Malaysia - Kuala Lampur

This was the view from the plane as I left Nepal -- apparently you had to get above the clouds to enjoy the fine Himalaya views. Nepal was a nice country to visit, and I hope I am fortunate enough to go again one day, but after a little more than 2 weeks I'd had enough of the cold winter weather (and power outages, and political demonstrations . . . ), and with Jeeheon still resting up in Korea for another couple of weeks, I decided it was time to head south to Malaysia. I didn't quite know what to expect from Kuala Lampur, I hadn't really seen or read much about it. Turns out it's much nicer than I thought. No real knock-your-socks-off sights (or maybe they are there and I was just to lazy to see them), but a real pleasant city to spend a few days.

The Petronas Towers, named for Malaysia's national oil and gas company, used to be the tallest building in the world before construction of Tapei 101:

The view from the skybridge of the towers:

Malaysia is a muslim country (this is a shot during Friday prayers):

A few other city shots:

Kuala Lampur has a great food scene, with lots and lots of street vendors (called "hawkers" in Malaysia) selling all kinds of food:

Japan - Osaka

In Osaka, we stayed at a 'capsule hotel' - invented for business men too tired or otherwise unable (i.e. drunk) to make the trip home to the suburbs, you pay about $20 or so to sleep in the somewhat coffin-like 'capsule' for the night.

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The capsule hotel we stayed at was huge - 400 capsules on 4 floors. It had locker rooms, showers, steam rooms, reading rooms with newspapers and comic books and a cafeteria. They provided pajamas, towels and all toiletry. You can even buy new dress shirts and socks for work the next day. Women's capsules were in a separate area where an extra key was needed to get in.

Capsules:

Inside the capsule - there is a radio, an alarm clock and a coin-operated TV ($1 per 10 minutes!):

(sorry, that's my foot)

The capsule hotel was very clean (almost sterile) and the capsule was surprisingly spacious inside, but it was a bit claustrophobic and I woke up to everyone else's alarm at 6am.

This is America-mura, where the uber-trendy Japanese kids shop:

Shopping - the Kim family favorite pastime:

Neon signs at Shinsibashi area:

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Osaka is a very modern city. The only historical site is its castle, built from 1583:
We continued our eating spree in Osaka...

We had omurice (rice with tomato sauce inside an omelet) at a restaurant that claims to have invented it in 1925:

Conveyor belt sushi, where you pick whichever sushi plate you want from the moving conveyor belt. The faucet on the left is hot water for the tea:

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Ramen:
We had oden nabe (fish cake hot pot) and sake at an izakaya (Japanese style drinking establishment where they also serve food). You actually order stuff yourself on that computer screen on the table. We ordered 5 of something we didn't recognize by mistake and had to cancel:

And of course, sushi:

Nepal - Chitwan National Park

While JeeHeon was resting up at home in Korea (yeah, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how traveling in relative luxury in first world countries like Japan counts as "resting up at home"), I continued to travel through Nepal, this time down to Royal Chitwan National Park via another all-day bus ride. Chitwan is the oldest national park in Nepal, and is home to the elusive royal bengal tiger. The park is in southern nepal, basically right on the Indian border, so the landscape is dramaticaly different from the foothills and mountains that are the popular images of Nepal -- at Chitwan it's rolling plains, agriculture and some forest and jungle.

Elephant safaries, though incredibly uncomfortable, are the best way to see the park:

Me in a traditional dug-out canoe on the way to the park for a jungle walk (I was a little nervous after I jokingly asked my guide if his wooden walking stick was to beat back the tigers, and he matter of factly, without any hint of humor, replied "yes, it is"):

I was even more nervous after we came upon this tiger paw print as we were walking through the jungle, both of my guides concluded that it was from "this morning", and I'm thinking to myself "hmmmm, let's see, it's only 7:00 a.m. now, so if that's from this morning, are we talking about 10 minutes ago or what?" Luckily, that is the closest we came to the royal bengal tiger.

Other sightings included rhinos:

Lots of monkeys:

Nepali fisherman:

An elephant having a bath:

I have continued to enjoy Nepal's varied cuisine, in this case the exotic 'ol bacon and egg breakfast:

Nepal - Pokkhara

Pokkhara is in central Nepal, about 8 (long) hours by bus from Kathmandu. It's known for it's dramatic scenery, with stunning views of the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. You can make out the snow capped peaks in the two pictures below, both taken from the window of my $10 hotel room on the day I arrived. Of course, for the next 4 days, the weather was cold, cloudy and foggy -- no more views, so rather than heading for the hills, I spent a few days enjoying pokkara's many pizza joints and cafes.

Pokkhara sits next to Phewa Tal (lake):

Terracing on the hills around Pokkhara (taken from my rented bicycle - on a side note, nepal is an absolute steal - cost me $1 to rent a bike for 6 hours):

As for food, Nepali cuisine is pretty bland -- have you ever been to a Nepali restaurant, or even ever heard of one? The national dish, daal bhaat, is basically lentil soup poured over rice. However, there is a large Tibetan population in Nepal, and their food (including the buffaloe momo's) is fantastic.

Japan - Kyoto

With its 2000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, as well as palaces and gardens, Kyoto is one of the best preserved cities in Japan. My brother Moonsup and I stayed in a traditional 'ryokan' (Japanese inn) in the historical Hygashiyama district. Actually, the first ryokan we called said it only accepts Japanese guests (!!!), so we went with our second choice, which was at a great location - we saw geishas walking down the street:

Cobble-stoned Hygashiyama street:

At the ryokan:

The Silver Pavilion:

Yashoka shrine, the place of worship and the dwellings of the kami, the shinto "gods":
Yashoka shrine at night:
Stone shrine in the street:
Our main focus on this trip was food - we first planned our meals throughout the day and did some sightseeing while we waited to get hungry again. Between being in Korea and the Japan trip, I gained back all the weight I lost on the road. I think it's again time for the 'traveller's diarrhea' diet.

This is okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) and yaki udon (stir fried noodles):
We went to this restaurant that sold only one type of fish. Moonsup speaks decent Japanese but didn't understand what type of fish it was. We ordered the sashimi (raw fish) and nabe (hot pot), all made from the same one fish, which was delicious. Later we figured out that it was blow fish:
This is a traditional Japanese dessert house that's been around since 1925; I ordered green tea ice-cream with red beans and rice cakes:

Kyoto specialty cuisine is kaiseki, where numerous small dishes are brought to the table. Kaiseki meals are generally very expensive (like everything else in Japan) - this is the cheap version:

Counter-clockwise from the top: black beans, clotted cow-blood cube, broccoli, dried apricot, cod eggs, pork and some sort of bean jelly salad in the bowl.

Oyakodon - chicken and egg rice bowl. This restaurant was also about 80 years old: