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  • Travel blogAsiaTravel blog

    The Golden Pavilion - Rokuon-ji Temple

    11. Oktober 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Getting across Kyoto proved congested with heavy traffic to get across town to the Golden Pavilion. The pavilion itself is very popular with what seemed like thousands of people queued for photos of the temple and surrounding gardens and buildings.

    There is a pond with the Golden Pavilion with islets large and small at the center of the garden. Rocks donated by various provincial lords of the period are placed throughout the garden. As a pond garden designed for sterling, it is typical of the Muromachi period in Japan's history.The garden is listed as a national special historic site and special place of scenic beauty.

    With 24 carat gold leaf adorning the exterior of the top levels it makes an impressive site for photos with the reflections across the pond and also when looking back down from the top of the hill    Weiterlesen

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    Kiyomizu Temple

    11. Oktober 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Situated at the top of the steepest street in Kyoto the temple is the busiest place we have been to date. The grounds are immense but across hilly terrain and as such while they are elevated it is quite a hike to get between the buildings. With huge balconies and lush trees the views are stunning but unfortunately we didn't have time to walk across the hills or sample the water as the queues were simply too great for the time we had.

    The views back over the city give a view way out to the South but there isn't much to see as it's very industrial and city chic. While there are lots of kimono's on show they are rented cheaply to tourists do it's lots of Chinese rather than locals that the Europeans are busy adding for photos with which is hilarious. Overall this area was overly aimed at tourists and hence not a highlight as the abundance of shops meant lots of pushy tourists and ruins the experience somewhat.    Weiterlesen

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    Leaving Osaka and day 7 at sea

    12. Oktober 2016, Philippine Sea ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    After leaving Osaka we were able to relax and just enjoy the idea of not having anything to rush for. The evening on the boat was a little chaotic after Osaka as a number of people arrived back later than their normal dinner reservation time and had to suffer the buffet queues, luckily we had planned ahead and taken the latter dinner time and had time to enjoy a wine and some cheese on our balcony first.

    Day 6 was very pleasant and we decided to try the onboard sushi restaurant for lunch which was excellent and it was nice seeing everything prepared in front of us.

    Some Pictures from the cruise
    https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4G7mEP…    Weiterlesen

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    Gyeongju - The Silla Dynasty

    13. Oktober 2016 in Südkorea ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    After arrival in Busan on the cruise we disembarked and boarded a bus bound for the Gyeongju area which is around about 60 minutes drive away. Busan is Koreas main trade port and so the trip was on massive highways which consisted of major bridges (one was a 360 degree banked on ramp on an uphill going up around 10 stories high). The city is huge with massive apartment buildings and huge port infrastructure.

    Upon leaving the main city we were greeted by a very mountainous area which was very lush and the highway took many tunnels which reminded us of Switzerland. Being Autumn here the trees were stunning and surprisingly plentiful. As it turns out the famous Japanese blossom is actually Korean. The cherry trees lined the streets for a large part of the journey and I can imagine it would make a stunning site in spring.

    Our first stop was the Cheonmachong Tomb area where the tombs from the silla dynasty are found. After a short walk through a beautiful park area we arrived at the site of one of the excavated tombs which is open to visit with replica relics inside. The tombs themselves look like giant ant hills with grass covering them (very hobbit like). Walking inside you see the sheer scale of the tombs and get an understanding for how advanced the people of the time were with stunning gold, bronze and iron artefacts preserved for such a long time.

    The tomb is also known as the heavenly horse tomb and is 157 metres in circumference. It dates back to the fifth century with a total of 11500 artifacts which have been excavated.

    From here we went to the Gyeongju national museum where we could then see the original artifacts which were excavated. It was a truly lovely way to spend the morning taking in the history.

    Lunch was up next with a beautiful buffet at a local restaurant. This was then followed by a traditional Korean show    Weiterlesen

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    Bulguksa Temple - Gyeongju

    13. Oktober 2016 in Südkorea ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Our afternoon was spent exploring this centuries old temple saying back to 751. As a world heritage site the scale of the temple buildings is huge and the grounds are kept in pristine condition. The temple is much larger than any we saw in Japan and the stunning Autumn leaves were simply captivating.

    To our surprise the areas surrounding Busan have been a lot greener with fruit, flowing cherry trees and many more in abundance even in city areas. A large percentage of the streets are fully tree lined and make the tourist sites something special.

    The construction of the temple itself began in 751 but was burned by invaders in 1593 because it was used as a volunteer militia base. It was abandoned until 1969 when the initial 4 year restoration began. The site has 11 smaller sites within the same compound and is set on stunning grounds with a small water feature and beautiful gardens upon entry. The afternoon visit was truly worthwhile.    Weiterlesen

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    A day in Shanghai

    15. Oktober 2016 in China ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We joined the tour with our guide Tony and the driver, Master Wong. He is called Master, because you have to be a master to negotiate the Shanghai roads.

    The first stop of the tour was the Shanghai Museum of ancient Chinese art. The shape of the building is a square base with a round top attached with arches like a bronze Ding (which is an ancient cooking vessel) indicating the ancient Chinese philosophy of the universe that the earth is square while the sky is round.

    We saw bronze, ceramics, calligraphy, paintings, jade and costumes.

    Next stop was the Jade Buddha Buddhist temple. The Buddha is carved from white jade.

    We then went for lunch in downtown shanghai at the sea palace floating restaurant which consisted of a yum cha style lunch.

    After lunch we stopped at the Jin Mao Observatory 88 which is a very high tower that swings a little in the wind. It is the biggest sightseeing hall in China, with a height of 340.1 metres. The elevator runs at 9.1m/s and takes 45 seconds to rise to the 88th floor.

    After the Jin Mao Tower, we went through a tunnel under the sea which is two levels, one level is for cars and buses and the other level is for trucks heading towards the Yu Gardens.

    We saw a three fingered dragon. A real dragon is 5 fingers.

    Around the Yu Gardens were many market stalls and shops with lots of approaches from pushy sales people selling tea, watches, bags and other electronic gadgets. We were sick of them not leaving us alone.

    The last stop of the tour was the shanghai silk museum where we saw what the silk worms produce to then make blankets.

    We drove through the Bund on the way back to the ship. The Bund was named that after the 1840 opium war by the indians.    Weiterlesen

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    Hong Kong Fury

    18. Oktober 2016 in Hong Kong ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

    After 2 days at sea we spent last night with a very rocky boat and upon waking this morning the Hong Kong port was closed. We sat out in open water for half of today before finally getting to the dock at around 5pm. By the time customs checks and port clearance were complete we only made the city at around 6pm.

    It's still very wet with another Typhoon inbound for the end of the week but we are exploring the city by night and enjoying an authentic mall with dumplings and lots of variety.

    We have to be back on the boat by midnight so it's a very busy evening ahead, it's so wet we didn't even take the nice camera with us

    Link to today's photos
    https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0ook--…    Weiterlesen

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    Vietnam

    21. Oktober 2016 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌬 31 °C

    So after a few days at sea we have arrived in Vietnam and is cloudy but very hot. Today we opted for doing the city on our own. The port is over an hour from Ho Chi Minh city so we first disembarked and boarded buses into the city. After wandering to the market we successfully found bargains here.

    The market is hit and sweaty but crammed with stalls and local craft. The crowds of locals and tourists come to shop

    As we were leaving the Ben Thanh Market we were wandering around and found a beautiful place for lunch called Bep Me In, we had done stunning local spring rolls, beef noodle and beef skewers.

    We continued wandering and explored many areas while avoiding scooters, it's amazing how easy it is to cross the road given the mayhem, we would have liked to see more but the heat meant we were forced to seek beer and wifi

    Next stop Bangkok    Weiterlesen

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    Golden Buddha Sukhothai Traimit

    23. Oktober 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    First stop in Bangkok was the golden Buddha temple which is located by Chinatown. The roads are very busy but fortunately as it's Sunday the roads are a little better. We were supposed to visit the grand palace but due to the kings death it was changed.

    The Buddha itself is 18 carat gold and was hidden during the wars of the previous centuries as it was covered in plaster. It weighs approx 5.5 tonnes and is over 700 years old. A truly grand temple and surrounding area.    Weiterlesen

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    Lunch and an afternoon cruise

    23. Oktober 2016 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Lunch was an American Thai buffet so taste was limited, however the chicken noodle soup had plenty of chili flakes and options to add flavour and it was very tasty.

    Next up we headed out on a river cruise around town down the river on a small boat. The cruise took us all the way up the main part of the river and then turned down into the canal for a close up look at the inner parts of the city.

    There are many other boats out and lots of tourists being taken on modified long boats with essentially a hot car engine powering them. The chop on the river from these made our trip even more exciting. The Sunday traffic was pretty laid back and we had a great time waving out to the locals and seeing them smile as we passed by fisherman, kids swimming, locals on ferry boats and even lunch cruises. The amount of cat fish near one of the temples was amazing and we were given food to get them to come to the surface.

    Unfortunately we didn't find much in the way of free WiFi so didn't get the days photos uploaded. We will get them uploaded once we reach Singapore.    Weiterlesen

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    Singapore River Safari

    26. Oktober 2016 in Singapur ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We left the hotel at 1:30 and were escorted to the river safari which is part of the enterprise with the Singapore zoo but highlights animals that live in river areas such as the Amazon and even China with pandas also on show.

    We spent around 4 hours exploring and got right up close with monkeys and fairly close to the others with only well planned space dividing us. The river cruise and river safari rides were also very informative and fun.

    We had a lot of fun, here are some photos along with the full photo album in the first post    Weiterlesen

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