Tokyo-Nikko-Tokyo 5 - 7 Oct 09

Yes, this post is more than a month overdue. What's worse is that it isn't even a complete post on the whole of my trip. Unfortunately, my laptop can only support so much. After 5 years of service, it is showing more and more signs of aging. So please bear with me if you're hoping to get to read about my wonderful (and complete) Japan trip.

So, this picks up where I left of from my previous post, which was my first day in Tokyo.

Tsujiki Fish Market. Top: Fish market, Bottom: Dry goods section of market

Minsyuku Rindo-no-ie was where we stayed. It's owned by Rindo, the bald guy, and his wife. It's basically a Japanese style "home-stay". The family was really friendly and helpful. The downside is that the house is 20 mins walk from the town centre.




Shinkyo, or Sacred Bridge


Nikko is a World Heritage Site, with it's many famous temples and shrines. From top: World Heritage sign, three monkeys (hear-, speak-, see-no-evil), Toshogu Shrine and my jump for the trip.

The view of Lake Chuzenji, Kegon Falls and the autumn colour from Akechidaira Plateau.

We were lucky to be able to see the autumn colours. If you're interested in a report on the autumn colours in Nikko, check out this site: http://www.japan-guide.com/blog/koyo09/091005.html

It nicely coincides with the same period we were there.

Ryuzu Falls, at its peak of colours.

Our trek from Ryuzu Falls to Yudaki Falls, then to Yumoto-onsen, through the Senjogahara Marsh.

Finally reaching Yudaki Falls. The trek wasn't so bad, except for the fact that there are no bathrooms for 5.5km. That made it quite miserable for us.

Lake Yumoto

Back in Tokyo and caught in the bad weather just before a typhoon. We were lucky we missed the typhoon, but the rain made traveling rather inconvenient. This is the entrance, across the moat and through the gate, to the Imperial Palace Garden. It's pretty and all, but we couldn't see the Imperial Palace itself from here.

Tokyo Tower, all lit up at night, which comes around 5.30pm.

Shinjuku / Kabuki-cho area.

And so, we complete the highlight of the trip. Ok, so that's just my personal opinion. Nikko was my favorite place, just cos I like the outdoors and it's my first time experience of autumn. Tokyo, is just, well, Tokyo. Will probably get other chances to go there.

That's it for now. Hopefully the rest would come up soon.

Gina

Tokyo 4 Oct 09

Harajuku

And so, after months of saving, weeks of planning and days of hectic working, I am now in Japan. The flight to Tokyo was uneventful, but really tiring as I managed to sleep at most 2 hours. The Keisei train ride from Narita Airport to Ueno gave allowed me another hour of precious sleep. I was still tired but at least I felt more human.

The plan today was to go Harajuku and Shibuya. The metro ride there and back provided some more precious sleeptime. Harajuku was pretty interesting, especially for people-watching. Like Harajuku, Shibuya had many shopping spots but Shibuya's didn't suit my style. We ended our first day "tour" early and checked into Cube Hotel Ueno Express. Although the room's pretty tiny, the designers made efficient use of the space, making it comfortable enough to stay in.

It's now time for dinner. Wonder what I'll be eating tonight. Lots to choose from here in Ueno. Yum yum...

Gina

Bukit Tinggi & Padang 27-30 Dec 08

After about 2 hours of waiting at Minangkabau International airport, and breathing in all the second-hand cigarette smoke, the rest finally arrived and we set off for Bukit Tinggi.

Me and papa at Lembah Anai, a waterfall by the roadside, our first stop along the way. We did pay an entrance fee to get closer to the waterfall though.

Jimmy contemplates life as he stares into the plunge pool... Then again, knowing him, he's probably thinking about the force of the waterfall and the corresponding speed of erosion...

Kids are swimming in the plunge pool and the shallower areas downstream from the waterfall. The entrance fee's probably more for them then for curious tourists like us.

Us, the whole gang in front of a rumah gadang, traditional house of the Minang Kabau people. This one has been converted into a museum.

Papa and I, in front of the rumah gadang. The smaller houses in front of the main house is used to store rations for the families living in the main house, I think. The use of the smaller houses are defined by the number of stilts that hold it up.

Jimmy and I attempting a jump shot. Not too successful I must say, thanks to the photographer. :p

View of a valley on our way to Bukit Tinggi.

Lake Maninjau. There road to Maninjau has 44 hairpin bends. Driving down that road was nerve-wrecking, especially for the front seat passenger.

A closer look at Lake Maninjau and the padi fields surrounding it.

It sure gets messy traveling in a big group.
L to R: Tom, papa, Anton, mama, Tante Tju, Jimmy, Emak and Tante Tjin.

Me and papa, again...

Gunung Merapi (Sumatra), with its top covered by clouds.

The cliffs of Lembah Harau.

A little stream runs through the Harau valley.

Waterfalls also decorate parts of the cliff.

View of the gorge formed by the cliffs.

A look to the entrance of the gorge.

A winding path towards a rest house or cafe, I'm not sure as we didn't go there.

Waterfall down the cliff. You'll notice there are children swimming in the plunge pool again.

Pitcher plant.

The young ones, and the one young at heart, climbed up one of the shorter cliffs to get a better view.

"Gina looks pale," Papa said.

Group photo.

Ngarai Sianok. A canyon just off to one side of the city of Bukit Tinggi.

Lobang Jepang aka Japanese Tunnel. A tunnel used by the Japanese during their occupation of Sumatra. It was dug by POWs. It was used to keep ammunition, hold prisoners and also execute prisoners. Body parts of executed prisoner would be thrown out of the tunnel, down to a river at the bottom of the canyon.

One of the escape routes from the tunnel. If they were ever found, the Japanese would use this escape route to crawl out of the tunnel and climb down the side of the canyon with the help of tree branches and roots.

The stairs leading down to the tunnel. The stairs go down about 45 metres underground.

Jam Gadang, a clock tower which is a landmark in the city of Bukit Tinggi.

Us at the venue of a cultural show we watched.

Jimmy and papa trying their hands at the local music instrument.

This was probably the highlight of the show. The name of the dance is Tarik Piring. The dancers actually dance and jump on broken plates. Yes, it's as dangerous as it sounds. Not that we saw anyone get cut though.

Lake Singkarak, on our way back to Padang.

At a restaurant, located beside Singkarak, where we had coffee and fried fish. Also, where the "toilet" went straight to the lake.

Danau Dibawah, aka Lower Lake.

Danau Diatas, aka Upper Lake.

Still Danau Diatas. The lakes are separate by just a few kilometres, hence they're also called Twin Lakes.

Flowers grow prettier in colder regions.

Far off in the background is the city of Padang.

Teluk Bayur, a port in Padang.

Gina

Cebu 12-16 Dec 08

Wow, it's been more that 6 months since I last blogged, I feel so out of touch...

Uploading all these photos took too long. But thankfully, it's finally done.

View of an island in Philippines from our Manila-Cebu flight. Note to self: Don't take midnight flights with 4 hour stopovers ever again!

Finally, Cebu...

Around Fuente Osmena, the heart of Cebu City.

The view from our hotel, Holiday Plaza, rooftop.

Ayala Center. One of the two biggest shopping malls in Cebu.

Day 2: Our ride to Bohol. Kinda reminds me of the typical Batam fastcraft. The ride took about 2 hours, enough time for them to play a dvd (Night at the Museum there and Stomp the Yard back, and I still don't know the ending of Stomp the Yard). What's interesting is that they have a prayer when the ferry first set off.

Fishermen.

Tagbilaran, capital city of Bohol.

Blood Compact sculpture / memorial. Spanish guy and island chief cuts themselves, drips some blood into cups, adds some wine and drinks to friendship.

View from the memorial, close to the actual site the Blood Compact took place.

Baclayon Church, second oldest church in Philippines.

Inside the chruch.

Floating restaurant, where we had our lunch.

Some kids performing on a floating platform along the river. Those kids can really dance!

Music is provided by the "backup singers" and thier locally made guitars. Those guitars hanging above their heads are for sale.

View along the river.

View down the river.

Tarsier, one of the smallest monkeys in the world.

Climbing up one of the hills to view Chocolate Hills, probably the most famous attraction in Bohol.

Chocolate Hills. Composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres.

"I want that chocolate..."

Man-made mahogany forest.

Me, standing on a suspension bridge made of bamboo.

View of Loboc River, from the middle of the suspension bridge.

The bridge.

Motorized trishaw anyone?

Sunset at Tagbilaran port.
And that was the end of our Bohol tour. Bye bye Bohol...

View of Cebu City at night, from our hotel rooftop.

Quite a pretty sight. We didn't have time to go to Tops, a hill to view the whole Cebu City, so we had to make do with the hotel rooftop.

Fuente Osmena. A fountain honoring former President, Sergio Osmena, Sr.

Christmas... Christmas is a major celebration as Philippines is largely a Catholic country.

Provincial Capitol.

Fort San Pedro. Built by the Spaniards 1739 and later used by the Americans as a barrack.

Now, it's under the care of the City of Cebu as a historical park.

Magellan's Cross, planted by the Spanish in 1521, represented the start of Christianity in Philippines.

The City Hall.

Basilica del Santo Nino, founded in 1565, is one of the oldest chruch in Philippines. Construction of the stone structure was completed in 1739.

Us, at the basilica.

Carbon Market. It's just a market, kinda dirty and smelly. Sells everything from fruits and vegetables to shirts and socks.

Unknown sculpture we walked past while looking for Casa Gorordo.

Casa Gorordo. Not sure what this is. Some museum I think.
That's it for Cebu City tour. Bye bye Cebu City...

Sunset from our resort on Mactan island.

Our jump shot against the sunset.

White sands of Nalusuan Island. Went island hopping but didn't snorkel much as it was windy and waves were rather choppy. I ended up drinking in the sea water, which was irritating.
Pretty as the island is, it wasn't one of those uninhabited, totally natural islands. It was pretty "commercialized", which was disappointing to us.

My favorite jump shot. At the beach.

The tide was coming in so we couldn't stay long out on the beach. By the time we left the island the beach was almost totally submerged.

The long jetty, and at the end was where our boat was docked.

Us, on our "cruise" ship. hehe.

Costabella Resort.

Costabella's private beach. It's small and unexciting. But the walls were built around the resort for the visitors' safety, I think.

So that was the Cebu trip. Our last day was spent back in Cebu city, at SM Mall, probably the biggest mall in Cebu. Overall, the trip was interesting. While Philippines might be less developed than neighbouring countries like Malaysia and arguably Indonesia, there are aspects where Philippines is better, e.g. toilets are all clean and a lot of them are air-conditioned, the streets in general are also clean. Another interesting point to note is that Philippines is left-hand drive, unlike the rest of Southeast Asia. Was a good break overall. Time to check out other SEA countries. hehe.

Gina

Old Habits Die Hard

Yes, you might have guessed it. I'm blogging at the airport yet again. I realized that it's been quite a while since i last posted. I still owe my posts on Macau / Hong Kong trip as well as my trekking trip entries. But it's not entirely my fault i haven't blogged about those. I haven't got all the photos for those trip, see, so not my fault right? haha.

So, first time flying off for Changi Airport T3. it's pretty "atas". All the shops are branded, you know, Gucci, Coach, and other "atas" brands I've never even heard before. Me, who's only a lowly fresh grad. Our flights at 1.10am and we'll arrive at Copenhagen at 7.50am. Hopefully Jimmy manages to find us with no problem. And then, we'll embark on our Scandinavian adventure. How exciting. Of course, the flight on SQ itself has already gotten me excited. haha. SQ's like the best airlines ever! haha. Ok, i hope all goes well for this trip.

Cheers,
gina

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Yes, as is my habit, I'm blogging at the airport. I'm off to Macau, then to Hong Kong tomorrow. There were scares before leaving as typhoon Neoguri swept through southern China but from what i've read so far, it looks like it's dying down already. I really hope so. I hope that the ferries from Macau to HK have resumed their operation. And we'll get to HK safely. And hopefully, the weather will clear up and we'll be able to go sight-seeing in Macau and HK. Ok, i'm off to board the plane soon. Adios..

Gina

Indonesia Dec 2007

Palembang 20-23 Dec

Essentially, this is the only attraction found in Palembang. It is the bridge that connects the land masses across the Musi river. It used to be a vertical lift bridge, which means that the centre portion can move upwards in order to let vessels through. However, the "lift" function of this bridge has been decommissioned since I-don't-know when.

This is the lighted-up view of the bridge after sunset.

We went to see some lantern displays on our first night. However, the displays were rather disappointing.

Our second night, we went to watch a circus. I think its a circus troupe which tours around parts of Indonesia. My favourite item is the one with tigers. Tiger are just like domestic cats except larger and fiercer. Their almost as cute though. haha. I think it's rather cruel to have animals is such circuses but I guess the animals are the ones that attract audiences to watch the circus.

This is the view of Musi river from inside the Pertamina complex, if I'm not wrong. The environment around here is quite and pretty peaceful but we didn't stay there too long.

Me looking out to the river. The settlements along the river are pretty messy, run-down and unsanitary. For most of these pple, the river probably provides their main source of livelihood.

The aerial view of the famous bridge, taken from the plane on my way to Jakarta. This was my first time flying alone in Indonesia. Well, I survived.

Cisarua 23-25 Dec

Family photo with my Mom's family.

One of the mountains visible from our villa. I can't remember the name. In fact, if I'm not wrong, there are 2 mountains there, but the fog's making it difficult to see in this photo.

My cousin playing basketball. And the complex the villa where we stayed.



The other mountain visible from our villa.


The villa we stayed in. It was 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and the kitchen on the lower floor and 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a balcony on the upper floor.

A padi field we saw when we took a walk around our villa complex.

Bandung 27-30 Dec

This is the view of Bandung from the villa we stayed in the first night. The first villa we stayed in was nicer than the villa we stayed in for the next 2 nights. It had a cosier feeling.

This is the villa we stayed in that first night. It may look small from the outside but it was huge. There was enough mattresses for the whole family. I think there were 27 of us.

This is the view from The Valley, the restaurant we had our dinner on the 2nd night, I think. The restaurant, and the whole place actually, was pretty atas, um, quite literally. haha. It's near the top of a hill. Bandung generally is quite hilly and weather there gets pretty cold.

My aunty trying to stand on stilts. Papa insists that he used to be able to stand, walk and fight on such stilts. But he didn't manage to prove himself. It was quite funny though, and I got a video of him attempting to stand on the stilts.

Jimmy and I at some volcano's crater. It was cold and raining, hence the look.

The whole family. It's off-centre cos the photographer accidentally shifted the camera.

Jimmy, mama, papa and me!

Gina