ZECO TRAVEL TALK

Home! Well at least for me, as I live just over an hour away in Ebetsu. As we neared the Japanese coastline, my phone service kicked in and I was able to call home and check that my partner, Mayumi, was on her way to the harbor and carrying her kimono in readiness for the final dinner on board. That, however, was to be several hours away. In the meantime, after our morning at sea and our Japanese clearance procedures had been completed, we all set off ashore. Most were bound for Otaru City—just a stone’s throw from the dock, with visits to the famous local glass studio, which reached its original hey-day through the production of glass for glass oil lamps and for floats used in the local herring fishery, and to the Aoyama Bettei villa to learn more of the fishery. Meanwhile, a pair of taxis arrived to whisk the birders off to a lovely local valley. Mayumi and I regularly hike to Mt Haruka, a mountain just west of Otaru, so I had chosen the lower reaches of that trail as the site that the birders should head for on our last birding foray of a fantastic trip. Read more

Wow! What a day! A fantastic fiery sunrise kicked off a day which involved us going ashore on tiny Tyuleniy in the Sea of Okhotsk. Approaching from the south, the island became noticeable first because it was literally carpeted wall-to-wall with mammals and birds, second because of the incredible sound, and third because of the smell of all of those creatures. We pushed our way ashore through ranks of Northern Fur Seals and spent over three hours with our senses on overload. Read more

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the capital of Kamchatka Province in Russia’s Far East. The city of 200,000 residents is the center of Kamchatka’s lucrative salmon fishery and houses Russia’s largest submarine base. Petropavlovsk (the city of St. Peter and St. Paul) was founded in 1740 by Vitus Bering, a Danish explorer in the service of the Russian Navy. Bering named the settlement after the two ships, the St. Peter and the St. Paul, which he used in his discovery of Alaska and the Bering Strait (1741-1742). During the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian fur traders exploited the sea otter (“Kamchatka beaver”), then so numerous that the first Russian term for the Pacific Ocean was the “Beaver Sea.” Sea otter pelts, the most valuable of all furs, were traded for Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain. Salmon has been Kamchatka’s main export since the early 20th century. The salmon fishery was dominated by Japanese entrepreneurs after the Russo-Japanese War (1905) through the Second World War (1945). Since 1945, Russian fishing interests have controlled the valuable Kamchatka salmon fishery. Read more

April 26 – Miyajima/Hiroshima: Our day was a mix of emotions: The morning dawned bright and hopeful off the coast near to the sacred town of Miyajima, but fated to be a day of such stark and brutal extremities of experience.

From the holy shrines of the Lord Buddha and Shintoism, where silence reigned golden and serenity was the eternal paradigm beyond the legendary seabound Torri Gate, the veritable symbol of ancient Japan, we moved to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park: a peace theme park for a world which will never tire of war; a symbolic expiation of unexpressed Japanese guilt for a war and its catalog of atrocities.

A beautiful park and a mournful museum. But a sad place in so many other ways: not just a memorial to those who died but a stinging indictment of a nation’s inhumanity and blind insouciance. Indeed, a deeply depressing place enlivened only by the laughter and innocence of hundreds of Japanese schoolchildren. May they be long preserved from understanding man’s inestimable iniquities.

April 28 – Tsushima: It lent its name to arguably the most decisive battle of the twentieth century: the Battle of the Tsushima Straits. It saw the demise of Russian naval power as the much traveled Baltic Fleet was wiped out in the cold waters between Japan and Korea in May 1905. More than 4,000 Russian peasants turned sailors drowned and more than 5,000 were taken prisoner by their Japanese foes.

There is little evidence today of that seminal event on Tsushima Island, except that it is still divided in two parts: the Japanese used dynamite to force a passage through the island for its own fleet. That ‘cut,’ bridged by a vivid red, half-moon steel structure, still survives but no shipping passes through it. The island is sleepy: temples, lantern memorials to dead samurai, and dramatic though mist-laden vistas.

Not so many people make it to these parts. The island, just 30 miles from the coast of Korea, fails to make it into Lonely Planet. Once so important, today its existence hardly seems to matter.

In 2009, I had the good fortune to travel with 23 intrepid Zegrahm travelers on our visit to the “Five ‘Stans” (aka: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan). For those who don’t know me, I am a program manager at Zegrahm & Eco Expeditions and organize all the operational details for several of our expeditions. I have been at it for many years, but let me be the first to tell you that securing visas to travel in this part of the world was an adventure unto itself. And, after spending nearly three months going back and forth with ground operators and government officials, it was so rewarding to see all the exhausting (and, at times, frustrating) work pay off for an adventure to the Five ‘Stans that proved to be a trip of a lifetime.

Not only does this region offer wonderfully-preserved architectural wonders and fascinating local markets, but also some great areas for hiking and warm, friendly people who are excited to share their home with you. While it was an action-packed itinerary, I did have time to snap a few photos from our trip: View my photo gallery!

If you would like to learn more about our 2011 itineraries, feel free to email me or call me at 800-628-8747.

-Gretchen Boller, Program Manager

While the majority of the group went in search of famous city sights and shopping bargains, 16 of us headed out to one of Hong Kong’s premier natural history locations, Tai Po Kau, situated in the New Territories. While the weather was not in our favor, we enjoyed a lengthy walk through a lovely area of forest and the birds and wildlife we saw along the way. The diverse, mature, largely evergreen forest here has now matured, but was once a scene of devastation. Most forest in Hong Kong was destroyed during or immediately after WWII, but luckily Tai Po Kau was re-planted and survives today as an important recreational area and nature reserve. Read more

We spent the better part of two days admiring and experiencing the splendor created by the Champs kingdom which flourished in the area between Tonkin to the north—with its Chinese-influenced Vietnamese culture—and the Mekong delta region that was populated by Cambodian Khmers. The Cham people were Malay in origin whose rules adopted the Hindu religion from immigrant princes from India. Between the 5th and 16th centuries, the Cam built complex temples with red brick and white stone towers and temples devoted to the pantheon of Hindu gods. We visited such temple sites in Nha Trang where we saw the Po Nagar Cham temples overlooking a picturesque bay with numerous small fishing vessels, circular woven bamboo boats, and sampans. Outside Qui Nhon, we visited the remnants of a former huge temple complex at Bahn It, and outside Hoi An at My Son, most of our passengers visited the remnants of the former Cham temple there. Read more

Dr. Mark Brazil, a regular Zegrahm expedition leader and field staff member, is also a published author and avid wildlife photographer. Mark happily shares some digital photography tips in the October edition of the ‘Wild Watch’ column he writes for The Japan Times.

Mark’s column provides insight into maximizing small-bodied cameras, shooting wildlife close to home, visiting a local zoo to improve your skills, and exploiting smaller subjects for their photogenic qualities. Read the full article at this link: Wildlife on your doorstep.

Mark will be leading several expeditions for us in the near future, including one he designed especially for Zegrahm. Our Snow Monkeys & Cranes Eco-Expedition highlights Japan’s striking beauty and prolific winter wildlife. The peaceful, snow-clad landscape of the rural countryside and soft, winter light create the perfect backdrop for amazing photography. And though Mark designed this expedition with nature-lovers and serious photographers in mind, travelers will also enjoy a unique culinary experience as our gracious hosts serve us gourmet Japanese dishes and share time-honored dining traditions.