Jack and Niamh's Sabbatical Adventures

Author: jackohanlon13

  • Welcome to the Jungle

    We took a taxi to Khao Sok, a little town on the edge of the national park

    Going on a jungle hike in the daytime we saw a gibbon, some langurs, and plenty of macaques

    On the night safaris we saw some sleeping monkeys, plenty of creepy crawlies, a slow loris, and a family of civets (last photo, upper right)

    We paid a visit to the elephant sanctuary to see a few elephants who they rescued from working in a logging camp, working in the circus, and wandering the streets begging for bananas

    Niamh sheltered from a thunderstorm in a tattoo parlour

    Today we’re off to stay on the lake in a floating hotel, the rainforest is living up to its name

  • Monkeys v Chihuahuas

    Molly was scared of thunder and had to be held

    We went to Bananas Bungalows in Khao Thong and were greeted by their 5 chihuahuas.

    Jo Jo would appear by teleportation whenever food was served
    Rambo was shy but very photogenic
    The monkeys love the hammocks
    But didn’t like to share
    And didn’t want anyone taking their coffee
    Sunsets were quite dramatic here
    Hundreds of bats would fly over from the island a little after sunset
    We went on a kayak trip out to the mangroves
    And tried out some stand up paddle
    I had the world’s most lettucey sandwich
    Jailed for misbehaviour

  • Swimming With Sharks

    We got the ferry to Koh Phi Phi then a longtail boat dropped us off at the hotel beach

    We had a nice little cabin with a hammock and the beach was a minute away down the steps

    There were lots of friendly cats and kittens who would kindly join you at breakfast and tea so you didn’t feel lonely, no other motive

    We did a boat trip to see the monkeys at monkey bay

    Niamh managed to see whilst snorkelling for the first time! All thanks to her skilled engineering

    Which meant she could see the shark! (Apologies for the picture quality). We also saw a baby shark (doo doo – doo doo doo doo)

    We swam in a nice bay

    And visited The Beach from the hit film The Beach. Not pictured: masses of tourists getting told off for breaking the rules about staying out of the water.

    At the end of the tour we swam in the dark with bioluminescent plankton then got soaked in a tropical downpour on the walk home

    I misheard the waitress when ordering drinks and had to suffer through two negronis

  • We’re in Thailand Now

    We got into Bangkok, checked in, and headed to a rooftop bar for some beers and food. The waiter must have thought we weren’t enjoying ourselves because he bought us a set of Dobble to play

    Chinatown has a series of colourful manhole covers to seek out and photograph

    We walked to the snake farm so Niamh could taunt a king cobra

    We found the monitor lizards from Attenborough’s series on Asia

    There’s lots of really nice temples here, they really really love gold

    We fell for the classic scam of talking to someone in the street and within minutes you’re in a tuktuk and then on a boat taking a tour to the floating market (we did have a lovely time though)

    One of the temples has a GIANT reclining Buddha. It’s really hard to explain how big it is (Niamh pictured for scale). Apparently they built the Buddha then put up the building around it

  • Golden Guinness

    We got the bullet train to Kanazawa, most important thing to do after arriving: get the stamp.

    Kanazawa is less touristy than the other cities we went to, it’s got 3 traditional tea room areas and some famous gardens

    Kanazawa is famed for its gold so we took the chance to make some new wedding rings after we both managed to break our original ones. We used little hammers to make the katakata style pattern and Niamh used the mallet to carefully adjust the size of mine
    Tiny bar that has possibly six cats living in it but we only met one
    Probably the freshest fish I’ll ever eat
    Food in Kanazawa was quite varied. Ramen continues to feature heavily in our diet, Niamh’s even eaten some mushrooms
    Went to a small Scottish bar where the barman was very keen to tell us he actually has the Guinness shipped in from Ireland. This was probably the fanciest pint of Guinness I’ve ever had.
    Another bar offered pints that are 90% head and people were actually ordering them

  • Visiting the Onsen Town

    We went from Osaka to Kinosakionsen, a town famous for its 6 public baths (onsens) all within walking distance of each other. They’re all tattoo friendly so Niamh didn’t get kicked out for being a gang member

    The hotel had a traditional style room with paper walls and futon beds. It gave us our pick of yukata and sandals with those weird socks which have a separate compartment for your big toe to wear around town.
    The hotel offered free drinks in the afternoon
    . . . and kept up the weird breakfast theme with a mix of bacon and eggs alongside soup and beef curry.
    But it redeemed itself in the evening with a 7 course beef dinner including a charcoal grill in the middle of the table to cook on
    There was a little shop where you could boil an egg in hot spring water and carefully take the top off to eat it. I absolutely crushed the egg for no reason
    There was a British themed pub in the town, it had ashtrays that I haven’t seen outside an antique shop since before the smoking ban
    We took the Kyoto FC train back to spend a night in Kyoto
    in a hotel with serve-yourself beer/whiskey and soda/sake sour taps then headed off to Kanazawa

  • Bowling, Big Fish, and Burning My Mouth on Takoyaki

    Just before the first strike of a perfect game
    Takoyaki are little whole octopuses fried in batter, they are hotter than the sun and will destroy your soft palate
    Osaka is bright, busy, and loud. There’s nice street food everywhere and cyclists flying around on the pavement trying to murder you
    But we did find some nice quiet places to eat and drink. If you find somewhere selling yuzu pepper you should probably buy some
    ALL YOU CAN EAT skewers for 70 minutes. All you have to do is batter, breadcrumb, and deep fry them at your table
    The Osaka aquarium was the biggest in the world when they built it and it has this totally alive seal
    And a gigantic baby penguin (right)
    And a giant tank with so many fish in including this ocean sunfish (my favourite)
    And the garden eels which got depressed during the pandemic
    And two whale sharks
    And a giant Ferris wheel which Niamh bravely went up in
    The hotel breakfast was one of the weirdest meals I’ve eaten, the mashed potato was squeezed out of a bag
    I got a self-heating eki-bento for our train journey to kinosakionsen, it was disappointingly lukewarm

  • Going to the Instagram Places

    Arashiyama bamboo forest. Full of people getting annoyed at how many people are in their photos
    Kyoto today day/night

    Fushimi Inari Taisha. Has ~10,000 of these red tori gates that have been donated by a business. Also full of people getting annoyed at how many people are in their shot, but if you walk 40 minutes up the hill it gets so much quieter

    And you get a view that just about stretches all the way to Osaka (doesn’t really show up on the photo)

    And you get to see the shrine cats

    Nara is the place with the really friendly deer who hang out with you and share your beer
    They do bow nice and politely to request a little snack
    They also bite and push and headbutt if you’re not quick enough or they think you’re hiding snacks from them
    But they’re very cute (and possibly sacred?) so they get away with it
    There’s a huge shrine in Nara with a 15 m tall Buddha
    Can’t forget to collect the stamp
    The last time we ordered a mega beer here it was less than a pint, this time we got surprised with a litre
    Restaurant bought out a camping stove for our duck hot pot. The waitress explained to us that the egg is for dipping the meat into, not for swallowing whole

  • Monkeys and Pigs

    We got the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto which took about 2 hours. Tokyo station was so full of people moving in every direction. Luckily we decided to use the luggage transfer system to send our big bags to the next hotel
    Niamh is filling up her book of stamps at the stations
    Kyoto isn’t as cramped as Tokyo but you still get the cute, tiny bars
    We went to an okonomiyaki (type of savoury pancake) restaurant for tea and it had a hot plate in the middle to keep everything warm
    Animal cafes are really popular here, this one has pigs who will fully nap in your lap. At one point someone spilt their coffee and the pigs went feral trying to slurp it up off the ground
    Nishiki market is great for going stall to stall to build up a lunch

    Didn’t trust the chef enough to try the fugu
    Arashiyama has a troop of fairly relaxed macaques living in it

    Kyoto is packed with Buddhist and Shinto shrines and temples
    Congratulations it is a pig!

  • Capybara, lamb heart sashimi, and Hakone

    Inokashira park had a little zoo which had some fairly sad-looking animals in and a less-sad sculpture park.
    We went to a cat/capybara cafe. The cats were much softer than the capybara and much more agile
    Shinjuku at night is crazy. There’s people everywhere and a giant 3D cat, and Godzilla is just chilling out. We went to the dirtiest bar in the world, possible ground zero of whatever the next contagion is
    The area we’re staying in is mostly Italian restaurants and gay bars so it’s not that easy to find somewhere to serve you Japanese food but we did find somewhere doing good ramen. I was still a bit hungry so I had a raw lamb heart at a pub
    We took a trip out on the train to Hakone and tried our first eki-bento, a pre-packed meal sold at train stations.
    Also you can get hot drinks from vending machines but they are just bottles that come out surprisingly hot
    Hakone is a bit up in the hills so there was a fair bit of snow about. It’s a volcanic area so a few places had hot foot baths
    They are known for their black eggs which are cooked in the hot springs
    The journey back to Tokyo began with a trip on a pirate ship across lake Ashi. The views were incredible but we couldn’t see Mt Fuji, at times we couldn’t see what was 10 m ahead of us