Tuesday 23 February 2010

From sushi to flying fish

Now that South Korea and Japan are sorted, time to turn my attention to next month’s holiday.

Some people who know the kind of holidays I like fail to understand why I am so in love with Barbados and what compels me to visit every year, as I’ve been doing for the past 13 years. I guess some see Barbados as no more than see and sun. Not so. One of my favourite things about this beautiful island is that it offers something for everyone.

For those whose idea of a perfect holiday is topping up their tan on a sandy white beach while listening to the waters gently lap the shore than there’s plenty of that to be had, especially on the south and west coasts of the island. In fact I dare say that the island has some of the best beaches in the world. Beautiful white sand and crystal clear sea water. As for me I can’t lie on a beach for more than 2 days in a row – as my honeymoon proved. We spent the first 9 days of our honeymoon in the Maldives; come day 3, I was literally prepared to swim off the island!

So what else does Barbados offer? It is one of the most developed islands of the Caribbean with the highest literacy rate. Yet it has a warm, vibrant and exceptionally welcoming culture and remains a safe island for tourist.

The island has an amazing history. Visit any of the plantation houses there for an account of the slave days and the way of life just after emancipation. There are also several museums on the island.

One of its best treasures though is its people. Just chatting with the locals can provide a few hours of entertainment in itself. Barbadians (or Bajans) are among some of the friendliest you’ll meet. Their accents can make it sound as though they are gently singing to you as they speak. The older folk are great! There’s sure to be an anecdote of life when they were growing up and how much different ‘things’ were in their days. They’ll talk about the island both pre and post its independence in 1966. And introduce to you Ossie Moore – the fictional Bajan character who’s many mishaps are the butt of several local jokes.

Barbados is quite a small, flat island so getting around is very easy. Major sites are well signposted but part of the fun in visiting some locations is the sheer task of trying to find them – I don’t believe there’s GPS on the island. Hiring a little mini moat and driving around can provide countless hours of fun. Even more fun is taking public transport. I’m not talking about the government run buses though. I’m talking about the little white ZR vans, or, as one visitor to the island once put it – boogie buses. These 14 seat buses usually carry a minimum of 19 people but I’ve counted as many as 26. Be prepared to get up close and personal with a complete stranger as you’re asked by the conductor to sit on their lap or hold their bag as they squat in front of you. The vans drive fast and pump their music loud but I wouldn’t travel any other way on the island.

Walking is another great way to take in the beauty of Barbados. Personally I like to wait until about 3.30 – 4 pm in the evening when the sun is at its coolest to explore the island by foot. As I mentioned early it’s quite a safe country so I have no major concerns about walking around after the sun has set – as long as I have some idea of where I am.

Then there’s the music, calypso or soca being the most popular on the island. The local dance is called wukking up – a fast gyration of the hips. The dance may look easy but is quite difficult to perfect. I’ve watched many a local have a good laugh at tourist expense as they try to imitate the moves. Even so, the moves are far too sensual for me to try outside the privacy of my home!

And let’s not forget the food. Bajans are great cooks and they love to eat. It’s easy to gain a stone during a 2 week visit to Barbados, or at least that’s my excuse. From flying fish and cou cou, the national dish of the island, to macaroni pie, fish cakes, rotis, BBQ lamb chops, pudding and souce, turn overs, Granny’s gizzards – just thinking of some of the delicacies makes my mouth water. And I haven’t even mentioned the vast quantities of fresh fruit, some of which you can literally pick yourself: mangos (like you’ve never tasted in any other country), donks, ackee, golden apples, pau pau, tamarind (best eaten with sugar), and Bajan cherry.
Whether you’re after a formal sit down meal, something more casual for a group of friends to catch up or a quick bite from a street vendor as you tread the streets of Bridgetown, Barbados offers an abundance of places to eat that will not disappoint.
For rum lovers, there’s many a rum shop to be found with local men ‘slamming dominos’ while downing either of the popular brands produced on the island – Mount Gay or Cockspur.

One of the things I enjoy most about a visit to Barbados though is seeing it through fresh eyes when I travel with someone who’s never been before. Thus next month I’ll be going with my friend Michelle who has left it entirely up to me to prepare us an itinerary. No doubt it will include:
Oistins Fish Fry on Friday nights
A visit to Harbour Lights beach extravaganza dinner show
Catamaran snorkel and sunset cruise
Island Safari tour
Harrison’s Cave – which has finally reopened
Bajan roots and Rhythm show
A drive along the east coast
Visit to River Bay
Quick stop in Bridgetown for some souvenirs
Several of my favourite restaurants
Oh, and a few hours lying on a sandy white beach!

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Not just a stopover for the sake of it

It would seem as though in my haste to experience all things Japanese that I completely overlooked South Korea as a destination within itself. If only I had allowed for a few more days it could have been a mini off the beaten track holiday with its mountains and rice paddies and unspoilt islands.

Anyway, be that as it may, my flights are booked and paid for so I have 3 nights, 2 full days in Seoul. Initially it looked like loads of time but I’m sure it’s going to go all too quickly.

3 nights, 2 days
I’ll probably start with one of those city ‘orientation’ type walks to get my bearings, although I’m not encouraged by the fact that most streets in Seoul don’t actually have a name. It gets better – the buildings have numbers but they don’t run consecutively, they were allocated in the order in which they were built. So unless you were around at the time they were erecting the buildings…. no, I’m sure I’ll be fine.

I am definitely going to visit the DMZ and Panmunjom. At first I thought it’d just be an interesting history lesson about the North South divide in Korea. But then I read this description in the Lonely Planet’s Seoul city guide ‘You can step across the frontier inside the blue UN buildings that straddle the boarder, but go any further and you’ll die in a hail of bullets’. The DMZ has now jumped to first place on my list of locations to explore.

No doubt I’ll have to make at least 2 or 3 museum visits to keep hubby happy. I have nothing against museums and find a lot of them interesting as well as educational but there are only so many museums that can be crammed into one holiday before they become more of a chore (a fact my darling beau thankfully, may slowly be discovering).

Then there’s all these interesting little fact’s I’ve been learning about Seoul and Seoulites.

On the menu are foods like silkworm larvae, dog-meat soup and seasoned raw minced meat.

And it would appear the more traditional wooden and plastic chopsticks are not good enough for the Seoulites - they use metal ones.

They have Love Motels, which sound interesting. Hubby if you’re reading this we may have to schedule a few hours to visit one – apparently they’re pay-by-the-hour.

Motorcyclists often speed along the pavement and bus drivers routinely drive through red lights.

Police wear full riot gear, large shields, batons, the lot.

Cash still seems more popular than credit cards.

Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, was created at Seoul National University (SNU) in South Korea

And my favourite. Karaoke is hugely popular and cost about a fiver an hour. Well, that’s my first nights’ entertainment sorted!

Now all that remains is finding somewhere to rest my head in this exciting city.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Memories of Moscow

Finally got around to uploading photos from my last holiday. Oh the memories; good and bad.

Planning
Russia was probably the most complicated holiday I ever booked. Not that many travel agents specialise in Russia and the few that do seemed intent on selling me a group tour. Not against group tours but prefer to do my own thing in my own time.
Booked flights directly with BA, into Moscow out of St Petersburg – easy enough. Hotels there are all overpriced in my opinion but managed to get a slight discount booking them via an agency. Actually I managed to get the Kempinski in Moscow at a decent rate.

The real headache was getting the visa and invitation letters so just used an agency which did it all – for a hefty fee of course. But I still had answer the reams of questions ranging from a list of all the countries I’d visited in the last 10 years to information on any specialised skills I possessed in nuclear matters or biological chemicals! And I still had to ‘register’ my visa when I got to both cities and depending on the hotel they’d be an extra charge for that.

Then there was booking the trains from Moscow to St Petersburg, via seat61.com which routed back through an agency so about 30% extra for their commission … oh the joy.

Worries
So everything was finally booked and I should have been looking forward to the holiday right? Well, reading some of the advice of the FCO’s website was quite concerning.

Then there was the terrorist attack on the train from Mos to SP in late November where 26 people lost their lives. This did nothing to help ease my already over concerned mind.

And just as I was tempted to think that I had experienced every headache planning a holiday could bring, BA cabin crew vote in favour of 12 day walk out over Christmas. Was one holiday really worth it I asked myself?

Finally make it to bag drop, but it’s not smooth sailing yet. Check in lady had to check, re check, triple check the visa then phone for one of the visa experts to come and check it because there’s some good fakes out there and if we got to Russia and it was proved to be a fake then they impound the plane for a £25,000 fee.

But it was worth the effort of getting as all my fears were unfounded I had a completely problem free holiday.

Holiday Highlights in pictures

Eventually I was there, the largest country in the world! 3 nights in the capital city, 1 night on an overnight train, 4 nights in St Petersburg.


Kempinski Moscow. The only bad thing about this hotel is just how hard it is to tear yourself away and see the sites.









Traditional Slavic resturant










Flights to Moscow £280 pp. Stay at Kempinski £200 per night. A kiss in front of St Basil’s, in the snow … priceless












Beats London Underground


Overnight train to SP. Not quite value for money compared to flying (train tickets £116 each, 7 hours. Flight £57 each, 1 hour) but a nice experience.


Hermitage in the snow…. So worth the effort of getting here











Father Frost, as he is known in Russia. They celebrate Christmas on 7th January
Feel yourself Russian – folk show at the Nikolaevsky Palace theatre.


Only took this photo in passing, didn’t go in.


Stuck in the snow













How cold??

Church on the Spilt Blood, St Basil, St Isaac’s Cathedral. You can’t beat Russian architecture.



New Years Eve in Palace Square










Father Frost band
It was a great holiday. Shame they make it so complicated and expensive to get there. My next visit to Russia will hopefully be on Trans-Siberian Express!

Monday 1 February 2010

Sushi, Sumo ... and Seoul

Japan, Japan, Japan. So much to see, so much to do, so many questions…
I’ve decided to go in May, just after the Cherry Blossoms, before the rainy season kicks in, followed by the hot, humid summer. Deciding when to go was the easy bit – now for the real important stuff!

1) Do I do a 3 night stopover in Seoul and 11 days in Japan? If so itinerary will run:
3 nights Seoul
3 nights Tokyo
2 nights Hakone
3 nights Kyoto (day trip to Nara and Osaka)
2 nights Hiroshima (day trip Miyajima)
2) If I do the above, am I missing any key places in Japan?
3) Do you REALLY have to bathe naked in an onsen? Surely there must be one somewhere that allows you to wear a swimsuit?? Not that I have anything to be ashamed of, naturally…
4) What happens if it’s cloudy when I visit Hankone and I don’t get a view of Mt Fuji?
5) Is it worth arranging a visit to the Imperial Palace? I understand you have to make arrangements in advance.
6) Are Ryokans really that expensive? I’ve been quoted more than £300 per night!
7) Is it worth staying in a Ryokan in Kyoto as well or just in Hakone?
8) Is Asiana a good airline? Never flew them before.
9) Luggage forwarding system seems like a great idea. Is it really that simple?
10) 14 day rail pass is too long. 7 day pass will expire the day before I need to return to Tokyo for flight (seems cheaper than flying from Hiroshima) What to do?....

And the list goes on…. HELP!
Then there’s the questions of what I’m going to see, where I’m going to go. Time to visit a specialist me thinks.