Asia

Japan, Indonesia and Thailand!

Tokyo, Japan

Wow! Overload! We landed at the Tokyo airport and needed to take a train for about an hour to the Asakusa neighborhood where our hostel was located. It was difficult navigating the signs, language, and the massive train map. Luckily, we were assisted by some very friendly folks and got to our train no problem. As we were cruising along, headed to our stop it was very surreal. Looking out the window, seeing buildings (that I had absolutely no idea what business was there because I can't read Japanese), the lights, colors, the people talking around us, so much happening. We got to our stop, zig-zagged through the side streets and found our hostel. It was a tall, slender building with tight corridors. Our room had 4 bunk beds, so 8 people crammed into it. There was a small walkway between the bunks but it was only wide enough for one person to walk through at a time. However, each bunk had a privacy curtain, reading light, and a usb plug-in, huge perk! There were also tons of restaurants and markets around so we tried several local dishes!

We wandered around the city, sightseeing, visiting a nearby temple and checking out shops in the covered markets. The Senso ji temple was magnificent. The structure, colors, statues, it was amazing to look at and tour. While at the temple, we even got our fortune! You donate 100 yen, shake a metal container until a little stick comes out, you match the code on the stick to a drawer and pull out your fortune. Luckily, both of ours were good! If your fortune is bad, you can tie it around a metal ladder structure and leave it there- apparently that means you won't have the bad fortune that was predicted. It was a pretty cool experience, definitely got us out of our comfort zone. We wished we would have had more time so we could have visited other towns, historical sights, and the countryside but it will have to wait for next time!

Bali, Indonesia 

We arrived late into Bali but luckily, we had decided to treat ourselves to a fancy hotel which supplied a driver who was waiting for us with our names on a sign! I don't know about you but the couple times we have had this, it has made me feel pretty fancy! Okay, to clarify, by treating ourselves to a fancy hotel, we spent a whopping $200 for a full week at this hotel. When we walked into the hotel, we felt like it was our honeymoon all over again. They greeted us with fruity drinks and had a fresh fruit plate sent up to our room. They had even decorated the bed with towels turned into a puppy, so darn cute! There was a beautiful rooftop infinity pool, a rooftop bar, a bar and restaurant on the main level, and a spa. We ordered room service several times, it was so cheap!!

We didn't do a whole lot in Bali, wandered around and walked by some neat temple type buildings, ran to the store a couple times, and even had a nice massage. We had looked up google reviews before we arrived in Bali and already had a massage place picked out. Dan and I both had a two hour massage, so four hours total…. which cost us $21 total! We tried a couple local dishes, my favorite was the Mie Goreng, the hotel restaurant also had these awesome little chicken wonton appetizers, yum! We spent most of our time at the hotel, it was super nice and relaxing! Unfortunately, Dan started coming down with a cold or something so he needed extra rest; between the sun shine and his naps he was feeling loads better after a few days.

The area where our hotel was located was not our favorite place to walk around. All the small local shops were selling the same inappropriate souvenirs, and by inappropriate, I really mean inappropriate. I don't even feel comfortable explaining the crude and inappropriate things we saw. The owners also hounded you when you walked by, one fella even grabbed Dan's arm and tried to pull him into the shop. That didn't go over very well. But other than that it was okay. We enjoyed the relaxation- it actually felt more like a vacation than some of the other things we've been doing. Hanging out in/by the pool was probably our favorite part about Bali. 

Bangkok, Thailand 

We volunteered at a Buddhist Monastery outside of Bangkok. We weren't really sure what to expect before arriving but I was surprised to see so much water when we pulled through the compound. I'm not sure why, but I was envisioning dusty, hot, desert like conditions but it really wasn't like that at all. There was a large lake with a few statues in the water, a couple floating cabins, and a walkway across the lake. Men and women are not allowed to touch or share a room so unfortunately, Dan drew the short straw and had to stay in one of the floating cabins. It was definitely not as nice as it sounds :( he slept on a two inch thick foam mattress on the floor. There were mice and bugs, so mouse poop all over the floor. He was definitely one with nature in his cabin. I on the other hand, was pretty fortunate, I was put in a new building where they had made platforms for the two inch thick mattress to sit upon. It was still very hard and uncomfortable, but at least I wasn't on the floor. And bonus, there was even a bathroom on the balcony of my room so I didn't have to go far. I had the room to myself the first two nights and then was joined by an interesting roommate. 

Some of the chores we did were: cleaning, dishes, sweeping, mopping, and helping to take care of the 15 dogs. Those who know Dan know he is a dog lover so this is part of the reason we agreed on this particular volunteer opportunity. However, some of the dogs were not very nice. In fact, one of the other volunteers had visited the hospital a couple days before we got there because she was bitten by one of the dogs :( but there were a couple really nice dogs too. But it was definitely nerve-racking walking around trying to remember which dogs to avoid like the plague and which ones were okay, especially at 4:30am when you had to get up and go to the morning chant in the dark. Ekk! Luckily, we made it through without getting bitten.

Dan's favorite puppy, Popcorn

Now, we have been very fortunate up to this point, health wise. Dan had a couple colds but nothing too terrible. I was doing so well and hadn't really had any trouble during our travels yet….. but… alas, things changed in Asia. I'm not sure if I was contaminated in Bali or Thailand. The day we flew I was a little nauseous but that could have just been nerves. The morning after we landed in Thailand I became very ill. I'll spare you the details but I'm very, very glad my room at the meditation center had a bathroom. I spent most of our stay either in bed or in the bathroom. Unfortunately, I did not get as much out of our volunteer experience as I was only able to help with chores a couple times, only went out to the market with the monks once, and only attended a couple of chants. Since I was so miserable and not able to perform many of my volunteer duties, we decided it would be best to shorten this portion of our trip- let's be honest, I was useless to the monks. Dan was of course worried about me so he wasn't enjoying the experience as much either. You'll remember we were on completely opposite sides of the compound and he wasn't allowed in my building. He was struggling with not being able to take care of me, let alone know if I was okay, and honestly, I was sick and being a big baby and really wanted someone to take care of me. And toilet paper, I really wanted toilet paper!! Lol so Dan found us an apartment and the awesome Airbnb host came out and picked us up. I spent the next several days in bed (still not a great/comfy bed, but much better than what I was sleeping on in the compound), lots of fluids, fruits, and noodles and Dan was nursing me back to health. Oh, and we also had toilet paper.

Our host was absolutely amazing, the best airbnb host we have ever had. He drove us to the local Sunday market where they had fresh fruits, vegetables, coffees, teas, fresh juice, cooked foods- meat skewers, fried who knows what, soups, noodles, several things we had absolutely no idea what they were, and popcorn! We love popcorn. They also have a separate side to the market stalls that were clothes, shoes, electronics, etc. We walked around and stocked up on fresh fruits and a variety of local dishes to try. We were not a fan of the dishes that contained meat as they just chop up the meat, bones and all. Every bite, you had to bite down gently so you could locate the bone shards and dig them out of your mouth so we stuck mostly to noodles, they seemed safer. And probably safer in the contaminated sense- I don't think they have the same health code regulations as we do back home- food left out for hours with no ice or warming capability. I'm really glad we went to the market first thing in the morning when the food was freshly cooked. However, things are done differently there and that's okay! We tried to stick to more basic foods that looked safe and we were fine, didn't have any other trouble with getting sick.

During our stay, we also wandered around the neighborhood, walked to the mall a few times. The mall had everything we needed- restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacy, grocery store, lots to see and take in. We also tried to take advantage of the apartment amenities, specifically the pool and gym, unfortunately, the pool was freezing and only one piece of equipment worked in the gym/and only partially. Oh well, it got us out walking around instead so that was probably better anyways.

We were fortunate to be in Bangkok for a very important event- the barge procession which completed King Rama X's coronation ceremony. It was a huge ordeal for the country. There were a few places we could have gone down to watch the barges go by but we felt like it would be pretty crowded and hard to see so we opted to watch it live on TV instead. As the cameras went over the crowd, holy buckets, we were happy we weren't there! So many people, waiting out in the heat for hours to watch the barges go by for a few minutes, but it was really cool to watch on TV. It was a much longer process than I had anticipated, it went on for around three hours or so? The live stream followed the king and his family through the whole afternoon and all the different ceremonies he was required to take part in. There were so many folks involved throughout the day: security, camera crew, rowers, military, police, etc. 

It has been an interesting/eye opening experience visiting Asia. We are learning so much about the world and about ourselves. We have a new appreciation for the finer things in life: drinkable water, toilet paper, and hot water (there were no hot water heaters at the meditation center- cold water, all the time, for everything). We are very grateful for these experiences. 

Up Next.... Christmas in Norway!!