off goes the travelling ham!
after a long day at hakone, marked by long queues and long bus rides, we rushed over to shizuoka to catch one of the highlights of our trip, also something which a friend implored me to take EYEWITNESS photos of! because somehow someone you know taking a grainy picture of the real thing is better... Continue Reading →
this. is. the. best. hotel. ever. it is practically a tourist destination itself, with 132 years of history, lived in by the japanese royal family and the swedish monarchy, tour groups passing through in the a.m., beautiful interiors and exteriors, round the clock attentive staff providing 6 star service, a twin room so spacious that... Continue Reading →
following the loop course suggested on Japan Guide, i took the Hakone-Tozan Railway to Gora (with a brief stop at Miyanoshita to drop my bags), the "cable car" to Sounzan (which really looks like a funicular railway to me), the Hakone Ropeway from Sounzan to Owakudani (love it!), then continued to Togendai, to take the... Continue Reading →
our very first dinner in japan is of chinese origin, but of japanese perfection. just minutes away from the shinagawa train station, is a ramen stadium where you can try ramen from 7 different ramen stores. every store is the crème de la crème of japan's ¥1000 ramen stores, and you can't go wrong with... Continue Reading →
Day 1 kicks off with an ambitious plan to tour the whole of DisneySea. As expected of a mega-tourist attraction, the information is all available on their website in more languages than I can speak, but I'll just do a brief summary of the really, really important bits. (Really!) I spent about 9 hours in... Continue Reading →
Snorkelling day! I budgeted all of SGD5 for snorkeling.. and the price somehow went up to RP150,000 for rental of equipment and the boat, and suddenly increased to RP200,000 (SGD30) for use of life-jackets. considering that's the price quoted when we asked about, i'm guessing that we've been taken in for rich tourists and charged... Continue Reading →
Sunrise trek up Mt. Batur! (We will wake at 3am!) We were all woken up at 3am sharp... I was already sleeping in two shirts, track pants, and my socks, so I just popped on another jacket and continued to sleep on the car. Think it was a very short ride of less than 15... Continue Reading →
Sit back and relax as tour agents C.Bali takes care of our Kintamani tour: Rach and Sibran are exceeding friendly and helpful, and they helped a lot with planning the Kintamani part of our Bali holiday. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to take a look from the top of Bali (well, almost.... Continue Reading →
Day 2 started off with the hotel breakfast. Satisfactory, but nothing spectacular. We had (tough) toast with scrambled egg and pineapple jam, fried vermicelli with egg and prawn crackers, and soup vermicelli with cubes of meat and leafy vegetables. Scrambled eggs are usually a pretty safe bet for breakfast. As we were checking out of... Continue Reading →
Here we go! Late morning flight into Denpasar, Bali. After an overpriced breakfast at Changi Airport's Terminal 1 (which is still very much under renovation, making the world's #1 airport feel like a labyrinth of check-in counters and suitcase conveyor belts), we took our AirAsia flight. Surprisingly, not only were we served airline peanuts and... Continue Reading →
Off we go! 