Japan Trip 2011
This is one my fashionably late blog posts, as usual.
I went to to Japan in March last year, and it turned out to be the most unforgettable trip so far in my life. Why? As a start, I arrived in Narita less than 24 hours after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. I then had to take the train to Kyoto via Tokyo only hours after they restored public transport at reduced capacity, and experienced a lower magnitude earthquake while in Kyoto.
The greatest concern of them all was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. I was in constant contact with family and friends via email and Twitter, trying my best to convince them that the situation wasn’t as apocalyptic as how the media portrayed it. The incidents at Sendai and Fukushima were beyond devastating by any scale, but at the same time, other parts of Japan lived on with their daily life and did their best to help via donations and lots of other means. To witness the great Japanese spirit and sense of community in person was a humbling experience.
I ended up visiting Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kanazawa, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Okayama, Himeji, Tokyo, and Ise. My favourites were Okayama for its chillaxing vibe, and Kanazawa for its snow-covered town. Here are some pictures from the last three days of the trip, I lost the rest of them because my laptop was stolen during transit in Kuala Lumpur (here’s the person who now has my stolen MacBook).
Best food? Ramen at Kyoto Station, extra eggs, a must.
I also loved this Yamazaki Pan chocolate bread I bought every day at Lawson.
Definitely going back there!
Warrnambool Trip 2011
I went to Warrnambool for four days as part of my Xmas – New Year break.
Warrnambool was a nice place with super friendly locals (apart from some idiotic hoons), it’s about 3 hours away from Melbourne by train. The town is slightly larger and more crowded than Albury.
Had several great meals at Bojangles on Liebig St, had a nice light exercise with yet-another-I-don’t-know-how-I-end-up-with-this-on-every-supposedly-relaxing-holiday trail walks, and checked out a glimpse of historical maritime life at Flagstaff Hill.
Life: breakwater trail hopkins mouth trail trail walk warrnambool
by Cliffano Subagio
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Breakwater & Hopkins Mouth Trails
Nice 15km walk in Warrnambool around Lake Pertobe and along the beach, resulting in one badly sun burnt face. Like any of the trails I’ve walked on so far in Australia, this one also had several snake warning signs, I’m beginning to get used to it.
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Hong Kong & Macau Trip 2011
Went for a 2 weeks trip earlier this month, 6 flights, 5 cities, and a series of nasty digestive issues during the whole trip, but I survived anyway. Lesson learnt: you can loose 6 kg in 10 days by mostly eating chocolate croissants.
Another lesson learnt: never go to Hong Kong or Macau during China’s National Day holiday period. It was extremely crowded, long queue at each tourist attraction, and the worst was when people started pushing and shoving in the crowd, or attempted to cut the queue, that annoyed me to hell.
The best food? Found a small noodle place at Sheung Wan. Latte Girl approved the delicious food, while I was just happy to not get my stomach upset that time, so that was two thumbs up. That noodle place caught our attention because they put up a picture of Chua Lam visiting the restaurant, Chua Lam is a food critic who made several appearances on Iron Chef, one of my favourite TV shows.
It was also the first time we experienced typhoon warnings, nothing too severe, but it still wasn’t fun when you had to queue for an hour in a strong wind. On the other hand, Hong Kong was actually a great place to walk around and explore when it wasn’t windy, specially at night.
Some Hong Kong pictures…
And Macau… with its interesting Portuguese architecture.
Hobsons Bay Coastal Central Trail Walk
8.5km walk on the central part of Hobsons Bay Coastal Trail today, followed by great coffee and lunch at Duchess Of Spotswood.
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