South Africa Part I

After all the snow in Japan, we thought now would be a good time to go to South Africa. Warm up, spot some game and feed T to the lions, I mean, my relatives.

Our trip started in Kruger Park, which had had unprecedented rainfall, and so there was much looking-through-the-tall-grass-and-hoping-to-see-an-animal.

We hired a guide, who provided us with interesting morsels of information - did you know elephants talk to each other in a secret low frequency language through their diaphragms?, served rusks and tea for breakfast and slap up braais for dinner, and suggested that taking pictures of each other next to lions would most definitely result in death.

Chinese tourists have been known to try it. Rather unsuccessfully.

Camouflage

Prey watching the sunrise

Thai massage

More camouflage

Anyway, you get the idea. Lots of bush and wild animals. Not too many herds though. Must have coincided with a conference or something, as watering holes were empty and leopards and cheetahs were not to be found.

p.s.

For those of you thinking of going to Kruger:

August and September are when there are no animal conferences, so you'll see the most animals

Wild Wings Safaris are reasonably priced, give good tours and feed you well (we did the 3 day quickie safari)

Don't pee in the bushes. You won't live to tell the story.

Tokyo

The Emperor's back yard

Like most of us, I presume, one tends to have some idea of what Tokyo is like before one arrives. Whether these notions are true or not really depends on the amount of research one has done beforehand or whether one is basing one's ideas entirely on hearsay, on people they met at school when they were 13, Manga movies about football on Spanish TV and rumors about vending machines with dirty underwear in them. I fall into the last category.

I spent years with Japanese schoolmates who had CD players before we had Walkmen (remember the Walkman?), who ate seaweed while we were eating pretzels and who beat everyone at maths with their brains shut. Needless to say, I arrived in Tokyo with bated breath.

Yet, rather than arriving into "back the future", I felt like I was arriving home. The cobbled streets, the clear blue skies and the tiny little hole-in-the-wall restaurants and shops all felt distinctly European, and rather un-Asian.

Somewhere in Tokyo with large screens and a square. Rabbit-head is yours truly.

The modern architecture interspersed with old fashioned buildings were, well, a little Catalan?

Street in Ginza next to Joel Rubichon, where one can eat the most expensive savory crepe on earth ever.

That said, there is a whole other side of Tokyo which is the farthest thing from Europe that you could ever imagine. Blonde wigs, fake eyelashes, the shortest skirts on earth, love hotels (yes, by the hour, yes in the busiest of high streets), S&M outfits and glam boy bands that would make Jem wince.

Oh.. sorry.

Of course, the food was to die for, and I almost skidded off the treadill today trying to work off the 6 meals a day I enjoyed there.

But, why would you have waiters take your orders when you can use a slot machine?

Santa's workshop disguised as a French bakery

We will be back! And the warm toilet seats will not be forgotten.

Japan in the snow

Karuizawa with a spattering of snow. Experts say the hills aren't steep enough. Seemed steep enough to me!

If we weren't somewhat settled in Hong Kong, we would be packing our bags and moving to Tokyo yesterday. We loved it.

The trip started on the slopes of Karuizawa, where T vowed to make me a snowboard champion..in two days. Now, you know I'm not the sportiest of types, and you also know how I feel about climbing mountains. Well all of the above applies to snowboarding.

Anyway, we were with Babes too, who kindly arranged for her and I to have the only-native-english-speaking-instructor on the resort.

Two hours of terrible english later, an enlightening conversation on the ski lift which went something along the lines of;

G: "So, you must snowboard very well."

Instructor: "Ahh no." Grin.

G: "Do you snowboard every weekend in the winter?"

Instructor: "Ahhh no, first time." Scissorhand gesture, " Cut hair.... and make-up." Enthusiastic nod.

And after much time spent learning how to hold the board while walking ... we agreed T was actually quite splendidly suited to be an instructor.

Needless to say, my bum hurt like there was no tomorrow at the end of each day. But, relief was found at the hotel's hot springs (think sitting-alone-in-hot-water-with-snow-falling-and-the-silence-of-the-forest-around-you). After that, a large bowl of ramen, japanese bbq or an endless feast of sushi also all helped me feel slightly less sorry for myself. Not to mention the magic slow release muscle pain relieving patches!

Our cottage. Probably one of the sweetest (and warmest) little homes ever.

New year's resolutions

The Financial Times had an article today on "Why can't I stick to my resolutions?" Their "sage" and "shrink" both suggest that often it's because the resolutions aren't important enough to you, and therefore, you don't stick to them. The article helpfully quotes Plato, as if to add weight to their argument: no one who was actually convinced that a course of action was right would ever choose to do anything else.

I completely disagree with all of the above, as the only resolutions I've ever stuck to were those that were utterly vacuous, whereas the important ones were always tossed aside:

2009:

Success: Wear matching underwear everyday

Failure: Stop smoking

2010:

Success: Get out of the office earlier

Failure: Exercise regularly

Here goes 2011:

Get French up to scratch - this will be achieved with a weekly French movie night organized by the resident Frenchman. So far, we've seen La Coeur en Hiver, and started Le Gouts de Autres but the latter was deemed too subtle for me at this early stage of my linguistic and intellectual development

Read more - I read some good books before 2011 hit, but now it's too cold for me to keep my arms out from under the duvet.. some sort of book suspension mechanism is in order I think

Lose 3kg - 1 kg already lost through cutting out Special K (which-we-all-know-makes-you-fatty-bombas) and limiting Michelin star restaurant meals to once a week

Wish me bonne chance!

Bali in pictures

T and I spent a delightful Christmas and New Year in Bali. Here's a recap of the holiday in piccies, with the exception of Ubud, where all our pics were taken with T's Blackberry, which got swiped by someone not very Christmasy.

Sanur and Tulamben where we became certified PADI Open Water Divers. Took 15 years for me to get round to this.

After Sanur, we were supposed to climb Rinjani mountain, but I stubbed my toe and-was-sure-it-was-broken (still is), so we went to Gili Islands instead. Tough change in plan. To keep up the "activity" component of the holiday, we became "Advanced" PADI divers. Saw a shark, and became attached to squids. I am now a squidatarian.

Christmas day was spent on Gili Air, recovering...

...and making friends with fish.

Next stop, Ubud. PIC STOLEN BY UNCHRISTMASY PERSON. The pic that would have gone here would have showed the rice fields, temples, trendy bars, getting massages, riding around on a Vespa and the Maya Ubud hotel.

Puri Jimbaran. Days spent swimming, bodyboarding and drinking mango mojitos.

Uluwatu. Where real surfers go, and wannabes watch.

Travel tips for anyone who might want a second opinion after TripAdvisor.

Sanur: Stay at Hyatt Bali which has pretty standard rooms but delicious brekkie. Learn to dive at Crystal Divers.

Gili Tranwangan Island: Dream Village is the place. Run by an eccentric Italian with a pet monkey. Learn to dive at Trawangan Dive.

Ubud: Stay at Maya Ubud, which is cheaper than the Four Seasons but with the same comfort and joy. Eat at Ibu Oka for the best suckling pig on earth ever.

Jimbaran: Splash out at Puri Jimbaran. It's not cheap, but it has deals on its website. Drink their mojitos and chomp up their pain au chocolate in the morning. Dine off the fresh lobster and snapper at any of the Warung on the beach.

Inspiration

I attended TEDx Pearl River Women the other day, and found it to be incredibly inspiring. 6 speakers presented. Each with their own story of a dream they had to dramatically change something in the world and how they were in the process of accomplishing it.

Alexandra Harney (Author of the China Price) spoke of her mission to train factory workers in Southern China so they can actually have transferable skills to build their own autonomy. Vivian Lee discussed her path from Olympic disappointment to Asia Olympic swimmer success. And Mara McCaffery led us through her heart wrenching story on saving the orangutan in Bhutan.

What to me was most remarkable (and most attainable) was that all these women had actually started quite late in their endeavors, and had re-starts and detours in their journeys. Mara had started working with Orangutans at the age of fifty, Vivian had started young but then reinvented herself years later to become a business woman, and Alexandra had started as a journalist and now moved into philanthropy only in the last couple of years.

So there's hope for all of us who work in a bank, ad firm, consulting box, office job, being a wife.. it's never too late to pick up and start working towards something we are truly passionate about.

Up in the air

As I sit in Tokyo airport waiting for my connecting flight back to Hong Kong from Washington. I realise that the one and only real upside of traveling once a fortnight for the last two months, is the free Financial Times... And the udon and sake in the ANA lounge...but that only applies to Tokyo, which is civilized...in the US, you're lucky if the muffins don't poison you.