One of the Best FOOD Trips Ever in FUKUOKA

I’ve actually been to Fukuoka before a couple years ago, but during that time we joined a tour group that brought us to these horrendous restaurants.  I didn’t write much, but there are a couple of photos you can see at Fukuoka, Aso, and Sea Hell in Beppu.  During that trip, we focused more on the southern parts of Fukuoka.  As such, this time we focused more on the northern side of Fukuoka.

Anyway, the tour guide trip we were on brought us to these ridiculously atrocious restaurants.  In fact, some of these restaurants were overcharging, with the help of the tour guide, who managed to convince us to HAVE to try this Kinki fish for USD 250 that turned out to be undercooked, with lots of bones, and not delicious at all.

That trip, I had an incredibly poor impression of the food in Fukuoka.

THIS time, since we planned and managed the trip ourselves, the food experience was the opposite of what I had compared to my first trip in Fukuoka, in that we had extraordinary food experiences, from sitting near the seaside BBQing raw oysters to eating traditional and sumptuous traditional Japanese traditional cuisine.  I dare say this was one of THE best food experiences I’ve ever had, and I’m about to share with you some of the restaurants we went to.  What a difference planning a trip by yourselves and joining a tour group makes.  I’ve always been AGAINST joining tour groups, as you can manage your time however you want if you’re going by yourself and you can plan the restaurants YOU want to go to rather than being brought to tourist restaurants where the tour agency probably gets a cut or commission from bringing us there.

For things to do, you can read about my blog post Shrines and Limestones, Fukuoka and North.

Continue reading One of the Best FOOD Trips Ever in FUKUOKA

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 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