The Weekend Rambler

A Bit Off Japan’s Beaten Path

January 9, 2019

It is time to say goodbye to Hong-Kong.

Dear Hong-Kong, thank you for the scorching heats and dripping sweats from the armpit of hell, the delicious pork barbecue, the stinging incense in your temples, and the pumping beat of your underground music. You are a city I have come to love and despise at the same time, but I can say that there is nowhere else like you and I am so privileged to have spent this time with you…

But hello Japan!

Japan is one of the most mystical, captivating countries in the world (in my opinion). I have been lucky enough to visit several times, so I struggle with what kind of rambles I can offer the world on the much photographed and talked-about nation. I’m not a good “10 best things to see in Tokyo!” writer, so let me see what I can add to the black hole that is the internet. So here are some off the beaten path places I think are worth the journey when heading to Japan.

Getting out of Tokyo, we (Ivana aka Black Hummus Diaries and my mom) headed to a cute Airbnb in a town called Omachi near Nagano.

I can not recommend getting out into the little towns of Japan enough. There is no better way to experience the beautiful culture than to wander crunchy snow paths through ancient forests to come upon an elegant Shinto shrine. We rented a car, which I would recommend to view all of the nearby shrines and nature spots wherever you may go.

Getting back into civilization, most people go to Kyoto at some point in their Japanese adventure. This is a fantastic city, but it is of course rather touristy. But some cities are touristy for all the right reasons. Kyoto is steeped with some of the most interesting and historical temples in the country.

To see a temple off the beaten path, head to Otagi Nenbetsu-Ji to see the 1,200 little disciple statues.

They’re all moss covered and whimsical, lending a whole Ghibli film kind of feel to the temple. Well worth the journey.

(Photo creds to Ivana)

The neighborhood nearby is worth a walk as well to get a look at a different, more countryside feeling of Kyoto. Tiny cute shops and soba restaurants abound, making for a cozy stroll to beat the crowds.

For a day trip, we made our way to Nara to feed the deer and see a different side of the Holy part of Japan. While I have been before, I am glad to have experienced the enchanting city once again. Get into the hills behind Nara park to see some more wild deer and hillside shrines away from the crowds.

Tokyo, while big, is quite a fun city to visit and worth the trip. It is the kind of city that requires years to unravel, but there is one additional neighborhood I would recommend visiting along the usual Ginza, Shibuya, and Shinjuku stops.

The neighborhood around Shimo-Kitazawa station is one of the best up-and-coming areas, with excellent (and cheap) thrift shops and restaurants. I learned about the neighborhood after reading Banana Yoshimoto’s novel, Moshi Moshi, and decided I had to visit on my next trip to Tokyo. I was certainly not disappointed. The neighborhood is full of locals shopping or grabbing a coffee. But the neighborhood should be on any thrift shoppers list with some real bargain shops around. Chicago would be my recommendation for male thrift shopping.

Japan is full of wonderful sites, sounds, and flavors. So much so that I, even as I write this, struggle with what I should be typing. I hope these couple stops have been useful for your Japanese adventure, or have spiked a curiosity to make one.

Thank you for reading, and there are more rambles to come soon!
Seoul Past, Seoul Present

December 10, 2018

To get into Beijing, I took advantage of the 144-hour transit visa, which allowed me to stay in Beijing as long as I had a flight going somewhere other than where I came from. Seoul was the cheapest option, and so I went.

I visited Seoul, along with Busan and Gyeongju back in 2014, and loved every moment of it. Back then, it was relatively non-touristy with all of the perks of an undiscovered country. The cuisine is perhaps my favorite in the world, and the culture is something completely on its own compared to that of China’s or Japan’s. So, it was time to revisit this country I had adored so much.

Since I had visited before, I had no touristy spots to visit. I booked a little room in Yongsan-dong neighborhood, an up-and-coming hip spot of town near Itaewon-dong, the more expat friendly neighborhood. The first thing I noticed upon my return was how many foreigners live in Seoul now. When I went in 2014, it felt like I was the only Westerner in town. There were only a few other Western tourists I interacted with during the entire trip, which made the ‘undiscovered’ vibe even stronger. Now, it felt like a lot of people were from somewhere else.

This time, I revisited the Design Center, which had been so interesting to me back in 2014.

Back in 2014, the clothing shops next to the Design Center were malls filled with boutique designers showing off their small-scale production line. It felt like I was seeing up-and-coming designers selling straight off the production line. Now, those little stalls had been replaced by plastic smelling cheap knock-off clothes.

Seoul, in general, has changed a lot. There’s a lot going on, as tourism reached its peak a few years ago at the height of Gangnam Style, and has since quietened down a bit since 2016. Still, there are swathes of foreign students and tourists everywhere in the town. Which is not a bad thing, but it is very different from the city I once explored.

One thing that has not changed is the perfection of Korean cuisine. Samgyetang, BBQ, Bibimbap, all of it is so amazing. Every flavor is satisfied with a good Korean meal, and its the food my taste buds miss most when I have been away from the burgeoning Korean community in Denver for too long.

Seoul is an excellent mix of history as well. There are plenty of excellent temples and palaces to visit, such as Gyeongbukgong Palace.

And the giant Buddha statue.

Seoul is a city I could see myself living in for a little bit of time, as its people are nice and its food is amazing. It is clean and well organized, and everything about it is so well liveable.
Dusty Beijing

December 8, 2018

Beijing is dusty and hazy. If you open the weather app on your phone, it will probably show you the temperature and then under it say something like, “Partly Cloudy” or “Sunny”.

But in Beijing, it’s a bit different.

So with a “Very Unhealthy Air Quality” city ahead of me, I strapped on my face mask and enjoyed the wonderfully historic capital to the People’s Republic of China.

Beijing, along with a few other Chinese cities, has a visa-free entry scheme for the Weekend Rambler in all of us. One can enter for 24 or 144 hours (in other cities it is 72), as long as you have a ticket going to a different country than the one arrived from. For me, the cheapest option was to go fly to Seoul after, so I had two capitals to look forward to in my journey. Since Hong-Kong and Macau have different border controls, one could also fly from Hong Kong and fly back to Macau.

I arrived late in the evening and took a quick nap before seeing Tiananmen Square by night: which is the best way to see the gates to the Forbidden Palace without standing in line for an hour.

To get my live music fix, I went straight to School Live Bar, a local institution for the underground. It reminds me so much of my bar back in Aalborg, 1000Fryd, with its intimate stage and comically rude staff. When I asked for a ticket to the show, the worker said she didn’t have change. All she needed was a 20 Yuan note. I asked if the bar would make change, to which she shrugged and said, “Probably no.”

Alright, screw you too.

I left, deciding it wasn’t worth it. I walked a few blocks down, ready to go to another bar I heard had good music when I heard someone running up behind me. I turned around to see a panting young woman, one that was standing behind me in the ticket line, run up to me and through strained breath say “I have make change. You see show?” I guess that’s a sign from the universe to see the music.

All local bands, some hard rock, and Chinese rap. All in all, it was a good vibe and I was one of only two or three Westerner’s in the bar that night.

For more underground music: head to Temple Bar near the Drum Tower part of town. Here, the beer is tasty and cheap and the venue is decently sized for a good show. The bartenders are much nicer as well.

For Tasty Beers: Go to Great Leap Brewing in the same neighborhood as Temple Bar. The Hutongs around Drum Tower are, in general, very nice to wander around. But this bar has great staff and wonderfully affordable and delicious craft beers. The perfect treatment for a cold Beijing night.

Alright enough about going out, let’s talk about Beijing’s culture. I liked Beijing, but not because of the things I usually like a place for. Its people are not as friendly as those in Brunei, and its food is not as good as it is in Thailand or Vietnam. The pollution also makes you wear one of these all the time.

But wait: don’t arrest me yet, Chinese Government that is still monitoring my every movement! While the food (while still quite tasty) and air of Beijing are not its strong points, Beijing makes up for it in its decadence of culture and history. The amount of fantastic art, history, and culture in Beijing are perhaps only rivaled by Rome or Athens. This is China’s greatest bragging right, one far greater than adorable pandas, and one worth returning to China again to experience. My two and a half days were simply not enough to uncover every delicate and elegant part of Chinese history, but I tried to make the most out of my time.

While I did not go to the Summer Palace or the Forbidden Palace, I made an effort to see the Temple of Heaven. This was the main architectural attraction I had my sights on, and it absolutely provided everything I had hoped.

As well, December seems to be one of the better months to see Beijing, as the crowds are not monumentally large.

Along with the Temple of Heaven, I visited the Drum Tower to hear the ceremonial drumming.

There is a piece of ancient history around every corner of Beijing, and this is one of its most impressive qualities.

To go a bit off the beaten path, I perused the stalls of Panjianyuan Market, a massive market of all things where one can find beads, communist paraphernalia, books, and antiques. There were hardly any tourists here when I went, and it felt like a pretty special experience to haggle over beads as my nose froze beneath my mask.

From here, I walked to the Fayuan Temple to miraculously see Sunday prayer with all of the locals.

To complete my religious fix, I walked a few blocks West to the Niujie Mosque, one of the oldest and most influential mosques in Beijing. I grew curious about Chinese mosques after seeing a model of one at the Islamic Art Museum in Kuala Lumpur, as the minarets look nothing like the typical style in mosques everywhere else in the world. Instead, they use the standard Chinese architectural designs to create a unique and beautiful minaret to make the call to prayer.

The neighborhood around the mosque was one of the most interesting parts of my time in Beijing. I can almost guarantee that I was the only tourist walking around this largely Muslim neighborhood, as the looks I got from the locals was one of puzzlement. It was beautiful, with lively markets selling yak milk and Halal meat like anywhere else along the Silk Road. The markets here are also much cleaner, particularly the butcher shops, which often gross me out in Hong Kong. For someone who has never stepped foot on the Silk Road, this was an especially unique moment of “where am I?”

Of course, one can not see Beijing without journeying to the Wall. I have never been enamored by the Great Wall. I never looked at photos of it thinking, “YES I must go here, and stand on that.” So I almost considered not going at all, as I could have used that time in one of Beijing’s many art museums. But after I read that Mao Zedong once said:

“He who has not been to the Great Wall is not a true man.”

I could not let Mao think this of me.

So I picked the most convenient way to get to the Wall, by train. For 7 Yuan, I took the S2 train about an hour and arrived at the Badaling section of the Wall, perhaps the most touristy part of the Wall.

But I was excited for the crowd. I wanted to see the mass of people, but there were not many there. Especially walking along the South side of the Wall, I had an entire section of the Wall to myself for reflection over this behemoth of a structure. I must say, it was extraordinarily impressive.

Just thinking about the work that went into this, thousands of years ago, on frigid days just like I experienced. It was absurd to be able to take it all in, and I feel privileged to have been able to experience such a monumental piece of history. I can’t believe I almost did not go.

Ain’t no Mongols getting in through there.

So I reassure you, Chinese Government reading my texts and emails, that you have a beautiful country with some of the richest history available on this little rock we call Earth. While I enjoyed your food and was lucky enough to meet some of your lovely citizens, your history was the thing that wowed me the most. Please do your best to preserve and cherish all the gifts you have been given, and we will always appreciate you for it. Thank you for allowing me into your borders, and for letting me experience your wonderful gifts to the world.

P.S. I read you are trying to remove all of the “Chinglish” before the 2022 Winter Olympics, so here’s what I found.

Nobody knows what a “Fried tickle” is, but it sounds pretty cute.

This one does not need editing, but I ask that you place these in every public bathroom in your country and in Hong-Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Every single public bathroom I have used since moving here has been riddled in the floor peepee of your noble gentlemen. Please fix this. Thank you.

As always, thank you for taking your time to read this! Please like, and comment or contact me with any feedback for improvement you may have. Keep rambling!
A Chill Escape in Kotor, Montenegro

November 29, 2018

Kotor is worth an invisible selfie moment.

Taking a study break from my Hong Kong exchange student travels, I’d like to reminisce a bit about my time in Montenegro with Ivana from Black Hummus Diaries. This is the continuation of our trip through Northern Macedonia and Albania.

We were lucky enough to grab a ride with our Couchsurfing host in Shkodër, Albania. For those going by public transport, there is reliable bus service from Podgorica in the South or Dubrovnik in the North. The city is worth a day at least, as its cute streets are easily walkable for a relaxed day on the coast. Here are my suggestions for having a great, budget and relatively non-touristy time in Kotor.

Wander

Kotor, like many cities on the Dalmatian Coast along Croatia and Montenegro, was built up by the Venetians during the Renaissance. This means a stroll through its cobblestone old town is the best way to introduce oneself to the city.

The old town is small, but key sites include the Kotor Cathedral pictured below. Other than that, the city is small enough to explore in near entirety in an hour or so. Take your time and get lost.

The morning we went was foggy, giving the surrounding mountains a little shroud to give them a certain “Lord of the Rings” feel. Kotor is rather touristy, so a walk through the city is beautiful but equally taxing for those wishing to avoid crowds. To get some privacy: head uphill.

Hike

Start climbing uphill to St. John’s Fortress on the hill atop Kotor. There’s extensive signage pointing to the path uphill, which will lead through little houses and streets.

The cats will help guide your way.

The walk is fairly steep, so bring water on a hot day. It’s usually a bit less touristy up here as the steepness is a bit too much for a lot of hungover party boys and pensioners. If you’re lucky, you may make friends with some of the other kids on the climb. We met an Aussie and a Kiwi, who stayed at our same hostel.

The view at the top of the fortress is well worth the effort, and a good idea for a sunset hike.

Picnic

As with any touristy European city, restaurant prices can be a bit exorbitant. So why not enjoy the picturesque Montenegrin coast and go for a picnic? There are plenty of delicious local cheeses, olives, wines, beers, and meze spreads available for reasonable prices at every grocery store. I recommend the Idea supermarket just outside the South entrance of the old city. If you walk West along the coast from there, you can grab a spot of rocky beach completely to yourself for one of the best picnics possible.

One can also exit out of the old city and walk North along the coast, to an area of town much less touristy and more local in nature. Here, cafes are reasonably priced and the views will be shared with Montenegrin’s rather than a herd of German tourists.

Drink

Alcohol is the fluid of life in the Balkans. Kotor is a party city, which is great for some but terrible for everyone else. There are countless bars around town for cheap drinks and plenty of party hostels for those wishing to binge drink until their organs and minds are empty.

But for those wishing for a more relaxed local bar experience, head to the Cafe Bar Perper in the square right next to Hostel Old Town Kotor. From our research around town, this is one of the cheapest and most local-filled bars in old town.

Do not, however, stay in the hostel unless you wish to be woken up at 3 am by a drunken idiot stumbling into bed before basting himself in his own stomach fluids.

Splurge a bit and go for a private room. You deserve it.

Enjoy the beautiful country of Montenegro. It truly is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, and well worth the journey. Thank you for reading, and please like and comment if you had a good read!
Bears, Monkeys, the Borneo Basics

November 24, 2018

My trip to Brunei was the perfect introduction to Borneo. I polished up my basic Malay a bit, got acquainted with the way of life and some of the Muslim values, and got excited to see much much more of this beautiful island. Unfortunately, these weekend rambles don’t allow for enough time, so I have to be on a more tight schedule than I would prefer. I promptly got on the Royal Brunei flight back to Kota Kinabalu in the afternoon.

Getting downtown, I got to the Filipino market just in time for the famous Borneo sunset.

Maybe it was just a sunset, but for these Chinese tourists, it was something special.

I decided that I’m more interested in taking photos of people taking photos. If there are so many people taking a photo of one thing, what’s the point of taking more? I can capture the ridiculousness of mass photo taking and then enjoy the moment. Or maybe I’ll take just one…

The Filipino market is a good place to grab a meal of fresh fish. The fish market is pretty brutal, but also pretty enticing.

Of course, the locals are just as friendly in Malaysia as they were in Brunei.

While I can drink in Malaysia, the effects with my malaria pills aren’t the best, so I decide to walk through the mall instead of hit the bar. I tentatively wanted to go see Bohemian Rhapsody, so I went and looked up the prices. When I saw that a showing was playing in thirty minutes and only cost MY$13 (US$3.10), I couldn’t say no.

Besides Rami Malek’s excellent acting and the intrinsically fascinating life of Freddie Mercury, the most interesting aspect of this film was the removal of any explicitly homosexual scenes. I was just thinking the whole film “…why hasn’t Freddie smooched a dude yet??”

But in a strongly Muslim country, I can understand why that would be a bit taboo. Homosexual acts are still illegal in Malaysia, even though the tides are turning a bit. I’ve seen plenty of trans individuals in my time in Kuala Lumpur and Borneo, so I believe things to be changing. But still, it was an interesting moment in the movie. Even Paul putting his hand on Freddie’s shoulder created some gasps of disapproval. They may have also edited the heterosexual sex scenes, but I haven’t seen the unedited version yet to verify.

The next day was the only day where I could sleep in, so I did until the ripe hour of 9. I had no idea what to do, so I rented a car.

My plan for the day was to see Mt. Kinabalu, the symbol of this part of Borneo. Tours were all expensive, and taxi’s were difficult to find and not affordable. So I rented a car from Borneo Kinabalu Elegant Tours, who were closed on Sunday but still rented me the car. To rent the car cost about US$30, much more than I wanted to spend but still $20 cheaper than a tour and $10 cheaper than a taxi. And I got to have a little Borneo roadtrip!

So I hopped in my tiny Perodua Axia, and headed out to Mt. Kinabalu on the opposite side of the road. This was my first time driving on the opposite side, so it was a bit of an adjustment but easy enough after a few minutes.

The drive went for about 2 hours through windy roads and little villages. To my dismay, the mountain was shy and enshrouded in clouds.

I went to the Botanical Gardens inside the state park, in hopes to see blooming rainforest flowers. ‘Twas not the season for anything but this pink flower that grows year round.

Pretty, yes, but I had the hopes to see a Rafflesia, the bizarre flower of Borneo. In general, I didn’t see any of the things I had set out to do. But at least I got to have a Borneo road trip, right?

The next day was an early rise for my 7:00 am flight to Sandakan on the East coast of Borneo.

And finally: the shy mountain decided to show itself.

Right out of the airport, I hopped in a Grab (South East Asia’s version of Lyft. Very necessary!) to take me to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. This is the largest non-enclosed Orangutan sanctuary in Borneo, allowing for visitors to be right in the midst of an Orangutan’s habitat. But first I wanted to visit the Sun Bear Rehabilitation Center right next door.

Sun Bear’s are poached for their bile (used in Chinese medicine, of course…) and kept as illegal pets. For those bears that are orphaned or saved, they get sent here to learn how to forage, climb, and socialize with other bears before being released back into the wild. All the staff members were extremely knowledgeable and friendly, and the rehabilitation center genuinely seemed to have the best interest in mind for the bears. Only a small amount of the sanctuary is open for public viewing, and the rest is just forest for the bears to roam around freely. It’s excellent!

These are stingless bees, a favorite snack for the bears.

Next I popped into the Orangutan center but missed feeding time so I only saw one Orangutan munching on bananas and messing with a macaque that was trying to steal its food. It’s amazing how they notice us, or more so examine us. They can react to our emotional responses in ways many animals can’t.

I struck a deal up with my Grab driver, who was nice enough to give me a good price for a days worth of driving. We went to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, a thirty-minute drive on some bumpy roads. This was the most expensive reserve to enter, about $16, and the one I liked least. While the Orangutan and Sun Bear sanctuaries had the animals best interest in mind, this was completely a tourist experience. I also don’t like monkeys (I know, it’s an unpopular opinion). I think they’re greedy, mean, and they just gross me out. But I’ve never seen Proboscis Monkeys before, so it was a worthwhile journey just to see them.

While the Sun Bears were fed fruits to help them learn to scavenge and the Orangutan’s were given healthy fruits and vegetables, the Proboscis monkeys just got bread and zucchini. Whenever an animal is fed grain, it becomes a zoo. They only use bread to get them addicted, and that’s exactly what these monkeys were. Everything was a fight, and everything was dramatic. Their big noses make them create honking sounds too, which means the fights are pretty hilarious to watch. I was just thinking, “how did nature allow this?”

But of course, I’m glad I saw them, and they are a beautiful part of this planet’s ecosystem…but I still don’t like monkeys.

My driver wanted to take me on a big tour, but I had to stop him because I was running out of money. So he took me back to the Orangutans and Sun Bears, where I sat and watched for hours.

This time was much better than in the morning. I got to see the Sun Bear feeding, which was fascinating to watch them forage and dig to find hidden melons and coconuts. The Orangutans were just as fascinating. I went for feeding to watch a mother and her baby eat, and watched for about twenty minutes. When I decided I was ready to go, the staff of the sanctuary all got a worried looked and in a hushed screamed commanded “Everybody move now! An alpha male is coming and he’s chasing a female!” With that, we hurriedly shuffled away towards a safe distance. Apparently, the males can charge at nothing…and this was no male I would want to be charged by. It was gigantic. Eventually, it just wanted some bananas, but it was definitely making sure we knew he was the alpha. His eyes had that “Don’t mess with me” look.

But perhaps I like watching people just as much as I do gigantic Orangutan’s.

Borneo was perhaps the highlight of my Asian journey’s these past months. Of course, I did not stay long enough. But it was enough to know that I could come back, and engrain myself more in the nature and people of this beautiful part of the world.

Thank you for reading! As always, let me know what you liked and what I could improve on. See you soon!