Blogs from Asia - page 14919

The next day after coming back from Noashima, we decided to catch a Ferry across to Kobe as the ferry's from Takamatsu were much cheaper than any of the trains. With some time to kill in the morning, we first decided to check out Takamatsu's garden. I'm really glad we did as it has been my favourite garden so far. It was a lot bigger at more open than any other garden I've been to, and there are beautiful bridges and mountain backdrops. There are also masses of fish in the garden ponds who will swim up to you hoping for food. Not the best survial technique in the wild, but the kids love them. Anyway, for those who know of my legendary sea sickness I actually handled the four hour ferry pretty well. The ferry ... read more

Cherry blossoms in Japan are a big deal because they only flower for a couple of weeks each year, so Amy and I went for a drive around Shizuoka to do some cherry blossom viewing! We went to a park fairly close to our house, then to Nihondaira where there was a huge park and nice views of Mt Fuji.... read more

Osaka is a bit like I'd imagined Tokyo would be. It's a tangle of flyovers, buildings, subterranean malls, neon, arcades and the occasional castle. You can quite easily spend a whole day lost underground. Anyway, we tried shopping but we're pretty rubbish at it and failed to get anything despite walking down a couple of the longest shopping arcades in Japan ( each around 2.5km of covered shops all in a row ). We briefly looked at the castle ( yawn ) and we went to the waterfront where we got very scared on what they almost dare to claim is the world's largest big wheel which did provide a very good view.... read more

Couldn't resist... what a good song! classic. Anyways... the bus ride (dun dun dun)... the one evvveryone has horror-stories about - actually wasn't as bad as we thought. After we crossed the border to Cambodia, we switched to a small bus. The road was unpaved, bumpy, and full of potholes... you couldn't read a book, or fall asleep, and it was so loud that iPods could barely tune out the motor-sounds... but it was fun! A great ride... totally okay. Our driver told us how the government has promised to fix this road since the nineties. Hasn't happened yet! But it was a GORGEOUS ride... red (not orange!) dirt roads, fields going on for miles, little stilt houses and villages at the side of the road... great lighting at the time. And we drove by so ... read more

I originally intended to spend four days on Kao Tao Island but I ended up staying ten. I spent most of that time scuba diving, all round the island were isolated reefs, each unique and teeming with life, after my open water course I felt I had not seen enough of what the island had to offer. Two of the most memorable dives were the night and deep dives which were both part of the advanced diving course. On the night dive the boat arrived at dusk & we jumped straight in, being underwater at night is a vastly different experience from diving at day, you can only see what you point your torch at & the predators all come out. Swimming all around us were Giant Barracuda which swam incredibly fast, the best game we ... read more