TravelStream™ news feed for member globaltraveler on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/globaltraveler en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:22:42 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/7/1216992000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/7/1216992000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/7/1216992000/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:22:42 -0400 Daily Life in New York

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Manhattan, New York, United States

Today's our 6 month wedding anniversary, I put the flowers S gave me in the blue vase. This weekend we tour around Rockfeller Center, 5th Avenue.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211481600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211481600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211481600/tpod.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:51:52 -0400 Memories of a Giesha - my first visit to Japan

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Tokyo, Kanto, Japan

We had a little late start today got up around 8 and bought some nice Japanese sandwichesat the same shop around the corner "Sizuya", which I have seen several times on streets and various locations and I believe it's a national chain. They have some very interesting snacks and breads that worth tasting, hum, some of them are very tasty! Such as the the bread with a layer of green melon on it from "Bei Hai Dao" and cinnamon bread with peanut butter crust (these two are my favourites). It's a store, I think, also favourite of local Japanese, as every time we buy these small sandwiches, crowds of local Japanese were purchasing the same food also. We hold a belief that wherever there's a lot of locals, the restaurant shall not be a bad choice.Now we are on super express singensan again. As we arrived the Kyoto station early, we decided to change our train from 12:32am to 11:30am (you can change to a different train once without having to pay commission). It will only take 2 hours to get to Kyoto! So we shall be in Kyoto before 1pm.The seats are spacious and the carts clean and tidy. Everything in Japan are super clean, even the toilet seats. The windows of the train has thin bamboo curtain, which was easy to pull down and push up if the sun is too strong. For toilet seats, choosing between "Bidget" or "Shower" or N other options, you can wash yourself right after using the bathroom :)) So cool.Tonight we are going to meet a college friend of S, Ken, who later introduced us to the famous Japanese dinner: Sukiyaki, oh, the beaf is, I believe, better than Kobe beef! One of the best Japanese meals I had ever tasted and I would definately go back again hundreds of times for the same food!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211393580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211393580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211393580/tpod.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:18:38 -0400 Memories of a Giesha - my first visit to Japan

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Kyoto, Japan

Remember in the scene of "Memorie of a Giesha", Ziyi Zhang ran down a narrow lane in a temple with thousands of red orange pillars? That's the first destination of our schedule today. A side story happened was the Japanese driver who drove us to the Inari temple offered to wait for us outside the temple for 1 hour, and took us to another temple. In order to avoid misunderstanding, we told him to leave and drive wherever he wanted and came back in 1 hour if he happened to drop another customer off. But after we got out of the Inari temple, we found him waited there for an hour already and he asked us for 1 hour waiting fee: 3600 yen. We were amazed and felt really annoyed. Ripping off tourists were everywhere, even in a developed country like Japan, we sighed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211304780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211304780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211304780/tpod.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:41:10 -0400 Memories of a Giesha - my first visit to Japan

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Kyoto, Kinki, Japan

We had traditional Japanese food again in the morning, hummmm, couldn't have enough.Today's schedule was really packed, Nanzan-ji, Ginkakuji, Path of Philosophy, Nijojo Castle, Imperial Palace...all in one day. There were just so many temples and shrines in Kyoto (estimate: at least 1000 of them), a month might not be enough even visiting 3-4 temples/day. Nanzan-ji is really so serene and quiet: you wanted to forget about the troublesome of the world and the messy thinking of the human world, the temple has a magical power that quiet your mind down. I felt so calmful walking along the (still) wet path to the main temple (because it rained last night.), the lawn still has pearl-shaped rain drop hanging on the grass, so beautiful and delicate. The temple wasn't as impressive as the garden, I had to confess. There were just so many beautiful structures and architectures gathered in one temple it's really worth the visit. My words would become powerless if you see the beautiful photos. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211205300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211205300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211205300/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:20:00 -0400 Memories of a Giesha - my first visit to Japan

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Nara, Kinki, Japan

The weather forecast issued storm warning for tonight and tomorrow so we decided to change our schedule and visit Nara before the rain. This proved a very wise choice now, at 4:30pm, when it started to make everything soaking wet.Oh, the train system in Japan! It is never late and always so frequent. From Kyoto to Nara is a mere 53 minutes' ride and departs every 3-4 minutes. Along the way, we really passed many people's backyards and I saw the other side of Japan: rural, country, poor, fallen behind, but equally serene and mysterious.After getting off the train and with the help from a lady @ the information center catered towards foreign visitors, we got a local Nara map and found out that Toda-ji temple and the deer park weren't faraway! They informed us that the deers are most centered around temples and shrines. Are they really diety deers that live with the religion? Later, I found out why and laughed at my imagination. A cab took us right in front of Toda-ji temple. There they are!! Deers, deers...they are everywhere. I immediately bought a pack of deer biscuits (150 yen) and started feeding one deer closeby. However, this action didn't prove wise instantly: almost all the deers nearby swarmed over and circled around me in a blink of eyes, all of them staring at my biscuits with a pair of extremely hungry eyes. Do Japanese feed their deers? Seems not. I tried to balance the food distribution among a crowd of say, 5? No, 6 deers. If I feed 1, the other would knock my hip with its horns yet not fully-grown.Very soon, the situation went out of control. I tried to escape and the hoard of deers, or shall I say, hungry monsters, chased after me with full speed. I had to pitch the biscuits to Scott, who is anxiously waiting for the deer-feeding experience. I saw him smiling first, said a lot of sweet words to his deer pals. Then I saw him running and hopping ontoa tall bench! The whole crowd jumping around the bench. I think he's at the edge of crying out "Help, help!"  Amused by his helpless adventure caused by all the deer monsters, I got some interesting pictures (see attached).We made a mistake of not having lunch in Nara because we didn't realize that in Japan, restaurants didn't serve lunch anymore after around 2pm and only started operating again after 5pm. Therefore, it's not a funny feeling walking on the rainning streets of Kyoto searching for an open restaurant after getting back from Nara (with a completely empty stomache at 3:30pm), I now start to understand why the deers turned into beasts.No, no, no, no restaurant was open at 3:30pm! Before we decided to walk into a Mini-supermarket and buy whatever we could find, we saw a student-like guy sitting in a very tiny restaurant with just one room, opened by a middle-aged Japanese lady with a kind face. We saw him wolfing down a plate of rice, which didn't look very fancy. I ventured in and inquired about the possibility of dining here. She replied "We only have curry rice, with chicken or beef." I said, OK!It was a life-saving meal, and it proved correct that any food tasted the greatest when you are starving. We asked for 3 bottles of Asahi, 2 plates of dikons and pickles, 2 bowls of mixed vegetables and 2 huge plates of curry rice with beef and chicken. The food tasted heavenly and it might be pretty amazing to see two foreigners that hungry. We asked for more daikon and vegetables and she served generous extra portions with a pair of extremely kind eyes, reminding me of my mother.We ventured into Pontocho again that evening in the rain and had a real sushi meal - sashimi plate. Scott, the moose that never touched any seafood devoured the raw fish without a blink of eyes. Later we visited a nearby jazz bar and moose and I enjoyed WONDERFUL jazz music with beers and strawberry cocktails (actually more like strawberry juice and 1 cup was 1500 yen!)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211086920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211086920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211086920/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:31:25 -0400 Memories of a Giesha - my first visit to Japan

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Kyoto, Kinki, Japan

Early morning depart from Osaka -> KyotoInteresting Japanese breakfast "shao yu".  It was a shining day with crystal blue sky, our first task was to find a breakfast place and depart for the best city in Japan - Kyoto. Our plan in finding a breakfast place in Dontombori failed because that area was really for dinner and night life, not for early breakfast. Luckily, an elder guy who got up early pointed us to a breakfast place, a real Japanese breakfast place! It turned out a wonderful experience.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211048400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211048400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/6/1211048400/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:48:00 -0400 Memories of a Giesha - my first visit to Japan

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Osaka, Kinki, Japan

We woke up around 4:15am, showed and packed, reading to leave for Osaka. We were starving again - after 15 hours' without eating anything. We devoured dinner Dad prepared for us the night before: chicken drums, pork chops, black rice congee (gorgeous!), eggrolls...soon Dad came with more food: you tiao, milk and coconut bread. Like Robinson Cruesoe finding a palace of food in front of him, we were so glad and ate a lot. This basically laid the foundation for this day's exploration of Osaka: the foodie's heaven. The experience started really early in the morning :))Now I'm on the plane - "China National Airline" to Osaka, the flight from Shanghai to Osaka is supposedly a mere 3 hours' flight! That's another reason why I decided to visit Japan instead of HongKong (as we originally planned), spending rougly the same amount but experincing a totally different culture. Our eating saga continues on the plane: curry bun, soft cheese, meat and edmamme, marinated bamboo shoots, pineapple and peach, apple juice and again, a lot of beer!! Unlike all US airlines, Chinese airlines are much more generous regarding meal serving while still operating economically.We landed!! Out of the plane, CLEAN is my first impression of Osaka. We made a huge mistake afterwards: choosing to take a cab to the city center of Osaka rather than taking the train, which costs nothing. Well, the cab cost a fortune: 165 USD! We didn't realize that until we are 3/4 away from the destination. $100 more than we should have paid :((  A handsome penalty that later forced us to take bus all the time to make up for the loss :((The cabs in Japan are mostly black decoration inside with white knit covers on black leather seats - same neat black suits of each driver with white gloves! Seamless matching on dustless taxis!!There's an automatic meter in front of every cab that picks up toll automatically while passing on the highway, saving a lot of time and costs. We were amazed.The meter jumped crazily in front of us: 12320, 14060, 15280...we dropped our jaws when it finally arrived at the city: 16500 yen!! We knew it's not a good sign when there's no trace of a city coming up on the highway when the cab meter reads 13000. We stayed at "River Nankai Hotel". In the hall, we found a vending machine selling everything from underwear to Asahi beers.  Droping everything off the room, we departed to explore the city immediately.First was America-mura, from the States, we were certainly curious to see how the Japanese teenagers copied every American style into their life: here, young people crazily mimic everything from the US, from fashion to hairstyle, from the gadgets to how they act, everything was about how great America is. On the famous triangle plaza, KT Tunstall was singing with all enthusiasm on a 80-100" LCD screen. In front of the screen, all Japanese younsters were dancing while wearing casual jeans and t-shirts, with all their hair dyed in red or golden. I was, rather, attracted by an interesting small store opposite the plaza "Jia He Liu", a store famous for its Osakan octupus balls. Without hesitation I bought 6 balls with 300 yen. Scott and I shared that box with whole heart's content: delicious! It's a ball mingled with minced octupus meat, cheese and cheese again :) worth the trying!The real Japanese experience for us, didn't start until we arrived at Dontonbori, a famous downtown district of Osaka with hundreds of restaurants and bars alongside one single road. Here, tourirsts mixed with locals, with the same excited expression, trying to absorb everything they saw and kept the memory forever. After taking some pictures underneath the symbolic big crab and running sportsman, we decided to settle down in a small Japanese style restaurant with nothing we could recognize on the menu. Even I knew all what the Kanji characters mean, but the arrangement still bewildered me greatly. We were totally lost: all we could do was to copy our neighbours' order, amused our waitress greatly. She later led me to the front of the door and I had to order by the look of the dish in the display window.  On the menu, there were things like "handsome boy", "green tang", "dolphin meat" (later discovered as pork!), "sea old" (that was shrimp!)...it was really funny. We had a very strange combination of food but still had a very good time :)))
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/5/1210959780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/5/1210959780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/5/1210959780/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:03:21 -0400 The Return to my Homeland - Shanghai, China

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Shanghai, China

After 14 hours' exhausting flight, we were finally going to land at PVG (Shanghai Pudong International Airport)! I felt totally up-side-down: dizzy and tired. On the plane, they served us the first meal at 3am NY time! I was woken up at 3am to eat beef noodles fed by flight attendants (of China Eastern Airline). My stomache was trying to ward off the unwelcoming encounter of food at this hour with groaning and discomfort. Up side down, my whole biological system was messed up - we landed perfectly on the ground of PVG at 3:50am Shanghai local time.In the cab, on the way to my parents' place, Scott kept on praising the beauty of the morning of Shanghai. With the rise of the sun, of course, for a MN "moose", everything is a blast for him. Everything so familiar and so strange was racing backward, everything once so intimate, and for five years so strange, was suddenly back to me all at the same time.40 minutes later, the dab stopped at the destination, outside a new apartment complex courtyard. No trace of my parents, who promised to wait for us outside the courtyard door. Where are they? Well, we were at least a half hour earlier than we supposed to. After 20 minutes' wait, we decided to call. I changed RMB1 note to a coin, so newand strange lying in my palm, a delicate silver piece glimmering under the sun. I thought to myself, "Is this 1 RMB?" The image changed from the memories I had in my head. The doormen of the apartment complex all stared at me with a strange look: What's wrong with this Chinese girl? Couldn't she recognize her own country's currency?On the other end of the phone, mom cried out with joy, "Already arrived? We will be there in 1 minute!"About 5 minutes later, a familiar but a face strange appeared, the image carried a lot of bags in his hand while riding his bicycle: It's Dad!He looked so old after 5 years, my heart shakened. A face worn out by the hardship of life, a pair of hands with more freckles and an extremely thin frame. I couldn't help rushing over to carry his bags for him. Dad rushed instead, to carry our stuff up the elevator. Mom came in when we were wolfing down the delicious breakfast Dad prepared. I was craving for some traditional Chinese breakfast while everything he bought was western - well, "moose" food.Mom looked excited: she hugged both of us and started to question, no, cross-exam, no, bomb us with questions. Suddenly, everyone was staring at me, trying to talk to me. Poor me, trying to eat and translating at the same time."Moose" and I visited Nanjing Road, the famous pedestrian street before meeting my parents for lunch at the renowned "XingYa Restaurant". "Moose" Scott, the person always the severest critic of Chinese food (from NY), devoured whatever food we fed him, nodding his head like a drumboat, continuously. Obviously, he's very impressed by the genuine Chinese cuisine, forgetting everything rumor about how terrible the chicken feet and pig tails were.We had: Chicken with scallions; barbequed pork in honey sauce; beef with oyster sauce;  olive plants with garlic; speghetti plants with a-thousand-year-old toufu sauce; daiken pancakes; barbequed pork cakes, a lot of watermelon juice, beer and chrysanthumum tea!! Everything tasted so authentic and gorgeous! Soon we wiped out all the plates :PThe afternoon sun of Shanghai was scotching so we decided to have a nap. The nap turned out a 5 hours' sound sleep until we woke up by my parents. Dad came over at 8pm with our dinner and plane tickets to Osaka.We were exahusted but content. My dear parents, my dear hometown, your daughter is back.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/aloha/1195707540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/aloha/1195707540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/aloha/1195707540/tpod.html Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:58:45 -0500 Bali Hai whispers, on the wind of the sea, "Here I am, your special island, come to me, come to me." - 2 backpackers, 10 days in Hawaii

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Maui, Hawaii, United States

LahainaThe sun hid half of her face behind the cloud when we arrived at one of the most famous/appraised luau - Feast at Le Le. The color of the sky was amazing combination of golden, red, brown, white...beautiful sunray brightened all the faces of hte people who arrived group by group, family by family at the Lauau. Most of the guys were in casual shorts/t-shirts while the ladies all dressed up in evening gowns or Hawaiian style dresses, as if they reached a secret agreement beforehand. I was in stripe shirt and shorts, a little out of the lady crowd. We were ushered into the garden 5:30pm sharp. It's a beautiufl garden outdoor seating with tables set beside the ocean so you can watch performance while enjoying heavenly Hawaiian gourmet. The organizer set up a green arch where everyone was greeted with Lei by one of the servers. They made everyone at home with a choice of drink among beer, mai tai and fruit punch. Bien sui, I picked mai tai as my drink. We were further comforted by another waitress who seated us and use very warm, tender, feminine voice to introduce us the menu for the night and the drinks at open bar. We even found a cute basket of Hawaiian style potato chip and taro chips as appetizer (see pictures). Of course, who would not try a mai tai before leaving Hawaii? Our table number is 41, right facing the center of the stage quite front of all the crowds, we are lucky, we think. But obviously we thought about it too early :PWell, as the dusk set in, everyone's busy taking family/solo pictures of the fantastic luau at the beach, with sunset within hand's reach. Darkness inched in, music was up, drinks were served, first dish reached every table, performers danced/sang...what else could we ask from life? The crowd went high.The waiter told the guest sitting in front of us, with a smile face, "This luau hasn't rained for a whole year! 365 days!" We feel lucky again. But we were happy too early.As soon as he said that, the cloud gathered up our heads, the sky opened up and it started to drizzle. The organizer started to give out pounchos. I refused to wear it, just like everyone else, still enjoying the wonderful music and beauitful Hawaiian dancers. But it didn't slow down. Soon it started to rain cats and dogs...it didn't take long before the organizers announce the Luau was canceled.Are we really that "lucky"? It hasn't rained for a whole year! And we picked a day out of 365 that rained! Ah...we sighed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/aloha/1195797780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/aloha/1195797780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/globaltraveler/aloha/1195797780/tpod.html Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:56:56 -0500 Bali Hai whispers, on the wind of the sea, "Here I am, your special island, come to me, come to me." - 2 backpackers, 10 days in Hawaii

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Oahu, Hawaii, United States

When we arrived at "Pacific Beach Hotel", as we expected, the conceige recommended loads of all kind trip packages to us, so we busied ourselves booking the polynesia center trip, a guided tour of pearl harbor and Honolulu City center, and asked all the information about restaurants around us. On the plane, every magazine in front of our seat recommended a restaurant called "Sunsei", naming it the best Japanese food in the world. We decided to try the best Japanese food in the world, so we asked Conceige where it was. They told us it's 1 block away, at the 3rd floor of Marriot Hotel, right beside us. We felt lucky again.Our guide's name was Shawn, he's a crazy mixture of Hawaiian, Cuba, Chinese, Italy...and several other countries. He blew a huge shell everytime he hoped us to gather together. On the van, he introduced Hawaii to us in such a funny way the whole trip was extremely interesting. I was one of the very few Asian at Pearl Harbor, I was afraid people would mistaken me as Japanese, as all Americans were very sad during the movie time. While we were watching the 30 min movie about the Sunday Pearl Harbor got attacked, all the Americans around me were crying. I was very sad too. A friend once told me Japanese had a much better way of invading America after World War II. I think it couldn't be more true. Everywhere in Hawaii is Japanese, except Pearl Harbor. Every 3-4 blocks on Waikiki beach you can see a Japanese restaurant or store, every block has at least 10 Japanese tourirsts vs. another 5 tourists from other parts of the world. Pearl HarborHonolulu City CenterDip into Waikiki BeachA evening walk along Waikiki Beach
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