Asia

Many Buildings, Much People, Organised Chaos

Asia

Ho Chi Minh City - Day 2

Our last day in Vietnam. We have a decent hotel breakfast. Not the best, but they have an omelette chef and cereal and a few other staples, so we are set up well for the day. The tour guide picks us up at 8am ready for our trip out to

Asia

Ho Chi Minh City - Day 1

We've got an early start for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City today. We get a taxi to Da Nang International Airport, about a 50 minute ride which cost about $25 AUD (less than the rort that was the cyclo ride in Hanoi). We line up to

Asia

Hoi An - Day 2

We're slowly starting to recover from our colds, so its time for some walking! The sun is out for the first time this trip, so we are keen to go and explore some other parts of Hoi An beyond the touristy old town. We smash down a breakfast

Asia

Hue to Hoi An

Ok, let's try that again. We wake up and the rain has stopped and we're feeling a bit better. We head down for breakfast in the hotel. There's heaps of options, both local and western breakfast staples. There's even a chef cooking

Asia

Hue - Day 1

Well, we make it in one piece at around 11am. We even managed to get some sleep, which was a bonus. The mattresses were hard, the temperature was low, the train was rocky, but not super fast, so that was manageable. There was a moment where I thought I'

Asia

Ninh Binh - Day 3

We leave for Hue later tonight on the 11pm overnight train, so we're in no hurry this morning. We start with brekky on the deck again and try to put a plan together. Ninh Binh isn't a huge place so we've checked off most

Asia

Ninh Binh - Day 2

6:30am wake-up call for The Boxing Day Test! Managed to get the VPN going in time to see the first ball. We lay in bed and watch the first hour before wandering over for some breakfast overlooking the lake and the karsts. Not a bad way to start the

Asia

Ninh Binh - Day 1

We've got an early start today as we're off to our next destination, Ninh Binh, which is a couple hours south of Hanoi. We've got a tour booked for today and the bus is scheduled to pick us up at 7:30. The hotel

Asia

Hanoi - Day 3

We've got a Hanoi on foot tour booked for 9am, which gives us plenty of time to have another leisurely breakfast and look out over Hanoi. The communication on all of the stuff we have booked has been brilliant via WhatsApp. For the tour today, which only cost

Asia

Hanoi - Day 2

We're up early and the smell of smoke permeated the room unfortunately. Hopefully that clears by the time we hit the streets. But first, let's see what the hotel's buffet breakfast has to offer. We head up to the top floor and are greeted

Asia

Hanoi - Day 1

An un-eventful 9 and half hour flight and we arrive in Hanoi. On descent we can see that it's very hazy. Not sure if it's smog, or smoke, or mist. We weren't sitting next to each other on the flight (budget flying with Viet

Asia

Hiroshima (Day 4) - Hiroshima Toyo Carp

Our last proper day in Hiroshima. We decide to go mapless and wander the streets of the city. We take in some local art/culture by playing arcade games in Sega, and take in the local food by stuffing ourselves with okonomiyaki, the real stuff this time. Courts orders pork

Asia

Hiroshima (Day 3) - Ogonzancho

We're keen to see more of Hiroshima today, but more of the real stuff, if possible. We've noticed that it only takes a few blocks to go from feeling you're in Times Square to feeling you're in a seedy Bangkok backstreet; the

Asia

Hiroshima (Day 2) - Itsukushima / Miyajima / Mt. Misen

We're well rested from our quiet night in and ready to take on Itsukuhima (a.ka. Miyajima) Island today. We're taking a boat out to the island. We've just missed one and have about a 30 minute wait til the next one, so we

Asia

Hiroshima (Day 1)

Osaka has been fun, but it's time to move on. Back to the JR station to make the trip down to Hiroshima. Another smooth ride and we are arrive around lunch time and trek to our hotel which is very close to the centre of town this time.

Asia

Osaka (Day 5) - Universal Studios

It's our last full day in Osaka and our plan is to check out Universal Studios. This is the only thing on our agenda for today, so we're in no hurry this morning. It looks like Jeff may have found an actual breakfast Cafe so we

Asia

Osaka (Day 4) - Nishishinsaibashi / Umeda / Shinsekai

After a massive day in Kyoto, we're in no hurry this morning. Still on mission of figuring out Japanese breakfast, we find an actual breakfast establishment! Cafes usually just sell coffee and a couple of pastry selections, breakfast cafes don't really seem to be a thing

Asia

Kyoto

Up bright and early with a quick hotel breakfast in us, we head to the nearest subway bound for Kyoto. A few wrong stops, but we make it in about an hour. We pop up in the city and make for a tram that will take us to the Saga-Arashiyama

Asia

Osaka (Day 2) - Nara

The great thing about staying in Osaka is that its easy to get to a number of close-by attractions and cities. Today we are heading up the mountain to Nara, a historic town run by sika deer (classified as a natrual treasure, according to wikipedia). We jump on the metro

Asia

Osaka (Day 1) - Dotonbori / Namba

Today we depart Tokyo for Osaka. We feel like we've explored and got a pretty good feel for what Tokyo is all about and are excited to see a new city. Plus we get to ride on a bullet train for the first time, which we're

Asia

Tokyo (Day 5)

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the... OK, hold that thought. We're in no real rush today, we get up latish and slowly get ready. There is a simple plan for today - get to Tokyo Dome, suss it out and get ready

Asia

Tokyo (Day 4)

Still trying to figure out what the Japanese eat for breakfast, we decide to try out the hotel's buffet breakfast. There's the usual suspects like coffee, juice, toast, cereal, bacon, eggs but the buffet also offers rice, soup, dim sims, chicken nuggets and chips. It was

Asia

Tokyo (Day 3)

When you think Tokyo, you think video games. We're off to the "Electrical District" of Akihabara to see how seriously the Japanese take their gaming. A short metro ride (and a detour past a Subway Restaraunt for a vegetable top-up) and we are there. The first

Asia

Tokyo (Day 2)

We wake up after a proper night's sleep (in a bed as opposed to Singapore airport's floor like the night before) and we're feeling fine as fresh huckleberry. The first order of the day is breakfast. We decide on Harajuku, an artsy type district

Asia

Tokyo (Day 1)

We land at 9:50am after two uneventful legs (8hrs to Singapore, 6hrs to Tokyo) - Hoorray, we made it to Asia! We sort out our metro cards and away we go to find our hotel. Transport is easy (lots of English in the stations) and we have no problems