food Archives - Wandering North

Balkans Trip 2023 Europe Slovenia

Lake Bled Day Trip

There was no question as to whether or not I would visit Lake Bled on my trip to Ljubljana. I had seen pictures of it in books years ago and of course with Instagram, seeing pictures of it are ubiquitous if you search for anything related to Slovenia and travel. It is a picturesque, small lake surrounded by trees and mountains. In the centre of that lake is a small island. On that small island is a small church. It sounds and looks like something out of a fairy tale. It makes a perfect day trip from Ljubljana.

Getting There

You can go by train or car, but I decided to go by bus. As much as I like trains, the bus was just more efficient and cheaper. There are multiple buses per day, however in the busy season it can get quite booked up, so I think it’s a good idea to book ahead of time. I went to the bus station in Ljubljana the day before my trip to Lake Bled. The bus station is directly in front of the train station. It’s a tiny building, easy to miss except for the fact that there are numerous buses parked outside. Inside, you can buy tickets with cards or cash and the schedule is well posted. It’s best to buy a round-trip journey and then when you are finished your exploration of Lake Bled you can just hop on another bus heading back to Ljubljana. They leave about every hour or so.

The journey is beautiful. I wasn’t able to get many good photos outside of the windows, but it was lovely to see the scenery going by. It became increasingly green and there were cows, villages, and mountains.

Once you get to the bus station in Lake Bled (another small unremarkable building) you really can’t go wrong; you just follow the hill down and eventually you will see the lake I don’t know how one could get lost.

And that’s what I did. I walked to the lake and turned right and walked around the lake in the direction of the castle island. It was just a lovely walk.

The Lake

On the way there are different spots where you can access boats to go to the island. You can get you can self-hire boats from one stop that I found for, I think, it was €20 and you can row yourself to the island and back, but I continued walking until I found someone who would row me across in one of the traditional boats called a pletna, used in Lake Bled for hundreds of years. I kept walking and came to the part of the lake where there was a boatman with pletna that went across at appointed times. I paid for a ticket. It wasn’t cheap, I believe it was €20 (cash only). While I waited for the next crossing, I went over to a cafe.

The Cake

Aside from the beautiful church on the little island in the middle of the beautiful lake, Lake Bled is famous for a particular dessert: a cream cake called kremna rezina or kremšnita. It doesn’t seem like something that I would ever order in my real life but it is a famous cake from a famous town in the middle of a charming country and I had time to kill of course I was going to have it. The cake has been designated by the Slovenian government as a protected dessert 0whatever that means) and there is a festival dedicated to it. So I ordered this cream cake. It was the size of my fist. It was good, but not really my cup of tea; I was happy to have tried it though. (I did not eat the whole thing.) I went back to the boatman, and we went across to the island.

Getting to the Island

Crossing Lake Bled to go to Bled Island was my favourite part about my visit. It was just so beautiful and I could really appreciate the water and the views. It really did seem magical. On the way, I chatted with a friendly couple from Belgium who were traveling around Europe with their dog. And with the boatman who was a fit and handsome maybe 65 year old. He stood on the end of the boat, rowing it with two oars as we crossed the lake.

The island itself is… fine. All there is on the island is a café, a souvenir shop, a small museum and a small church. The cafe in the souvenir shop I skipped, but I did buy a ticket for the small church. If you are reading this and you are planning on going, let me save you €8 now: the church is not worth visiting. If someone told me that, I probably would have gone anyway because I like to see things for myself, but if you’re short on cash, skip it. There is nothing remarkable about the church.

the church on Bled Island

The price of the church entrance also gives you admission to the small museum, which is above the cafe in souvenir shop. The museum is just a couple of rooms of paintings and maps and a few artifacts from Lake Bled. It is of moderate interest, but I would have been happy to have skipped it. The island is nice enough, but I only needed a short time there. The real treat is being on the shore and looking at the island.

Bled the Town and Returning to Ljubljana

I stopped and had a tasty lunch of apples, cheese, and honey on bread and coffee, after which I walked around the town a bit and caught some nice views of the streets and the mountains in the distance.

Bled town views

I caught the bus back to Ljubljana. It is a perfect day trip. I was back in Ljubljana early enough that it was still light outside and I could enjoy the late afternoon and evening back in the capital. The next day I would take the train to Zagreb and my Slovenian adventures were over.

(Just as a postscript, I do wish that I had had one extra day in Ljubljana because I would have done a day trip to the Postojna Cave, which looks like another great day trip option. I guess I’ll just have to return.)

Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 Europe United Kingdom

My Perfect London Layover

The Layover

I was flying home to Vancouver from Minsk via Dubai and I had an 11 hour layover in London. I had 8 hour layover in London on the way to Minsk and it was great (it had been Coronation Day). In fact, every long layover I’ve had in London is great, but somehow this managed to top them all. Every time I have a layover in London I try to pick a new area that I want to visit; a place that seems lovely to wander for a few hours (of course sometimes I just make my way over to Saint James Street and hole up in a cigar lounge). This time, it was a Sunday morning and I decided head to East London.

Breakfast in Hoxton

I started by taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and then switching to the Tube where I made my way over to Old Street station in Hoxton with a plan to walk to Shoreditch. I hadn’t been over that part of east London and many many years, not since I lived in London, but I heard that it was kind of the cool neighborhood to check out so I thought I would.

The neighborhood was great. Most things were closed (it was early) but it already felt cool. The buildings were old, the parks were nice, there was there was public art of the mural and sculpture variety, and I was impressed.

quiet morning street art

I was more impressed when I found a restaurant that was open. The Breakfast Club. I would definitely go back. It was exactly what I wanted. Great music, comfy booths, vegan options, and mugfuls of strong, black coffee. I think the people in there thought I was crazy because I kept telling them how excited I was to find them open and with vegan breakfast.

The Breakfast Club

My stomach full of coffee and tofu, I carried on walking towards the Columbia Road flower market. On the way I stopped for an espresso.

more coffee!

Flower Market

I had never even heard of the Columbia Road flower market. I just started Googling things to do on a Sunday morning in London and I discovered it and it’s now one of the loveliest things that I’ve ever found to do on a Sunday morning. It’s just a stretch of street where every Sunday flower merchants come out to sell their flowers.

It sounds like something that might just be made-up for Instagram, but there are legitimately people there buying plants and flowers and then carting them away. Flower merchants are calling out in delightful accents the price and variety of their flowers. It is so charming – even better, many people there have cute dogs with them, and that’s great.

“The flower that smiles to-day, to-morrow dies…“

The thing that made it extra lovely is that while one side of the street is all flower merchants, the other side of the street are delightful shops painted in pretty colours and it reminded me a little bit of Victoria street in Edinburgh (except without the slope). There are antique shops, coffee shops, trinket shops, bakeries, a tea room, and a perfumer… it’s so charming. I browsed in all the shops, bought myself a little bit of perfume, ate a tiny treat, and carried on my way. It was absolutely perfect.

charming shopfronts

Spitalfields

From there I walked down to Spitalfields to the Old Spitalfields Market – like I hadn’t had enough to eat already, but I wanted it as a destination. It was a grand walk. The skies were blue it was warming up. I browsed around the Spitalfields market, a place I don’t know if I’d ever been to before.

I had an excellent coffee, and I really enjoyed the public art that they had there – the cute elephant statues (Our Herd of Hope) and the sculpture of Rabbitwoman and Dogman riding a motorbike with side car whilst drinking coffee (telling the tale of “two opposites coming together to become best friends and soul mates”).

Elephants, rabbit, and dog, oh my!

Walking south I found myself wandering through a blocks’ long thrift market.

Bypassing The Tower

I walked towards the Tower of London, not because I wanted to go to the Tower of London; it just seemed like a destination. The closer I got to the Tower of London, the livelier things got: the crowds of tourists picked up, church bells were ringing, more shops were open.

I got glimpses of the London skyline along the way. It was perfect. I wound my way past the tourists queuing up for the Tower of London and headed for London Bridge.

Borough Market & The Tate

Tower Bridge, the Thames, and the Shard

Crossing London Bridge, I got some lovely views and once on the other side, I was just steps from Borough Market (London’s best food market, dating back hundreds of years).

Approaching Borough Market

I walked through Borough Market, unfortunately at this point, having eaten the tofu and a couple of treats from the Columbia Street flower market, I couldn’t possibly eat any more, but I did get a lovely fresh carrot and ginger juice and another espresso and walked around the market, just ogling all of the treats. (Note to self: I must make a plan to come back when I am hungry.)

Exiting Borough Market, I then found myself near the Tate Modern gallery.

While some of the special exhibits are paid, to walk into the Tate and look at the regular collections is free, so I did that. I walked around, looked at some art (splendid), and then I left. I realized that I really ought to be moving on because I had a lunch date.

Lunch & Leaving London

I have a friend who lives in London, someone that I met in 2009 in the Ecuadorian rainforest and, while we sort of keep in touch, we haven’t really seen each other in years, so we made plans to have lunch. We met near Paddington Station, in Little Venice where we had an excellent lunch at a Lebanese restaurant and swapped travel stories.

Seriously, was this the perfect day? Throw a cigar and a visit to the theatre and I think it might have been. It’s amazing what you can do in a layover. I can’t believe some people just stay at the airport.

I flew back to Vancouver, and this concluded my trip to Minsk, which parenthetically also included two days in London and two days in Dubai. It was just an excellent trip maybe the best that I had in 2023 to date.

I would have a short hiatus from travel of a couple of months to enjoy the summer in Vancouver, and then I would be off to Brazil.

Asia Asian capital trip 2023 Japan

On the Town in Tokyo: food, temples, sex shops

My first day in Tokyo was so amazing, how could there be more? But there was. More weirdness! More food! More of everything!

Vegetarian heaven at the 7-11

On my second full day in Tokyo, I started by taking the train from Shinjuku to The Tsukiji outer market. Well actually, I started at the 711. Being a vegetarian and being on a budget in a place like Tokyo the 711 is my best friend. Most things are labelled in English and Japanese, the prices are evident, and, amazingly, the food that they sell there is very delicious and tastes pretty fresh. (I found the same thing in Taiwan.) So I went to the 7-11 and grabbed some sort of canned coffee beverage and helped myself to one of the many packaged rice/mushroom/tofu snacks that they had. It was a bargain, it tasted good and felt somewhat authentic to the area, and I could eat it on the go and carry on with my sightseeing.

On to the market…

Tsukiji outer market

I had read that the Tsukiji outer market had closed, but that turned out not to be true. I guess it’s just smaller than it used to be or something, but there are still market activities ongoing and it was great. I didn’t go into any of the buildings, but the streets were lined with food vendors and throngs of people lined up to eat the food that was being prepared.

Most of it was off limits to me – meat and fish – but there were lots of fruits and vegetables and delicious sweet snacks. This is where I first had strawberries in Tokyo. I know strawberries don’t sound exotic, but in Tokyo they are something special. My issue with strawberries is that they’re delicious, however, if you buy a basket, half of them (at least) are likely to be inedible, mushy, mealy, or bland. In Tokyo, however, every strawberry that I ate on my short visit (which was a lot) was perfect. Perfect flavor, perfect texture, perfect colour. I’m sure it’s done through some sort of scientific trickery, but I don’t care. If I could have strawberries this great at home my life would be better.

I also had some delicious oranges and some lovely little rice cakes, and found place to have coffee.

Ginza

From the Tsukiji outer market it was a short walk through Ginza to the Imperial Palace. Ginza did have some impressive sites and I stopped for coffee two to three times on the way. Ginza is a newer, affluent neighbourhood that reminded me a little bit of 5th Avenue in New York, but with decidedly more tourist rickshaws.

I popped into a mall and visited a Hello Kitty store where I loved everything but bought nothing (though I was tempted).

Hibiya Park & Imperial Palace

On the way to the Imperial Palace, I also stopped at Hibiya Park. It’s the sort of place that I would be impossibly picturesque in autumn with the changing leaves. (Seriously, if you are planning a trip, google pictures of this park; it is stunning.) Had I come about a week or so later the entire park (and city really) would have been filled with cherry blossoms (and tourists), however, when I arrived, most of the trees in Tokyo were only just starting to get blossoms with a few in full bloom. It was still lovely for a walk though past the ponds and statues. The best thing about Hibiya Park at the time I visited were these very tall trees (I don’t know the name of them and if someone does know please e-mail me because I would love to know) and they were the most beautiful trees that I saw in Tokyo. They look like the trees that you would see in traditional Japanese paintings. I thought they were stunning.

I walked over to the Imperial Palace, but I didn’t realize how until I got there, however, that if you want to see inside, you need to book a visit ahead of time. (I wasn’t that fussed about seeing it; I just had more time for sightseeing in Tokyo than I had expected.) I simply walked around the grounds, seeing more trees that were amazing: dozens of bonsai-looking trees except full size and planted in a perfect grid pattern around an excellent statue of 14^th Century Samurai warrior Kusunoki Masashige. And I caught glimpses of the palace and the bridge over the river.

Not so serene Sensō-ji Temple

From the from the Imperial Palace, I took the train to another temple: Sensō-ji. A Buddhist temple dating from the 600s (but destroyed in and rebuilt after the 2^nd World War).

The temple itself was big and impressive, but slightly less enjoyable than it might have been though due to the crowds.

There were apparently places near Sensō-ji Temple where you could rent traditional Japanese clothes and wear them for photo opportunities. So what that meant was there were lots of women walking around dressed as geisha and posing for pictures. It was kind of fun to see but also kind of annoying as they took forever to take a basic photo. I don’t personally have the desire to dress up in costumes to wander around religious sites but it’s kind of fun that other people do.

I had a bowl of Roman and carried on my way.

Akhibara Action

From Sensō-ji Temple I took the train to Akhibara, which is a neighbourhood that’s considered to be the centre of all things video games and manga and anime and lots of other things that I have absolutely no connection with. But even being unfamiliar with the genres of entertainment and the characters from them, it was a fun neighbourhood to walk around in. There were so many people dressed up in costumes and ads and signs and video screens for…entertainment stuff. I recognized none of the characters, but they were very fun to look at and there were lots of shops filled with costumes and memorabilia and video games and manga books. Everyone seemed to be very excited about to be there and their excitement was a little bit contagious.

The thing that I found the most fascinating though was the fairly pervasive pervy sex culture in the neighbourhood. It wasn’t menacing; it was more playful. There was a seven-story tall building that was entirely sex toys and sex costumes. I visited every floor.

The sex shop. I only got one picture inside before i discovered photos are not allowed.

And there were lots of cafes and businesses that advertise girls. I can’t tell you what happened inside. I didn’t go. I don’t know if they’re real girls or virtual girls. It was fascinating to walk around and observe. And it all seemed uniquely Japanese.

These three pictures might actually be from Shinjuku, but there was similar stuff in Akhibara.

Interlude in Ebisu

From Akhibara I took the train over to Ebisu for no particular reason other than I had some time and I heard that it was a nice neighbourhood, and it was. It wasn’t remarkable, but it was a pleasant neighbourhood for a wander and a snack and there was a bit of street art to look at.

Book and Bed

At this point it was late afternoon and I had to deal with some business. I had booked myself two nights at the capsule hotel that I stayed at when I originally arrived in Tokyo, but I had decided that I would spend my third and final night in a different accommodation, so I had to move my backpack over there and check-in. The Book and Bed Tokyo hostel.

The Book and Bed hostel is also a capsule style hostel in Shinjuku. What makes it special is all of the bunks are inside bookshelves in a bookstore. When you walk into the bookstore it looks fairly normal, but in between the books are squares (just big enough to crawl into) with black curtains. Inside are little bunks for sleeping. There are shared bathrooms and showers. There are no lockers or any way to secure your bunk but, I mean, it’s Tokyo, nobody is going to steal anything from you.

I decided to only stay there for one night because one I wasn’t entirely sure how comfortable this was going to be staying in a little plywood box behind a bookcase, and it was a little bit more expensive, so I just booked the one night. It was super cool. As soon as I arrived I was delighted with my little bunk hidden amongst the bookshelves. The neat thing about it was all these people were just browsing it books and sitting around reading books during the day and it was really quite lovely. At night, when I came back from my evening out, it was as quiet as … well, as a bookstore after hours. There was a few people sitting out and reading, but most people had gone to bed and the whole place was perfectly quiet. I felt like some sort of a character in a children’s book, going into sleep behind the bookcases and waking up in the middle of the night and tiptoeing around. It was a really unique and fun experience.

So I moved into my new hostel and set up my stuff and then I went out for my final evening.

Shinjuku Re-do

I decided to stay in Shinjuku. It really was my favorite part of Tokyo that I had seen and especially at night with the lights and all the little eateries. I was bolstered with confidence from the night before where I learned that I could in fact find vegetarian things to eat at the tiny little shoe box restaurants, and so I went out.

First off though, was the same bar that I gone to the night before, only because I knew that it was cigar friendly and had an excellent atmosphere, so I went there and had a cigar and a cocktail.

And then I went back to one of the many streets crowded with restaurants; people sitting shoulder to shoulder at counters while chefs cooked up meals in steamy clouds and men smoked cigarettes and drank ice cold beers.

Regular sized restaurants? …I was looking for something smaller.

*Cramped and Cozy. Perfect.* *Also, note the sign in English: “All seats are smoking.” I had found my spot.*

I found an empty stool next to a man at one of the restaurants. He was clearly a foreigner and I asked if I could sit next to him, and he said I could. He was visiting from California, not on vacation, but as a baseball scout. I was fascinated. I know nothing about baseball, but it was interesting to talk to him. He was a guy that traveled all over the world looking for baseball players, drinking and gambling too much and having a really good time doing it. He was a self-described degenerate. We had an engaging and lighthearted chat as we ate and smoked. I left him at the restaurant and wandered off.

I walked around and looked at the lights some more. I could have done that forever; it’s just so magnetic and exciting. Every corner reveals some sort of appealing weirdness. But I’m not really that much of a night person, so before it got too late, I went back to my little bookcase cubbyhole and went to sleep.

The next day would be my third and final day in Tokyo.

Asia Asian capital trip 2023 Japan

Konnichiwa, Tokyo!

Arrival in Tokyo, Japan

Of all the countries I had already been to, I hadn’t been to Japan. I was excited to visit Japan when I was about 12 (never happened; I just wanted to go) and over time my interest waned. I kept hearing about how great it was, but I remained lukewarm. Sure, I love Japanese horror movies and Hello Kitty, and I am fascinated by their weird porn culture, but none of it motivated me to buy a ticket. And then I was hopping around Asian capital cities and the time felt right. And Tokyo astonished me.

The more I travel, the more difficult it is for me to be surprised by a place. Places start to remind me of other places. I get more savvy. Things get easier. But Tokyo surprised me on numerous levels. Sure, it has a lot on common with other big East Asian capitals, but it was also so distinct. The food, the social interactions, the culture – even basic things like using machines to order ramen or flushing some of the very complicated toilets – so much of it really took me out of my element and I loved it. (I will say right now: yes, the toilets are weird and complicated, and I think heated toilet seats are disgusting but some of the other features were pretty nice.)

I arrived in Tokyo from Kuala Lumpur on a flight that got me in just after midnight, so I was unable to take the train to my Shinjuku hostel. Not feeling too disappointed about that, as I was eager to get to my accommodations, I got into a taxi. It was weird right from the start. The taxi looked like an English black cab and the driver was wearing a black suit, white shirt, and black tie, like a casting room castoff from Reservoir Dogs. He wore a chauffeur’s cap and had short but shaggy grey hair that I wasn’t sure was not a wig. I couldn’t tell if the man was 30 or 70. He seemed like a young man playing the part of an old man in community theatre. He spoke a little English, which he used to tell me long winded stories about animals that turned out to be jokes. The whole thing felt weird.

Sleeping Capsule

We pulled up outside my hotel at about 1:30am on a busy, bright street. The Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae Capsule Hotel. Picking it wasn’t difficult. I knew I wanted to stay in Shinjuku, and I knew I wanted to stay in a capsule hotel. This place was cheap and met my criteria. I thought that staying there might be a penance in exchange for a neat experience, but it was great. I was on the women’s only floor and had a floor level capsule, which I found super cozy. It had a roof-mounted, old-fashioned CRT TV that played whatever was on Japanese TV, wifi, and power outlets. Unexpectedly, it also came with pyjamas, slippers, towels, and pretty much every toiletry you could think of was available in the shower/bathroom.

The only downside, I guess, was the common area room had only vending machines, so you have to go out for coffee (unless you want coffee in a can, which I didn’t but drank anyway). In the common area, with so many men and women wandering around in pyjamas (identical, except that the men wore grey and the women pink), it felt like I had joined a cult. And I was ok with that.

I was so excited about the lively neon washed streets and my cool cult sleeping cubby that I didn’t want to sleep at all. But I did. For a few hours. And then it was time to finally see Tokyo.

But first, coffee

My first stop was the Meiji Jingu Shrine, but first coffee and the subway. I was staying in Shinjuku, which, as far as I could tell, was the epicentre of everything I wanted from Japan: tight vertical neon signs, ramen shops, tiny bars and restaurants, lots of young people in cool street style clothes, and cute things.

I was looking for a café – not something that Japan is known for – but I found an excellent, bright, and modern café where I had a perfect cup of coffee, followed by a French pastry of some sort. I’m not usually a big pastry eater but it was very early, I was starving, and most things were not yet open. I have to say that it was possibly the best pastry I have ever had. I’m not a foodie. I like to eat but food is not an important part of why I travel; that said, sometimes the food in a place is so great or unusual that it becomes a part of the trip (like Myanmar and Georgia). Tokyo was awesome for food. Everything I ate, no matter how cheap, was perfect. Being a vegetarian and being on a budget there made things a little more challenging, but I could always find something delicious to eat. The ramen. The strawberries. This pastry.

After I had my coffee and perfect pastry, I went to the subway station to go to the Meiji Jingu Shrine.

In a Station of the Metro

The Tokyo subway system can be a little bit daunting. There are numerous lines and as far as I could tell it was difficult or impossible to get a ticket that would be good for all of the subway lines all day. When entering the subway station, you’re confronted with banks of machines that sell you tickets, but different ones in different spots, and it wasn’t entirely clear to me whether each machine would sell you tickets for all the lines or not, but I never had any trouble buying a ticket and figuring out where to go. It just took a bit of time of staring at the map and plotting out routes. I know it’s not fashionable to have paper maps anymore, but having a paper map of the Tokyo subway system was super convenient for me. All in all, the subway was amazing. It wasn’t very expensive, it went almost everywhere in the city I wanted to go, and it was a joy to ride.

Sometimes I felt like a big oaf, not knowing where to stand (some trains have different queues for different trains at the same time on the same platform) and being taller than everyone else, and being one of the only people not wearing a mask but no one gave me a look – well, except one time when I accidentally knocked a man over and his CANE fell out of his hand. Yeah, that wasn’t my best moment. I just repeated “I’m so sorry” over and over as I helped him up. Even then though no one really acknowledged me, except the man I toppled. Weirdly though he seemed to apologize to me.

That was one thing that stood out to me about Tokyo. I felt invisible No one looked me in the eye or spoke to me or acknowledged me in any way unless we were engaged in a commercial transaction or unless I specifically spoke to them, and in the latter case they didn’t seem too keen to talk to me. It was bizarre.

Shrine Time

I arrived at the station near the Meiji Jingu shrine (Harajuku Station) and walked to the shrine.

I walked through Yoyogi Park with its tall trees. It was very quiet; it was hard to believe that it was right in the middle of the city. The shrines (dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and his wife and built in 1920) were lovely. Peaceful. There were places where people could write down what I assume were prayers or wishes and tie them to structures around trees. It was lovely. I’m not in any way a spiritual person, but I certainly can appreciate beautiful trees and serenity.

There was one astonishing tree near the middle of the temple complex. It was enormous and so perfectly round that it almost looked like a cartoon tree. It was one of the first of what I can only say are extraordinary trees that I saw in Tokyo. When I hear people talk about Tokyo, I never hear them talk about the trees, but I saw several trees there that were so beautiful that they look like they should have been in paintings. It really stood out to me.

From there I walked over to the Harajuku neighborhood, famous for its youthful wacky fashions and cafes. Admittedly, I was there too early. I should have gone later in the day. A lot of the stores were closed or just opening when I got there. So the street was quiet and didn’t have a lot of what I imagine is the energy that it would have later in the day, but I still enjoyed walking around. It was interesting to see the odd cafes that they had, like an otter café, a micro pig café, cat cafes, dog cafes…it was random.

And cafes for Sanrio characters, and stores selling cute costumes and wigs and so you can dress up like a living doll. It was interesting. What was also interesting was walking around that neighborhood off Takeshita Street where there were some cool cafes (without animals) and clothing stores. I stopped and had coffee and looked at some random art and window displays.

From Harajuku it is just a short walk to the Shibuya crossing; That famous intersection that gets flooded with pedestrians walking in every direction imaginable. The best way to get a view of it is to go to the roof of the building. but that wasn’t open when I was there, so I went upstairs to the Starbucks in a record store and from there I got a view of the intersection. I have to say it wasn’t as dramatic as I expected it to be, but it was a lot of people walking in all directions and it’s a quintessential Tokyo sight, so I had to see it.

Ah, Ramen

I made my way back to Shinjuku, and had a bowl of ramen en route. I’m not usually a ramen fan, but in Tokyo I am. I am ashamed to say that I needed help ordering from the machine the first time. (I don’t know how I was screwing it up; pushing the buttons in the wrong order or something.) It seems that in most ramen joints, you order from a machine before sitting down and then your ramen is wordlessly delivered to you. Excellent. No perky server bothering you to ask, “How are the first few bites tasting!” Just leave me in peace to slurp my soup.

Smoking Cigars in Shinjuku

I went back to my hotel my capsule to get freshened up. I had plans for the evening.

About 20 years ago I worked at a La Casa Del Habano (cigar store) in Vancouver and the manager of the store at the time was a fellow whose family was from Hong Kong. We didn’t stay in touch, and he had since move back to Hong Kong. But on the day that I arrived in Tokyo, he and his wife happened to be arriving in Tokyo from Hong Kong (discovered via Facebook). He messaged me to see if I wanted to get together. I did. This turned out to be one of the best parts about my trip to Tokyo, not only because I got to see my friend from so many years ago, but because he and his wife are very familiar with Tokyo and speak a bit of Japanese and they were able to introduce me to some things that I probably wouldn’t have been able to do on my own. Thing one: finding may be the best place to smoke cigars in Shinjuku.

We went to a bar on the 4th floor of a building in Shinjuku that looked completely unremarkable. If I didn’t know there was a bar on the 4th floor I would have never known to go upstairs, but once upstairs it was one of the most perfect bars I have ever been to. It was tiny (sat about 12 people), it was dark, it had an incredible selection of whiskeys and drinks, it was long and narrow like a train car, it played excellent jazz music. The bartender was dressed almost identically to my taxi driver the night before: black suit, white shirt, black tie. And of course, the best thing, you could smoke cigars inside. I met my friend and his wife up there and we sat and smoked cigars and caught up, reminiscing about old times and catching up on new ones. It was so much fun and felt so civilized to be able to smoke cigars inside.

We left the bar and went over to one of Tokyo’s yokocho (alleyways) that are lined with tiny restaurants. This one: Omoide Yokocho.

More commonly known in English as “piss alley” for reasons that I probably don’t have to explain. It is a tiny little alley near Shinjuku station, lined with teeny tiny little eateries. The eateries are just counters (no tables) and the chefs cook up the food in front of you and serve it on tiny plates. I guess it’s like izakaya, but there seems to be a distinction between izakaya and a yokocho eatery that I don’t understand. Almost everyone sitting at those counters is smoking and drinking beer or tiny thimblefuls of what I assume is saki. It’s so charming and so picturesque that is exactly the sort of place that I would have wanted to go and eat but would have not really been able to eat on my own.

None of the signs are in English, of course, and I speak no Japanese. Even looking at the food that they are serving I couldn’t figure out what it was. Is that tofu or fish or egg? I had no idea. But fortunately, my friend did, so we sat down at a bar in a tiny little eatery next to a man gleefully and drunkenly polishing off a pack of cigarettes with his drinks and snacks. My friend ordered me a tiny little plate of objects that vaguely resembled food. He assured me they were all vegetarian. And they tasted great.

It was a wonderful introduction to an area that I would have not been able to fully enjoy on my own. It was a good reminder of the fact that as much as I think solo traveling is the absolute best, it is excellent to be able to connect with people in local areas and have a different experience.

We parted ways and I went back to my capsule, totally content after one day in Tokyo. Had this been my only day in Tokyo, I would’ve been pretty happy, but I had more time and there was more to see. The next day would bring more sights, more ramen, and a new weirder accommodation.

Asia Asian capital trip 2023 Malaysia

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur

From Brunei, I went to the third stop in my trip: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I didn’t have great expectations for it. I don’t know why. I was curious about what it was really like, after hearing some many people’s rants and raves about the place. I was a blank slate. Maybe it was because I expected nothing that I kind of loved it. I don’t mean I loved it like I love some places (the pulse quickening, imagination sparking places). It wasn’t a 10/10, but it was a place I enjoyed and could imagine living.

The airport was easy. Visa free. The next thing I liked was that there was so much public transportation. I mean, it is a major city, so it should have a good network of trains and whatnot, but there are plenty of big cities that don’t. I was happy. It has an MRT, LRT, a commuter train, and a monorail. Excellent. The monorail was my favourite. Riding it is like being in an amusement park, zooming over the city with windows on all sides, leaning to the side around every corner.

I hopped on a train and went right to my hostel from the airport. I was staying in the Kuala Lumpur central area (KLCC). About a five-minute walk from the Petronas Towers. It was the business district. As I got off the train and walked to my hostel, it was about midday and, apart from the humidity and the tropical plants, it felt very familiar. Business people and places for steaks and after work cocktails – even a cigar lounge. I felt quite comfortable, like I was in Manhattan.

I was staying at The Bed KLCC, a hostel located on the upper floors of a shiny high-rise in this businessy district. It didn’t have a hippy or backpacker vibe, but it was one of the most impressive hostels I have stayed at. I had a bed in a female dorm room. Everything was spotless. My bunk was huge and had a near blackout curtain. Inside it had lights and plugs, a makeup mirror and a little shelf that works well as a laptop table if you sat on the bed. The bathrooms were great and had all the amenities you could think of, and more. There was a stylish hangout area that felt like a library and a huge kitchen/eating area. And it was about $17/night. Canadian.

From my hostel I walked over to the Petronas Towers. You can’t really escape them; they are always visible. In photos I didn’t think much of them, but they are impressive in person. Gleaming silver and lit up at night.

I took the train to Pasar Seni and walked around Chinatown. It was lovely. The buildings were low rise and colorful, historic, and often with murals. I am not a foodie but so many places looked like they would be amazing to eat.

I went to a hawker centre and walked up and down the Petaling Street market; clearly geared towards tourists, but it was fun.

I had a tofu drink (and bought a pair of sunglasses I surely did not need) and then meandered over to the Central Market.

*me in Chinatown sporting my new sunglasses*

The Central Market is an indoor market/small mall in a pretty, pale blue art deco building. Inside, I had an amazing bowl of vegetarian laksa from a stall with Elvis cassette tapes on display.

I walked over to the Sri Mahamariamman temple, which looks beautiful, but it was closed for repair, so I took the MRT over to Bukit Bintang to stroll down the colorful mural alley, which lived up to its name.

There is an excellent food street near there with a seemingly endless stretch of restaurants with outdoor seating, but nothing really appealed to me and it was so busy that I worried I would offend someone with my cigar.

*“Special Parts” on food street. I’ve no idea what a “torpedo” is.*

However, what caught my attention was near the entrance to mural alley was a small neighbourhood with lots of middle eastern restaurants. I walked back that way and settled in on the quiet patio of a great little neighbourhood restaurant selling Iraqi street food. (Tarma Iraqi Street Food.) Iraqi falafel is maybe the best falafel in my opinion, so I had to have some. And shisha. And coffee. It was great. A perfect spot that felt away from the other tourists.

I walked back to my hostel. A long walk, but super enjoyable, meandering through the streets.

Back at the hostel I met the girl across the bunk from me: a nice young woman from Amsterdam who had recently finished law school and was on a long solo backpacking trip. We chatted for some time and made plans to do something the next day. (Hostels really are the best for meeting people.) But I wasn’t finished with the day yet.

I had a tip from a friend about a cigar lounge on the 57^th floor of the Petronas Towers (Martini’s on 57), so that is where I decided to finish the day. It only took me 5 minutes to walk there but about 30 to figure out how to get up (there are two towers and numerous doors). Once I headed up, I found myself in a very plush cigar lounge with sumptuous leather chairs, dim lighting, and floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the city. It was great.

I ordered a martini and asked to buy a cigar. (I had cigars with me, but I wanted to see what they had for sale.) Rather than letting me into the humidor, the man brought me a tray of available cigars to choose from. I selected a Ramon Allones – a good sized Cuban cigar. After making my selection, he instead suggested I have a cigarillo, saying it was popular with “the ladies”. I shot him my coldest of looks and said “Just the Ramon Allones please.” This is a very specific cigar rant, but why he would he think that someone who requests a Ramon Allones by name (and can pronounce it) and who has arrived with their own cigar cutter would want a cigarillo is beyond me. Sexism I suppose. However, the weird, gendered treatment worked in my favour because apparently it was women’s day (?) and that got me a free cocktail. My indignation subsided and I was left to enjoy the impressive views and the gentle smoke.

That cigar cost more than all three of my nights at the hotel combined, but it was worth it.

A lovely end to my first day in Kuala Lumpur. The next morning I would visit the Batu Caves.

Asia Central Asia 2022 Kyrgyzstan

Two days in Bishkek

Exploring Bishkek

Kyrgyzstan – the country whose name I only learned to spell once I visited it – is a mountainous, sparsely populated country nestled just below Kazakhstan and, likewise, was a part of the Soviet Union until 1991 and before that was usually a part of one empire or another (Russian, Mongolian, etc). Kyrgyzstan’s history though goes back a few thousand years, and its people are traditionally nomadic. Even today, it is mostly a rural country, with only about a third of its people living in cities.

I arrived by taxi and foot after crossing the border from Kazakhstan and was deposited at my hostel – the USSR Hostel. As promised, it was walking distance to everything I wanted to see. Not counting the day that I did a countryside private tour, I had two days in Bishkek. That was enough to see and do all that I desired and do so on foot.

Statues & Buildings

I liked Bishkek, more than Almaty. Almaty is the nicer, more European-feeling city, but Bishkek felt more Central Asian. It was just more interesting. The architecture grander and more imposing. The men often wore their traditional hats. There were more statues and monuments. No, not just more; there were a shocking number of statues and monuments. Especially in Oak Park, where they filled the green space like a chess board dotted with pieces. There were brightly colored flower beds everywhere.

The city was just so interesting to walk in. But it also was an easy city to visit. Well organized and signposted and all that. So I could wander with ease.

Over the two days, I walked around and past all the notable buildings, including the UFO shaped circus building, the imposing museum, and an assortment of ornate buildings of indeterminate use.

*beautiful buildings, flowers, and Soviet insignia*

Behind the National Museum is an excellent Lenin statute. Until recent years he stood in the main square but was moved…for obvious reasons. I like the decision to keep the statue (and not destroy it) but to move it to the museum grounds, to place it in historical context, as opposed to holding him up as an icon. (There is also statue of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels deep in the park.)

A Museum & A Gallery

I visited the Museum, which was very good. A beautiful, new building displaying an impressive array of Items from Kyrgyz history.

I wandered to the National Museum of Fine Arts, which I didn’t really enjoy, but was happy to check it out. Interesting art, even if i didn’t like much of it.

Osh Bazaar

I walked to the Osh Bazaar where I was lost in rows and tangles of produce (especially berries), rounds of fresh bread that looked like that I knew from Uzbekistan, slabs of freshly butchered meat, spices, house wears, and hats. It was a very satisfying market. I enjoyed some delicious fried dough and potato treat, like a flat piroshki, and tried some balls of Qurt or Qurut or Kurut. (This being the hard dairy balls that can also be used as projectiles if you find yourself in a violent protest but short on rocks. I wrote about this more in my market post from Almaty.)

Bishkek was a very pleasant city for walking, even if it was blisteringly hot when I was there. It is a city of parks and trees; shade and greenery could almost always be found. Plus, it has a lot of great cafes. Cool cafes with tattooed baristas and pleasant patios for sitting with a coffee and a book or laptop.

Got milk?

Milk type and fermented drinks are inescapable in Bishkek. Like, in Almaty, you can buy a variety of different milks from different animals, fresh and fermented at the markets, but in Bishkek, you can buy the milk (or milk adjacent beverages) on the street. On nearly every corner is a woman sitting under an umbrella with 1-3 plastic barrels in front of her, selling drinks by the glass.

The most prominent is the Шоро or Shoro company, which sells milk beverages. They sell maksym (made from fermented barley, wheat, millet and/or corn), chalap (fermented milk, yogurt, and salt), and jarma (a fermented grain mixed with yogurt drink). You can mix maksym and chalap together, which is called aralash. Other stands will sell kymyz, which is fermented horse milk.

Maksym is the national drink of Kyrgyzstan…it is also the one I liked the least. I also found out after the fact that maksym usually has some form of animal fat in it – maybe butter or maybe other rendered animal fats – so it probably isn’t vegetarian. (oops.)

The other main company that sells their drinks on nearly every corner is the Eneasy company, which sells cold tea and milk/yogurt drinks.

All of these things you can buy in the market made in small batches or at roadside stands, but you just can’t escape the sidewalk sellers in Bishkek – and you wouldn’t want to. The milk and yogurt drinks are delicious and cost maybe 15 cents a glass.

*me, beating the heat with a refreshing glass of chalap*

Impressions

I also noticed that, while it is a Central Asian Muslim country, I saw a surprising number of cool, counterculture-looking young women with visible piercings or tattoos, partially shaved heads, and brightly dyed hair. (Like me as a teen.) I’m not saying I saw a lot of them, but enough that I took note. That’s not something I have noticed in similar places. Between this observation, the green spaces, and the cafes, I had this reoccurring thought: Is Bishkek the Portland, Oregon of Central Asia? That might be a weird comparison, but there is something to it. I liked it anyway.

I’m really squishing together my two days in Bishkek, but that’s mostly what I did. The third day I would take to the country for a bit of rural sightseeing.

Around the World 2022 Asia Singapore

Impressive Singapore: first impressions

Singapore is one of those places I had no interest in. I never doubted that it was clean or safe, that it had world class restaurants, a high standard of living, and excellent shopping; I just don’t care about those things. Give me dirty, overcrowded, dodgy, chaotic cities. To be fair to Singapore, because I quickly dismissed it, I didn’t spend any time reading about it. I might not have gone at all, except that on my flight back to Vancouver from Bangladesh, many of the flights had layovers in Singapore. It was my opportunity to see it for myself.

I would spend two full days and two nights in Singapore, which was enough. I saw what I wanted to see in that time – but it was at an exhausting pace. I think stretching it out to three days would be more reasonable.

A teensy bit about Singapore

The micro country of Singapore is an island at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula, just above the Equator. Singapore was a trading port city back in about the 14^th century. In the early 17^th century, the Portuguese destroyed it and then then it remained in relative obscurity until the British colonel and governor Sir Stamford Raffles (his name is everywhere) arrived in 1819 and ‘founded’ it as a new port. Singapore became a British possession in 1824 and it became an important trade location and, later, military base. It was occupied by the Japanese in WWII and the British lost control to the Japanese in 1942 at the Battle of Singapore. It then fell into more bad times post war with a loss of infrastructure and continued discord in the region as it and other former British colonies moved towards sovereignty. Singapore was part of Malaysia for a time and then became its own country in 1965.

Today Singapore is very wealthy and multicultural. Known for being clean, expensive, and modern, having great food, having a ban on buying and selling chewing gum for non-medicinal purposes, having the death penalty for many crimes including drug trafficking, and having caning as a possible punishment for many offenses including voyeurism. Oh, and it is illegal for men to engage in sex with each other. Not women though. Countries are complicated.

First Impressions

I landed at about 5am. Breezed through the airport where, disappointingly, they do not stamp passports, even if you ask. Twice. I took a taxi to my hostel. There is no train, there are buses, but I just wanted to get to where I was going with maximum efficiently. It wasn’t too expensive. I forget exactly how much. Maybe about $30 cdn.

My hostel, KINN Capsule Hotel, was located right in the centre of downtown, in a perfect location near restaurants, the harbour, the subway, a hawker centre – pretty much everything I needed. The hostel was tidy with clean and comfortable dorms; the kind that are like little pods, closed with a curtain. It was great in many respects, except that it didn’t have a kitchen, just a coffee station and the hang out area was designed in such a way that it seemed like they didn’t want people to hang out. Anyway, I was there such a short time I just needed a place to sleep. The hostel was pretty cheap by Singapore standards ~$70/night cdn.

My failure was thinking that I did not need to book a bed the night before I arrived. (I know better but was trying to save money.) I got there at 5:30am to drop off my bag. What I really needed was maybe 2 hours of sleep. That would have to wait.

As I walked out, the sun was just about to come up and I stopped for a coffee. Once up, the city was illuminated but still quiet. People were out jogging and doing tai chi along the waterfront promenade. The city did look flawlessly clean, and the tall, skinny towers gleamed and reflected in the still waterways. Lower to the ground were British colonial buildings, with buttercream columns, and pristine white statues of British figures.

My first impression was that it was a very impressive looking city. I would not say it is beautiful and it did not excite me, but it did feel impressive and, importantly, it didn’t remind me of any other city. It wasn’t like Seoul or Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan. It seemed more refined, more uptight. Well put together in way that looked great but doesn’t seem like that much fun. That’s why the word that I keep coming back to when I think about it is impressive.

Day one

I spent my first day walking around the central downtown neighbourhood, the waterfront, the harbour, and Chinatown. I walked along the waterways and to the Merlion Park, which is a scenic view of the water with a large Merlion statue/fountain. Merlion? Yep. The city’s national icon is a Merlion: half fish, half lion. It is supposed to be a reference to Singapore’s origins as a fishing village combined with the original name for the city, which translated to ‘lion city’. I was told that many people hate the Merlion statue. I liked it. It’s white and pretty and different.

From this view you can see over the water to some iconic modern structures. It is all quite scenic and impressive. I got a fresh juice and continued to wander.

En route to Chinatown, I sopped and had breakfast. I went to a coffee and toast place. Or more specifically a Kopi and toast place. Singapore has its own coffee traditions. First, they call it kopi. It is roasted differently. It is strong coffee served in small portions with sugar or condensed or evaporated milk or many other variations. “Kopi-O” is coffee with sugar. “Kopi-C” is coffee with sugar and evaporated milk. And so on. The Kopi is served at breakfast with toast. You can get the toast a myriad of ways, but the traditional way seems to be butter and kaya (some kind of sweet coconut jam), served with soft boiled eggs. I ordered the breakfast set but didn’t have the eggs because eggs are gross.

I walked to Chinatown. I visited the temples, including the Buddha Tooth (replica) Temple (I think it is hilarious that they just openly admit that it’s not an actual relic) and the Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple. I liked the Hindu temple much more. The Buddhist one is very new and feels it. It looked impressive (there’s that word again) but felt a little cheap.

Chinatown was great for a walk though. The streets are lined with these pretty two-story buildings, painted pastel colors and with wooden shutters. Lanterns hung in the streets. And there were lots of appealing cafes and shops to poke around in. I was also looking for (and found) a cigar shop/lounge but it was closed.

Feeling peckish, I visited the Chinatown Complex Food Centre, one of Singapore’s famous hawker centres. A hawker centre is kind of like a food court, but it is partly outdoors, and each food stall is of the highest quality; often with a family making a few dishes for many years to perfection. There is even a Michelin star hawker centre stall. And it is cheap. I had a bowl of some sort of laksa type of vegetarian soup for less than $5 and it was excellent.

I spent the late afternoon doing more of the same: walking and poking around the streets. I took shelter at a café for an hour when a torrential downpour made the streets impassible. I had a cigar along the water at a Thai restaurant. As the sun started to set, I headed out again after a short nap and went to the Gardens by the Bay and did more eating and walking, but I will put that in a separate post.

My first day in Singapore was really good. Not exciting, but pleasant. I enjoyed the walking and the sights. while it is quite modern, it has enough of its own character that I still found it interesting – and impressive.

Asia Myanmar (Burma)

Yangon: Arriving in Myanmar

I’ve been thinking about going to Myanmar for a number of years. The first time I looked into going they still didn’t have ATMs and almost no wifi. Things have changed and I am glad that I came here when I did because I can see it is going to get more developed and more touristy, like its South East Asian neighbours. So far (as I write this I have been here 4 days) I love it here. Interesting and beautiful, so far it does not seem as hectic as parts of Vietnam or as poor as parts of Cambodia. And it feels different. From the thanaka with which so many men and women decorate their faces to the wearing of the longyi to the eating of tea leaf salads, Myanmar seems to have its own feel. Again, these are my first impressions after a short time.

But then again, my first impressions may be mistaken. See my attempt to buy ice cream, below.

I arrived in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) via a long flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong. I had gotten an e-visa ahead of time, so i was through immigration in 5 minutes with no questions. Taxis were plentiful and their prices fair (i didn’t even bother to haggle). It was after midnight as we drove through the streets to my hotel: the Chan Myae Guest House.

I was quite happy with my lodgings, even though it was a sharp 8 floor climb to my room. Simple, but clean and with an excellent location. I was able to walk everywhere. And walk I did for my first day in Yangon. The centre is a delight for strolling with faded and mossy colonial buildings, strings of laundry, and endless street side food vendors.

I took a lot of pictures.

The food vendors are wonderful. I haven’t yet had a restaurant meal here. Tables of women mixing up noodle dishes, soups, salads, fried things, curries, yogurt drinks, tea, and juice stalls. Each one seems to have a specialty and everything looks delicious.

I have had really good luck with the soups. They will combine the ingredients as you direct into your bowl and you can just point at what you want. Then, if they see you are low on broth or noodles or onion or whatever, as you are eating, they will offer top ups. Nothing costs more than $1 (cdn). Plus, i have been going to the ones where the monks are eating, so I can just point at their vegetarian dishes and order that.

I have had one odd culinary experience. It was scorching hot and i was on foot and i thought, “Ice cream. Ice cream would revive me.” So I went to a corner store and bought a vanilla ice cream. I unwrapped it and took a bite and very quickly realized that my ice cream was not vanilla, but DURIAN. I cannot express how shocking it is to expect sweet and creamy vanilla and get instead the intense oniony putrescence of durian.

So I walked and I ate. I went in search of coffee, which was a bit of a mission. This is tea country. There are a few “proper” cafés but they are certainly not in abundance. Twice I aksed for coffee and received some sort of international delights french vanilla bullshit. And twice I flet guilty for thinking that it actually tasted pretty good. I’ll have to turn in my coffee snob card upon return to the Pacific Northwest.

I visited the Sule Pagoda, in all of its glittering splendour. It was magnificent, thought i can now say that gold stupas are ubiquitous here. Nevertheless this was Myanmar stupa no.1 for me, so it was special.

I toured around more on foot, past buildings of note. One street (I forget which one) had rows of book stalls and book shops, so I picked up something for the road.

In the afternoon, before taking on my next pagoda complex, I settled in at the bar at the classically colonial Strand Hotel, which was gorgeous and, most importantly, cigar friendly. Thankfully, it was otherwise empty, so i snuck a selfie or two.

My energies restored, I walked to the Shwedagon Pagoda complex. It wasn’t far from where I was but the 37 degree heat made it seem farther. By the time I arrived, I was hot and tired. I was not too tired, however, to have a secret race again a blonde woman across the street from me also walking to the pagoda. I won. Heat or not, I was still able to appreciate the beauty, but even my eyeballs felt burnt as I took in countless, gleaming gold and white stupas. There were so many people there but many appeared to be locals or visitors from nearby. Nothing I saw in Yangon was overrun with, well, people like me. A few backpackers here and there. The odd group of seniors, but they were few. It was nice.

Perhaps because there are not tons of tourists here, local people are not in the habit of hassling them. No one yells out to get a massage or follows you down the street trying to sell you stuff. Everyone is just pleasant. It isn’t too crowded – even the traffic is organized. Surprisingly for a former British colony, they drive on the right hand side of the street, but the steering wheels are on the right. Motorcycles are banned in Yangon, which may be why the traffic is not crazy.

Somehow I had done all of that by 6:00 pm and on 2 hours sleep. I went back to my room with plans of going out again in the evening, but promptly crashed. It was a great first day in Myanmar.

Tag: food