A visit to the onsen is a way of life for many Japanese but can amount to torture for the rest of us. It’s like being boiled alive with no clothes on and we’re just not used to it. With thousands of hot springs across the county, it’s no surprise that locals regularly take a…
Category: Asia
Kanazawa – a captivating garden and historic streets
Located in the north-western Ishikawa Prefecture on the island of Honshu in Japan, Kanazawa is a modest city of exceptional gardens, historic geisha and samurai districts and buzzing nightlife. It was my favourite stop on our 2025 Japanese tour. It had long been my plan to visit – even as far back as our first…
Nara – a mind-blowing temple and too many deer
Nara has many claims to fame. It was Japan’s first permanent capital, has one of the largest wooden buildings in the world, boasts a world-class collection of temples and shrines, and is home to large numbers of semi-tame deer. It’s an easy day trip from Osaka by train and a popular stop on the tourist…
Osaka – crowds, colour and an epic castle
Brash, high-rise, colourful and often chaotic, Osaka is a serious rival to Tokyo in the big city stakes and the third largest in Japan. And like the capital, it has some distinctive neighbourhoods with character all their own. The district we called home during our stay, Umeda, is a tangled web of soaring office blocks,…
Miyajima, an island of temples and shrines
Less than an hour across the bay from Hiroshima lies the island of Itsukushima, better known to tourists as Miyajima. The star attraction is a giant red torii gate at the entrance to the Itsukushima Shrine, both of which appear to float on the sea at high tide. It’s an easy, 45-minute journey from the…
Hiroshima and its legacy
The reason so many of us travel to Hiroshima is obvious – to witness the site where the world’s first atomic bomb was exploded in anger. Around 70,000 people died instantly when it was dropped on 6 August 1945, many thousands more followed in the years after. On our first night in the city after…
Tokyo – a return to Japan
It was in 2015 that we first visited Japan, and both of us fell in love with the country and its people, its weird contradictions, beautiful temples and fantastic food. We knew we’d return one day but our plans fell through in 2020 thanks to Covid-19 and lockdown. We finally made it back in the…
Impressions of India
India is not an easy country to visit. It’s a land with some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, yet its towns and cities can be eyesores. It’s rich in magical experiences but awash with the most terrible poverty. It fascinates and appals at the same time. No wonder I approached our two…
Udaipur, lakes and lavish palaces
The lakeside city of Udaipur has one of the most beautiful settings in all of India, nestled among the hills and waterways of the Aravalli Range. With its glorious, dream-like palaces and magical sunsets, it was perhaps inevitable that it would one day be featured in a James Bond film. And sure enough, back in…
Ranakpur and an Indian road trip
It goes without saying that India is vast. Travelling from one city to another involves hours and hours of travel, with lots of hassle thrown in. By the time we’d settled into our second week we’d travelled by plane and train, so it was time for the automobile to take a bow. Hiring a driver…
Exploring Jodhpur’s mighty Mehrangarh Fort
Set on a massive volcanic outcrop 400ft above the city of Jodhpur, Mehrangarh Fort is unmissable. It’s one of India’s greatest monuments, an imposing complex of palaces and fortifications that would’ve impressed and intimidated the friends and enemies of the ruling family. It was built in the 15th century by Rao Jodha, the then ruler…
Jodhpur – Rajasthan’s jewel of a city
Jodhpur is the fabled blue city of Rajasthan, its skyline dominated by the mighty fortress of Mehrangarh. After the chaos of Delhi and Agra, it offered a slower pace of life, warmer climes, fascinating history and a friendly vibe. Of all the cities we visited in India in 2019, Jodhpur was my favourite. We flew…
A trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal
Agra is dirty, full of litter and shambolic, yet it’s home to the world’s most beautiful building – the Taj Mahal – and a spectacular Mughal-era fort. We couldn’t go all the way to India and not visit Shah Jahan’s monument to love but we almost didn’t make it because our Graham woke on the…
The temples and gardens of New Delhi
Delhi assaults the senses. It’s polluted, noisy, smelly and can look as rough as fuck but just when you think you can’t take it anymore, there are glorious gardens and majestic temples that restore one’s faith in the city. Many are in the districts to the south of the historic centre, in New Delhi, Mehrauli…
The drama of Old Delhi
The New Delhi of British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker is green and orderly, with wide boulevards, Raj-era government buildings and substantial colonial bungalows. It couldn’t be more different to historic Old Delhi. Situated just a few miles north of the showpiece architecture of the Raj, Old Delhi was built on the orders of…