Japan – Kyoto (from May, 6th to May, 16th)

Posted on May 25, 2012 by admin
After the « back to the roots » experience, we couldn’t do anything else than going “back to the future”! And after a night spent in the airports during our transfer to Osaka, there we are! We can see again clean buildings, people who care about what’s going around them and who are not trying to pass in front of everyone in a queue, signs we can read & understand (^^), public transports which are not jam-packed with people …  Aaaaah! We feel like we’ll love this country! ^_^

Once at the Kyoto station, our 2nd interaction with Japanese culture is based on food. We take 2 ramens (noodle soup) and they confirm our 1st feeling: we will really feel good here! ;-)  

 

 

The next days, we go discovering the city. Public transports being expensive, we decide the discovery will be by foot! A way of transport which fits pretty well the size of the city and which will give us the opportunity to get a better feeling of the hanging atmosphere. This choice will be confirmed right on the 2nd day when, sitting on a bench, we see a women passing by in a kimono and a few seconds later, a man wearing old Japanese style clothes (hard to describe …), with wooden sandals and a katana in his hand. ^_^

Generally, we get the feeling that we can find the same “small village” atmosphere at each corner of the city. As soon as we get out of the main roads, we find again small districts of low houses (traditional wooden style or modern style) with a peaceful atmosphere and well decorated with plants and flowers. This impression is greatly reinforced by the huge number of small convenience stores and small shops which are dispatched everywhere. (of which, many are bakeries or cake shops … :-p)

So, we take our time and we schedule our program on 10 days! only ^^
The town’s discovery begins of course with « traditions », an etiquette pretty well attached to Kyoto, especially thanks to the presence of a lot of old temples. Personally, we enjoyed the Golden Pavillon and the Kyomizu-Dera temple for their beauty and their surrounding gardens.

 

 

 

 

We also visited other temples which allowed us to see some dry Japanese gardens and also some paintings realized by ancient great Japanese masters, many centuries ago.

 

 

By the way, do you know that Kyoto was the former imperial capital of Japan before Tokyo? And who says “imperial capital” says also castles! Castles with an “S” because the imperial palace burnt several times due to its wooden conception and during the reconstruction periods, the emperor was hosted in the houses of high noble people from his court. Regarding our program, we concentrate on the imperial palace and the Nijo castle.

 

 

 

 

In order to complete the cultural roundtrip, we also made our way to Gion Corner, the former Geishas’ district, where we can find an important number of traditional houses and also the main attraction of the area, Gion Corner, a showroom which displays the traditional arts played by Geishas. The people we met there are a mix of tourists, just married people and local people. The atmosphere is very friendly and we often see women wearing kimono and also some Geishas! :-D

 

 

 

Then, logically, we booked some tickets at Gion Corner to see some performance of the traditional arts practiced and improved by Geishas since many centuries.

 

 

But who speaks about Japan, speaks also about modernism! And this we could also find in Kyoto! We decided to take a ride to the Teramachi district, famous for his commercial gallery and we discovered a set a shops, restaurants, game places and luxury shops. People here are somewhat more active but it’s still ok for us. But apart from the huge number of restaurants, the main interest we have here is that we found our 1st video game tower! ;-)

 

 

The last day is reserved for one of the main festivals of the city, the Aoi Matsuri. (roses’ festival) This religious festival is divided in 2 parts: a procession and ceremonies which are displayed in front of some temples. Due to a lack of time, we can only see the procession and what a blast! The traditional clothes and the carts are beautiful.

 

 

Categories: 11_Japan | Leave a comment

Special word to our dear Munich friends!!! ^_^

Posted on May 20, 2012 by admin
We heard about a “typical” event in Japan and, being good travelers, we could not miss it! ;-)

Here we go to Tokyo city centre, with a good weather, some songs like “Hey baby” and “Anton aus Tyrol”, some bier and wurst stands … have you guessed? We were at the 10th anniversary of the Tokyo Oktoberfest! And of course, we could only but think of you! XXXX to all of you, waiting to go with you to the real one next year! ^_^

 

 

Categories: 11_Japan | 4 Comments

P’tite dédicasse au Méchant ! (bis)

Posted on May 13, 2012 by admin

Since our departure, “le Méchant” tries to find pics from the “Raving Rabbits” according to our trip stops. And until now, he manages to complete this challenge pretty well … well, we had a lot of fun seeing them all ! ;-)

Here is what you missed ! ^_^

 

Categories: Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Mongolia part 4/4 – The Gobi Desert (01-04/05/12) : Dariganga – Delgerekh – Choir – Ikh Gazryn Chuluu – Baga Gazryn Chuluu – Ulan Bator

Posted on May 12, 2012 by admin
After lunch, we head towards the Gobi which we reach in the middle of the afternoon. At about 7 pm, we come across a young guy with a few camels and, against some candies, he lets us ride for a few minutes a white camel J.  Shortly after, we arrive at Delgerkh, in the province of Dornogov where we’ll spend the night. As usual, it’s quite gloomy. We’re indeed better off in a gear in the countryside than in a hotel in the city!

 

On the next day, we drive through the desert towards the North-East of the Dornogov’s province. As from now on, we have a lot of km to drive per day before coming back to Ulan Bator. As it turns out, the day goes on quite unusually as, at the lunch break, our guide finds a problem with the car and spends some time repairing it. Luckily, he has replacement pieces and he is a good technician because we are lost in the middle of the desert…

 

We get off rather late and arrive at 7 pm in the village of Choir where there is an electricity cut. We thus prefer to go a bit further and stay under the tents rather than staying in a hotel with no electricity and no water. And we’re lucky because, for the 1st time since we’ve left, there is no wind during the night! Things go then quite smoothly and we can hardly realize that we are in the Gobi desert, in the middle of nowhere, under a tent – this is just great!

 

 

We are woken up by goats and sheep :-) This morning, we drive towards the Ikh Gazryn Chuluu national park which we reach at about 10 am. The weather is nice but it is very very hot, about 30°C (which is a lot given that we had some snow some days ago!) and we can hardly imagine what it should be during summer time. The park is just stunning with its big rocky mountains. We can see quite a few bone rests here, a bit more than what we’ve seen since we left, and this feels a bit strange. After a lunch break in Mandalgov, the capital city of the province of Dundgov, we arrive at about 4 pm in a new national park, Baga Gazryn Chuluu. And, for our last night in the Mongolian steppe, we can sleep in a gear – cool!

 

 

 

On the next morning, we visit the park and leave the Gobi desert behind us towards the North. The landscape is again completely different – now, we have a beautiful mountain chain with some small lakes around. We can see a lot of horse herds and take profit of the blue sky to take a lot of pictures. After the lunch break, we get back to the car – now, we’re off to Ulan Bator! We are very happy from this experience because the landscapes, even during this season, are beautiful and we did meet very nice people. But this was really going “back to the roots” concerning the living conditions and, during our journey of 15 days and 3300 km, it was sometimes a bit difficult. One week would have been enough. Well, we arrive in the capital city at about 6 pm and the 1st thing we rush to do is shaving our 2nd shower of the trip… hurrah!

 

Categories: 10_Mongolia | 9 Comments

Mongolia part 3/4 – Eastern Mongolia (25-30/04/12) : Dadal – Dashbalbar – Choibalsan – Buir Nuur – Sümber – Erdenetsagaan – Dariganga

Posted on May 11, 2012 by admin
On the next day, we say farewell to our host and her son and get back to the car. We see the km go by and still enjoy the landscapes and the horses galloping around, free from any fence. There is less wind but it’s still cold. We start to see quite a few places burnt by fire. This happens apparently quite often in this season and we can even see some fires still burning on the horizon. Towards the middle of the afternoon, we arrive at Dashbalbar, which is located almost at the far North-East of Mongolia. The village is quite gloomy and the hotel we find quite as much… what a difference with the warm gears and the house in Dadal! After having eaten a vegetable and eat soup (always meat!), we go back to the room, close to the heating. This time the toilets are in the building but they are not very clean and we already regret the hut at the back of the garden…

 

 

We are woken up by someone trying to open all the doors, including ours! Some people would indeed like to go out of the hotel but the outside door is locked… We do not bother so much and take the time we need for our usual breakfast (which is nothing  but local – some bread with jam and Nutella!). The door is unlocked at last and we get started as usual as about 9 am. After a first lake – frozen! (it’s quite funny because there is no more snow or ice on the ground but only on rivers and lakes), we get to see our first white tailed gazelles – great! They run away at an impressive spead and we hear they can go up to 70 km/h! For lunch, we find a nice place next to another lake and also next to a camel herd among which some are white, which is quite rare. On the afternoon, we get to see some falcons, one eagle and again some gazelles before getting at Choibalsan, the capital city of the Dornod’s province. This is quite weird to see cars, asphalt and some people again! But, because of a conference being held in town, we have some troubles finding a room and, after having believed to have one quite good but being thrown out from there because it was already booked…, we finally land in an old hotel on a… disco! in a gloomy area! Luckily, our sleep is quite deep (and the holidays are tiring!!) but for our guide it’s a bit tough and he cannot get to sleep before midnight. Well, at least, we take our first shower since we’ve left!

 

 

On the next day, we continue our way towards the far East of Mongolia. The wind started and the weather is very cloudy but this doesn’t prevent us from seeing a lot of gazelles. We are very close to the northern border with China and our guide had to get an authorization to be able to come here. At the end of the afternoon, we arrive at a nomads’ camp who accepts to host us for the night. The family is very kind and its welcome is very warming. Too bad we cannot communicate much again because of the language barrier. They cook some homemade noodles that they fry with … some dried meat! We’ve heard of it for a long time and now we’re about to try it! Well… it’s a bit special, especially when we see them cutting the meat with some scissors. There are some pieces with a very strong taste and others with some sand… and for Max’s greatest pleasure, there is also quite a lot of fat ^^ After having spent the night sleeping this time on the floor in our hosts’ gear, they cook again for us instead of taking care of the animals as they usually do. This time, we try the noodles and dried meat boiled… and we prefer last night’s version ^^ In any case, we really enjoy the time with the family who is really interested in us, in our trip and who is rather worried that we’ve left for so much time already. Outside, it’s really cold; the wind is ice cold and there was a snow storm during the night. This time, the hut at the back of the garden cannot be used and it’s quite difficult to get motivated to use the “open air toilets”! :-)

 

 

After taking some pictures with the family, we get back on the road which is covered by snow in some places and the wind is still very strong. There is not much to see on the way except for a few memorials from the war with Japan in 1939. We get to Sümber in the middle of the afternoon and find the 3rd gloomy hotel in a row… The evening is rather short as there is nothing to do in the village.

 

 

We leave early the next morning as the way is quite long to reach the village of Erdenetsagaan, in the Sükhbaatar’s province. The landscape is quite boring but luckily we get to see a lot of gazelles and some falcons. In the end, we stop before the village, at a nomads’ camp where our guide asks for hospitality. This time, it’s a house and not a gear and the welcome is a bit cooler. After having watched the nomads bringing the animals back for the night, we again get a noodle soup with dried meat and again sleep on the floor…  

 

 

On the next day, our guide wants to motivate us again and tells us that today we’ll see something! Indeed, at about noon, we arrive at a gear camp in which there is a grotto… but the visit is a bit disappointing. Then, we head towards a holy mountain which is actually an extinguished volcano. But, unfortunately, just before getting there, our guide tells me that actually, for some religious reasons, women are not allowed to hike on the mountain… I thus stay in the car while the 2 men hike up to the top. But the worst is that when we asked him for more information, he tells us that actually it’s only on the top that women cannot go. In short, I could have hiked around. From the top, there was a nice view on some extinguished volcanos. Then we completely change scenary and get to a sand dune, just before arriving at the Dariganga village, at the southern border with China. Again, we find a gloomy room… Before the diner, we have the opportunity to take a picture of a wild ass, a kind of donkey.

 

 

We wake up with sunrise, at 5 am. The sun warms up the room and, with the heating on top if it, it’s really too warm in the sleeping bags! Today, at last, the weather is better even if there is still some wind. This morning, to my great pleasure, we have the opportunity to ride again some horses! It’s even better than the 1st time as the landscapes are changing, we are riding on some sand dunes and we are more autonomous with our horses which are very well-educated. But I get a Mongolian saddle, a real one this time but the stirrups are too short for me so that my legs cannot stay where they are supposed to.  It’s quite tough after, after 2 hours, Max accepts to swap horses and thus saddles! Ouf! But it’s him now who struggles but we are back only 1 hour later, very happy from the ride but we also start aching everywhere ^^ I even have the chance to gallop with the young guy who came with us and the feeling is just great  :-)

 

 

Categories: 10_Mongolia | 1 Comment

Mongolia Part 2/4 – Northern Mongolia (21-24/04/12): Ulan Bator – Terelj National Park – Baldan Baraivan Khiid – Dadal

Posted on May 11, 2012 by admin
With this in mind (!), we are off after having bought some groceries for 15 days (we were surprised to find quite a lot of known brands, among which a lot of German ones :-) ). As he heard of some wind storms in the Gobi Desert, our guide decides to take the tour in the opposite direction and to go first North towards the Terelj National Park. This 1st stop is usually visited by quite a lot Mongolians and foreigners (but we don’t see many) as it is rather close to the capital and therefore easy to reach for the weekend. We start discovering the local fauna with a stop to take some pictures of 2 eagles and 1 vulture.

 

We then get up to a small temple from where there is a nice view of the surrounding mountains. We learn that most of Mongolia is higher than 1000m high, Ulan Bator is located at 1300m and the highest point of the country at more than 4200m. The sky is quite clear today and the temperature went up to about 15°C and, although there is no green grass, the landscapes are very nice in brown/red and yellowish colors. We start seeing our first small Mongolian horses. They are all half wild, which means they all belong to a family and the family uses them to, among others, gather the cattle but the rest of the time they are free to move and gallop as they want to in the mountains. They can therefore go quite far but their owner always knows where to find them, thanks to the help of the other families.

 

We arrive at the camp where we want to spend the night at the beginning of the afternoon. And for our 1st night, we are not disappointed as we will sleep in a gear (or yurt) and that one is quite luxurious! There are indeed 3 beds, a small sink (without flowing water), some small kitchen cupboards and a fridge. It’s decorated in warm colors and, despite what we could imagine from the outside, it’s quite big.  And we see the 1st type of toilets of what will become a long series – a small hut at the back of the garden, with a hole between wooden boards :-) The family offers us some welcoming food and drinks : 2 types of fresh cheese, some dry yogurt, some biscuits together with the traditional drink, the milk tea (green tea mixed with milk and water). After a quick homemade lunch (for these 15 days, we have the choice between rice, pasta and pasta and rice ^^), we go for a horse ride of about 3 hours. The small horses are very comfortable as we can use the tourist’s saddles (and that’s fine for us!) and we really enjoy the afternoon, lost in the middle of the steppe where we see almost no one :-) .  For diner, we try our 1st local specialties: some small breaded meat pies and that’s quite good.

 

After a rather long (short evenings and early mornings ^^) and warm (because of the fire place) night, we get back to the car to go and see a giant statue of Gengis Khan.

 

A road… which we’ll soon leave for an earth one throughout the steppe – and this for the next 13 days! We now understand better why we took a jeep :-) .  We have to avoid the holes and luckily our guide seems quite good at it! We also start to realize how big the country is: the landscapes are going as far as the eye can reach and we only see cow, goat, sheep and horse herds with one gear around from time to time. It’s really impressive. After having had our lunch break next to a marmot hole (and after having found our first ticks in our hair… they are carried by the wind)

 

we arrive at the monastery where we’ll spend the night, Baldan Baraivan Khiid, one of the last 3 remaining in Mongolia. We assist to the building of our gear and we finish just in time before a sand storm starts! The gear is smaller and somewhat more modest than the previous one but the essential is there: one fire place and beds. The family cooks diner for us, some fried noodles with meat, which is also quite good.

 

The second night next to the fire place is warm, really warm… And we are quite tired the next morning when we visit the monastery and get back to the car to move on.  We soon stop to take some pictures of some deer stones dating back from the bronze age and we learn that people at that time used to believe that spirits were going to the sky on deer’s backs.

 

After having had lunch in a small village (some meat, eggs and rice – people here need calories to go through winter time!), we cross a few rivers with the jeep and even help out some people whose truck got stuck in the mud. At the end of the afternoon, we arrive in Dadal where we’ll stay 2 nights in a local house, at our guide’s friend’s sister’s house. This woman welcomes us in a really warm way and even lets us stay at her house while she and her son go to sleep in the next house. The house has only one main room (with a cold room beside) but is really welcoming and warm and we feel good. She offers us a lot of delicious local home made products like yogurt cream with red fruits, fresh yogurt and even teaches us how to prepare Mongolian dumplings!

 

She also comes with us to visit the surroundings. Dadal is indeed the home town of Gengis Khan and we go and see the water source where he would have drunk, the place he would be born as well as a statue of him. The wind is ice cold today and there must be around -5°C. After having eaten the good lunch prepared by our host, we go and visit some friends of her, a nomad family who lives 8 km outside the city. They have many horses among which one which won several races, one of the national sports here. We have the opportunity to ride again but we have to refuse because the wind is still quite strong and cold, what a shame! But we go and see some baby goats, sheep, cows and horses which were born one month ago. There are apparently quite a few wolves in the mountains and they do attack animals, that’s why the families prefer to keep the small babies next to the houses/gears.

 

Categories: 10_Mongolia | 1 Comment

Mongolia Part 1/4 – back to the roots!

Posted on May 11, 2012 by admin
After having recovered from our journey in the Transmongolian (which turned out after all not to be so long as we had some sleep to get back from China!), we have one day to discover Ulan Bator, the capital city gathering 60% of the 2.7 million Mongolians! After our stay in China, it appears to us quite calm and peaceful :-) The temperature as well has really changed as we go from about 30°C in Beijing to about 0°C here with some snow!

 

Then, we try to get prepared for the next day as it is the D Day for our 14-day trip in the Mongolian steppe! Being a stranger, it is not easy to travel by yourself in Mongolia because of the language barrier but also because the public transports do not take you to a lot of places. We therefore hired a guide who will take us in his jeep to the far East of the country. He gives us some information before leaving:

-          there are no tourist attractions on the program, just landscapes and people (but this is fine with us)

-          we cannot expect to find any toilet or shower during these 2 weeks (well we knew this was bound to happen but secretly hoped it wouldn’t…)

-          the current season is not the best and the landscapes won’t be green but rather grey and there are often some wind or snow storms (argh)

-          and, to finish with, we are no ordinary tourists because nobody usually wants to go to this area (and then we really start wondering what we’re doing here…)

Categories: 10_Mongolia | Leave a comment

China part 5/5 – Beautiful Beijing

Posted on May 8, 2012 by admin
We arrive at Beijing at about 8 am, quite tired as we didn’t have the chance this time to get some sleepers and, although we were in a cabin, this one was packed…  It’s quite hard to find the location of our Guesthouse, well until we find again the address in Chinese in our backpacks! At last, we get there and are quite relieved because our room is just great and we almost feel at home. After a small nap, we get back to the station because the train struggle is not over – we have to book our tickets on the Transmogolian. And we really hope we won’t get seats for the 29-hour journey to Ulan Bator! But we won’t manage this time to get them as the station doesn’t sell international tickets. The hotel area selling them is closed for the weekend and we have no choice but to come back on Monday, when we’ll also have to take care of our visa. We finish the day by visiting the famous central square and walking around in the neighborhood.

The next day, we decide to go and see the Great Wall but we leave quite late and, as it turns out, the day will be full of small misfortunes. To start with, the bus station where we go first is not the right one and we have to go to a second one, a bit further, in order to find the bus we are looking for. We then find some people going to Badaling, the place we also want to go to – great. Except that 40 min later, there is still no bus and some people, we think working for the bus company, propose to get there by cab instead. As we do not want to lose the day and as we found 2 other people to share the costs, we accept but it turns out (but this we’ll know for sure only later) that the driver takes us to another place, closer to the capital. This could have been not too bad if the Great Wall wouldn’t have gone in a circle at this place and we wouldn’t have missed the famous landscapes showing the Wall as far as the eye can see…  But well, the 2 other people we share the adventure with are very nice and we even go and visit together the Lama Temple when we get back to town.

The 3rd day is Monday and we have to take care of the administrative tasks. All goes smoothly and at about noon, we have our train tickets (no seats but sleepers!) and we can pick up our visa on the next day. We therefore have some time left to visit the Forbidden City which is really stunning with its huge size, its numerous pavillons and its beautiful exhibitions. In the evening, we meet Laurence and Xiao Jun who actually live in Beijing.  What a luck and a beautiful encounter! Thanks to them, we discover a lot of special food from the capital, among them the famous Beijing Duck which turns out to be delicious. The evening is really great.

On the last day, we decide to go back to the Wall as we do not want to leave without having seeing it going as far as the eye can see! We therefore have to wake up early and go back to the famous bus station. This time, because we do not want to give up, we manage to find the right bus in the end (which actually was another one that the one indicated in all tourist guides!) and one hour later we get there at last. And there we go! The famous landscapes! On top of it, the weather has been really nice and warm since we arrived in the capital and we can really enjoy the day. We then meet the girls one more time for our last evening in China and taste some new specialities, among others a very good rice bouillon. Then, at 11 pm, we have to pack to get up at 5 am on the next morning to catch the Transmongolian at 8 am!! This stay in China would have been a real run but also a real pleasure!

 

Categories: 09_Chine | 1 Comment

Spéciales dédicaces gourmandes :-)

Posted on May 7, 2012 by admin

 

Categories: 09_Chine | 3 Comments

China part 4/5 – Shanghai and its skycrapers

Posted on May 7, 2012 by admin
We spend the night on the train but, this time, we are luckier and manage to get some sleepers! We can thus get some sleep and arrive not too tired at noon the next day in Shanghai. Time is short again and, after having bought a lot of books (we find at last a library with a big choice of books in English!), we spend the afternoon walking on the main street and on the Bund, the riverside from where we can see the nice skycrapers of the new town. The next day, we’re up to the old French Concession where we find a delicious French Crêperie. We each order 3 crêpes and eat as we wouldn’t have eaten for 2 weeks!! Then we just have time to do some grocery shopping as we again will spend the next 12 hours on the train…

 

Categories: 09_Chine, Uncategorized | Leave a comment