awesome tokyo

sitting at the airport in singapore right now and waiting for my connecting flight to vietnam (where i will spend the next 3 weeks).

i loved tokyo! can only recommend to everyone to go there. it is such a vibrant and interesting city. though it was not at all how i expected it to be. first when we touched down at narita airport the landscape looked like home - a lot of fields, woods and houses in between. second it was not as busy as i would have imagined it. even the metro was easy to understand and i never had a situation were people had to be pushed into the train because it was that full. third i expected people to run around dressed like crazy (manga, etc.), but mostly japanese people are dressed extremely well. i've never seen that many guys in suits.

the hostel was a new experience for me, since my bed was actually a cabin where you could close the door and also had a window (still bunk bed style though - one top and one bottom cabin). was really nice and added an extra sense of privacy.

i did most of the sightseeing stuff (shibuya, shinjuku, imperial palace, fish market, ...) and of course also tried sushi and karaoke. latter was soo much fun, but i was also with a great group of people.

my cabin

imperial palace (no entrance unfortunately)

karaoke

shibuya

you can buy anything from a machine in tokyo

Abercrombie & Fitch (11 floors)

i'll try to get at least some sleep now, good night!

kon-nichiwa

although i haven't seen much yet, i just love tokyo. when we were flying in the landscape kind of reminded me of austria. everything is clean here, i feel save, people are dressed well, speak english and seem in general more open/helpful to foreigners.

the first thing i did was look up the only abercrombie & fitch store in asia. i didn't find it at first, but all of a sudden i smelled it and a few minutes later there it was :) it is crazy in there in the states already but in tokyo you feel like you are in a club. 11 levels and the music is so loud you just want to start dancing. of course i had to buy some essentials ;)

i also found a bakery and finally had the first decent bread, even with walnuts, since i left home.i am in heaven!! and i finally had some gyoza (pan fried chinese dumplings), which i was craving since i came to china, but never could find a place where they offered them. apperently in tokyo you get them everywhere. in general i think i won't have any problems with the food here, i think i'll like it.

the only thing that was a bit annoying, is that they don't really have escalators in the subway stations. which normally wouldn't be a problem, but i had to carry my suitcase and my 2 bags up a few flights of stairs. then i finally arrive at the hostel and my room is on the 5th floor - of course without an elevator! so i got a pretty good workout today.

gonna explore tokyo more in the next few days. definitely wanna see the fish market and try some sushi. maybe this time i like it.

sayonara

how i perceive china

i've been in china for 1,5 weeks and i can't say i'm sorry i'm leaving. well after some time you're getting used to the peole and their mentality, but still i am very much looking forward to tokyo. it probably was also worse since i was in china during the national day/golden week, where all chinese people are on the move and it is even more crowded.

shanghai didn't impress me much, but beijing was much better and a lot more to see and do. i already told you about the great wall (surprisingly i wasn't sore at all). on the actual national day i went to the forbidden city. it wasn't as crowded as i expected. for all of you who want to visit there, a word of advice: go in through the north gate - it is kind of the rear entrance and most people get in through the south gate. so you have a lot less hassle that way and it is actually quite enjoyable. i wanted to exit through the south gate, but that was not possible due to a gazillion people. i also couldn't make it to tiananmen square due to the massive amount of people. i tried on several days but no chance. the summer palace was really nice, but too many people again, so i left after only an hour. if you want to get anything for low cost go to pearl market and offer them about 20 - 30 % of their asking price. you gonna get them down to at least 50 % in the end.

i also did a cooking class for cantonese dim sum. that was the best experience i had in china. we started with a market tour, where we bought all the ingredients. the instructor explained all kinds of vegetables, spices, meats, etc. to us. finally a lot of stuff i wasn't able to place before made sense and i am not so "afraid" of chinese food anymore. after that we got an introduction into seasoning - what kind of soy sauce, rice wine to use for what kind of dish/meat. then we finally started the actual cooking. it was a lot of fun and making dim sum is actually not that hard. i definitely gonna make some when i'm back home!

following a few observations i made:

• chinese people are pretty rude and reckless and no one watches out for each other - you get shoved and pushed all the time, instead of letting people get of the subway, they just push in; there is no standing in line, people just skip ahead of you if you are not fast enough; it truly is survival of the fittest here
• crossing a street as a pedestrian (even if you have a green light) is life threatening - more than once i came within an inch of being hit by a car or even a bike
• there are no real toilets just holes in the ground and usally without any stalls, so you're just in one room with a few women... but at least they have public toilets at every corner
• the smell is terrible, especially in and around the public toilets
• almost no one speaks even a word english and mostly everything is written in chinese letters. so ordering in a restaurant, if they don't have pictures in the menu, proves quite difficult and reading instructions of any kind (metro, directions, signs, etc) is not easy either
• everything is really cheap - a subway ride no matter where (1 stop or a 40 minutes ride) costs 2 rmb, about 25 cents, same as a bottle of water
• there are no machines cleaning the streets, people actually sweep the streets, even the highways
• highways have about 6 lanes + 2 lanes for bikes

all in all i could have had a better experience, but still it was worth the trip. you at least have to see it for yourself. it's off to tokyo next, having a good feeling about that one. wish me luck!

the great wall

today i hiked the great wall - it was amazing!! exhausting, but definitely worth the trouble.

i was really lucky and our tour group was the only one hiking that particular section (tin shan ling to simatai). everyone who thinks walking on a wall is a piece of cake is wrong. for one it is not just straight but up and down and mostly extremly steep. the steps sometimes have erroded, so it is also quite dangerous. but other than that the view is amazing. so after 6 km, 22 watch tours and 2 hours i finally reached the end of our tour. it felt good to get some exercise while also walking on one of the most impressive man made structures in the world.

first impressions of china

so far china doesn't impress me much. when i first arrived in shanghai i was still in a bad mood, cause i had to say goodbye to everyone and leave bali, i was tired/exhausted, i had a cold, it was raining the whole day, almost no one speaks english here and people are rude and reckless. to top it off they also block facebook and blogger. finally i have a vpn connection, so i can connect again.
you see it wasn't a good start. but on the second day i was well rested, my cold subsided and it stopped raining. i wandered around the city with su, a dutch girl, and we saw a lot of stuff, especially in the old town. but i have to say i don't like shanghai that much and i'm glad when i'm moving on tomorrow.
due to the national holiday on october first i was not able to get train tickets to xi'an and to beijing. so unfortunately i have to skip xi'an (terracotta army) and will be in beijing until october 6th. after that i'm off to tokyo.
here are some impressions of shanghai (notice the change in clothes in comparison to bali):

the bund



i'm off to see the expo now

last day in paradise

it's a sad day today - my last day in bali!
during the last three weeks i got to know a lot of great people, learned (or at least tried to :) ) how to surf and was also able to overcome some fears. although the weather wasn't what i expected (it rained a lot) it truly is paradise here. wish i could stay in this bubble i'm in for a bit longer, but everything has to end at some point. i can't put into words what i am feeling right now - i'm sad, but also excited about 4 months to come, most of all i'm gonna miss the friends i made here. being at the same place for 3 weeks makes it even harder to say goodbye. i hope i'm getting better at this in the next months.
but at least i was able to end my last surf session with catching my first green wave - thanks to certain people who didn't give up on me and pushed me ;)
tomorrow i'm gonna fly to shanghai (with a 10 hour layover in kuala lumpur). gonna be a flash to be in a busy big city again, after bali.

so thanks to everyone who made my time in bali such a great experience. i'll miss you all and see you on the next wave!

paradise

i'm in bali since saturday now and i can't imagine ever leaving again :) it truly is: eat - sleep - surf (motto of the surf camp i'm staying at). the people are great, the atmosphere is extremly relaxed and everyone just goes with the flow.
surfing is a lot of fun, although i have a couple of bruises and scratches. surprisingly i am not as exhausted as i thought i would be. it's great getting a lot of exercise while having fun at the same time.
unfortunately the weather is not as good as expected. it is cloudy and raining a lot (it is still pretty warm though), but when the sun is out, it is awesome!
don't have any pictures to show yet, it would be too much effort to take them :)
so much for now, i'm off to a 3,5 hour spa treatment for about € 30.