So if you were inspired by the book and movie Eat, Pray, Love to visit Ubud, you can read my previous blog which covers Ubud town itself and what you can do there. In this blog, I will cover the surrounding sights outside of Ubud town which can be done in a day tour. You will most probably need to hire some form of transport to get around if you want to do this as those places mentioned here are at least 5km or more from Ubud center.
Ever since Julia Roberts cycled her way through tranquil rice fields into women’s hearts in the movie adaptation of the book; Eat, Pray, Love, legions of single (and divorced) women have been making their way to Ubud in search of enlightenment, and hopefully love. Well, you don’t have to be single or looking for love to come to Ubud, so read on.
There’s something exciting about road trips. The idea of just hopping into a car or motorbike and going wherever the road takes you has been immortalized in many films and books. We have taken a few road trips before, but none were as long (distance wise) as a road trip we did in 2005 in Australia, touring the west coast from Perth to Albany. We covered roughly more than 1,000km for this round trip over 3 days.
It’s hard to imagine that a built up city like Singapore has a tropical rain forest, let alone a tree top canopy walkway like what you find in Australia or USA. Our local Tree Top Walk has been around since 2004 and unless you have been hiding under a rock, most local people have at least heard of it or taken a visit there. It is located in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve which serves as a natural rain water catchment area and contains 4 reservoirs which help to fulfil the country’s water needs. Secondary and virgin rain forests surround the reservoirs and forms the largest nature reserve in Singapore.
The unthinkable has happened and we have a Brexit, the Sterling Pound has also dropped in value. Many people in Singapore were reported to have rushed down to the money changers to buy Pounds for their next holiday in UK. So if you are like one of the many people eagerly looking at a holiday to UK this year, besides just visiting London, there are more sights to be seen a few hours drive of England’s capital city.
After our trip to Iceland, we had a short stopover in London. This was to be our second visit to London in many years. The last time we were here was in 2000 and many things had changed in the last 15 years. For more on our trip to Iceland you can look up my previous blogs: Land of Fire and Ice, Reykjavik and the Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle and Chasing the Northern Lights.
Rounding up my series of blogs on Iceland will be this one on the Northern Lights, those mystical and elusive lights in the sky which have fascinated humans for so long. I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights and this trip to Iceland was an opportunity of a lifetime to do it.
For anyone visiting Iceland, most of them would have heard of the Golden Circle. Well, what is this Golden Circle? It’s a tour of the main attractions that more or less define Iceland, and is a must do for first time visitors. Whether you are going to follow a guided tour or self drive, the route for the Golden Circle is a 300km round trip that can be completed in a day trip from Reykjavik or extended over a few days to enjoy more of the incredible Icelandic scenery.
Continuing with my blog series on Iceland, this one focuses on Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital and only city. All roads in Iceland lead to Reykjavik and this is the first place that almost everyone will go to once they land in Iceland. So it is best to know what Reykjavik has to offer for the visitor.
As the plane flew over the alien landscape, I could see that Iceland was going to be a very different world compared to other destinations. Lava fields extended below me as the plane came in for landing at Iceland’s only international airport at Keflavik. It was the middle of winter and snow covered the lava fields. Jagged black lava formations stuck out of the snow everywhere forming a contrasting landscape of black and white. There is no room for error during landing, miss the runway and the plane would be shredded to bits on the sharp and knife-like volcanic rocks. Building an airport out in the middle of an ancient lava field, what were they thinking?
Beyond the Little Red Dot 