It's been a whirlwind 2019 and I do apologise to my readers for the long radio silence. It's been a mad year of renovating and moving house which can be terribly intense. I am back in action again! Many of my fans often ask me what I look for or where to go when picking Ryokans. Given I hit my all time high list of visiting 7 Japanese ryokans in a mere 3 months during the season of Fall Winter 2018-2019, I thought it would be most apt to share with you snippets of my travels to these mostly new areas and ryokans and my own rating reviews of them based on 1 to 5 (5 being the best). I often look at the ryokan first...
In my final post on my amazing trip to Peru last year with R & Y, I will delve into the best sights to visit while in Cusco and Sacred Valley. These 2 destinations are a natural place to stop by if you are going to Machu Picchu. We chose to stop by in Cusco for 2 nights stay before going to Machu Picchu for a night, after which Urubamba in Sacred Valley was the last stop in Peru where we chilled out for 3 nights. You may decide to do it in the reverse order, purely because Urubamba is lower in altitude at 2900m versus Cusco at 3400m and might be a more natural base to stop by to let yourself slowly climatize to the altitude...
The highlight of our my big Peru trip with Y and R was definitely visiting Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the world. Yeah, I made it to one of them finally! In researching for this leg of the trip, I did consider if we should do the intense hike options or the leisurely type for the travellers like us that like to take it easy. So hmm, guess what we chose, hee hee, yes you guessed right the leisure option. There's the 4 days Inca Trail through Machu Picchu, the 7 days intense hike through the Salkantay region that one can take, but we figured it be nicer to just do a more gentle hike, see the key scenic spots and stay in a...
In my follow up post from last year's feature on my top few wanderlust locations - the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia, I find it an absolute must to let you all know the Best of Bolivia if you are visiting this exotic country for the first time, given it's not such an easy place to get to for most folks like me and Y. First some necessary basics about Bolivia to prepare yourself for. Start taking some altitude sickness pills before getting in here. With the airport at La Paz at just a 'mere' altitude of 4100m and even our overnight hotel at Atix Hotel was at 3100m , it takes some getting used to, even despite us taking some medication 2 days before arrival...
Finally after years of wanting to go Megeve, we finally did it this year! It has always been on my hit list after reading so much about this charming and chic ski town in France, close to the Montblanc. This place is definitely laden with old money and best described as discreet luxe as compared to the other 'moneyed' ski resorts like Courchevel, famed for its more opulent lifestyle attracting the Russians. This quaint farming village was first discovered by the Baroness Naomie de Rothschild in the 20s who wanted to create a French version of St Moritz. It started with a remodelling of the Hotel du Mont d’Arbois, which she bought. She hired a young architect - Henri-Jacques Le Meme to develop a new style of...
My 2016 was completed with a fun winter trip to the region of Shirakawa and Takayama in the Hida region of the Gifu Prefecture for some sightseeing and a ryokan stay, followed by a ski trip to Hakuba with Y and R. Given how full flights were to Tokyo when we booked this trip sometime in August, we decided to be creative and flew to Nagoya instead and drive up towards Takayama for our 1st stop, renting our car at the always reliable Nissan Rent a Car at the Nagoya Airport (Chubu Centrair International Airport). We only had a night's stay in Takayama before leaving for Hakuba the next day, but Y and I managed to jam pack our 30 hours in the Shirakawa and Takayama...
Our exciting Nordic trip ends off in Iceland, and after arriving in Reyjavik (promise I will touch on this city in a later post), we started our 'mystical' journey through Iceland starting with a full day visit to Northern Iceland in Akureyri. It sounds almost silly to say this, but I am not shy to admit that we are probably one of the many few that come to do this day tour in Akureyri, visit the Game of Thrones filming locations, but haven't watched this TV show at all. Still dark, a glimpse of Akureyri lights as we arrive in the early morning. Our guide Gisli, picked us up from the airport in Akureyri where our day trip started, how exciting! With his moustache, facial...
My first visit to Florence in April would not be complete without a visit to Pisa given its close proximity (only an hour's ride via the Trenitalia from Firenze Santa Maria Novella station in Florence to Pisa Centrale - see here to book). It was just Y and myself for this last day in Florence before we were to meet R to continue the rest of our journey to the Lakes and Milan later. The friendly and always helpful concierge at Gallery Hotel Art, helped us to arrange the train tickets (22 euros each) as well as book a local guide for 2 hours, which we figured might be useful especially trying to orchestrate some interesting photos in front of this famous building. Our tour by a...
Just in late September this year, Y decided to head to Chengdu with R and me to celebrate her birthday and also more importantly to check out this city known for my favourite black and white Pandas. R's parents also came along given they had once stayed in this country years ago and had fond memories of it, but they skipped the Panda visits since they preferred to stroll through some of their other favourite haunts. Apparently, there's an estimated 1800 plus wild giant pandas, living in central China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu Provinces. So it's no wonder that panda bears can be seen everywhere in Chengdu, it's on billboards, many souvenir shops, walking in costumes. And the recently completed IFC building in Chengdu invited renowned...
It's been a while since 2012 when I went to Los Angeles with Y, which was with her girlie bunch attending her good friend KK's hen's trip there. Fast forward 3 years later, we are here again in this sunny city which has great weather all year round and although I still love New York over LA, I was looking forward to just chilling in this lovely city. Once we arrived in LA from New York, we quickly adjourned to Hertz Car Rental near the LAX airport via the airport shuttle service to collect our car. One tip is if you don't want to wait at the car rental which can be a real pain like what I experienced in Provence, in the US, it...
