I went to an Australian trip with a couple of my friends (or mates, as the Australians call it, at least some) back in 2012 (specifically from Nov. 24 to Dec. 2). In the span of 9 days, we covered three different places – first it was Cairns, then Gold Coast, then Melbourne (although for me, I only spent a full day in Melbourne for Stereosonic and at a nightclub called Love Machine and had to take the flight the next morning). My memory’s a bit rusty from the trip, so I’ll share with you as much as I remember along with some pics. But definitely one of the best trips of my life, great weather, great food, super fun, GREAT COMPANY, everything was awesome. Thanks for my friends for organizing and being at the trip. Continue reading Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi
Category: Travel
Twenty Not As Touristy Things To Do In Hong Kong
Looking for something fun and interesting to do in Hong Kong? Look no further as I present to you 20 Not As Touristy Things To Do right now in Hong Kong.
quick update (as of Oct. 15, 2023): This post was made almost 8 years ago so many things have changed. Some shops you see on Star Street and Ship Street are no longer here. I think the Tai O Infinity Pool is banned from entering now. Bubble Football is no more. If you want a complete list of many more activities to do in Hong Kong, I suggest you check out my travel bucket list page, where I wrote a lot of things to do in Hong Kong. Continue reading Twenty Not As Touristy Things To Do In Hong Kong
Hokkaido in November
Quick tips about Hokkaido:
- The people here do not speak any English… like at all. You’d expect the hotels to know English, but a majority of the staff couldn’t speak the language even one bit
- As yen continues to depreciate, the value there keeps getting cheaper. I was extremely happy with what I was getting for food and for shopping for the price I was paying
- So yeah it’s a food paradise
- Since public transportation is quite expensive, and since the weather can be a bit harsh in winter times, I would actually recommend renting a car if you have a group of three or more. 4 days rental was quoted at 29,000 yen including insurance
- If you are traveling short distances and going with 3 or more people, you can consider riding a taxi too
- Felt very safe the entire trip
- If you want to see the autumn leaves, you should go there around Sept / Oct. If you want to go for skiing / snowboarding, you should go there around December to February
- Sapporo is a great city, but to appreciate Hokkaido’s scenery, you really have to go outside the city to other parts of Hokkaido
Geneva Breaks My Wallet
About Geneva:
Geneva is a rather peaceful, quiet city for both the common tourists and locals. Everything is very calm, it’s got an extremely low crime rate, everything is in order, and it just seems very serene to me. Too serene in fact. Sure, visiting here is OK for me, but I definitely cannot live here (otherwise I would be too bored. I’m more of a big busy city person). Continue reading Geneva Breaks My Wallet
Seoul – Shopping Heaven
Quick tips about Seoul:
- It is a shopping paradise
- It’s also a food paradise (especially if you like spicy and KBBQ)
- We didn’t do any sight seeing, but based on reading from blogs, books and other guides, there isn’t an astounding amount of cultural / historical / scenic things to do (as compared to places in Europe). A bit similar to Bangkok. They EXIST but it’s not abundant and should be able to cover in a few days for the major attractions
- The people there know very little English. In fact, the salespeople in the retail shops actually speak Mandarin much better than English so prepare to bring some sort of translation book if you can only speak English
- Transportation is very convenient
- Although the transition between different train lines is a fair bit of distance… so plan your time accordingly
- Many 24 hour restaurants
- Felt safe the entire trip
- very affordable (compared to HK)
- actually Seoul is pretty much like Hong Kong except they speak Korean there instead of Cantonese
It’s definitely a trip well worth going, especially if you are into Korean Pop culture. I’ll show you the places we went (for shopping and eating) so you can have a rough itinerary for your next trip. Continue reading Seoul – Shopping Heaven
Yunnan, Where The Pictures Are Prettier Than Reality Part Two
Thank you for continuing to read part two of my Yunnan trip. If you haven’t done so already, you can read part one of my Yunnan trip by clicking here: Part One.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I thought Yunnan was overrated. I found a couple of locals who were very rude and impolite to us (while those who were extremely friendly and nice towards us were our hotel hosts, tour guides, and restaurants we visited). Shopkeepers were extremely aggressive with their selling (and I understand that their income may be low, but that doesn’t make me not dislike their aggressiveness), and the bathrooms there were very, very unhygienic. Even the food wasn’t as tasty as we thought, and sometimes the food wasn’t even cooked (we had dumplings where the meat was still pink >o<). This is really disappointing as it made us lose trust in FOOD… we immediately lost appetite after this incident. Continue reading Yunnan, Where The Pictures Are Prettier Than Reality Part Two
Yunnan, Where The Pictures Are Prettier Than Reality Part One
I hate to say this, but I found Yunnan to be one of the more overrated travel destinations I’ve been to (another one being Venice, Italy). I was incredibly looking forward for this trip as I heard many good things about the scenery and I have a passion for spicy food, but Yunnan did not live up to its expectations. I must make a disclaimer though that the time spent for this trip was relatively short, and I would suggest at least a week to visit all the scenery provinces in Yunnan. Instead, we ended up spending 5 days (4 days of sightseeing, the last day was just getting to the airport) at Lijiang and Shangri-La. Continue reading Yunnan, Where The Pictures Are Prettier Than Reality Part One
Cape Town Gorgeous
Hellooooo Cape Town Gorgeous!
Ask me where my favorite place is to drive, and Cape Town will probably be at the top. It’s got one of the more scenic and beautiful views for a city. In fact, Cape Town is probably one of my favorite places I have traveled, ever. Beautiful weather, beautiful food, beautiful environment, beautiful prices, I mean everything was amazing here! This is one of the must go to in your life!
*Note: I went during January, which was their summer time.
Side note: I was able to snatch a return plane ticket to Johannesburg for only HKD 50 (to everyone outside of HK that’s about USD 6.5). Yup, HKD 50!!! Not including tax and fuel surcharges of course, but still that all amounted to less than 20% of what it will usually cost me. Had to thank my colleagues for letting me know about the 1st anniversary of fanfares by Cathay Pacific on the day of. Continue reading Cape Town Gorgeous