Split, Croatia - August 2012 スプリット、クロアチア 2012年8月

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Split in Croatia for a few days.  The Old Town of Split is a spectacular setting, the atmosphere was lively, and the Dalmatia area is beautiful.

Two nights instead of four would have been enough though.   The best holidays I've ever had have been to countries where I can either practise the language, or the culture or architecture is very different to my own. 

For me, it was a bit too crowded and touristy, at least during the day.  Unsurprisingly perhaps, because I and thousands of other people had taken advantage of the very cheap flights to Split with budget airlines like Wizzair and Easyjet.  I did have a relaxing time though and I took an incredible number of pictures (believe it or not, they've been radically culled!).

Split felt extremely safe, even early in the morning and late at night.  The weather was beautiful and sunny (about 35C), I went for some lovely long walks, and took a few local buses to different places.  I had some delicious meals, and the coffee was exceptional - seriously good espresso!  Cafe culture is very strong in Split.  The most interesting place for me, outside of Split, was an excavated Roman settlement, Salona, about 40 minutes by bus.  


Traveling around Split.  There is a bus to Split run in conjunction with Croatia Airlines that seems to meet all flights, not just those operated by Croatia Airlines (currently 30kuna one way)  It stops in the bus park just to the right of the airport and the bus driver makes sure you get on the right one.  Alternatively, the number 37 bus runs from the bus stop on the main road every 20 minutes (17kuna).  It may be more useful to use this going back to the airport.  It runs from the bus station at the intersection of Domovinskog Rata and Sukoisanska about 15 minutes walk north of Split Old Town.  It takes about 45 minutes to the airport and about an hour if you stay on the bus to Trogir.
To get to Salona, you need to take the number 1 bus from the right hand side of Domovinskog Rata as you head away from the Old Town (journey time about 40 minutes, it's worth asking someone on the bus to tell you when to get off).  Bus number 60 takes you to Omis (pronounced Ohmish).  This goes from the left hand side of Domovinskog Rata as you head away from the Old Town (journey time about an hour and 15 minutes).  All these journey times were in the busiest season in August on a weekday.

Photos at the link to the right.

先週は４泊でクロアチアのスプリットに行った。最初の日からスプリットがすごくきれいと思った。旧市街は約1700年前に建てられた。それはほんとにリラックスできる場所が多い人すぎた。まじそれは渋谷の交差点のようだった！でも午前６時で良い写真を撮ることをできた。美しい場所けど４日で面白ことが少ない。楽しかったが、多分、2泊は十分だっただろう。
右のリンクで写真がある。

Bee Swarm

There was a honey bee swarm outside the office today which settled in the tree opposite.  It just so happens my boss is a registered bee-keeper in her spare time, and so knew exactly who to contact and how to help!  All in a day's work!

If you zoom in on some of the photos after they've been caught, you can see there are still hundreds of bees flying around.  Quite a sight!  Although I was pleased to be looking at them from behind glass...

Apparently, honey bees are quite docile while they are swarming, although apparently most people would find it difficult to distinguish between honey bees, bumblebees and wasps!

Taipei Day Three - Jinguashi and Jiufen and thoughts

I thought I'd have another go with Jiufen today (29 February), as the weather forecast promised sun and a warmish day of 22C.  Well, again I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the cloud and rain was a little less, but...

I first stayed on the bus to Jinguashi, another old gold mining town in the mountains.  Again, very atmospheric in the cloud, and lots of steps up into the mountains with presumably fantastic views of the sea from what I can see on the internet.  Those of you who know me well will know that when I see steps going upwards, I compulsively have to follow them...  on a fine day I see wonderful views, on a day like today I just get lots of exercise.  I don't have the same feeling about steps going down...

After my fitness training, I had a cup of coffee and a waffle in a nearby teahouse, where I met a Taiwanese group who talked animatedly to me in Chinese whilst I replied in English and Japanese.  Photos and email addresses exchanged all round...  They also invited me to something I couldn't miss on the 4th March.  Unfortunately, I have to miss whatever it is because I leave tomorrow.  They were a lovely group though!  And it was a very nice old teahouse.

Went back into Jiufen, explored and ate more snacks.  The cloud was a little less today, so I could see more than 2metres ahead, which made it more interesting!  Wonderful tiny side alleys and steep stairs cutting into the mountain.

After getting back into Taipei, I went to one of the Modern Toilet restaurants for dinner.  See here for a description of how it came to be - About Modern Toilet.  I went to the larger Xinmending branch, which was an interesting and lively pedestrianised shopping area in itself.  But where else can you sit on a toilet seat, eat your dinner (for me, chicken curry) from a bath tub, your poo-shaped icecream from a porcelain squat toilet and drink jasmine tea out of a plastic urinal?  Isn't it great??!!  The food actually didn't taste like s*** in case you were wondering...

A little more wandering, this time near Longshan Temple, then had to get back because I had to get up next morning at 4:30am for hotel pickup to the airport, rather early!

One thing that I noticed in Taiwan, that probably hasn't come out in my pictures, was that face masks were completely different.  In Japan, they are made of light disposable fabric and are usually white, sometimes pastel coloured.  In Taiwan, nobody wore a white mask!  They were very fashionable, thicker and washable.  I don't know whether they are worn for the same reason in Taiwan - i.e. to keep your cold to yourself, or because of tree pollen allergy.  But the variety of colours and patterns was incredible - black or dark khaki colours for the guys, and prettier or more striking patterns for women.  With patterns like that I'd wear one!

Because I live in Japan, in some ways Taiwan felt familiar, it is after all very close to Okinawa at the southern-most end of Japan.  But because of the different Chinese reading of kanji, it felt like all the rules had been changed!  I really liked Taiwan, and only skimmed the surface even in the Taipei area in this short trip.  There are so many other places I'd like to see there one day.

At night in Taipei, the buildings go through a colour change cycle - beautiful, but sometimes hard to realise you're walking around in circles!

There are many resources in English available in hotels and travel centres (often in MRT stations), and I picked up a lot which meant that I could easily plan my trip when I got there.  But looking at the back of some of these pamphlets, I can see you can actually download them in advance from their website.  For example the Go Taipei booklet is available as a pdf as is a good Taipei city map.  Both of those websites are in English and have a lot of useful information for your trip.  Taipei is an easy city to visit as an English speaker, and one that is well worth the effort.
http://taipeitravel.net/en/
http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/

Taipei Day Two - Jiufen

 First, I've now amended the link to my main set of Taipei photos so that people other than me can actually see them! 

Well, it was bucketing down today so I decided I didn't really want to go up to the north of Taipei, and that I'd go to Jiufen instead.   Now, there are two ways that I could find of getting to Jiufen.  One is to get the train to Riufen and then a bus, but it takes quite a long time.  The other way is to get a bus all the way there.

From what I could find on the web, I knew that there was a bus (number 1062) that left outside Sogo Department Store in Taipei.  Much messing around and asking later, I found it.  So, in case anyone finds this useful, this is exactly how to get to Juifen by bus from Taipei.  Go to Zhongxiao Fuxing on the Bannan line.  Come out of Exit 1, and walk straight ahead for a few metres.  The bus stop is right there, it's the third one.  Buses leave every 10 minutes or so and take about 1 hour 15 minutes to Juifen (九扮）.  Returning from Jiufen is simple too, cross the road from 7-11 and wait for the bus outside a shop selling tea.  You can use EasyCard on the bus - touch in, and again when you leave the bus - just over 100NTD each way.  After about 45 minutes, a little Japanese girl kept saying 'Mama, mou sugu? (are we nearly there yet?)'!  Sounded like me when I was that age!

As the bus climbed the mountain to Jiufen, I knew that I was not going to see any view today - it was completely shrouded in cloud, which mean that you could only see a few metres ahead of you.  Rather atmospheric though, and I glad I saw it like this.  However, I might go back again tomorrow when I think the weather might be fine.  I'd love to see the view which I knew was there somewhere!

The street in Jiufen was exactly like it seemed in Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi), a great Hayao Miyazaki animation which you have to see, if you haven't already.  So much going on, and a wonderful selection of food.

Back to the Taipei 101 Tower in the evening, which was surprisingly difficult to find in the dark given the cloud was so low!

Taipei Day One

Today was the first full day in Taipei, and  a lot of walking!

In the morning I headed up to the Baoan and Confuscius Temples in the north-west, very colourful.


After a cup of coffee and looking at a map, I decided to go to a place called Maokong in the south-east, which is a tea-growing area in the mountains.  To get there you can get a cable car (called a gondola here) near Taipei Zoo MRT station.  Great view from the cable car, even though it was lightly drizzling all day today.

Once there, I again went to various temples and a teahouse, and also down to the potholes in the stream where the water has eroded the rock at different rates.  (Maokong means 'cat holes', and looked a little like the paw prints of a cat, if you use your imagination...!) 

 Then on to Taipei 101 Tower and a little look at the shops.


 I've started to add my photos to my link on Holidays and Days Out, not culled yet though...  I rather like Taipei!  It's very easy to get around using the MRT metro system, and there's enough English everywhere to make it fairly straightforward to get to and enjoy places.  In the information centres, and some of the stations too, there are good maps and brochures in English.  I hadn't bought a Taipei guide book and it's not a problem - I've picked up plenty of information from pamphlets.

In the evening I went out to Shilin Night Market at Jiantan MRT, the largest in Taipei, and seemingly where half of Taipei gather after it gets dark!  Very busy and a nice atmosphere, although I liked the food selection better at Ning Xia Market at Shuanglian MRT last night.  But Shilin Tourist Night Market was much much bigger with lots of fairground type stalls  (resisted the temptation to try to win a large soft Doraemon), clothing and accessory shops, and food stalls.  For dinner tonight I had some kind of fried mashed potato with sweetcorn, pineapple, boiled egg and salsa in a very orange cheese sauce (60NTD) and a fruit salad (35NTD).  Didn't really fancy the frogs eggs...

Think I'm going to go to the north of Taipei tomorrow...

Taipei Arrival Evening

I'll probably update these posts at some later point, but at the moment I just want to get my thoughts down.  I booked this trip as a Rakuten tour last month. It cost 43,000yen for return flights with EVA Air, return airport/hotel transfer in Taipei, and 4 nights hotel and breakfast at a decent hotel with in-room wifi.  And importantly, it was a free tour so time was completely my own in Taipei.  A great price, although the booking was a little complicated - lots of Japanese, and the e-ticket is only available about 5 days before the flight.

EVA Air seems to be sponsored by Hello Kitty, so everything was cute...　；） The welcome music as you got on the plane was a bizarrely funky remix of Oh Come All Ye Faithful...  Everything but everything was Kitty-chan themed right down to the food and toilet paper.  Even the cabin crew had Hello Kitty aprons.  The flight was comfortable,  there was a meal, seat-back TV, and even a USB port for recharging your mobile phone.  Would definitely recommend them.


Got to Taoyuan airport, ignored the Rakuten group as I came through because I first wanted to pick up a Taiwan Mobile data sim for my mobile phone.  5 days unlimited data for 350NTD (about 1000yen), can't be bad and added 150NTD of voice, just in case.  Very simple, provided you have two forms of ID - for me, I used my passport and Japanese alien registration card.  It took about 5 minutes and all in English.

Then went back to join the Rakuten group.  It was probably about an hour and a bit from landing and getting the transfer bus, which was also probably about an hour and a bit getting to the hotel.  I reckon I understood about 50% of the Japanese spiel, but it was interesting and fairly useful.  Without it, I probably would never have found out that it's a national holiday for the next two days, and would have gone to Juifen (Japanese Kyuufun) at its busiest.

Checked into the hotel, still in Japanese mode which was a little embarrassing, and then went out to get something to eat.  I went into a pretty busy Chinese restaurant with an English menu and ordered one of their recommended dishes - peas and shredded chicken with rice, which it certainly was.  It was also far more expensive than I'm going to spend in Taipei for the rest of the trip.  After that I had some energy so found a MRT station (bought myself an EasyCard - stored value plastic card like SUICA or Oyster - 500NTD, 100 of which is a refundable deposit) and went to the nearest night market.  Night markets are probably where I'm going to be eating dinner for the rest of the trip - great selection of food,  good atmosphere, and very cheap.  Many of the street stalls have a brief English sign which gives an indication of what they sell, but I think I'm going to find it useful to know a bit of kanji.  Although the Chinese pronunciation is completely different, I at least know what some of them mean, so can be slightly more adventurous with the menu! 

More photos at a later stage, but this will do for today!   Tomorrow is going to be sightseeing in Taipei itself.

Kuala Lumpur and Melaka, December 2011；クアラルンプールとマラッカ、2011年12月

Happy New Year!  It's been a long time since I last posted on here, but it's time for a photo update of Malaysia where I went over Christmas/New Year.  Malaysia was fantastic, I really enjoyed it.  It was incredibly easy to travel around and do stuff because English is so widely spoken - I knew that English was a second language there, but didn't expect everyone to be able to use it, but people just switched between languages automatically.  At the start, I found the accent a little tricky but then I tuned in.  Although I'm used to traveling, talking to people and getting around in Japan, I'd forgotten how much easier everyday life is for me with English!

It's about a 7 hour flight from Tokyo to KL, and an overnight one with Air Asia, so I was in Malaysia 6 nights overall, with 2 nights in the middle staying in Melaka, an old colonial town.  Melaka was fascinating because of the mix of Eastern and Western architecture in the same street, a combination of Malay, Indian, Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese buildings often jostling for space with each other.  Mosques, temples and churches were within a hundred metres of each other, often much less.

It was similar but not so pronounced in Kuala Lumpur. From what I read, ethnic Malays (considered by the government to be Muslim) comprise about 65% of the population with the remaining 35% being predominantly Hindu, Buddhist or Christian.  This also meant that the Christmas period was strongly celebrated there with beautiful Christmas decorations and lights.  My impression as a tourist was Malaysia was quite a multi-cultural and inclusive society which had a nice atmosphere. 

Kuala Lumpur had a great mixture of modern and futuristic architecture and traditional buildings, I really liked the city and the atmosphere.  The shopping centres were fantastic and the food was absolutely delicious!

I flew with Air Asia, which is a budget airline that started serving Japan one or two years ago.  I'd definitely fly with them again.

Anyway, photos again at the right-hand link under 'Holidays and Days Out'.  Believe it or not, these are already cut down by about 1/3 - I took 391 photos!

じゃあ、明けましておめでとうございます！お久しぶりですね！このブログが去年ちょっと忘れたね。じつは多分ただ怠けていた。兎に角、マレーシアのアップデーです。
この冬休みマレーシアに行った。周りの移動することが楽しいで簡単だった。マレーシアに英語が広く話されていた。

クアラルンプールとマラッカに行った。クリスマスの日に出た、1月2日に帰った。まず、ＫＬに三泊、次にマラッカに二泊、最終の日がまたＫＬでした。美しく印象的な国です。大晦日にペトロナスツインタワーに花火を見た。それはすばらしかった！

写真が右のリンクにある。