Japan. Again, we took pictures and got a chance to walk around before the long trip back to Tokyo. During the ride, the weather changed from clear and sunny to windy with pouring rain several times in a matter of minutes.

We left the bus at Shinjuku and spent the next two hours or so on several pay phones, trying to get the credit card unblocked (listen up kids, before you travel abroad, always let your credit card company know.) Still, we got a good feel of the giant Shinjuku train station, the busiest in all of Japan, and ended up having some excellent pizza for dinner. Outside, the neon lights of the department stores lent a surreal feel to the streets, but we were too exhausted to enjoy it properly.

Tokyo: day two

2007-09-24T07:46:00.000-04:00

On our way to the Imperial Garden, we passed by Tokyo Tower, modeled after its Eiffel counterpart.

The moat and the wall around the Imperial Garden, with Tokyo Tower in the background.

The restored gate to the Imperial Garden (former site of the Edo Castle)

This fish-like creature was once on top of the gate's roof, to protect it from fire. I guess it didn't work so well.

There were a lot of artists trying to depict the beautiful scenery.

In Asakusa, there were a few girls dressed in traditional clothes around the temple. After I took a picture with these four, they asked to take a picture with me. I felt like I should be wearing something nicer.

Sensô temple's main building. It looks to me as if the roof is going to collapse any minute.

This pagoda is just one of many buildings that comprises Sensô temple.

Made of octopus and shellfish, these aren't your typical kebabs

Japan is the land of cuteness, including lucky cats. These were for sale at one of the many stands off Sensô temple.

Sensô temple's gate seen from Nakamise-dôri

Air-conditioned lunch with a view

The Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay, with the artificial island of Odaiba in the background

The Fuji Television building in Odaiba

I've never expected to find a good value meal in the heart of Ginza: this is called Ten Shin Han and consists of rice with egg, pork, ham and peas topped with a funny sweet sauce. On the right, miso soup.

Steve opted for a more average pork ramen soup with gyoza (pan fried dumplings) on the side.

It was hard getting pictures of the buildings at night that didn't come out blurred. This was taken in Ginza.

If you're not here on time, the bus will leave without you

2007-09-14T05:30:00.000-04:00

Sunday was the first day of our six-day guided tour. We hopped on a bus filled mostly with Americans (haha, who else?) and met our guide, Mr. Sato, a witty gentleman who carried around a carp-like flag so we could spot him better. Our first stop was the Imperial Gardens, site of the Edo castle ruins.

The Edo castle used to be the shogun’s main residence, but it suffered so many fires that, by the time the emperor re-assumed the power, they probably didn’t bother building it up once more. As it is right now, the gardens make for a relaxing place to stroll, featuring a few scenic Japanese-style gardens, including a couple of carp ponds, and handful of service buildings (a teahouse, a storage room, a guardhouse) which survived the last fire. For the most part, though, you wouldn’t have been able to guess that a castle once stood there, that is, except for the thick walls and moat that surround it.

Our next stop was Asakusa, one of the few Tokyo neighborhoods that still retain a little of the charm of the old days, before the skyscrapers and neon lights and all that madness. One of the main features of Asakusa is the Sensô Buddhist temple, which consists of several buildings and gates painted in typical red and white. It seems to be a big attraction, judging by the crowds of both Japanese and foreigners. Because there were so many people, we didn’t spend that much time at the main compound and started making our way to the gates. There were stalls everywhere, selling food and souvenirs and, after passing the first gate, we found ourselves on Nakamise-dôri, a covered street with dozens of stalls on both sides that leads to the main gate. It was so crowded that it was hard to make our way through. There were stalls selling salty soy crackers, others selling cheap kimonos and yukata, and all sorts of junk (you know, chopsticks, lucky cats, Japanese sword imitations, et cetera.)

Since the crackers didn’t cut it, it was a good thing that lunch was next. They took us to a nice western-style restaurant, with a pretty good view over the Tokyo bay, and from there we left for a short cruise along the bay. Truthfully, there wasn’t that much to see. There are a few cool modern buildings around the recently developed Odaiba area and the bridge that links the city to it reminded me of the Verrazano bridge in NYC, but most of the landscape becomes a bit boring, after a while. However, there was a wedding taking place on the cruise ship and watching the mix of Japanese and western customs – the bride was wearing a white gown, but some of the guests were wearing bright kimonos -- kept us occupied for a while.

After we docked, the bus crossed the Verrazano-like bridge that took us to Odaiba, where we could appreciate a different view of the bay and check out the smaller-scale Statue of Liberty that they have there (yes, you read that right.) And that was the tour for the day, which was pretty decent, considering that I’m not a big fan of big group tours in buses. We got out in Ginza, and strolled past some moderns and elegant skyscrapers on our way to the Sony Building, which used to host some cool virtual reality exhibits, but not anymore, as we found out. Still, we got a few more Mini-DV tapes at a discount, so it was worth it. We ended up having a tasty Japanese dinner in a little hole-in-the-wall of a place, near the train tracks and, on our way home, stopped at the convenience store to buy some cereal and milk for breakfast.

Tokyo: day 1

2007-09-11T12:02:00.000-04:00

This was the first time I took pictures of a toilet. The novelty aspect was soon gone, though, because these are everywhere.

Halfway through our sushi meal, there's still plenty of tuna left (on the right) and some weirder stuff, including sea urchin (far right.)

Even though the market was closed, this guy was still working on a tuna head.

You can never get thirsty in Japan, with so many vending machines all over the place, selling everything from energy drinks and beer to café au lait.

Our first gothic lolita spotting. I don't think she knew she was being followed.

Shinto shrines are easily identified by their torii gates, like this one, only usually they're red and not this big. This one marks the entrace to Meiji-jingû, a temple in honor of the first emperor of the Meiji era.

This second torii gate marks the entrance to the main courtyard of the shrine

The main gate of Meiji-Jingû, seen from the altar

The entrance to crowded Takeshita-dôri

Gothic Lolita outfits for sale at Takeshita-dôri.

The Japanese love to use plastic food as menus, but I had never seen plastic crepes before. For some reason they were very popular in Harajuku, but we didn't see them anywhere else.

One of many gothic lolitas stores inside the trendy Laforet department store

Harajuku Girls and the freshest sushi

2007-09-11T10:55:00.000-04:00

We landed in Tokyo around 6am. We had planned to take advantage of the early arrival to be able to go see the Tsukiji Fish Market – the biggest fish market in the world – in action, but we felt terrible, having only slept a couple of hours, and were lucky that the hotel let us check in early. We were immediately struck by the incredible politeness of the Japanese and by that weird contraption in our bathroom, where the toilet was supposed to be. The traditional Japanese-style toilet is of the squatting variety (very popular in Asia, actually) but nowadays the type of toilet you’ll find in most bathrooms, even public ones, looks just like a Western one, only with lots of buttons – from the seat heating function to the errr… “spray” function. Although we were curious, we ended up never pushing the buttons, so we can’t tell you how it works.

After a couple of hours of sleep, we felt much better, though hungry, so we decided to try to make it to Tsukiji anyways, at least for a bite of fresh sushi. Navigating the subways wasn’t too bad. The most confusing part is that there are two different companies that administrate different lines and you must get a new ticket when you switch from one to the other. It was about 3pm when we finally made it to the fish market and, not surprisingly, it was already closed, as were most sushi restaurants and stalls in the neighborhood. Still there were a couple that were still open and we feasted on the freshest sushi ever, including several different types of tuna (Japan’s favorite), some of them pretty expensive as we found out later. However, I must say the squid was tough and I didn’t touch the sea urchin (not that time, at least.)

With a full stomach, we decided to make our way to the Harajuku/Aoyama area, which wasn’t on the schedule for the tour the next day. Trying to stick to one subway company, we had to get out still pretty far from it, by the national stadium, and we saw the long lines of supporters for the red and the blue teams, going into the stadium through different entrances, for some important soccer game. Although we had a map, we were pretty much lost, especially because very few Tokyo streets have names (only the big ones) but we had a stroke of luck when we spotted a gothic lolita, all pink bows and ruffles, ahead of us. All we had to do was follow her and soon we found ourselves in Harajuku.

Unfortunately it was Saturday, because on Sunday all the gothic lolitas gather at the entrance to the Meiji gardens to show off their threads and let tourist take their picture. So instead we went into the gardens and visited the Meiji Shinto shrine, built in the 19th century in memory of the first emperor of the Restoration. It’s a rather large compound housing several simple wooden buildings, in true Japanese style, including a main altar that has no statues or pictures but where you can throw a coin and pray (bow twice, clap twice, bow once… or something along those lines – we heard it so many times, you’d think we’d never forget it.)

Then we walked down Takeshita-dôri, an extremely busy pedestrian street, filled with teenagers in more of less funky clothes, including a good dose of Goths and gothic lolitas (which are far from the same thing), hanging out at MacDonald’s and Burger King, or at the many funky clothes and accessory stores. Quite a sight!

The area of Harajuku/Aoyama/Shibuya is where you can find the most fashionable people these days - Ginza is passé – and just by walking around, soon you start finding yourself very inadequate. The stores have plenty of awesome clothes (including tons you can wear outside of Harajuku without having people stare at you funny), but one look at the tags will make you cry. Needless to say, by dinner time I was feeling very frustrated. Still, the whole experience was a lesson in Japanese pop culture and that was all we could take for the day. Feeling exhausted and sleepy, we ate in a small, quite restaurant which served tasty, reasonably priced Chinese food - we were starving, so we weren’t picky - and went back to the hotel, for some well deserved sleep.

The land of the rising sun

2007-09-07T03:51:00.000-04:00

Of all the places we've been so far, Japan was the one we spent the most time in -- and we barely scratched the surface of this intriguing country with such a interesting culture. Even though it's a first world nation, featuring great metropolis like Tokyo and Osaka, where it's easy to get a Big Mac or browse the latest Dior collection, it is very unlike other developed countries. It's not that surprising, actually, considering that Japan only opened itself to the west on the nineteenth century and, before that, spent many centuries as a feudal regime, ruled by the shogun and the strict samurai code. This may not be obvious at first, when you're strolling around Shinjuku (Tokyo), staring at all the Times Square-like neon lights -- Shinjuku has its own Times Square, by the way -- but as you gradually immerse yourself in the culture, it becomes clear that you're not in New York City anymore, or anywhere else that's familiar, for that matter.
Fearing the language barrier (hello, Lost in Translation), we decided to book a tour for seven days, that took us around central Honshu (Japan's biggest island), stopping at some of the most memorable historical sites in the country. In hindsight, it was not the best idea. While the tours were very informative and there was no other way we could have seen so much in so little time, they became tiring as the days passed and there were just too many temples and shrines. Still, I can't recommend Japan enough and can't wait to go back and see some more... one day. Just one word of advice: avoid the summer, unless you're thinking of visiting Hokkaido, in the north. Even for us, who've been living just a few miles away from the Equator, Japan can be extremely hot!

Kowloon

2007-09-05T09:22:00.000-04:00

Looking down from our hotel, a typical Kowloon street

Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui's main street

Taking the subway to Jordan

Jordan Street, by our hotel, on the way to Temple Street Night Market

The tents and stalls (and the many customers) of the night market

Local food by Temple Street: noodles and sweet and sour pork ribs

The foggy view from the top of our hotel, on the second morning

Hong Kong Island

2007-09-03T02:50:00.000-04:00

Hong Kong Island's central skyline, seen from the tip of Kowloon peninsula...

..and the skyline of the Wan Chai area, featuring the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.
Steve with the Bank of China building and a few others in the background, at the ferry pier.

Going up on the central escalator

In Hong Kong, dozens of ads like these hang over almost every street.

The interior of Man Mo temple

Me in front of the shops at Victoria Peak, once the fog cleared a little

Coming down on the tram, all you see looking up is still white

At the entrance of Graham Street Market

Meat displayed outside at a butcher's in Graham Street Market

The central escalator, seen from a window on a third floor

A cruise ship on the harbor, with Central's skyline on the background. As you can see, the weather got a little better on the second day, but just for a few hours. By the time we left, it was raining once more.

The fog of Hong Kong

2007-08-31T04:20:00.000-04:00

We arrived to Kowloon, Hong Kong, on a rainy evening and, in the morning, things hadn’t improved that much. The sky was still covered in gray clouds. We walked along Nathan Road, the main drag of Tsim Sha Tshui (the south part of Kowloon) in search for breakfast and, by the time we reached the harbor, we were carrying a couple shopping bags. Forget Singapore! Hong Kong is where the bargains are!

We took the Star Ferry across the water to Hong Kong Island, trying to snap a few pictures of the hazy skyline while we were at it. From there, we took a really long covered walkway that connected the pier to the central escalator, and were amazed by the hundreds of women camping on the floor, having lunch, giving each other pedicures or simply chilling out, sheltered from the rain. When I say camping, I mean it. These ladies looked like they were ready to spend a very long time there, and they had made themselves at home.

Taking the central escalator is a great way to see central Hong Kong. The escalator runs from near the harbor all the way to the so-called mid-levels, halfway to Victoria Peak, passing through different neighborhoods in the process. Sometimes it runs really close to the apartment buildings, and I guess the people who live there, even on the third and fourth floors, don’t have a choice but to keep their curtains shut at all times. As a curiosity, the escalator only runs one way. In the morning, roughly to 10am, it goes down. The rest of the time, it goes up and you’ll have to use the traditional stairs alongside it if you want to descend.

We got out at Hollywood Road, dubbed Antiques Street because of its many antique stores, and made our way to Man Mo temple. It’s very similar to A-Ma temple in Macau, with its cone-shaped incense sticks and several different altars, only smaller and all indoors. Then, figuring that the weather wasn’t going to get any better, we decided to try and go to the Peak. The taxi ride to the Victoria Peak took a long time, as the clouds turned into fog. By the time we got all the way to the top, it was impossible to see anything beyond two or three meters of distance. Hence, all we could see from the viewpoints was white. Not even a glimpse of a building or a tree. Nothing. We had something to eat and, by the time we were done and ready to go back down, the fog had cleared only so slightly. We took the tram down. It was a steep and quick ride.

Back in Central, we walked through the Graham Street Market, an open air market that sells, fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. Then we took the escalator again to Soho (“South of Hollywood Road”, for those who were wondering) and sat at a nice bar, relaxing with a few glasses of beer and sangria. There was still light out, so we rode the escalator all the way to the top and, while coming back down, decided to stop for one more drink and conversation with some expats at a different bar, before we had to go back to Kowloon.

This time we took the subway, which is nice and efficient, but not as modern as Singapore’s, all the way to Jordan, and made our way to Temple Street. We had some local food outside, hawker-style, with toilet paper for napkins – at least there were some kind of napkins! – and proceeded to browse the famous night market. I have to say I was slightly disappointed, because the market had been hyped a lot and it was just a really long row of stands selling your typical souvenirs and junk, like t-shirts, sunglasses, mobile phone charms, lighters, canto-pop CD’s, et cetera. Still, we were able to find a couple of “treasures”. By then it was getting pretty late and we were dead tired, so it was a good thing that the hotel was within walking distance.

The next morning we repacked, took a few pictures around the hotel area, and took the subway down to Tsim Sha Shui again, looking for a very specific pair of sneakers from a very specific store (long story.) The fact is that we managed to get ourselves lost several times, as all the streets around that area are full of shops on all floors and most buildings are connected to form a giant shopping mall. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many bargains to be had here. A few hours passed quickly and we grew tired again, so it was time to refuel at “the best dim-sum in Kowloon”, according to Lonely Planet. The dumplings were pretty unusual, but it was a good meal. After that, we only had the time to get back to the hotel, grab our bags and take the ferry back to Macau, from where we flew back to Singapore.

Views of Macau

2007-08-29T03:34:00.000-04:00

The lighthouse and the chapel at Guia's fort, the highest point in the Macau peninsula

A lot of Macau's residential buildings look like this. I find it a cross between Hong Kong and 1950's Lisbon outskirts, which kind of makes sense.

The winding bridge in Lou Lim Ioc garden has nine turns (the evil spirits can't turn, so you're safe here) and is surrounded by lotus plants.

A typical street in Macau, away from the downtown area

A view to Sai Van Lake, with the Macau tower on the left and the Taipa bridge to its right

Near A-Ma temple, a bilingual street sign and a wall that would be at home in Lisbon.

A-Ma temple from the outside. Its architecture is similar to Man Mo's in Hong Kong, but different from several other Chinese temples we've seen.

The interior of A-Ma temple. Those cone-shaped incense sticks were everywhere.

Lotus, Incense and More Rain

2007-08-29T03:31:00.000-04:00

It wasn’t raining in Macau the next morning, but the skies were depressingly gray. We gave up on the idea of going to the Macau tower to get an overview of the peninsula and the islands of Taipa and Coloane. Instead, we visited another high spot, the Guia fort, with its lighthouse, chapel and underground tunnels. Later, we went for a stroll in the scenic Lou Lim Ioc garden, with its lotus flowers, its collection of funny-shaped rocks, its several cats, and its winding bridge.

Then we took a taxi to the top of Penha hill, overlooking the man-made lake, the Macau Tower and the Taipa Bridge. From there, we walked downhill to A-Ma temple, a very old Chinese temple built around the 16th century. After observing the curious cone-shaped incense sticks and checking out its several stages (or floors), we came back down, just in time for some delicious, as-real-as-it-gets, Portuguese food, at the nearby restaurant “A Lorcha”.

We still had a couple more hours before we had to leave, so we went to the Monte fort, by St. Paul’s ruins. The Macau Museum, which is housed in the fort, is really interesting and very well organized, displaying both the different areas of the city and its unique culture. While we were there, it began to rain, and, by the time we got out it it had become worse. We couldn’t catch a taxi nearby, so we sort of “slid” downhill to the same bakery that had sheltered us from the rain the previous evening. My feet and legs were soaked and cold, but eventually we were able to get a cab, get to the hotel, grab our bags and go to the ferry that would take us to Hong Kong.

Strolling around downtown Macau

2007-08-28T01:44:00.000-04:00

The baroque façade of St. Dominic's church

Steve looks happy to see a familiar-looking place... it's the main square, Largo do Senado.

Another view of the main square

Portuguese tile work inside the Leal Senado building

The Senado square, seen from the mayor's office (Leal Senado)

The Travessa de São Domingos (St. Dominic's lane), off Senado square

The so-so egg tart. Worth trying, anyways.

The ruins of St. Paul's church are Macau's symbol.

A closer look at St. Paul's façade

An incense burner belonging to a small temple, behind the ruins of St. Paul's church

A view of the skyline from St. Paul's. That ugly, enormous building under construction is the Grand Lisboa, a new casino. Did they really need to make it that tall?

Yet another view of St. Paul's and the steps that lead to it. Beautiful, isn't it?

The Senado square at night, after the rain, facing the Leal Senado building.

The "pre-Las Vegas" casino and hotel Lisboa is still a Macau landmark.

Baccarat and Egg Tarts

2007-08-28T01:39:00.000-04:00

We landed in Macau on a cloudy afternoon. In general, we’ve been pretty lucky with the weather during our Asia travels, but this time a level 8 typhoon was scheduled to hit Hong Kong that same night, and it didn’t take long for the rain to start. However, we had less than two days to see Macau and, since there were no taxis available, because it was raining, we took the bus downtown to Senado Square. This square is the heart of colonial Macau. Its winding sidewalk, made of black and white cobblestones, leads you to the Portuguese institutional buildings such as the Senado itself (the mayor’s office) and the Santa Casa da Misericórdia (Portugal’s solidarity institution.) We had some homemade noodles at a quaint, traditional Chinese restaurant, and made our way to the baroque church of St. Dominic, which houses a very interesting museum of antique religious objects.

On our way to the ruins of St. Paul’s, we stopped for a “Portuguese egg tart”. Now, I’m a big fan of the real thing and was disappointed by the pudding-like consistency and overall eggy-ness of these tarts. Still, I imagine they can be very popular with foreigners who have never tried the original, but I suggest you look somewhere else -- I found a decent egg tart in downtown Kyoto, Japan, of all places. One thing you must absolutely not miss while in Macau is the ruins of St. Paul’s. This magnificent Jesuit church was built in the 17th century and destroyed by a fire about 200 years later. All that remains is the beautifully ornate façade, which is perched on a hill, at the top of a long flight of steps. We had time for some pictures before it started pouring really, really hard. We waited for about 30 minutes under a bakery’s awning and then gave up. Armed with only a flimsy umbrella, we started to descend the cobblestone-paved streets, looking for some decent Portuguese food.

By the time dinner was over it had stopped raining, so we decided to sample the casino entertainment. The casinos are Macau’s biggest tourism draw right now, since a lot of Chinese from the mainland come to the territory strictly to gamble large sums on baccarat. The Wynn is one of the most recent Las Vegas-style casinos in Macau, and only a 10-minute walk away from our hotel. We made our way there and saw a lot of Chinese people playing mostly baccarat and some dice. There were only a couple of roulettes, as well as blackjack tables and slot-machines (not very popular), and a type of poker that I didn’t recognize. The casino was actually a very elegant place -- as opposed to some cheesier, older ones. We gambled a little (and lost) and went to sleep.

China’s SAR’s (no, not the syndrome)

2007-08-28T01:37:00.000-04:00

Since Macau and Hong Kong, China’s Special Administrative Regions, are only about an hour away from each other by ferry, we decided to visit them on the same trip. Everybody knows Hong Kong was a British territory from the 19th century to 1997; what you might not know is that Macau was a Portuguese territory from the 16th century to 1999. However, they couldn’t be more different. Hong Kong is a big city that looks a little like New York’s Chinatown, except that it’s perched on a hill and has an enormous harbor, while Macau is a quaint little place that looks like a Portuguese village, except that there is a huge area filled with casinos, some older, some brand new and Las Vegas-style. All in all, they complement each other and are great visited together.

Sights of Bali

2007-08-15T04:44:00.000-04:00

A statue at a roundabout on the main highway

The beach in Seminyak is a lot more crowded than Kubu, but it's huge and there are almost no waves.

The entrance to the temple at Seminyak

A detail of a door in the temple

Steve was required to put on a sarong to enter the temple

A makeshift altar for offerings

Another area of the temple

Candle-lit dinner right on the beach at Jimbaran

Fresh fish for dinner

200+ steps to the water

2007-08-14T05:40:00.000-04:00

Being the Ritz-Carlton, there was a small, private, beach, Kubu, which was made even more private by the fact that it was solely accessible by going down 250 or so steps, so only a few people actually ventures down there. We went twice and never had to share the beach with more than 20 people at a time. Unlike Bintan or Sentosa, the water here is on the cold side, which is actually a good thing because it's pretty hot outside and this way you can be refreshed. Steve and I were reminded of the Algarve, namely Vale do Lobo and Praia da Rocha, only with less people and perhaps somewhat cleaner water (you can't get much cleaner that this!)

The coast of the Bukit Peninsula, at the southern tip of Bali, is full of cliffs and the waves are much higher, unlike in the more well-known areas of Kuta or Seminyak. The advantage is that you're a lot more secluded.

Kubu is a small beach between two cliffs. The sand is white and the water is as blue as it gets, but you have to watch out for the waves... It's not your swimming-pool type of sea, though if you 're careful, it's lots of fun.

Steve on the steps towards the beach. If you're not in good shape, don't bother going down; you won't be able to climb back up. Seriously, it's quite the work-out.

Typical boats not too far from the shore

Kecak!

2007-08-09T00:31:00.001-04:00

Pronounced "kechack", it is a performance based on the hindu tale Ramayana, performed by silent characters that dance slowly while enacting the actions. A group of twenty or so men provide the music, by singing in a repetitive, non-melodic fashion. Most of them keep repeating chak, chak, chak, while one or two others provide a counterpoint. It's a very magnetic performance, especially when enjoyed at Ulu Watu temple's cliff, at sunset.

Monkeys on the way to the stage at Ulu Watu

A monkey up close

Sunset over the cliff at Ulu Watu

The singers/dancers sit down around the blessed fire and begin chanting. They only stand up a couple of times, during the performance, but move their arms a lot.

Prince Rama and his wife Sita, who's kidnapped later

A closer shot of the "orchestra"

The big bird Garuda (the Indonesian airlines are named after him)

The White Monkey King, a funny character and one of the story's heroes

The White Monkey King is set on fire by the enemies but manages to escape

Two "dancers" perform for us

Going five stars

2007-08-08T11:14:00.001-04:00

Back in May, we attended a time-sharing session and came out with vouchers for the Ritz-Carlton in Bali. We already had plans to go there, but the vouchers definitely made the whole experience much more unforgettable. Here are some shots of the hotel...

Down the steps from the lobby, towards breakfast and the swimming pools

The opposite view

The main pool at the resort

The Ocean Pool, between the resort and the beach

The Villa Lobby

A view to the resort and the sea, from the C-Bar

Culinary Adventures - Beijing

2007-08-07T07:24:00.000-04:00

In Beijing you can find a lot of the same food they serve you in restaurants in NYC (save for General Tso's), but what's the point of eating the same old stuff? During our trip, we tried to taste as many local specialties as we could. However, we left without trying the live scorpions and seahorses on a stick that were for sale at the stalls in Wangfujing Avenue...

Chinese pancake with onions is a popular alternative to rice in the countryside.

Mongolian stew. Doesn't look like much, but it's delicious.

Rice porridge with corn makes a nice side dish.

Chrysanthemum tea. We also tried Oolong, jasmine, rose, lychee, Puerr and green tea.

Mr. Sha (the cricket man) and his family offered us some cherry sweets.

One cannot go to Beijing and pass on Peking Duck.

This is duck feet. Yes, we actually ate them (not a whole lot though.) They taste very fatty and have a weird consistency, sort of rubbery. Not something on my list to try again.

Evening entertainment

2007-08-07T02:33:00.000-04:00

Besides a lot of western-style bars and clubs, in Beijing there are many other options a tourist can choose from when looking for something to do in the evening. We decided to splurge and attended a show for every night we spent there.

The first night we went for the obligatory Peking Opera. We had an idea of what to expect, namely, long, unintelligible dialogs, high-pitched voices and a lot of drama. Well, the voices were mostly high, yes, but the show was actually very entertaining. They sat us at tables and served us tea, peaches and Chinese snacks. There were two short shows (about 1/2 hour long, each of them), thankfully more action-based than dialog-based and there was a LED display that did a very decent job of translating said dialogs. The first show was actually funny and the second one was about a forbidden love story in which a goddess had to fight the other gods for her mortal beloved (why she would fall in love with such a wimpy guy is besides the point.) Most amazingly, no-one died, so the whole thing was unexpectedly very light-hearted.

On the second night we went for a Kung Fu show that was more like a Broadway production. It told the story of a Kung Fu monk from the time he's left at the monastery as a child to the time when he becomes the new master. There was no dialog, so it was pretty easy to follow. It was cool, but we weren't supposed to take pictures and, while Julie dared, I didn't.

On our last evening we saw an acrobatics show. While it was the most mindless of the three, it was also easily the most entertaining, because the acrobats were truly amazing. I was constantly awed by the way they kept attempting increasingly difficult things. And it was humbling in the sense that, no matter how much time I could spend at the gym, I'll never be in such good shape (I can't even do a handstand!)

The Inner Court

2007-08-06T03:19:00.001-04:00

Entrance to the Western corridor

A view of the Western corridor, from where you can access several palaces

Tile work in Yang Xin Hall. Yellow is the color of the emperor.

I believe this is the interior of Yang Xin Hall though, to tell the truth, there are several palaces in the Western side of the inner court, and they all look the same, so I might be wrong.

Another view of the interior of Yang Xin Hall

A male lion at the entrance to Yang Xin Hall

Another view of the Western corridor

The outer courtyards

2007-08-03T08:07:00.000-04:00

Guards outside the Meridian Gate

The Meridian Gate

A view of the main courtyard

Looking back at the Taihe gate from the main courtyard

Another view of the main courtyard

Climbing up the stairs to Zonghe Hall

One of the emperor's many thrones, and possibly the least impressive. I've only seen the others in pictures, since they're in the buildings under renovation, but they're much bigger and more golden, even though the style is basically the same.

A detail of the roofs in the Forbidden City. A way of telling a building's importance is counting the number of figurines in the corner. This one is pretty important.

Behind the Forbidden City's roofs, one of the corner towers and, in the background, the White Dagoba in Beihai Park, right outside the Palace Museum.

Stone carvings on the stairs behind Baohe Hall

A city within a city

2007-08-03T04:04:00.000-04:00

We all have seen on TV those haunting images of the empty courtyards and the intimidating, magnificent buildings of the Forbidden City. I’ve always thought of it as a ghost city, deprived on its inhabitants since the last emperor was moved out. Let me tell you: when you’re in there with hundreds, possibly thousands of people, the Forbidden City (or Palace Museum, as it is officially called nowadays) feels a lot less majestic. It didn’t help that some of the major buildings were under renovation for the 2008 Olympics and that we only had one morning too see the whole compound. On top of all that, despite the earlier haze, the day became hotter and hotter, until it was almost unbearable to walk around.

It’s a huge maze, courtyard after gate after courtyard, dozens of administrative buildings and many more residential ones, plus a vast garden with trees and rocks. Soon you lose track of which bedroom belonged to which empress, or of how many different audience chambers there are. It is still amazing, and there’s so much history about its residents and so much symbolism in the way it was built, down to the smallest ornament. You could spend literally days there, provided you have the time, a map and/or a very patient guide. I definitely recommend getting there as soon as it opens, to try to beat both the heat and the crowds and to make the most of your time.

The largest square in the world

2007-08-01T03:41:00.000-04:00

Our first stop on our third day in Beijing was Tiananmen Square. It had rained the night before and in the morning it was hazy again. That, however, didn’t stop the masses of foreign and mostly domestic tourists that gathered there. The square is pretty vast and definitely has an East Berlin/Pyongyang feel, with all the austere party buildings and monuments. The illusion is shattered when you look to the North and see the entrance to the Forbidden City, with the Mao portrait (recently replaced, after someone set the old one on fire) hanging over the gate.

The Monument to the People's Heroes lies in the center of the square. In the background, on flanking the square to the East, there's the Museum of the Chinese Revolution.

The Great Hall of the People, on the West side of the square

Beijing attracts tons of tourists, a lot of them from other parts of China. We saw a lot of students on field trips.

This was taken in the underground passage to the Gate of Heavenly Peace. There's a kitty behind the sack.

An ornamental marble column from the Ming period

A female stone lion guards the left side of the Gate of Heavenly Peace.

The Tian An Men (Gate of Heavenly Peace). Behind it lies the Forbidden City.

Drums and grasshoppers

2007-07-31T23:15:00.000-04:00

A canal in the heart of the hutongs

The maps of Beijing only show the main streets (not the hutongs) so if you happen to get lost around here, these sure come in handy.

Pipe Street, a "main street" in the hutongs

Yes, that guy is clipping his nails on the street using huge scissors.

A grasshopper in its cage. The thing in orange is a carrot.

Mr. Sha poses for the photograph while showing us a scale for crickets

Jenn, Julie and I at the top of the drum tower stairs

A detail of the hutongs from the top of the drum tower. Since they're located right in the center of Beijing, a lot of the old houses are being demolished to give way to modern buildings.

Jenn watching the drum players

This is a clepsydra and that's how they used to tell when it was time to play the drums.

The hutong roofs seen from above

The bell tower

On the go

2007-07-30T04:45:00.000-04:00

The following are some pictures Steve took - except for the first one, of course - during the trishaw tour of the Hutongs, while I was doing the video. They're just quick snapshots of places and people we passed. Next time: the photos we took while on foot and how to catch a cricket.

An older world amid Beijing’s skyscrapers

2007-07-27T08:23:00.000-04:00

One of the experiences no one should miss in Beijing is taking a trishaw tour of the Hutongs. Hutongs are literally small streets, alleys, but can mean the older neighborhoods of Beijing as a whole. While the modern Beijing is all about big roads and giant glass skyscrapers, the Hutongs still manage to co-exist side by side with them (until they’re turned into luxury condos too.) It’s a world of small, one-floor houses and impossibly narrow streets where people still ride bicycles, play mahjong and hang their clothes outside.

We met Maggie, our Hutong guide, by the Drum and Bell towers and she led us through the alleys to a canal inhabited by mandarin ducks and surrounded by restaurants and bars. Then we ventured some of the main streets, slightly wider than most and filled with all sorts of specialty stores, some hip, some traditional. Finally, we visited a family that kept grasshoppers and fighting crickets and then our trishaws brought us back to the Drum tower, so we could watch the 4 o’clock show.

Tian Tan (the Temple of Heaven)

2007-07-26T03:10:00.001-04:00

The firewood stove, located near the main altar. Around it there are several big pots which contained the ~~victims~~, err... sacrifices.

The Earthly Mount, or Altar of Heaven, comprised of three marble levels, is where the Emperor prayed for favorable weather. The center stone on the top level is supposed to be sacred.

Looking at the entrance from the altar.

The gate at the Echo Wall. It's a round wall with only one opening and it is said that one person on one end can hear a person on the other end due to echo. It doesn't work with crowds, though.The Echo Wall surrounds the House of Heavenly Lord and a few other buildings. On the right, our guide Eric.

The House of Heavenly Lord

A side pavilion inside the Echo Wall

A detail of the stone carvings in the middle of the stairs. There are similar stones on the stairs of the Forbidden City.

On our way to the last building. It was so windy, that earth was getting in our eyes and mouth.

The magnificent Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the main and last building in the compound. It's such a shame the weather was bad!

A detail of the roof

Steve in front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Visitors aren't allowed inside.

Yonghe Gong (Lama Temple)

2007-07-26T02:10:00.000-04:00

A lion on each side of an entrance is a very popular feature in the Forbidden City and there is a couple here too, at the Lama temple. Even though they both have manes, this one is a female. You can tell them apart because the female is holding down a cub (and the male, a ball.)

The protector of the Buddhist scriptures

An incense burner

This statue symbolizes the center of the world. At the bottom is hell, in the middle the dwellings of the humans and at the top, paradise. You can throw coins and, if you hit it paradise, you might make it there (we failed.)

The Buddha of the present

Incense burning in one of the courtyards

An altar to a weather god

The lower leg -- this is all we could get of the 18-meter tall Buddha without stepping in, since photos aren't allowed inside.

Buddhist monks admiring the Tibetan Buddha statue

The sweet smell of incense

2007-07-23T06:45:00.000-04:00

Beijing isn’t as a religious city as Bangkok, but it still has a few absolutely must-see temples. We saw the two most famous ones, the Lama Temple and the Temple of Heaven.

The Lama temple is a Tibetan Buddhist temple and monastery housed in what used to be Prince Yong’s palace in the 18^th century. Therefore, its architecture is more similar to that of the Forbidden City than of a Chinese Buddhist temple. It does, however, contain Tibetan artwork and decorations. One of its highlights is an 18-meter tall statue of the Buddha (covered in gold, in case you were wondering), carved of a single piece if wood. For this reason, it’s included in the Guinness Book of Records.

The Temple of Heaven is a Taoist temple, but it wasn’t a public temple. It was the place where the imperial family prayed and hosted its private ceremonies. Like in the case of the Lama Temple, its architecture is unusual, with its round buildings and walls and three-tiered stone altar (the round shape is evocative of Heaven itself.) A long time ago, there were sacrifices being made in the temple. You can still see the cauldrons where they burned animals (and sometimes children.) Nowadays the big park around the temple is used for the practice of Tai-Chi. The afternoon we visited this temple it was raining and windy and while it didn’t affect the visit itself – apart from some dust in the eyes – it was impossible to recreate those amazing pictures of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests framed against a blue sky.

The Summer Palace in pictures

2007-07-20T01:41:00.000-04:00

A first view of Kunming lake, with the Tower of of Buddhist fragrance and the great pagoda in the background.

A building in the administrative area

Yiyun Hall's facade. The tourists aren't allowed inside, so we must peer through the windows.

The living quarters of the last empress-dowager, in Yiyun Hall.

Bronze statues in the Hall of Happiness and Longevity (the empress Cixi's quarters)

A view of the gardens

Kunming Lake with the Seventeen-Arch Bridge.

It must be quite a view from up there. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go there. But you can see it here.

The gateway to the boathouses

The marble boat and other buildings in the palace were built by the empress Cixi with money that was to be invested on a new navy.

The gate-tower of Cloud-Retaining Eaves

Steve and the girls on one of the bridges

The Ultimate Vacation Home

2007-07-20T01:38:00.000-04:00

On the second way our guide drove us to the Summer Palace, where the emperor and his family (consisting of the empress, his concubines and the eunuchs) would retire to during the summer, to escape the oppressive Beijing heat. Nowadays the imperial family has been replaced by masses of tourists who want to see how the emperor lived and perhaps escape the heat themselves.

The summer palace is like a park, and most of the area is occupied by a giant man-made lake. Around it there are several gardens, temples and the buildings that housed the family. It feels a lot like a maze, especially when you don't have a whole lot of time to explore every building. Of course, we did have time to get ripped off again, when we bought some paintings.

Bubbles + Tea

2007-07-18T03:44:00.001-04:00

The Olympic stadium is truly amazing.

The bubbly swim center

A typical highway in Beijing. On weekdays, the traffic is terrible, due to the exponential increase in the number of cars lately. You can see the modern buildings coming up.

I've seen parrots and even crows talk, but I'd never heard a bird say "Nihao" before.

The courtyard of the teahouse

This is flower tea. It comes in those little balls on the right. When hot water is poured over them, they open up to reveal different flowers. It's decorative and drinkable too.

Modernity and Tradition

2007-07-18T03:30:00.001-04:00

Coming back from the Great Wall, we drove to the site of the 2008 Olympics. We can't really get in because the whole place is still under construction (the whole city is under construction, for that matter -- all we see is amazingly modern hi-rises going up everywhere) but we stopped nearby to get a couple of pictures. After all, it's not every day that you get to see an Olympic stadium that looks like a bird's nest and a swimming pool complex made of bubbles (supposedly it's safer in case of earthquakes)! Then our guide took us to a tea house where a young woman with a funny accent explained to us the differences between several types of tea, their properties, and how to drink them. We tasted various teas and ended up buying some, as well as some cups. As in many other instances in Beijing, we found out later that we were ripped off. Oh well. At least we had the lecture and we saw a bird that said "Nihao" (hello) and other things in Mandarin that we couldn't possibly understand.

A Wall with a view

2007-07-16T04:08:00.000-04:00

Our guide, Eric, climbing towards the cable car. There are souvenir stalls on both sides of the way.

Honestly, I was not expecting to find this on my way up.

About to start our hike

Jenn and Julie pose on the Great Wall

A detail of the watchtower's roof

One of the few instances where the side of the Wall isn't covered by vegetation

The child-size steps that lead you up

Coca-Cola: the official drink of the Great Wall of China?

No matter how much you walk, the Wall seems to go on forever.

This section of the wall has been restored. In sections that remain original (like Simatai) the ground is very uneven and it's a much harder climb.

See? It was steep.

The inevitable souvenir

Like a snake undulating through the mountains

2007-07-16T03:51:00.000-04:00

Last week we spent three days (and one morning) in Beijing and in the morning of the first day we went straight to the main attraction: the Great Wall! The Wall at Mutianyu is less crowded than the famous Badaling section and there's a cable car to take us to the top. For 75 minutes we walked, we climbed and we stared in awe at the amazing vistas. The funny thing is that we ended up not walking that much; at least not as much as we felt we had. What happens is that the Great Wall is a good 2000 km or so above sea level, and very steep in certain parts. Plus, it was about 11am and really, really hot, which might explain why we felt so exhausted so fast. As much as we'd like to keep going and enjoy a longer time at such an amazing monument, the Wall beat us in a little over an hour. But what a sensation to simply stand on it!

Three girls in Bintan

2007-07-12T05:35:00.000-04:00

Blue waters, palm trees, blue skies... It's a tropical paradise.

Julie and Jenn having a good time

It was hard to say goodbye to a beach like this

Look, Mom! It's a real elephant!

Trying to stay balanced on an elephant's back

After the ride, Jenn, Julie and I pose for one last photo

A day at the beach

2007-07-12T05:23:00.000-04:00

We're back after much touring! Two friends came to Singapore and I tried to be a good tour guide for five days. Before we flew to Beijing, we took a day trip to Bintan, Indonesia. It's a little like taking the airplane, in terms of security and comfort, but it's actually just a one-hour ferry ride. On the northern side of the island there's a bunch of Singaporean-run beach resorts and the people from Singapore enjoy going there for the weekend, since it's so much nicer than the beaches of Sentosa! We too went to the beach. The sun was hot, the sand was fine, and the water warm and clear! After lunch we did a little local shopping before we went to see the elephants. We took pictures with them and got to ride them in the middle of the forest for about 15-20 minutes. It was a slightly bumpy but unforgettable experience!

Agra's Red Fort

2007-06-28T06:09:00.001-04:00

The Agra Fort is located near the Taj Mahal and it's the most important fort in India, historically speaking. This is the Amar Singh gate.

More than a fort, it's actually a walled city, enclosing several palaces.

The Khas Mahal is one of those palaces.

A room in the Khas Mahal

Anguri Bagh

One the Khas Mahal's windows. One of them overlooks the Taj and it is said that its builder died here looking at it.

The fort's moat

The Jehangir Mahal

The Jehangir Mahal's court

The gardens

The Jehangir Mahal's façade

I was told this used to be someone's bathtub.

N.B. - UNESCO's website has an amazing collection of 360º views of Agra's Red Fort, as well as many other World Heritage Sites.

The Jewel of India

2007-06-27T02:56:00.001-04:00

There is no such thing as too many pictures of the Taj Mahal.

Delhi, part II

2007-06-26T04:36:00.000-04:00

Iman Zamin's tomb (16th century), by the Kutab Minar

The Kutab Minar, which was built in the 12th and 13th centuries and struck twice by lightning

Here's another one so you can see the actual size of the tower. It's the tallest stone tower in India.

Kids make great photo subjects because they almost always look spontaneous.

Motorcycle accidents are very common.

A crafts market in Delhi

Delhi

2007-06-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

The India Gate, built in memory of the soldiers who perished in WW1

Alternative means of transportation

Entrance to the Red Fort. The guards carry machine guns.

According to the postcards, this part of the Red Fort is called the Diwan-i-Am.

A marble courtyard inside the Red Fort

Elsewhere

2007-06-22T05:00:00.000-04:00

Last week there were no updates because Steve and I were away. While I went to Portugal, he traveled to India, ate too much curry and brought many pictures back. Since I didn't get to go, my comments will be restricted to naming places and buildings. You can ask him directly about the details later! For now, here's a teaser:

The MacRitchie Reservoir

2007-06-07T05:21:00.000-04:00

This is the jungle. This is also before we had walked a lot and it got too hot, and that's why I still look presentable. This particular section was very nice to walk through, especially because of the river.

And this is the treetop walk section. We could see as far as the lake on the other end of the reservoir, but it was a little too far to catch on camera. I was slightly disappointed that the bridge wasn't wobblier (it would be fun!), but then again, it was pretty high so maybe not...

Apart from a giant ant, the macaques were the only animals we spotted. There were lots of them by the bridge.

Personally, I'm far more worried about the animals attacking me (and they do attack you if you have food) than about the $250 fine for feeding them; but whatever works as motivation...

Walking on clouds

2007-06-07T05:08:00.000-04:00

Singapore was once entirely covered in tropical rain forest. Nowadays, all that remains is a relatively small patch in the center of the island, which was turned into two reserves/natural parks: the MacRitchie Reservoir and the Bukit Timah Reserve. The former has a lot of walking trails you can take, although the secret is to arrive very early in the morning, to be done with your hike before the heat gets really, really bad. We arrived at 9am to walk though the most famous of the trails: the Treetop Walk. For the most part it's a sweaty hike through the jungle, but you get to walk for about 10 minutes on a suspension bridge that connects the two highest points in the reservoir, for a view of the canopies and, with luck, a few animals. And even though we were done by 11am, I can't begin to tell you how drenched we were when we got out. Perhaps next time we ought to start at 7:30.

The Chinatown Vesak Day Parade

2007-06-04T01:58:00.000-04:00

Vesak Greetings

Parading dragons on South Bridge Road

A lucky family gets an unrestricted view of the parade from their window.

A pink dragon passing in front of the Sri Mariamman temple

The brand new temple, about to be inaugurated

Dancing Dragons on the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Happy Vesak Day!

2007-06-04T01:49:00.000-04:00

Vesak Day is possibly the most important Buddhist holiday in Singapore and takes place on the 8-15th day of 4th lunar month. This year it was on May 31st and a new temple, the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, was inaugurated the night before in Chinatown. South Bridge Road was closed down for a Chinese parade with music, drums and dragons. We went to see it but it was hard to take good pictures with so many spectators!

Touring with BG

2007-05-29T04:15:00.000-04:00

The chicken rice restaurant

Shophouses at Balestier Road

The hawker center at Golden Mile complex

This is what peanut soup looks like

The peanut soup stall

The Sultan Mosque at Kampong Glam

The Kuan Im Thong Hood Cho temple (I'll never memorize this name)

Culinary adventures - Chicken rice with BG

2007-05-29T03:42:00.000-04:00

BG is a co-worker of Steve's who was born in Malacca and has lived in Singapore most of his life. He is, therefore, an authority on what to eat, and where to eat it. He also makes a great walking-tour guide!

We had been in Singapore for almost a month and still hadn't tasted the Singaporean national dish: Hainanese chicken rice (yes, it's actually Hainanese, but the Singaporeans claim it as theirs.) BG took us off the beaten path to a local restaurant in Balestier Rd, an area mostly known by its many lamp shops. Besides chicken rice, we tried pork mashed with salty fish and fish and crab meat soup. They were all very good, especially the rice in the chicken rice, which was heavenly in my opinion.

With our stomachs full, we took a stroll down the road and bought some sticky rice dumplings from one of the best rice dumpling shops in Singapore. Then we took the bus to Golden Mile Complex, where the Thai workers hang out in their free time and where we had peanut soup for dessert. I'm a huge dessert fan and I'd recommend peanut soup to anyone. Chinese desserts are typically lighter and not as sweet as their American (and Portuguese) counterparts, but it's really their delicate flavor that makes them so yummy. Peanut soup comes with dough balls filled with yam, red bean, sesame and peanut. You can choose one flavor or a mix of the four. My favorite was sesame.

Then we walked through Kampong Glam (the Arab quarter) towards Bugis and stopped to take a closer look at Parkview Square, an art deco building which would be more at home in Manhattan than in Singapore. At Bugis Village we strolled through stalls at the night market and took a peek at the Kuan Im Thong Hood Cho temple (Chinese) and the Sri Krishnan temple (Indian), before we finished our tour at the artist's neighborhood near the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station.

Assorted Bangkok shots

2007-05-22T03:11:00.001-04:00

A typical Bangkok street

Grabbing a snack (satay) on the go

They have crowded open-aired markets and then they have this.

Bangkok apartments across the most luxurious mall

A frequent design on the temples' roofs

Tuk-tuks may lack air-conditioning and don't offer a lot of protection from the fumes, but they compensate that with a lot of personality.

One of Bangkok's signatures is the chaotic traffic. The king says hi.

Shopping and dropping

2007-05-21T05:50:00.001-04:00

On Sunday morning we took the subway to the Chatuchat weekend market. After seeing the streets, were very surprised that the subway was extremely clean and new – it felt like we were back in Singapore!

The market is huge. It took us a while just to find the information center. The guide book said it was located on section 25, but we couldn’t find that section, even though we could see sections 23, 24 and 26. We even asked some people and no-one was sure. The truth is Chatuchat is a giant maze encompassing more than 800 stalls. When we finally found the information center, we were given a map. The people also warned us against pickpockets and showed us a bunch of wallets that had turned up empty.

I’d like to take the opportunity to mention that everywhere you go in Bangkok you find nice people willing to go out of their way to help you. If they don’t speak English, they’ll find you someone who does.

At Chatuchat you can find almost anything, from stylish clothes and accessories, handicrafts and household items, to furniture, artworks, and even puppies. And everything is so cheap, especially by western standards! (bargaining is expected) I honestly rarely give in to the shopping spree temptation, but if it weren’t for the limited time and how much we were able to carry back (we bought a bag for that purpose) I could have made a serious dent in the wallet…

On the way back we took the Skytrain (a sort of subway that runs above the city streets) to Siam square, for an altogether different kind of shopping. The malls at Siam square are even bigger and nicer than the ones in Singapore, and that’s saying a lot. One of them had the biggest supermarket I’ve ever seen, and everything there was gourmet. I wonder who shops there, considering that just across the street there are very modest houses and beggars on the sidewalk. It’s a very shocking contrast.

Tired of walking and shopping in Bangkok’s oppressive heat (it’s worse than Singapore) we made our way back to the hotel, repacked (we had to fit our market finds somehow) and left to the airport, hoping to be able to at least nap on the way back home. If only we had had time for another massage!

Calypso Cabaret

2007-05-21T04:14:00.000-04:00

At the entrance

The show had plenty of beautiful ladies

No, this isn't a ugly woman. It's a guy cross-dressing as a Japanese lady. This part was really funny.

Who says bikinis are just for girls?

A relaxing evening

2007-05-18T04:25:00.000-04:00

After touring the temples and the river all day, we though it was time for a traditional Thai massage. They pulled our limbs, cracked our fingers, twisted us into weird positions and it felt so good! We only had time for a quick dinner before we got our guide to take us to the Calypso Cabaret. It's a show where all performers are or were men at a point in their lives. The room was full with Westerners (men and women.) It's actually a pretty good show, with plenty of musical numbers and some funny parts too. And some of the girls are so gorgeous that it's hard to believe they weren't always female. We ended the night at the hotel bar, a hip new place mostly filled (not suprisingly) with Western men and their Thai girlfriends. Nancy swears she saw plenty of wedding bands on the guys' hands.

Lunch on the river

2007-05-18T04:23:00.000-04:00

Eating alfresco

A view of the "restaurant"

Forget Malaysia; this is the real fresh fish, right out of the river

Cooking Phat Thai

We bought some cherry lookalikes from this lady

Local food, international drink

The ice-cream man

This floating market takes place on land

It's hard not to buy everything you see

Pictures from the water

2007-05-18T04:05:00.000-04:00

We took a boat like this up the river and then through the Khlong Bangkok Noi canal to Thonburi

A temple on the Chao Phraya river

The big stupa at Wat Arun

Typical houses on the canal. I find it funny that they have satellite dishes

A gila monster; we saw an even bigger one peeking out of the water

This monk came to watch the boats go by

This has to be the cutest picture I took

People in Thonburi don't need to take the bus...

A temple on the canal

"Sacred" catfish: you can't fish them in this area, since they belong to the temple

An old rice barge

Up the canal to the old capital

2007-05-17T03:22:00.000-04:00

It wasn’t planned, but our guide suggested we take a boat tour along the Chao Phraya River. We got our own traditional boat and went down the river before we got into one of the canals, the Khlong Bangkok Noi, which flows into the Chao Phraya from the old capital, Thonburi. This was by far the most unique and exhilarating experience of the whole trip.

The canal is long and there are wooden houses built all along it. You can see gila monsters, big catfish, soup merchants on their little rowboats, children taking a dip, and monks looking out from their temples. The not-so-clean water splashes around, the floating vegetation covers the water and some people wave as you pass by. There are all sorts of houses, from the very humble to the extremely luxurious.

Nancy and Joe hadn’t had breakfast, so halfway through the tour they were starving. This was a lucky strike, since our guide knew just the place to eat around there. On the weekends, there is a floating market and the locals come to eat on this huge barge where you can find phat thai, shellfish, noodle soups and fresh-out-of-the-river catfish. We sat at a low table on the floor and ordered from almost every stand. Towards the end of lunch, the ice-cream man came by on his boat and we bought some coconut sorbet with peanuts. It was the cheapest and most delicious meal we had during our trip. Needless to say, we were the only non-Thai people on the barge…

Wat Benchamabophit

2007-05-16T23:28:00.000-04:00

The temple's entrance

The temple's façade

The main altar in the temple, with a picture of the current king as a monk on the right

An unusual depiction of a fasting Buddha, in the Ghandara style

A Buddha in the traditional Sukothai style

Wat Pho

2007-05-15T23:03:00.000-04:00

A guard at the entrance of the temple

Now that's a huge Buddha

The Buddha's head

One of many paintings on the interior walls of Wat Pho

One of the Buddha's soles, decorated with mother-of-pearl

Dropping pennies in a long row of pots

Wat Traimit

2007-05-15T03:53:00.000-04:00

The 5.5 ton gold Buddha

Offerings for the Buddha

Three Buddhas covered in gold leaf

We got pretty lucky with our fortune, I guess

The Thai flag with the temple's roof in the background

Young monks eating their meals

Monks, touts and golden Buddhas

2007-05-15T03:09:00.000-04:00

After getting some good sleep, we met our tour guide at the lobby around 10am and crossed the city to the old part of town. Our first stop was at Wat Traimit, the temple of the gold Buddha. Inside it there is a 5.5 ton statue of Buddha in solid gold. While a lot of Thai temples and statues are covered in gold leaf, this is the real thing. Outside, there are machines with little Buddha statues (one for each day of the week) in which you can insert a coin and get your fortune. Steve and I got a pretty good one, but not all of them are so uplifting. Before getting on the van to go to the next temple, we saw the young monks eating their meals.

Next we stopped at Wat Pho. This temple has a few statues outside, depicting guards and demons. It must be a pretty popular place since there were a lot of touts trying to get us to buy their stuff. It’s all pretty cheap, but still a rip-off compared to the prices you can find at the markets. Inside the temple there is a giant statue of a reclining Buddha. It’s very hard to take it all in without walking around the statue. The walls and ceilings are all finely decorated and the Buddha’s feet are incrusted with mother-of-pearl. Inside the temple there is also a long row of pots where you can drop pennies, giving the whole experience a funny background sound.

We went for a boat tour and had lunch before we saw one last temple. This one was called Wat Benchamabophit, or the Marble Temple. It’s not as impressive as the other two, but it’s quieter and nicer that way. If you’re looking for a place where you can actually meditate, this would be it. Outside, in the marble courtyard, there is a big collection of Buddha statues in bronze, covering different themes, periods and locations. Very interesting. I really wish we had had the time to see more temples. Bangkok has so many of them, and they’re all beautiful and unique in their own way. They’re a definitely a recommended sight, whether you are religious, an art lover or a history buff.

First night in Bangkok

2007-05-15T03:04:00.000-04:00

Our hotel was linked directly to the sky train via a bridge above the road.

A stroll through Soi Cowboy

Flying on a budget to Soi Cowboy

2007-05-15T03:02:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we took our first real trip to a neighboring country. We went to Bangkok, Thailand, with friends Nancy and Joe. We flew out of Changi Airport’s Budget Terminal on Tiger Airways, a local airline.

We arrived Friday night at the brand new international airport and were immediately lucky. The state’s travel agency was offering a promotional price on a 4 hour tour, with a private English-speaking guide and our own driver. We took a cab to our hotel and, after a much needed late dinner, went out. It turns out that our hotel, despite being in a so-called “nice” area, was actually very close to one of the infamous nightlife entertainment areas, Soi Cowboy.

The way Bangkok is organized is that there are main roads which have names (like Suhkumvit Road) and side streets, which are called Sois and numbered (Soi 1, 2, etc.) Well, this was Soi Cowboy. Taxi drivers wouldn’t understand the name of our hotel, but if we said “Soi Cowboy” and we’d be right on your way. Soi Cowboy is a small neon-lit street lined with strip clubs and pole-dancing bars on both sides. The passersby are almost all Western men, but we did see one or two couples (thankfully!) Men and girls sitting outside will call you to come in to their bar. Some of the girls inside look suspiciously young, although everyone will swear they’re all over 18. There are also a couple of regular bars. We had a couple of Singha’s (the local beer) and called it a night.

Dining in Malaysia

2007-05-10T04:46:00.000-04:00

Our restaurant

Our table

Look! Fresh fish!

A happy customer

Trying to get a snap of Johor Bahru from the car window

Culinary adventures - chili crab in Malaysia

2007-05-10T04:39:00.000-04:00

One of these weekends we went to Malaysia for dinner. It sounded cool that you could actually go to a different country just for dinner. After all, Malaysia is just a causeway away from Singapore, so it should be a breeze. It turns out it’s not that simple. First of all, we went during a long weekend, which meant a lot more people from Malaysia took the chance to go home then. So the traffic was kind of bad, especially since there were six of us in the car and Steve and I were sitting on top of each other, literally squeezed against the door.

Then came the immigration part: to cross into Malaysia and come back you need to fill out paperwork twice. You can do it in the car, if you happen to have extra forms, which our guides - Steve's co-workers - did. But it’s a huge waiting line (in the car) until you get to hand in your paperwork. There are also a lot of soldiers with machine guns walking around. Singapore and Malaysia aren’t exactly crazy about each other, so we’ve heard. There are so many cars waiting that some people just cross the causeway on foot – since it’s faster – but they walk right in the middle of the traffic and that’s just nuts. As we got into Malaysia, we went crossed the city of Johor Bahru (the second biggest city in Malaysia, after Kuala Lumpur) and drove into the country to get to our restaurant. All in all, the trip took two hours.

You can tell right away that Malaysia is very different from Singapore. Forget all about the squeaky cleanliness and get used to a grittier landscape. There are still apartment buildings and restaurants, but things just don’t look polished. Plus, we’ve heard it’s very dangerous to ride a nice car in Malaysia, especially late at night…

Still, as you ride into the country, the landscape reminded me more of a certain Algarvian architecture… the kind of houses that were built in the 70’s and 80’s, I guess: all white, with outer walls made of little columns, and aluminum doors and windows. Who copied who, I don’t know. There’s also a lot of tropical vegetation and in some areas all you see are trees and bushes.

The restaurant was nicely located near the water and from the distance you could see the lights in Singapore. Our party ordered some local specialties such as deer, chili crab, snails and steamed fish. We also drank coconut water (directly out of the coconut). I will admit I didn’t try the snails, but I heard they were good. The deer, crab and fish were all delicious (ok, the crab sauce was delicious, as I don’t eat shellfish. Still.) and our waitresses were all very nice, even if we didn’t speak a word of Malay. Fortunately, some of Steve's co-workers did, so that wasn’t a problem. We felt very welcome, especially considering we were the only white people in the whole restaurant and we were in the middle of the country.

The only drawback was the return trip: it took us another two hours, although this time there were only five of us in the car, thankfully. We almost got our camera taken away, since Steve thought it was a good idea to snap a picture of a soldier with a machine gun. Fortunately he only made us delete the picture.

I almost forgot… Uncle Bill, I am happy to report they did have regular bathrooms. They were pretty clean too.

Eating at People's Park Complex

2007-05-09T05:34:00.000-04:00

Just because the food is usually good, it doesn't mean it always is.

Culinary Adventures - a Chinese hawker center

2007-05-09T05:33:00.000-04:00

Right on our first day here, we decided to go to Chinatown to sample some local food and ended up at the People's Park Complex Hawker Center. A hawker center is a sort of courtyard where they gather a lot of street food-type stalls and you can pick whatever you want from each stall. Every stall is rated by the authorities according to the hygiene level, but I would recommend taking the whole thing with a grain of salt. The People's Park Complex is one of the most Chinese places we've ever been. It's chaotic and almost everything is in Chinese. Its hawker center is like that too. There were stalls after stalls and every vendor was shouting and trying to get us to have their food. Even though they had pictures of the dishes, we had no idea what those things were. Our first meal ended up being not so great, as the sauce was very greasy and the meat just ok. Though that might have been the exception, since Steve later tried some noodles and was very pleased with them. The best part? We paid S$3 to S$5 for each dish (that's two to three US dollars).

The food capital of Asia

2007-05-09T04:38:00.000-04:00

Singaporeans have two passions: shopping and eating, and there's is no shortage of places to engage in either activity. In terms of food, you can get almost anything: Chinese (and this includes the different provincies), Malaysian, Indian, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Middle Eastern, French, American, Mexican, you name it. However, no matter what you get, there are a few common elements that are typically Singapore: a) there are few or no napkins (unless you're eating at a fancier place, where you get a cloth napkin, of course), b) most of the time, it's going to be fried, c) the portions are somewhat small (I think they're perfectly sized for me, though), and d) things tend to taste saltier, albeit lighter than in the United States. That being said, the food is almost always delicious and inexpensive.

Some of the typical Singaporean dishes are: chicken rice, chili/pepper crab, fish head curry and laksa. We've only tried the chili crab so far but we can't wait to try the others (and in case you're wondering, no, I didn't actually eat the crab... but I can tell you the sauce was pretty good). Singaporeans are also fans of lightly sweetened desserts such as custard tarts and mango pudding. For breakfast they enjoy kopi or the (coffee and tea with condensed milk) with kaya butter toast and soft-boiled eggs.

One thing I find great is that in many places the menus have pictures of the dishes - it's really helpful when you're trying new things and have absolutely no idea what the words mean. What's really funny is that most foods and drinks are served hot... I mean, it's hot enough as it is!

Singapore from the Sky II

2007-05-08T02:45:00.000-04:00

West of the Swissotel, that big green park is Fort Canning Hill. It was the first area of the island to be developed by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. There were some government buildings and a fort (hence the name), but only ruins remain. There is also a WW2 museum in it. On the left you can see a white cross – that’s Clarke Quay, the most surreal entertainment district I have ever seen. Our apartment building is actually hidden behind the brown building on the right.

The colonial district in greater detail. If you look closely you can see the cricket players on the field. That triangular cluster of shophouses on the upper right corner is Boat Quay, another extremely popular nightlife destination.

St. Andrew’s Cathedral, probably the most famous church in Singapore. Its current incarnation was built in 1856.

A closer look at Clarke Quay. Those white things are actually giant sunbrellas which cover the streets from the rain and excessive sun. The shophouses in this area are all painted in candy colors. I call this place a Disneyland for grown-ups. Across the river, they have restored the warehouses and called the area Riverside Point. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in Clarke Quay, you can just walk across the bridge for more restaurants and bars.

Singapore from the Sky

2007-05-07T04:52:00.000-04:00

The Stamford Swisshotel is the tallest hotel in Singapore. We took the elevator to the 70th floor to get a panoramic view of the city.

To the Northwest you can see Orchard Road, which goes on and on with giant shopping malls one after another. In the distance you can see the typical Singaporean apartment buildings. The green area to the left of Orchard RD is the park that surrounds the Istana, the official residence of the President.

Far to the North lays Little India, which is hard to see from here. Closer is the new tourist attraction, the DHL ballon and behind it you can see a cluster of shophouses -- that's Kapong Glam, the Arab quarter.

Directly North of Swisshotel is the famous colonial-syle Raffles Hotel.

To the East lay the modern buildings of Suntec City, a giant shopping mall which is linked to the Marina Square mall, which has an underground passage that connects it to CityLink mall, which is linked to Raffles City mall. Get it? In the background you can see another recent atraction, a ferris wheel in the style of the London Eye and behind it, the sea, peppered with ships.

Southwest: The Singapore River is wider between the colonial district and the central business district. The locals call it "the belly of the carp" and it's supposed to bring good luck according to feng shui principles. The triangular builing to the left is the old post office which was converted into one of the most handsome and luxurious hotels in the city: the Fullerton Hotel. In the foreground you can see the cricket club, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and Asian Civilizations museum. Directly to the right, also in colonial style, lay the City Hall, and the Parliament House.

“I speak good English lah!”

2007-05-07T03:30:00.000-04:00

There are four official languages in Singapore: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, English being the lingua franca which everybody has to learn in school. However, when you first leave the safe haven of your hotel/apartment to explore the city, communication can be difficult. It’s not like the taxi drivers and hawker stall vendors don’t speak English. They do, but it’s mostly Singlish, which is Singapore’s unofficial language and real lingua franca. It’s basically an English dialect, stripped of verb tenses, adverbs and other complicated stuff and enriched with some Chinese, Malay and Tamil words. Add a Chinese accent and a few words like “lah”, “meh” and “ayah” which convey nothing but emphasis and there you have it. You’re now ready to say things like: “What you wan?” “Why you like tat?” and “Everything see must buy lah!”

Green House Effect

2007-05-04T08:08:00.000-04:00

Another example of shophouses' recuperation. Painting the shutters in vibrant colours seems to a very popular option. These are part of a indoors/outdoors shopping mall, Bugis Juction.