Man I miss Japan. This time last year, we would have just arrived in Tokyo. We spent a month travelling around. (You can read about some of my favourite places here). A month wasn’t enough. I could have spent weeks in Tokyo alone. To be honest, arriving jet lagged with high expectations, Tokyo was a bit of a disappointment. It […]

If you want to see one of the best traditional Japanese castles in Japan, Himeji Castle is definitely worth visiting. Why? Himeji is a UNESCO heritage site and the oldest preserved castle in Japan. It’s been beautifully restored. The adjoining garden is also very pretty. How do you get there? Trains that travel between Hiroshima/Okayama and Osaka/Kyoto often stop at […]

One of the most interesting countries I’ve visited has been China. It’s huge and I’ve always enjoyed visiting. Despite not knowing any Chinese, and English not being widely spoken, we’ve always somehow managed to get by. I’ve also found the people there to be very friendly, even if it’s been hard to communicate. I’ve noticed a lot more Chinese people […]

I haven’t looked at this photograph in years! It’s a pretty old one, taken with a point and shoot. It was from a wedding we went to in southern India a few years ago. It was a beautiful sunset!

I loved these buildings in Yangon. I don’t know why. I just liked how people would live so close together. I could spend hours wandering around Yangon.

This is a volcano we spotted on our hike down Mount Ijen in east Java.  The sun was coming up and we could see a few volcanoes poking up through the clouds. It’s a stunningly beautiful part of Indonesia.

Mmmmmm mmmmmmm!!!!!!!  I don’t usually enjoy soba noodles that much but these were amazing! This is a tempura noodle dish from a restaurant called Ebisu in Takayama.  It’s a small soba restaurant that’s been in the area for over 100 years. They were by far the tastiest soba noodles that we ate in Japan.  I also loved the English menu […]

This is a float or “yatai” being displayed for the spring matsuri festival in Takayama, Japan. The festival is held for two days twice a year. Once in spring and once in autumn.  If the weather is good, the yatai are taken out of their storehouses and paraded around town.  There are several floats, all are beautiful and ornate.  Some are […]

Here’s a traditional house in Shirakawa-go, Japan. I loved these houses! It’s a pretty cool area to visit. I’d love to spend more time in the mountains next time I go back to Japan. There was a lot of snow around and many of the trails weren’t open when we were there in April. You can also stay in one […]

This is the Golden Temple in Amritsar.  Amritsar is a cool town in the Punjab, not far from the India-Pakistan border.  I’d always wanted to visit the Golden Temple. Fortunately, it’s one of those places that ended up being far more wonderful than I had imagined. I loved wandering around this place. You can hear music and people praying. It’s […]

This is the clear ocean water just off Gili Trawangan.  The coral off the north east of the island is good for snorkelling.  It is very sharp and shallow though, so it’s painful to get out there! There are some half decent sandy beaches in Gili Trawangan but they are rapidly being built on, and quickly disappearing.

These are some offerings we lit in Varanasi.  They’re little flowers with candles in them which we laid down to float on the Ganges. Varanasi is a fascinating place. I miss India. It can be a challenging country to travel around.  The poverty is confronting.  It’s an aggressive society to live in.  Although, maybe my opinion’s been coloured by what I’ve read. […]

This is a sunset on Gili Air, a tiny island near Lombok, Indonesia. You can see Mount Agung on Bali in the distance. The lady on the right went out and stood in the water for about twenty minutes. I hoped that she was alright. 20 years ago the Gili Islands would have been beautiful.  Now they are very busy […]

This is Jiuzhaigou National Park in China. It’s around a 10-12 hour drive from Chengdu, less to Xi’an. It’s one of the most scenic places I’ve ever visited. We missed the peak of the fall colours but the park was still stunning. Would love to go back.  

This is a road sign that we came across on the Friendship Highway on our way from Lhasa to Nepal.  It’s one of the highest roads in the world.  Its highest pass is above 5,000m – I was feeling a bit nauseous by that point! Tibet is one of the most magical places I’ve visited. There’s a unique culture there although […]

Here’s a photo I took while wandering around Nagamachi, the old Samurai District of Kanazawa.  Kanazawa was somehow spared the bombing that engulfed much of Japan during the second world war.  As a result, it’s one of the few places in Japan where you can visit a genuine Samurai house.