A little out of the way but well worth it.
Warung Blanjong in Sanur
Not a bad place for lunch. Typical Balinese food. There’s better but the location is not bad and they have a parking space for cars. https://maps.app.goo.gl/33m9NGRbQThMKonz7
Sanpomen: Nice ramen in overly touristy Namba, Osaka
Osaka has some of the best food in Japan but the food around Namba station consistently disappoints. Mostly. Sanpomen Ramen which seems to be a chain in Japan has some excellent ramen – Tsukemen and Tonkatsu.
Bincho: delicious unagi with crispy edges
Hitsumabushi is a local specialty in Nagoya and it shows with multiple options everywhere. The one at Bincho near Nagoya station didn’t disappoint.
Best yokocho in Tokyo
Tokyo has some of the best nightlife in Asia. One of the most pleasant experiences though is also one of the simplest. Go to one of the many old alleyways or yokochos and join salary men and locals for a drink.…
Air Asia, probably the worst airline in Asia
I know, i know. You get what you pay for. But Air Asia takes service to a level so low that the only point I can give them on 10 is because they eventually took me to my destination. These are the reasons why i think…
Majestic Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi
This post about our trip to Mount Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi has been such a long time coming. It’s been a year now since I was there. As memorable as the cities we visited were – Osaka, Kyoto, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Takayama, Kanazawa and…
Shirakawago: Rural Japan
We made a brief two-hour stop at Shirakawago en route to Kanazawa from Takayama. While we wanted to maximize our JR Pass, the place is not accessible by train. Thankfully they had the option of a one-way ticket from Takayama…
Takayama: Feudal Japan
While Kyoto was incredibly nice and the Gion Matsuri an eye-opener to Japanese festivals, Takayama offered a slice of Japanese culture, tradition and architecture in a setting that felt a lot more authentic. One major highlight of the region is…
Kyoto: Of Geishas, Maikos and Matsuris
Kyoto was probably the city I was looking forward to the most on my Japan trip. I’d heard endless stories from fellow travellers about how Kyoto is the city which best preserved Japan’s cultural heritage. This holds true compared to…
Weekend in Saigon
…and I’m still procrastinating to complete my posts on Japan to talk about my quick weekend in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) while memories are still fresh. It was my fourth or fifth time there, the previous trips primarily for work. What a…
Weekend in Phuket
I have so much more to write about my Japan trip but I’ll skip to my short weekend in Phuket last month first. It was my third time in Phuket. I had great fun the first couple of times I was there,…
Hiroshima: City of Peace
After Miyajima, we had only a few hours to spare in Hiroshima before heading to Kyoto. Naturally, I wanted to see the A-Bomb Dome and understand the extent of the destruction. The Peace Memorial museum tour and graphic photos of the devastation were…
Miyajima: The Ryokan Experience
I read before that Miyajima could be done as a day trip combined with Hiroshima. While that may be true, I am just so glad that I decided to spend one night there instead. After all, the Torii Gate is…
Osaka: A laid-back Tokyo
Osaka was the first leg of my Japan tour and landing at Kansai International Airport got me all fired up. I had enjoyed myself tremendously the previous time I was in Japan and I just couldn’t wait to get past immigration…
Touring Japan
I flew to Japan in July 2014, a long overdue trip after a 10-day winter trip to Tokyo four years earlier. I still love the people, the food and the culture but the entire experience in summer is vastly different. It was…
5 great places to drink cheap in Singapore
Singapore is by far the most expensive place to drink in Southeast Asia. You can find some cheap beer at supermarkets, sure, but once you hit a bar, prices are inflated three-fold. And yet, Singapore has a really strong drinking…
Luang Prabang
My trip from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang may have been a nightmare because of the ridiculously cold weather and incessantly winding roads, but I just love that place. It has a very strong French influence, in terms of architecture…
Laos backpacking experience
I had two and half weeks off in December 2013 and decided to explore Laos, one of the few countries I had yet to see in Southeast Asia. I heard much from traveller friends about tubing (good and bad) and…
Vang Vieng
When you reach Vang Vieng by land from Vientiane or Luang Prabang, you see yourself on a defunct air strip where dogs run about freely and kids play in the dirt. A tuk tuk picked all the passengers of the…