RTW Day 21: Ochanomizu and Korakuen

Thursday I woke up feeling quite a bit better and immediately started thinking of climbing Fuji. Until then, though, I had lots to see.

 

My loose itinerary for the day was a walk through the university area of Ochanomizu, a trip to Shibuya, and finally maybe some drinks and socializing in Roppongi Hills. First stop: lunch.

 

My goal was a place with rave reviews online that sells good Soba. I took the subway there and searched for maybe 20 minutes but could not find the place. I asked a man at one of the restaurants, thinking maybe it had changed names, but he pointed me to a building under construction. Remodel... all the recommended places are closed! I walked to a place nearby where lots of people were eating and got a decent meal of soba noodles for a good price. Everyone inside was smoking and seemed to know each other - maybe a local favorite for people working in all the nearby buildings.

 

After lunch I headed toward Ochanomizu. To get there I walked through the neighborhood which was far less busy than Shinjuku but not as nice as I was expecting. The university area was good - along a river and with lots of trees. There were cicadas all over Tokyo making a ton of noise. I found one very close in a tree and caught a nice video of it doin' its thang. Lots of empty shells around, too:

 

 

Right next to the medical school complex were two temples. They were way more beautiful than the others I'd seen, and with only a couple other tourists.

 

 

The shade was also nice as it was close to 90℉ outside and muggy. There were lots of signs but none in English

 

 

I'm not sure if there was an actual university nearby, but the medical and dental research facilities were cool to look at. I was hoping for a stroll through campus but oh well. I started walking North toward Korakuen as it looked like a good walk and there were supposed to be nice gardens somewhere.

 

On my way I passed the Tokyo dome, a big arena I'm assuming is their Civic Center. There were hundreds of teenagers and young adults (I think at least, it's hard for me to judge the age of Japanese people) wearing shirts that said "WILLPOLIS" and "Bump of Chicken", and a few that said "Ray". I asked a group of kids what it meant and they tried really hard to tell me: "It's 'Bump of Chicken'! You know!" Finally after a couple minutes of fruitless questions I said "Ohhhh, yeah, 'Bump of Chicken!'", smiled, and moved on thoroughly confused. They were happy to have helped me.

 

I still don't know what it all means, and I probably won't ever.

 

Next to the Tokyo Dome was a big amusement park called, appropriately, Tokyo Dome City. Roller coasters, a ferris wheel, the works. This area has a lot going on. Close by was my next destination: Koshikawa Korakuen Gardens, right in the middle of all this excitement. It was 4:20ish by now and they closed at 5, so I went quickly to complete the circuit in time.

 

The place was pretty cool, even if none of the flowers were blooming or anything else special. There were plenty of little shrines and memorials, a couple ponds, lots of birds, beautiful trees and lots of nice walkways.

 

Also interesting but a bit darker were the signs of places and things that used to exist but didn't anymore.

 

There were two reasons for this. First, the original gardens were much bigger, but the city needed space for urban development so appropriated a few acres of the gardens. The other reason for missing attractions was the bombings of Tokyo in 1945. In the USA we don't necessarily have these kind of tangible reminders, so it was disarming to see it so obviously.

 

After leaving the gardens I hopped on the subway and went to Shibuya because why not. There is an intersection you've seen in photos of Tokyo where hundreds of people are crossing a street from multiple directions. This happens in Shibuya - all of the lights in one particular intersection turn red at the same time and everyone crosses at once. What can't be captured in a photo is the fact this happens every five minutes, all day and night long. This is a picture of the crossing on a Thursday afternoon:

 

While walking around Shibuya, which was actually not terribly exciting, I walked past a McDonald's and thought, what the hell, let's see what they have.

 

 

I did this with Jesse in Hong Kong and we tried some really funky sandwiches. In Japan the weirdest thing I saw was the #8, or shrimp burger. It was a patty made of mixed/mashed shrimp... not very good. A different time I tried what I thought was BBQ chicken sandwich - this was actually an odd fish sandwich with a horrible sesame sauce. Yuck. I'm adventurous with food, but I think I'll leave McDonald's alone.

 

After Shibuya I went to Ace Inn and did laundry for only the second time on my trip. Sounds gross, but I wash my shirts and underwear every day in the sink or shower so it's not like I'm walking around smellimg like a dirty backpacker (eh, maybe a little...). Laundry gets real expensive, real fast if you do it in a machine every time. But sometimes, especially for cotton clothes, my towel and long pants, you just have to fork over the $8-$10 and get it all done at once. And ohhhhhh man does it feel good to have all clean and dry clothes once in a while.

 

While my clothes were being cleansed and sanitized, I went out to eat at a tempura restaurant which was unimpressive. I had a mix of fried things including mushrooms, scallops, prawns, eggplant, lotus root, and calamari. Ok, the food was awesome, but it wasn't much different than what we have back home. Maybe the USA does Japanese food very well. That, or we just know how to make the best fried food!

 

After dinner I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some bread, cheese, carrots and chicken to make sandwiches, and also a bag of peanuts. My goal for Friday was to wander Tokyo until evening, then catch a bus to Mt. Fuji and climb it overnight.  I would need lots of energy for the climb, especially staying up all night, but the reward would be seeing the sunrise from the top of Japan.

Side note: fruit is expensive in Japan, wow. A single apple was $5, and oranges weren't much cheaper. A bunch of grapes was nearly $15!

 

I went back to Ace Inn and upstairs to the hostel lounge to make my sandwiches, which attracted the attention of just about everyone there. Secret to meeting people - sit by yourself in a public place and do something enthusiastically. A couple Japanese girls were awed by me taking Japanese ingredients and making sandwiches of them. I told the girls it was an Ashton thing, but that didn't quite seem to register.

 

After talking with Jack and Serge, two of the guys I had been hanging out with the past couple days, a few of us decided to head out to Kachekuriko in Shinjuku to see the Golden Gia, a crowded area with tiny lanes chock full of bars. It was a cool area, but with $5-10 entrance fees and $10-15 drinks the novelty quickly evaporated and was replaced with annoyance.

 

 

Even though the bars are open to 5:00 AM, we went back after just a couple hours and I went to bed early. Lots to do the next couple of days and no chance to rest!

RTW Day 20: Shinjuku and Yoyogi

My hostel had no open bunks for the next night, so I booked a bed at another place in Shinjuku and hit the road.

 

Tokyo's subway system is huge and complex, but after a steep but short learning curve it's actually very easy and efficient. There are two main groupings of lines, the city metro and a private set of trains and lines called the JR lines. The metro has a handful of independent lines that all use the same stations, but run everywhere in the city. The JR lines sometimes use the same stations but mostly felt like a whole other system with separate entrances, ticket counters and signage. I mostly used the city metro for convenience, but as the JR lines run all throughout Japan it's actually better to pre-purchase a JR pass before coming to Japan for longer stays.

 

Anyway, I jumped on the subway and took it to what I thought was the nearest station to my new hostel. This stop was about two miles north, and I later found out there is a stop (Akebonobashi) about two blocks from the hostel, but at least Japan is fun to walk around. I took the wrong street and went West instead of South, but got to see houses off the main road and still eventually made it.

 

The hostel again wouldn't let me check in until later, so I went upstairs to ask about a place to eat. Some people in the lounge (2 American guys and one German guy) were about to do the same thing so I joined and we walked south a bit toward Shinjuku. The food was good, not especially awesome, but very cheap.

 

They went back to Ace Inn and I kept going on into Shinjuku proper. First I wanted to visit the Meiji temple and on my way I walked down Takeshita street in a place called Harajuku - wow. The street was filled with girls dressed up in all J-Pop style clothing, floor-length pink and purple hair, 3-ft huge fuzzy and colorful boots, and some dressed up like dolls. The shops were overwhelmingly pink and purple, and filled with furry animals and little cutesy things. There were also crépe stores selling diabetes-inducing piles of ice cream, syrups, pudding and all kinds of toppings. Quite a sight!

 

Past Harajuku was Yoyogi Park where the Meiji temple sits. This was cool - it reminded me of Central Park in Manhattan but less intense. Right off the start of the trail to the temple was a way-out-of-the-way alternate path that looked very empty. Of course I took that one.

 

 

I really enjoyed walking down this path. My cold made me feel slightly delirious and irritable, and my nose was constantly running, so this moment of peace was very welcome. I saw lots of squirrels and big spiders, and unfortunately lots of mosquitoes.

 

 

There was a group of people somewhere close by practicing singing, or at least I think; to me it sounded like they were trying to imitate a police siren.

 

Eventually I made it to the temple, and coming in the back door there were very few tourists. I liked the aesthetics, even if they were touristy. There was a well where you are supposed to rinse your hands and mouth before approaching the shrine:

 

The shrine itself looked very empty, but in a way that makes sense. People are invited to throw money in an altar and do a small ritual involving bowing and clapping your hands twice slowly. I politely watched - I don't understand Shintoism well at all and don't want to either participate in something I don't believe in or botch up what might be sacred.

 

I walked back from the temple and jumped on a train for Shinjuku central. My goal here was to find the biggest skyscrapers in Tokyo and go to the top of the largest - the Metropolitan Government Building, or as I will remember it, the most intimidating government building in the world.

 

Admission to the top of TMGB was thankfully free. Unlike the Khalifa, you do pretty much go to the top. The view was similarly heartbreaking, but in a totally different way:

 

 

Outside of each window of the building, in 360° and for as far as you can see, was city. And not just city, big buildings. I've never seen a city like this, though Bangkok does come to mind. I was hit with an odd mix of amazement, fear and loneliness. It's incredible to think of all of these people doing all they must be doing, but you could walk for days inside the city and still never leave. Come to think of it, that's what I'm doing, and on purpose, but leave that alone for the time being!

 

 

There was a café/bar on one side, and because I wanted the view I bought a glass of sake so I could come in. The sake was actually a more rewarding experience than the view, which essentially I could have got from any of the windows. The (big) sake glass was placed in a small, shallow box, and the bartender started pouring. When he got to the top he smiled and just kept pouring (actually this looked very funny, but I stayed polite). Apparently this is Japanese custom to show you aren't getting jipped with an under-poured drink. I really like that tradition, clever, a bit fun, and very effective.

 

The sun started to set so I left and headed back to the hostel. When I checked in I discovered this was actually a capsule hotel in disguise. The "capsules" were simply wooden boxes with a pallet as the floor, a thin mattress on top of the pallet, and then linen. No power, no TV, no WiFi and it was always hot and a little damp. Because it is a male & female mixed "dorm" there were actual showers. More privacy, yes, but the onsen pools were admittedly very nice in comparison. But hey, for the price and location it wasn't too bad.

 

The rest of the night was fairly boring but nice.  I took a short nap, then went out to find some food. There was a crowd of Japanese people outside a little sushi stand, so I checked it out. The crowd was because the place was closing and all the sushi was half price. Yoink! I bought a good mix and took it back to the hostel - not half bad!

 

After dinner I bought a couple "local brews", meaning Asahi and Sapporo, and went upstairs to be social. The guys from before were there plus a couple others, and we had a good conversation as well as green tea Kit-Kat, green tea ice cream, and chocolate-stuffed frozen waffle things (from Harajuku?). Right before bed. As Yoann would say, I am such a Fattypouf!

 

RTW Day 19: Taito and Asakusa

I emerged from my capsule pod cranky and tired. I had a familiar malaise I recognized as the beginning of a cold, but decided to ignore it and move on.

 

After checking out I walked out into the streets of the Taito ward and started walking toward my hostel over in Asakusa. It was hot - not as hot as Dubai but just as muggy, and I had my backpack, so it wasn't pleasant.

 

I really enjoyed the walk, temperature aside. Lots of people walking by or on their bicycles, which all ride on the sidewalk. The Tokyo Sky Tree loomed in the East and gave the simple suburban environment a techno-modern backdrop. Not that Tokyo streets need it. One thing I found odd was they played music constantly from speakers on poles along the sidewalk. There is absolutely no silence in this city.

 

I reached Asakusa and walked out of the way along some side streets that looked like markets. Most of the streets have decorations and some kind of theme to them - purposefully or not - so it was always fun to just take a wrong turn and see where it goes.

 

Eventually I got to the hostel and checked in, but I had an hour to kill before they were ready so I went to lunch. I had a Hell of a time trying to find the restaurant the girl recommended, and after I finally awkwardly asked someone to help me, the place was closed. Instead I found another place with Ramen, and had a black sesame noodle soup that was gooooood. Content and happy, I went back to the hostel and went up to my room. I was feeling incredibly tired, so I sat on my bed, then laid down, then simply passed the hell out.

 

I slept for almost six hours, and I woke up with a full blown cold. Shucks. With all the extreme temperature changes from alternating between summer heat and frigid A/C in Dubai and Tokyo, and the sheer number of people I was in contact with, it was probably inevitable. Better in a city though rather than somewhere I want to hike or snowboard.

 

When I got up it was nighttime, so I headed out for a walk and maybe dinner. I went past Sento-ji temple, which at night was way less crowded. There were plenty of unobstructed views of Tokyo Sky Tree and of the big Pagoda at Sento-ji.

 

I also walked through the area with shops to see what was there. It was nice, but felt completely set up for tourists and not like an actual temple. Guess I got spoiled in Thailand.

 

There was a tempura restaurant I wanted to eat at, but when I found it and tried to go in the lady opened the door, yelled "We are closed!" and shut the door. At least she was efficient.

I ended up walking to a place with lots of bars and little outside restaurants. My rule of thumb when hunting for a place to eat is find somwhere crowded with locals, no white people, and where they don't invite you in. This backfired on me when I found a place meeting the criteria, but full of people who couldn't speak English. I ordered an expensive meal that was very small and not very good. Can't win them all! At least the beer was tasty and something I've never had before.

 

After dinner I walked back to the hostel, but on the way I got another beer and a small bottle of sake at one of the millions of conbinis, convenience stores like 7-11, that you can find on every single block in Tokyo. I drank outside with a couple people while I updated this blog on my phone and chose my next hostel. I also talked to an American girl and Chinese guy inside for a bit then called it quits and finally went to bed. Next stop: Shinjuku.

 

RTW Day 18: Samurai Jack

Flying to Japan was another experience - moving through the sky on Emirates Airlines was just as good the second time, and the flight path was arguably better. Looking out the window I got to see Iran, Afghanistanistan (just kidding, we conveniently went way out of the way to avoid that place!), Pakistan, India, and a lot of the North deserts of China. Unfortunately I was sleeping when we crossed the Himalayas - the girl in front of me said they came up almost to the plane. Shucks... but I'll eventually make my way to Nepal.

 

I got off the plane in Japan and immediately discovered I was in for an unexpected challenge - no one speaks English. Whoops. I managed to figure out the subway map and took a train to the nearest station (Okachimachi) to my capsule hotel. Then began the first of many frustrating hunts for my destination.

 

There are no street signs in Tokyo, at least that made sense to me. I saw lots of signs with arrows pointing to parts of town, and big signs on the street indicating the sub-district ahead. I eventually saw some street signs in bigger areas of Tokyo like Shinjuku, but these were far and few between.

While walking around dark, smelly alleyways trying to find my hotel a man walked up to me and started trying to make conversation. My training in every other country put me on high alert, but he had a suitcase and couldn't speak English very well at all, and seemed genuinely excited to meet me. I spoke with him as best I could, and asked him where the hotel was, and fortunately he was going to the same place. Turns out, though, there were three or four hotels with nearly identical names, and his and mine were not the same. So off I went again into the alleys.

 

As luck would have it I ran into a police officer and asked him where the hotel was. He had no clue, but when I showed him the address he pointed up and I was standing right in front of it. Thanks, intuitive subconscious!

 

The hotel was very weird, but honestly I liked it. The beds were little tubes with nothing more than a blanket, pillow and sheet. A TV hung from the ceiling and there was a radio with power outlet and light. Oh, and Japan uses the same outlet as the USA, which I much appreciated.

 

Each floor was filled with capsules, two high, so there were maybe 50 people on each tiny floor. Stuck in a corner was a sink and toilet, and no shower. The shower was in the basement, but it was no ordinary shower.

 

Apparently in Japanese history it was rare for each individual house to have it's own bath/shower. Instead bathing was done in big public bath houses - the practice was referred to as onsen bathing. Nowadays public bathing is still around, usually as very nice facilities with several baths varying in temperature, water pressure and even herbs and fragrances.

 

Capsule hotels almost ubiquitously use onsen bathing instead of showers as they typically market to traveling salarymen. My first hotel did not have showers, so I began my first night in Japan by jumping in headfirst into this part of culture. It was actually pretty relaxing and I got a nice robe to wear before and after.

 

I went to bed in my future-tube and started mentally preparing myself for robot city. Conichiwaaaaa.

RTW Day 17: Dubai from The Sky

I woke up on my second day in Dubai with Liam handing out grapes and bread to everyone in bed - good morning!

 

Leaving my dormmates behind I set out into the sun to go climb the Burj Khalifa. Yoann and I had talked about climbing the highest peak in each region we travel to, but unfortunately Dubai is in the middle of a huge, flat desert. We joked about me climbing the stairs Burj Khalifa, but the place was completely locked down by guards and so I quickly forfeited that idea.

I did however pay to go up as far as they would let me by elevator - about halfway up, to the 152nd floor at 450ish meters (1440 feet!). The way up was a sensory overload of praise and celebration for the construction.

 

The view was spectacular, but honestly a little underwhelming. The city looked like a tiny model with nice little pieces set specifically in a nice arrangement. I had two nagging, completely warranted feelings. First, the city seems synthetic and out of place; an elaborate series of too-beautiful-to-be-real buildings surrounded by absolutely nothing. It doesn't feel like humans should be living there, which I suppose is one of the goals (and appeals) of Dubai.

 

The second feeling was of impermanence, like a sadness that this impressive feat of human engineering is a lost cause as the desert will inevitably swallow it back up. I have come to learn that not nearly as much of the Emirates' wealth comes from oil as I thought (someone said only 10%!), but either way the city is anything but sustainable. Beside tourism, what will keep the place profitable? I may be wrong, and I hope so, but with Ferrari police cars, cloud-piercing skyscrapers, 7-star hotels and no actual city to speak of other than rich people's second homes and Indian slums, I just don't see it becoming a lasting bastion of third-millennium history.

 

My head spinning from dystopic thoughts and from being so high above the sand and sea, I went back down to the first floor on the 10m/sec elevator (3 stories per second!) and wandered the mall for a bit. Quite the place. I was hungry, and even though I passed maybe 100 restaurants it was still Ramadan, so I eventually got tired of all of the unnecessary decadence and headed back to the "hostel". On the way I stopped at an Indian market and picked up some fruit, naan, coffee and cheese. My first groceries!

 

Later some of the guys wanted to walk around "old" Dubai (1900-1950, prior to mega-Dubai) so we walked up toward the creekside. The place was cool but empty.

 

We continued on to the docks and while we were there the sun was officially down and the moongazers declared Ramadan over. It was cool to see everyone come out of hiding and start eating and smiling and laughing. Also a considerable amount of the people on the streets all of a sudden started smoking cigarettes. How sweet that must have been after so long, cancerous or not.

 

We eventually got hot and tired of waking around so we decided to go back to the hostel and meet up with the rest of the guys. We decided to go out for drinks, and went to a British-ish pub where we were definitely the most exciting thing going on. We had a good time considering, and had several rounds of drinks. Soon enough the conversation turned to politics and social discourse, some anger and overly-friendly recompense, and then the cheerful wandering walk back home.

 

Two hours later: a taxi to the airport, painless customs process and then I was boarding for Japan.

Farewell, Dubai!

RTW Day 16: Desert Heat

I woke up in Dubai feeling dazed and out of place. That's the problem with hotels - especially when traveling alone you just feel lost and isolated in a foreign world sometimes. But the feeling quickly turned back into adventure as I headed down for the free breakfast: toast, odd cheese and bologna? Good O.J. though!

 

Adventure I got as I walked out into the morning sun. Just opening the door was enough - like walking into a sauna. No "but it's a dryyyy heat" here, this was 100℉ of sweltering, not-semi-arid, thick, sweaty heat. But after Thailand and Tallahassee summers I felt ok about it.

 

I started off toward my hostel, which I was partially walking to and mostly taking the subway toward. I got about four blocks before I realized I was going the wrong way, and it was disheartening looking back down the street in the blazing desert sun. I got spoiled in Alaska and the winter in Peru and South Africa.

 

Eventually I made it to my "hostel", which was in fact just a bunch of bunk beds in a studio apartment. Hey, but $15 in Dubai, I wasn't complaining! I very quickly made friends with the gang there, some who had been there for several weeks. I guess only specific people would tolerate being crammed in a tiny room for so long. Also the $15 in Dubai part. Salud!

 

One of the guys was from India and told me about how Dubai is mostly Indians and they built the city with German engineering and Arab money. A result of the Indian population is a ton of Indian restaurants, so we went to one and it lived up to it's reputation. Man I love Indian food.

 

Side note: I chose the last two days of Ramadan to come to Dubai, an extremely Muslim city. Among other things, for example a rich and diverse set of religious customs going back thousands of years and forming one of the five pillars of Islam, during Ramadan you are restricted by serious law from eating, drinking, smoking or having relations with your wife (another law - no sex until marriage) in public until the sun goes down. Another side note, if you are gay and engage in relations with another man, let alone during Ramadan, the penalty is death.

 

 

Anyway, the point is, eating was difficult. The end result, however, was you sleep late, eat late, drink late, rinse and repeat. Not so bad really. I am glad I got to experience it, seriously, as it's a fundamental part of Islam and a huge part of the world lives this way. Hey, pop quiz - what country has the most Muslims? If you said Iraq, you're wrong. Iran? Saudi Arabia? Nope. My answer was India, but that's still wrong, they're #2. Right answer? Indonesia. Now you know!

 

 

During the heat wave, which grew to a blazing 46℃ (115℉, and the low was 34℃/90℉!), I found a nice air conditioned museum to spend the afternoon. Dubai is not very old, so there isn't a lot of history, but it was still interesting to see some Arabic history and watch the development of Dubai over the past century. I also met an American couple there, and the young woman was from Tokyo. Loving these free travel debriefs!

 

 

 

After the sun started to set, the group was going to an Arabic Christian church and I was invited. In Dubai the "day off" is on Friday, in contrast to the Western Saturday. This makes Saturday a primary day of worship, and hence our travel to church on Saturday evening (after sundown during Ramadan - no holy bread during the day!).

 

This time the church was the real deal. It was an Orthodox service, complete with iconography all over the walls and ceiling, and lots of chanting and kneeling and very solemn. I noticed the kids behaved the same as back home - running around and occasionally squealing in happiness, before quickly realizing you're interrupting the adults' super serious business!

 

Not being baptised an orthodox Christian, I did not partake in the breaking of the bread. But in an act of seriously touching cross-denominational (and cross-cultural) sharing the priest gave us all some bread to take with. It is, according to the faith, for all.

 

I was very glad and honored to have experienced their worship ceremony. And I'm sure they must have thought us quite the group too - two from Germany, one from Egypt, an Indian, an American, one guy from Malaysia and another bloke from the U.K. All on the pilgrimage of a lifetime to their little church.

 

After the service was over we went to arguably the opposite of Christian places - the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, a monument to human greed and wealth and a symbol of our desire to reach the heavens with human technology. All that pessimism aside, the building is legitimately AWESOME.

 

 

We ate at a Lebanese place in the Dubai Mall at the foot of the tower where we could watch the fountains.

 

These fountains eject water 40m into the sky, as high as a four-story building. Wow. The food was also incredible (but not cheap) and came like tapas, small individual plates we all shared. Oh, and shisha. We felt like kings, and to most of the world probably looked like them too.

 

After our night of culture, religion and blasphemy we took a cab back and crashed. Time for more Dubai in the morning. Or evening. Whatever.

RTW Day 15: Emirates Airlines

Day fifteen was one of several days on my trip reserved solely for traveling across the world to a new place.

 

I had breakfast with Yoann and Jessie, then we also had a cup of espresso to say goodbye. Such white people. I dropped the two of them off on Long Street, drove my rental back to it's home at the airport, then boarded for a long voyage across Africa.

 

The flight was pretty interesting, as I got to look out the window and see first Johannesburg (much bigger than Cape Town) then Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Across the water we crossed Yemen and Saudi Arabia and then finally into the United Arab Emirates. From my elevation and the cloud cover all of it looked more or less the same, but it was still a cool feeling.

 

Beside the sights and feely feels, though, Emirates Airlines is the best airline I've ever been on, hands down. Nice staff, plenty of leg room, two full meals, and complimentary alcohol. Not to mention huge TV screens and a selection of something like 400 movies. Plus the flight was only maybe 25% full, so everyone had their own row to themselves. What a ride.

 

Way too soon the plane landed and I had to leave my luxurious, hedonistic cruise liner and into a thick, muggy, way-too-hot-for-1-AM night. I grabbed an expensive taxi to my hotel, an extremely cheap place I booked on the plane (oh did I mention the plane had WiFi?). The place was swankier than I had expected and the owner invited me up to the roof for shisha and tea. I denied but he insisted very strongly, so not wanting to offend the guy I said ok.

 

Also on the roof was a contractor from Saudi Arabia who spoke fairly good English, so we talked for awhile before my politeness ran out and I called it quits. Good conversation though. I watched a bit of Dubai TV but was unable to understand anything so I quickly turned it off. While falling asleep in the very, very cold room I missed South Africa. But each place deserves it's full respect, so on to Dubai for real in the morning!

 

RTW Day 14: Wine Tasting

It seemed appropriate to end my trip in South Africa with a wine tour to see what all the fuss is about Capetonian wine and wine in general. Unfortunately my morning started abruptly with Alyssia shaking me awake to tell me my bus was here and waiting on me. After some groggy insistence on going back to sleep they convinced me this was a trip I would be stupid to miss, so I mustered up some strength from somewhere and dragged myself into the bus. To the bus drivers and later my own musement this was apparently a normal thing. "It's always the guys from Atlantic Point!"

 

First stop on the wine tour was a visit to a vineyard. It's winter there so there were no grapes or really much to the plants at all, but at least it wasn't hot.

 

Much more exciting was the manufacturing process itself, with fermentation tanks:

 

 

Storage barrels:

 

 

And other nice looking equipment and containers.

 

 

We visited a place where they make the wine called Goats Do Roam and true to the name there were goats everywhere:

 

 

Oh, and yes, we tasted wine allllll day.

 

 

And cheese, so good:

 

 

I'm by no means a wine expert now, but I did get a chance to learn a lot about the process and nuances of selecting, tasting and enjoying wine. They were right - I would have been very disappointed to miss this tour, hangover or no.

 

 

The people on the tour were great fun too. Our hiking buddy Yan was there, which was cool, and five guys from Australia who helped me prepare for my eventual trip to Melbourne. There was a couple from New Zealand as well, another boon to my trip. The rest of the group was rounded out with a newlywed couple from Chicago and two people from Finland (one originally from Cape Town). By the end of the bus ride we were drinking Brandy and Coke and having a great time:

 

 

At one of the hostels they were hosting another (free) wine tasting so I thought what the Hell, why not. I met another group there including a girl from Colombia, a guy from Israel and another American. This wine tasting wasn't nearly as exciting, and eventually I took a taxi back to the hostel to a group of very worried friends. Whoops.