Waking up to a slight snowfall in Nikko, I was happy to move on to Hakone, hoping it would be slightly warmer there. From Nikko we took a taxi, a local train, two bullet trains, a local bus, a pirate ship and finally another local bus to get to our destination of Hakone. We were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji both on the train and on the Pirate ship. It was an almost clear day so most of Mt Fuji was in view. Due to the cold weather she looked stunning with just a nice sprinkle of sweet sugar on her. At our lovely Guesthouse we were greeted by the two friendly owners, who gave us the rules of the house then one sat down to show us how make a bird ... read more

Tokyo ! Population 12 million, vending machines 6 million. A city, where not all ATMs are 24 hours, yet most convenience stores are. You can’t smoke on most footpaths, yet you can cycle on them. To cross the road everyone waits when they see the little red man, when he turns green he is accompanied by a chirruping bird sound for the blind. In a city that invents and makes most electrical goods, mobile phones here are super size and flip top. They are everywhere and are even work on the Metro (in the silent mode of course). Getting around the metro I thought would be really hard, but luckily all the directions and signs are bilingual (Japanese/ English), so it makes it very easy to navigate. Although I found it really strange being the only ... read more

Design your dream dress with a dressmaker. There’s a sign when you entering Hoi An, saying that the old town is an UNESCO sight, what the sign fails to mention is that it is also a shopping Mecca with every street lined with tailor shops, totalling over a 100 shops. So here’s my story. After arriving into Hoi An we went for a lovely lunch in the Cargo bar, which had a picturesque setting overlooking the river. Feeling stuffed from lunch, all I wanted to do was walk off my food, but we only walked a few hundred meters to Anna’s tailor shop. I sat down and flicked through the catalogues not really looking at them, since I didn’t have any intention to buy anything. Some of the group already had planned to buy suits for ... read more

Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam with approx 5 million inhabitants, the same population as the whole of Ireland, was where we spent 3 days. 5 million is a lot of people, and to me is feels like they all have motorbikes! As that is my lasting impression of Hanoi, motorbikes. From the moment you wake up in the morning all you can hear is the constant beeeeeeping, all day long. I think the city is made for bikes and not people, really. There are two story motorbike parks, all the streets have ramps so you can push your bike on the footpath, some buildings even have ramps so you can bring your motorbike inside. I don’t even know why they have footpaths at all, cos there not for feet, they are for wheels. Walking along in ... read more

To Vietnam we go! Day 12, the 11 October 2009 is for me an historic day. I’m 29 years old and I am lucky enough to have been to all 7 continents and today I was going to visit my 50 country. 50 countries by the age of 30. Naturally crossing over the border from Laos to Vietnam I took a photo to mark this momentous occasion. My dream was always to see 50 countries by the age of 30. Other people have dreams of becoming a millionaire by the age of 30. Luckily I was able to become both, without even trying for the latter. Exchanging $150 dollars at the boarder I become an instant multi millionaire, as i was the owner of 2.2million Dong, yes you read right 2,200,000 !! We spent all day ... read more