Tokyo -> Lipe and Everywhere in Between

Any good honeymoon has a period of relaxation built in. Actually, normal honeymoons are almost exclusively relaxation-based. We are obviously psychopaths and need to keep ourselves extremely busy the whole time, exploring, eating, seeing, and experiencing. Well, our time in Koh Lipe fit the bill of being both relaxing and adventurous/exciting.

In our search for island relaxation while planning our honeymoon, we searched for a less-touristy place than the islands we had been to previously. We wanted small, quaint, local feeling (that's a stretch in Thailand), different, comfortable, and of course beautiful - but that was a given for any island in the region. After much searching we landed on Koh Lipe - an extremely tiny island on the west side of Thailand that has no history of local life but has been revived exclusively for beachgoers and immigrants willing to serve them. Doesn't sound that authentic, and it kinda wasn't, but it had its own original charm. The locals and foreigners alike stay on the island to help run its many beachfront resorts. These beaches were obviously beautiful but also had properties that went right up to the water, creating incredibly picturesque settings.

This all sounds well and good, but Lipe is NOT easily accessible - hence the adventure. We did not make this easy on ourselves. The trek took an entire day, literally. Primarily because we were coming from Tokyo, but no matter which way you slice it this place is out of the way. The journey began in Tokyo with:

A TRAIN

Two and a half hour train ride from Tokyo to Osaka. It's a long story as to why we didn't actually stay in Osaka/Kyoto at all, which was the original plan. Let's just say it comes down to ryokans being booked and Chinese people. I still got my Shinkansen train ride, though. 

Happy as a clam.

TO ANOTHER TRAIN

In Osaka we had to switch to a regional train bound for Kansai airport (KIX).

We bought "green car class" tickets, which is basically their first class. It was apparently unnecessary on our train from Osaka to KIX. Plenty of leg room. And all other kind of room you can imagine.


We tried taking wide angle selfies, but it wasn't working for some reason.

Jordan got fed up.

Osaka has an impressive metro rail in its own right. I had just long enough in the station to snap a picture.

TO AN AIRPLANE

My favorite bird in the sky - the 747. This on is OLD and you rarely find airlines flying them like this anymore. The galley in business class was actually entirely to the right side (starboard?) of the plane. As in, the left side had seats, and there was a wall separating it from the galley (kitchen) on the right. No windows on the right hand side. Have you ever? None of this mattered, though, because we were in coach for this redeye. Ugh.

It's still the most beautiful thing in the air. 

TO ANOTHER AIRPLANE

The next leg was BKK to HDY (Hat Yai), which I didn't know existed until we planned this trip. It's a remote city in the far south of Thailand that is often used as a transit point for islands, but mostly for locals who live in the area. This flight was obviously short - about 1 hour.

I have to caveat this by saying we went into Bangkok for two hours on our 6 hour layover. Those of you who have been know that it is a long journey from BKK to the city, but we are, of course, nuts. We went to eat at our favorite street, took a motorcycle taxi, a boat ride, and another train back to the airport. A productive day. The only regret I have is the death of my new and adored Samsung phone, which brought you many of the pictures in this blogging run to-date. The silver lining for you is that from this point on I almost exclusively used my Canon DSLR. Prettier pictures! Here's one of them now. Useless to most, but my favorite subject matter. 

BKK is still one of my favorite airports. 

Look how pretty it is! 

I <3 Thailand

Hat Yai is apparently an "international airport." I think there's a flight from Singapore every day or something, but that's about it. BUT, if you have the label, you need the facilities, such as a separate baggage carousel for inbound international luggage. Our flight from BKK was technically international for us because our bags were transiting from Osaka Kansai. We were apparently the only ones - look at our lonely bags on the international belt!

So at Hat Yai we realized our travels were really just beginning...

TO A CAR 

The transit from Hat Yai to the Pak Bara ferry terminal looks unsuspecting on the map. As my mom and dad would say on our cross-country US road trip when I was 12 - "look, it's just one thumb and one pinky away on the map!" (this was obviously before goole maps and directions, so we relied on my all-time favorite printed books - atlases). So yes, Hat Yai is "close" to Pak Bara on the map, but it's just not. Our transfer took about 2 hours, but only thanks to the maniacal speed demon behind the wheel. I wasn't sure we would make it. 

To borrow from Russian Google:

To make matters more dangerous, the taxi drove ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD THE WHOLE TIME. 

TO A BOAT

Koh Lipe is an island, so naturally a boat would be involved in this transit. At Pak Bara we waited an hour or so for the "speedboat" to Koh Lipe. A hodgepodge operation if I ever saw one, but it got us there. Pak Bara is a one-horse town that only exists thanks to the local pier, which we had to pay a fee of 50 baht each to use. The pier was lined with vendors trying to sell what can only be described as these odd selfie-plates. It's basically a picture of you or your face on a board with a map of Koh Lipe in the background and Thai writing all around. Must be a Thai thing. They didn't even try to sell these things to us. 

These are the boards. There are thousands of them already made. It makes me wonder who they were for, because these things are not prepared instantly on the spot. My guess is they take your picture when you pass through, then have it ready for when you come back from the island. Who knows. 

The staff at the ferry terminal dealt with our bags, thank god. That's the speedboat on the right hand side. And those are our bags going down the stairs. 

After a few hours we were finally speedboat-boarded and Lipe-bound! The boat was empty, which I'm told is a rarity during high season. 

The boat was FAST. Check out the three turbo-Hondas and their wake. We bumped and tossed the whole way there - not an easy trip for the weak of stomach, unless you're one of the Thai that frequent the island and drink beer the whole way. 

Thanks to those Thai people, we got some good pictures of ourselves!

The scenery on this boat was something special. Beached boat at Pak Bara port:

Distant islands and perfect water. 

Large islands that remind me of Lantau. But what doesn't remind me of Hong Kong??

After about an hour and a half I was done with the scenery. I was ready to get off. The outline of Lipe could not have come at a better time!

So here is the car/boat journey in a nutshell... with one omission...

TO YET ANOTHER BOAT

So Koh Lipe doesn't have a pier. It doesn't have anything, really. You have to board a long-tail boat to get from the speedboat to land, with a little knee-deep wading in the middle. It only cost an extran 50 baht! (each)

After some sardine-ing, we were all aboard, bags included. 

The boat ride was short. You can see the distance here. 

Jordan and our luggage posing while I precariously took a picture with my extremely expensive camera.

Thanks, longtail! The driver took our luggage off and plopped it in the sand on the beach. Thanks driver! 

TO A..."TAXI?"

The longtail transfer was actually kinda fun because we were prepared for it, but I don't think the others were. What we weren't prepared for was being dropped off at a completely different side of the island than we were scheduled to be at. Apparently "high winds" kept us from Pattaya beach and forced us onto Sunrise beach. We had to call our hotel and figure it out. They quickly dispatched their "taxi." The taxi is a dirt bike with a sidecar. It was cute and got the job done. 

 

We made friends with our driver, who we used probably 50 more times throughout the week. He was so adorable! So was the little sign with my name on it - they even spelled it right! 

So let's recap, with departure times:

Tokyo (5PM) - Osaka (7PM) - Kansai (11:30PM) - Bangkok (11AM +1day) - Hat Yai (1PM) - Pak Bara (3:30PM) - Middle of the Bay (5:30PM) - Hotel Arrival (6PM)

That's a whole day of travel. But it was worth it. This is what we arrived to:

Welcome drink

A gorgeous room:

Honeymoon Swans!

With gorgeous views. No, jaw-dropping, epic, honeymoon-worthy views. 

Panoramic from the room:



Other room views:

Balcony views - that's sunset beach in the distance. 

Crystal clear shallow snorkeling waters at our feet. 

And finally, epic sunsets. I will do another post about the island and the various scenes, but here is one to whet your whistle. 

Thailand is awesome. Koh Lipe is no exception. Well worth the day it took to get here. Let the relaxation begin! 

Train Cafe and Trains Themselves

Tokyo holds a special place in my heart. I believe everyone that visits this city associates positive thoughts with the place for some reason or another. For me it is thanks to food and trains. Mostly trains. Although the food gave trains a run for their money.

One of my favorite little locations in Tokyo is a "trainspotting cafe" between Akihabara and Tokyo stations. For those who know me, it is obvious why I would like such a place. This one was almost too good to be true.

The cafe is at track level on this really beautiful arched section of elevated rail.


Nested between two opposing tracks, you can watch trains speed by you on both sides. At times, there were three or more trains simultaneously providing me with excitement. You can see one train speeding by on the left in the picture below.



From this picture you can also see there are two sections of the cafe - one outdoor and one indoor. The outdoor section was even more thrilling, although it doubled as the smoking area so we didn't sit out there. It was also freezing so there was that, too.

You can hear the excitement in my voice here. But my favorite part of this is how into it Jordan was. [insert eye roll emoji]. He was a good sport though and let me have my fun. Toad also seemed to have a good time.

Google also made this fun GIF out of several of my images. The Google Photos app does some really neat things these days. 

For those of you who want to share in this experience on your next visit - the cafe is called N3331 and is located here:




Not all my train jollies came from N3331. There was plenty to go around. Here are some of my favorites.

Narita Express (NEX)


Tokyo metro.

The signage was so helpful! It even told you which car position you were at on the platform.


It's not Asia without the occasional standard face mask.

Waiting for the Yamanote line.

Yamanote at rush. 

From Tokyo, it was on to Osaka for our flight. We had originally intended to visit Kyoto, but apparently there was some sort of festival and/or holiday, so all ryokan were booked. I literally mean all of them. The Japanese take their holidays and their relaxation time very seriously. All in all, this was an excellent miscalculation because we adored Tokyo and got 2-3 extra days there, which was fine with us. We will be back for Kyoto. 

Shinkansen to Osaka.



The conductor making sure everyone is doing their job. The cleaning crews must turn these babies around in under 10 minutes. It's impressive to watch. There is clearly a hierarchy as well, with the conductors responsible for train timeliness, which obviously rules all.


Head on. They don't call these bullet trains for nothin!

Shinkansen takeoff. 

The journey to Osaka was magical, even though viewing was limited by darkness. 

Tokyo tower! The one time we actually got a good view of it was speeding by on the train.


And finally here is a blurry shot of Mt. Fuji as we sped towards Osaka. In retrospect, I would have booked this Shinkansen for earlier so as to maximize viewing time and fun picture taking opportunities. I guess I'll just have to wait until next time!

Weird Tokyo

I say weird Tokyo with the utmost respect. Everyone who has been here that I've talked to has sung the praises of Tokyo,  but will also comment on how strange some of it is. I agree. This arrivals board shows how many people from every corner of the earth come to bathe in Tokyo's strange goodness. 

My other posts on Tokyo already showed plenty of weird stuff - masses of people moving in concert, robot cabaret show, mini statue of liberty, roller coaster bridge/monorails, crab innards being normal, superhero Japanese people, bars that seat 5, anchovie paste ramen, and other peculiarities. This post is designated to other small things that piqued my interest and that I would consider special to this wonderful escape from reality we call Japan. Many of these are food-based. Many of them are centered around one neighborhood where most of the weird is concentrated. 

Green tea everything! This is an eclair with green tea frosting and filling. It was $5+ but worth it because it was so weird. 

Green tea...this. It's a pastry. It resembles play dough spaghetti I used to make for dinner as a 5 year old. 

VENDING MACHINES FOR EVERYTHING. Including ramen. This machine is where you pay for your ramen at one of the delicious holes in the wall we found (with the help of a blog). This ramen is served with the noodles separately so you can mix to your taste. I was most impressed with the payment system. 

This. I don't know how to describe it, but it was the only actually interesting thing we encountered on the kinda-lame food tour we did. This is the product of 20 minutes of cooking layers of random ingredients as though they were crepes or pancakes. Oh, and we cooked it ourselves. This one in particular was the "pizza" version that had some ingredients that may be used in pizzas and elude to Italian food. The taste was a far cry from pizza but we got the picture. This was a Japanese style of food that I had actually never heard of and is very unique. 

Japanese love bikes and they love order. Here is a bike parking lot, complete with electronic parking meter and bike locks. 

Hello Kitty crowd control. 

We could actually use this more in the US - they use these little "gum syrup" packets as sweeteners. It's basically simple syrup. It makes sweetening a drink very simple. I'm still not sure why it's called gum syrup. 

Robot Cabaret deserves another mention here. It was truly something special. 

Toad and Akihabara

Perhaps our favorite neighborhood in Tokyo is Akihabara - also known as the gaming area/manga area/old electronics megamarket. Its streets reveal Japan's fondness for video gaming, fantasy, comic books/manga, strategy games, gambling, kinky and strange fetishes that push the envelope of sexual norms, and a deep nostalgia for when Nintendo ruled the world. It's a fantasy land and it's amazing. 

At one of the "Sega Genesis" arcades we engaged in a "claw" game and after spending probably $10 we actually did the unthinkable. We won. This is toad from the Mario Brothers game series. Even the Sega staff were shocked that someone actually won. 

Toad fit into our honeymoon seamlessly, although we did have to start asking for tables for three. 

He is currently the only occupant of our guest bedroom in Singapore. 

...and we continue with the list of oddities without leaving the Akihabara neighborhood...

Sailor moon car paint jobs

Akihabara is a haven for treasure hunters of a certain variety. These hunters need and crave small video game, manga, and anime figurines. So much so, they have vending machines a la grocery store children's toys quarter machines from my youth. I couldn't resist a mini pikachu. 

There are literally stores entirely devoted to these small figurines. 

This guy. 

Train games that only people like me would be interested in. Apparently there are a lot of me in Japan. Train Simulator allows you to virtually drive many of the more popular and cool/geeky trains from around the world, in simulation real time. In other words, you can drive the Northeast Corridor in the USA in the same time it takes actual engineers to drive it. I have only done this once but it was a delightful geekfest that would bore anyone with a semblance of dignity. 

Video game gambling dens. These look like slots, but honestly I am not sure what they are. 

The sound emanating from this place is a strange whirr of aircon to suck out the dense cigarette smoke, video game noises, and other "white noise" designed to keep addicts from falling asleep and feeding the machines. 

See for yourself:

One of the cooler places in Akihabara is Super Potato. In this ancient-gaming-systems haven, geeks can replay all the long forgotten addicting games from their youth. The same games they would play on the original game boy, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Atari, Sega Genesis, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and other obsolete and obscure systems that no longer exist. You can also buy these games. Many of them have held their value surprisingly well. 

The Maid Cafe. 

Arguably one of the weirdest phenomenons in Japan, let alone Akihabara or Tokyo, is the Maid Cafe concept. Although, it seems to fit. Maid cafes are mediocre restaurants that are themed like a youngster's fantasy tea party with their stuffed animals, except the staff are all "sexy" ladies dressed as french maids. They call you master and refer to themselves as slaves. The best part about this is it sounds very "fetish/fantasy" in a twisted way, but it really was just a normal thing that wasn't actually all that weird in the context of Japan. It's just something people did. 

That doesn't mean it wasn't downright weird. Here are our lattes. When we ordered them, they asked us what "kind of animal we wanted." Unsure, we said dog and cat. Turns out they can draw a variety of animals for their masters. We were content with our unimaginative animals. 

The food took forever to come, but when it did it was all worth it because, well, this:

We even got to pick the little anime flag!

Photos with the girls were pretty strictly forbidden, except for the one you get complementary with your meal. This whole experience was weird but totally worth it. Look how much fun we had! 

We now leave the streets of Akihabara, but there is plenty more. 

7 Eleven banks. Err, at least ATMs. Who knows where the money is coming from. 

Garlic as a dessert? We were skeptical but happily surprised. 

Rules and organization. Even the bars had instructions! Here is the ordering system diagram that was on display at one of the gay clubs we went to. The club was just ok, but this ordering diagram really tickled me. 

Nonsense English because fancy. Oh and an ode to the deceased concord. 

"Youth Street." This place, also known as Takeshita street, is full of angsty teens that go to whatever length necessary to distinguish themselves from those around them. You can imagine, in Japan this is quite the challenge. 

The place was filled with all kinds of fun clothing and food stores. And plenty of youths with purple and green hair and silly hats. We tried to blend in but failed pretty miserably. 

Fruit & Vegetable vessels. Stare at this long enough and you'll realize this is not just a pie of veggies, it's a sailboat replica. 

Curry. Because the Japanese have curry for some reason. This particular bowl was a result of a 2 AM noshfest in Shinjuku.  

Egg custard fish. One of the more delightful surprises we ate on the trip. The best part was the hippie van it was served from. 

Car lazy Susan. When you don't have space to turn around, you just force the issue. 

UPDATE/AMENDMENT - I almost forgot one of the more strange qualities of Tokyo that makes it stand out among other developed cities in developed countries: Smoking. This is a smoker's paradise. You can smoke just about anywhere without repercussion. Of course, there are some rules around it and you will see many, many designated smoking areas - especially in airports. Each of them is always full of people puffing away. Unfortunate consequences of this were very smelly clothes and dire need for laundry. And, of course, the years of my life I lost thanks to the second hand smoke. You can probably see some of the smoke in the video of the casino/arcade if you look closely enough. That also probably explains the loud ventilation system. 

(despite the smoking) Tokyo is absolutely delightful. If this post didn't convince you to go, it's not a place for you. I certainly fell in love with this city and would go back in a heartbeat. I also would not turn down the opportunity to live there if it came up.