Nikko - Japan

Nikko – Japan

Post published:1 September 2017
Post category:Asia Japan

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Never say beautiful until you’ve seen Nikko

Our second of the day trips from our base in Tokyo was for this incredible place, the first touch to the “real Japan”, although I’ve already known this when I went 5 years ago to Kyoto. Still in a way, much more secluded than the big metropolis, and completely surrounded by national parks and great scenery. It is everything combined, the beauty of the nature, the history of ancient constructions; shrines, temples and mausoleums and the people that makes this place one of the most remarkable landmarks in the entire Japan. Their people have a say for the city: Never say ‘kekkō’ until you’ve seen Nikkō, (kekkō meaning beautiful, magnificent). They are right; see it for yourself and enjoy this UNESCO World Heritage Site listed city.

Coming from “the big city”, Tokyo, 140 kilometres distance in between and where temperatures were at the maximum of the year, around 30 centigrade; here in Nikko it can all change quickly. Generally, slash it in half, usually around 15 to 20 max. Be prepared and know this beforehand, it can get quite chilly especially towards the afternoon and of course during the night. Also this is a high humidity region where rain is normal. Don’t get caught by surprise!. Yet bearing these facts, we were not impacted at all and in fact, we did struggle a little bit with the high temperatures and humidity. You’ve been warned anyway, please do check the weather in advance and keep a track with the daily fluctuations.

As for visiting the historic area, a day is well more than enough, hence why this is the perfect day trip from Tokyo, and if you were wondering, why the hordes of tourist buses coming for the day since the morning then disappearing later in the afternoon and almost no one by the evening. Perhaps if I could recommend a good tip, is getting some pre-packed food with you for your lunch. The reason is simple, once you are in the UNESCO area, within the 3 major shrines there is almost nothing to grab bearing the cafe at one of the museums, but gladly there are plenty of vending machines all over; still, heading back to the nearest area with some better choice is not straightforward but rather a great loss of time in having to do a back and forth.

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Nagoya - Japan

Nagoya – Japan

Post published:31 August 2017
Post category:Asia Japan

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The Middle Capital

Our first destination from our main base in Tokyo, we come to one of the “newest” and thriving cities in Japan, Nagoya. A city almost entirely devastated during WWII, including its ancient castle that was being used as military barracks back in the time and reduced to rubble, then raised from the grounds to become the fourth largest city in Japan and one of the nation’s major economic centers, fast growing in every sense and not just in population but also in economy and industry home to some of the giants in automobile and railway with headquarters and production chains such as Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and the Shinkansen to name some; and a constantly rising tourist destination.

Although not a highlight for many tourists when visiting Japan, it is nevertheless a great day out whether you are coming from Tokyo or Kyoto. It’s merely an hour away in the Shinkansen bullet train train from any of these cities, and for anyone holding a Japan Railway Pass this route is included and you can benefit from the super high frequencies and comfort. With a day being enough for every sight, there is not really a need for any further time unless you are lucky enough of having plenty of days for touring and enjoying your time as you wish. However, for the average tourist either on their own or as part of a tour, a day is ideal. Prepare yourself for commuting by metro every now and then since distances are big once you are outside of the main core around the castle. After all, remember you are in a very large city when comparing it to European standards. Over 9 million inhabitants live in the metropolitan area.

So while this city is often bypassed by the tourists, it does really have its charm and beauty. Likewise Tokyo and Hiroshima, is very modern and new as we saw in part due to its past history of war. For us, it was a decision in between coming here or the area of Fujisan by the Mount Fuji, which in any case, you will see from the train window whenever you commute in the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen line between Tokyo and the west (weather permitting). While it’s a great place for nature and landscapes, it’s also a difficult place to pre-plan because you never know what’s the weather going to be, but expect high chances of clouds to the point of almost not seeing the volcano.

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Tokyo - Japan

Tokyo – Japan

Post published:30 August 2017
Post category:Asia Japan

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The East Capital

It’s been almost 5 years since the first and only only time I’ve been to Japan. It was October 2012 when we found great tickets on an odd open-jaw combination. London-Rome–Moscow-Tokyo, and the return Tokyo-Moscow-London. Fun times back then, but a great joy in the overall trip. It was 8 of us, the very first time I was travelling with a greater number of friends, but we survived and returned with the best experience possibly in our lives back in the days; and still, 5 years after and having visited another 87 countries so far in the world, Japan ranks among the best top 5 in the list, no hesitation. In this occasion, 4 of us travelling, my family. My brother repeating with me, and my parents. We had spoken for a long now about when to go to Japan together, switched destinations all over many times; been to France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, China, South Korea… and finally Japan, including a stop-over in Doha to enjoy an entire day there and break the long journey; for me a returning place but for my family the first time in the Middle East.

Let’s start from the first experience: landing in Japan is landing in another world. Don’t expect the technology difference with the rest of the world is that big anymore, as contrary, they seem to be more old dated and fashioned in many ways. But their superb mentality, cleanliness, education and politeness will shock anyone. Not to mention the attention to detail and the perfect functionality of everything, like their transit systems, the busiest in the world, where everything just work without failures, on time, to the precision.

Tokyo will be for majority of the tourists coming to Japan, their main port of entry in the country, and so, the first place they will get to see. It is without any doubt, one of the most impressive and fascinating cities in the world, but not the place where to see the traditional and old Japan. For that, you will need to include in your tour some of the historical cities such as Nikko, Nagoya, Kyoto, Nara, Horyu-Ji, Himeji-Jo, Osaka and Hiroshima to name a few. All of these were in my plan, together with a visit to nearby Yokohama which you can treat as a “district” of massive Tokyo, although it is an entire different city.

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Polonnaruwa - Sri Lanka

Polonnaruwa – Sri Lanka

Post published:29 September 2016
Post category:Asia Sri Lanka

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The second most ancient of Sri Lanka’s ancient kingdoms

With our Sri Lankan trip coming to an end, we spared our last day before returning to Colombo to visit yet again another former Imperial Capital. The best preserved of all the ones we’ve visited in this trip so far, and perhaps one of the most impressive due to the level of conservation and big size of its constructions. This is a huge archaeological complex built in a long north-south orientation, but easy and good enough for a day trip as majority of tourists do. From our base in Anuradhapura, it was another great and easy commute here; and as I’ve been commenting in the other travel guides for Sri Lanka, having a base in either Anuradhapura, Dambulla or Kandy to visit the central region of Sri Lanka would be your best choice.

Polonnaruwa is for many a stop-over en-route towards the east coast and the beaches of Trincomalee. For us, unfortunately, time was our downside and while we could have gone for barely a day and a half to Trincomalee, we decided to instead return to Colombo and be on the secure side, have a great hotel, a beautiful pool and enjoy our time without any further sightseeing nor rush, but just having a well deserved rest (and high level of luxury too since we stayed at the Galle Face Hotel).

Visiting the site is really easy and while there are many constructions, the key ones are mostly located all along the main path heading south to north of the complex. A day trip is really the best decision you can make to come here because other than the archaeological park, there is nothing else in the “new” city of Polonnaruwa. As usual in sites like this, I strongly recommend you to follow a visit like the one we did which you can see below and where I’ve marked the sites by numbers in a perfect order.

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Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Dambulla and Sigiriya – Sri Lanka

Post published:28 September 2016
Post category:Asia Sri Lanka

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Largest and best preserved cave temple of Sri Lanka

Our next destination after such a fascinating day before at the archaeological complexes of Anuradhapura came to be another unforgettable day in beautiful and unique Sri Lanka. With so much to see in every corner on this rather small country, and with a tight agenda with unfortunately limited days, my original research for this trip was going to be visiting all of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which in turn are the must-do’s when in Sri Lanka. So with both the Cave Temple Complex of Dambulla and the ancient Citadel of Sigiriya this would be a perfect day, easy to manage in the same day since the sites are small and nearby each others, with Dambulla taking you around 2 hours to visit no more.

Sigiriya Citadel itself, although way bigger place, it does not take too much time either. The biggest “hassle” are the stairs to reach the top of the rock which if you do when the sun is at its highest (anytime between 10.00am through 16.00pm) that could be really a difficult experience. Of course this depends on the time of the year you are visiting, if in dry or monsoon season, or the seasons in between them. For us, and to anyone if I can suggest, the best planification you could do is visiting Dambulla the first in the morning, have lunch, and then continuing with Sigiriya in the afternoon towards the end of the day.

Be very cautious about the wasp nests! Yes, believe it or not there are many cases of wasp attacks in Sigiriya. Their nests are in the rock, towards the upper part and near the staircase leading to the top, you will see them hanging, near the wasp warning messages around the dangerous areas. You have to be quiet as you ascend and not going off the main path, yet many careless tourists do not follow this and can potentially trigger an attack. There are specially conceived cages you can take shelter if this happens, however, not at the top nor by the staircase which is the worst place you can be should this happen. Take plenty of repellent with you in any case, not just to protect from the wasps, but to prevent from the mosquitoes, noticeable by the gardens down below. (more…)

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Anuradhapura - Sri Lanka

Anuradhapura – Sri Lanka

Post published:27 September 2016
Post category:Asia Sri Lanka

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Third capital of the Kingdom of Rajarata

On our next move in this trip through Sri Lanka, we change the base from Colombo to the central/north province of the country at Anuradhapura where we will spend the remaining days of our tour visiting the beautiful ancient city itself, and the nearby other major important destinations Dambulla, Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa: all of which, the Golden Triangle as it is known. Very busy days ahead of us, however, not that fully loaded and saturating in visiting sight after sight non-stop, but instead quite chill and relaxing, enjoying the mix of nature with ancient capital cities, palaces and temples. Each of the ancient cities we would visit make up for around half of the day touring, giving you the rest of the day some free time except for when visiting both Dambulla and Sirigiya which you do in the same day.

In my original plans before gathering proper information about Sri Lanka and the places I wanted to include in this tour, I though flying between cities would be the easiest way (as is for example, in neighboring India). I was wrong. From Colombo, the only city we could have flown was Sigiriya from where you can make the perfect base and visit all of the other cities I’ve mentioned before. A very convenient flight? Yes, at just 30 minutes, but the cost? £175 for a one way ticket per person! That is actually insane and nonsense; so the options, pretty much as is for the entire country, are moving by train or bus. Super reliable and in truth, trains were the best way to travel and enjoy the country.

Anuradhapura is the ancient capital of many different kingdoms, and is really overwhelming. There are so many archaeological remains, some of these over 2000 years old that no wonder this is one of the key places in the country in what relates to history and culture. The entire “Old Town” which is the archaeological park itself has been designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Kandy - Sri Lanka

Kandy – Sri Lanka

Post published:25 September 2016
Post category:Asia Sri Lanka

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Last capital of the ancient kings’ era of Sri Lanka

Our next destination in Sri Lanka, a day trip from Colombo to Kandy, the cultural capital of the country, and one of the most historical cities. This would also be our last day having the base in Colombo before moving north to Anuradhapura as our next base and continue with our tour through the remaining must-see places in Sri Lanka. For now, a great day in Kandy totally different to the day before in Galle. Both unique in their own character and history. While one is a masterpiece combining Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial influence, Kandy in the other hand is the masterpiece of several kings. The very last of the places to surrender to the British rule, yet never conquered in full by the Portuguese and Dutch.

Kandy is the second largest city in the country after Colombo. But bear in mind one and the other are nothing to compare. In Sri Lanka the great majority of population is living in metropolitan Colombo, hence Kandy feels more like a village rather than a city. It does have in any case, a very well defined and compact city centre where the large majority of the historical sights are, with the Royal Palace complex the reason number one why to visit the city.

Although the entire Royal Palace complex has been designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the main reason behind is the Temple of the Tooth Relic. One of the most sacred places in the entire Sri Lanka, and one of the most traditional cities in the country; somewhat slowly developing in the shadow of the frenetic construction and thriving live day and night of Colombo. (more…)

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Galle - Sri Lanka

Galle – Sri Lanka

Post published:24 September 2016
Post category:Asia Sri Lanka

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Best preserved example of Portuguese fortified city in Asia

Our next move in Sri Lanka after visiting its fascinating capital city, Colombo, (and still our base for the next days); we take the advantage of the small distances in the country for a day trip to one of the most historical cities, Galle. First taken by the Portuguese as their colony in 1502, they built its fort which until today it remains as the most complete, largest and best preserved example in the whole of Asia, although greatly revamped and enlarged when the Dutch took over.

It was until 1640 that the Portuguese surrendered to the Dutch East India Company who then built pretty much the proper city and not just a military post as was before. From 1796 the city and the country itself would pass onto the hands of the last colony, the British. Over the centuries of 3 different colonial periods, the city grew in prosperity, being the largest port city in Sri Lanka, something that never changed since at least 1400 BC with the trade route, with Sri Lanka the largest export of cinnamon.

Being in Galle is transporting yourself to the past. While we are much more used to visiting former Spanish colonial cities in Central/South America and already experienced few times that feeling, in Asia is somewhat different. More exotic if I have to find a word for it. And it does still feel the same even though we’ve been to many beautiful colonial cities in this part of the world. The more similar to Galle could be Goa, Macau, Batavia (the old town of Jakarta), Jogjakarta, Surabaya or Malacca to name some former Portuguese and Dutch. British are many more, but Galle has its uniqueness in having retained majority of the Portuguese and Dutch constructions, urban plan and flair. (more…)

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