Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong was a bittersweet stop being our last Asian destination (for now). The city was a huge metropolis where we enjoyed the unique blend of British and Asian influences and and lots of dim sum.
Hong Kong was a bittersweet stop being our last Asian destination (for now). The city was a huge metropolis where we enjoyed the unique blend of British and Asian influences and and lots of dim sum.
Hiroshima is known for its historic destruction during WWII. The city has once again become a bustling metropolis, but it is also a place of remembrance. Hiroshima has developed its own, new legacy by promoting worldwide peace and education of the repercussions of war. While in Hiroshima, we also took a day to visit another world heritage site, the Itsukushima Shrine and its famous watery torii gate.
Usually done as a day trip from Kyoto, visitors travel to Nara to see ancient temples deemed a world heritage site, Big Buddha, and the free roaming deer.
Before coming to Japan, we heard countless times to make sure to spend a few days exploring the ancient capital of Kyoto and its thousands of picturesque temples scattered across the city.
Often while traveling we discover that we are a day too early or too late for a special event in a given city. By luck, our visit to Takayama coincided with the two-day Spring Festival, which is considered one of the most beautiful festivals in Japan.
We continued our adventure through Japan by getting some hotel rooms in the middle of Tokyo, ideally positioned for checking out all that this humungous city has to offer.
Yokosuka is best known throughout Japan for having a large American Naval Base. For us, Yokosuka was a place to visit our friends for a wonderful introduction to Japan, where we would be spending the next three weeks.
Bagan is one of the few places we’ve visited that lived up to its reputation. There is something surreal about bike riding down a dusty path and coming across forgotten temples which you can explore. The first temple we stopped at had a hidden stairway to the upper levels where we were given an amazing…
Limits to visitors into the country until recently have kept Yangon more traditional than its counterparts in other Southeast Asian countries. The city is large and crowded, but locals dress in traditional longyis and thanaka. Street food is plentiful and small tearooms spills out onto the street while there is a refreshing lack of chain…
Not wanting to miss seeing one of our great friends who was traveling through Southeast Asia, we caught up with him in Chiang Mai. Despite fond memories from a prior trip to Chiang Mai, this time through the region was a different experience as we had the privilege of tagging along with our friend and…