Hong Kong and Jeju in 7 days

May 6, 2019

Friday April 26, 2019 is the day I board CX138 for a quick journey to meet friends and family.

First stop was Hong Kong. I ended up landing early in the morning on Saturday 27th at 6am. Picked up by my cousin, and told to freshen up before heading out to watch some football in Hong Kong. An experience that I was surprised by.

Football is played on a concrete pitch must like that of an outdoor tennis court. Some skin definitely left on these pitches.

The rain settled in late in the day and it was time to check in at Hotel Vic in North Point. No sponsors here in this blog so it’s all genuine opinions, but this place is a nice place to stay if you get a good price, gym and pool are nice. Unfortunately I missed out on happy hour and didn’t get to experience drinking upstairs.

My first bowl of wonton on arrival, during a short break in the football

View from the Hotel Vic rooftop infinity pool

Early evening after dinner. Slept in and then headed off to use the gym. Enough equipment to do some upper body work as the plan today was to do my first hike in Hong Kong. The hike of Dragon Back was something I was looking forward to ever since booking the trip. As the trip got close the weather wasn’t promising. Though the day was cloudy but cool, conducive to hiking not so for photography.

Going for brunch before hiking and walked past the wet market on Java Street in North Point

Not a bad coffee for Hong Kong standards

Wonton mein .. different restaurant different day

Beef brisket noodles .. thought I’d get hungry hiking

Start of our 2.5hr journey which really was less than 2hrs if I didn’t stuff up my drone shots

Pretty much reached the summit. The uphill is a short climb, now the down hill to the beach

Hmm .. blowing pretty hard .. 137bpm ..hmmm

The asteroid drone shot didn’t work out, too windy too cloudy so here is an iPhone shot instead

Made it. My first hike ever in HK and well it’s been forever since my last hike !!

Not a nudist beach and it’s getting too late to go for a swim so it’s time to head back

This stop over in HK was something of a must do mini adventure. I’ve been told numerous times by friends and family to try the scones at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong @ Cafe Causette. I decided to fit this in on the last day of my short stay in HK, after using the Airport Express checkin I mate the short walk over to the Mandarin Oriental. I must say the scone is definitely tasty and something that should not be missed for those who like a bit of afternoon tea.

Haha gotcha .. I couldn’t resist by putting my Cafe de’ Coral go to breakfast

Got there early so tried a Sausage Roll… scones are served at 3pm but you gotta be quick to order

Now the scone, well it’s a must again irrespective of cost and calories, just make sure you use all the jam

Cathay Pacific changed their flight schedules to Jeju Island and I was stuck on options to get to Jeju Island, the island reminds me of Okinawa with the food produce. The fruit is also desirable with all that volcanic soil which makes up the island. I have been to Jeju previously and decided to make another stop to this island south of South Korea.

Wonton and beef brisket at the airport for dinner.. I guess you know what I like to eat?

I decided to take China Eastern Airlines but this meant that a transfer in Shanghai PVG. After reading some travel forums there was a lot of discussion as to what I had to do. If anyone reads this because they are travelling like me, I went from HK to Shanghai PVG to Jeju Island. The flight was in the evening at 9pm from Hong Kong. At Airport Express I was only provided a boarding pass to Shanghai PVG. In Hong Kong I was told I will need to get a boarding pass in Shanghai.

When landing in Shanghai i had to go through customs and went through the 24 hour temporary visa queue. Proceeded to collect my bags and then work my way back to the arrivals counter. This was about midnight. Managed to find the business class lounge open for China Eastern Airlines. They told me they would not be able to issue a boarding pass till 6am. I had to make a decision to check in to an airport hotel or just bunker down in the airport which appeared I would definitely not be alone with many customers left stranded in transit.

Tunnelbear VPN worked in Shanghai arrivals before customs, great way to kill time by catching up on the F1

Come 6am on the Tuesday 30th April I went to the self service kiosk and was able to get my boarding pass to head to Jeju. Went through immigration early and then went to grab some breakfast and waited patiently till 9am to board my flight to Jeju.

Coffee in Shanghai after passing customs

Xiao long bao and coffee set me back 20AUD

Patiently waiting to leave Shanghai.. just a little early to arrive at the departure gate

Made it to Jeju hence no wonton for lunch !! Bolgogi it is !! Airport food waiting for my ride

Staying in the Dyne Oceano Hotel situated in Aewol in Jeju Island. Roof top pool and bar. It’s about 30mins from the airport by car.

Nice pool.. did have it to myself for 30mins

House rules point 6 for the gym meant i was pulled out.. Apparently not intoxicated enough

The stay in Jeju was more for the food and relaxing not too much site seeing as I have done many of the sites before.

A hike up Seongsan Ilchulbong. This hike is a little different to Dragon Back in Hong Kong, steps have been made and for the normal person with average fitness it won’t take very long to get up there. About a 10 -15 minute walk, with plenty of places to take a break and absorb the views.

Commencing our hike up Seongsan Ilchulbong

A rock formation at Seongsan Ilchulbong or Sunrise Peak

180m climb with plenty of breaks and time at the summit will take you about 45mins round trip

Cannot have a blog post of Jeju Island without a Dol hareubang

Haenyeo, female divers who make up the culture of Jeju Island. Often are responsible for the local abalone sales

Headed back down for the local abalone and sea urchin soup which was nice, but abalone isn’t my thing. I will eat it but I wouldn’t say I have great desire like many Asians for it.

After lunch we headed for a 15 minute drive to do some horse riding, another first on this trip, ridden on a camel but never a horse and this was quite enjoyable.

After the horse ride decided to stop by for a coffee. Managed to find a place where it appeared to be a luxury life of people who wanted to camp. The outdoor setting was of BBQs however the villas were shaped like tents but were not tents and well it was interesting to say the least.

Fancy glamping? but they did serve nice coffee

Dinner tonight was going to be Korean BBQ and fine tradition in Jeju Island is the black pork on BBQ. I think I had a rotten abalone as the stomach was misbehaving but a bit of rest and a bottle of Korean styled Yakult did the job, no need to get in to details.

Jeju Timelapse from Mark on Vimeo.

Fitted in a time lapse before dinner

Unfortunately as the taxi got to the desired location the restaurant was closed !!! It was Labour Day who would have known as when climbing Seongsan Ilchulbong there were school kids scaling up the mountain with us.

Disappointed the taxi driver took us to an alternative Korean BBQ restaurant. It didn’t let us down at all. Two of us took in about 800 grams pork over some Cass beer and Soju. After dinner, decided to have some dessert and had a tiramisu cake and then headed down stairs from the hotel and tried out the bar in the basement, much to our surprise it was playing some late 80s and early 90s music straight off the vinyl.

The second 400 grams is being prepared as you can see in the background

No hangover in the last full day of my Jeju stay. Headed in to the local markets of Jeju and found a little noodle restaurant and to our delight it served up a delicious hand made noodle soup and pippies.

At the local markets, fish and fruit markets

Got myself some freshly squeezed Dekopon juice, it’s a fruit from the mandarin family. Top stuff

We got here pretty early and the stalls in the markets were just opening up

Rrange-filling Dol Hareubang, quite nice

Travel partner was a little upset we couldn’t make it to the Korean BBQ as intended the previous night so we decided to try our luck again. Making our run a little late to Donsadon in Jeju. They have no website but here is the tripadvisor link for details.

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Restaurant_Review-g297885-d8743739-Reviews-Donsadon-Jeju_Jeju_Island.html

The black pork was special here in my opinion it just tasted a little bit better than the previous place the other night.

All in all it was a great way to finish my Jeju stay, a few more drinks at the bar in the hotel just about made it a great little trip for me, bit of site seeing, a lot of chilling and quite a bit of eating and drinking. Not a bad early mid year break.

Don’t be late there is a queue and some very late comers were very upset to miss out waited for 1 hour and sat down at 9pm, an hour to eat as much pork as possible

Ordered 1.5 serves as we didn’t want to be knocked back if we asked for more later

Polished it off in time, and even had time for the kimchi soup

The flight home wasn’t so adventurous, at Jeju airport they could ship my bags straight to Hong Kong. I again was using China Eastern Airlines on my return leg. It was Hong Kong via Shanghai and this time there was no need to get a temp visa, all transfers were done within the airport and it was pretty quick, there is a passport security check but its an automated one where your passport and boarding pass get scanned and then it was a quick body check and through to the gate at Shanghai. Collect my bags at Hong Kong then check them in on my Cathay flight to Sydney. All in all it would take 3 plane rides in 24 hours to get back home … and believe it or not there was rail maintenance on my way home, just to prolong my journey !!!

If only all my flights were like this… Shanghai PVG to HK

Hope you enjoyed my pics and travels …

All images taken from either, Fuji XE-3 (56mm f1.2 or 27mm f2.8), iPhone XS Max and Go Pro Hero 6

Silk Road Tour

September 22, 2017

Day 1 and 2 Sydney - Guangzhou - Urumqi
Been a year almost to the day since I last boarded for a trip overseas to take some time off work. Have been looking forward to this trip to the Silk Road in China for about 5 months. Boarded CZ326 from Sydney to Guangzhou and what an eventful flight it was. First time I had been on a plane and the plane had to make a detour due to passenger illness. Hopefully the person is fine and has recovered in Brisbane. This delayed the flight for about 3.5 hours. We were stuck on the plane during the whole time.

Arrived in Guangzhou late that evening around 11PM and some of the passengers had missed their connection flights, some had missed their tours as they had left without them. Luckily our tour budgeted sometime and we were still on track but the tour group wanted to have late night supper which finished at 3AM.

Had to take a midday flight from Guangzhou to Urumqi. Arrived at Urumqi, this part of China is known as a trading hub and there are many Arabic speaking countries that do business here and often move their families to China to have a prosperous life. On this plane ride quite a few of them filled up their overhead luggage space with remote control cars.

We landed in Urumqi and it was really time for dinner, and it was the beginning of the experience of the north western food of China. I was fully aware it was not the usual Canton food and a lot of the food was made up of lamb as the favoured red meat source, something I don’t quite like. The pork and beef taste different, the chicken taste different, I’m not sure if this is due to being a picky eater but I didn’t have much of an appetite. The fruit taste different in a positive way than back home which was a positive.

Day 3 Urumqi to Fuyun
So after 48 hours we are finally going to commence our tour but first a quick 1 hour flight out of Urumqi to Fuyun.

We went to Keketuohai National Geopark, here many local farmers still take their animals for walks, whether they be goats, cows and bulls or horses. There is a narrow passage way consisting of two lanes in the Geopark for internal transportation buses. At any random time there can be a stampede (mind you a slow one) of animals walking up or down the passage way. I’m not talking about a group of 20 animals I’m talking maybe 100 cows walking towards the bus. The bus has to give way to the animals which can stall your travels by up to 30mins as my group had experienced.

The park was meant to contain a stone that has only ever been found in this park and has not been extracted anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately this museum was under renovation and not for us to see. Not what I was expecting.. and one could say not a great start to the trip.

Head to Burqin for an evening bite and sleep

Kekesuli Lake, we made a short stop here before going to Keketuohai National Geopark

Day 4 Burqin - Hemu

Wucaitan is meant to be very picturesque though bad luck for our tour group as the day was overcast. IF it is a sunny day the sun casts over the rocks and you get a rainbow like effect showing on the rocks.

I did get pulled up by the local police for flying my Mavic Pro, the guide said I could fly the local law enforcers said no. This basically put an end to me flying the drone as it wasn’t worth losing, and it seemed there was no clear sign to say you could fly or not.

Saw someone offering camel rides on the way from Wucaitan to Hemu Village

After visiting Wucaitan we headed to Hemu Village. Tuwa tribe is present at Hemu village, this is really one of the most naturally beautiful places you can stay on the silk road. This civilisation has tried to minimise the amount of outside modernisation it could. Apart from the home stay cabins and restaurants most of it is still as it would have been 100 years a go. The Kanas lake passes through the village.

We got to stay here over night.

Day 5 Hemu - Jadengyu

Got up early to catch the sunrise at Hemu and we weren't disappointed.

Visiting Xinjian Kanas National Geopark was quite exciting, the most distinct feature of the park was the water, which seemed a pale white with a tinge of green from afar. When I mean afar you can trek up a mountain to reach the Fish Watching Pavilion. It is about an 1100 plus stair climb, and once you reach the top you are rewarded with a spectacular view. It is said that if you observe carefully at the pavilion you may see a monster fish so the tour guide said. No Loch Ness Monster for me to see today.

1100 steps later this impressive view appears

Another view from the FIsh Watching Pavillion

A close up look of the Fish Watching Pavilion on the way down

A look out view in Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Day 6 Jadengyu - Kanas - Urumqi

We have a two day tour in the Kanas National park, today we take a boat ride and stop at some vantage points at the park. We also were entertained by the local music band playing traditional instruments.

Hmm the water does look different down here than from above at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Mountains just as impressive as the water at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Lambs milk on offer but the band were going hard singing folk songs at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Another impressive view from one of the lookouts at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Kanas fly back to Urumqi

Day 7 Urumqi - Turpan

Ok expecting a lot of hot weather the first part of the trip was quite cool and no different to the weather I had left behind me in Sydney. It was a cool 23 degrees Celsius the past few days in the Altay region. Moving to Turpan.. well let me say it was hot.. not only hot, scorching hot the floor temperature at the famous Flaming mountain registered 65 degrees under my feet, but the air temp was about 40 degrees.

Flaming Mountain is all about the folklore story of the Monkey King, kind of like the show I grew up watching called Monkey Magic

The Monkey folklore story along the entry of the Flaming Mountain

I think the tour just goes here to see if you can withstand the heat!!

From this point we went to The Grape Valley, “they” say and I am not sure why is the they but this is apparently the best grape available in the world. Tour guide speak. Mind you the grapes grow in oppressive heat and the water comes from snow capped mountains that manages to find its way through the desert and into The Grape Valley, many raisins to try but no wine to buy!

Farmer picking ripe grapes in Grape Valley

Silk on sale at Grape Valley along the Silk Road

Following this we made our way to see the Karez system, water wells along the Silk Road made by the Persians.

Karez system.. yep that's water in a very dark tunnel

Tour group had to make a mad rush to the Jiaohe Ruins. I had no idea what the fuss was about as the tour was all in Mandarin. We made the site before the 8:30pm cut off and we were lucky enough to catch the sunset and what looked like a scene from Star Wars. It looked like Tatooine Desert but no Tusken Raiders.

Day 8 Urumqi to Liuyuan (Dunhuang)

First a bullet train ride to Dunhuang and then a reasonably long bus ride to the Mingsha Sand Dune which also contains the Crescent Moon Lake.

After hopping on camel briefly at the flaming mountain, I manage to score a ride on a camel at the Mingsha Sand Dune. It cost 120RMB which includes a 40 min camel ride and the camel’s minder taking photos on your behalf. He didn’t know how to use the Fuji X-Pro 1 and was an exclusive iPhone or Android user.

After the camel ride I decided to hike up a sand dune which took about 10 minutes. It was a bit of exercise for me but was done lugging my camera around so bit of cardio and weights.

The view was quite nice but the odd thing about it all was you were able to see the new somewhat modern city. It would have been nice to see an endless desert.

Next to the Crescent Moon Lake sits an impressively built pagoda.

The camel better not fall as that is some drop, well over 300 camels can do the trek at the same time

Crescent Moon Lake is obscured by the sand

Climbed up the sand dune to get a better view of the Crescent Moon Lake

Day 9 Dunhuang

Dunhuang Global Geopark was the first stop of the day. Another hot hot place but another site hard to believe created by nature. Rock formations were created by the wind and some of the rocks resembled animals or heads if you looked closely or had a wild imagination. One formation apparently looked like a series of warships if you could stand in the right angle with the wild imagination.

Though I had to appreciate the rocks. This is something that took years to create naturally and is probably something will lose its character if it is some how preserved.

They say it looks like a peacock but wait till you see another angle. Dunhuang Global Geopark

I think it looks more like a pig? Dunhuang Global Geopark

Don't miss your bus. Dunhuang Global Geopark

Still looks like a man.  Dunhuang Global Geopark — Still looks like a man. Dunhuang Global Geopark

After seeing the rocks we bus it to Yumenguan Pass. This is also known as the Jade gate as generally all the caravans heading to the Western Regions were carrying jade had to leave through these gates.

Yes it is the desert but they got digging and made water get here Yumenguan Pass

We headed back to the city of Dunhuang, had a quick meal and headed to the night markets. Saw the Aspara monument with her playing the pipa behind her back.

Dried fruits sold at the night markets. Dunhuang

Wood carvings done on the spot at the night markets. Dunhuang

Day 10 Dunhuang - Jiayuguan

Today was definitely a highlight. Going to the Mogao Caves or Grottoes was a site that was created well over 1500 years ago and it still stands today with many caves in remarkable condition. The mountain that houses the saves is about 5 or 6 stories high. So it is impressive how the buddhist monks dug out the caves and built mini shrines. Basically every shrine had art work from floor to ceiling accompanied by statues of buddha and of others. There is a 34.5m meter tall buddha which was available for viewing and it is quite detailed in structure. In total there are 492 grottoes.

Oh due to the fragile nature of the caves, no photography is allowed in order to preserve them for generations to come.

Then off for a 5.5hr bus ride to Jiayuguan

Day 11 Jiayuguan - Xi'an

This morning everyone had a chance to stretch their legs out, it’s as if I needed to stretch them out, i’ve climbed up a mountain to get the overhead view of the Hemu village, I walked up the 1000 plus to see the Fish Watching Pavilion, I walked up the Dunhuang Sand Dunes and now I needed to stroll around the park? However it was a nice day, sun was out and people were playing Sepak Takraw, a combination of soccer and volleyball. A group of elderly playing their instruments and singing. Finally people trying their hand in writing calligraphy on the stone tiled floor.

Retired people now enjoying their lives. Jiayuguan city garden

Practicing Calligraphy. Jiayuguan city garden

After a stroll around the park we headed to Jiayu Pass, this is the first pass of the Great Wall of China on the West end. It is a very impressive site and the majority of the fort is in original condition.

Jiayu Pass, more than 80% of it in it's original state

Impressive tower sits on top of the fort. Jiayu Pass

Part of the Great Wall of China. Jiayu Pass

Apparently those 3 letters in calligraphy are written by the Emperor himself

Next stop Xi’an, rushed to Jiayuguan Airport for the flight to Xi’an

Day 12 Xi'an

Today is an early start and we are off to the Famen Temple. According to Wiki in the Famen Temple a finger bone of the Sakyamuni Buddha is on display, I could see the glass case and the massive golden buddha but again no photos are allowed in certain temples. As I have been told in this tour, no direct photos of the buddha should be taken when housed under a red roof. If you do this buddha will not consider your prayers.

The newly built Famen Temple housing the Buddha's bone from his finger

Famen's Pagoda which has never been neglected, if it partially knocked down it is restored

Unfortunately today we were hit with rain. Our next stop really required the weather to be clear in order to observe the views of the Qianling Tomb. If the weather didn’t play a part I would have been able to see Nipple Hills. No lie according to Wiki “the tumulus mounds on the southern peaks are called Naitoushan or "Nipple Hills", due to their resemblance to the shape of nipples.”!

Headless statues beside the Qianling Tomb

One of the tombs houses Wu Zetian (aka Empress Wu), an Empress and the only known Empress in China. She apparently was a concubine for Emperor Taizong, then when he died she married his 9th son.

It was soon time for an early night, after dinner we went and viewed the Xi’an night markets, it was more filled with food stalls than souvenir stalls. Though again lamb is on serve.

Day 13 Xi'an - Guangzhou
Today is a bitter sweet day, it is the last day of the tour but yet we get to see the Terracotta Army. Gee was it impressive. There are four halls, some of the halls don’t have any soldiers in display, they are still covered, though hall one is the famous one and there are so many on display. There are some rebuilt but can only be rebuilt by their own original pieces, talking about building a puzzle. The rebuilt ones are on display path the back of the hall. Hall 2 is completely covered. Hall 3 was partially uncovered and you could see some horses. We did not venture in to Hall 4.

Restored Terracotta Army soldiers using only the original parts

After some lunch we headed to Huaqing Pool, this housed all the baths for the Emperor.

She is looking for a bath? Model doing a professional shoot at Huaqing Pool

This basically concludes the Silk Road Tour. A few notes, I took the tour that was offered by Sydney’s Skywings Travel (I didn’t get paid by them to add this). The owners accompanied the tour which was nice so we knew we would not get ripped off. Note they don’t join the owners don’t normally join the tours. The tour guides on the tour do not speak English nor Cantonese. So I basically had to use Wiki to get my information.

The positives
- spectacular sites … did I say spectacular sites?

The negatives
- lots of long bus rides but they are required
- lots of internal flights in annoying little airports, the flying is required otherwise it would be a 20 plus day tour with long sleeps on the bus
- if you like lamb, it would be a positive but I don’t and the food if you eat the veggies is quite OK but the food was getting a bit repetitive but I didn’t get sick or food poisoning
- Early morning starts and late night finishes
- squatter toilets.. need to work those hamstrings, the hotels had the “normal” toilets I was brought up on, but the restaurants and public toilets either had squatters or ditches (I kid you not).

I really enjoyed it and if you have ambitions to do the Silk Road go do it!

Here is a break down of the travels.
p - plane
b - bus
t - bullet train
Sydney (p) -> Guangzhou (p) -> Urumqi (p) -> Fuyun (b) -> Burqin (b) -> Jadengyu (b) -> Hemu (b) -> Jadengyu (b) -> Kanas (p) -> Urumqi (b) -> Tulufanbei (t) -> Liuyuannan (b) -> Jiuquan (b) -> Yumen pass (b) -> Jiayuguan (p) -> Xian (p) -> Guangzhou (b) -> Zhongshan (b) -> Guangzhou (p) -> Sydney

All photos done using my Fuji X-Pro 1. I predominantly used the 23mm f/1.4. I did use the 14mm f/2.8 for a couple of shots with the band playing music, and used the 8mm Samyang f/2.8 for the Terracotta Army in Hall 1, some shots for reach I used the 56mm f/1.2 in Hall 3.

Another Journey to Japan ... Okinawa in 5 days

September 11, 2016

Well the Dragon's footy season was close to a write off mid season and I took a punt to go on holidays before the season ended and if a miracle was still to occur I would make it back before the Grand Final. Anyways it doesn't seem like it was meant to be this year and I hope for a better season by my beloved Dragons for 2017!

I've decided to explore more of Japan mainly for a couple of reasons

I lost to my travel buddy. I wanted to go to Koh Samui and do nothing but eat and lay on the beach
Okinawa has a cool aquarium
Japan in general has very nice food
Okinawa has some nice beaches
Okinawa is meant to be different from the rest of Japan

The main thing I was reluctant to go to Okinawa was I had to do some driving. Although the Japanese drivers drive on the same side of the road, it is still very foreign. Though once you start looking at Trip Advisor or Google images those beaches and clean water make it look awesome.

Before the trip I had been religiously looking at the weather and watching the heat and humidity hit around 40 degrees Celsius. Perfect beach weather but also in the back of the mind I knew that we would be going in the middle of typhoon season. You some times hope that you get there in between seasons.

I hopped on CX162 early Saturday and bound for Okinawa via Hong Kong. There are no direct flights to Okinawa from Sydney and the trip to Hong Kong was best priced (no I am not sponsored by Cathay Pacific but I wish I was). I also have the chance to meet family on the over night stop over. Why just an over night you may ask? well it stops me from spending more money :)

After a very generous feed from my family in HK (we managed to fit 17 people plus a baby on the one round table!) it was back to Hong Kong airport for my journey to Okinawa. I boarded KA378 and after about 2 hours in the air, the eagle had landed in Okinawa Naha International Airport.

First port of call after collecting my bags was to get to the hire car. After consultation with my work colleague, he suggested I use ORIX car rental service. You get taken via a coach to the rental garage and have your paper work all done. I wanted to get a Honda Jazz (or they are known as Fit in Japan) however I ended up with a Suzuki Swift, the Japanese Mini :)

Taking a pic of the Swift just to remember the number plate when i parked in the valet area.

After checking in to the Hyatt Regency in Naha and grabbing some snacks at the tea break we decided to head out to town. This is about a 5 minute walk to Kokusai Street. This is a known tourist strip, so it should not be hard to find a feed, and definitely not hard to find a Blue Seal ice cream. I can't believe how many Blue Seal ice creams stores there are and they are so close together. You also do not need to worry about convenient stores as they are about 20m apart, whether it is a Lawson or Family Mart.

The tourist strip was a buzz after passing heavy shower which was happening when we were checking in.

Very cool Mario Kart tour, flexible enough you can dress as your own favorite super hero. Unfortunately it was too wet the next evening to have a go.

After having a walk down the strip it was finally time to grab a bite and we decided to grab some Ramen for the evening.

Pretty much a seafood ramen with your usual pork. Some massive scallops inside too :)

Decided to retreat for an early night as the plane rides tend to take a bit out of me. Hoping for a sunny day for day 2 of the Okinawa trip.

Wake up in the morning just in time for breakfast and we can relax and coast around since we are not on a tour bus. This is a huge plus in my opinion. Today's agenda is to go to Shuri Castle and then find somewhere nice to eat Teppanyaki. Oh and find a SIM card. I made the mistake of not buying a data SIM at the airport, and found it pretty hard to get a SIM from a convenient store. So after some research in the hotel, I had to find a BIC Camera store in the Naha area. Basically it is a big electronics store selling consumer and home appliances.

Off on our journey, the road was wet but it was not raining. Heading to the castle we got hit by a passing shower but this really doesn't dampen our spirits and we are armed with an umbrella when we arrive at the castle just before midday.

The Shuri castle was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in the 1992.

A palace throne I believe, the writing is in Japanese and I followed no guide

One of the gates to enter the Shuri Castle

With the weather holding up we decided to continue with the royal theme and head to the Shikina-en Garden. Was meant to be one of the main gardens for the Emperors back in the day.

One view of the pond in Shikina-en Garden

airbnb for the Emperor, Tatami mats for 5 adults a kitchen and i think it is a bathroom

The picture does not do justice to the surreal feeling of the garden, you could sit and just look at the pond all day and let time fly.

It was time to find the SIM card so we could do some research on the run. We did have a plan but the way we like to travel is to be a bit more flexible so we do not need to meet time lines. Off to BIC Camera store near Naha, and I picked the SIM up. Also had a look at the Fuji XT-2 and the Fuji X-Pro 2. Both seemed quite snappy in AF and well if I had the money I would probably still go for the X-Pro 2. For the time being the X-Pro 1 is still the work horse for me in travel and I am a bit reluctant to part with it for now.

After picking up the SIM card, the weather gods are again against us but at least we got the outdoor site seeing out of the way for the day. We head back in time to grab the free drinks and nibbles at the Regency Hyatt. I'm getting cheap and try to drink and snack as much as I can.

The decision was to go to Sam's Anchor Inn. I thought this was the well ranked place for Teppanyaki but I was wrong. There are quite a few Teppanyaki places around and there are also lots of Sam's Restaurants! Anyways we decided on the Anchor Inn version of Sam's and there was a Teppanyaki menu on offer with lobster and Okinawa steak. So it was worth a go.

Sam's Anchor Inn, the main dishes in our Teppanyaki set meal

There was a little bit of walking today so it's an early retreat. Need to check out in the morning and head to Onna-son for the next part of our trip. The next hotel is near the beach so hopefully the weather clears up and we can have a dip in that crystal blue water.

The weather awaits us on Day 3 of our trip, this is the view from the Club breakfast lounge at the Regency Hyatt

Before making a break to Onna, we decided to try our luck to head in to a local market that wasn't too far from the Hotel. We were in search for some Miso paste and we thought best to get the local produce stuff. However the markets do not tend to be buzzing around 11am. The mini shops don't open up until later in the day and in the evening they tend to be more busy. We found some Miso paste and decided to try and grab a quick bite. A bit of too'ing and fro'ing we decided to enter a noodle bar, that had two occupants in it.

An Okinawa lady who was the only worker at the time served us. She was the chef and waitress. With the use of google translator we managed to order some Udon and Soba. I must say two bowls for under $10 Aussie seemed a bargain and I definitely had no regret, the soup was clear and tasted MSG free and it was quite delicious in my humble opinion.

One of the noodle bars in the local market, not the one we ended up eating at

It's about an hour drive to Onna in the wet, which ruined a trip to Cape Manza that has the iconic cliff face of an elephant trunk. We've got a free day in 2 days and hopefully that allows us to head down there and check out the remarkable view.

Checking in to Kafuu Resort Fuchaku, the condo is large with a nice view, hopefully the beautiful sunset is a sign of better things to come in regards to the weather. The beach is just across the road.

With the wet weather, we checked in and I decided to burn some fat in the tiny gym at the resort, the pool was out of action as it was closed due to the soon approaching typhoon. The reception desk told us its very likely the two pools in the complex will be open the next day.

With a lot of walking planned for our Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium visit the pool would look like the order of the day to relax.

Dinner was at the resorts Orange restaurant. Lobster was served and it was a lot better tasting than the one at Naha. A couple of cocktails made the sleeping for the night easier :)

Next morning the weather again was not looking pleasant but we did not care too much as the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium would be indoors and the only thing out door was to walk from the car park to the aquarium and the dolphin show was also out doors.

The aquarium was a good hour drive from Onna-son. By the time we got there it was near midday. The aquarium features at the start are quite a teaser before you reach the main tank which has two massive whale sharks and who knows how many sting rays and fish.

Impressive little lion fish and some photo bombing fish

Inquisitive turtle on the seabed of the tank. One of the sharpest shots I have through a piece of glass

Seahorses are little interesting creatures

They look artistic in a tank but are menacing in the ocean... jelly fish

Look at the size of that thing!!! whale shark to human

One of the main attractions at the aquarium is to eat lunch or any meal next to the large shark tank. Sharks swim by, large fish swim by, sting rays glide past it is all very awesome to see such large marine life before your own very eyes. Mind you, you need to wait patiently to get a table right next to the tank, but keep an eye out for those sneaky tourists that try to nab your table!!!

This friendly sea creature wanted to have a bit of my lunch and drink

After a solid 3 hours in the aquarium we headed out to the feeding and acrobatic dolphin show. After watching many of these dolphin shows and even swimming with one previously they are still very enjoyable to watch.

The dolphin's show off during their encore performance

There was a huge traffic jam on the way back to Onna-son. It took about 1.5 hours to get back to the hotel. Our chosen eating place was to try another market, it was called Onna Station. This probably was not the greatest move. I should have driven to the American Village. Onna Station served small bites but it was near closing time. The food was not bad, just that we probably wanted a little more after such a big high after the aquarium.

The pool was still open at the resort and I chose the roof top infinity pool, I could still enjoy the nice surroundings even though it would take a little time to warm up in the pool.

Wishing for some sun on the open day I had planned for this trip, we woke up to you guessed it a rainy day. So Day 4 early on was instilled as a lazy day. Long sleep in but made sure we did not miss breakfast.

Finished reading my book "West with the Night", which is about Beryl Markham being a pioneer pilot in Africa delivering anything from medicine, to alcohol and providing hunting tours. She was an amazingly independent and strong lady who also had a passion to train race horses. For the book worms not a bad read if you want to read something inspiring and motivating. After the reading I felt we needed to go for a coffee break, well I was tired. We punched in cafe bars in the GPS and decided to see if we could find a coffee shop along the beach even if it were a wet day. After going past maybe 2 pr 3 of these places, anything advertised as a cafe & bar typically was not opened and opened from 5pm til late, which kind of indicated to me these were more bars serving sake.

So we deiced to go wit hthe flow and punch Starbucks (no not another plug) We ended up driving about 30 minutes and lucky enough for me the travel buddy grumbled a little after the choice but there was a nice little bakery in the mall where Starbucks was located. So we have some happy campers. Managed to do some last minute souvenirshopping and the coffee certainly got us buzzing.

We had a last swim at the roof top pool, and it was more a bittersweet swim because we didnt even get to set foot on to the beach. We had another awesome meal at the BBQ restaurant at the hotel, mind you this was our second choice the first being the Japanese restaurant.

Rightly or wrongly the evening flowed with beverages and we ended worse for wear. Luckily we had a late checkout and late afternoon flights.

Okinawa didn't let us down in the last morning either the clouds were there and the drizzle set in on the drive back to Naha. It was a strange holiday, we didn't do very much yet we enjoyed it, the food, the slow going of the town and well the aquarium was the absolute highlight. Followed secondly by the food and beverages.

Come 4:45pm it was time to board KA379 and head back to home via HK again. Okinawa in a nutshell thoroughly enjoyable if you want to do nothing :)