Travel: godfry drags his ass across Asia

[godfry n. glad]

Well...

Over in another thread, Ronin and I got to discussing travel, particularly my trip to Kyoto, Japan.

He asked:

Originally Posted by Ronin

When you get a chance, please post another few pics of your visit if you don't mind. I'd be interested in the temples and gardens, thought I'm sure the palace is amazing.

As for questions:

What kind of a general budget was necessary to make the trip? Were you already comfortable with the area to make your way around or did you have a guide to assist you?

How did the general population treat you (especially in this day and age)?

What was the best moment you had on your trip?

More pictures....

Well, I wish I knew enough to have the whole thing placed on a website where folks could view it at their leisure, but I'm an analog guy in a digital world....so it ain't happened yet. Hell....I haven't even sorted through all 987 images to select those worth keeping and those that are just plain trash.

The story is, Ronin, that my wife died August of 2003 of ovarian cancer. She and I used to do what we called "Tightwads on Tour"...basically budget travelling. Neither one of us were big wage earners, but we got to most places. She'd spent a year knocking around Europe and had lived in Dublin. I'd done the British Isles and Eire on my own. Together we managed to travel to Europe twice and Israel/Jerusalem. We'd done a lot of western Canada and finally did a "leaf-peepers" tour of New England, Quebec and the Canadian maritime provinces. She demanded that we do Hawaii, where I picked up the snorkelling habit....but she died shortly after visiting Hawaii. We never got to the Greek Isles, the south of France, the cities of Central Europe, or Belize.

She had never wanted to see any part of Asia. I had trained in the history of Asia...particularly the history of economic development and trade, so the Silk Road was of particular interest to me. When she died, I was alone and I had more cash than I'd ever had before.

I found a tour group that did a small group tour of the Silk Road (from China into central Asia, no Afghanistan, Persia or Iraq, for obvious reasons). For that 28 day tour, I spent $3,600 US. Plus I purchased first class airline tickets from LA to Osaka, Osaka to Beijing, St.Petersburg to Frankfurt, and then Frankfurt to Portland. Those tickets cost me almost twice what the tour did....$7,100. Then I spent another $4,000 on trinkets and meals. Almost all transportation costs after Beijing were covered. Total cost for 32 days around the world...Kyoto, Beijing, Xi'an, Turpan, Kashgar, Issyk Kul, Bishkek, Tashkent, Shakhrisbz, Bukhara, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Across Asia on the Silk Road as far as Bukhara in Uzbekistan and then flew to urban Russia.

The tour, however, did not begin until my arrival in Beijing. I did Kyoto on my own. As noted earlier, I'd done two years of college Japanese language training thirty years ago, I was not intimidated by the language barrier, because I knew just enough to get into trouble. I got by just fine. I think any American even without such training could probably manage alone in Japan.

Kyoto, of course, is the cultural capital of Japan. It was the actual capital until near the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when the capital was moved to Tokyo. As such, it is filled with some of the more impressive cultural treasures, living and not. It is the only Japanese city I had any desire to see.

Anyhoo... I gotta to to lunch. I'll check back afterwards and see if I managed to cover your questions, or generated new ones.

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

To more explicitly answer your questions:

I had no guide in Japan, so I was mildly uncomfortable, but I did quite well.

From Beijing across all of Asia, into Russia, I was with a group of 16 English-speakers in a group. Our tour group leader did not know Chinese, but was learning Russian. Nobody else on the tour knew either of the languages; each city we would pick up a local guide, trained and/or certified by the state, who spoke English and the local languages. I was mostly comfortable, particularly because there's a lot of arm-waving, head-shaking and facial expressions that were universal enough.

I was surprised that the local populations treated us, and me, very well. The Japanese tend to be a bit stand-offish and are far more "western". The Chinese were friendly all the way across the country. The Uighurs (the minority population that is the majority in Xinjiang - Turpan and Kashgar) were even more friendly. They are a Turkic people. The Kyrgyz tend to be quiet and standoffish with non-natives, but we had the best opportunity to spend time in a home-stay at Issyk Kul (which means "warm lake") and the hostess and her granddaughter (who spent three years studying environmental issue in Yosemite) were very gracious and cordial. The Uzbekis were fine and the children, usually boys 8-14 years old, were positively pestiferous in their attempts to try their limited English out on us. I was a very popular subject to have in a picture with young friends....considering I was a fair departure from the norm in looks. The Russians are a curious crowd. Very, very few Russians will look you in the eye or start a conversation, but if you open the conversational gambit, they will brighten and then talk your ear off...if they know even a little English. Once the ice is broken they are gregarious and engaging people. Our group leader explained that it's a cultural thing in Russia, where speaking one's opinion aloud, or challenging anybody unfamiliar, could have led, in the past, to some serious repercussions... emprisonment, exile or death. They are still learning their way out of that mind set.

The people who gave me the most problems about my being American were my Australian travelling companions. I was the designated sacrifice, should we run into any "anti-western" extremists. I made everything easier by making it clear that I had nothing to do with the election of Bushette, that he was not my President. I had an engaging "half-conversation" (his English was bad, but better than my Russian) with a Russian cab-driver who wheedled out of me that I was not a Bush supporter. He turned out to be an avid Kerry fan. He waived my taxi fare.

My best moment? Hmmm... I had a lot of good moments and a few scary moments. I loved Issyk Kul. It's high in the mountains (the Tian Shan - the Celestial Mountains) of Kyrgyzstan. It's where we had the home visit and our hostess was a former geography professor who'd taken up native folk arts and become an award winner; she loved explaining all the arts. The lake is relatively warm and clear. The light generated by the settlement was not enough to drown out the multitude of stars visible in the clear air. I spent much of the evening alone on the beach crying because I knew this was a place that my sweetheart would have loved.

The Great Wall is awesome. Xi'an and the Tomb of the First Emperor is awesome. Turpan and the irrigation works of Han engineers (2nd - 3rd century CE) is truly impressive. Samarqand is flabbergasting....the Islamic tile work architecture which was the primary goal of my trip was well worth it. Moscow is filled with lovely young women in shrinkwrapped demin trousers and has the best underground I've seen in some time. St. Petersburg is filled with some of the most gorgeous art and western architecture and has canals with boatrides. Although the people were, by and large, all friendly, I had an attempted pickpocket in St. Petersburg by a motley group of young Gypsy girls.

Does that help?

godfry

[maddog]

godfry,

how enthralling . . . how moving.

thank you for your lovely descriptions

#244

[godfry n. glad]

Oh, there's much, much more.

That's the lightest of overviews. I've plenty of stories.

Ronin sounded like he was interested in the Kyoto stuff, which, in it's way was some of the most beautiful of the cultural artifacts I managed to see. If that's all he'd like to see, I'll see if I can rustle up some pictures from Kyoto. But I thought he'd like to know what he was getting into.

Hmmm...got to find that CD.

If you have questions, or want more specific information, I'd be happy to provide what I can. Just ask.

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

Okay... I've posted up a gaggle of pix from the Kyoto portion of my trip in the Travel Gallery. Kyoto is where I began my trip in as in Asia, so chronologically, it's the first part...

I can continue (ever so slowly) with selected pix (as I'm fairly sure nobody wants to see all 916 images), but it'll be me selecting things that I liked and ignoring those which I think only appealled to my sensibilities or the ones I wonder why I took them. The thing is, I don't really know what others like to see.

Ronin? Have you more questions? I've got all sorts of stories and asides other than the pix, too. I'm thinking of making the whole thing into a CD with pictures, maps, copies of the emails I sent to selected friends, and other commentary.

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

Okay... That's it for Kyoto, unless somebody wants to see some decorative architectual detail. I've a few of those.

If no response, next week (maybe even tomorrow), I'll start loading the Beijing area pictures: Great Wall, Tianamin Square, Heavenly Temple, Forbidden City and a Peking duck dinner.

[livius drusus]

Hey, godfry. Would you like your own sub-category in the Travel section of the Gallery? We could also make continental categories or topical ones (architecture, nature, whatever). What do you think?

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Hey, godfry. Would you like your own sub-category in the Travel section of the Gallery? We could also make continental categories or topical ones (architecture, nature, whatever). What do you think?

Actually, I was thinking something along the line of a "folder" for the ass-dragging trip. Tightwads on Tour is the trademark, believe it or not. I had it legalized. I've an entire set of emails over at Hyperboreans, that I sent while on the road. Another friend saved all a different set of emails I sent along the Road. She's willing to pass those on to me as a file ('cos I didn't think to do it myself-d'oh). It's rather an "American ditz abroad" story, all in all.

I have all sorts of tips for those who have never done anything like this about things to be sure to do to save yourself a lot of grief. But advice is cheap, as always. And other people want to travel other ways....

I was thinking of having my girlfriend's son, a "techie" type, put together a presentation cd of the pictures plus maps, emails, and written commentary, possibly with music overlain. Of course, none of them know me as "godfry", nor have any of them have heard of "godfry abroad".

I would like to keep them grouped and in a specific order....I think others might appreciate it, too, not having their stuff lost amidst the mass of images I can upload.

Can any of this be done?...other than the cd thing, of course, that's already in process.



O goddess 54, let the images be parted and ordered!

your faithless servant,

godfry n. glad

[livius drusus]

Check it out and see what you think.

You own the category, godfry, which means only you can upload to it. Also, you should be able to create subcategories if you so desire, but truth be told, I'm not exactly sure how.

[godfry n. glad]

Kyoto -

The first stop on my trip in Asia was Kyoto, Japan. It was NOT part of the tour I had booked. That would begin with Beijing. Japan, Kyoto in particular, was on my own. In order to earn a bachelor of arts, instead of science, I had to learn a foriegn language. I selected Japanese. What I gained was an appreciation of Japanese culture, particularly the aesthetic sensibilities. I developed a foundness for Japanese landscapes and calligraphy. I dreamt of one day visiting Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, seat of the Shogunate and site of the Imperial Palace. It was known also as a center of Zen Buddhism, as the lords of the realm sponsored monesteries and teaching halls. Amidst all that, because of what Kyoto is and where it is located in Japanese history, Shinto shrines are strongly present. The latter can be distinguished by the torii leading into the shrine or garden. It is a teaming city.

I didn't speak the language. I hadn't used my Japanese since I left college, 25 years earlier. I had no translator or interpreter available. I was winging it, language-wise. Also, since this wasn't part of the package deal I'd gotten with the tour, I had had to arrange my own accomodations. Here, my travel agent had slipped up a bit and waited until after she'd booked my flight to Osaka (I'm fairly sure I filled in a hole in somebody's flight just jim dandy)...only to find there were no "reasonable" accomodations in Kyoto...at all. The nearest she could get me was 20 km. away in Osaka. This was because of the flower festival I'd warned her about. Ah, well, it saved me a bundle in the end. I found email addresses for a HI hostel in Kyoto, to find one. I tried booking, but it wouldn't let me...they were closed on the last night I was going to be in Japan. The flight from Kentai (out in Osaka Bay) was a morning flight, I wanted to be near the airport. Three nights in Kyoto, one in Osaka. The one night in an Osaka Hotel (50th floor) cost me nearly three times the three nights in the Higashiyama Hostel in Kyoto.

Of course, my first night was the night I arrived there and was most confused. We landed at Kentai and I immediately made my absolutely confused way to the train platform with a fairly expensive ticket in hand that I'd bought at the automat (a dizzying array of buttons and lights with incomprehesible Kanji symbols). Soon I was seated on a very clean and comfortable train bound for Kyoto. We passed mostly housing ...warehousing ...factories ...amusement parks ...retail outlets ...more warehousing. I acclimated myself somewhat on that train ride. The reader boards in the train cars read in Japanese and Romaji. I could pick out places fairly easily. Exit the station and find my way to the subway, following the directions I'd been given to get to the hostel. The train arrived, I was on, I was sitting down with all my luggage (backpack and duffel). I was grateful, but feverishly trying to figure out whether I was going the right direction and how many stops to my exit. Then, I was there, climbing out of the immaculately kept tiled hole of the subway to emerge on the streets of the Higashiyama district of Kyoto. It was dark. The air was warm and moist, the streets were dry. I turned right, and there, just 150' down the street, was the Higashiyama Hostel. I was home free. Well... cheap. It cost me about $100 for three nights in Kyoto.

The first night was an inflated mattress in the middle of what looked to be largish room with a hardwood floor. My mattress was one of a sea of mattresses. There were belongings settled on most of the mattresses. A few men were lingering about, usually unpacking or repacking. It was a bit crowded for the usual scene I'd become used to at hostels, but it was the festival, after all. I wandered the hostel, nodding and smiling. It's a very nice hostel. The room I had been placed in was obviously overflow. I picked a place near what I saw to be an open window.

The next three days were spent trekking about the city. I learned to use the subway system on my own. The maps are pretty helpful and have Romaji. The subway system will take you to most places that tourists want to go. Once you get on a surface bus, your chances of getting yourself misplaced got up. Subway and walk is the best bet, in my estimation. At least around Kyoto. My target destinations were some of the better known gardens. Daikokuji was on the top of my list. The problem I ran into is that I tended to arise much earlier than the usual Kyoto native. I was abroad at sunrise and nothing was open, except the convenience market across the street.

During my first recon, I'd run across a curiosity. Something unique I'd never seen anywhere else. Vending machines. On the street. What's interesting is the usual product lines: coffee (late', mocha, etc.) in a can, beer in a can, water in plastic bottles, and cigarettes. Often all in the same vending machine. These vending machines are tucked into recesses along the walkways all over Kyoto. There are competing product lines, but they usually have the same selection of products.

I'll admit here that I am not a fan of Japanese food. Sushi is just cat food, in my philistine tastes. It sorta follows that I'm not a big fish fan (I'm more of a shellfish fan), since fish and Japanese food are inseperable. The meals offered at the hostel were aggressively local cuisine. I ended up living out of groceries and convenience markets, with dinners out at nice restaurants where I was fairly sure I could get finless meat (the Thai place had a nice chicken pad thai). I was not here for cuisine, I was here for gardens; true Japanese gardens. In the center of old Japan.

Wandering the streets early in the morning may have made Kyoto enjoyable for me. I found my way to a Buddhist shrine/temple by just walking to the corner, turning right and proceeding 200'. It's easy to find. Just look where there is greenery. It's usually a shrine, temple or retreat. My first temple was closed to the public until 9 am...four hours off. Back down the street I'd come up was a bright object. A huge tori, painted bright tomato red (to my eye). I walked toward it. It turned out to be the Heian Temple Shrine. It was open. Sorta. At least I could wander about the courtyard of buildings and colonades and wonder at the size of what I found to be smaller scale replicas of the Imperial Palace buildings.

I wandered until I was lost, then found my way to the subway and made it to Daikokuji by noon. I spent the remainder of the day there and finding my way back to the hostel via bus and subway. There I collapsed upon my newly assigned bunk bed in the room next to the one I'd been in the night before and slept the sleep of a jet lagged traveller.

I arose to the sound of rain, outside the open wiindow in the room. It was comforting somehow. Rain. It reminded me of home. I had my jacket, I was ready for rain, besides it stopped before I set off.

Heh.

[godfry n. glad]

Wow...

I thought I'd taken this narrative as far as Beijing... But no. I haven't even gotten to my second full day on the road.


godfry

There are pictures in the gallery, tho. All the way to Samarqand, at this writing.

Is this what the journals are for? Perhaps this should go there?

What I do like is the interaction. Got questions? Ask 'em. If I don't know, I'll tell ya. If I do, you'll get an earful (or eyeful, as it may be). Usually, you'll get equal amounts bullshit and personal perspective.

If journalizing obviates interaction, then I'd prefer keeping this as an active thread while I tell stories about my, probably once in a lifetime, trip across Asia. One question is, though, should I break it up into each destination? Y'know, one thread per destination (yeah...I like the sound of that already).

Anybody?

And liv? Thanks for the help on this. You are an absolute sweetheart. I put some iris and fleur pix in the gallery.

godfry abroad on the Silk Road