The Frustrations of Self-Publishing

Hello all.
Today, please forgive me, I am going to be quite self indulgent. I will do my best to keep away from 'Oh woe's me!' and the like, but I can't make any firm promises.
So this self-publishing ebook lark. I started back in 2011 with no real idea what I was doing. I just got the first volume of Dhaka to Dakar out on kindle, and then wondered when someone was going to buy the thing. Forgot a bit about it as sales weren't forth coming and I was getting married and moving to Japan etc etc - life goes on.

2012 and I pressed on eventually with the second volume once settled here in Japan. I decided I could get SOMETHING out quicker if I released it chapter by chapter initially. And so I did that. And yes, I have a few more sales and I think it was a good idea simply because this way the titles were one-country specific, and not too broad. If someone was to search for a book, say, on Bosnia Herzegovina, my chapter on that might come up, and all the chapters were and are only 99 cents, aimed at actually making sales rather than money. And I continued on for the third book, Across Africa, which I think is easily the best of the three, the best written and the most interesting. And then combined them and put them out as volumes, and turned the first book Journey Through Asia into single chapter releases as well.

I mention the books in relevant blog posts, I hope I don't push too hard, and for a long while, apart from the very occasional facebook mention, that was all I was doing. As I was blogging very infrequently, that wasn't much in the way of publicity.

Last year in October I released Short Journeys: Ethiopia. I decided to do more writing, perhaps therapeutically more than anything else, but I included information on transport and accommodation as well as I continued the line with more Short Journeys, the most recent being Short Journeys: India.

Publicity

And this year I looked up the net for advice on how to publicise my ebooks. 2013 had a couple of good months, but to be honest I have never made more than 15 bucks in a month from my ebooks in total. So I read 'use twitter and social media', I found 'Goodreads' and have been listing my books there. When school finished I had a lot more time for this stuff, and I got into twitter, but I have to say - it's bloody exhausting! Publicising, listing in different places. As you know I've started publishing also with Payhip, which let's me keep 100% of the money made, and Lulu which doesn't, it keeps the first 99 cents as well, but it also put me on ibookstore, Nook and recently Kobo.

I made a page (and will make more) on Squidoo, my first was about India. I've connected with so many people in the last two weeks, primarily over twitter but tried to read as many blogs on travel as possible, like people's facebook pages if they like me back (I've had a lot of requests from people I started following, but any that didn't follow me back I can't even reply to!). I've thought about paying for campaigns but I'm not really sold on that. I joined tumbler but haven't started there as I don't really know what it's all about. I downloaded 'tweetdeck' (thanks to Dan Collins for that recommendation) so I could schedule tweets when I'm asleep and reach people awake on the other side of the world. I am living in Yokohama with no job other than this self publishing publicity lark (and writing) until May 9th when I return home to Australia and honestly, after just over a week here I'm a little crazy and bit depressed.

So where am I as of April 7th, 2014? How's it all going?

It's all, honestly, one big stressful ball of 'Argggggggghhhh!'.

Status of Payhip - around 6 weeks, with no sales. Maybe to be expected, it doesn't publicise your book at all and you publish in the rather boring PDF format.

Lulu. This picture says it all. I've link numerous times to Lulu and chatted about it here. I was very excited after my first sale, which took about five weeks. The graph went up. But now it's back down again. Second sale... where are you?

As for Amazon. Well, this year had been building very steadily, since December really. A few more sales each month. March I started to get into Twitter as I said. March turned out to be the best month ever in terms of total sales, I was really happy. Especially with Short Journeys. Short Journeys: Ethiopia has been the most successful book every month since it was published bar the first one I think.

A is for Amazon. But it is also for April. And despite the best of my publicity efforts, it's a week in and it's a shocker. TWO sales in a week. I've met my target 3 months running, but boy it's going to be hard with this start in April. I'm not sure what's happened. Have I over publicised? Have I reached everyone who was ever likely to buy the books in the first place? Who knows...

Reviews

One thing that's frustrating is getting reviews. I have two reviews for the Kazakhstan book, one for the Cameroon book, one for Dhaka to Dakar Book One: Journey Through Asia, and one each for the Bangladesh and Burkina Faso chapters, and that's it. All the reviews have been very positive thankfully. So, dear reader, I would ask that if you have read any of my books, and you don't mind, please do submit a review to Amazon or Goodreads, or even Lulu. They don't have to be more than a couple of sentences, and please... be kind!

I had no idea that this review existed for six months on Amazon for my Burkina Faso chapter of Dhaka to Dakar, it's really very kind.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent travel journal account of Burkina Faso September 1, 2013

By Penny L. Parker

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this book, especially given its modest cost and production efforts. The photos are great and were easy to view in my Kindle Paperwhite. The author has an engaging writing style. I was trying to do some research on Burkina Faso as a country for human rights reporting purposes. This book gave me a very good anecdotal coverage of the people and countryside. I was especially intrigued to hear of the author's ability to use Internet cafes everywhere he went, which helped me establish in my human rights reporting that Internet access is possible in the country, even if it is one of the poorest and most technology-challenged countries in the world.

Thanks for your time today in my little self indulgence. Three places you can find my books -

Andrew Boland at Goodreads
Links to Amazon, every book listed, some videos also linked to certain books.

Andrew Boland at Amazon - Author page
All my books are released on Amazon first.

Andrew Boland at Lulu - Author Spotlight

Normal service will resume shortly! May the journey never end.
 

Confessions of an Ebook Writer

I’ve been wanting to write about my experiences publishing online for a long while now, but have been looking for the right moment to sit down and bash out a page or two on the ol’ keyboard. I thought it might be interesting for those who know me, or those looking to have a go at epublishing themselves whatever the topic they might be writing. So, I hope it is!

How did it all come about, that I started this epublishing thing? Well, when I travel, ever since my first trip in 1999 I have kept a diary. I wasn’t so crash hot at keeping it up to date in 1999, but I did get in the habit of writing long entries. Anyone who’s read the blog knows I have a penchant for waffling on!

I started to really enjoy writing after a while, especially when I travelled the next time at the end of 2000-01, and I began to keep up much better. I would set aside time for writing each day when possible so I didn’t fall too far behind and had a clear recollection of what I was recounting. When in India 1999 I saw someone else sticking in postcards and tickets and the like into their diary, and I thought that looked like a great idea too, so I did it as well. As a result my diaries were getting longer and longer and heavier and heavier. When I left a country I would stick in money – coins and notes. Not of high value of course. The coins really weighed the diary down but I was really enjoying it and I haven’t stopped.

So after a while I had a lot of diaries, information and thoughts about the travel I had done, I started the blog in 2006, and I always wanted to try writing. My 2004 trip ‘Dhaka to Dakar’ became three trips finishing finally in 2007, and I thought this was a good topic to attempt for my first book. Looking at options, I decided to give Amazon Kindle a try. I had written drafts a few years earlier of the whole thing, but in 2011 I decided to put my head down and get them out there.

Except I was travelling. But in the second half of the year I was stopping a bit and had my laptop with me, so I took to editing in earnest. I’ve recently re-released Dhaka to Dakar Book One on Payhip and Lulu, and re-edited the whole thing adding a lot more photos and certainly felt a bit embarrassed by the book, especially the first chapter. So many errors I couldn’t believe I missed, and I’m sure I must have missed a lot more again. C’est La Vie. The first chapter was very clunky and I did my best to neaten it up, but it’s still not as I would like it.

With the first volume on Amazon not doing much, I didn’t have a lot of motivation to get the next two volumes up. I did eventually, but decided to release them one chapter at a time to make it more palatable. It seemed to work to some extent – I’d hardly had any sales, like less than 2 a month for the first six months, but the individual chapters were specifically about one country. They seemed to have a target. Eventually I released them as entire books and also the first book as chapters. The chapters on their own have been far more successful than the three books.

Last year I saw the sales improve somewhat, although I hadn’t seen a single cent from Amazon I knew it was a only a matter of time. Except that getting paid for an Australian is really difficult from Amazon. To accrue 100 dollars in sales to get a cheque could take five years to be honest. I see 35 cents from a sale of a chapter – the rate is 35% unless your book is over $2.99, then you can get 70% for anything sold from the US Amazon store.

And there’s another issue – the Amazon stores. There is a store in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Japan, India, Brazil and now Australia. Your sales only accrue from the individual stores. So you need to earn $100 or thereabouts from each store to get a cheque sent to you in Australia.

Well, that’s pretty darned frustrating. Amazon opened up a Kindle store for Australia with payments into Australian bank accounts. Only problem is – it’s only from the AUSTRALIAN store, so the other options are cheque – takes forever to accrue and costs to bank, maybe $25, and ‘wire’ transfer into your account, again accruing maybe $15 in bank fees. That will go through automatically every month in theory, but as I am presently earning around $10 a month, well, I can’t possibly see any of that money.

Having said that, here in Japan I can get a direct EFT deposit into my account and I am seeing something every month. It took 3 months of being stuffed around to happen, a comma was out of place or something I still don’t understand was preventing the transfer and it took three months of emails back and forth to sort out the issue. The bigger issue is that soon I return to Australia and how will I get paid? $10 a month is not much but it means something to me.

Amazon have told me they are working on other payment options but for now they can’t tell me what they are or when they will be ready to go. Last year I started ‘Short Journeys’ -  a series of books to talk about my experiences in other countries and give a little bit of travel information to the interested backpacker. So far I have four of those up for Kindle, Ethiopia (which has outsold everything else thus far), Kazakhstan, Laos (doing quite well) and Cameroon. I realise I may have done better to start with places more often travelled, but such is life. This weekend will see ‘Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan’ released.

I have developed new skills and learnt some valuable lessons. I had dreadful covers for the three Dhaka to Dakar books originally featuring a myriad of photos on each. In October 2013 I scrapped them in favour of better, clearer one-photo covers. I do believe that’s made a bit of a difference. I have been working on social media, trying to use it better.

All the literature out there about how to market your ebooks tells you in no uncertain terms to get on social media and plug plug plug! And so those following me on facebook will know that’s what I’ve started to do in the last twelve months, trying to tread a fine line between letting people know what I’ve written and annoying everyone with what constitutes as advertising! It seemed that in the end I had to start twitter as well, and so far I have managed to garner 42 followers in about four weeks. If you do want to follow me, you can @WorldJourneys75

On top of that is the World Journeys Website, with links to the blog and each of the titles I have published including information and more. This is the third version of the website. Amazon provides an author page, but it doesn’t allow me to organise it or set it out the way I would like and hence it’s quite a jumbled mess.

The next move (watch this space) will be to start a podcast. Everyone else is doing podcasts, right, and a travel podcast I think would be really interesting. I will be interviewing people about their travel experiences, different kinds of travel, favourite places and countries. Initially whilst I am still in Japan I want to do a couple of podcasts to kick it all off about life as a foreigner in Japan. I am hoping the podcast will be up and running in April or more likely May.

So anyway – The issues with Amazon are becoming more significant as I will be returning to Australia in a few months. Hence I decided it was time to spread my wings and publish on more platforms. I went for Lulu and Payhip. Payhip is basically just a platform that allows you a page for your book where it can be paid for by credit card or paypal. The payment goes direct to your paypal, so there is no waiting for payments. It’s a good system in its way, the books are pdf format there, however authors don’t have the advantage of the publicity of Amazon.

Lulu publishes on their own website but also publishes your book to the Apple Ibookstore and Nook which distributes through Barnes and Noble. They offer a better percentage of the sales than Amazon, however they take the first 99 cents so depending on your book price you can be better or worse off. They do pay direct to paypal as well. The advantage of this is that I will have access to my earnings easily in Australia, whereas with Amazon that simply is not the case. On the flip side of that, so far after two weeks with two books for sale on both Payhip and Lulu I am yet to achieve a single sale.

Amazon does help out with some publicity, although a lot is left to the writer to push his product. I get frequent emails suggesting I check out my own books and usually they are at the top of the list. (I get emails periodically suggesting I check out a list of titles) Still, Kindle is the most popular of ebook formats. Amazon also lets you promote your books for free if you’re part of their KDP programme, although despite the number of free promotions (I put the book on for free for a period of 1-5 days) and a number of people taking the free offers up, I haven’t managed to garner more than 3 reviews for all my works in total.

Using Payhip and Lulu has meant that I have to create two other formats for my books. Payhip is using PDF whereas for Lulu I use Epub, albeit with their epub creating tool which formats my word document. I need to use certain heading types and do a bit of reformatting to make that work, as I do need to make a couple of changes to get it to work better in PDF.

As it stands, I am just getting started with Lulu and Payhip, and will have to see how they fare over six months or a year. It took longer than that to get consistent sales on Amazon. Today I usually have 20 sales or more on Amazon, netting me around $10 every month. It’s far from a raging success and I have to work, blog, write, promote to keep the sales at that figure but it is something.

And so here I am, a few years in with still so much to learn, but getting better. Any other independent epublishers out there with experiences to share? Please comment!

Some of my ebooks:

Short Journeys: Ethiopia

Follow my route around Northern Ethiopia where I visit Addis Ababa, Lalibela, the Simien Mountains, Gondar and Bahir Dar. Full of tips and experiences.

Available here on Amazon.com

Available here on Amazon.co.uk

Short Journeys: Cameroon

The latest in the Short Journeys range covers a country in Africa not so visited, but with a wonderful vibe, vibrant, colourful, interesting and friendly. I visit Douala, Kribi, Limbe, Bamenda and the Ring Road and Yaounde. I take a boat ride into the jungle, see gorillas and other primates up close and explore one of the less-visited countries in Africa.

Available here on Amazon.com

Available here on Amazon.co.uk

Dhaka to Dakar: Through Asia (Second Edition)

The first of three books about my epic journey from Dhaka in Bangladesh to Dakar in Senegal. ‘Through Asia’ takes me through seven Asian countries including India, Pakistan and Iran and a wealth of experiences. The second edition features many more photos and the text has been re-worked. Second Editions of Books 2 and 3 are due out March and early April. On Payhpip (PDF) this book is only $1.39!!

Available here on Payhip - only $1.39

Available here on Lulu - with link to Ibookstore

Backpacking Basics

I have combined my experiences of travelling to 69 countries (and I haven’t finished yet!) into a short cheap read for the first time or inexperienced backpacker keen to learn tricks of the trade and tips and hints of how to organise a budget, what to bring, and how to prepare for a backpacking adventure.

 Available here onPayhip - only 99 cents

Available here on Lulu also with link to Ibookstore

Available here on Amazon.com

Available here on Amazon.co.uk

Top Ten Countries Number One - Iran

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

5 - Central Asia

4 – Laos

3 – Ethiopia

2 – India

1 - Iran

Eman Khomeini Square, Esfahan.

‘What? Your number one favourite destination is Iran Andrew? That’s the axis of evil! That’s where all the terrorists come from!’

Well, throw away all your preconceptions about Iran because for me it was the ultimate backpacking experience. I spent a month there nearly ten years ago now and it hasn’t changed as my favourite backpacking experience. I doubt it ever will. Why? Because it is a simply wonderful country to visit as a backpacker. Disregard what you think you know about the place and the people. There is not a country I have visited (and I’ve visited 69) with friendlier people. No, I’m not talking about the government or the theocracy, but the real people who are nothing but genuine, warm, hospitable folk prepared to open their doors to you at the drop of a hat.

The family I was 'kidnapped' by in Kerman.

People joke about being ‘kidnapped’ in Iran, about a family taking you in and it becomes impossible to leave not just because they don’t want you to, but principally because you are taken care of so well that you lose the urge to move on in your trip! It happened to me after crossing the Pakistan border. Met a guy as we crossed, stayed with his family in Kerman and was there for ten days. I don’t even impose of relatives for that long! Usually…

It’s good value for money Iran, and no mistake. The buses are comfortable, there are a plethora of historically important or just stunningly beautiful sites across the country, a month was not long enough for me there. You get decent hotels for little money, hospitality, kindness, adventure… the only catch is it’s pretty hard to get in if you’re from the UK and close to impossible if you’re from the US.

Karanagh

Yazd is a wonderful city, lots of mudbrick buildings and alleyways and lanes to explore. Not too far from Yazd is the site of a Zoroastrian temple, at the small village of Chak Chak, in the middle of a desert built into the side of a hill. It’s really beautiful and I did it on a day trip which took me also to the abandoned village of Karanagh. A really special little village of mud-brick houses. There was a lot more to the tour as well, including Camel kebab for lunch.

Persepolis

Shiraz is another great place. It’s the spot to reach Persepolis from, an ancient ruined Roman city in the desert. Another day tour combined with a couple of lesser sites. One of those sites was Naqsh-e Rostam, four tombs carved into cliffs that were reminiscent of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. Lesser sites? If it was a lesser site, it was only just!

Naqsh-e Rostam

Shiraz has a great market, good for buying carpets if you so desire, some ruins of its own and a couple of shrines dedicated to poets – poets are very popular in Iran.

Esfahan or Isfahan if you prefer, is regarded as something like the ‘jewel’ of Iran, and it’s not hard to see why.

Esfahan

In the centre is one of the most impressive squares on the planet – the Eman Khomeini Square. It is named after the first Ayatollah, father to today’s Iran and be warned – it’s not the only place named after him in Iran. It’s not the only Square named after him in Iran. The square boasts an amazing Mosque at one end, a market, space, life, it’s where it’s at in Esfahan. Esfahan has a lot more to see though, beautiful gardens, a bird sanctuary and the river is awesome. Some of the bridges over the river have little tea houses built into them. It’s really charming and picturesque and the sort of place you could happily lose yourself in for days.

Tabriz, in the north towards the Turkish border, is another pleasant city with some nice parks and shrines to poets. It feels like a university-town. An easy day trip takes the visitor to Kandovan where people live in houses formed naturally by volcanic rock centuries or more ago. If you’re lucky you might get to go inside a house and see how it’s set up, it is truly a special little place. The spring water flows near the river at the base of the Kandovan cliffs. It’s highly prized and apparently has remarkable healing qualities. People come from far and wide to bottle some of this water and take it with themselves.

Kandovan

And then there’s Tehran. It’s not the monstrous of capital cities and it has a stunning mountain-backdrop, but I wouldn’t have it on top of your places to visit list. Simply, it’s a big city. It’s busy and even the Iranian hospitality is not quite what it is in other places. Mashhadd, a city in the north-east, which I didn’t visit as it was a long way from any of the places I did, sounds like a great place to visit, so if you’re headed to Iran, do consider this place.

Perhaps an odd choice for number one, for me it was an easy choice. If you’d like to know more about my time in Iran, it features as part of Dhaka to Dakar: Book One – Through Asia. The individual chapter is also available for kindle separately.

Dhaka to Dakar: Book One – Through Asia (Second Edition,Payhip)

Dhaka to Dakar: Book One – Chapter Five: Iran (Firstedition, Amazon)

And with that, my top ten countdown, began in November, is finally done. Do you agree? What countries am I missing which you think deserve to be in a top ten? Please do comment below. The blog will continue. I am going to do a series of blogs on top sleeps of various kinds and various regions, plus I want to write a little about the epublishing experiences I’ve had so far, and of course I am having experiences regularly to blog and post photos about. So – WATCH THIS SPACE!

And a very snowy new year to all!

Ice over the gutter on our cabin.

It's evening here in Japan, with just over four hours left for 2013 in Japan. You find me in Yokohama with the inlaws, having taken the Shinkansen down last night. It was around 12 degrees here today and lovely sunshine. It's a far cry from Ichinoseki, which got a sizable dump of snow on Friday night last week. I woke up on Saturday morning heading to Hachimantai.

Hachimantai, where as you may recall I have already visited this year, is home to some creepy apartments and the Lava Flow. The Lava Flow, set lava from an old eruption of Mount Iwate, is known locally as Yakehashiri. And not too far from it is an onsen and a group of cabins. In fact there are something like 48 4 or 8-person cabins in the woods next to the lava flow. The place has an English translation which is somewhat baffling to say the least - Iwate grilled run international exchange Village.

Inside the cabin.

Yes, not only is it a mouthful and a half, it makes no rightly sense at all! But the cabins were WARM! You have to pay an extra fee to use the heater incidentally, but you wouldn't in your right mind not. Despite it being something like minus 7 outside, we were toasty and warm inside. We were there basically to shoot a short little film as I am want to do from time to time, but if I thought we had had a lot of snow in Ichinoseki, I was to see more than double that at Yakehashiri. Never the less, a very beautiful place indeed, and as we had a lot of fun. It wasn't so cold whilst we were active.

The Onsen turned out to be cooler than the last one I visited. I enjoyed it much more as I could bear much longer in the water in one go. The only issue was the driving - three hours each way on the snowy roads. In fact it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it might be. Snow does not pose the same issues (slipping, sliding and crashing) as ice on the roads does. There's far more traction. I hope you enjoy the photos. 

And the curtain sets on 2013, and 2014 dawns. Please watch this space for more blogs and of course, the top five of my top destinations. Wherever you are this New Years' Eve, stay safe and all the best for 2014!

Top Ten Countries Number Six - Japan [PART TWO]

Japan is not a huge country, but it is a pretty big island. And there is so much to see and do. After enjoying the sights of Kansai, I headed to Tokyo. Tokyo in many ways is the ultimate in cities. It’s huge, with a highly efficient metro system to rival that of Moscow or St Petersburg, with more sky-scrapers than you can poke a stick at. Never the less, you can still find some amazing parks and temples there too to keep you occupied. Not satisfied? Well, fear ye not, there are museums a-plenty as well. Still not satisfied? Well, head up a tower to see the city from above. Tokyo tower is great, but there’s also the skytree as well.

If you still aren’t impressed, not so far away in Chiba is Tokyo Disneyland. I visited in August 2012, which wasn’t the best time to visit. It’s was absolutely packed in there, everyone was going. Well what could I do, my holidays are when the school is on holiday, which is basically every school in the country is on holiday. I spent much of the day waiting in queues sadly, however, it still was a lot of fun! The rides are enjoyable, you get a parade in the evening, and for those who felt it still wasn’t quite like theme parks elsewhere, the food they sell is fried, unhealthy and very expensive! It’s hard to go past Splash Mountain as the best ride, but there are of course many rides. I didn’t have time to go on Space Mountain…

Tokyo’s museums are very good. Head to Ueno, also home to the zoo, and you’ll find the National Museum, and the fun Science Museum, both worthwhile, but you may find the Shitimachi Museum more interesting. It is in an old house that has survived wars and quakes, and recreates Japanese life from around 100 years ago inside.

Temples? Well Senso-ji(Asakusa) and Meiji-jingu are perhaps the best two shrines to visit, the latter in the middle of a huge park near Shinjuku. Get off at the Harajuku station, the area there is also a popular spot

Postered wall in Akihabara.

and very interesting. You may meet people cos-playing too. If that doesn’t whet your appetite, there’s the Imperial Palace not so far from Tokyo station in beautiful gardens, and then there’s Akihabara. This famous district of Tokyo is not only the place to buy your cameras and electronic stuff, but it’s full of the strange Maid Cafes, is steeped in ‘geek culture’, and is where the group AKB48 is purported to come from!

Yokohama.

And yet there is more and more in Tokyo. It’s an amazing place. However, Japan offers more and more. Check out the beautiful castle in Nagoya, a very pleasant city (as long as you’re not there in August where the heat and humidity is unbearable). If it is the height of summer and you want to escape the blinding heat, why not head to Nagano-ken? Former winter Olympic Games site, I visited Hakuba last year where it was pleasantly cool in August, not to mention very beautiful. Great opportunity to relax, enjoy the cooler weather, and go hiking.

The down the road you have Yokohama, a wonderful bay-city with a beautiful bay, skycrapers and a ramen-museum (a museum for noodles!). What more do you want?

Further north Sendai is the main city of note. A really nice city with an interesting museum and a great citadel watching the place a-high. Not far from Sendai is Ishinomaki, now my favourite place to go when I want to see a movie. It’s an interesting town, devastated by the 2011 tsunami. However, it is well back on its feet today, and has a couple of things of interest. It’s quite the centre for Manga, and one of the best places in the country is the Ishinomaki Mangatten Museum. Devoted primarily to a famous Manga artist from Ishinomaki, Shotaro Ishinomori. There’s also the replica of the galleon, San Juan Baptista, worth seeing on the bay.

Closer to home, Iwate Prefecture has a bit to see and do as well. Not too far from Ichinoseki are two gorges with annoyingly similar names. ‘Geibi Gorge’ and ‘Genbi Gorge’. Both are very pretty places indeed, but the first is slightly more famous because you can take a special boat trip where the punter will sing for you. It’s a very special place.

Golden Hall, Chuson-ji

The crowning glory of this region though is the town Hiraizumi – only 7km from Ichinoseki. There’s more than one temple of interest in this town, but Chuson-ji, perched atop a hill, is really spectacular. Part of this hilltop complex is Konjiki-do, a gold-leafed hall, not quite as spectacular as Kinkanhu-ji in Kyoto, but nevertheless an impressive sight.

Japan has much more than I can cover reasonably in two blogs. I enjoyed hiking in Yamagata-ken over the peaks known as ‘Dewa Sanzan’, staying in the eastern town of Tsuruoka. In town Zenpo-ji is a very interesting temple complex too. Then there’s Kyushu in the south of the country, and Hokkaido in the north. Both with great beauty and interest, but of the three main islands of Japan, Honshu remains the only one I have visited thus far. Japan is an amazing place, with so much packed into three main islands (and indeed others).

What will be number five on my list? Well, again you’ll have to wait for that one!

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

My travel writings (available on Kindle) can be found here:

Dhaka to Dakar

Top Ten Countries - Number Six: Japan [Part ONE]

Miyajima, near Hiroshima.

Well I wouldn’t still be living here if I didn’t like the place, would I?

My visit to Japan was in 2011, in April not so long after the March 11^th tsunami and earthquake which had caused so much devastation. However, this first time I didn’t head north of Tokyo. I flew into Kansai Airport and enjoyed an amazing week in Kyoto. Tourists at the time were scarce in Japan, only natural I guess, so accommodation wasn’t so hard to find.

Let me start that I don’t think I like a place better in Japan than Kyoto. Kyoto is just brilliant, another city up there with the best cities in the world (oh I think I can feel another top ten coming on). It’s a friendly place – I stayed out K’s House in Kyoto, and I have to say it is possibly the best hostel I have ever stayed in in my life. This is where I first encountered the special toilet seats and just how clean people like places to be hear.

Kinkankuji.

The toilets at the hostel, like many in Japan, have the special heated seats for cold bums, and bidee functions too. As if that wasn’t enough the staff at K’s House Japan kept the place incredibly clean, absolutely spotless. There were free tours to the Geisha district, I saw a Geisha performance at a theatre, I met so many people at that hostel too, it was really a magic week. I knew straight away that it was not a mistake to come here when I got to Kyoto.

There’s even a train museum in Kyoto, not to mention wonderful temples, with the crowning glory being Kinkakuji, the golden temple in a lake, almost like the Japanese answer to Amritsar’s Golden temple in India. Everywhere people wanted me to be in pictures, it was a strange ol’ experience, one I will never forget. It’s got a wonderful culture Kyoto, a great soul. There was the Manga Museum as well, that was really special with lots of cosplayers and exhibition on this artform, so very very popular in Japan. The Arashiyama Bamboo forest was also a highlight, a delight to explore and walk around for a few hours on paths weaving their way through the tall bamboo.

Cosplay at the Manga Museum.

Then there were day trips. One to Nara to visit the amazing Nara-Park, and the impressive Todaji, where in sits a giant Buddha. Takarazuka was another day trip from Kyoto, where I visited the Osamu Tezuka museum one cold, rainy April’s day. Tezuka created ‘Astroboy’, known originally as Atomu, and is a national treasure. His museum was a lot of fun and very interesting. He created many more comics than Astroboy – Black Jack and a comic/animation version of Hitler in the 1980s.

Temple in Takayama.

But I couldn’t stay in Kyoto forever. Well maybe I could have but that ship has sailed now! I went across to a place called Takayama in the Hida district. With a wonderful, old-world feel and beautiful streets, Takayama lights up a couple of times a year for a festival. At other times of the year, like when I was there, there is a museum which showcases the floats of the festival amongst other things. Actually I had only just missed the festival, which is held around the middle of April each year. There’s also something of a curiosity museum showcasing things from principally 1955-1965 and the Takayama Showa-kan. It’s full of movie posters, houses set up from that time period, and some amazing nostalgia as well. Well, hard for me to be nostalgic about it I guess, I hadn’t been born, but I did enjoy the place.

It’s pretty quiet at times, and one of the best things was the accommodation. I stayed at the Hida Takayama Temple Inn Zenko-ji, part of a temple. It was really cheap and I had my own room. There is an impressive prayer room as well and it’s a unique and special place to stay.

The A-Bomb Dome.

Hiroshima was a fair hike southwards, in fact it’s near the very south of Honshu. It’s another place that will take your heart. There’s the A-Bomb Dome, the only building (or maybe there is one more) remaining after the nuclear bomb was dropped. Not so far away, over the river, is the humbling Peace Memorial Museum, which visitors to Hiroshima should not miss. You’ll find out just what the people of Hiroshima went through that fateful day in 1945.

There are a lot of beautiful parks in Hiroshima, and April is just about the perfect time to visit the city. I went to

Baseball in Hiroshima.

a baseball game there too. Sadly the Hiroshima Sparrows (yes, really) didn't do so well, but it was a great atmosphere. Not to mention the cherry blossoms are out in full force too! It’s really beautiful, so why not take a short boat ride to Miyajima and see the temples and pagodas there, and take a wonderful walk around the island. Several interesting shops can be found as well, but this is a most beautiful island, with a big red gate standing out in the ocean which can be walked to when the tide is out. It’s justly famous as a place of great beauty.

Hiroshima

I headed up to Tokyo from there, but I had an afternoon in Osaka. There I only visited the Aquarium, not too far from a big Ferris wheel. The Aquarium is outstanding, full of fun and oh so many fish. A little different from the places I usually visit, but well worth it.

And then it was time to head to the big smoke! To Tokyo, the Daddy of all cities…

But you know what? I think that’s best saved for the next blog! The next blog will feature Iwate-ken, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagano and a couple of other places. Seems I have a bit to write about when it comes to Japan… see you then!

Night-time in Kyoto.

Please Note – I am yet to release anything on Kindle about Japan, you can expect that sometime next year. If you are interested in my travel writings, please visit my webpage –

dhakatodakar.webs.com

Top Ten Countries - Number 8: Mali

The Dogon Escarpment.

Now, we are up to number 8. Mali is an amazing country located in West Africa. Land-locked, dry, terrorist activity in the north in recent years, it has had its issues that’s for sure. In fact, when I went there back in 2007 it had its issues – my flight was cancelled a few days before because they had decided to close the airport for a week to re-seal the runway! I can assure you that that is the only time I have encountered that particular problem.

I flew into Ouagadougou, the capital of neighbouring Burkina Faso, and made my way to Mali by land. I had a little less than two weeks there, I had left a couple of days later because of the new flights, and

Rooftop sleeping, Dogon Country. 

lost 2 days crossing to Mali, but I still managed to pack in a lot in those 12-ish days.

After crossing into Mali, I went with three charming people (two I met on the crossing) to Dogon country. We overnighted in the town of Banfora, before begin a trek in one of the most remarkable, remote places on Earth. The Dogon Escarpment is sort of like a big rock, well it’s a big cliff really. It goes on for 150 kilometres, and is up to 500 metres high.

It’s a popular trekking spot in this part of the world. Trekkers walk in the mornings and late afternoon to avoid the searing heat – I was there in November and it was over 40 each day at the peak. There are villages on the lower plains and on top of the escarpment, the trek goes through quite a few, and you stay at one on the lower plain the first night, atop it the second. We slept on a rooftop looking at the sky. Now THAT was brilliant!  As was seeing village life in the villages. Although there is a dependency on the trekkers and the tourist dollar, they still function a lot as they have done for hundreds of years. The only lighting is from car batteries.

pounding millet in a Dogon village.

Climbing the escarpment was a challenge, but not as hard as I had expected. On top we visited a village and saw a local school, being mobbed by children. This is only the simplest of possible summaries for this 3-day trek. Three of the best days of my life.

Boat, Mopti.

Around Mali there is a lot to see as well. In the region no countries has as many highlights as Mali. Taking a boat on the Bani River at Mopti. Not just the Bani river, it's at the convergance of two big rivers - the Bani and the Niger. A special place, a big riverside town, lovely spot, was one highlight, but the only place to rival the beauty of the Dogon country is Djenne.

Djenne street.

Famous for the biggest mud-brick structure in the world, most of the island town is made from mud. It’s an amazing place to spend a day, with passageways, beautiful houses and more. The mosque there is crowning glory of this town, a UNESCO-protected site, rising up in the middle. Today tourists are not allowed inside, but from outside it is still breath-taking. To get to the town you have to get your taxi onto a boat to get across the river. That’s part of the fun too!

The amazing mosque at Djenne.

Segou and the Niger River.

Segou is another pleasant river-side town in Mali. I only spent a day there, a very brief day, but life on the Niger River was a buzz, as were the donkeys and it seemed like a very pleasant town. We walked along the river in the afternoon as the sun beat down and saw the life-blood of this whole region of Africa – that’s the Niger river which stretches through many countries.

Bamako at night.

The last stop was Bamako, the capital city, a sort of sprawling ‘splat’ on the map in some ways. Capital cities are rarely a highlight in Africa, and Bamako didn’t reverse this trend, however it still was an interesting and lively place. If you want some decent food, or to do proper souvenir shopping or visit the best markets Mali has to offer, you come to Bamako. Or indeed, if you need a flight in or out of the country! It’s worth two days.

Young artisan at the Artisans' mmarket, Bamako

And so that’s my experience of Mali. Be aware that earlier this year there were major issues in the north and Timbuktu – oh yes, if you’ve ever wondered where Timbuktu was, wonder no longer, it’s in the north of Mali! Well the French Army was fighting there earlier this year, fighting terrorists and extremists who had taken over the place. Mali is a wonderful place, but, good idea to check the safety situation before you go!

So far the top ten has had two countries in Europe, and one in Africa. Next time we journey to another continent. Which one will it be?

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 - ????

Kindle Writings on Mali:

Dhaka to Dakar  -Chapter Nineteen: Mali

Dhaka to Dakar: Book Three - Across Africa

Top Ten Countries: Number 9 - Romania

Not so far from the tenth country on my list, number nine is the incredible Romania. At present Romania is going through hard times, being very badly hit by the economic crisis, so why not journey there and pump some money into the economy? You’ll find it one of the most beautiful places in all the world, there’s no doubt. It had breath taking mountains, castles galore, a mind-blowing capital, warm-hearted people oh and you know, Transylvania, a place too many people associate with vampires, but in fact as beautiful as any region in Europe that there is!

Bucharest street near the station.

Start with the capital. Look, it certainly isn’t the highlight of Romania, Bucharest, but it’s at the very least an interesting place. Parts of it still echo the name ‘Ceausescu’, the somewhat heavy-handed brutal communist dictator, and in some ways the communist past of the city is what is interesting. The streets are wide and leafy, the buildings often grey and foreboding. The Peoples’ Palace is for certain one of the most impressive buildings in the world, the cost of building to the Romanian people though suggests it was not worth it.

The Palace of the People.

There’s even a few museums, including a nice outdoors one, and a replica Arc De Triumph, as the dictator dreamed to make Bucharest the ‘Paris of Eastern Europe’. What he did create was certainly an impressive and unique city.

Bran Castle

After Bucharest I visited Transylvania, simply a beautiful, green part of the world full of mountains and castles and wonderful medieval cities such as Brasov. Not too far from Brasov is Bran, a small town up a mountain with beautiful Bran Castle, fabled to be ‘Dracula’s Castle’, although this is not actually true. The castle though is worth visiting, perched sort of on a rock above the town.

Just down the road from Bran I found a place called Sinai, where you can find a really beautiful palace.  Peles Castle, which to me was more of a palace according to the images of what is what in my mind, is stunning, a little bit gothic, and provides the visitor with a wonderful tour where you can see much of the inside of the castle. It was one of the many highlights for me in Romania.

Peles Castle

Sigisoara

Sigisoara is a truly beautiful, again slightly gothic, medieval town in Transylvania. A place with arch ways over cobblestone streets, beautifully creepy graveyards, a couple of small museums and history with Vlad the Impaler, from whom the Dracula legend was born. I adored this small city/town. It has a wonderfully romantic (in a scary way :D) atmosphere and should not be left out of any trip to Romania.

Outside Transylvania to the north-west of the country is Cluj-Napoca, also just known as ‘Cluj’. The second biggest city in Romania, it’s big but beautiful in a way Bucharest

Cluj-Napoca.

isn’t. An old city with a young soul, it’s a university city. Not so far away are many places for day trips, including the Turda Gorge which is a wonderful place for a day hike. That in turn is close to the Turda Salt Mine, an incredibly expansive mine which these days you can take a tour into. When I was there, we basically had the run of the place which was unbelievable, the sort of place as a child you long to run around inside with no-one telling you where you can and can’t go (although there was a clear course laid out). Those were the days. But it’s really impressive without or with a guide.

Turda Gorge

Finally the mountains not so far from Cluj offer more fantastic hiking. There are small villages to be discovered and there was a wonderful ice cave as well. Romania will always have a special place in my heart. Like Slovakia, you won’t find it as expensive as Western Europe. Today it’s a little more on the tourist trail than when I visited in 2004, but it doesn’t make it any less beautiful or stunning. Most people don’t need a visa like I did nine years ago either.

Transport is good to the main centres, trains connect a lot of Romania, and indeed to neighbouring countries – I came in from Bulgaria and left to Serbia. Trams and trolley buses are popular in the cities, and of course there are always buses to the harder to reach places.

Salt Mine at Turda.

Two words that sum up Romania: Gorgeous and Stunning.

So:

10: Slovakia

9: Romania

What will be number 8? Stay tuned.

Kindle writings on Romania:

Dhaka to Dakar Chapter 9: Romania

Dhaka to Dakar Book 2: Europe