Nuya.Travel.Photography

Genting Highland March 2011, Day 1

2011-04-01T22:30:00.000+08:00

We took the 9.30 PM Grassland Royal VIP bus to Genting Highland and finally reached Genting at 5.30 AM :D

The first thing we did is to go to the Resort Hotel to get our queue number for check-in

After getting the queue number and deposited our luggages, we walked to the Mc Donalds at Genting hotel

Our hot Milo drinks at Mc Donalds. Time is 6 AM.. lol.. so early..

After breakfast, we walked around while waiting for the hotel check-in at 11.30 AM. The view outside Genting Hotel lobby.. Still very dark outside :D

We were feeling tired so we went to First World hotel lobby sat there and ended up dozing off till about 8 AM.. lol..still so early.. After the short nap, we seemed to finally regained our energy to kick start the day.. haha..

Since there is still about 2 hours to spare before the check-in, we decided to go for dim Sum :)

Hot tea for the cold weather

Left: Prawn with Chinese Chive Chee Cheong Fun
Right: Yam Puff

Egg Tart

Finally we managed to check in at around 11.15 AM! So happy.. lol..

Our nice spacious deluxe bedroom at Resort Hotel

Left: Nice relaxing corner
Right: My comfy bed ^^

Left: Safe Box
Right: Water boiler and tea cups

Left: Writing desk
Right: TV set

Our booking

Misty view from the room

Hot milo :)

We took the free shuttle van to the Mushroom farm for dinner

Note to self: there are 2 restaurant at the mushroom farm, 香菇园海鲜饭店 and 美景海鲜饭店

You need to know which shuttle van to take to visit the different restaurant which is just next door to each other.

For 香菇园海鲜饭店, the shuttle van is numbered 9100 (Tel: 03-6101 2864)
For 美景海鲜饭店, the shuttle van is numbered 9919, 1226, 8346, 5135 (Tel: 03-61012566)

(I didn’t know the differences until we reached there.. sob sob.. too late )

Personally, I have tried both and will definitely recommend 香菇园海鲜饭店!

Simple settings

We took the wrong van so had to settle at 美景. Food is just so-so.. sad..

After dinner, we took the shuttle back to our hotel

View from our room. The iconic Genting Hotel light. It has been there since I was still a little blur kid.. lol..

Left: Earth Hour Poster
Right: All the hotels are FULL for the night! Amazing.. Even for the 5000 rooms First World Hotel.

We end the night with visit to Karaoke! :D Sang for 3 hours.. no voices left by the end of the night.. lol..

Total damage: RM140.. exp..

Genting Highland March 2011, Day 2

2011-04-01T22:20:00.000+08:00

Good morning Genting!! Rise and Shine

We started our day with breakfast at OldTown coffee shop located at basement 5 of our hotel

Left: Soft boiled eggs
Right: Nasi Lemak

Left: Xi Mut Milk Tea
Right: Kaya and Butter Thick Toast

After breakfast, we went to watch “World Invasion” which is the only decent movie to watch, really.. lol

After the movie, we walked around First World hotel

Indoor Theme Park with some eateries spread across the area

Outdoor view of the First World Hotel

The Spiderman ‘Roller coaster’. You have to be on your back to take this ride. I have not tried it.. I don’t know why.. lol

Here’s my precious.. lol.. Had a fun time taking pix using both the Lumix GF1 and iPhone for this trip. Am posting a mixture of pix from both devices this time.. :) So fun to do that..

We had our late lunch at the nearby Hou Mei chinese restaurant. Food is so-so

Left: Sugarcane drink
Right: Porridge and Beansprout dish

Their supposedly signature chicken rice. I seriously hope they can improve on it.. I actually see quite a lot of people ordering it. (But then again, we are all tourists, most of us are not regulars customers)

At Starbucks to relax and to use their free WIFI! :P

Back to our room to rest :)

View of the capital. So brightly lit up!

Nice, warm lightings in the room

We decided to have very light dinner. So we went downstairs to get some cup noodles and potato chips for dinner! :D

My cup noodle!! Honestly I have not eaten cup noodle for many years. Ever since an overdose of cup noodle during my uni days.. lol

The main highlight of the day! Potato chips and Coke!! Yum yum ~~~~

Genting Highland March 2011, Day 3

2011-04-01T22:10:00.000+08:00

Breakfast at OldTown again.. lol.. They should give us VIP membership card for our loyalty.. haha

Teh Tarik! Classic drink for Malaysian breakfast :)

With my matching nasi lemak (again.. lol.. )

Boiled eggs and Toast (again..! lol.. Feels like I’m duplicating my photos.. haha )

Sadly it’s time to check out at 12 noon. We had to wait for our bus at 3 PM

Bought our drinks at Starbucks while waiting for time to pass :) Good time to surf and relax

My essential item to survive the bus journey down the mountains and hills.. lol

Boarded the bus. See how many buses are waiting there.. :D

Char Siew Bun for the evening. Bought this at the Yong Peng stop :)

We reached home at around 9 plus :) Was a fun, relaxing trip :)

Japan 2010

2011-03-11T23:24:00.000+08:00

We took a few days off to visit Japan again last year. I planned our itinerary around Tokyo as well as Hakone.

(Am having some mixed feeling writing this blog post as Japan faced a powerful tsunami triggered by a 8.9 magnitude earthquake today. Hope you can stay strong and hang in there, Japan)

Waiting for our Narita express train to arrive to go to Tokyo. The plan is for us to travel to Shinjuku, find the Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center, and get the tickets to go to Hakone from there.

After hunting and asking around, we managed to buy ticket from the Odakyu ticketing booth. We decided to ‘upgrade’ the tickets to the Romancecar as it is faster to travel this way. The surcharge is 870 yen and can be done from the nearby vending machine after you purchase the Hakone pass from the counter.

After travelling for about 1.5 hours, we finally reached Yumoto (湯本), Hakone.

At the bus stop waiting for our bus to our hotel.

Post trip note: I heard from a friend that you can actually use the luggage delivery service for just a few bucks. This can save you tremendous amount of time and less hassle to lug the luggage onto the bus.

Our hotel in view and the buses plying the narrow route.

Finally our hotel, hotel Tonosawa ichinoyu-HONKAN

The hotel staff wrote the guest names on their board at the entrance. Makes me feel very welcoming :D

The nearby streets where we stayed

To save time, we left our luggage at the hotel and directly went to start our Hakone loop trip to sightsee Hakone.

The bus is packed and we had to stand at the front part of the bus just next to the driver. But the fun thing is you can observe how careful the Japanese drives. The driver drove the narrow and curvy road with ease and maintaining at the speed limit of 40km/h the whole time. Very interesting to watch. lol

Post trip notes: If you can afford the time, do stay here for minimally 2 nights. Especially if this is your first stop upon arrival in Japan. It is definitely way better to start the loop early in the day so that you can take your time to do the loop.

We did the Hakone loop in the clockwise direction and for the first stop, we alighted at the Motohakone stop where the pirate ship is

The timing is perfect. The ship just arrived! :D

Couldn’t help but to think that the design of the ship is a little..erm.. cheesy.. lol..

Nice view from the ship

Motohakone-ko (元箱根港)

Here we go!

Can you spot Mt Fuji? :P

Spotted another ship plying the same route. Erm.. the design is cartoonish as well.. :P We alighted at Togendai (桃源台) after about 40 minutes

From Togendai (桃源台), we took the Hakone Ropeway to reach Owakudani. This stretch is about 20 minutes

This is the magical view of Mt Fuji. After taking in the view of Mt Fuji from the Ropeway, I begin to have new perspective of the mountain and some understanding of why the Japanese have so much respect for it.

As the sun is setting soon, we quickly took a walk up the walking trail leading to where we can see the steam vents and bubbling pools up close. I was planning to buy the black eggs, cooked in the naturally hot water from here but too bad, it was already closed.

Legend is that each egg prolong one’s life by seven years. :P

Steam vents

The hut at the back is where they sell the black eggs

After some struggle, we finally managed to get our hands on these! The black eggs! Luckily my buddy is persistent enough.. lol.. These kept getting sold out!

Took a last shot before we continue on our journey

View from the ropeway from Owakudani –> Sounzan. This takes about 10 minutes

Sounzan –> Gora via Hakone Tozan Cable car. About 10 min

The view from the cable car

Gora -> Hakone Yumoto via Hakone Tozan Train. About 40 min

By this time, we were already exhausted and we dozed off in the train after non stop sightseeing since arriving in Tokyo early in the morning.

Finally we managed to check in to our hotel! Traditional ryokan! My first time staying in a traditional Japanese room

And the best thing about the room.. it comes with our own onsen bathroom with an outdoor view!

Sorry, this photo doesn’t do justice to it :P But you get the idea..right? hehe..

One thing though, they should probably consider upgrading the room. The bathroom curtain and the sliding door in the room are stained.. I wished they look better..

Nice teapot and cups

We were a little worried about the food choice available around Yumoto in the evening as we did not choose the hotel’s dinner option. We bought quite a bit of food earlier in the day as much as we could. See the amount of food we have for dinner! lol..

Rice cracker.. yum yum ~~~ I realised that you can’t go wrong with most Japanese food, most of the time.. :P

Here’s how the black egg looks like with half of it peeled :P It’s YUMMY ~~~!! (or was it because we were starved?? lol.. )

Finally good night for day 1.. Oyasuminasai ~~~

Japan 2010, Day 2

2011-03-11T23:20:00.000+08:00

Good morning! We checked in after dark yesterday and didn’t get the chance to see the view outside. It was almost pitched dark and we could hear very loud water gushing sound.. so zen ~~~~

And then… I woke up to a fantastic view outside!!

Awesome colors!

The view right outside of our window at the side

View from another corner

Breakfast included. Actually it is quite nice :P Warm breakfast on a cold morning

Soup. Nice way to keep warm :D

Our room name is displayed on the table. Each table are pre-assigned to your room. Meaning no choosing of seats :P

Breakfast ended with nice cuppa coffee ~~~ ah……… perfect!

Back to our room. A nice corner to enjoy the view

So sad that we only stayed one night here. Have to check out today :( Next time should really plan for at least 2 nights.

After checking out, we deposited our luggage at the hotel to take a stroll around the area since we have about 2 hours to spare before taking the train back to Tokyo

Nice autumn color in Winter :P

Another hotel in view. Looks nice! Probably should consider to stay there on the next trip :)

Autumn leaves on the railing

Interesting shadow cast by the furniture

Mini greens. How nice ~~~

On the way, we found these statues. Happy way to start the day :)

We passed by a narrow stretch of road towards the central of Yumoto

Some graffiti in the tunnel

40km/h. That’s the speed the bus drivers really adhere to.

I like how the plant grew over the metal pieces. Looks like art.. :)

Nice views along the way. Very relaxing with the cooling weather

We chanced upon this sign board and decided to go to Tamadare falls since it is only 8 minutes away :)

Along the way, we saw this artistic cascading river. It’s like abstract painting!

I like the red flower against the river as backdrop :)

We arrived at the one of the fall!

Natural drinking water. We tried and even filled our bottle with it!

There is a small sign next to it that says ‘Tamadare no taki, Enmei no wakimizu’ (延命の湧き水) which means ‘Tamadare falls, spring water for longevity’

A bamboo door

Tamadare no Taki

Very refreshing to view the fall up close

On the way back to our hotel, we chanced upon this nice little path. The signed board says that it’s only for their hotel guest. We decided to go explore a little anyway. :P No harm I supposed.. hehe..Anyway, one of the staff spotted us while we were there and is nice enough to let us wander around ^^

After a short walk there, we head back to our hotel, collected our luggage, struggled up the bus and went to take the train back to Tokyo

We checked in to Toyoko Inn located at Ikebukuro. Nice, clean room as always…

After taking a short rest, we went out to explore the Ikebukuro surrounding. We are a little puzzled at the long queue outside Auntie Annie’s. I have never seen such crowd back home :P

Vibrant lighting. A nice stretch of shopping area

Here’s my late lunch. Not too bad. Initially we were seated inside the restaurant. However, after telling the staff that we were interested to order from the lunch set, the staff politely tell us that we should be seated at the counter seat outside the restaurant.. even though the restaurant at that time was relatively empty. lol.. kinda funny

Saizeriya. We have one in Singapore as well :)

We decided to window shop at Yodobashi, Japan electronic store . (Actually I prefer to shop at the Yodobashi outlet in Sapporo, Hokkaido instead. It is more spacious and easier to walk and shop there.)

To give you some idea of the building, I shot the left and right view of the front entrance.

Yodobashi – Left side view

Yodobashi – Right side view

After the disappointing and brief window shopping at Yodobashi, we dropped by Mister Donuts for some drinks and donuts. So sinful.. lol

Good night for day 2 ~~~ Oyasuminasai ~~~

Japan 2010, Day 3

2011-03-11T23:15:00.000+08:00

My cam ran out of memory and I had left my spares memory card back at the hotel. Duh…

So.. I only have a few pix for day 3.. which is extremely rare.. lol..

Shibuya street

My last shot before my cam showed me the nice ‘Memory card is full’ message. How smart of me..

On day 3, we were supposed to visit the Ghibli Museum. But unbelievably, we could not find a single Lawson (convenient store) to purchase tickets from! While walking around Shibuya waiting for Shibuya 109 to open, we chanced upon one Lawson! Hiding in some backlanes.. –_- We fiddled around the vending machine and finally found a nice timing. But upon payment, we found that we need to pay using some special cards –_- So we just gave up since it will totally change the plans we have for the day. (Meant for shopping! lol.. )

Bought a cute snoopy for my dear niece from Harajuku Kiddyland. They moved from the main street to a nice charming street nearby. Let me see if I can get some photos from my buddy’s cam.. (BIG HINT… )

Some snacks and beer to end the day.. :)

Oyasuminasai, Day 3 ~~~

Japan 2010, Day 4

2011-03-11T23:11:00.000+08:00

Good morning ~~~

Breakfast at Toyoko Inn – Onigiri & Miso soup. The prefect combination of breakfast! I always have craving for their onigiri. Maybe cos’ it feels homely.. lol

After breakfast, we ventured out

A mascot outside one of the shop at Ikebukuro

Walking towards Animate shop. The shop is located nearby Sunshine City. You need to cross a main junction where you will see Toyota Amlux. From there, you can easily spot Animate.

Mini K-On figurine!

After visiting the Animate shop, we walked across the road to Sunshine city building and had lunch there. Somehow I noticed that my first choice is almost always Ebi Tempura.. yum yum ~~~

Another cute mascot with a funky hairdo.. :D

After walking around Sunshine City, we decided to go to Ginza

Good thing that it was a Saturday. The long stretch of Ginza street is closed to traffic and tents were set up for people to rest ;) How nice~

We wanted a break and decided to go to MOS café. Noticed it says MOS = Mountain, Ocean, Sun :P

Our drinks. I actually preferred the ice Milk Tea from Mos in Singapore. Was not used to the milk tea in Japan… Hmm.. actually I felt the same when I tried the ice milk tea in Bangkok’s Mos burger as well. :P

Kids walking and playing on the street

It’s relaxing to walk freely on the street :D

A brightly lit side street

Approaching 5pm just before traffic is allowed in again

Last few minutes before the street opens to the traffic… A van with loudspeaker started to warn people about it. The moment the clock strikes 5pm, magic happens. All the barrier were quickly removed at the same time and traffic almost immediately flooded the street. Kudos to the slick operation. Very well organized considering that it’s a long stretch of road with many junctions!

As we walked along the street, we spotted a shop with long queue. Of course, we went to check it out.. hehe..

So this is what they were selling, it’s called Mount Baun Kuchen!

Looks yummy. I actually bought a piece back for us to try it out. I think it’s about USD 7. A lot of time and effort goes into making these.

After Ginza, we proceed to Shinjuku to shop for a few hours. After shopping, we headed back to Ikebukuro to hunt for food.

Finally we settled at Isetan’s restaurant. It’s dinner time! Yummy ~~~

Back at the hotel, we tried the snack bought from Shinjuku early on. The Baun Kuchen (Tree cake) actually taste quite nice.

That’s all for day 4. Oyasuminasai ~~~~

Japan 2010, Day 5

2011-03-11T23:05:00.000+08:00

Just before heading home, we decided to go do a bit of shopping at Shinjuku as we still have a few hours to spare before our flight back in the late afternoon. We checked out from Toyoko Inn and deposited our luggage at the hotel.

While wandering around Shinjuku shopping area, we decided to have our lunch at this place called Coffee House Nire as it looks pretty from outside :)

Waiting for our food

I like the table settings! Pretty ~~~

My sandwich lunch. Yum yum ~~~

Tea time!

After the lunch, we went to do quite a fare bit of shopping and then we headed back to our hotel, collected our luggage and had a super hard time stuffing everything we bought to our already-on-the-verge-of-exploding luggage. lol..

That’s the end of the trip! Jya mata~~~~ Will be back for sure ;)

Langkawi, Malaysia Dec 2010

2011-02-11T22:58:00.000+08:00

Did a last minute planning to go Langkawi for 4 days 3 nights during end Dec 2010 :)

We finally boarded the plane to Langkawi after an hour delay. Was feeling excited to go Langkawi for the first time! :D

We touched down Langkawi at 12.45PM after about 1.5 hours flight. I had pre-booked the airport transfer from the airport to our Hotel in Kuah Town.

After a 40 minutes ride, we finally reached Bayview hotel located in Kuah Town. Basically it’s the tallest building in that town :P Very obvious to spot.

This is the view from our room window. Kind of nice and relaxing.

The room is very spacious and clean as well. No complains there :)

As we still have not rented a car yet, we decided to walk to the Langkawi Parade Shopping Complex as it looks near from the map :P

After walking for what felt like forever, we finally reached the shopping complex. First thing we did was to find a nice place to rest and eat our late lunch.

The café we were at is actually quite nice. It’s a café and art gallery in one.

And the best thing? ~~ the beer is cheap! lol.. I ordered beer to go with my lunch.. hehe.. It’s about RM3++ whereas the soft drink cost just a little cheaper.

Overall, the shopping complex is disappointing though. Nothing much to see. Pretty boring to be honest.

Oh, if you want to surf for free, do go to the Mc Donalds within the shopping complex. We went there after our meals and did some surfing. WiFi speed is good there :)

After surfing, we decided to walk towards the Kuah Jetty where I heard that you could rent a car there.

On the way there, we stumbled upon this place called Lagenda Park and found some nice views along the way.

Approaching Kuah Jetty with a nice, tranquil lake

Some walking area are a little rundown. A little dangerous for children and the elderly. I hope the authority can do something about it.

This is kinda zen… ah.. peace….

As we walk towards the seaside, the gigantic soaring eagle came into view :) That’s the eagle square. The main landmark of Langkawi! :D

At the square, we spotted our hotel at the opposite. That’s how far we have walked.. :P

The obligatory shot :D

We then walked towards the Kuah Jetty area and attempted to get info on car rental. The amount of people trying to pitch their travel and car rental services is really overwhelming. I would rather compare each counter in peace than to be swarmed by these people. In the end, we gave up getting the car rental from there as I was worried that the cars are not properly insured or approved by the official.

Told my buddy that I will try to get info from the internet so off we went to the most logical place to be – Starbucks of course! lol..

After a few failed attempts to call the car rental agent, I was told to call them back the next morning as most likely their office is already closed for the day.

After having a nice break, we set off to go back to our hotel.. yes, we are walking back again! lol.. For some reason, we love torturing our poor feet.. haha..

After dinner, we went back to our hotel. This is the view taken from our hotel room. The brightest area you see here is the ‘pasar malam’, the night market.

Good night for day 1 :)

Langkawi, Day 2

2011-02-11T22:54:00.000+08:00

Breakfast was included so we had our breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant.

After a few phone calls to the car rental agent, we finally secured a car. They offered a standard deal published on their website. If you do have more time to research, do send email in advance of your trip to negotiate discount for the car rental.

Taadaa ~~~ it’s a Perodua Myvi. It was sent directly to our hotel for RM 20 fee. Well, at least it’s hassle free.

We decided to drive to Langkawi Cable car, however, at one main junction, we took the wrong turn and ended up at Pantai Cenang. Oh well, just make the best of it and might as well just sightseeing there.. lol..

We took a stroll along the beach and stumbled upon this big jellyfish!

As it was mid afternoon, the sun is scorching! We went off after loitering around for a while. We then proceed to go to the Langkawi cable car since we thought we could hide from the Sun for a while :P

At the entrance of the cable there, there is this Oriental village with some shops and restaurant around. I didn’t quite get the oriental feel but the place overall is quite nice and relaxing. This is one of the shop there renting segway

We bought our tickets for the cable car ride. The queue was really really long to board the cable car. We then realised that it is a Saturday and a public holiday! Luckily the waiting area is well ventilated making the wait more bearable.

Oh, if you have food and drinks with you, I suggest that you place them inside your bags out of sight. Otherwise, the staff might request that you leave your stuff on the table (which probably already have tonnes of food and drinks on it belonging to other customers). I caught sight of the no-food-and-drink rules at the very last minute and scrambled to keep my water bottle inside my bagpack! :P

The view of the cable car from the queuing area

Finally we boarded our cable. Spotted the hanging bridge!

Nice view from the cable car!

The view from the observatory deck

Spotted anything interesting in the background? They formed a smiley face :) ! lol.. I wished I had notice that when I was there!

The view from the hanging bridge

See how far the cable car had to travel? It’s an engineer feat if you ask me. It’s even cooler than the cable car in HK.

After the cable car ride back towards the Oriental village, we found a nice place situated on a lake and decided to have late lunch there. I can sense that the owner there is very passionate about their food. The lady who prepared and served our food actually carefully placed the plate on the table and rotate it to a nice angle. I seldom see people with such passion on the details.

The view from where we were seated

Some folks trying out the Segway

After lunch, we decided to visit the Tanjung Rhu beach which is located at the northern most tip of the island. The road leading to the beach is winding, narrow and secluded. We were almost convinced that we have lost our way! lol

Some boats at the beach

As we walked along the beach, we stumbled upon a nice resort, the Tanjung Rhu Resort. I would love to stay here the next trip! But I’m sure the price will be jaw dropping as well. :P

The place is surrounded by well landscaped plants and trees. So nice and cooling

The rooms with balcony to chill out

Guests at the resort relaxing by the beach.

After the adventure, we drove back to Kuah town and walked around to look for a place to have dinner. We settled in what looked like a pub since there were not many choice to choose from :P

The view from where we sat

Back to our hotel! Beers bought from a store in Pantai Cenang earlier in the day :) Cheap cheap.. lol These are slightly above RM 10.. ho ho

Good night for day 2! ;)

Langkawi, Day 3

2011-02-11T22:53:00.000+08:00

We decided to visit the Laman Padi Langkawi Museum as I have read raved reviews about the free guided tour.

When we reached the paddy field, we tried to look everywhere for the guide. After wandering around for a while and feeling clueless, we spotted the guide who is in the midst of providing explanation to 2 other guests. I asked if we could join them, luckily the friendly guide says ok.

With the guided tour, things begin to sound much more interesting and fun!

The fields were divided into different sections to show the various stages of the rice growing process.

The bunch tied up on the left is for planting of new batches of rice

The paddy on the right is finally ready to be harvested!

A closer look at the paddy. They even have scarecrow in the middle of the field!

Our guide demonstrated how the farmers chase off the birds. A string attached to a metal zinc is pulled to make noise which scares off the birds.

Our guide demonstrated how farmers catch fish in their paddy field. There is a poor fish inside the cage to show guest how it is done :P

Real buffalo! lol.. Kudos to the staff effort to make this an authentic experience!

Scrapped coconuts using the traditional scrap manually by hand.

The guide showing off a type of grape. I remember it’s really sour.. lol..

After the fruitful guided tour, we drove to Pantai Cenang again which is just a 3-minutes drive away.

We found a spa and decided to try fish spa for the first time! I was giggling the whole time as it felt really strange. But it was quite a fun and happy experience as we were laughing a lot! After the fish spa, we decided to try their foot massage as well. What a relaxing day.. lol…

Fish spa!

After the spa trip, we went back to Cenang beach since sun is setting and it is not so warm now. Perfect time to chill out and walk around.

There are lots of little crab there digging away and forming mini sand balls. So cute. This is one of the ‘art’ the crabs created.

The entire stretch of beach is full of these cute shapes!

Sun is finally setting

It’s time to go home after a nice relaxing day.

Langkawi, Day 4

2011-02-11T22:52:00.000+08:00

It’s time to go home!

Langkawi is really a nice place to chill out, do nothing and relax. Very laid back and slow pace. I will definitely be back! ;)

Japan 2009, Day 15 Goodbye!!

2010-01-24T21:45:00.000+08:00

Japan 2009, Day 14

2010-01-24T21:35:00.000+08:00

It’s the first day of 2010!! A good day :D

We planned to explore Odaiba today

Pet shop. These pet are so kawaii ~~~~~ Most of them are napping.. lol

zzz..

Sweet dreams, kitty..

Doggie sleeping very soundly.. lol

Snoozing ~~~ Do not disturb…

What colorful poodle.. lol.. not something I will do if I have a pet though. Who knows if they actually like being colored?? But the owner is really very friendly. They even try to command the dog to pose for my cam lol..

Visit to Toy r us! Konnichiwa~~~

Overlooking Rainbow bridge

Fuji TV exterior

Giant soba bowl

Freedom at last.. lol..

Bye bye sun

Fuji TV mascot is off work.. lol

Very large area to roam around the Fuji TV building

Fuji TV dome

Sunset (left). Mascot of Fuji TV (right)

Starry starry ads

Mini modelling

After Odaiba, we somehow managed to walk from Shimbashi station to Ginza.. lol

Ginza is eerily empty on new year’s day

2010.01.01

Nice time to stroll if you like a quiet walk but don’t expect to shop much since most of the shops are closed.. :S

Ginza St

Some supper to end the day ;)

Japan 2009, Day 13

2010-01-24T21:30:00.000+08:00

It’s time for Akihabara ~~ I did not take much pix here though, feeling uninspired :P

Here’s one for the record :P

Cool looking guy with a mini dog

Lunch at McDonalds (yet again.. lol)

The Japanese are very discipline and environmental concious folks. See how they actually separate the rubbish bins into paper (cups, box for fries) and plastic (paper cup lid, straw, stirrer). Kudos for their effort!

After Akihabara, we went to Ueno where we heard that there is a shopping street selling clothes at reasonable price.

Tank of puffer fishes

I’m not sure who will buy these (left). Bicycles parking lot to save space

Mountains of sports wear

We went to Shinjuku to do more shopping. The tiring day ended with a nice cuppa coffee :D

Shinjuku

Japan 2009, Day 12

2010-01-24T21:25:00.000+08:00

We took the 8:56 AM train from Kyoto and arrived at Tokyo at 11:40AM. After checking into our hotel (Toyoko Inn Nihon-bashi Hamacho), we went to explore the area around our hotel. The area is relatively quiet more so as a lot of folks left Tokyo to travel back to their hometown to celebrate the new year.

We strolled to the nearby Hamacho Park, also called Meijiza-mae

Pets in Japan are really well treated :)

Statue of a mother and her child (left). A kid bike parked nearby (right)

Nice autumn leaves against the green backdrop

Nature’s bookmark :)

Sun setting soon

A pair of father and son watching intently at the cooking of Tamagoyaki 卵焼き which btw is fully sold out for the new year. They are rushing to fulfill the backlog. Sad that we could not try it. It’s not difficult to see that this shop, Toritada is very popular with the locals. Judging by the photos and signatures hung on the wall, this must be quite a famous shop :)

As it is approaching new year, we see many folks doing last minute shopping for the celebration. This is just one of the many queues along the Amazakeyokocho street and Ningyocho-dori. I like this place. It has a good, lively vibe to it. :)

Large mural on the wall

Perfect weather for a relaxing stroll :)

Takoyaki

Japan 2009, Day 11

2010-01-24T21:20:00.000+08:00

Familiar breakfast at Toyoko Inn :D Now I missed their onigiri ~~~~

The landmark, Kyoto Tower

Astro boy can just fly to wherever he wants.. lol

Kyoto Station – Japan’s second largest train station

Long flight of stairs

We climbed up the flight of stairs

View from the top with the Kyoto Tower in the reflection

Nice weather

The building looks futuristic

I had to take this.. looks like a cute face looking down at me.. lol

It’s new year’s day. Most tourist attraction are closed on this day! We had limited option and so we decided to go to Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺)

On the way to the temple

Some rustic looking shop

Neighbourhood

The surrounding looks nice and idyllic

At the entrance of Kiyomizu-dera

Nice weather to walk in the outdoor

This function as lamp??

My ticket

Some folks praying and waving the smoke towards themselves for blessing

Side view of the temple

Sun shining on the temple

No footwear beyond this point. I did not go into the interior.

Exploring the surrouding. Crowded at this point in time

I managed to sneak into the side route where it is quiet and I found this :D Serene flow of blessed water

Saw a few of these. Not sure what these are for. Or is it just for décor?

Each of the scoop indicates different wishes in life. I supposed you are to choose the one you most wanted to wish for

Another corner where you can pray for your wish to be answered

Looking down from the temple

I don’t mean to be disrespectful. But I suspect this guy is not a real monk. I observed that he is more interesting in making money by taking picture with the tourists! :S

People lining up to collect ‘pure water’ for blessing. I am sure this is where your tour guide will hustle you to go. It’s basically flocked with tourists!

Immediately after exiting the temple, there is a row of shops with lots of shoppers. Very lively

Some candies

I rewarded myself with these.. :D Ice cream!

Maccha flavoured Yatsuhashi wrapped with red bean paste inside

Saw this while strolling along the way

We discovered a small lane leading to a really nice ceramic shop

Sunlight shone nicely on the ceramic cups

So tempted to get some back

Time for some lunch to fill up our tummy.. We found this shop, Miyabikoubou, the shop is small and cosy inside.

Yakisoba (780 yen)

Yakitori (630 yen)

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) (780 yen)

Takoyaki (780 yen)

We took pix of the receipt which explains why I could list down the price.. lol..

The restaurant decor

I like these old looking stores. Seems to have a lot of stories to tell

Look who’s shooting from the back? lol.. I wonder if anyone shoot me behind my back.. haha..

We explore around Hanamidori while waiting for dusk

I love walking around and exploring this part of Kyoto!

Cute decor

Ooh. I like this ~~~

Love the color of the area!

Good place to be at.. lol..

Hmm.. we noticed a few of these broken bowls. Not sure if it is some ritual for the new year? Or am I thinking too much.. these are simply.. broken bowls.. haha

Nice mini car

People hunting for food

A lot of the shops looks unreal.. lol.. just like what you see in anime world

Twilight. No geisha or maiko ~~~~~ sob sob…. they returned home for new year celebration??

Leaving Hanamikoji. Exiting along the main street. Sad..

Dinner is at this Italian restaurant, Kapurichoza

Cake and coffee to end the day :D

Japan 2009, Day 10

2010-01-24T21:10:00.000+08:00

Today we are scheduled to travel from Sapporo to Kyoto. Long journey as we had skipped the planned midpoint stop at Fukushima in order to extend our stay at Sapporo. Our journey involves 4 transfers on Shinkansen.

Sapporo –> Hakodate –> Hachinohe –> Tokyo –> Kyoto

Thank goodness Shinkansen is very comfortable and clean making the long journey more bearable

Spotted this cute mini figure in the midst of the adult world :D

Along the way on the train

Snacks for the journey

The train journey started at 9:19AM from Sapporo and we finally reached Kyoto at 10:15PM. Long day..

Japan 2009, Day 9

2010-01-24T21:05:00.000+08:00

Hot choc drink to start the day

Chicken sandwich for breakfast

Travelling from Sapporo to Otaru (30 minutes)

My precious cam :D

Ocean view with snow in the foreground.

A canal lined by old warehouses

Artwork on the wall

Poem by the canal

Walking along the canal with the row of warehouses

The temperate is 2 degree celsius

Lots of icicles. I would not want to get hit on the head by one of these

The plants covering the side of the shop.. looks nice :D

I like the character of this wall!

Good to see some green greens in winter :D

The sign on the door of one of the old warehouse

赤レンガ.. redbrick?

More icicles! Otaru has many charming nooks and corner which I like!

One of the rickshaw offering ride to tourists

This is where we had lunch, Bikkuri Donkey (Lit. surprise donkey.. lol), a Hamburger Steak Restaurant. What luck!

Steak. The waitress was talking in length in Japanese not knowing we couldn’t understand. My very basic Japanese language failed me.. haha.. After some times, we got her to talk slower.. I think she meant that we can cook the steak on the piece of round metal piece on the hot plate.. :P

Love the design of their menu!

Our dessert.. yum ~~~

The full menu. Price is pretty reasonable

Bye bye.. hope to be back :D

We walked back to the main street

After 20 minutes walk in total confusion (lol..), we finally located the Kitaichi Venetian Art Museum! We wanted to visit the Venice themed exhibition at the museum

Our admission tickets

Sadly.. no photos are allowed

The exterior of the museum

Venetian style streetlight can be seen along the streets of Otaru

We strolled along the street and found some nice design along the way

A lot of charming looking shop like these

I’m guessing these are to prevent heavy snow fall from the hilltop?

This shop looks warm and inviting

The big piece of snow about to slide down from the roof of the tent

Gigantic crab

Otaru is famous for glass making

Spotted a big bear sitting outside a toy shop

Kawaii sheep!

It started to get dark.. and cold ~~~~

Mr Fox

Clown

Vintage musical box

Doll figurine

Another cool gift shop

Snoopy zzz-ing

Little cute dolls

Wall décor for sale

See how big the gift shop is

At another shop, spotted some really nice, well made Ghibli characters

Totoro ~~

A glass making shop

Visitor can try their hand on making and blowing glass here

Finally it’s dinner time! We have limited choice… as we weren’t sure where to go. Finally found a lively looking conveyor belt restaurant with super long q, Waraku. Customers are seated at the waiting area for their turn

Thank goodness we were seated after waiting for a while

Some of what we ordered

Our cleaned plates

The food is not bad, price is reasonable

Japan 2009, Day 8 Boxing Day

2010-01-24T21:00:00.000+08:00

Good morning, Sapporo!

Train passing by as sun rise

Breakfast at Nakau (なか卯), a restaurant located at Sapporo station underground street. Here, you will select and purchase the food coupon from the vending machine and pass the coupon to the waitress

My breakfast – Beef bowl

With miso soup

Taking the tram to Mt Moiwa Ropeway, our main itinerary of the day

We alighted from the tram and walked about 10 minutes. There’s quite a bit of up slope walk, so be prepared :)

We bought our tickets at the Sanroku Station (山麓駅) to board the ropeway up Mt Moiwa

View from the ropeway

Japanese cemetary

A 5 minutes ride up :)

Slowly and gradually, the buildings turned into matchbox size

Halfway up the slope

After alighting from the ropeway at Sancho Station (456m), we were transferred to one of these snow vehicle to reach the observatory. Cool bus with modified wheels to drive in the snow. It takes about 10 minutes to reach the top

At the top of the observatory deck (531m). Strong wind and cold weather.. felt that I am going to be blown away anytime!

Trying hard to steady my cam and concentrating on snapping the shots that I wanted - fast!

Nice sceneries

Another view with some houses at the bottom of the mountains

See how compact is the buildings below?

Cute little fox

Bunnies!

Some big ice cubes are in preparation. Probably for the upcoming snow festival in Feb?

Time to go back down

Lunch at Mos Burger. Our drinks

After lunch, we did shopping for the rest of the days. So no photos here :P

Supper!

Good night ~~~~

Japan 2009, Day 7 Merry Christmas!!

2010-01-24T20:55:00.000+08:00

Good morning and Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho!

Morning dew.. on my window

Admiring the view and doing my itinerary planning for the day

Looks cold today..

Breakfast is not included this time. (Can you believe it… ) So we went to Lotteria for breakfast

After breakfast, we proceed with our first visit of the day - Ishiya choc factory! They produce the famous Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人). My first time visiting a choc factory, very ‘willy wonka’ lol..

At the train station, follow this big sign. We actually missed this sign.. haha…

The Chocolote Factory.. Looks cool.. This is the staff entrance. Not for visitors.. lol..

I love their signboard. Looks cool..

Feel like I’m in some anime world..it’s unreal.. lol

Nice design :D

The ticket is in the form of a passport and it comes with complimentary Shiroi Koibito biscuit. So cool ~~~

Fountain

Some nice teapot on display

The tea room

Window view on Christmas day. What a matching atmosphere :D

Exquisite glasses

The place is full of exquisite teapots and tea cups

Cup of tea, anyone?

See how intricate is the design? I ‘m sure they cost a bomb

Spotted this retro looking lady

Hmm.. is it a swan?

More bling bling

Vintage pix

Spotted 2 santa on duty by the window.. :P

Vintage Deck of cards

We then proceed to the factory line where they produce the biscuits!

Rows of biscuits

The factory line

Quality check

Even the restroom sign is kawaii ~~~~ :D

After the tour, we saw some kids attending baking class

Some cake design on display

Packaging section

Quality check

Decks of drawers

See this cool, evil looking character? I think he was in one of the movie… starring Nicolas Cage?

Btw If you are unsure of where to go.. follow these cute paw print.. lol

Another corner of the hall

The next section is a large collection of vintage toys

Astroboy

Kermit the frog from the Muppet Show??

Toy ships

Elvis Presley’s Driving license.. Really??

I recall seeing these when I was a kid :D

Nice styling of the cake!

Makes me wanna buy more!

The exterior of the choc factory

The little figure far away is Santa who is on duty to guide the visitors’ car

And it started to snow :D Hey it’s Christmas!

Little santa sitting on a cone

After the visit, we left and proceed to have our lunch at Mc Donalds back in Susukino area. This is the window view from where we sat

My meal

Studying the map to find out exactly where we are

Christmas light at Odori Park

Freezing weather

In the midst of freezing ourselves in the snow and trying not to fall walking on the slippery surface. Can you imagine my astonishment as I spotted this gal in front of me? In mini skirt, No leg warmer what so ever required. wow..

This is the best part! The best teriyaki I have ever tasted! I swore that I will be back for more!!

Yum yum ~~~

Japan 2009, Day 6

2010-01-24T20:50:00.000+08:00

After breakfast at the hotel, it was time to check out and proceed to catch our train to Sapporo!

At Hakodate train station waiting for our train

We passed by Onuma Quasi national park!

Nice sceneries along the way

After some struggling with the direction to reach our hotel, we finally found the Keio Plaza hotel!

Cosy little room

View from my room! I like the view :D

Red beetle

Our hotel for the next 2 days

This is the box where tiny pebbles are stored in bags. Pedestrians can freely access the bags and help themselves to scatter the pebbles if the road is too slippery to walk on

As we were searching for food, we passed by a restaurant named ‘Mom’s home cook food’, how can we resist not trying.. lol.

After some confusion in order the food, we finally settled down to eat!

My lunch set. Not too bad

Black sauce

After lunch, we walked around to explore Sapporo. See how much snow is accumulated??

The former Hokkaido government Office building

After the stroll outdoor, we walked back to Sapporo station where the main shopping belt is

Tea break at ESTA Dominique Geulin's! This is the No. 1 bread. Looks good!

Bread ranked no. 2. I like rankings.. makes it easy to decide.. haha..

Next stop is one of my fav! Bic Camera!

Spot the little santarina :D

Hands-on all the goodies!

We shopped for a couple of hours and decided to have dinner at the Ramen Republic :P

Ramen! Quite nice. The Japanese staff are really humble. The tall guy actually kneel next to us to take our order.

Back to our hotel.. home sweet home ~~~

Spotted a cute choo choo train ~~~ On Christmas eve!

Our mini ‘celebration’ lol.. too tired to feast or party.. haha.. oh no..feel old.. lol..

Japan 2009, Day 5

2010-01-24T20:40:00.000+08:00

We went to visit Hakodate’s morning market (Hakodate Asaichi) which is a short walking distance from our hotel. While visiting one of the shops, I asked the ojisan if he could recommend fresh sushi with reasonable price nearby, he kindly wrote down the name of the shop and pointed to the direction which we should walk to..

And so off we went.. on the way we saw these scenes

Market selling fresh seafood

Friendly staff who gamely posted for my cam :)

Icicles formed on the edges. These looks pretty but dangerous..

Cupcake anyone? lol..

We passed by some factories and saw these large icicles. Still no sign of the sushi restaurant.

After walking around for 1 hour or so, we could not find the place and people we asked did not know of it as well. In the end, we gave up.. :( And had to walk all the way back to the market.

While feeling disappointed and tired, we saw this grouchy snowman.. lol..

As we were feeling hungry by this time, we choose to have our early lunch at one of the restaurant next to the morning market.

After that we walked to the Hakodate station to catch our train to Onumakoen where the Onuma Quasi National Parkis located

Sculpture outside the train station

On the way to Onumakoen! So exciting!

After 30 minutes train ride, the train pulls into Onumakoen station

How about some ice cream in the middle of winter? :D

The first thing we did was to go to the information centre next to the train station to get some maps. The Onuma Quasi National park is about 10 minutes walk

Giant Doraemon

After 10 minutes, we reached the entrance of the park. It’s nice, vast, white and pretty!

Animal footprints dotted the park

The walk is very relaxing and weather is just nice. Not too windy and it’s cloudy. Not too glaring as well

Crossing path. Looks like this is a busy junction.. lol.. These animal footprints make an interesting art :D

Look how thick is the snow??

Tractor with chain on its wheels

Frozen lake

The mount in the backdrop is the majestic dormant volcano, Mount Komagatake

After leaving the park, we walked back to the station and rewarded ourselves with ice cream while waiting for our train to go back to Hakodate :)

It’s 3.30PM, look how it is starting to get dark already?

The moon appeared to say Hi :)

On the way to dinner, we came across a supermarket and saw puffer fish!

Dinner at a kaiten-zushi (回転寿司)

Japan 2009, Day 4 - Good morning Hakodate!!

2010-01-24T20:23:00.012+08:00

Thick snow covered the city

Our standard Toyoko Inn Breakfast. I didn't know what the 2 brown sticks were but I ate it anyway. Later I asked the lady who was preparing the hotel breakfast and was told that it's a type of Konnyaku (jelly like).

View outside of our hotel. Road were all covered with snow. I saw some cars skidded on the road. But think most of the locals are pretty good at driving in such extreme weather.

Look at the amount of snow accumulated at the side of the main road

The Japs are really detail oriented. A lady knitted a scarf for this little boy statue for winter. I was wondering who did this and later the mystery was solved when I read the story from their local Hakodate newspaper.

The little gal statue with a knitted red scarf. I think this is the sister of the boy statue.

Folks going about their daily routine

View through the tram

Inside the tram. We noticed the commuters tend to stand at the front section of the tram when they board. Only the tourists stand at the back.. lol

Back view of the tram

Tram ticket display.

For this type of bus/tram ticketing system, you would normally collect a ticket when you board the tram/bus. The ticket will have a number which correspond to your boarding stop. When you have reached your destination, you just look at the pricing which matches the number shown on your ticket and pay accordingly. For example, if it shows '1' on your ticket, you will need to pay 240 yen. 220 yen if the number is '2'.

An elderly trying to cross the road. The slippery road seems dangerous for the elderly. But then again, I think tourist are more prone to fall than the locals since we are not well equipped with anti slip footwear.

Another tram catching up

Is this a bear? Nice hairdo btw.. lol...

Fort Goryokaku - Japan's first Western style fortress. Interestingly, the fort is built star-shaped. The modern, dense buildings surrounding the fort is such a constrast with the old era architecture.

View from the Goryokaku Observatory Tower next to the Fort. Can you spot the heart shaped roof below?

Some miniature figures at the observatory depicting the history

These figurines are really small in sizes.

The view from the observatory tower. Spotted this gal in interesting outfit. Hard to miss :)

Goryokaku Tower. To me, this is not a pretty sight next to the fort but I must say, the view from the observatory is superb!

After visiting the tower, we went to take a walk at the Goryokaku Park.

This looks like some abstract painting.. hehe

Autumn's gone..

At the Goryokaku park around the fort

Snowman now has company.. lol

A walk in the park

This is supposedly the river/lake surrounding the fort. Can't really see as it's covered in snow

Another view at the park

Don't these look like cupcakes? :)

Another abstract art formed on the lake. Looks like some ink splattered there :P

Layer of snow

Some parts of the park are not accessible as the snow were not cleared. Can't even see the pathway to walk.. lol

Not quite an ideal place to take pix as I had expected

Approaching sunset, we went up to Mount Hakodate.

This is the ropeway used to ferry people up the mount

The sunset is blocked and almost gone by the time we reached.. sad..

Just before it gets dark. The wind was very strong and it was freezing. Quite difficult to steady the cam and getting a decent shot.

After some struggles with the strong wind and the crowd, we decided to retreat back to the observatory. I could feel the numbness on my fingers and face. My finger refused to press the shutter.. that's when I surrender.. lol

We found a restaurant with nice window view of Hakodate and so we decided to go there to rest and have a meal

This is Hakodate's million dollar view. There were some short display of fireworks at around 6pm. We could see the fireworks from where we sat. The restaurant staff even switched off the restaurant's lights during the fireworks display so that we could see more clearly. Comparing to the million dollar view, I told my travel mates that the fireworks is worth probably $2k.. lol..

After taking the ropeway down, we walked to the old warehouse area which is now triving with shops. Nice christmas atmosphere

Everyone is in great mood!

Japan 2009, Day 3 - Yamagata -> Hakodate

2010-01-24T19:45:00.010+08:00

Day 3. It's time to travel to Hakodate.

It took about 7 hours including 3 transfers to reach Hakodate from Yamagata station. We started the journey at around 8am.

Transfers train details:
Yamagata station (local train) -> Sendai (Hayate Shinkansen) -> Hachinohe (Super Hakucho no. 9) ->Hakodate

Ticketing machine to order Soba.

A common sight in Japan. After selecting your Soba choice, you insert the correct amount into the machine and the machine will dispense a ticket. You just need to take the ticket and pass it to the staff in the shop and wait for your Soba. A lot of times, you need to stand to eat your meal just like this Soba shop.

Arriving at freezing Hachinohe station. We had about 40 mins of waiting time to transit to Hakodate. The main heated waiting room were full.. we had to sit outside of the room and share the tiny heater which is almost useless. Luckily the crowd cleared in 15 min when their train arrived. We get to wait in the heated room which is almost a life saver.

An example of eki bento. Bento sold at train stations (eki)

A stationary train next to ours. See the chunk of ice at the bottom? Looks like a part of freezer.. lol

Finally boarded the train to Hakodate! So glad... !!

See the load of onigiri we bought? lol.. For the starving bunch of people.. lol

Reading in the train

Short stopover at one of the station

We were travelling along the coastline. A little truck moving along side our train :)

Finally we reached Hakodate!! More snow waiting for us.. This looks like a giant donut.. hehe.. They don't seem to clear the snow as fast as other cities. The streets are really hard to walk as most of the streets are covered in thick snow. See the thick layer of snow in the background?

We had to lug/drag our luggages around and walk to our hotel which is about 10 mins away. Worst of all, we checked into the wrong hotel after walking for about 20 min trying to bulldoze our way through the snow. Think my travel mates wanted to strangle me at this point in time.... *speechless..

Took another 20 min to reach the correct hotel.. by the time we reached, my face already felt numb. Felt like i just dipped my face into a bowl of curry..

Japan 2009, Day 2 - Yamagata Snow Monster

2010-01-24T18:28:00.015+08:00

Christmas deco at the hotel lobby. It snowed heavily the previous night. Thick snow covered the area.

First hotel breakfast of the trip

I decided to be adventurous and tried the little cuttlefish stuffed with rice inside, the brown stuff you see next to the onigiri. Erm.. taste is ok.. look wise.. feels like I'm eating a baby alien.. :P So better not think too much when you try .. lol..

Today we planned to visit Snow Monster. The main reason why we came to Yamagata :)

The snow monster ropeway is about 40 min bus ride from the Yamagata bus station.

On the way to the bus station, we saw this 'bicycle' park.. so neat and interesting.. :) Hmm.. won't it be difficult to ride in the snow..?

While waiting at the bus no. 1 berth, we realised that we need to purchase the bus ticket at the bus station before boarding the bus.

After conversing with the staff at the station with my broken Jap, we managed to purchase the tickets from the ticketing machine.

Bus 1 (Yamagata bus stn -> Zao onsen stn) ¥980 per pax. Destination: Mount Zao

Snacks to go

On the way to Mount Zao. So exciting!!

After 40 minutes, we arrived at our destination. We asked for the direction to the Snow Monster at the Info centre next to the bus station and was told to walk 10 minutes to take the ropeway.

It snowed heavily again. I had to use my umbrella to shelter the snow. See how 'frozen' my umbrella was after 5 minutes of walk? lol

We arrived at the ropeway station after just 5 minutes of walk and were still wondering why the info centre staff said that it was a 10 minute walk. Little did we know that we would be taking the wrong ropeway.. lol

Some boiling Konnyaku balls. No one seemed to be tending this stall. I guess it's self service with trust.

I'm sure the warm eggs are popular in such cold weather. See the snow boarder outside the window? lol

We took the wrong ropeway, Zao Chuo Ropeway instead of Zao Ropeway and ended up in this mountain where it's frequented by snow boarders.. not tourist like us! lol.. No wonder we had lots of strange glare from the people there.. lol

It was freezing at top of the mountain.. so we decided to lunch at a cafe there to prevent from turning into ice block.. The temperature was about -6 deg..

Curry Rice (750 yen)

Cha Siu Ramen (750 yen)

Beef Set (800 yen)

After eating lunch, I regained some energy and so I ventured out into the snow to take some pix

Think this is a machine to clear snow?

The area is so white that it feels like a dream.. hehe

The wrong mountain but still very pretty nonetheless :D

Skier ready to ski down the slope into the land far far away.. hehe

After wasting 2 hours and us almost turning into ice block due to the earlier mistake of going up the wrong ropeway, we decided to still proceed with the plan to see the Snow Monster. And I'm sure glad we did that.. :)

Top down view from the cable car. This time round, the ropeway is filled with tourist like us.. so we were pretty certain that this is the correct ropeway to be in.. lol.

On the way to Snow Monster

Visibility was low

This gives you an idea of how cold it was... Backdrop was the Snow Monster trees. They weren't exactly fully formed into monster shape yet. But still it's quite a sight.

Aren't they cute? So fluffy..

The railing... frozen...

Snow monster slowly forming. Read somewhere that the trees will fully form into monster like shape in Feb/March.

Coffee break and time to defrost.. haha.. I'm glad to see other colors.. other than white..

Hot cocoa.. In Jap.. it's ko-ko-a.. not ko-ko.. :P

How cold? This cold.... *gulp...

Everywhere is so pretty..

This looks like a little lone island.. hehe

They lighted up some trees as Christmas approaches..

This looks like a cake with lots of icing on it..

Walkway layered with snow..

There are 2 ropeway to reach the Snow Monster. This is the 2nd station.

Time to go back.. Taken from the ropeway..

Darkness approached as we reach the base of the ropeway

Finally reaches the base

Time to walk back.. it snowed heavily again!!! We took about 15 minutes to walk back to the bus station. Heavy snow through out the walk... -_-"" It wasn't too pedestrian friendly as there were cars zooming passed as we walked. We were also feeling stressed as we weren't sure what time was the last bus back to Yamagata city.

When we reached the bus station.. our backpacks were covered in snow...

Fast food dinner..

See how adorable is the packaging?

The popcorn chicken inside is just so-so..

Japan 2009, Day 1 - Yamagata City

2010-01-24T17:28:00.009+08:00

On the way to Yamagata City via Tsubasa 111 Shinkansen line

We were zipping in and out of tunnels a lot. Occasionally, such scenaries appeared for split second in between mountains.. hehe..

We reached Yamagata station after a 3 hour train ride from Tokyo and checked into the nearby Hotel Toyoko(东横) Inn Yamagata. It's about 5-10 minutes (depending on how heavy the snow is... lol) walk from the station.

There is a huge hypermart right opposite of the hotel. We can't wait to get some light lunch there. First meal in Yamagata is of course Sushi!!

We were kind of drained after the long trip (flight+train ride) so we went back to hotel for a short rest right after the groceries shopping.

In the evening, we decided to walk around the city.

Sunset by 4.30pm during winter. See how heavy the snowfall was. It was cold and kinda wet.

After some food hunting, we decided to go back to the ramen restaurant just next to the hypermart opposite our hotel for some piping hot food.

Shio yu udon with egg

Udon

Veg tempura

Day 0 - Departure from Singapore

2010-01-24T17:24:00.005+08:00

Departed from Changi Airport, Singapore. Spotted this interesting character while roaming at the airport. He just stood there for quite a while in this pose. Thought he looked like he is modeling for some fashion magazine.. haha

Japan 18 Dec 2009 - 2 Jan 2010

2010-01-24T17:13:00.008+08:00

We travelled to Japan in Dec 2009 and spent 2 weeks covering Yamagata, Hakodate, Sapporo, Otaru, Kyoto and Tokyo.

My favourite place happened to be Yamagata which I had slotted into the itinerary at the last minute to space out the travelling time. :P

Next time I should probably just choose the places to go at random instead of repeating the major cities route. Should be more fun and interesting.. lol

Genting Highland, Malaysia Sept 2009

2009-10-18T01:13:00.006+08:00

The Theme Park - not much changes since my last trip. It's time to upgrade...

Fiery sunrise - I only managed this shot since the sun disappeared behind the clouds literally 2 seconds later and the magic moment was gone

Twilight hour

Strawberry jam with scoups of vanilla ice cream.. yummy ~~~ and not so sweet.

Ah.. my new found fav place there.. Oldtown Cafe. The staff are polite and customer service oriented. We had very nice experience there. I really hope they stay that way :)

I enjoyed it so much that I came back and went to look for its other branches in Singapore. The one in Toa Payoh somehow taste differently. Kinda disappointed. The ice cream wasn't that chilled and I didn't see strawberry chunks in it. The Genting Highland branch is so much nicer!

Rashberry jam with toast.. yummy too!

Classic white coffee

Not much photos taken this time as I was just chilling out and taking it easy there. Am really glad to be back to my hometown after being away for so long :)

New Zealand Dec 2008

2009-03-14T23:59:00.001+08:00

**Updated 14 Mar: I just added some new pix from day 7 - 15 here :P

Taken from the SQ flight just few minutes before descending. Great weather and nice blue sky!

It's a pity we weren't given window seat. I quickly grabbed my cam and rushed to the toilet area window to capture this scene just before it disappears

South Island 17 Dec 2008 - 1 Jan 2009

Day 1 - Short walkabout in Christchurch

2009-03-14T23:55:00.000+08:00

We decided to take a day rest in Christchurch to adjust to the 5 hours time zone difference. We collected our rental car and had late lunch in the city.

The city wasn't as interesting as i thought :P Felt like a toned-down version of Melbourne.

One of the shop front

There were little cloud that day and the sun was blazing hot making it a little difficult to get a decent flower shot :P

Mandatory Rest :)

2009-03-14T23:50:00.000+08:00

We returned to our motel early to rest and relax and to sleep off our 5 hours jet lag. My friend's plan worked and we recuperated quite fast the following day.

Oh btw, I think one of the best way to start adjusting to the time zone is to adjust your watch as soon as you board the plane. That way you can trick your brain into adjusting to the new time everytime you check your watch in the flight.. :P Worked for me :)

Day 2 - Lake Tekapo

2009-03-14T23:45:00.000+08:00

On the first day, weather was blazing hot, but guess what? South Island then poured for the next 2 days. It rained and rained and rained.. I missed the sun in the gloomy days.. lol

We had a good rest the day before and set out to drive to Lake Tekapo. It's about 2 hours relaxing drive from Christchurch.

Church of the Good Shepherd

Another view of the church

A good picnic spot

We drove up to Mt John, well known for its excellent star gazing activities. The location has one of the clearest skies in the world!

But no thanks to the cloudy weather, no chance for us to star gaze tonight... sad..

We drove back down from Mt John and took a walk along Lake Tekapo. What a wet day!

I like the direction of the grasses.. :P The wet weather made this interesting.. :P

We saw a lot of these lupin flowers here. It's colorful and pretty. But I heard that the locals weren't too fond of them :P

I like this bunch too.. looks like it's glowing..

Dead tree trunk. It looked burnt.. i'm assuming someone's trying to make firewood? :P haha..

Btw, Lake Tekapo is famously known for its turqoise colored lake. Interestingly it gets its colour from the rock-flour (ground by glaciers) suspended in the water.

Lake Tekapo YHA

2009-03-14T23:43:00.002+08:00

We found a lot of stones with drawing at the Youth hostel's lounge where we stayed.

I can almost feel the happiness and excitement in the drawings and writings.. :D

Day 3 - Enroute to Mt Cook Village

2009-03-14T23:40:00.000+08:00

Well, the main plan today is to drive to Oamaru, about 2.5 hours away from Lake Tekapo. But I couldn't resist not going to Mt Cook Village. So I squeeze this into our itinerary.. :P

It is STILL raining.... after 2 days.. the fear that i will be shooting nothing but dark, miserable, gloomy and depressing images creeps in.. lol..

After driving in the rain for 2 hours, we know that we are near Mt Cook Village. The weather changes very suddenly. The next minute we know, our inner windscreen started to fog. And then, we could hear mini stones hitting our car. Slowly we realised that it's hail stones! Since it's our first encounter with hail stone, we felt excited and a little scared :P

And then, the amazing thing happened as we drove on. IT STARTED TO SNOW!! In summer! You bet we didn't expect it to snow so heavily in matter of minutes! (In fact, we didn't expect it to snow at all!)

We stopped at the road side to take in the shock.. haha.. there was another car right in front of us doing the same thing. Guess we are not alone in the shock.. lol

The snow got heavier and heavier.. So fun and exciting and scary.. :P

After wiping the snow covered windscreen, we decided to turn back. We weren't sure if the car is condition for snow and it's not funny to take risk.. :P

Another mandatory rest :P

2009-03-14T23:35:00.000+08:00

After checking into our Oamaru motel in the evening, it's still pouring outside.. We didn't feel like getting drenched again, so it's chilled-out-time in the motel with some beer and cheezels.. lol.. sinful.. but yummy ~~~

Day 4 - Moeraki Boulders

2009-03-14T23:30:00.000+08:00

The first thing I did after waking up was to check on the weather outside. Surprise, surprise... the sun came out finally after hiding for 2 days! THANK GOD! lol.. After checking out from our Oamaru motel, we drove to Moeraki Boulders, the naturally rounded shape boulders lying on the beach.

We walked towards the beach and saw this big group of family. I like the lighting and shadow formed at this scene.
The messy stuff on the beach are seaweed. It is unsightly but I read somewhere that many residents choose to leave it alone instead of cleaning it. The seaweed gets washed out to the ocean naturally. Something to do with letting nature run its course :P

Strolling along the beach towards the boulder

We parked too far from the boulder. So it's a bit of walking. I didn't quite mind actually. I was just simply glad that it wasn't raining anymore :P

Along the way, I spotted this father and son pair with their pet dog. I love how they interact. I quietly set my cam to drive mode and fire away...lol..

The first boulder I encountered

I like the sun light, half hidden by the cloud. The boulder shines nicely :)

More boulders.. i thought they looked like some big tortoises back.. lol..

One lone white rock. Does this count? Guess not.. lol

A group of the boulders

By the time i walk to this part of the beach, my jeans are already drenched at the knee level. Too engrossed with the shooting.. haha.. Btw, some of the boulders were cracked. If you noticed, the rock on the far left are part of the cracked boulder.

Continuing our journey

2009-03-14T23:25:00.000+08:00

Before that, we gotta walk back to our car :P Did I mentioned that we parked at the other carpark FAR, FAR away from the boulders?

After exiting at another end of the beach, we saw 3 of these deer-like animals. I'm not sure what they are actually called.. :P

Walking back to our car. It's somewhere near those tiny trees on the far left.. haha.. Looks like we are the only ones taking this route. Guess you can say that we are 'off the beaten track'... lol...

Still walking...

and walking... i can see our car in the form of a tiny specks...

Day 5 - On the way to Lake Te Anau

2009-03-14T23:20:00.000+08:00

We checked out from our motel at Dunedin, it's more of a rest stop here before we drive to Lake Te Anau.

On the way to Lake Te Anau. Can you spot the lone cow? :P

Blue skies and nice sceneries along the way :D

Passing by a bridge at one of the town

More greens..

Lake Te Anau

2009-03-14T23:15:00.001+08:00

After a long drive (about 4 hours from Dunedin), we finally reached Lake Te Anau!

We checked in to the nice resort style motel just next to Lake Te Anau.

After a little unpacking, we took a nice walk around the lake. Wanted to catch a movie featuring Milford Sound.

Some silhouette captured along the way.. :p

Scenic flight packages to Milford Sound can be found here. Dig deep into your pockets.. lol

One of the 'i' information centre that can be found all over NZ

One of the many locations available to take the scenic flight. During the daytime, you can hear a lot of plane buzzing over the lake.. :P Btw, you'll need to prepare about NZ$300 for the ride. In case you are wondering, we didn't take the flight here. We are saving our $ for the heli hike at Franz Josef Glacier later on :)

Btw, if you are interested to take the scenic flight to Milford Sound, a more value for money option would be to take the scenic flight from Lake Wanaka instead. You pay just a little bit more but the flight journey is much longer. (the usual option is to take from Lake Te Anau or from Queenstown but the ride is shorter)

Sunset at Lake Te Anau

2009-03-14T23:05:00.000+08:00

Guess what, the sun sets only at around 9.30pm during summer in NZ! I can take my time to complete the daytime itinerary and yet still have time to slowly take my sunset photos.. lol..

i tried to take photos of the duckies swimming by the lake earlier on.. they ended up looking like little patches of dirt on my photos.. lol..

I shot the photos till 10.50pm... lol.. after that it started to become completely dark and quiet. it freaks me out a little.. lol.. i was surprised that I was the only one shooting despite it being one of the popular sunset location.. :P Luckily our motel is just next to it.. lol.. i can run home in 5 minutes.. haha..

Day 6 - The drive to Milford Sound

2009-03-14T23:00:00.000+08:00

We woke up really early for the drive to Milford Sound. I think I got up at 5.30am or so...zzz

We started the journey at about 7am to catch the 10.30am Nature Cruise. Actually it takes about 2 hours to reach but since we weren't familiar with the route, we didn't wanted to rush too much. We pre-booked the cruise prior to the trip via the internet and had a 10% discount for that :)

Along the way, we stopped at this gorgeous scenery! Low cloud, nice river with lots of pretty lupins! The sighboard says 'Eglinton River' here.

We were expecting the weather to be cloudy and even rain since Milford Sound has the second highest rainfall in the world (after mountains of Tahiti)!

Reaching Milford Sound

2009-03-14T22:55:00.000+08:00

We finally reached Milford Sound at around 9am! We kinda missed some of the stops along the way though :P The weather is so sunny! We thought it would rain since Milford Sound has over 200 rainy days... what are the odd? -_- Actually we wanted it to rain cos' we will then be able to see tonnes of rainbow and mist.. Oh well.. sunny is good for taking pix.. lol

If you are interested to go, I suggest getting one of the pamplets listing the stops along the route. We didn't have one. By the time we see some of the signs, we were just mere seconds away from the stops.. -__-""

I love this place! You'd think that you are in paradise..!

This is the vessel we will be boarding shortly. It looked pretty cool!

Off we go! This LOTR-like scenery appeared before us... *jaw dropping*

The sail was released when we were about to exit the sound as the wind was getting stronger

Sailing back into the Sound once again

Along the way, we saw a few dolphins swimming along our vessel and we also saw some seals resting by some rocks! A rare treat according to our guide. I took video instead, so no photos here.. :P

Another cruise boat passed by us. you can compare the vessel and the mountains to gauge the size of the place. Another group of dolphins were swimming along their boat as well.. :)

Leaving Milford Sound

2009-03-14T22:50:00.000+08:00

I must say that the Milford Sound drive is not easy. In some parts, the road are extremely narrow. And chances are, you will pass by those coach buses at some point. Do drive with extreme care if you plan to go there.

You will definitely pass by Homer tunnel to get to Milford Sound. Interestingly, the traffic lights operates at only a certain hour. I think 9am - 6pm or so. I couldn't quite figure out the rational for this though.

On our way back at the Homer Tunnel entrance, we waited for the traffic light to turn green

Just so you have an idea of how dark it is inside the tunnel

It's almost pitch black. The yellow light source is our headlight. With just minimal lighting for the tunnel, it's a little scary.

ps: I'm just glad that my friend was the one driving..lol..

On the way back to Lake Te Anau

2009-03-14T22:45:00.000+08:00

On the way back, we made a few stops along the way. The afternoon sun was quite unbearable.

A swaying bridge. Not my idea of fun.

A fallen tree truck

Te Anau Glow Worm Cave

2009-03-14T22:40:00.000+08:00

We did a last minute Glow Worm Cave booking. Luckily we managed to book a place! So happy! I wanted to see how the glow worm looks like.. :P the trip was about NZ$60 per person.

On board the cruise to the glow worm cave. The sunset view is a great bonus! :P

We walked along a short path to the cave entrance

Nice pinkiest glow in the background

Unfortunately, no cameras allowed. I kept my cam away. BUT, I came out feeling so happy after seeing the glow worm. It's an out-of-this-world experience. I feel relaxed and weirdly, hynotised.. lol.. btw, the glow worms are very sensitive to noise. So we were not allowed to talk loudly in the cave. Or else, the worms will 'switch off' their lights.. lol... we actually saw the worms doing exactly that when one angmoh uncle kept talking really loud.. -_-"

Out of the cave and back into the cruise to go back

The dock where our cruise is. It was already passed 10pm. So tired after a really long day..

Day 7 - Leaving Lake Te Anau

2009-03-14T22:35:00.000+08:00

It's the day to leave Te Anau. I got up a little earlier than usual, prep myself then walked to the lake to take some morning shots which I haven't been able to do so in the past few days.

I like the soft glowing morning light :)

See the pretty sea of clouds and the reflection

Water flowing into the lake

A lone tree

Ok i'm not sure what these are called. They looked like cotton.... When the wind blew, they flew so gracefully in the air. really cute.

The Kingston Flyer - Vintage Steam Train

2009-03-14T22:30:00.000+08:00

On the way to Queenstown, we passed by a sign that reads 'The Kingston Flyer'.

Judging from the name, I thought it sounded like a bungee jump site. lol... we drove in anyway to have a look. it turned out to be a vintage steam train!

Our timing was perfect as the train was preparing to go off in another 10 min and it only operates twice a day!

this train really has the choo choo train sound.. lol.. very cool ~~~

One final whistle before it pulls off from the small Fairlight station

On the way to Queenstown

2009-03-14T22:25:00.000+08:00

We drove along the hillly, winding road surrounding gorgeous lake Wakatipu towards Queenstown.

Honeycomb

2009-03-14T22:20:00.000+08:00

I bought a bottle of honey with the honeycomb intact.. so interesting.. haha.. it's the first time i see it in this form.

But I tried to chew the honeycomb.. it's kinda hard to swallow.. wonder if people really eat them.. haha..

Walkabout in Queenstown

2009-03-14T22:15:00.001+08:00

After checking into our motel, we decided to take the gondola ride in the evening since the pamplets states that it opens until about 10pm. But by the time we walked there at 9pm, the counter staff told us they will be closing at 9.30pm! There wasn't much time left for photo taking so we decided to take the gondola ride the next day instead.

We then walk to the city centre which is about 5, 10 min away. Btw, Queenstown centre is rather difficult to get parking. So it's wiser to just leave the car at the motel and simply walk about if you are staying near the city. :P

Walking passed the Kiwi Birdlife Park on the way to the Gondola ride station

People chilling out along the waterfront at Lake Wakatipu. And just the right time for me to take my twilight pix! ho ho.. happy...

A small boat sailing across the lake. Look at how gorgeous the sceneries are..! the Kiwis are a lucky bunch of people!

Some shops along the waterfront just before the skies gets completely dark

It was already 10 plus by the time we reach our motel.

Day 8 - Day trip to Glenorchy

2009-03-14T22:10:00.002+08:00

I must admit that we are not the bungee jump, hang glider, speed boat type of typical Queenstown thrill seeker tourist.. lol..

We wanted to explore the nice scenaries surrounding this region and decided to drive to Glenorchy. This was totally not in my initial itinerary but it's one of the best decision we made!

We were up early to prepare for the long drive to Glenorchy. Before that, we walked to the city centre to have breakfast. MacD was the easiest and obvious breakfast option.. lol.. I had Kiwi Big breakfast.. :P

Saw some nice flowers on the way back to pick up our car at the motel

The first gorgeous stopover. I did dipped my legs into the clear lake.. It was chilly ~~~~~

Another stopover.. I must be in heaven!

Weather was getting hotter by the day. But the scenaries were definitely well worth it!

Another wow stop. The heat from the pebble stones really make it rather unbearable. We took a few shots and ran back to our air con car.. lol.

You can see so many nice scenaries in just a few hours of drive! It's really amazing!

Clear lake with nice blue skies and reflection.

Lake Sylvan Walk

2009-03-14T22:05:00.000+08:00

Continuing the drive, we chanced upon this river. Decided to stop for a few minutes to explore the area. The river looks milky.. haha..

Finally we reached our destination, Lake Sylvan Track, about 30 min away from Glenorchy. The track is supposed to be about 45 min but of course we took longer to take pix along the way.. hehe..

The sign tell us to follow the orange arrow. We did. I feel like we are hansel and gretel following the breadcrumb for direction.. lol.. it was pretty fun and I was really glad to walk under the thick shade of trees. So much cooler!!!

Doesn't the trees look like they are going to fight? :P I guess its partly true. They are fighting for their survival.. :P

Cute dried up leaves

Passing along a mini bridge

A nice cool stream

Spotted a smiley face among the trees.. lol

These furry plants looked like part of a soft toy.. lol

Rest stop

2009-03-14T22:04:00.000+08:00

After the long 2 hours track, we stopover at a small town for a short rest.

Next to the jetty, there's this big tree with lots of branch. From this angle, I thought I could see the shape of an elephant.. lol..

It's a nice day to take pix.

Gondola ride

2009-03-14T22:00:00.000+08:00

It was already late noon by the time we drive back to Queenstown from Glenorchy. We had early dinner (actually late lunch :P) at a Thai restaurant in the city.

It was Christmas eve and we could see people walking about in celebration mood. Stores are starting to close for the Christmas holidays.

After the meal, we went to take the Gondola ride that we missed the previous day.

By the time we reach the top, the weather turned really gloomy..

Dark clouds forming to end the sunny weather in Queenstown

Spreading the joy of Christmas ^^

2009-03-14T21:55:00.000+08:00

When we got back to our motel, we found a nice little gift with handwritten note on the table :D

Day 9 - Toast and Soup for Breakfast :D

2009-03-14T21:50:00.000+08:00

No coffee table in the room. So breakfast on the bed.. haha.. luckily the soup didn't topple over..

Queenstown to Wanaka via The Crown Range

2009-03-14T21:45:00.000+08:00

There are 2 ways to get to Wanaka from Queenstown. Most people will just look at the map and go via the main expressway (running beside Shotover River, Lake Dunstan and the Clutha River). Another option will be via the Crown Range road which at about 1100m, it's the highest main road in NZ!

We decided to take the second option. The drive along this route is at times narrow but promises amazing views. So take extra care if you decided to choose this option.

And again, i'm glad I was not the one at the wheel.. lol...

The weather was still gloomy as it was the previous evening

Take note of the signs for stopover. You could easily miss it if you drive too fast.

Lake Wanaka

2009-03-14T21:40:00.001+08:00

After about 2, 3 hours of drive, we reached Lake Wanaka.

We didn't even realised that we have reach our destination. We were looking at our map trying to figure out which town was this until we see a big Wanaka signboard.. lol.. so blur.

Big bunch of flowers right outside our motel

The motel owner recommended a few place to walk about along Lake Wanaka so we took the map to drove to a few of the marked spots.. :D

This town is quieter compared to Queenstown so it's rather nice to chill out here.

We parked our car nearby and started the little exploration around Lake Wanaka

The weather is still gloomy but at least it's not raining.. :D

A DIY swing from tree branch. Not too comfortable play with according to my fren.. :P

A slab of stone in the lake

We saw 2 rowers passing by. I waved to them as one of them turn and looked at us snapping away at them. The guy at the back waved back.. lol..

Some wild flowers along the way

I like these mini bunch of flowers!

I like how this tree growing along the walking route..

Some houses inside the 'park'. Acccording to the guidebook and the motel owner, these are some really expensive properties.. :P We saw one helicopter parked somewhere along the route.

We didn't know how long the walk will take, so we decided to turn back :P

The walk is relatively easy and quite enjoyable. These looks like sakura.. lol looked so sweet

These looked like part of a world map.. lol

We then drove to the west part of Lake Wanaka. Yellow lupins with Lake Wanaka as the backdrop

Back to centre part of the lake. Earlier on, we saw someone swimming in the freezing lake -_-" A lot of people were staring at the 2 young lady swimmers. Can't imagine how they can do that. So cold ~~

Lake Wanaka is growing to be a tamer version of Queenstown. You can enjoy some nice watersports here as well

Day 10 - Leaving Wanaka for Franz Josef Glacier

2009-03-14T21:35:00.001+08:00

Rise and Shine! We are leaving Wanaka today for Franz Josef Glacier!

Simple breakfast. Digestive biscuits + Milo

I like these bright looking boat by the lake

Skies cleared up for the day in Lake Wanaka

We stopover along the way to admire the view

After a few hours long drive, the weather started to turn gloomy again.

We decided to visit Fox Glacier before our destination. Went to have late lunch at Lake Matheson Cafe. Wet wet day. We couldn't see Mt Cook from here at all.. Such a disappointment. :S On top of that, the pizza lunch wasn't memorable either. Maybe breakfast is a better option here.

Day 11 - Heli hike at Franz Josef Glasier!!

2009-03-14T21:30:00.001+08:00

The highlight of this entire trip has finally come! It's the day of our heli hike trip to the glacier!!!

The heli hike cost about NZ$ 300 combining 15 min helicopter trip plus about 2hours of hiking on the glacier.

I suggest that you plan at least two days here. Go for the hike as soon as the weather allows. A lot of the times, the trip will be cancelled due to the bad weather.

Gearing up. One advice if you do go for the hike. You don't have to wear overly thick clothing cos you will be sweating a lot during the hike and you might even feel very warm.. lol.. . And don't wear jeans, as the ice will wet your jeans and make it difficult for you to walk. The guide will request that you change into the provided pants if you do so anyway.

Inside the helicopter. It can take about 6 passengers

The sun is peeping through the clouds. Thank goodness as it was pouring non stop the previous day :D

The guide gave a short training before we start our hike. He jokingly tell us that the glacier is his office.. lol.. And notice that the guide is wearing shorts? lol..

And the hike begins. I must be the only crazy nuts who keep taking pix along the way. Most of other people are focusing on their walk.. lol

Ice formation

Ice melting

Another pool of melted ice

We are required to wear crampons to walk on the glaciers. The ski poles helped to balance when walking especially the slopes

The ice formation is so cool ~~

Taking a short break. Our guide doesn't seem to have much patience to wait for the rest of the group.. :P

Nice shapes of ice along the route

The guide will help to clear the ice for us to walk more easily. Some parts are really tricky especially since we are not used to walking on the ice.

About an hour or so into the hike. We began to sweat profusedly.. haha.. i was even wearing a thick jacket inside.. lol.. silly me..

See how fast the guide walks.. -___-""

Walking Back down the smoother glacier track

Don't they look like they are marching in one line? lol..

We are following the path that the guide walks on very closely.. lol

This is one of the tricky part..

Compare the man and the grand vista behind to give you a sense of the scale..

Another break.. to my relief.. haha..

The scariest part is this ice 'cave' (i'm not sure what's the correct term). It's narrow and very slippery.. For those with claustrophobia, might be a good idea to be behind the line instead.. :P

Glad to be out of the cave

Others are enjoying while we struggle to climb out of the cave.... haha

Near the end of the hike

A little bit more.. i can't wait to remove my thick jacket.. IT'S SO WARM..

Waiting for our helicopter to bring us back down

First group leaving while we wait

You should be reasonably fit for the hike as it could get a little tiring after an hour of walk in crampons. It's not too bad as it sounds actually. Use the trekking poles provided as it could help you balance a lot easier.

Overall i find this trip well worth the money spent and it's very memorable.

On the other hand, you can really feel the effect of global warming right here. The glacier is receding so fast that it's really scary to think what's going to happen to them in a few years time.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Day 11 - Leaving Franz Josef Glacier

2009-03-14T21:25:00.005+08:00

We checked out from our motel and headed to Fox Glacier. Hoping to see if we could see Mt Cook (again...)

Argh.. it's still very cloudy.. I can't believe our luck. Our 3rd failed attempt to glimpse the Mt.

See the interesting cloud formation at on our way to Lake Matheson

We stopped at Lake Matheson passing by Matheson Cafe.. I still remember the yucky pizza i had.. lol

Walking along the lake

This is where we are suppose to be able to see Mt Cook with a nice mirror reflection of it... but argh.. bad weather again!

Look at these cute little leaves.. lol.. so pretty

This looks like some fake copper like decor.. lol

Another tiny plants.. they look like little hats.. lol

Walking back to get our car

Fox Glacier

2009-03-14T21:20:00.003+08:00

We went to visit the Fox Glacier to see if it's any different from Franz Josef Glacier.

The glacier retreated quite a lot as well. We had to walk all the way in to see it.

Crossing a little stream.

Another photog taking pix of the glacier

Walking back to our car.. as you can see, it retreated quite a far bit after all these years. It used to be at the car park. Now, it's really quite a distance from the car park.. -___-

Saw these 2 pool with different color of cyan and turqoise.

Back to Franz Josef Glacier

2009-03-14T21:15:00.003+08:00

We drove back to Franz Josef Glacier for late lunch since it's on the way to Greymouth. The motel here reminded me of those atap houses we see in Malaysia.. simple kampung lifestyle.. :P