Travel, Technology, Thoughts
Between the trips to Boracay and Batangas I spent a few days in Manila.
The first was spent in the very modern area around Makati. With the exception of the Jeepney this could be any city in the world.
A second day was spent exploring the history of Manila by visiting the Rizal monument, Intramuros and Fort Santiago.
The third and final day was spent in Chinatown
During all three days plenty of local food was enjoyed.
Before an overnight flight back to Sydney landing just before dawn.
I was fortunate to visit a number of small towns around the Taal Lake.
My first stop was the Caleruega Church
We had lunch overlooking Taal Volcano – not realising at the time it was emitting a lot of volcanic smog.
In June 2023 I travelled to the Philippines.
Our first stop was a few days visiting the island paradise of Boracay.
The trip started with a very early departure from Manila to Caticlan and then a boat ride across the channel to Boracay.
In April 2023 I did a Road Trip from Auckland across both coasts of the Northland Region.
Below is a photo essay of the many tourist sites we visited. A particular highlight was going to Cape Reinga.
At the start of January, I did a four day road trip from Sydney to the Gold Coast.
We drove up the Pacific Highway over two days (staying overnight at Grafton), spent a day in the Gold Coast, and then drove back to Sydney via the New England Highway in one very long day.
My first trip out of Australia into a post-Covid world was in April 2022 when I went to Singapore for a few days.
As this was still a time when world-wide travel was still recovering, the usually busy city was remarkably quiet.
One of the things I enjoy the most about Singapore is the mixture of culture, especially the expression of this in the architecture of the city.
And the diverse food – German style burgers, Filipino fast-food, and high-end Japanese.
I also did the usual Tourist spots
And shopping, from markets to malls
While also admiring the way blank walls, and carparks are turned into art.
And finally, how the train takes a subtile dig at loud Aussies
During the 2021 Christmas Break, I headed on a road trip from Sydney to Melbourne.
To get to Melbourne we followed the Princes Highway along the coast of NSW and Victoria.
To get back to Sydney we drove up the inland Hume Highway.
Along the way we visited many small towns and enjoyed our first trip out of NSW in two years.
I only have brief notes for our final two days in Japan.
They consist of three things:
1. Food (Ramen, Chocolate Factory, and the Sapporo Beer Museum)
2. Shopping
3. “Getting lost”
We then flew back to Sydney, where we went from freezing winter back to summer bushfires.
At the time we had no idea it would be our last overseas trip for more than three years.
The day we left Niseko was an extremely cold -14c and very icy. When leaving our accomodation I immediately slipped over on the ice. Fortunately I wasn’t too hurt and we didn’t have to wait long in the cold for the bus to Sapporo.
The bus ran from the mountains of Niseko through to the northern coast of Hokkaido island and then inland again to the city of Sapporo. While reading my guidebook, along the way, we decided to get off early at a fishing town called Otaru, where we had some excellent fresh fish and seafood for lunch.
After wandering around Otaru, we the caught a train to Saporro. Our accomodation in Saporro was a traditional Japanese Ryokan inside a modern apartment/office building. Where we were welcomed into our room with a traditional tea ceremony. Overall it was a great experience and something that was certainly different to places I’ve stayed before.
The planning of our trip was very last minute, in fact, we didn’t book our accommodation in Niseko until we were already in Tokyo for a few days.
Because of this lack of forward planning, we ended up staying in a small village called Annupuri, which my guidebook did point out was an area with less tourists and more locals.
As it turned out, our stay in Annupuri was fantastic. The hostel where we stayed was family run, with a fresh cooked breakfast each morning, and a very friendly host who we communicated with through a very well thoughtout flip chart of common questions he gets asked.
For our first day of skiing we caught a bus to the Grand Hirafu ski area, as we had booked ski lessons in English for my wife. While my wife learnt to ski, I ventured up the mountain and very quickly discovered a mix of both ice and powder.
One thing that was particuarly different about skiing in Australia is the “expert” runs would be similar to a blue run in Australia, except they had not been groomed. I very much prefered this style of run.
On our second day of skiing we decided to ski at the Annupuri resort. Overall both days skiing was excellent and I would love to return to ski more.
