I’ve decided to create my own blog for the purposes of honing my memory (coz these signs of forgetfulness may lead to dementia or worse Alzheimer’s! LOL) and becoming a creative writer (writer wannabe) as if…it’s just a narration of some of my lately blahs…=)
So last Feb, my manager sent me to New Delhi, India to meet our new SRE team and provide training with the new digital stack for our company. I was excited as I like to travel and even though this is business, I got my weekends where I can visit visit the famous Taj Majal! I was only in India for a week and company paid for luxurious 5 star hotel, The Oberoi in Gurgaon which is only 10 mins away from our office. It's my first time to check in a 5 star hotel and I really enjoyed it! I ordered in room dining whenever I feel like eating in my room. I've got my own personal BMW and chauffeur to take me to the office and they offer free shuttle to Ambience mall, one of the biggest mall in Gurgaon (oh yeah now called Gurugram!).
It takes 18 hours to fly to New Delhi from Sydney with a 2 hour layover in Bangkok. M came with me on her own expense as she also wanted to see Taj Mahal and will also save a bit of money since she'staying in my room. She had to pay the bfast daily though since the company only paid for my own. I was staying in the luxury room with a garden view.
For more information - https://www.oberoihotels.com/hotels-in-gurgaon/rooms-suites/luxury-room.
I must say after experiencing their great service, I would like my personal travels upgraded to 5 star hotels haha.. (if only I was rich!).
Good to experience a BMW ride with wifi after an 18 hour flight from Sydney!
The hotel lobby - Oberoi
I can't really disclose company matters so I'll just get on with the places I went to. There's so much to see in India however since this is not a personal trip, I've got limited time so here are some.
In Delhi, I was only able to see Red Fort, old India market, Akshardham temple and shiva temple.
V our team mate in India, showed us around after office hours. For us, we need to be online in the morning that is 6AM - 330PM (which is 11:30AM - 9:00PM syd) so that means we can go around places nearby afterwards.
1. Red fort, Parliament House and India Gate
Red fort is where the emperors in India during the Mughal dynasty stayed. Most of the structure was destroyed by the British during the revolt but the red stone wall is intact as well as the fort and made as a tourist site.
Red fort as you can see is made of red stone
There are shops inside red fort. I bought some silk scarves.
Manager and V
Beautiful red stone walls
We stopped by the Parliament house and India gate too. Oh yeah one thing I noticed is the locals like to take pictures of foreigners! Some people or family would come up to you asking if they can have your picture taken with them and they thank you for it. It's really strange!
Parliament house
India gate reminds me of my uni. During my first year of college we have to pass through UST gate and after graduation, pass by again. Symbolism of entering and exiting the university.
2. Akshardham Temple
I must say this is the most beautiful hindu temple in Delhi.There are a lot of exhibits of Swaminaryan's messages about peace, humility and devotion to god. You can also watch a musical fountain show with a statue of Varni in the background. Too bad cellphones and other digital devices were not allowed because the place was bombed by terrorist a long time ago. As precaution, all digital devices and bags will be taken before you enter the temple.
A souvenir photo of Akshardham temple
Our visit to Akshardham was valentine's day and one of our former colleague wanted to meet up. We were so tired so we told S to meet us in our hotel and have dinner there. Good to see an old friend doing well!
Thank you S!
The oberoi dining experience
3. Taj Mahal, Fahtehpur Sikri in Agra
I never thought I'd actually see the Taj Mahal in my entire life but I did! It's so beautiful! Outruns all the temples I have seen in Delhi. Taj Mahal is located in Agra which is a 4 hour car ride. We rented a car and set off early saturday morning. The Taj Mahal was built by a mughal emperor, Shah Jahan for his beautiful Persian wife (his third wife among others), Mumtaz Mahal who died of her 14th child birth.
Taj and it's reflection
I swear all local guides will make you do the 'Hold the Taj pose'!
Peeping tom
Made of ivory marble and beautiful stones!
Me and the crew bought our Sarwal, an Indian clothing just for this moment!
Next stop was Fahtehpur Sikri - its a local town in Agra where the city is made entirely of red stone.
Buildings made of red stone, we were also nearby a desert so it was really scorching hot!
Another hindu temple, you must remove your shoes
some more buildings inside fahtehpur sikri
The M squad!
4. Kingdom of Dreams
Sunday, our last day and my flight was 11PM so I have some more time to enjoy. We decided to go to Kingdom of Dreams and watch a live Bollywood play called Zangoora. If you have seen a bollywood film then you'll know it's all about the singing and dancing! I've seen about maybe 10 bollywood films in Netflix so even though we knew we wouldn't understand the story, we watched for the play! I googled the story in the end :P I highly recommend watching this play too!
Kingdom of Dreams reminds me of Resorts World
2 tickets please
Elegant lotus like entrance
The ceiling is painted like the sky similar to the Venetian hotel
Various shops and restaurants inside
Found a camel!
It was good to see my new team mates in India and at the same time enjoyed some sight seeing while working. Btw we had a little short stint in Bangkok as our flight had 13 hours layover there! I thought I'd take M around as she hasn't been there. I've been to Bangkok 5 years ago so I thought I'd take her to see the beautiful Bangkok Palace, Wat Arun and Wat Pho temples. So after our Hindu temple hopping in India, time for some Buddhist temples!
The Grand Palace
Temple is huge and made of gold!
A miniature of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I've seen this temple too when my friends and I went to Siam Reap.
Beautiful statues
Wat Arun temple
I see you again Wat Pho after 5 yrs.
Watch our vlogs here in my channel!
Here's the India trip...
Here's the Thailand trip.. as you can see I was so tearful at the end of the video enjoying my delicious tom yum soup! I absolutely love thai food!
Next week my housemates and I are flying to Cairns in Queensland to see the Great Barrier Reef! Its a 4 hour plane ride from Sydney. I will rent a car and drive to Port Douglas too as I heard this is where the beautiful beaches are. We will also ride a helicopter so I hope it doesn't rain and ruin our plans! Tell you all about it on my next post.
My blog really need to catch up on my travels so here I am again with another post. Japan, my dream getaway! I finally made it happen last October 2017. My friends and I went here for almost 2 weeks and went to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima. We didn't hire a tour guide, my friend A just googled and made our own itinerary also taking considerations which places we'd like to go to. So if you need some kind of guide, you can follow our IT and go for it yourselves. The budget is quite high though, this will cost you more than Php100,000. The food is pricey and you'd want to experience all of it! Also, I advise to visit Klook to get some promo on entrances like Universal Studios or Disney's. It's better to buy online. If you're travelling around Tokyo city, get a city rail train pass (also available in Klook), and outside Tokyo, get the JR Pass which is only available to tourists and outside Japan. We purchased the 7-day JR pass since we are travelling to Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. Roughly costs $300AUD (or Php 12,000) to get on Japan's bullet train - Shinkansen. Also purchase pocket wifi! I got ours at http://japan-wireless.com/products.html. Very easy to claim, I picked it up at Narita post office at the airport then returned the same parcel at Osaka airport. You just need to indicate where to pick up and where to drop off. No hassle!
Day 1 - Tokyo and Odaiba
Upon arrival, I picked up our pocket wifi and JR pass at Narita airport. Luckily I searched that if you have a JR pass, you can use Narita Express train for free to go to Tokyo. When we arrived in Tokyo, since our condo apartment's check in time is 3PM, we left our luggage at the train station. There are lockers there that can fit luggage bags for 600 yen. After leaving our luggage, we went to Odaiba! Purchase a ticket since city metro rail and JR pass cannot use the Yurikamome line (I think around 300 yen (Php150) one way trip). You'll also see there are no train operators in this line! It's an automated train, sugoi Japan! You'd also be able to see the rainbow bridge as you pass by. In Odaiba you'd be able to see the gigantic unicorn gundam, statue of liberty miniature and go to Oedo onsen! Yes we went all naked and bathe at the onsen! Don't worry men and women have separate bathes. For more info on the onsen - http://daiba.ooedoonsen.jp/en/
me and M at Narita express train. This cost 3000 Yen (or Php1,500) one way to Tokyo. So it was a good thing I found out JR pass covers NEX!
This is Oedo Onsen Monogatari! Entrance is around 2000 Yen which includes this Yukata!
If you're shy to get naked, just use the feet onsen. Soak your tired feet in hot water!
Huge Unicorn gundam!
We stayed at a condotel at Tsukiji near the market where you can get fresh sushi. It was raining this day so after a refreshing Onsen bath and going around Odaiba, we slept.
Day 2 - Shibuya, Artnia Cafe, Pokemon Center and Akihabara
The next day we headed to the famous Shibuya crossing to see Hachiko and also to people watch! It's crazy how people cross the road in this crossing!
me and B at the train station Tsukiji to Shibuya!
Squad and Hachiko
The crowded Shibuya district
By the way, travelling around Japan is not that easy. We used Hyperdia app to see which train line to go and what time. Just remember, english is not common so asking around will not help. So better to purchase your own pocket wifi. Aside from Hyperdia, here are other apps you can use to travel around. https://www.jrailpass.com/blog/7-best-apps-traveling-japan
After having a drink at Starbucks (where they recommend you people watch!), we headed to Sunshine city to see Pokemon center! We are mostly pokemon fans! (Well me, H and B atleast so A and M have no choice but to join the majority. :p)
You won't be disappointed as there are so much pokemon merch!
I purchased a statue of Liberty pikachu hehe.. after pokemon shopping, we went to Artnia to see some final fantasy merchandise. I was looking for a squall plushie but it wasn't available so I purchased Vivi instead. (M got me a squall plushie in Sydney lol) Even after going to Akihabara, I couldn't find the plushie. Btw I lost about 3500 Yen at a dream catcher machine!! I was trying so hard to get this giant kirby doll! But alas its just impossible with those lose machine claws. It's really addicting.
Crystals at Artnia Cafe
Akihabara where you can find all sorts of anime, nintendo, final fantasy and other Japanese quirky merchandise
Day 3 - Mt. Fuji, Sensoji temple, Sky tree and Tokyo tower
The next day we left early and catch the train from Shinjuku to Otsuki then transfer to Fujikyuko railway to Kawaguchiko station. From here, we just walked to see lake kawaguchiko wherein you supposedly can take a cable car to see Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately the cable cars were under maintenance we only had the boat ride. We had amazing japanese lunch here too!
Lol at my face with the sun shining on me!
We were unlucky! It was cloudy and Mt Fuji is hiding.
The boat ride too bad the cable car was under maintenance
After having lunch with the gorgeous Lake Kawaguchiko as our view, we head back to Tokyo to see the Sensoji temple. We drew our fortune here too for 100 yen. I got medium fortune haha.. surprisingly quite accurate.
Amused at the shops before reaching the temple!
Sensoji temple
M and lanterns!
The mandatory sensoji temple shot
We were already tired with sore feet but it was our last night in Tokyo so we headed to Tokyo tower as our last stop, had the best ramen near our condo and went to sleep. As the next day, it's off to Hiroshima!
Beautiful Tokyo Sky tree!
Last stop Tokyo tower! Boy was our feet sore!
Day 4 - Hiroshima and Miyajima
The next day we took the train again and off we go to Hiroshima. It takes 4 hours to go to Hiroshima via shinkansen train. It's a good thing you can buy bentos at the station and take the meal to the train with you.
Inside the shinkansen train
Upon arrival At Hiroshima, we stayed at Hiroshima century 21 hotel. We dropped off our stuff and head to Miyajima to see the water temple, Itsukushima shrine. You can use your JR pass at the boat ride.
Miyajima park is where you can see wild deer everywhere!
We also ate baked oysters here! 2 pcs for 600 Yen and you pay 500 yen entrance at the shrine.
Oysters!
One thing I like about Japan is literally the streets are filled with tiny shops selling various souvenirs and food!
Water temple
Itsukishima shrine
Beaut
Squad goals!
More deers!
Pagoda near Itsukushima shrine
We went back to our hotel to sleep. Really tiring but fun day.
Day 5 - Hiroshima peace memorial park, Osaka Castle and Dotonbori
The next day we woke up early to see Hiroshima peace memorial park where you can see the atomic bomb dome and the museum. We all know the dreaded A-bomb that happened to the city many years back. I felt really sad visiting this place. I read the history and many innocent people died. The first atomic bomb literally obliterated the whole Hiroshima city, and many people died and the survivors were in extreme radiation poisoning. A lot of the tourist cried too upon seeing the place, some of the Americans were also wondering how the Japanese felt when they visited. We all signed this petition in the memorial park wherein nuclear testing should be banned.
A dome - a preserved site in Hiroshima that was impacted by the atomic bomb
There's a flame in the middle. They say they will only put it out once nuclear testing is gone on Earth.
Inside the museum, you can find all sorts of facts and history of Hiroshima bombing. It's really sad
After Hiroshima, we checked out our hotel and rode the shinkansen train again and head to Osaka. You need to purchase Icoca card for the city trains. We headed to Osaka castle this time.
Osaka castle, you can climb up to 7th floor to see the artifacts and arts. The entrance is 500 yen I think.
We dropped off our stuff again at our condo hotel afterwards and head to Dotonbori to do some shopping and had dinner.
Clean and green Osaka
Mario kart in the street!
Dotonburi at night
The famous glico man
The next day we head off to Kyoto for some temple hop!
Early birds again we head out to shin osaka station to use the Kyoto JR line and stop at Arashiyama train station. We went to Kinkakuji temple, Ryoanji temple, Arashima bamboo forest. Kyoto is were the best temples are! (off course everything has entrance fees of 500 or more yen though) and you have to remove your shoes in some temples. Also go food tripping here or shopping, it's cheaper compared to Tokyo.
Kinkakuji - the golden temple
Ryoaji temple
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Kenshin?
Beautiful garden inside Ryoanji
Arashiyama bamboo forest, I would like to go back here
Me and the guys making wishes at Kimono forest.
Day 7 - Fushimi Inari, Kiyozumidera temple and Onsen at Osaka
We normally have bfast by the way at family mart or Lawson haha.. since we leave early in the morning, we usually just have onigiri or noodles. Then we make up our meals during lunch and dinner time and trying our michelin star restos. This day we headed to fushimi inari and had various street foods!
Entrance to Fushimi Inari
Tons of tori gates!
Roads engulfed by toris!
Climb all the way to stage 10 to see this city view
There are also a lot of street food outside Fushimi Inari. We tried most of it such as crab meat, mochis, meat in sticks that I forgot what it's called, takoyakis etc.
We also went Kiyozimi dera temple but this looks like the same as the others. For me Fushimi Inari was the best.
More shinto temple
This is actually a souvenir shop
After temple hopping, we went to another Onsen again near shin osaka station! I forgot the place but we were so exhausted from all our travels we had to regain our strength. It's good to have a nice hot bath at night and end your meal at Dotonburi area again for more eating.
Day 8 - Universal Studios Osaka
It's our last day we spent the day at Universal studios alone. It's Halloween special so we are able to see the parade and zombies at night!
Harry potter in japanese! There were a lot more people here than in Orlando!
Squad at hogwarts
lunch time
**shook spider web
Festa de parade Halloween special
Zombies at night!
off course everyone want a shot lol
Day 9 - Back to sydney!
We'll definitely be back to Japan! 8 days were not enough we need atleast a year. We want to do more shopping, sight seeing and more food trips.
Watch our vlog here in my youtube account (pls sub and like! LOL)
I'm actually thinking of coming here again next year but we'll see. It's really expensive and I have an upcoming trip to USA this september. More tours for my blog. My next post will be about my India trip.
