A short post here on our weekend visit to Kuala Lumpur during the recent National Day break. It was also an opportunity to bring my new Gaston Luga backpack for a field test. I decided to travel light for this trip, so the only heavy items in my bag were my DSLR with a 50mm prime lens and a 24-105mm zoom lens. Of course my other personal belongings took up some space. Continue reading “Weekend in Kuala Lumpur”
Continuing from my last post on Sydney, this post is about other activities that you can do while in Sydney. If you like nature and animals, visiting Taronga Zoo is a popular choice with families. The other thing that you can do is to join a whale watching cruise. The main season to see whales are from late May to early November when humpback whales migrate north from the Antarctic towards warmer waters to breed. Their migration route takes them past Australia and in particular Sydney. Continue reading “Whale Watching in the City”
Starting off my series of blogs on a recent visit to Sydney is this first post on the city itself. This was my first time to Sydney and expectations were high. After all, the Harbour City has consistently been in Mercer’s Top 10 Most Livable Cities of the world for many years running. Continue reading “Sydney”
Mention a long weekend getaway on a beach resort island and places like Phuket, Langkawi or Bali comes to mind usually. These are all time favourites of Singaporeans and many other tourists. However, there is another island getaway that is within reach of our Little Red Dot and although it is well known, it doesn’t usually feature on the radar of our local vacationers. This is the island of Boracay in the Philippines. Continue reading “Boracay”
While France is well known for Paris and fashion, its food and wine are also well known worldwide. Wine producing regions like Bordeaux, Champagne and Burgundy have produced world famous wines enjoyed by all. Continuing on our visit to France, this blog post is about Burgundy. Dijon is the capital of this region and is also famous for its Dijon mustard. You can read about Paris and Mont St. Michel which we also visited. Dijon is easily accessible and is only 90 minutes by TGV train from Paris. The train leaves from Gare Lyon station in Paris and connects to Dijon Ville station. TGV tickets vouchers can be bought online in advance from Rail Europe and collected in Singapore through their agent.
For many visitors to France, Paris is probably the only place that they visit, but France is just not only about Paris. So on our last trip to France, we decided to spend some time visiting a couple of other noteworthy attractions. One of the more famous sites is the abbey of Mont St. Michel located off the Normandy coast of France. I have always wanted to visit this place ever since I saw a picture of it long ago. It’s an ancient fortified island and also a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. It used to be only accessible during low tide but now a causeway connects it to the mainland so tourists can visit it safely. Continue reading “The Fortress Island”
In between trips, I’ve decided to review and republish some of my longer blogs into shorter and more focused versions. So here is the first of 3 parts from our visit to France in 2012. Paris, the eternal city of love and romance. The city has certainly been hugely successful in marketing themselves as such and it is the most visited city in the world. I had visited Paris previously in 1996 but it certainly didn’t impress me back then. It was dirty and messy, the proverbial Parisian rudeness was prevalent and there was a strike going on during my visit. Perhaps, it would be different this time. Continue reading “City of Lights”
This blog is all about boats. From huge cruise liners to small canoes, It’s all here. If you are afraid of flying and sea travel is your thing then read on. Very often we hear that the journey is more important than the destination, and if you are one of those that believes in this, then taking a cruise to your holiday destination can be more enjoyable than being stuck on a pressurized metal tube up in the air for hours. And you also get to sleep on a proper bed instead of being cramped onto a small economy class seat, especially on long haul flights.
Still on our road trip through Japan, this final blog post is about a little less travelled place for most tourists to Japan. Starting on our journey from Tokyo to the central north of Honshu Island, we had stopped at Yamanouchi where the Snow Monkeys live, and made a westward turn towards Matsumoto, home of the Crow Castle. Heading south from Matsumoto, we were making our way back to Tokyo with a stop near Mt. Fuji.
Often referred to as the Roof of the World, Tibet is an unique destination due to its location and history. I finally got my chance to visit Tibet in August 2014 by following a packaged tour with Chan Brothers (www.chanbrothers.com). The tour actually took us to Lanzhou and Xining for 3 days first to acclimatize to higher altitudes before taking the train to Lhasa, capital of Tibet. Although the trip included Lanzhou, Qinghai and Xining, I will just talk about Tibet in this blog post since this was the main highlight of the trip.
This blog post has been updated with a link to a local tour operator that specializes in inbound tours for English speaking visitors to Tibet. Go to the end of the post for details.
Beyond the Little Red Dot 