Japan 2012 - Day 2 @ Kyoto

Date: 02/12/2012
Route: Osaka - Kyoto

Woke up early in the morning and boarded the train bound for Kyoto at 8am. The journey was about 30 mins or so. We reached Kyoto station and put our luggage at Budget Inn first. The owner was friendly but his English accent was weird. Lolz!
Our first stop is Nishi Honganji, which is diagonally opposite our guesthouse.
Nishi Honganji (西本願寺) is one of two temple complexes of Jōdo Shinshū in Kyoto, Japan, the other being Higashi Honganji. Jōdo Shinshū is a school of Pure Land Buddhism, and today Nishi Honganji serves as the head temple of the Jōdo Shinshū organization. (credit: Wikipedia)
Japanese Buddhist temples are rather confusing because they are of different sects, schools and sub temples. Architecture style varies as well, though mostly under Japanese or Chinese influence.
Nishi Hongaji does not have maple trees, but they have ginkgo trees. The ginkgo tree leaves are yellow in colour and they made a stark contrast against the red maple leaves.
We took a local bus and travelled to Nijo Castle.
Nijō Castle (二条城) is a flatland castle located in Kyoto, Japan. The castle consists of two concentric rings of fortifications, the Ninomaru Palace, the ruins of the Honmaru Palace, various support buildings and several gardens. The surface area of the castle is 275,000 square meters, of which 8000 square meters is occupied by buildings. (credit: Wikipedia)
Nijo Castle is the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns. As a fan of  "Ooku", the castle looked somewhat familiar. Haha! Ninomaru Palace is made of wood, and there are many interesting features like the squeaking sound of the floor when one walks along the corridor. Photography is not allowed in the palace hence I could only snapped the castle from the outside. Honmaru Palace is also out of bounds, but I managed to snap a far view of the palace from the nearby fort. Surprisingly, Nijo's gardens were one of the highlights and it's one good place for people who wanna snapped autumn sceneries.
We took a local bus again and went to Morpho Cafe for lunch. I am not sure of the exact location hence spent a bit more time walking here and there. Luckily we found the cafe which was located beside the main street.
The staff do not speak much English but they have a English menu. We ordered their set lunch (950yen) and it was quite delicious. I liked their "hamburg steak" and the seaweeds.
Next stop we travelled to the south of Kyoto by bus and train. Kyoto station is not as confusing as Osaka or Tokyo stations hence it's quite easy to walk about. 
Tōfukuji (東福寺) is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto, Japan. Tōfukuji takes its name from two temples in Nara, Tōdaiji and Kōfuku-ji. It is one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto". (credit: Wikipedia)
Tofukuji is one of the famous spots for autumn sceneries. However, the best time to visit is during mid to late November. By the time I reached there, the leaves has started to turn brown, but overall the leaves still looked beautiful to me.
Tōfukuji's main gate is the oldest sanmon in Japan. It is a National Treasure of Japan. It is two stories high and five bays wide. The central three bays are doors.
Next we proceeded to Fushimi Inari Taisha, which is close to Tofukuji.
Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 metres above sea-level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines. Since in early Japan Inari was seen as the patron of business, each of the Torii is donated by a Japanese business. First and foremost though, Inari is the god of rice. Merchants and manufacturers worship Inari for wealth. Donated torii lining footpaths are part of the scenic view. This popular shrine is said to have as many as 32,000 sub-shrines throughout Japan. (credit: Wikipedia)
What attracted me to visit this shrine is the thousands of red Torii, which looked spectacular. I also got to see the Japanese lucky charms but I did not know they are so expensive. Haha!
Bought Takoyaki after we left the shrine. Super delicious!
We returned to Kyoto Station and checked out Porta Underground Mall, which was freaking huge. There was a restaurant street and area for clothings, stationeries and souvenirs. We popped in one of the Japanese restaurants selling soba and had our dinner there.
I ordered Tenzaru soba, which I have eaten N times in Singapore. Lolz~~~ The portion was alright and the meal was not too bad.
Returned to Budget Inn and we were introduced to various facilities in the guesthouse by the owner. Our room was a triple ensuite, equipped with kitchen facilities. The room was much spacious than Hotel Kinki. Room was Japanese style (with Tatami mat), and we have enough space to put our luggage. Very satisfied with my choice. It was a good place to stay for 4 nights.

Today we made a small mistake by not buying the 1 day city bus pass which costed 500yen. We did not expect to take so many buses. Haha! Well, there are always unexpected things popping out during a trip and we could not determine if the decision is right one. A good lesson to learn for the DIY planning.

Photos on Facebook. Enjoy~

Day 2 Kyoto

Japan 2012 - Day 1 @ Osaka

Date: 01/12/2012
Route: Singapore - Hong Kong - Osaka

We boarded our plane at 1.15am, and it was an old A330. Seats were old and legroom not very spacious. Very disappointed to see Cathay's old inflight entertainment system with lousy and small screens. Movie choices were limited, but I managed to watch something.
Waited for drinks but they did not seve until our meals came. Had my seafood pasta dinner and it was not too bad. CX crew did not impressed me when I flew with them in 2004, and I did not see much improvements till now.
We landed at Hong Kong International airport at 5.20am and headed to McDonald's for our breakfast.
Waited for a few hours before we boarded our transit plane to Osaka at 10.20am. It was an old B747 but surprisingly the seats were more comfortable and spacious. IFE equipment was much better than their A330 as well.
I had pasta again for brunch. I thought I cld get some dim sum or Japanese food? Hahaha! 
CX planes used centralised air-con control hence we felt kind of warm in the plane. I would prefer personal air-con control found on other planes.
We landed at Kansai International Airport at 2.40pm Japan time. The arriving terminal was actually their T2 but the airport in fact has only 1 terminal for departure and arrival. Passengers have to take their airport tram to the main terminal.
The JR West office was located in a separate building outside the airport building. We bought our ICOCA and Haruka package and boarded the Rapid airport express to Umeda.
Unfortunately, I forgot that the round trip ticket could only be used within 14 days hence I could not use it when I return on the 15th day. 1000 yen wasted, but we still managed to use up 390 yen for our Kobe trip.
The train was a normal commuter train hence there was lots of people who boarded from major stations like Tennoji etc.  
JR Osaka station was quite a horror as it was very big and there were so many exits and buildinngs connected to it.
We had some tough time finding Hotel Kinki, which was a good 10 to 15 mins walk away. I guessed I would spend more money to stay hotels that are right beside the station next time.
Hotel Kinki was located along a street full of restaurants, game arcades and "free information centres". Quite an "interesting" place actually. Our triple room was quite small and we could not place our luggage properly. Beds and pillows were comfortable, could not complain too much for the price I paid.
Our first dinner was at Curry House CocoIchibanya, which has a restaurant in Singapore. Thus, the food was nothing new for us. Luckily there was a waitress who spoke Mandarin hence our first meal was settled easily. Hahaha!
Walked around Umeda area which was the base for lots of departmental stores like Isetan, Daimaru, Hankyu and Hanshin. We went to Hep Five and found Lowrys Farm. Realised their shirts were sold at a cheaper price than in Singapore. Bought one long sleeve shirt which only costed about $30+ SGD. I could only buy shirts at this price after a 50-70% sale here! Other blouses costed about the same in both countries hence we did not buy any. KH bought a pair of bling bling pumps in a local shop too. We did not walk any further, or else our wallets wld get burst! Lolz!
Returned to hotel as we need to leave early for Kyoto the next day.

Day 1 Osaka

Overseas Trip

Date: 01/12/12-15/12/12
Area: Kansai (Osaka,Kyoto,Nara,Kobe,Koyasan) & Kanto (Tokyo,Hakone,Fujisan,Kamakura)
Airline: Cathay Pacific

Finally! I am going to visit "Land of the Rising Sun" - Asia's most advanced and expensive country....JAPAN!

KH and I have started planning this trip since early this year. It consists lots of hard work, from researching information to refining our itinerary. I think we have updated our itinerary N times. Lolz!
Japan is indeed challenging as we are overloaded with information and we need to keep to our budget. Haha! I have spent many nights finding hotels with good infrastructure, location and at reasonable pricing.
Our itinerary has yet to be completed and we are left 3 weeks! Ooops!

This will be a very tiring trip as there are lots of walking to be done during the winter season, and we have to wake up early to start the day before sky turns dark at 5pm.

I hope everything will turn out good ;)

Siem Reap 2012

After my 1st trip to Cambodia in 2009, I knew I would return to the country someday for a 2nd trip. I named the trip "Conquest of the temples" as I aimed to visit the temples in grand circuit and those at outlaying areas outside Siem Reap.

Thought of staying in another guest house but I decided to return to Golden Mango. Their service was excellent and they are constantly improving. I am happy that I made the right choice.

Actually I thought this trip might be boring as there was no hiking or boat trips to Tonle Sap lake. Some more it's Tuan first visit to Cambodia. I did not include any museum for her as well. (Actually the temples are open-air museums ya! Haha!) Luckily I added the ATV ride on our last day and it was quite an adventure to drive through the Khmer villages and paddy fields. Even though I had to pay the price of suffering from sun burns on both arms and face, the ride was truly fun and memorable.

The temples in small ciricuit remained the same, and I managed to see "Sea of the churning milk" bas-relief in Angkor Wat. I also got to climb up to the upper tower in Angkor Wat as well. Nice view from the top!

The true surprise in this trip was the temples in grand circuit. They might not be as magnificant as those in small circuit, but they are unique in their own ways. These temples are ideal location for photography and I quite pleased with my pictures.

Koh Ker actually consisted of several temple groups, but most of them were in ruins. The pyramid temple was the highlight of the trip. The real gem got to be Beng Mealea, which is actually quite a big temple on its own. I would say it's more spectacular than Angkor Wat.

Siem Reap old town did not change much. The place was flooded with tourists, shops, restaurants, massage palours and night markets. I revisited several restaurants and tried a few new ones. My favourite "Angkor Wat" juice disappeared from the menu but I ordered something similar. Guess they changed the name only. Lolz!

Have to mention my flight to and fro Siem Reap. Silkair is not the cheapest option for the trip, but their plane schedule suited my plan best. Furthermore I am a supporter of the airline as well, so did not mind paying more. Everything was good except for our return leg, where they messed up with E.W's meals. Thanks to this incident, I wrote my 1st ever complaint email to Silkair and they compensated with a 40 bucks voucher. Haha! Well, this won't stop me from using them in future trips, but I would try to avoid any non-direct flights.

I guess I would not return to Cambodia anytime soon, though the places I visited only made up a small portion of the country. There are other places to explore but they are still under developed for tourists.

Due to the lack of spare time, I could only provide a link of my trip photos in Facebook. It was tedious to upload the pics again here, so I would only maintain the pics at one place.

Siem Reap 2012

LEGOLAND Malaysia 2012

Here's the link to my trip photos!
I shall blog the trip in my personal blog. Check it out!

Legoland Malaysia 2012

Overseas Trip

I think I have not stepped into Malaysia for nearly 20 years.

Will be going to Legoland with CC Gang on 03 Nov. 

It's our first gathering outside Singapore. 

Hopefully it will be a smooth trip with good weather! 

Shanghai & Nanjing: Day 3 - Day 8 Photos

I don't have much time to review my trip in detail, so I shall share the link below for now.
You can check out my trip photos which I posted on my facebook.

Shanghai & Nanjing 2012

Shanghai & Nanjing: Day 2 @ Shanghai

Date: 29/06/2012
--Fudan University--
It was a bright & sunny day, despite the rainy weather forecast.

We waited outside the stadium while the graduation ceremony commenced inside.

Managed to catch a glimpse of what's going on inside the stadium.

That's Tuan!

Zheng Da Group Stadium.

This is the "shopping street" at the school's south campus.

My favourite Coco drink stall. It's better than any other bubble tea stores found in SG!
We walked over to the north campus and toured around the school.

The school's famous Mao Zedong statue.

The school's "not so grand" school gate. Haha!

Spotted water lily in one of their ponds.

This is the old school gate.

Tuan's museology faculty. Very old school building.

This is the north campus student dormitory.

Lotus pond.

Her super small dorm.
--Lunch @ 禾绿回转寿司--

This is not the best Japanese food I've tried. In fact, their sashimi and seaweed were not fresh. I liked the small side dishes though.
--Wujiaochang 五角场--

A glimpse of this suburb neighbourhood near Fudan. Lots of malls and international brands could be found here.
--Costa @ Xintiandi Style--

While waiting for my relatives, we sat at Costa and took a rest. Their coffee was alright, but my parents complained their americano was too bitter. Lolz!

The super high-end mall with very few souls around.
--Xintiandi--

The 石库门 houses and alleys made this place unique. It's like our Clarke Quay, just that there's no river.

--Dinner @ Crystal Jade--

One of my best dinners in Shanghai. Super yummy and affordable. How come our Crystal Jade in SG does not seem that cheap to me? Haha!

Check out Xintiandi at night. My pics were not good so I made a collage.
--Huaihai Road 淮海路--
Walked down to another shopping district from Xintiandi.

All the high-end malls are here! This is Cartier.

Realised their Mac stores are super big.

Played with slow shutter speed. Not good enough.

Saw their booths selling vouchers.
--East Nanjing Road--

On our way back to hotel. New World Dept store at night.

The famous neon signboards...

Yongan Dept store.

Aunties had fun doing line dancing.

A shop selling plane models in a modified old tram.

Dongya Hotel.

Yongan Dept store. The angle is not very good :(

The large thermometer found at Seventh Heaven Hotel.

One of my favourite food in China is the Chinese BBQ. Hygiene is not an issue to me. Haha! Anyway, it's like a must for me to eat BBQ in China now :) Too bad I only ate once during this trip, coz' I was too full on other days. Lolz!

Shanghai & Nanjing: Day 1 @ Shanghai

Date: 28/06/2012
--Singapore Airlines SQ826 1.15am--
It has been 12 years since I last boarded a SQ plane. Even though there are many competitors who are on par with SQ, I still feel exceptionally welcomed when I fly with them. SQ service is still above average, and I have to mention their Chinese crew are up to standard.
The plane was a Boeing 777-200. Legroom was really good, especially for people who have long legs like me. Haha! Inflight entertainment was not bad, though the movie selection was boring. In the end, I managed to catch some sleep while listening to their music collection.
Our flight started with the warm towels (really miss this service) & before the meals, they would give every passenger the menu for us to choose our meal.
Breakfast was served at 3 or 4am plus.

Specially ordered the Vegetarian Jain meal for E.W's breakfast.

I think food menu is nearly extinct in most airlines, but not SQ :)

My breakfast. The noodles and har gao were so much better than MU. Lolz!

Sky is brightening up...
--Pudong International Airport T2--
Pudong T2 is definitely better than the older T1 which MU is using. We took a taxi to our hotel in downtown Shanghai. It has been 4 years since my first trip to the city. Shanghai did not change too much, but there are more developments at Pudong area.
--Majesty Plaza Hotel 南新雅大酒店--
The hotel is just located beside East Nanjing Road and near People's Square. Superb location. We were lucky to be able to check-in early.

Our room.

The hotel lobby and rooms.

Majesty Plaza Hotel.
--East Nanjing Road 南京东路步行街--
Tuan met up with us at the hotel and we bought our train tickets to Nanjing from the authorised agents at Seventh Heaven Hotel.
This famous tourist spot did not change much, but there are more international brands at this shopping street now.

One of the landmarks at East Nanjing Rd, Yong An Dept store.

Another famous landmark, Dong Ya hotel.
--People's Square 人民广场--

We walked towards People's Square area and passed by Moore Church at Middle Xizang Road. The church was under renovations when I was there in 2008.
--Shanghai Museum 上海博物馆--
Established in 1952, Shanghai Museum is one of the 4 most important museums in China. I missed my chance to visit it in 2008, so the museum became my "must visit" attraction in this trip :D

Museum entrance. Admission is free.
We visited a few galleries. First is "Chinese Minority Nationalities' Art Gallery". The collections reminded me of the one I saw at Hainan museum.

The second gallery is "Ancient Chinese Jade Gallery". Check out the pics below.

Will show more jade pieces when I cover Nanjing later on. Nanjing museum has more impressive jade pieces.
Third gallery is "Chinese Currency Gallery".

 Old Chinese coins.

Silver bullion bars.
The fourth gallery "Ancient Chinese Ceramics" is by far the best gallery in the museum.

The fifth gallery we visited was "Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery".

Impressive artefacts.

Next up is "Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery"

Lots of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas statues are displayed.
We also visited a special gallery for Chinese Bamboo Carving. 

Impressive word carving on the fan.
--People's Square--

 Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, Raffles City etc.

Shanghai City Hall.

 Shanghai Grand Theatre and surrounding buildings.

 Shanghai Museum, shaped like a bronze Ding.
--Street scenes--

The public toilet found at People's Square.

Old building.
--Lunch at 避风塘--

Had our Cantonese lunch at this HK cafe restaurant. Food was average.
--Street scenes--
Met up with my cousin & family and we headed out for dinner.

The busy East Nanjing Road.

New World Department Store is also another landmark at People's Square area. Thanks to "SAMSUNG". Ha!

Esprit was having their mid-year sale! Bought a nice top at only SGD20!

Went to Raffles City for our dinner.
--Dinner at Pho Asia--

Tuan and I thought hard at what to eat for dinner. We decided to check out Pho Asia, which specialised in Vietnamese, Thai & South East Asian cuisine. I was glad that their food was really yummy. The sotong was so tender, and the tom yam soup was super spicy!
--East Nanjing Road Metro Station--
Brought my relatives to The Bund area. Took their metro Line 2 to East Nanjing Road.

Super blood big interchange.
--The Bund 外滩--
I think I don't have to introduce this place anymore. Everybody knows it!

The Peace Hotel South Tower.

One of the Peace Hotel's side gates. Super retro!

Citibank @ Peace Hotel.

Bank of China building.

ICBC building.

View of Pudong across Huang Pu river.
The weather was not good for photo taking. The city was covered by greyish sky and fog for the entire day.

The bund historical buildings.

As usual, it's difficult to get a good night shot without a tripod, but the place was so crowded with people. I doubt it's easy to snap pictures with tripod as well.

Snapped more pics using various effects.

Peace hotel.

Love their retro old gate.
--East Nanjing Road--
We left the bund and walked back to East Nanjing Road. Great place to snap night sceneries.

The tram. For people who find the pedestrain street too long to walk :p

Snapped the pics using dramatic effect art filter. Loved it! This is Dong Ya hotel.

This is Seventh Heaven Hotel, and Giordano's flagship store.

Tuan & E.W.

The quiet pedestrain street at 10.45pm.