Return to Japan

Time for my celebratory turning 30 trip to Japan! Again! I know I only went about eighteen months ago but unexpectedly, I persuaded my friend Robbie to join me for a return trip.

We started in Tokyo and although I'd been there before, Robbie hadn't. We covered a lot of ground in the two days we had to explore the city. We visited a few temples, Japanese gardens and explored areas like Akihabara. We even met a little Japanese man in Shinjuku station who joined us for a trip to Harajuku shrine telling us lots of fun (yet confusing) stories about the Japanese Emperor and Japanese history in general along the way.

Shinjuku park

Tokyo station

After a few days in Tokyo, we activated our 7 day Japan Rail passes and caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka. Getting the Shinkansen was something I'd wanted to do for a while and was something I didn't have the opportunity to do during my previous visit. A journey of about 300 miles took just under three hours and ran exactly to the schedule set out for it. An opportunity to embrace my inner train geek and have a cheeky nap.

Once in Osaka, we spent our first day exploring the city. Osaka is a fairly industrial city but had a rebuilt castle and a large aquarium to explore. If you're a regular reader of my occasional blog, you'll know that I love a good aquarium. The aquarium was apparently one of the largest in Japan and featured various marine creatures including otters, capybaras, sharks, rays and jellyfish. The castle was a replica of one that was bombed during the war. The queue for the lift was too long so we chose to climb up the seven flights of stairs to the top level. It nearly killed me despite my improved level of fitness but there was a nice view of the city from the top which made it worthwhile.

View from Osaka Castle

Using Osaka as our base, we spent the next few days taking day trips out to other places of interest. Starting with Kyoto. I went to Kyoto last time I was in Japan but the Golden Pavilion was still just as impressive the second time around. We also headed over to the Silver Pavilion and explored the Philosopher's Walk which featured several other temples and shrines. It ended up in the middle of a suburb of Kyoto where we found an overcrowded commuter bus to take us back to the station. Forty minutes standing uncomfortably close to other people is a little bit awkward for me.

Golden Pavilion

Silver Pavilion

The following day, we went to Nara. Nara was apparently the capital of Japan at one point and is known for it's free roaming deer and temples. The deer reminded me a lot of the monkeys I saw in Malaysia. They were very friendly and were particularly interested if they thought you had some food for them. When I got some special deer food for them, I found myself surrounded by several deer who in their enthusiasm tried to head butt me to get to the food.

Buddhist temple in Nara

Meeting one of the Nara deer

By this point, we were getting a bit tired of temples and shrines. Shocking I know but there's a point where you reach overload. To take a break from this, we spent the next day in Himeji. Himeji Castle had only just reopened after a five year refurbishment so we picked the right time to go. It was probably my favourite place that we visited in Japan. We got tickets to explore both the castle and the nearby Japanese garden. Part of the fun of the castle was removing shoes to explore inside before climbing some wooden staircases in socks and trying not to fall over onto other tourists. The view when we got to the top of the castle was worth the potential accident risk. Getting back down the stairs was equally scary but luckily I didn't display any clumsy behavior and cause chaos.

View from the castle

View of the castle

The next day, we caught the Shinkansen back to Tokyo for our final two days in Japan. We spent the last day visiting a cat cafe (essential for any trip to Japan), exploring a few areas and picking up various souvenirs. Ended up spending far too long back in Akihabara helping Robbie decide between different manga/anime figurines.

New friend at the cat cafe

Next month, I am off to Paris for a few days to celebrate my birthday. I'll try and remember to write an update which is at least as enthralling as this one once I get back.

Livin' it up in Liverpool

I should start by apologising for the awful title of this entry. There are numerous better Liverpool related things I could have gone for but I can't think of them right now.

A second apology for how long it's been since my last entry. Since that entry, I've been to a few places in the UK as well as the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, I forgot to write something at the time and am not convinced I'll write a good entry several months later. The most recent trip I made was at the beginning of this month so I'm hoping the memories are still fresh enough to get something vaguely interesting for the blog.

I went to Liverpool with my family as it was my Mum's birthday. Since Liverpool was the Capital of Culture a few years ago, she's always wanted to go and see the city so it seemed like a good destination for a short weekend trip.

On our first day in the city, we found a free walking tour to join. It was free in the sense that you didn't have to pay but you were expected to put in a donation at the end depending on your level of enjoyment. We had a three hour walk around the key sights of the city centre along with some interesting stories. Obviously The Beatles formed a big part of the stories but there was also a lot of interesting history stories about Liverpool's role as a key port during the British Empire.

Statue of Prince Albert and a slightly scared looking horse

Eleanor Rigby statue

short John Lennon statue outside the Cavern Club

On our second day in the city, we covered a few of the museums and the dock area. For me, the most interesting museum was the Maritime Museum which incorporated the Museum of Slavery. It was laid out really well and was really good for a history geek like me. We also visited one of the art galleries and went back to some of the sights we'd covered briefly on the walking tour.

The ferry across the Mersey was the main activity on our final day. Unfortunately, I get sea sick far too easily and the Mersey was very choppy that day. An hour on a choppy river in the cold and rain is not my idea of fun but I guess it's one of the essential things to do if you are in Liverpool.

In May this year, I have another trip to Japan planned. After my last trip (featured in earlier blog entries) I felt there was more to see so persuaded a friend to join me for a return trip. Assuming I don't forget again, I'll try and write a blog entry for that trip. Hopefully, it will be a bit more exciting than this one!

"It's about time you wrote another blog entry"

Bowing to "popular" demand, it's probably time for another entry. A few things have happened since I got back from Malaysia so I'll try and make it interesting.

The big thing is that I've now moved out of the flat I was sharing with a friend and back in with my parents. Although my flatmate found another job, it didn't pay enough for her to afford to stay and I couldn't afford to stay on my own. After ten odd years of flat/house shares, I wasn't sure I could handle any more randoms with questionable living habits. At my age (late 20s), it's a bit of a change to make. Hopefully, it won't be too long term and it means I can save up with a view to making an escape to a place of my own.

Don't worry, I have also done some (less far flung) travel to balance out my failure to be an adult.

Croydon 
Actually Selsdon - a suburb of Croydon but nobody has heard of there so Croydon will do. I went there for the periodic work annual conference. Two days of talks, awkward videos and group discussions about improving strategies and developing new ideas to become a better company. To make up for this, there was a dinner on the first evening featuring a large amount of wine and a cheesy disco.

Dorchester
Another work trip including a very long train journey. On the way there, someone started a fight on the train causing the journey to take three hours, I was incredibly bored by the time I actually reached Dorchester. I also found myself there on one of the first hot days of the year but unable to enjoy it fully. I did get time to have a wander around the town and establish that nowadays there is a little bit more to do in an evening - even a cinema.

Bognor Regis
A couple of road trips down to West Sussex's best kept secret - an amazing crazy golf course. I even managed my record lowest score of 44 and rang the bell for a free game next time I'm there. The main purpose of the visits was actually to visit my Gran and on both occasions, there was nice, sunny weather so we could take her out for a walk along the promenade.

Central London
To celebrate reaching my late twenties, I had a day off for my birthday. My policy is that I should do my best to never work on my actual birthday and so far, I have successfully stuck to this policy. This year, I went up to central London with my Mum to have a touristy day on the river boat tour. Not the crazy hardcore party antics most people my age get up to but it turned out to be pretty good.

We caught the boat from Westminster Pier and joined a trip to Greenwich. On the way we had one of the crew provide a "quirky" commentary about the various sights of London. For example, "did you know that Big Ben was named after the Clerk of Works in charge of building the Houses of Parliament? His name was Ben and he was 5ft tall. He was also 5ft wide so many people thought he looked like a bell. As a token of appreciation, they named the bell after him". Who knows whether that is true...  We had a spot of lunch by the Cutty Sark in Greenwich before joining another boat for the journey back to Westminster with more or less the same "quirky" commentary in reverse. 

Tower Bridge

The Cutty Sark

Celebratory sparkling wine

I have also relaunched my fatty to fitty campaign. Over the last couple of years, I let my fitness slide a little bit so I decided to use moving in with my parents as a motivation to change that. I started by cycling to and from work every day, regardless of weather. A minimum of 2 miles each way but I've tried to go longer routes on the way home or cycle up some more hills to improve my slightly poor lung capacity. In a week's time, I'm taking part in a ride into and around Central London (part of the Prudential Free Cycle event) which will put all this to the test. Perhaps I will write an update after that to let you know how I got on.

Sorry for the delay...

Part three - Kuala Lumpur and home

Sorry for the delay, I got distracted by work and painting the bedroom I'll soon be moving into at my parents' house. Such an exciting life I lead, sure you're wondering why I only update this occasionally.

Anyway, after the amazing sing song on the plane we collected our bags and caught the bus into central KL to find our hostel. Once we dumped our bags, we headed off to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves is home to a large Hindu temple and a massive staircase to get to the temple. Once we got to the top, it was pretty spectacular. There were statues of the various gods all over the caves in two large cavern type spaces.

Outside the Batu Caves with the massive staircase behind

Once we got back from the Batu Caves, we explored Little India and I tried a pretty hot (by my slightly wussy standards) jalfrezi curry. Megan managed to find the milder option and didn't spend her dinner frantically searching for water and tissues. I think the waiters found it hilarious and clearly thought I couldn't handle curry. They were probably right but it was nice despite how hot and spicy it was. 

After that, we made our way over to the Petronas Towers. By then it was dark and we found ourselves in a square behind the towers at the right time for a water fountain show. It was pretty impressive, Megan even took a video (link available on request). We then went to a hotel bar on the 45th (ish) floor where we were opposite the Petronas Towers. Sadly, the waiter sussed we were only really there for the view and was keen to get rid of us as soon as we'd finished our drinks. It was cheaper than going up the Petronas Towers themselves though.

Water fountain show

The Petronas Towers from the square

On our final day in KL, we joined a tour which took us out of the city. The first stop was an area well known for it's large wild monkey population. The area was quite popular and there were monkey snacks available for all the tourists which attracted more monkeys. We chose not to buy any monkey snacks but still got very close to the monkeys.

Monkeys

 After seeing the monkeys, we went to a riverside seafood restaurant (if that makes sense) for dinner. The fish we were about to eat were all in tanks at the entrance to the restaurant, bit different to anything I'm used to. We got a selection of seafood to try including crab still in the shell, a first for both me and Megan. 

When we'd finished dinner, we joined a boat trip to see the fireflies which hang out along the river. It took a lot of squinting but I actually managed to see the fireflies, it was really cool although I think I was expecting them to be much brighter.

The following morning, Megan left really early in the morning. Leaving me with most of a day to fill before I needed to head to the airport. 

I started off by trying to find the botanical gardens. Megan had recommended them to me and the man in the hostel had given me what seemed like relatively straight forward directions. After about an hour of walking around in circles, I came to the conclusion I had taken several wrong turns and decided to take a different approach. I headed to the main square with the giant flag and joined a tour bus. The idea was that I would get off when it reached the botanical gardens and in the meantime, enjoy the commentary. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of traffic and after a while it started raining, monsoon style. I hadn't reached the botanical gardens stop by this point and the rain didn't ease off. In the end, I gave up on the botanical gardens altogether and stayed on the bus until the point nearest to the hostel so I could get changed, collect my bag and head to the airport.

I got to the airport about four hours too early. I filled the time by helping a Malaysian student with his dissertation (I filled in his questionnaire about food and wine). I also spotted a man wandering around the terminal clutching a giant cheque and saw about 10 groups of travellers get their bags wrapped in cling film.

That's it for the Malaysian trip updates. It was awesome, particularly because I got to see Megan. After 7 months, it was great to have a catch up and also a holiday. I don't have any travel plans that are quite so exciting coming up but I'm going to try and write some more regular updates here anyway. Hopefully it will help me improve my writing skills and be interesting to read.

To the beach

It's now nearly two weeks since I got back to the UK and more than that since a lot of the things I'm trying to remember happened. Will do my best to write something fun anyway.

Once we landed on Langkawi island, we got a taxi to our hostel. There was a bit of confusion when the taxi driver couldn't read my handwriting but we made it. Megan had stayed at the hostel before on a previous travel adventure so had a couple of friends among the hostel staff.

We dumped our bags and decided to head straight to the beach. The beach was brilliant with white sand and blue sea. Not too busy either. I had a bit of a swim/paddle and it was lovely. We spent a lot of time hanging out on the beach and occasionally going into the sea.

The beach

As the island did not have much traffic and they drive on the same side as the UK, I had my first experience of driving abroad the next day. We hired a car to explore the island further and headed first to a cable car that Megan hadn't managed to go on last time she was on the island. Sadly it wasn't to be, the cable car was shut for maintenance for the exact days we were on the island. Disappointing. We headed on to a waterfall nearby. After climbing several hundred steps (which in the heat and humidity wasn't that easy), we got to the top of the waterfall.

We then moved onto another beach. This beach was a bit quieter than the one we went to the day before so we spent more time swimming in the sea and chilling out on the sand. Lovely.

On our final day in Langkawi, we joined an island hopping tour. There are loads of smaller islands surrounding Langkawi including one called the Pregnant Lady Island (because the rocks looked like a pregnant lady having a lie down) where there was a freshwater lake in the middle. We also got to see some eagles being fed next to another island before going onto a final island where there was a beach to laze around on.

Freshwater lake with the pregnant lady rocks behind

We headed back to Kuala Lumpur the following morning on an AirAsia flight where the captain serenaded us all with a burst of "Unchained Melody" as we were taxiing around KL airport finding our gate. What a welcome back!

I'll write about our last few days in Kuala Lumpur in my next entry.

More Malaysia - Cameron Highlands

Here we go with part 2, it's now over two weeks since I was actually there so let's see how much I actually remember.

We arrived in Tanah Rata (think that's how it's spelt) quite late at night so didn't have much time to explore after finding our hotel and getting some food. 

The next day we started our exploring by joining a tour to a large tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands. There were loads of fields up and down the hills full of tea plants. I've never seen a tea plantation before so I was pretty impressed. I think Megan has so maybe it was less exciting for her. We went on to a rose garden where we saw some roses and other flowers (I'm not the best horticulturalist so I have no idea what flowers they were). After that, we visited a strawberry farm because it's one of the only places where strawberries can be grown all year round (apparently).

Stawberries

A flower that probably isn't a rose

The following day we went on a slightly more intense tour. The morning involved a long hike in the hot and humid jungle in order to locate the Rufflesia plant. Unfortunately, the Rufflesia plant doesn't grow somewhere easy to access and in large quantities. The hike involved steep hills, precarious bamboo bridges and a lot of mud. Being a little on the overweight side and very much unfit, it was a struggle for me and I ended up sitting out the end of the hike. I did get to see a dead Rufflesia though. Slightly black and disgusting so I didn't take any pictures to prove my efforts. After stopping off for a traditional southern Indian style lunch, we went back to the tea plantation because every single tour had to take it in.

Hanging out among the tea plants

The tour then took us to the Mossy Forest, something Megan was particularly keen on but involved more hiking. Luckily, it wasn't so humid or so steep this time so I made it through without highlighting my rubbish hiking abilities. The Mossy Forest is so called because of the large amount of moss found in it. It was on all the trees and the ground, making everything quite damp and spongy.

Mossy Forest featuring some insectivorous plants

The final stop of the tour was a butterfly/creepy crawly type place where we got to have a go at holding various animals. For some reason, the guide decided Megan was really keen and let her have a go on every single creature first. I had a go at holding everything except the scorpion, although it's sting had been removed it still put me off a little bit. Animals featured included large stick insects, leaf insects, chameleons, butterflies and grass snakes.

Holding a chameleon

The following morning we left the Cameron Highlands to head to Langkawi. This featured another long and slightly uncomfortable journey (I'm slightly too tall for Asia which means leg room can be a bit cosy). We had a bumpy five hour journey to the port where we caught a very fishy smelling boat over to Langkawi.

I will write about Langkawi in my next entry, before this entry goes on for too long.

Time for a reunion in KL

I'm writing this up about a week after I got back so it may not be in exact order and things could well get missed out.

Part 1 - The journey & Kuala Lumpur

My journey to KL via Frankfurt took a grand total of about 15 hours. It was pretty fun in the end. I made friends with lots of German people (it was a Lufthansa flight) and actually managed to get some sleep on the plane. This meant I was feeling surprisingly awake and alert when I got to KL and had to deal with immigration and finding my suitcase.

Megan had got to the airport before me so was there to meet me when I got out of arrivals. After seven months, it was great to see her again. 

We caught a bus into central Kuala Lumpur which got caught up with the rush hour traffic and seemed to take ages to get there. We eventually reached China Town where we were staying and found our hostel. After dumping our bags and getting changed, we headed back out again to explore and find some dinner. 

China Town in KL is pretty busy and full of loads of stalls trying to sell you handbags, sunglasses etc. 

After wandering around for a while, we found somewhere to have some dinner. Before leaving the UK my Mum had given me a Christmas cracker to take for Megan as she'd missed out on the traditional family Christmas back in December. Turns out it looks a bit strange breaking out a Christmas cracker on Good Friday but the plastic bowling set inside the cracker made it all worthwhile.

The next day we arranged coach tickets to take us to the Cameron Highlands for the afternoon so had the morning to explore KL further. We started off by going to the old square which featured a very tall flag pole and some old buildings.

After that, we went to the KL Menara, a tower you can go up and see all across the city. Great view although maybe a little smoggy.

Wandering around a hot and humid place really makes you appreciate air conditioning. Luckily, pretty much everywhere indoors had air conditioning. However, walking from the train station to the various attractions was much more hard going than a wander around somewhere like London.

Once we were finished looking around the tower, we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a bit before our coach to the Cameron Highlands. Once we got the coach, it took about five hours in pouring rain (think we were in Malaysia's rainy season) and on quite narrow, twisty roads before we reached our destination.

I'll tell you about the Cameron Highlands in my next entry.