bangkok.

I'm not typically someone that is scared of flying but our flight to Bangkok was pretty brutal. A 6 hour flight on Air Asia whose name really should be Air Bus (I think this airline is worse than Ryan Air). Every time we hit turbulence I couldn't help but think about the fact that one of their airplanes crashed a few years back. After a lot sweating, yoga breathing, meditation and praying on Christina's part...we made it to good old Bangkok. 

We settled into our hostel where our room was located on the top floor and I had the pleasure of having the highest bed on that top floor. Heat rises for those of you that don't remember and boy did it. 

We read about a good restaurant that was near by and decided to walk there for dinner. Walking through the streets of Bangkok made me realize that now we are in the real Asia. I think the entire time we were in Japan, I probably saw 5-10 homeless people. Walking the streets of Bangkok was drastically different. One second you are smelling the most amazing food - fresh cilantro, grilled meats and chili sauces as you pass a popular food stand. Then the next few feet comes exhaust from the hundreds of motorbikes and rotting food on the side walk. The next street is filled with women in groups, sitting in a stadium seating waiting for men to come by and pick them up (I swear this trip is going to turn me into a feminist). The next block where our restaurant is located is suddenly quite and so completely different from the hustle and bustle you were just in before. Somtum Der was written up on some website and supposed to have the most delicious Thai cuisine. We were forewarned to take it easy on the spice level but we were still not prepared for the level of spicy that medium means in Thailand. We ordered a roasted duck with cellophane noodles and there were so many red chilis in every bite that we couldn't even eat it. We quickly asked the waiter to reduce the spice in the other dishes and were good to go. We were able to finish and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our meal.

Based on recommendation and from watching the Hangover II, we knew we had to hit up a rooftop bar. We were told to go to Sky Bar but upon further reading we decided to go to Moon Bar instead as it seemed it wouldn't be as crowded. We were escorted by probably 10 people to different floors/sections until we finally reached the rooftop. We grabbed a seat right in front of the glass that probably came up to my waist - totes wouldn't fly in the US. I tried to ignore my fear of man made heights as we sipped in our Mojitos taking in the views of Bangkok.

The following morning we woke up super early to see the temples before the crowds and the heat set in. For anyone traveling through SE Asia - this is the way to go. Wake up early and take a nap later if you need to. We arrived at Wat Pho aka the Reclining Buddha. Not only was the over 100 foot relaxed all gold (or bronzed - I dunno) Buddha pretty amazing but just the intricate details of every single little part of the temple were what blew my mind. Every pattern was so beautiful and detailed. A little tip we failed to remember - don't wear shorts and tank tops (despite the fact that it is 100 degrees outside) to the temples. As we walked in to see the Reclining Buddha we were quickly ushered out of the line where a Thai lady whipped out the brightest Kelly green robes and wrapped them around us so tightly to make sure not a single piece of skin was showing. 

We then walked next door to the Grand Palace - home of the Thai royal family. Once again, we were embarrassingly ushered aside and sent to a room to get proper attire. We were dressed in long wrap skirts and oversized button down oxfords. 

After wondering around and navigating the hundred different tour groups and told it would be over $20 entrance fee we decided to opt out of the tour. I'm sure it would have been beautiful but a girl has to save some money for vino. 

We road our first tuk tuk home from there. Another thing that would 100% not fly in America. The driver plopped us in the back with the smallest rail to hold onto and then speed off weaving in and out of the traffic, taking turns without even slowing down. It a blast and way faster than a  taxi. Later that day we had another tuk tuk pick us up. We patted ourselves on the back for our bargaining skills to only pay 50 baht (a little more than a dollar) to take us to Koh San road. We were going to have to make one stop along the way which we knew was standard for tuk tuks. Stores pay them to drop customers off and take a look around their store. We were prepared for the tuk tuks to do it and thought what the hell. We were dropped off into what seemed to be a variety of fabrics and clothes imported from India and would have been laughable for 2 backpackers to be tramping around in. But the place was air conditioned and we entertained the staff and wondered around for a few minutes. We politely exited only to find that our tuk tuk driver left us stranded - after that we were over the tuk tuks. That afternoon we wondered over to Koh San road know as the backpacker hang out spot in Bangkok. The real reason we headed to the area was a hidden gem of a street food place that was supposed to be one of the best. Nestled behind a series of clothing stands, there is a little alley that you walk through that opens up to a larger area of tables and chairs and surrounded by all kinds of stewing meats, grilled skewers and honey soaked teas. We sit down and point at a few things and the waiters and waitresses just seem to laugh at us. Yet a hot bowl of beef, noodle soup makes it to our table and we chowed down. We then ordered some skewers and chicken curry with rice. All of it was unbelievable and the whole meal costed $5! We wondered around Koh San road after stopping at the stalls selling fake ray bans and electronics that were probably stolen. 

koh san road.

We decided to end our day with a nice Thai massage. The first couple massage I have ever had would be with Christina laying right next to me as two ladies crawl on top of us yanking our limbs in different directions. It was amazing and painful all at the same time but only $12!

That night we went to a Bangkok legend called Somboon Seafood. Known for their curry fried crab - this place started out as a food stall and has expanded to be a local chain with 5 restaurants throughout Bangkok. There happened to be one walking distance from our hostel and we decided to check out ordering one medium curry fried crab and prawns with garlic. The curry fried crab was unreal - the picture below is not going to do it justice.

We headed back to our hostel with our minds set that we would go out. We started talking to some of the other people hanging around and made a plan to go to back to Koh San road - if you remember this is the backpackers haven for going out. Christina and I downed a bucket of gin and tonic - that's all they serve their cocktails in here. A bucket that you use to build sand castles with now filled with a small bottle of gin and can of tonic water. We quickly had a crew of about 15 people - including people from Dubai, Norway, England, and the US - that stuck together searching for some bar that some other friends were at. We hung out in the street for a little and for some unknown reason to me now everyone decided to eat fried scorpion. I took a little bite of one and may have forced Christina to do it too - I must say it tasted more like the cartilage of a soft shell crab (not nearly as bad as I thought it would be) but don't worry that will be my last time trying that. Koh San road was pretty crazy. Bars and streets filled to the brim with loads and loads of backpackers. 

I woke up the next day with a pounding headache and on a mission to get a yogurt parfait. There are random things I miss from home and yogurt parfaits are way high on that list. We found Eatdustry that is known for their coffee and said to have yogurt parfaits so we dragged ourselves out of bed and took a 40 min cab there. One thing we hadn't yet realized is how incredibly huge Bangkok is. On a map something appears close but with traffic it takes forever to get anywhere. We made it to find that we were the only people who seemed to want a yogurt parfait that day but the restaurant was sooo cute.

The rest of that day we wondered around Bangkok taking more 30-40 minute cabs in search of a Sony store to get Christina's camera fixed. That afternoon we felt we should do one more thing to see Bangkok and decided to hop on one of the ferries and take it towards where we were planning to have dinner that night. Well...the first ferry we got on only went from either side of the river. The second one we got on went in the wrong direction. A little grossed out by the state of the river and ferry, we decided to hop in a cab and head to dinner.

We dined at a well known restaurant called Krua Apsorn that apparently the royal family likes to eat. Once again the food was amazing. A very casual setting and packed with locals is always a good sign anywhere. We had another curry crab that night that was amazing and actually very different from the one we had the night before. Along with that we had a soup with the most melt in your mouth shrimp and pad Thai. We really have been blown away by the food in Bangkok - it definitely is my favorite part of the city.

We made it back to our hostel early that night ready to get a good night sleep and wake up early for our 6 am bus/ferry to Koh Tao. Our room was quiet and dark until 11 PM when 3 girls came in and decided to just turn the lights on and keep them on until I passive aggressively turned them off 2 hours later. Oh the joys of back packing. Thankfully waiting for us in Koh Tao would be a little romantic villa just for the 2 of us. 

We woke up bright and early and started our 8 hour journey to Koh Tao where we would fall in love with one of the most beautiful places we had ever been. Stay tuned for a Koh Tao post....we are on a ferry headed to Koh Phangnan for the Full Moon Party right now. Wish us luck! We are little worried we might be too old for all this partying. And don't worry Meme we have made a promise to stick to each other even when we have to go to the bathroom.

KISSES!!

CB

Post written on 6.1.15

kyoto.

We arrived in Kyoto after our 2.5 hour bullet train traveling at 190 mph. To give you an idea of how fast we were going - it took us 8.5 hours to get back to Tokyo on bus. 

Kyoto is known to be the heart of Japanese heritage and culture. Originally, it was the capital of Japan housing the royal family in the Imperial Palace. It has numerous UNESCO heritage sites and was banned from being bombed during WWII. 

After spending one day in Tokyo, we quickly changed our plans to stay there longer. Unfortunately that meant cutting Kyoto short. We arrived Monday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday night where we took an overnight bus back to Tokyo to catch our flight to Thailand.

Our hostel was the sister hostel of the one we stayed at Japan. It had so much character. The first floor was a coffee shop/bar/restaurant. Very rustic and modern. I really have been blown away with the Japanese architecture and design on this trip. I guess I was expecting more things to look like the standard traditional Japanese architecture you so often see in sushi restaurants in the US.

We had enough time that afternoon to visit the Kiyomizu-dera temple about a 20 minute walk from us. We started our journey walking up a road that slowly ascended through a cobbled street - that I'm sure use to be quaint but now was just filled with tourist traps - all the way to a grand entrance to the Sensojindi Temple. One minute you are in Kyoto and then you walk through the entrance of this temple and you feel like you have been plopped in a tree house in the mountains. The whole site overlooks a forest and a smaller 3 story temple in the distance. Really stunning.

That evening we wondered through the small streets and alleys dressed with street lamps dimly lighting the path. The larger Kamo river to our left and a small stream to our right. We happened upon a little restaurant called Takasegawa Qulio perched on the stream that seemed to be known for their Sukiyaki - pots of broth like dishes with wagyu beef, pork or tuna to fill it among many green onions, white onions and other flavorful goodies. We wondered in to a small room with a seat next to the window and had one of the best meals of our trip thus far. The Sukiyaki was brought to our table in a clay pot on a burner with uncooked veggies and meat. We let it cook for a few minutes, slowly stirring and it turned into the most flavorful like stew. Along with it came an eggplant parmesan - random I know but the Japanese seem to be obsessed with Italian food. The produce in Japan - particularly the eggplant we had was amazing. It doesn't even need seasoning it is so amazingly flavorful. We also had an appetizer of fried chicken tossed in a ginger, garlic, sesame like vinaigrette. But the Suriyaki is definitely one of the best things I have eaten on the trip.

The following day we hit up 2 more temples. Sanjusangen-do Temple - house of the 1001 Buddhas. Unfortunately we could not take any pictures inside so I pulled one from the internet to give you guys an idea. The drama of 1000 Buddhas lined up in perfect symmestry was pretty cool. They were built over hundreds of years by a few specially selected artists under intense training but if you weren't pointed out their differences, you would think all of them came out of a mold they look so similar. 

We walked over to the Tofukuji temple known for its intricate zen gardens. This place was much quieter with few tourists. You sit overlooking a garden of gravel raked in specific patterns with moss "mountains" spread out in a small section. This place really showed how serene and tranquil the temples are meant to be. I felt like I was at a spiritual spa. Anyways I'll stop gushing but I have so much respect for the amount of thought and design that go into these places. They truly are a work of art. ALSO a school of Japanese teenagers were there and asked Christina and I to take a picture with them! Why they wanted to take a picture with 2 girls that hadn't showered in almost 2 days is beyond me but we felt like celebs. 

Speaking of schools, we walked by a grade school walking in between temples and they had a whole set of unicycles! I would be so impressed to see little 5 year olds riding those guys around. 

After the temples we went to the Nishiki fish market and wondered through the stalls of fresh fish, pickled everything - I don't even know what half of it was but it is definitely one of the foods of Kyoto, prepared food stalls and produce stands. We bought some veggies and fresh tofu (another specialty in Kyoto) to make a stir fry for dinner. It was so nice to get back to cooking and eating a fresh meal at home.

That evening, we walked across the street from our hostel and wandered into a wine bar called TSK we had been eyeing the past day. We were graciously welcomed and sat there drinking Champagne and red wine that tasted like heaven (we really miss good wine - we have become a bit of snobs for it living in SF). We sat at the bar talking to our new friend Shozo who was such a character. He loved us. He would ask us a question and we would respond by writing the answer on a little notepad so he could process it better. When we told him we were traveling for the next 7 months he was SHOCKED. Another couple from Toronto came in and we chatted with them about American politics - apparently it is their version of a sitcom and enjoyed a few glasses of wine together. Shozo kept giving us plates of different dried fruit including Kiwi, tangerines and coconut bites. We were obsessed - he kept refilling our little bowl bit by bit. We even got the name of where they were from (Tomizawa) and went and bought them the next day. The owner and chef - who's name is TSK - made all of us complementary octopus to end off the night. 

We were supposed to wake up early and go on a hike up to the Futishima Temple but I think the last glass of wine ruined all hopes for that. We woke up and wondered to the Tomizawa shop and bought dried kiwi, coconut bits, banana chips and okra. I have been eating it nonstop since. We grabbed some salads at a market stand and ate along the Komo river. That afternoon, we headed over to Gion - the area of Geisha houses - wondering little allies searching to get a picture of a real Geisha. A ton of people are dressed up in kimonos but you see very few real ones. We found some couples that had recently gotten married and were there taking post wedding pictures.

We went back to our hostel bar and ate dinner. We needed to kill some time before we caught our night bus at 11 PM so we decided to go back and visit Shozo at TSK. He was SO happy we came back. We wrote on a piece of paper what we did that day. He was thrilled we went to Tomizawa. We sat at our same spot chatting with a couple from South Africa and now living in Amsterdam that showed us pictures of their rock and roll wedding from 2 years ago. I think I would be happy going to that bar every night for the rest of our trip sitting in our spot talking to Shozo and whoever else happened upon there that night. 

We made our way over to the bus station and took an overnight bus bus to Tokyo. To my surprise, it wasn't too bad. The seats reclined and we slept the whole way there. 

It's funny the things you come to appreciate while on the road. This hostel had curtains on the bed. I can't begin to explain how amazing that is. I think maybe I am noticing it more because I'm reading Wild and she keeps talking about how much she has grown to love the walls of her tent. Well that's how I feel about a bed with curtains. 

I'm currently on a bus headed from Bangkok headed to Koh Tao for some Beach time. We then will be island hopping to other islands. Bangkok post coming shortly. 

XO

CB

tokyo.

For starters...I blame the length of this post on my dad. He told me to write, write, write and when I think I have written too much...keep writing. So here it goes...

Originally this blog post was written on at bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto with Mt. Fuji in the distance to my right. Since then, my post that I spent over 2 hours writing was deleted. Bahhhh  it was so painful but I promise to try to replicate as best as possible. 

                               

I left off last post boarding our plane to Tokyo. We flew Singapore airlines and I must say they must be stuck in the 50s or just have some old ass designers because the plane was very dated. The flight was long but great. We made it just in time to be greeted by pouring rain - apparently it is typhoon season. After over 20 hours of travel and being awake for 24 hours, we made it to our hostel. The very dry (personality wise and physically) hostess informed us we had to go back out in the torrential downpour to get cash to pay for our entire stay. We made our way a few blocks away to 7-eleven despite the fact that it was raining so hard our umbrellas lost a purpose and our paper map was no longer in one piece. I suppose it is only fitting to have a hiccup on your first day. We made it back and checked in to Tokyo Heritage Hostel. The place was so cute - very traditional Japanese but with a hipster twist. We grabbed our free drink at the bar and made our way to bed.

The following day we woke up early and went to yoga at Be Yoga. I found an article awhile back listing the best yoga studios in the world and Be Yoga was one of them. It also is a goal of ours to do yoga in every country that we visit. The class was dece good but I think more in general a good way to start off the trip. For all the planning we have done for this trip, we really were unprepared for what we wanted to do our first day. We remembered a ramen place recommended to us by our friend Whitney and decided to try it. We wondered over via google maps. On a side note, navigating through Tokyo is quite interesting. There are no street names - it is BEYOND me why one of the biggest cities in the world does not have street signs but they don't. We simply follow this dumb blinking blue dot until we reach our location on google maps.

Once your blinking blue dot arrives at the "destination," it is hardly ever there. You then must search around the block, examine all the floors in a building until 30 minutes later a hangry you discovers the place you have been looking is tucked away on another floor or in some alley. Well along with every other restaurant here - that is what happened with the ramen place. Ichiran was on the second floor of a rather business looking building. We walked up to find a vending machine. We ordered the standard bowl of ramen with a soft boiled egg, green onions and a vinegar sauce. We then walk in the restaurant to sit in a personal booth - the best way I can describe it is like a testing or voting booth. With walls on other side, a curtain in front of me and a tap of water (much to my disappointment - I originally thought it was beer). I see a form asking additional questions on how I would like my ramen made (flavor level, spicy level, noodle consistency). After filling it out, I click  the order button, a hand sticks out from the curtain and grabs my slip and returns with a hot, delicious bowl of ramen. The purpose of this place is to have all sensors focused on your bowl of ramen. I think it's kind of BS as the majority of people in there were sitting on the their phone but I played along. The play is filled with endless slurping and sniffles. They even have a box of tissues behind each station. 

That afternoon we wandered around Taito (the neighborhood where our hostel was located) and found a cemetery and temple. We came across the main local "errand street" - I'm giving it that name because they have everything from aprons to dishwater to fish to cook for dinner and I can't remember what it was called. We found a local stand with all kinds of fried up goodies and picked up a piece of octopus.

We ended up in Ueno Park - a large park filled with museums, temples, a zoo and a lake filled with row boats. On my last backpacking trip, on my very first day in Madrid, I rowed boats in a city lake. It's quite ironic to be doing the same thing on my first day in Tokyo. We decided to splurge and spend the extra dollar for the super duper cute swan boat. We peddled our way into the Tokyo sunset amongst the hundred other Japanese couples.

                                                                    

That evening we made our way to sushi in the Shibuya area. Shibuya is what you would expect of Tokyo. After wandering around quaint little neighborhood we had been asking what hustle and bustle everyone was complaining about. We then discovered the madness of Shibuya. The only way I can describe it is Vegas x 20 - the 10 different massive team screens playing different commercials with sound, so many people, the main intersection that stops probably 25 lanes of traffic for thousands of people that cross through. It's absolute sensory overload, craziness. Definitely not my favorite area but felt like an out of body experience being amongst it.

We managed to find an underground bar to grab a drink. The staff handed us menus that had a table of contents menu but I guess they couldn't seem to complete the translations for the drink names below the titles. We asked the bartender to whip up something with vodka. When a bright blue drink came out, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a deliciously fresh grapefruit drink. I love it when things blow away my expectations...

A friend of Christina's recommended we try Sushi Zanmai for dinner - a local chain that is known to have amazing quality for great prices. We had a bottle of sake, bowl of sushi and miso soft shell crab soup and spent $25 each - not too shabby. The fish was beyond amazing - except I really don't like raw squid - not. one. bit. 

During our walk through Taito, I noticed this wall painted in front of a coffee shop:

Hanging in a shopping neighborhood - Harajuku was on the agenda for Thursday. Harajuku is known for it's many restaurants and shops and the Harajuku girls - Japanese girls dressed in crazy clothes - the only way I can describe it is with a picture.

From the outside this neighborhood appears to be another hustle and bustle type site with main roads flooded with big name stores stretching a few stories high but once you get into the back streets it's a whole different world. Cute streets filled with shops, eateries and cafés. We even managed to find a place that served wine! 

We grabbed lunch at a popular dumpling spot - Gyoza Lou where you can choose between pan-fried or steamed and original or added garlic and leeks. There were a few other sides on the menu but dumplings is there bread and butter and boy do they know what they are doing. Most of the restaurant is a bar surrounding the steamer and fryer. We watched them whip up our meal and chowed down. 

Tokyo is known for their animal cafés - Christina claims it's because people don't have enough space for pets but I think it's just another weird quirk of this wild town. You can choose from cats, to owls to goats even! We found a place that offered bunnies. I paid $6 to play with bunnies for 30 minutes. At first I thought it would be kind of lame but I must say playing with those fluffy goose bears was so fun (minus the endless pooping).

We were referred to a conveyor belt sushi joint in Shinjuku that we tried that night. I wish I could say how incredibly amazing and cheap the meal was but we mostly were super grossed out and unsatisfied. The majority of things coming our way were mayonnaise based seafood concoctions. The one bonus was pineapple. We have not been able to find much fruit over here so it tasted like the nector of the gods. I will let the conveyor belt joint remain nameless as I can't remember and maybe one of you will think its way more fab than we did. 

Christina and I are pretty big Anthony Bourdain fans so have been trying to hit up most of the spots he went on his No Reservation episode of Tokyo. We heard from Anthony and other sources about a cool series of streets called Golden Gai filled with over 200 tiny bars stacked on top of each other fitting 4 - 8 guests at a time. This place a is a travelers heaven. Anywhere you go you are bound to talk to anyone sitting there. Our first stop was Bar Albatross (an Anthony Bourdain pick). The bar is 2 stories with a loft - each level fitting about 8 people. A very gothic atmosphere with old religious relics and low hanging chandeliers. The funky Japanese bartender welcomed us with open arms and recommended we order their specialty chili gin drink. Their gin is infused in house with fresh chilies. The minute it hit my mouth, everything went numb. I slowly chugged it down as the bartender laughed at me. We ordered a few more and asked for a rec of where to go next. Our new friend refereed us to his friend down the street at hip. - a bar on the second floor with a path of stairs so steep they might as well have been replaced with a ladder. From there we went to Asyl - discovered from a CNN article of the 5 best bars in Golden Gai. The atmosphere was music focused with Indy rock blasting through the walls. We recognized the bartender from the article even! Also sitting there was a bar regular, business man out definitely looking for a lady friend and a woman that worked for an entertainment company who was planning to stay out all night until she had to go to work the next day! Apparently this is standard for people in that industry. The bartender whipped up the most delicious drink with fresh orange juice and some kind of liquor (can't remember what) - it was one of the best drinks ever though. We went to one final bar that I unfortunately don't know the name. We were greeted by a crew of drunk Japanese friends- one of the guys there we have seen 2 more times on the streets of Tokyo since!!! What a small world! On a quick side note, I also saw a man that was on our flight in Tokyo. So weird how that happens. Anyways, we ended our night sitting in a loft overlooking our new Japanese friends (or at least that's what they thought) below that felt like we had been blasted into An episode of That 70's Show. 

The following day (Friday), we went to an udon noodle restaurant called Tokyo Mentsudan situated in Shinjuku. It was setup similar to a Chipotle. You order what type of noodles you want (we got original in a broth) - a guy picks up a handful of noodles freshly made in house with his hand, then cooks them for a few seconds in a basket dipping them into a massive pot of boiling water and serves them up. You then have the option to add sauces, kimchi, egg...them comes the tempura station with soft boiled egg to seafood to unknown fried things to me. Add some green onions, fresh ginger and broth and your done. It was so amazing.

We wondered around the hipster neighborhood that day called Shimokitazawa. It reminded me of the Mission filled with cool shops and restaurants but still a little rough on the edges. 

For dinner (do you notice I'm only talking about food? Maybe I should change the title of this to a foodie traveling around the world) we went to a local place that served Okonomiyaki called Sometaro. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese style pancake that usually includes cabbage, egg, and some sort of meat. Sometaro was a very traditional setting where we took off our shoes before entering and sat Indian style on the floor. To add to the ambience - the largest sumo wrestler looking man was sitting behind us wearing a kimono. We ordered our 2 pancakes - one with shrimp, cabbage, egg and some other goodies and the other with pork, green onion, leeks, cabbage and egg. We mix up the raw ingredients our selves and then cooked them on a grill in front of us. You then cover them in a sweet almost teriyaki like sauce and top it was mayo and dried seaweed. 

That evening our plan was to continue our mission to follow Anthony Bourdain's footsteps and went to the Robot Restaurant. Set up in the middle of the tourist trap of Shinjuku, you can't miss the entrance to this place with blaring music and tvs. Beforehand we checked out a famous area known as Piss Alley named after the many drunken men that used to use the  bathroom on the streets due to a lack of available toilets. I must say I felt there pain arriving there having to search for a bathroom for about 30 minutes when it had been under my nose the whole time. The proper name (it is def not approp to call it Piss Alley according to our local friend) is Omoide Yokocho. Set up in a similar style to Golden Gai - there are tons of little eateries fitting 10 people or less serving up crazy things like whale, horse, etc. Since we are traveling for 7 months and we don't want to be stuck getting sick the first week we opted out trying the whale. Although Bar Albatross (from Golden Gai) also had a location there and an illegal rooftop bar. We were seated on the second floor where you have to order drinks through a hole in the floor yelling at the bartender down below. Then on to Robot Restaurant - we are guided in and sent up a few floors into the waiting bar area that was definitely my favorite part of the whole night. I really only think a picture can do this place justice - it looked like a bar pulled out of Austin Powers. After drinks, we were guided down to a basement were the show would start. The venue was so small - only 3 rows of seats on either side with the stage in between. Seeing that the whole video game scene really isn't my thing should have been the first sign that I wouldn't enjoy this show. The whole thing seemed like a live video game. They clearly needed to do some amaintenance as all the robots were literally falling apart. And not to sound too pinned up but the whole thing seemed a bit offensive and inappropriate - there was kind of a consistent theme of mocking the Japanese traditions we all stereotype with their culture. Anyways I'll end my rant - I just can't believe Anthony Bourdain of all people went there. 

Saturday, we rolled out of bed at 6 am and dragged ourselves to the Tsujiki Sushi Market. Some arrive there as early as 4 am to watch the daily auctions to pick their tuna for the day. Apparently many people just go straight from being out at the bars. I finally felt I like I was starting to get my jet lag in check and decided the 3 am wake up call wouldn't be worth it. We heard if you get there before 7 am, you can still eat at all the best sushi stalls. So we opted for more sleep. There are a few top places we read about - the best is supposed to be Sushi Dai where people wait over 3 hours to get there 8 am sushi fix. We also read that Daiwa Sushi was great so we grabbed some beers at a nearby stall and waited in line for about 45 minutes. Once it was our turn, we were seated at a small bar that fit about 10 people. Sushi chefs all seem to be so happy - I suppose I should read about this bc they are always yelling and laughing. We ordered the chefs rec set menu. I had read that as he hands you a new piece of fish you are supposed to eat it right away for optimal freshness. As he handed us piece by piece I couldn't really keep up but it was so amazingly fresh. Highlights included fatty tuna, barbecued eel, grilled shrimp head and uni. We polished off our second beer and were ready to go right back to bed. 

The Sanja Festival is going on in Asakusa (neighborhood very close to where our hostel was and also the location of the largest temple in Tokyo - Sensoji Temple). It is a religious festival/crazy party held by the Shintos where different townships/temples prepare their own shrine to honor the 3 men that founded the Sensoji temple. Our neighborhood was working on their shrine right outside of our hostel and having there own ceremony were kids played the drums and flute and did a special dance. They were the cutest little nuggets. 

We walked to the Sensoji temple where there were thousands of people dressed in what appeared to be their local kimonos (each township was matching). Everyone was drinking beers in the street or the local restaurants getting rowdy. Once in the temple, you could see from above, each town carrying their shrine into the temple. 

Sunday was our last day in Tokyo. We had one last neighborhood that we wanted to check out - Daikanyama. It's a shopping district known to have a more western influence. It felt like LA to me. There is a really popular bookstore - Tsutaya Books - made up of 3 buildings, each 2 stories high there was every section you could imagine in all different languages. I could get lost in that store for days. The decor was very mad men, retro modern. We went to the cafe and enjoyed a cappuccino in a plush set of chairs and discussed the rest of our plan for Southeast Asia. 

We decided to splurge and check out the New York Bar Sunday night at the Park Hyatt. It is located on the 52nd floor overlooking all of Tokyo. We had a seat right at the window, drank a martini and watched a jazz band play right next to us. Almost too much of a tease to have a taste of luxury but well worth it.

That leaves me to here - on a train to Kyoto. I LOVE Japan. I honestly could live in Tokyo. Usually when I travel to a foreign country I have that feeling of oh shit I have no idea what's going on or what these people are saying but strangely that didn't happen in Tokyo. It was a rather easy transition. 

It's definitely a city with its quirks. You can tell how much everyone works here by the fact that the basic dress code for leaving your house is business casual. I would say 75% of the men are always wearing suits - any day of the week including Sat and Sun. Needless to say we started getting a little self conscious about our backpacker attire. At 10 PM, the metro was still packed with people commuting home from work. The face masks are also everywhere. We asked if they were for something specific or just to protect against general germs on our Golden Gai bar crawl. The bartender informed us that they protect them from the Hay Fever caused from a pollen in the air. Seems a little intense if you ask me.  

I am now ending this blog on Wednesday. We are headed off on an overnight bus back to Tokyo tonight and the fly to Bangkok in the morn! You will hear from me then. Ciao ciao!

Xo

CB 

And so it begins...

Welp...I am sitting at the San Francisco International airport waiting to board my flight to LAX from where I will jump on another flight to Tokyo, Japan. I will be starting a 7 month journey around the world hitting Japan, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, India and Nepal. 

But before we get too caught up on the future, let's rewind back a year where it all started... For years I have been badgering Christina to go on a trip around the world. You all should know who Christina is by now but if you need a reminder...she is one of my best friends from high school, member of the Crew, back packed through Europe with me, moved to SF the same week and we have lived together ever since (including a studio apartment with a bed in the kitchen). We did want to stay in Europe during our last trip and become bar crawl guides...instead we opted to go be grown ups and start our careers but with a promise that we would go back before we were 25 - we just barely made it! For those of you who have been concerned, we can stand long periods of time together, have similar travel interests and both share a passion for food, wine and cheese. Some like to refer to her as my wife. Follow her blog at www.shatzysays.wordpress.com! Anywho...as we sat in the Opium Den one afternoon feeling the typical Sunday blues, we made a promise  - We would go backpacking around the world within the next year. From there, we would start planning...researching where to go, what we needed to do to prepare, how much money to save, etc. We spent hours and hours planning this trip. Months went by and we finally booked our first flight to Tokyo. 

We made a visit to the SF travel clinic and met our girl Lisa, a travel nurse guru. We walked into that office ready to spend $400 and be in and out in a split. Instead Lisa broke the news we would have to get over 8 shots that would cost $1500. I think our shocked faces broke poor Lisa's heart. Despite our disappointment, Lisa became our go to travel guide.  Having lived all over the world, she had a lot of great tips. I think she was quite amused with these 2 girls that you may not have expected to be the type to backpack around the world - we looked like the blind leading the blind going on this trip. We bombarded her with a thousand questions every visit - the best including Christinas endless curiousity of how shots work and go in your body. Lisa - if you are reading this (which she probably isn't but I like to think she is), we love you!! I will dedicate a post on travel vaccines to you down the road. 

We took this last week to pack and get organized. Randall came up to visit for the week and we put him and Sam to work with a list of moving tasks that needed to be complete.They were my saviors helping getting everything done! My dad decided to make an impromptu visit to help finish the move this weekend and drive us to the airport. On a side note, he and my mom have been my number one supporter to do this trip. They have pushed me to make this move and I would never have done it without their blessing. It only seemed fitting that he would be the one to see me off.

My dad dropped Christina and I off at the airport. Tears were shed by me of course and the minute my Dad drove off we fell into a hysterically laughing fit. A similar question of what the f*** are we doing was repeated several times. I was laughing and balling crying at the same time. It was a feeling of such relief and trepidation I suppose. After getting through security, we decided to do one last ridiculously SF thing and hit up the yoga room and squeeze in a quick 15 minute practice....yes I already sound like a granola wandering hippy....

I know you all must be sitting at work reading this and thinking how you wish you were heading off to Tokyo right now. But I must express how surprisingly hard this has been. A year ago I would have thought it all would be easy - pack up, say cya and board our flight. I felt my first wave of fear walking into my presidents office to tell him I'm quitting my job. Although the fear subsided - a week went by and then came a wave of relief...one more step closer to the adventure of a lifetime. As I began to tell more people, the more real it became. I continued to get more and more excited. But this past week has been filled with sadness and anxiety. Packing up my life in SF was hard. I love this city. I want to spend the rest of my life here. I have made so many amazing friends. SF is a city full of transplants so your friends become your family. They are your people that you call when you need anything - leaving that was the hardest part. Then came the question of what the hell am I doing???? I have no income, I just sold everything I own, what if I run out of money?? Lots. Of. Tears. Were shed this week. Although, I knew deep down that all I needed to do was force myself on that plane and from there just take it one step at a time. 

So here we are. Sitting on the plane to LAX. Thinking about what the future holds. This may have been hard to get here but I already know it's the best decision I have ever made. I can't wait to meet new people, taste new food, explore a new outlook on life, learn so many new things everyday. 

Our itinerary is Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal, Morroco, South Africa, Namibia, Nepal (maybe :/) and India. If you have visited any of the places and have recommendations, we would love them!! We also are open to visitors! I plan to keep this blog up the rest of the trip sharing all our experiences as we go along. 

Love all of you guys out there - especially my amazing parents and SF crew that  have been so supportive and helpful in getting us ready for this trip. Talk to y'all in Japan!

This post was written last week - hoping to post about Japan today for everyone to have something to enjoy on their Monday morning! 

XO

a post of pictures

a night in florence

Riomaggio, Cinque Terre (where we are staying)

Ciao America

Novalja, Pag

So I will start off from where I left off. We made it to Novalja, Pag and completely lucked out at the only hostel on the island called the Big Yellow House which was located right on the water. The picture above is the view from our room. I must admit that the actual town of Novalja is not the classiest. I don't think a lot of Americans make it over to the island either because a lot of people were shocked we made the treck over there. Near Novalja is a beach called Zrce Beach that is basically the Ibiza of Croatia. We went to the beach on a bus that played blaring techno the entire way there.

 After spending a few days enjoying the beaches (interestingly enough the best beach was at a campsite), we decided to take a kayaking trip in Zadar. Lizzie and I shared a kayak. While I believe we both individually could kayak in a straight line, our poor coordination skills caused us to zig zag down the river. We still were very pleased at the end of our trip because we got to jump off a 45 foot waterfall and I kayaked down a 12 foot waterfall.

After Croatia, Lizzie and embaraked on a 24 hour journey to Naples. Naples was errr ok...but after talking with some people at our hostel, we decided to take our trip elsewhere. We made some friends in the hostel and a group of us headed to Sorrento the next day to try out our first camping site. Right when we got to Sorrento, we dropped off our bags and headed to Pompei, the town that is in ruins from a volcanic eroption. Pompei was very cool to see. It really amazed me that there was still wood in the buildings from such a long time ago. After Pompei, we went back to our campsite and headed down to the water with our new friends from Naples. We decided to ignore the sign that said the beach closes at 7 and made our way down the hill to the rocks on the water. After enjoying some delicious wine and cheese (that we shared with some seagulls), we took a dip in the ocean and headed back up to our cabins. We learned that the beach really does close at 7 since they had lock the gate to the campsite. We made our way out after some intensene climbing up dirt hills and a whole crew of Italian children to help us escape. We were quite famous at breakfast the next day among the children. We took a ferri to Capri the next day. First, we heckled with many boat owners to get the best deal to take us around the island. We finally found a descent deal from an American women and scheduled to return later that day to start our trip. We waited for quite awhile to get on a bus to Anacapri. The roads in Capri are tres tiny and our big bus zoomed along sharing the road with other buses and driving along a veryyy steep cliff. We got to the town in one piece and made our first stop at a Pizzeria where we ate the most delicious margherita pizzetes and enjoyed a view of a mansion overlooking the water with a vineyard (basically my dream home).

We shopped around and I bought a pair of sandals that were specially made to fit my foot. There are little shops all over Capri for this and they make the shoes in 20 minutes.

After shopping and sampling quite a bit of limoncello, we set out on our boat trip to cruise around the island. We swam through many grottos, went cliff jumping of course, and even got in the blue grotto which was amazing. It is a cave all light up in a luminous blue color. Capri might have been my favorite day of the trip. Once we returned to Sorrento, we cleaned up and enjoyed a farewell dinner with our new friends where there was a band playing American songs in very Italian accents.
 

Boating in Capri

taking on eastern europa

Praha

I am just sitting at our hostel waiting to leave the beautiful Prague. Almost every person I talked to about backpacking through Europe has told me this was one of their favorite cities and I must agree that it is quite beautiful. We arrived to the cutest hostel called Sir Tobys that is very pub/cottage esque. A little exhausted, we decided to grab a late lunch and relax at our hostel the first evening. The free nutella crepe night also lured us to stay in for the night. It is 3 days later and I still can not look at a crepe. I never thought I would see the day when I can't look at Nutella due to overload. The one thing the 4 of us are good at is taking FULL advantage of a free meal over here. There currently is a international theatre design show going on in Prague and it seems our hostel has attracted quite a few of these people. While very interesting, we have found they more enjoy to sit around and talk intellectual literature and theatre.

FREE patries the bakery gave us at 3 am

We headed out the next day on our FREE walking tour. We walked around the old town and Jewish district and learned quite a bit about the history and legends of Prague. We went to the Prague castle and the church attached had the most amazing stainedglass windows I have ever seen. So many colors and detail. That evening, we went to a traditonal Czech restaurant. Christina, Liz, and I split a massive platter of duck, ribs, sausage, pork, cabbage, and potato dumplings. It was suuper cheap and one of my favorite feast of the trip. Later that night, we went on a bar crawl (I mean Prague is known for its night life). As mentioned in my first post, I am not opposed to staying here if the opportunity were to present itself. Christina and I were offered jobs as bar crawl guides...we are playing that one by ear right now...The next day we headed to a monastery perched at one of the highest points in Prague that makes their own beer. The IPA was delicious and we got some great views of the city and castle. We did not have enough time in Prague. I would have loved to stay one more night but we had to hurry on to catch a train to Budapest.

turkish baths

Budapest was a last minute decision. After speaking with some fellow backpackers, we decided we would be missing out by not making our way over to more of Eastern Europe. First of all, the city is completely not what I was expecting. Honestly, it was one of the most beautiful cities I have been to in Europe. I know I say that about a lot of places but Budapest blew us away. We only had 1 full day so we decided to do a bike tour so we could see as much of the city as possible. The architecture was old and beautiful. The history also was very interesting because everything was so recent. They were just freed from Soviet control in 1989. But enough with the history lessons, Budapest nightlife is also one of the best in Europe. Prepared to take full advantage of that, we stayed at the Instant Groove! Party Hostel. I think they focused so much on having a good time at the hostel that they forgot to turn the AC on. After relaxing in the baths (a massive area filled with all different kinds of pools, baths, waters with minerals, etc.), we made our way out last night with a 6 am train to catch. We made it...barely. I am currently in Zagreb, Croatia at the bus station waiting for a bus to Pag, Croatia.

Note: this post was written about a week in a half ago. 

My current city is Cinque Terre