Phuket here we come .. and a short stop over to Hong Kong

May 21, 2014

After a 5.5 hour delay, I finally boarded Cathay Pacific's CX121, I will end up missing a family dinner but will push that out to Tuesday evening. It is a short trip mainly to visit a friend with their new born, and have been tasked to take some pics of her new bubba.

A rough flight and a late check in to the Hyatt Sha Tin who were very hospitable ! The wet weather seems to follow me to Asia and it was no surprise I woke up to ... well RAIN !!

A quick sampler from the Baby Kieran shoot

Some quick shopping in between the shoot and family dinner, I feel for HK men !

Dinner at Torimen in Central Hong Kong, my cuz's suggestion never lets us down. Nice food and Kiran off the tap.

Hopefully no special ramen from the chef

Yep, that's it for HK. A quick run on the treddy in the hotel to burn off the beer fromthe night before, and then off to New Town Plaza to shop for Lightning McQueen stuff for my nephew back home in Oz. Checked out of the hotel by midday and then off to Phuket !!!

And yes check this forecast out... THUNDER STORMS ... RAIN !!!

If only Yahoo weather would be off this week !! I leave on Monday !!

Yep but who cares... check this pool out

Just beautiful... water is a warm but what a pool !! Hyatt Regency in Phuket

Flight Center has not made it to Phuket yet.

Yep, you do not need to hail a cab town, you go looking for him. He is not going anywhere.

Crab's ... I'll let you think about it ? Dinner at Andara Resort's SILK restaurant

Off to the Bond Island tour for the next day. This is where they filmed some of "The Man with the Golden Gun", back in the 70's. We take a boat and cruise to Phang Nga Bay. On the way there we canoe around Koh Panak and the caves around Phang Nha. Also we visit the Sea Gypsy Village, Koh Panyee where there is a population of around 2000 people, and apparently they have their own 7 Eleven, mosque and school. You need to pay Baht if you want to take photos of locals. We go visit Lawa Beach where I finally get to jet ski !!

Praying for nice weather and calm seas as we head out to Phang Nga

One of the most remarkable things I have ever seen, a call out to the eagles and they come on down... fly like an eagle .. .as Seal sings ...

Canoeing in Phang Nga. Quite spectacular.

Quite a spectacular view.. and yes the weather holds up

Oops spoke to soon.. here comes the weather now ...

Great job dude... well worth your 100 Baht.. sorry if I was cursing you about my camera battery dying...

Leaving it to Popeye .. check those arms out

Without fear our Captain takes us to the James Bond Island, and well this is where the famous scenes were shot. I bet you it was sunny !!!

The locals need to sell local produce or souvenirs

Local school kids playing around before prayer time

One of the many boats at the water village

Lawa beach, there is really nothing here. The tour group basically has their own setup where you can hire a jet ski or canoe and buy drinks

I don't think I need to see a lady boy show now

Off I go... 1000 Baht of 15mins of fun, cheaper than driving the Ferrari 458 in Vegas that is for sure

We headed back to Phuket after this and well it turned out to be a turn for the worse for me. Got back to the hotel and literally puked my guts out. Not sure what happened... but it is time for R&R.

Checked in to The Shore resort at Katathani and gee was this Luxury with a capital L. The view was remarkable

The picture does no justice and even the crummy weather can not make this view look bad

Managed to get my stomach back in some order after yesterday was a complete write off. Decided to take it easy and visited the closest site nearby. Which was the Big Buddha. We actually didn't know that the elephant trek was nearby also. We weren't exactly dressed to do elephant trekking so we tried to put that off the next day.

The Big Buddha site is not complete, although this still is a huge statue !.

A famous movie quote "Look at the size of that thing"

The weather was really at its best today and well.. the Buddha hike kind of wore me out and I'm still kind of recovering. We decided to take it easy and head out to Phuket Town. Yes 4/5 days (depends on how you look at it as the first day was a write off anyway due to the late arrival) in the trip we decided maybe to head in to town ? yep got our feet eaten by fish ! For a 150 Baht I felt sorry for the fish. Looking carefully some look dead ?

I swear I did not step on any .. any maybe they got food poisoned ?

Back to the hotel, a quick dip in this magical private pool and off to dinner we went to the famed "Kan Eang@Pier". This is a must for "tourists", I do stress that but how can you refuse fresh seafood ?

One word and that is "BEAUTIFUL" what a view. I will definitely miss this view .. this pool .. and well Phuket

Goodbye 8842 on Dolphin Valley .. till we come again !!

Japan here we come

October 6, 2013

Short stop over in Korea then off to Japan for hot springs ! well one day of it and then lots of touring !! Yes that means I need to get back on a bus in time, go to bed late and get up early due to touring schedules and well I did not understand a word of the tour guide because it was all in Korean. Actually this is the second time I have joined a tour and the guide speaks Korean. Pretty fun stuff and well its on the cheap.

The tour started off in Tokyo, then it meandered along to Hakone. At Hakone we stayed over night to enjoy the hot springs. Yes it is a nude bath and the two genders are separated so do not get too excited. It was definitely an experience and it does leave your skin feeling smooth. The heat is bearable and lucky for me it was an outdoor hot spring and it was teaming with rain so I could cool down. Unfortunately no photos of the hot springs are allowed for obvious reasons. You better get used to sulfur is all i can say as it will stink like sulfur. This followed up with trips to Yokohama which was very pleasing to the eye and the weather was fantastic. After Yokohama the tour bus took us to Narita for an over night and short last day tour. Then it was back off to the airport !!

Day 1, Incheon to Tokyo ... flying time was short and smooth. Hopped straight on to the bus and whizzed from Narita airport to Tokyo.

Arrived in Tokyo and well first stop was a temple, but we really wanted to try the rickshaws but no time for them even though these guys seem uninterested in taking us for a ride

Are we in New York ?? A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Tokyo Bay

Heading in to Day 2 we were off to see some more temples and hopefully we get to see some hot springs ? or don't we ? and the bad weather has followed me again !

O-mikuji people ties these paper ribbons for good luck,

Day 3, after spending the night at the hot springs resort, we are off to Yokohama. More shrines and temples to go to today... but we were surprised to head in to where the local Japanese celebrate Octoberfest !

Friendly locals walking their dogs around near the harbor. Mind you lots of dogs here.

Our grilled corn and squid.. yummyyyyyyy

Locals on the way to the shrine. It is a bit of a walk up, some take a breather

Yokohama local market/festival.. she is singing Beyonce here... from memory

Headed in to Chinatown, yes there is one even in Yokohama

A lot of stalls but not a great deal happening in Chinatown

We take in the sunset of Yokohama across the other side of town.  The weather is definitely kind to us today — We take in the sunset of Yokohama across the other side of town. The weather is definitely kind to us today

Just a small portion of the drunken people celebrating Octoberfest

One of the German brews that was available on tap

A local with one of the coolest glasses I have seen, mind you there was a deposit given for every beer you purchased as that was hostage for returning the glass

Day 4. Stayed overnight at Narita, and the tour fitted in some more temples. It has been a bit of an overkill and I'd rather have spent more time at another hot spring to be honest. The temples are nice but I think seeing a temple or shrine at every destination gets a little bit too much unless you are heavily religious. No offence, but I personally would like to have seen something a little different.

Patrolling or praying ? though look how clean it is

Well that's it. I think next time we will be taking on a different tour or forget touring Japan and do our own thing next time. The temples were nice but we saw one everyday ! There was a lot of walking and I guess not a great deal of seeing. Food experience was also not the greatest, we had to go look for our own ramen.

I think the tour did not do justice to Tokyo, Hakone and Yokohama. I think it is fair to say I will be come here again !!!

Hong Kong Stopover

October 2, 2013

Had plans to stop over in HK to meet family and friends. Originally planned to also take a short trip to Taiwan but that got canned as I needed to find a tour guide to take me around. I wanted to go to Taiwan after seeing the DigitalRev team head there and there seemed to be lots of interesting sites and it seemed a good country to do street shooting.

Anyways, I stayed in HK for a just under a week and went to see some sites and basically was on a mission to eat beef brisket noodle soup and try the different varieties of tofu fah desserts !!

Went to all the typical places like Lady's Market, ventured through Causeway Bay, visited the streets of Mong Kok and went to some new places like Apliu Street. Apliu Street was a fascinating place and showed you one extreme away from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong city, it contained a market that was selling many second hand items of the very old kind. Things on sale would date back in the 70s !

The view from the Excelsior Hotel's ToTT's Bar.

Great band at the ToTT's Bar, had a couple of quiet beers with old work mates

Beef brisket with tripe at a local noodle shop in Tin Hau

More beef brisket noodle soup, this time at a noodle shop in the Kowloon side

Tofu fah at North Point, traditional place that has been around an age. Extremely popular that also sells dumplings

One of the NON Michelin star restaurant kitchen's i went to for beef brisket !!

Extremely busy crossings !! Doesn't anyone need to work ??

The trolley is one of the most efficient ways of transporting goods

Shopping makes us happy and the bank is even happier .. that is what he is explaining

Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade.. are they fishing or talking business, like those HK cop movies ?

Doing it the old fashion way, who needs a rod ?

The view of HK Island from the TST Promenade

HK are adopting Bruce Lee as their own ...

Old one's protesting on the promenade ...

And why would you not take a SELFIE on the promenade ?

It is funny, Apliu Street is New Kowloon at Sham Shui Po. When Kowloon not the new looks in much better condition. Venturing through here you will see a contrast to what you see in HK Island. It is a real eye opener and there is one large market that runs through many streets which has all sorts of things on sale

Not exactly the glamorous life you see on the TV shows

I'm sure these guys can just about fix anything ?

On the way back home after a long days work

Headed out to Kowloon today to check out a few things, obviously headed to Lady's Street and then also checked out all the streets that were dedicated to selling one thing. I kid you not there is a street that just sells aquarium things, fish pumps, fish, fish tank plants, you name it and it was there for fish !! Friends also took me out to the retro Starbucks Cafe which I thought was pretty cool. Some of the seating they had are from the old cinemas.

Lady's street is full of real and fake and tourists !

Before heading off, I had forgotten to take the famous trams that rattle along the main roads of Hong Kong. I know I have forgotten many other famous landmarks but more time is needed unfortunately ...

Invest in HK they should as you can see by the scaffolding