Tokyo is an insane city. It’s fascinating from start to finish, noisy and chaotic, futuristic, colourful and creative, but I didn’t warm to it as much as I thought I would. As we departed the Hilton Hotel in the heat and made our way on the courtesy bus to Shinjuku station on the next step…
Category: Asia
Exploring Tokyo’s gardens
Tokyo may be one of the biggest cities in the world, full of gleaming towers and urban sprawl, but it also has many glorious gardens. And the best Japanese gardens are, without doubt, among the best gardens to be found anywhere in the world. They’re designed to reflect the natural landscape and the spirituality of…
Touring historic Tokyo
Japan is notorious for its earthquakes and I’d wondered several times, with varying degrees of apprehension, what would happen if one struck during our stay – especially at night while we slept high up in a hotel tower block. We finally experienced one during a visit to a historic site in Tokyo. Or rather everyone but me…
A shrine and the bright lights of Shibuya in Tokyo
We’d always known that Japan was going to be a cultural and linguistic challenge for a pair of Englishmen. And while we’d end up bemused by much in Tokyo during our first full day of exploring the city, at least we could go to breakfast in our Hilton Hotel confident that we’d conquered the punishing jet…
Japan: Narita, Tokyo and a dreadful case of jet lag
Flying from Heathrow to Tokyo’s Narita airport is tough. It means 11 hours stuck in a metal tube with minimal exercise and aircraft air-con, which always leaves me feeling as if every last drop of moisture has been sucked out of my body. But at least we had a better experience than most. Thanks to…
Istanbul: A day in Yildiz Park and Ortakoi, and sailing on the Bosphorus
Istanbul is a city of Imperial Ottoman splendour with its fair share of handsome mansions, among them the waterfront Dolmabahce Palace. But when we arrived for a visit on the tram at nearby Kabatas, disappointment lurked in the form of a long, long and slow-moving queue at the palace ticket office. Pained by sunburn and…
A journey of discovery at Hong Kong’s history museum
Hong Kong’s Museum of History is a fantastic place to spend a couple of hours, learn about the territory’s past and kill time before the flight back home. It was our last day in the city, and one that dawned with us suffering the after effects of a marathon drinking session the night before. Fortunately the museum…
Hong Kong’s heritage in the New Territories
It would be easy to spend a holiday in Hong Kong and not venture beyond the Island or neighbouring Kowloon, but our Lonely Planet guide suggested a walk in the New Territories that would take us back in time. Half an hour away from our hotel on the efficient MTR railway lies the modern station…
A date with Buddha on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island
There are things I don’t miss about Hong Kong and one of them is queueing. In a city of so many people – residents and tourists – waiting your turn is a frustrating part of everyday life, and we faced some seriously monster queues during our visit to Lantau Island. We were going to see its…
Hong Kong Central and the Happy Valley races
An evening of horse racing at Happy Valley is a Hong Kong tradition and one that we, as 10th-rate gamblers, couldn’t resist. On a Wednesday nights, the course is the place to be in town and tens of thousands of locals, ex-pats and tourists flock there for a flutter, a drink and to be seen….
Hong Kong: Kowloon, from top to bottom
It would be a day of striking contrasts – of beautiful gardens and choked and dirty streets, of seclusion and overwhelming crowds. But that’s probably like every day in Kowloon. After several days exploring the islands of Hong Kong, it was time to stick to the mainland so in the morning we took the metro…
A day exploring Hong Kong’s Lamma Island
Hong Kong is a territory made up of more than 200 islands and we were keen to take a hike across one of its most popular, Lamma. That meant we needed fuel, which was provided courtesy of an excellent breakfast at the Hotel Icon. Throughout our stay we found the food to be delicious, fresh and…
A day out on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong
Strange dreams. A restless night. A raging thirst. Drinking too many cocktails on our first day in Hong Kong had taken its toll on me. Graham had it worse, lying awake for three hours, which meant jet lag was still punishing us several days after landing in the Far East. Fresh from our stay in…
Discovering Macau, by day and night
Beyond the casinos and glitz of the Cotai Strip lies the real Macau, with its colours and sounds, its smells and sights. It was in this real Macau that we discovered the territory’s people, its history and culture. We’d woken on our second day in the city to brilliant sunshine and it was tempting to…
Macau – Portugese heritage and fancy casinos
The Macau we discovered on our first night in the city is modern, glitzy and built for tourists, lined with hotels and casinos. Known as the Cotai Strip, it’s in stark contrast to the historic, atmospheric old town. That old town has elegant, colourful Portugese influences from colonial times, while its streets are crowded with…