Sunday, 11th August 2019 After breakfast, we headed to the Sunday Market (Medan Niaga Satok) for some shopping opportunities. Since it was a holiday when we visited, closed to 70 percent of the stalls were not opened for business. Nevertheless, we found ways to entertain ourselves by posing plenty of wacky shots by the Sarawak River. We were back in the city centre by lunchtime. Starting from the atmospheric Old Courthouse building, we made our way to the Carpenter Street where there is a popular satay stall within the airy Lau Ya Keng Foodcourt. There were also other Sarawak staples - Kolo Mee and Laksa to fill our hungry stomachs. After lunch, the group of us headed for drinks at the Granary Cafe to cool down from the heat. It was free and easy for the ... read more

Friday, 9th August 2019 And so here we are on our annual MC retreat to the state capital of Sarawak with some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. About 40 of us assembled at the airport on National Day 2019 for our flight to Kuching. In fact, some of us had met earlier for an exclusive tour of Jewel Changi Airport as well as complimentary admission to the Canopy Park. Our plane departed from Terminal 4 and it was already quite late by the time we reached our accommodation at M Hotels in the city. After checking-in and feeling a little bit peckish, a group of us decided to walk to the nearby ICOM Square for some bubble tea and supper before heading to bed. It was quite late by the ... read more

Saturday, 29th June 2019 Before heading to Hiroshima in the afternoon, I made a brief stop at the town of Tatsuno. This is home to Japan's only Soy Sauce Museum. Access to Tatsuno is relatively straight forward with frequent trains departing from Himeji throughout the day. Getting to the museum from the train station included a brief 25 minutes walk along the old town thoroughfare complete with a bridge crossing. Housed within an atmospheric brick building dating back from the previous century, the museum charged a symbolic 10 yen entry fee and it was manned by a really friendly elderly lady. I probably spent about 30 minutes in the cosy museum and there were some English translations available for non-Japanese speakers like me. The weather was unforgiving when my train pulled into JR Hiroshima Station for ... read more

Friday, 28th June 2019 I headed to the city of Takamatsu on the eastern end of Shikoku island this morning. This is as far as my railway pass could take me given that I had only purchased the limited Sanyo-San'in Area Pass rather than the all Japan Rail Pass. Along the way, I was treated to a memorable train ride onboard the Marine Liner as it travelled on the Iwakurojima Bridge across the Seto Inland Sea which is dotted by beautiful islands. Takamatsu Train Station that greeted me was relatively crowd-free as I continued my journey to Yashima, the city's "rooftop" overlooking the Seto Inland Sea. Getting to Yashima is via the cutesy Sanjo Shuttle Bus that makes an hourly run to the summit. The bus dropped me at a huge carpark area next to a ... read more

Wednesday, 26th June 2019 My second half of the day was spent onboard the Nozomi N700 Shinkansen services to the city of Himeji, some 455km away on the island of Honshu. It was amazing that the journey only took slightly less than two hours to complete. The Japanese bento lunch box that I had onboard was a good mix of seaweed, eggs and minced pork which tasted great as usual. By 5.49pm, my train had pulled into Himeji Station where Dormy Inn was another 5 minutes' walk away from the South Exit. I am always excited to stay at Dormy Inn with its in-house onsen facilities as well as complimentary ramen in the evenings. Also, I noticed that the room is normally more spacious than the standard business hotel rooms in Japan. Himeji made an ideal ... read more