Mt. Fuji – November 14, 2007

We knew that we would be leaving Japan soon. It seemed that the smart thing to do would be to travel more and see as much as we could before we left. Paola suggested that we head to Mt. Fuji and see what there was to see there.

We woke up early, so that we could catch the first bus. We woke up at 5, and then took the train to Shinjuku, which took about an hour. We didn’t know where the bus stop was, so we walked around for a while looking for it. The bus fare was less expensive than we expected, so that was good. The bus took about 2 hours, and we were able to see the mountain pretty much the whole way from the window of the bus.

When we got there, we felt like we were basically at the foot of the mountain. However, we were actually about another hour from the base of the mountain from where people might begin hiking up the mountain. We were able to get a great view of the mountain from the bus station, but there were the ever-present power lines that blocked what would otherwise be a perfect view.

To get the perfect view, we walked to a hill that had an observation deck. At the bottom of the hill, we paid to take a cable car up to the top of the hill where the observation area was. It was a great view, and there weren’t that many people to contend with.

Once we were finished with that viewing, I wasn’t quite sure what else there was to do. Paola suggested that we go see another temple. The guide book led her to believe that it was a mere fifteen minute walk. It took us at least an hour to walk there. She was not in a good mood at all, and even though the temple was neat to see within the forest at the base of the mountain, it was rather uneventful.

Paola next wanted to see a cave that was nearby because she is fascinated with caves. We ended up having to take a taxi for about twenty minutes to the cave. The price of the taxi ride was very high, and this made Paola that much more upset. It made sense, though, if one were to look at the map, that this place was far away, and the taxi ride would be expensive.

The cave was an ice cave that was formed in prehistoric times by the lava flow of Mt. Fuji. Within the cave, ice occurred naturally, and so it was called the ice cave. Walking through the cave was fun. The floor was slippery, and the ceiling low. I didn’t slip, but I did hit my head a couple of times. At one point, we had to crawl through a short tunnel. As fun as it was, walking through the cave took less than fifteen minutes. Because we paid so much for the cab ride, it didn’t seem worth it.

After we left, we decided to wait for the bus rather than pay more for a taxi. When we got to the bus stop, the schedule said that we would have to wait an hour and a half for the next bus. It was worth it to wait. We waited. And waited. After two hours, the bus never came. Perhaps we misread the bus schedule (it was in Japanese, after all). We walked back up to the office of the ice cave, and called a taxi from there, so we had to wait for two hours to pay for the taxi. It seemed like a huge waste of time. To make matters worse, when we got to the bus station, we tried to buy a bus ticket home, but the next available bus was a two hour wait. So, although seeing the mountain, temple, and the ice cave was neat, we wasted a lot of time and money, and that took away from the joy of the whole experience.

Grand Palace

From there we walked through a south gate into the grounds of the Grand Palace. This is supposedly where the king lives. Indeed it is grand. We saw the big building, and then walked by into the concession stand, where I had something to drink, and put my head down. I couldn’t believe that I was still sick from the morning.

From there, we walked back up to Khaosan Road to get a few last minute souvenirs. Paola was hungry, so she got something to eat, but I couldn’t eat. I just had some lime soda. While I was there, I went to the toilet, used it, and then threw up. I felt a little bit better, now at the end of the day. Paola and I bought a few last minute things and then went to the airport. We were finally leaving Thailand.

Wat Phra Kaew

We walked down to the Grand Palace, which was in the same area as we had been earlier in the week. However, this time we came early, so it was open, and we got to go in the grounds. To be sure, we didn’t go inside the actual palace, but the grounds are very large. In fact, in addition to the Grand Palace, which is further south, there is a temple called Wat Phra Kaew, north of the palace, but on the same grounds.

We walked around the wat, and looked around. It was more of the same, which was basically Thai-styled temples. They were interesting enough, but I felt that by now I had gotten my fill. And since I was still feeling sick, I decided to find a nice place to sit down, and Paola ran around and saw most of it, and took pictures. When she was done, she came and got me, and we did a quick run through so I could see what I might have missed.

Bangkok – November 6, 2007

I woke up this morning fine. We went down to the hotel restaurant and had the complementary breakfast. After the breakfast, I did not feel good. My stomach got upset and, I felt nauseous. Once again, I got sick in Thailand. I could not figure out if it was the microwave dinner we got at 7-11 last night, or if it was the breakfast, but it was certainly something that I ate. Paola was fine. I guessed that it was actually the dinner from last night, since Paola stopped eating it, and I ate all of mine, and what was left of hers. Too much Thai curry, I suppose. In any case, I got sick, and sat over the toilet in the hotel room until I threw up… twice. I felt bad because I had told Paola that we would go out and see the sights that we had missed earlier in the week because I was sick then. After resting for a long time, I forced myself to go out.

This time we went out earlier, so we were able to see a few more things.

Back in Bangkok

By now I hated being in Thailand. This was in spite of the decent time we had in Koh Samui, laying out on the beach. Arriving back in Bangkok for one more day was not pleasing to me. We got a taxi back to the same hotel that we stayed at before, and checked in. I convinced Paola to just stay in for the night, and that we would go catch the last sights tomorrow. We got some prepared food at the 7-11 that was next door, and called it a night.

To the airport

When we finally got to the bottom of the hill again, we asked the taxi driver to take us to the zoo. However, I asked one more time how much this would cost. He finally gave an outrageous price. His excuse was that he had waited for over two hours for us while we were hiking. I felt cheated, and it seemed to me like all the mistrust that I had for the taxi drivers and vendors finally had concrete reason. In all fairness, he did wait for a long time, and since there were no other taxis, we needed him to do that. What bothered me, though, was that when I had asked him before, he didn’t tell me, and so I felt like he was dishonest. Rather than go to the zoo, I told him to just take us straight to the airport, since we didn’t want to spend more money for him to wait at the zoo for us. After arguing about the fare, I just accepted that we would have to pay it, since I didn’t trust that, if we had just left without paying, the police would be on our side in this seemingly corrupt country.

However, before taking us to the airport, he took us back to our resort that we had already checked out of. I had suspected that he didn’t understand before we set out, and now here we were. When we arrived at the hotel, I redirected him to the airport. We finally got there, and stayed at the airport for a few hours rather than get swindled out of more money.

Hin Lad Waterfall

We got a taxi from the street, which I expected to be ok because it wasn’t a tuk-tuk, and the taxis are metered and regulated. We told him that we wanted to go to Hin Lad waterfall. He told us that he would take us there, and wait for us to take us somewhere else after, maybe the zoo, and then take us to the airport. I asked him how much it would cost, and he told me that I could pay him later. His English wasn’t too good, and I felt that there was something lost in translation. Oh well. When we got to the waterfall, I again asked about the cost of the trip, and he didn’t give a clear answer. In any case, since there were no other taxis around, we had to have him wait for us while we hiked up the trail.

The trail to the waterfall was not that grueling, as there was a narrow dirt path. We felt like it was a fun thing to do, and that we were doing something adventurous. Paola was reminded about her trip to the Amazon, where they had to trek through similar jungle, except without a laid out path. Because the path was not well defined, Paola kept asking if we were going the right way. I tried to assure her that we were, since we kept walking up hill, along the river that the waterfall must empty into.

Before getting to the top, we came across a retired couple who were walking down. They told us that we had about twenty more minutes to go. We really thought that we were doing a challenging hike, but when we saw this older couple going, and the lady wearing flip-flops, it no longer seemed like it was that hard. The whole way up, and then back down, which took about two hours, we only saw that older couple, and one other couple when we walked back down, so although I am sure lots of people have been here before, the isolation made it seem like we were on an adventure all alone.

When we got to the end of the path, there was a man who set up a shack to sell water and other drinks. There were a lot of big rocks in the river that helped us walk out and even across the river. From there we could look up and see the waterfall, passing through the path it has carved through the rocks. It was neat to see the waterfall, and turn around to see the river flowing down the hill. Taking the hike was a fun adventure that helped us see a different, more natural side of Thailand, and that was pleasant.