Is Japan expensive?

When I said that I was going to Japan, most of my friends mentioned Fukushima and right after that they said that Japan was very expensive. Surprisingly eating and sleeping in Japan has been really cheap, making the opverall cost of my trip lower than I expected. Here's some ways to make your trip to Japan cheaper:

Transport

• Fly to Japan is very cheap, if you are lucky you can find a ticket for less than 500€ or $600. I visited Japan in the winter and it was very cold. I would not recomment visiting in the winter time, better the spring and the autumn. Tickets before June and after September are still cheap.
• Plan ahead and buy your JR train Pass in a way that makes sense, you can also buy passes for only certain regions.

Sightseeing

In Japan you don't have to pay to use the toilet but for the rest you have to pay. Research about the museums, shrines, palaces and gardens that interest you the most and visit only those.
Remember that there are alternative ways to get to know a country, rent a bicycle, go hiking or go for a walk around the city where the local older generation goes to exercise. Amazing things will happen to you when you get out of the beaten path, just don't forget to greet everybody along the way with a loud "Konichiwa!".

Eating

The food is amazing and really cheap. You can easily eat a full meal consisting of a main dish (rice or noodle soup) and gyoza for 5€ or $7, even in Tokyo. The drinks (water or tea) are on the house! This cheap food will save you so much money that you will be able to slurge in something more fancy every once in a while!
It is a little bit sad but I must admit that some of the best food I had was in train stations! Big  train stations like Kyoto or Tokyo have amazing and cheap food!

$7 or 5€ meal in super tourist town Nara, amazing, uh? The cold udon was yummy!

Sleeping 

Hotels and ryokans can be expensive, specially in the big cities. I have found that renting a studio is cheaper than staying in a hotel. So here's the alternatives:

• Renting a studio for yourself, will come with kitchen and full bathroom. Not more than $40 or 30€/night.
• Airbnb: Japan is slowly opening to Airbnb, stay with a local in their house and have a full cultural experience!
• Capsule hotels: haven't tried them yet, so I can't say.
• HelpX: for some days live with a Japanese family, pay no rent, eat for free and in exchange work with them on their business. Win-win!

Stay with a Japanese family and learn about their culture

Souvenirs

This is my weak point, I haven't been able to find cheap souvenirs... any ideas?

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Next adventure: Spain

Did you know you can cross Spain on a motorbike and not take any highways?
Do you want to go from the Pyrenées to the Mediterranian sea on a bicycle?
Do you want to know the best places to eat in Barcelona?
Do you want to walk the Camino de Santiago in a special way?
My friend Maria is a very well travelled person that provides tailored itineraries for people who don’t want to be tourists but want to be travellers.

Off the beaten path

Eventhough Spain is one of the main tourist destinations in the world, you would be surprised how much it still has to offer and how many places still remain 100% tourist free. Maria is a specialist, she will help you find the special places, the most hip places, the most chilled or the trully autentic ones.

Active journeys 

For all you outdoor junkies, if you are looking for an epic trip, you should get in touch with her. There are so many things to do in Spain! Trekking the GR11 on the Pyrenées, kitesurfing in Tarifa, learning how to surf in Cadiz or riding serious waves in Donosti and of course, hiking up some sleepy volcanoes in my hometown! You could spend months exploring the nature of Spain, and remember, in some areas, it doesn’t really get cold, so you can visit all year round!

A whole in the wall

Barcelona is packed with tourist but the rest of Spain is waiting for people to visit. If you are looking for the authentic Spain, jump on a train, bus or rent a car, stop in a little town get a coffe at the town bar with all the old man playing cards, stay at a luxurious Paradero Nacional and in the morning go to the farmer’s market. Maria will plan the perfect trip for you.
If you are into the cultural stuff, she will prepare the perfect route for you. If you are into music, get ready to enjoy Spain’s best. And if you jus twant to chill, well, Spain is in the south of Europe after all! (did I just say that?)

Who's that girl?

She is a girl with really good taste. She is a city girl with a love for the outdoors so she is the perfect mix to advice about both worlds. Maria has travelled around the world so she understands what different cultures and different people are looking for when they go on holidays. Get ready to eat well if you contact her!

How does it work?

Basically you contact her and decide if you want:

• 7 day consultation: while you plan your dream trip to Spain, she helps you. During 7 days your will get her advice, including where to go, what to see and consultation of overall flow.
• Premium Travel Plan: where she plans your trip to Spain so you can visit Spain on a tailored itinerary just for you.

Contact via http://www.spainatyourpace.com/

Follow her on Facebook Spain at your pace and Twitter @spainatyourpace

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On how Asia reminds me of my childhood: Excitement

Cycling around Asia is a great way to see the real life. You can go on an organized tour or you can go by yourself, most of the places are very safe and people are extremly curious about you.

When you cycle in small towns kids get extremely excited. Here's some of the situations:

• Moms with babies waiving at you, starting to teach the kid to say "Hello"
• Kids so little they don't even know what to do, they just stare at you with their mouth wide open.
• If you look at the front yard of the house, you might see little kids going to get their big brother because they want to go by the road and say hello to you.
• Kids screaming "Hello", "What is your name?", "Wellcome to Malaysia!".
• Kids picking up their old rusty bikes and racing you.
• Shy girls smilling at you and waiving from their bikes.
• Teenagers getting out of school and trying to block your way or do stupid things.
• And the most painfull but also the best, High fives! Yes, high fives are back.

When I was little every summer there was a race going on and they would go through my grandparent's house. We would be waiting for them for hourss, to see the cyclist, to cheer at them and to get the beach balls and other merchandising that they were giving away.

Going through the little villages and hearing the kids with their "hello, hello" made me think of what I looked like when I was little.


The picture that ilustrates this post was taken by somebody I don't remember with Max's camera during our trip from Saigon to Hanoi in Vietnam.

Here's other reasons why Asia reminds me of my childhood:
Everything is under construction and there are lots of flowers
Sun drying food and stone tables 
Poorly paved roads and reusing stuff

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On how Asia reminds me of my childhood - Stone tables and sun drying food

Sun drying food: My grandfather used to have a garden and he would take the beans out of their husk (is that the right word) and dry them on the sun. Here they do that with all kinds of things:

Chillies getting some the sun in Thailand

Stone tables: are we still building them? The plate on top of the table has rice on it. When you cook a lot of rice there is always some that stuck in the bottom of the pan, they take that rice and dry it out in the sun. 

Luang Prabang, Laos

Reusing and poorly paved roads
Everything is under construction and full of flowers

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Vacaciones en los alpes franceses: Grenoble, 2011

El verano pasado pasé mis vacaciones en Grenoble cerca de los Alpes franceses, una ciudad preciosa y totalmente recomendable. Dormí en la carabana llamada James que una família muy especial me dejó. Digo que son una família especial porqué entre muchas cosas, han viajado por muchos sitios del mundo en un Tandem, este es su sueño. Les encontré gracias a CouchSurfing y siempre les estaré agradecida porqué son una gran inspiración de como es posible vivir la vida a la medida de cada uno. Aquí va la ilustración. En el margen derecho podemos su tandem :-)

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Dibuixos: Passeig en elefant

Aquí teniu el dibuix a on es veu el meu primer passeig en elefant que dissabte vam fer amb en Robert, ho vaig passar fatal, raons:

• No anavem lligats de cap manera, només assentats en un banc
• No hi havia conductor
• Plovia
• Passavem al costat de barrancs altíssims

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Los verdaderos Indiana Jones

Durante nuestra estancia en Langkawi hemos tenido la suerte de conocer a gente muy interesante, entre ellos a Teviot Fairservis experta en teatro asiático e hija del arqueólogo Dr. Walter Fairservis, uno de los verdaderos Indiana Jones. Teviot nos contó que tras ver la primera película de Indiana Jones llamó a su casa y les preguntó "Has visto la película de Indiana Jones? Pero si es papá!", en casa todos estaban de acuerdo, ese personaje vestia igual que su padre (sin contar el látigo) y tenia aventuras similares a las que había vivido su padre. Os explico brevemente su vida en base al obituario publicado por el NY Times y a lo que nos contó Teviot:

• A los 15 años se fue de casa a la aventura, desde su natal NY se fué a Alexandria (Egipto) y desde ahí hasta la India, ahí empezó una vida llena de aventuras.
• Igual que Indy, fue profesor de arqueología en la universidad.
• Diseñó la exposición permanente dedida a Asia para el American Museum of Natural History en Manhattan, que os sonará por las películas Noche en el museo.
• Encontró ciudades perdidas en Afghanistan. En la foto le vemos con la primera expedición americana en Afghanistan. Te imaginas? Llegar a Kabul en 1949 para una expedición arqueológica?

Louis Dupree, Walter Fairservis, y Henry Hart
 en Kabul el 1949

• Documentó y experimentó todo tipo de ceremonias de las tribus asiáticas.
• Viajó por toda Asia y Medio Oriente.
• Su esposa Jano Bell Fairservis le diseñaba todos los trajes, cuando el American Museum of Natural History la llamó porqué una productora quería hacer una película sobre un arqueólogo llamado Dr. Jones, les mandó fotos de su marido en sus expediciones. 

Por suerte Wikipedia existe y aquí os mando una lista de otros investigadores que sirvieron de inspiración a Lucas y a Spielberg:

• Beloit College professor and paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews.^[47]
• Italian archaeologist and circus strongman Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823).^[48]
• Yale University professor, historian, and explorer Hiram Bingham III, who rediscovered and excavated the lost city of Machu Picchu,^[49] and chronicled his find in the bestselling book The Lost City of the Incas in 1948.^[50]
• University of Chicago archaeologist Robert Braidwood.^[51]
• University of Chicago archaeologist James Henry Breasted.^[52]
• The British archaeologist Percy Fawcett, who spent much of his life exploring the jungles of northern Brazil, and who was last seen in 1925 returning to the Amazon Basin to look for the Lost City Of Z. A fictionalized version of Fawcett appears to Jones in the book Indiana Jones And The Seven Veils.^[7]
• British archaeologist and soldier T. E. Lawrence.^[53]
• The Northwestern University anthropologist, professor and adventurer William Montgomery McGovern.^[54]
• Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges.^[55]
• German archaeologist Otto Rahn.^[56]

Dr Faiservis en 1964 promocionando su nuevo libro sobre Egipto

A ver si en el próximo destino encontramos a la madre de Lara Kroft!

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Paradise number 3: Pulau Langkawi

After Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Tioman, the third paradise is Pulau Langkawi in the Adaman sea. Some facts about Langkawi:

• Malays eager for consumism, shops and Duty free items love it.
• We meet a lot of very well travelled people that advised us not to come to Langkawi.
• We stayed in Langwaki for over a month, yes, we don't like to be told what to do or where to go. :-P
• This might be the only paradise with a road in it.
• Underneath the surface of a very tourist island, we found two things:
• An amazing expat community that welcomed us inmediately and made our stay in Langkawi a fantastic, unforgetable time. We are so thankful for that!
• Locals living in their kampung houses, going to school and doing their business like everywhere else, I mean this is still their country. I say this because we were told that there where just a few malays in Langkawi!!!
• The water is not clear like in Perhentian and Tioman but the beaches are fantastic and the lake too. 
• There is jellyfish so it is always an adventure to go swimming!
• But for us Langkawi will always be the place where we meet great people that love boats, the sea and travelling! Thanks!

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Kota Bahru, Malaysia

Després de gairebé 3 mesos a Malasia, publico la primera fotografia feta al segon poble a on vam parar. Kota Bahru, al nord-est de la península fent frontera amb Tailandia.
Allà vam descobrir:

• Els mercats plens d'olors fortes
• El poc turisme que hi ha a la zona
• Els diferents tipus de mango i les maneres de tallar-lo
• Els mosquits

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Guinea Bissau

Aleix is going to Guinea Bissau. He is leaving tomorrow and will be there for a whole month. He will help built an orphanage. You are my hero! Enjoy your days there!
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Demà l'Aleix marxa a Guinea Bissau, hi serà fins a mitjans de gener. Ajudarà a construïr un orfanat. És el meu heroi! Que gaudeixis dels teus dies allà.

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