Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
Morning peeps, esp ornithopterists. Or is it ornithologists.
Different view of tall buildings. Bit mirky today, hot and humid central. View of the tall buildings from Botanic Gardens.
Click image to enlarge
Bird with an identity crisis.
Click image to enlarge
Very embarassed bird!!
Click image to enlarge
And pretty but hungry/greedy/opertunistic parrot type birds. I’ve tried to google the name but it just auto corrects to lawyers. Apt apart from the pretty bit.
Click image to enlarge
Yep, a couple of hours spent at the KL Bird Park. Back to first world prices for entries, ice creams and water.
Getting sorted for start of next leg of jolly. As I’m I/C getting around I’m getting terrified at the though of trying to catch buses in more remote areas. It’s all Japanese script and not even numbers on GoogMaps.
Click image to enlarge
VC time. I can type that without looking over my shoulder now.
11th May 2019 9:56 am
Pelyma
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Patching, Sussex
Posts: 15496
A Rainbow Lorikeet Del DS3 TDV6 HSE - Silver with Alpaca (old one) Gone
DS3 TDV6 HSE- Silver with Alpaca (new one) Gone
D4 HSE Lux - Montalcino Red Gone
Porsche Cayenne V8 Diesel S
11th May 2019 10:11 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
That’s the one. Peeps could buy little cups of food and they’d have a whole load of new friends.
Click image to enlarge
He lived in hope when I stuck my hand out. Well for a short time.
Click image to enlarge
11th May 2019 10:18 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
Last hot & sweaty day for a while. Although only 34c it was pretty oppressive and I was soaked to the skin. We got the train to Putrajaya, the admin centre S of KL and went for a little 10km walk. What is it the say about mad dogs & Scotsmen? Needless to say we were virtually the only peeps walking. When the sun was hidden behind the clouds it was not too bad, when it put its hat on it was seriously hot so walking consisted of “sprints” between bits of shade. We walked to the big mosque as seen from the swanky bridge.
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
That was where the water tour of the lakes should have started but as they didn’t have the numbers it didn’t go. Then hiked back, via the first Micky Dees we’d been in for over 3 months for cold drinks and fries. We were both craving salt and carbs. Deffo hit the spot.
Back past the Anti Corruption Commision building. Maybe if they’d paid out a few bungs they’d have gotten their lower floors.
Click image to enlarge
Swanky (my fave word for today) train back to KL. And fast. It got up to 90 mph, the fastest we had seen on surface transport since leaving home. Probably for a looooooooong time for me since I’d never taken any of the Discos that fast. Vietnam Railways eat yer heart out.
Click image to enlarge
And my fave sign of the whole trip. Now that would have gone down a treat in Vietnam, and totally ignored. If there was shade somebody would be asleep there.
Click image to enlarge
12th May 2019 10:23 am
ianm27
Member Since: 02 Jun 2016
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2154
That is some bridge!
Hope the sign was not outside your room/suite/whatever you managed to blag from the hotel
I'm guessing there are internet problems now you have arrived in the Land of The Rising Sun ??Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
Limo Tint
Blackvue front & rear dashcam
Cruise control switch pack
Bodsy's remote for FBH
14th May 2019 9:42 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
おはようキャンピングカー
Well that’s what GoogTranslate has for Good a morning campers.
Yep, got here. Presently tucked up in hotel near Hakata train station down in Kyushu, the southern big island.
Not too bad a flight down, upgraded to “flatbed” so lots of legroom. The plane was themed to a Korean pooter game which was quite novel.
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
O/N at a hotel in Hadena Apt, we didn’t get in until late, then sort out Rail Pass, pick up SIM, IC card (contactless payment for tpt not covered by rail pass) and cash. Really weird having an ATM talk you through all the steps, in English luckily.
Then a traditional first meal in Japan. McMuffin combo, suuuuuuuuuperb.
Click image to enlarge
Then the over 600 mile train ride to Hakata. Our first Shinkansen. Fun at the station, with no data. Luckily previous searches had been retsined on the life saving NAVITIME app. Bit worrying when the indicator boards are like this.
Click image to enlarge
Luckily they do change to something we can read.
Click image to enlarge
And our first Shinkansen.
Click image to enlarge
A bit busy so not sat together until the next again station but that gave me time to get well annoyed as the SIM we had wouldn’t play. Even reading the instructions and sorting out the typo in the APN settings wouldn’t work.
Then changed at Shin-Osaka (JR Rail Pass doesn’t work on the super long range trains), time to pick up lunch from the myriads of stalls selling scoff. Haven’t had one of these since leaving the Japanese company I worked for. Scrummy. SWMBO stayed traditional (for us) and had sarnies.
Click image to enlarge
We could have gone for an ultra cute Shinkansen bento box, but would have hated to throw out that box.
Click image to enlarge
And the second Shinkansen. Plenty of room as it started from Shin-Osaka.
Click image to enlarge
This one was a smidgen faster than the first one, this was the max we saw but that was just when I was running the app.
Click image to enlarge
Got here, went to wrong JR hotel, went back through station to right one, got settled in and went off in search for a US/Japanese power lead for my tech charger. Wasn’t hopeful but found an electronics place next to the station that was mahooooooooosive so tech is charging nicely. UK cable is in the bin as we have loads back home.
In hotel sorting out the AC was fun, but we got there. God knows how but we did.
Click image to enlarge
And 3 guesses what this is the control for. And yes sitting on a heated seat was a very novel experience!!
Click image to enlarge
Only “local” TV so was watching sumo.
Click image to enlarge
And the weather forecast was interesting.
Click image to enlarge
I did say this was going to be a challenging country to travel through.
Oh, and sorted out data as the sim needed registering, as well as no typos in APN settings. Lots of WiFi in stations but it’s often a case of registering then clicking the link in an email they send you, then you can connect. But you can’t receive the email as you can’t connect. Rant over.
14th May 2019 11:12 am
Fireburst
Member Since: 02 Nov 2017
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 186
Great country to visit been there several times, will you be trying "Fugu" I have eaten it three times but it can be a life changing experience!! You may want to Google it before you try it
14th May 2019 11:36 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
No need to google and safe to say I won’t be trying fugu. I’m not that brave.
14th May 2019 11:46 am
ianm27
Member Since: 02 Jun 2016
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2154
Certainly ticking the boxes on things to put in the memory scrap book
The toilet control panel looks really interesting and suggests you can increase/decrease the power Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
Limo Tint
Blackvue front & rear dashcam
Cruise control switch pack
Bodsy's remote for FBH
14th May 2019 4:24 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
Re loo, SWMBO’s still trying how to turn the heating function off, but she’s getting no help from me as I quite like it!!
Bit of a bimble around a small bit of Fukuoka, Metro over to a very pretty lake bridges to islands, fishies, ducks and turtles. Really nice and tranquil, weather was boooootiful at 29c with a nice breeze.
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
No weeing allowed in the water.
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
And it looks like the swans from Hanoi have Japanese cousins, or are here on their holibobs!!
Click image to enlarge
And a castle to do the old pano shot.
Click image to enlarge
On the way back to the station area & hotel from the castle passed this beauty, the first D3 I’ve seen since one in HK in early Feb. She demanded a pic.
Click image to enlarge
We also did some planning on our rail travel, incl getting seats booked on a scenic oldie worldie train route, one part of it is a steam train. Well hopefully. We’ve developed a system for booking seats, which is SWMBO’s job officially. SWMBO has a piece of paper with when and where we want to go, I have the official timetable with Japanese place names as a screenprinted pic. Works a treat with minimal verbal comms. Plus lots of pointing and nodding on both sides. Our fave place, the Hakata booking office and the main route through the station, which has about 6 shopping malls, at least.
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
We’ve got 3 week JR Rail Passes (all Japan) and we think they will have paid for themselves after 8 days. I might have knocked up a spreadsheet.
You order through a machine, mostly in Japanese but enough English for us to figure it out.
Click image to enlarge
10 minutes later you are tucking into this feast. It’s a lot tastier than it look, honest. Good, fresh and, for Japan, pretty cheap.
Click image to enlarge
Now back in hotel with a sub £4 bottle of seven eleven own brand S American VC, most quaffable, watching Japanese TV. Quite entertaining.
Last edited by DSL on 15th May 2019 11:20 am. Edited 1 time in total
15th May 2019 11:00 am
stew 46
Member Since: 01 Dec 2011
Location: cornwall
Posts: 10146
Loooooks bledy ansom -------------------------------------------------
if you cant hold on dont let go , it ill come in handy for something even if you never use it.
D3 SE 05,
110 s wagon 300 tdi SOLD
h top transit
crew cab transit
transit connect
ausa dumper, muck truck .
peljob 2.5 digger
06 L 200 crew cab
15th May 2019 11:09 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
It was indeed.
Assuming you meant the scoff.
15th May 2019 11:24 am
stew 46
Member Since: 01 Dec 2011
Location: cornwall
Posts: 10146
Was actually on about the lake -------------------------------------------------
if you cant hold on dont let go , it ill come in handy for something even if you never use it.
D3 SE 05,
110 s wagon 300 tdi SOLD
h top transit
crew cab transit
transit connect
ausa dumper, muck truck .
peljob 2.5 digger
06 L 200 crew cab
15th May 2019 11:29 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72742
It was indeed, really nice and peaceful. Great watching the fish and turtles, plus ducks. We hadn’t seen wild ducks since the wetlands park in HK. There’s not a lot of wildlife left in Vietnam we concluded. Nice restful morning.
15th May 2019 11:32 am
ianm27
Member Since: 02 Jun 2016
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2154
Sausages with curry??
Looks like a great start to your exploring of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Time for a tune from The Vapors?? Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
Limo Tint
Blackvue front & rear dashcam
Cruise control switch pack
Bodsy's remote for FBH
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum