From the category archives:

Asia

Which Part of Japan Shall I Go?

Ever since my wife and I first talked about visiting Japan after my last trip there in 2008, the main question that came up was always, where to go and how long?

And the biggest concern was of course; the budget involved. We all knew going to Japan wouldn’t be cheap, even for budget travelers.

Should we make Tokyo our base and visit the surrounding places on a day trip?

Or go to Kyoto and Osaka and visit it’s surrounding cities on day trips?

That sounded great, but we would have to come back again in the future since we only visited one of those. The thing that makes decision making a little tricky is that we wanted to visit not only Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka but also Hiroshima and Hakone – all in this trip. I spent 7 full days going around Tokyo in 2007, so Tokyo is not really high on my list but it is for my wife as she has never been to Japan. My priorities lie more towards Kyoto and Osaka.

At the same time, we didn’t want to make a sprint kind of trip like those found in vacation tours and packages where you stay just 1-2 days in a place and move on. I wanted to have more free time in between so that there is a flexibility to explore the unknowns when needed.

With that many places to go, I think we would need at least 12 days. After some research, especially on Shinkansen ticket fares and eligibility of the Japan Rail Pass, we decided we would fly into Osaka from Kuala Lumpur and embark on a 16 days trip. The trip would take us from Osaka – Kyoto – Hiroshima – Hakone and finally Tokyo, with Nara, Nikko and Yokohama as day trips in between.
View Japan 2011 in a larger map

We would spend 4 nights in Osaka, 3 in Kyoto, 1 in Hiroshima and Hakone and the last 6 nights in Tokyo.

With the itinerary confirmed, it was now time to look for air tickets to Japan.

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An Educational Visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima After the Atomic Bombing on 6th August 1945 - © Bernard Loke

I was working in a country wide project in Japan back in 2008. I was lucky enough that Hiroshima was one of the 4 stops I made. Tokyo, Sendai and Sapporo completes the list.

Hiroshima is synonymous with the 1945 atomic bomb .One of the main tourist attractions there is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

So I decided to give it visit one cloudy morning. It was not that far from downtown Hiroshima. Probably about 15 minutes tram ride.

The atomic bomb exploded right above this park. It was initially aimed at the Aioi-bashi bridge which is located at the northern tip of the park. Instead it exploded slightly towards the bridge’s east.

How did I know about it?

Visit the Peace Memorial Museum.

The Atomic Bomb Dome at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park - © Bernard Loke

A Cenotaph At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park - © Bernard Loke

There were a few significant sights at the park, but I headed straight to the museum so that I’ll know more about everything in the park when I get out later.

I learned so much about WW2 and the atomic bomb that morning.

All I knew before the visit was that the atomic bomb ended WW2 and it was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans back in 1945.

That’s as far as my history goes.

I learned the chronological order of the events lead to the bombing.

I saw pictures of the a flattened Hiroshima. Pictures of victims with their body badly burnt.

I saw stuffs like clothing, watches, hair and other personal items belonging to the victims being put on display.

There was also a scale model of Hiroshima before and after the bombing.

There were videos of the American B-29 bomber, Enola Gay heading towards Hiroshima from Guam on that fateful morning of August 6, 1945.

Enola Gay's Path Towards Hiroshima - © Bernard Loke

In fact, there were so many things on display that made my 50 yen worth every penny of it. It was such a good educational visit.

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A Morning At Sapporo’s Nijo Market

I was browsing my travel photo collections the other night and I realized I have not written anything about my trip to Sapporo, which was back in winter of 2007. It was only a 5 days working trip. So I didn’t have much time to wander around. The cold weather there (-16C) definitely did not help.

To make things even worse, I had to work at odd hours; 10pm to 6am. So one night, after finishing my work at the customer’s place and reaching the hotel at 6.30am, I decided that I was too awake to sleep.

But, where to go or what to do so early on a winter morning when the sun rises at 9.15am?

Headed to Nijo Market which opens at 7am.

In fact, one of the only two places I visited in Sapporo was the Nijo Market (the other being the Sapporo TV tower). It’s actually a fish market located right in the middle of Sapporo town. There were about 50-60 shops in the market and they were arranged into crowded market allies with quite small walkways.

They sell anything from fresh fish and crabs to sea urchins to salmon roe. But one thing for sure, they are definitely NOT cheap.

One of my favorite are the crabs. I’ve never in my life seen such a big crab called the Red King Crab, or Tarabakani. The shell’s diameter of the smallest one would be around 4-5″ and the biggest ones can go up to 9-10″!

Red King Crab - © Bernard Loke

King Crabs for Sale - © Bernard Loke

Salmons for Sale - © Bernard Loke

Hairy Crabs - © Bernard Loke

Sea Clams - © Bernard Loke

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Diving With Laras Casse Resort in Manado

It’s been a few weeks now since I came back from diving in Manado. I did wrote something about the trip but most of them are only photos I took with a few lines.

So I thought I’d write more about the trip.

It was actually planned mid of 2009. We planned to be there from Christmas right up to New Year’s day. At that time, I didn’t know whether I could make it or not looking at the nature of my job. Since I’m writing about it now, that means I made it to Manado.

There were 10 of us in the group. A group big enough for us to have a boat and 3 dive guides to ourselves. We stayed and dove with Laras Casse Resort in Manado. But why Laras Casse and not others?

One of the reasons is that the diving prices in Manado are almost 50% cheaper than those in Lembeh Straits. We did made it to Lembeh though on 2 days. It would take about 1.5 hours drive from Manado to the port in Bitung town. Another 1.5 hours drive back to Manado, with everyone in the van sticky and stinking like a fish.

But that’s not the main reason they chose Laras Casse Resort. It was because everyone wanted to dive with the best dive guide in that area, Noldy Rumengan. His ability to spot the tiniest critter in second to none. In 2007, he discovered a new species of seahorse while doing his safety stop in Lembeh Straits. Today, the seahorse is named after him, Kyonemichthys Rumengani.

We weren’t so lucky though. Out of 6 diving days, we only got to dive with Noldy on one day in Lembeh Straits. It was because the famous underwater photographer, William Tan was around at that time too. Noldy is his personal dive guide, so everyone has to give way.

Personally, that didn’t matter so much to me because my dive guide, Melky was good enough to spot all the critters for my camera too.

Bernard & Melky - © Bernard Loke

Laras Casse Resort's Restaurant Overlooking Manado Tua - © Bernard Loke

Laras Casse Resort's Restaurant Overlooking Bunaken Island - © Bernard Loke

Laras Casse Boats' Parking Bay - © Bernard Loke

Dive Sites in Manado & Bunaken - © Bernard Loke

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Waited More Than 1 Hour For This!

I didn’t have enough dim sum earlier, so I was always on the search for another good dim sum in Hong Kong before I leave.

There were so many restaurants (and hotels!) that I found on the Internet. Maxim’s Palace, Lung King Heen, Che’s, Yung Kee, Fook Lam Mun, Canton Room, Lin Heung Kui, Sportful Garden, Graces Restaurant, Zi Xing Xuan, Fu Sing, Lee Gardens, Sam Hui Yat, Luk Yu and the list goes on and on.

Almost everyone and their dog said it’s highly recommended. Everything is highly recommended.

Is dim sum in Hong Kong really that good?

There were enough of highly recommended dim sum places to confuse me to start with. So I stopped looking and went to Macau.

And on my way back from Macao to Hong Kong, there were this magazine (can’t remember the name) recommending a new dim sum outlet in Mongkok, which is very near to where I’m staying. It was recently opened by the ex main chef of Lung King Heen and famous for it’s Char Siew Pao. (More info of the restaurant here)

The shop is at Kwang Wa Street in Mongkok and it’s called Tim Ho Wan. The man behind it is Mak Pui Gor.

The very next day, I was outside his tiny dim sum shop. The first thing upon arriving was to get our queuing number and resulted in us waiting for more than 1 hour, at the 5 foot way. The shop is so small that it fits about 20 people at a given time and everyone else (no prizes for guessing) waits outside until your number is called.

Everyone Patiently Waiting For Their Turn - © Bernard Loke

Only 20 People At A Time (Others Wait For Your Turn Outside!) - © Bernard Loke

But 1 hour of waiting didn’t disappoint. I just had the best-est char siew pao in my entire life. It was even better than the one at Maxim’s Palace. Much, much much better.

The Best-est Char Siew Pao I Ever Had - © Bernard Loke

That's How It Looks Like Inside The Best-est Char Siew Pao - © Bernard Loke

And the other usual dim sum suspects I always order.

Shrimp Cheong Fun With Silky Smooth Wrappings - © Bernard Loke

Har Gow - © Bernard Loke

Lor Mai Kai - © Bernard Loke

What was the damage it did to our pockets?

Very limited. It was only $HKD 120 for two.

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Most Expensive Dim Sum I Ever Had

One of the reasons we went to Hong Kong again was for food. The previous trip was more on sight seeing. This trip was for food.

Dim sum was among the priorities.

With some research on Google, I found out there are lots of dim sum everywhere around Hong Kong. I found about 5 restaurants which were highly recommended, but there’s only so much that we could eat.

So we chose Maxim’s Palace (22.2806N, 114.1586E) at the City Hall Building in Central, Hong Kong island. It’s about 10 minutes walk from the Central MTR station.

The interior of the restaurant is like a ball room after it’s recent renovation. I think it could easily fill up to 80 tables at any one time. And still, there were people queuing for up to 45 minutes outside to wait for their tables.

Did we have to queue up too?

No. We were lucky to be there at 11am. By 1130am, there were already people waiting outside, and by the time we left at noon, I think there were easily about 30 people outside, eagerly waiting to have their dim sum.

Aren’t there other places to eat? Is it that good?

It really makes me wonder why people are queuing up for so long just to have dim sum.

It’s one of the few dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong that still serves dim sum on a cart, like what we have here in Malaysia.

What about the damage the dim sum did? HKD 314.6 which was about RM140! And that’s like RM70 per person for a dim sum.

A HKD314.6 Dim Sum for Two

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China’s 60th National Day Fireworks In Hong Kong

When I bought our tickets to Hong Kong last November, little did I know that our trip would coincide with China’s 60th National Day and the Mid Autumn festival. It was a few days before the trip when I started to make some research on the places for good food that I realized our trip would be clashing with 2 of the main events on the Chinese calender.

Not wanting to miss out on the spectacular fireworks display, we made our way to the Avenue of Stars at Tsim Sha Tsui as early as 4pm, 4 hours before the show. I thought I would be one of the early birds t here and should be able to get a good spot for my tripod. The last time I went for a fireworks display in Putrajaya, I was3 hours early and it was still empty. But I got it all wrong this time around.

At 4pm, the entire front row at the Avenue of Stars was already lined up with tripods. The better spots even had a second row of tripods already. I guess they were there since noon, some sleeping, some play cards, some dreaming. All sorts of stuffs. It was a cloudy the entire day, so that helped a little.

Crowd At The Avenue of Stars Waiting For Fireworks Display

After walking up and down, I finally found a spot at the second row. It was not too bad actually as the person in front was a girl. She wasn’t too tall, so she wouldn’t be blocking my camera’s view then.

By 430pm, I was already getting hungry and wanting to go to the toilet. And that’s when the surprises came. The police shad ealed off the entire Avenue of Stars. No one could get in, or out. Not even to the public toilet just outside. And I had to sit there patiently holding my bladder for the next 4 hours, but it was worth the wait.

The fireworks started at 8pm, lasting for 23 minutes. Here’s what the Hong Kong Government says about the fireworks display.

The fireworks display consists of nine scenes of different themes. The first and second scene feature colourful and spectacular fireworks to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and also the pride of China. In scene seven, there will be smiley and heart-shaped fireworks to show the spirit of Hong Kong people. The fireworks display reaches its climax at the last scene with fast and rhythmic firing of shells displaying the Chinese characters for “China 60″, wishing all the best to the home country.