travel

Palau: clam city

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There’s a famous snorkeling spot in the Palau islands called clam city, where you’ll find the some of the biggest clam shells around. Most snorkeling day tours will stop here for about half hour to have a look at the giant clam shells. If they closed, you tap on them and they open up. Also some fish around too. Snorkeling is one of my favourite things to do. Could do it all day long. Basically, I love anything that involves water, really.

And the water in Palau is truly incredible. Seeing and being out on the water every day during my week there was the best thing ever.

Pics from clam city.

From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau

Giant clam shells

From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau
From Day 2 – Clam city Palau

High Tea in Yangon: The Strand Hotel

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Will make more of a concerted effort to blog more this year, after a bit of a hiatus last year – not intentional – was just busy with work. A lot of it. Plus actually got around to doing a lot of stuff in Japan and travels as well. So expect a lot of travel photos and food reviews which I haven’t got around to posting up yet.

Over Christmas/New Year I went to Myanmar with a friend. She is based in Singapore for work, and so we decided to meet in Myanmar and spend two weeks there. It was pretty hectic as we covered a lot of ground in to two weeks with a lot of early starts (around 5am).

As is customary when I travel, I like to partake in high tea. This was no exception. And the afternoon was a lovely reprieve from the heat and travel stress.

The venue: The Strand, Yangon.
Date visited: 29 December 2015.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

It was a colonial style hotel with wicker furniture, wood panelling and high ceilings.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

Afternoon tea was at the Strand Cafe located off to the lobby entrance. We turned up without a reservation. Can’t imagine there’d be crowds in Yangon to do afternoon tea.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

It was nice to be seated in air conditioning and just chill.

A choice of two afternoon tea menus – classic (traditional English) or a local Myanmar afternoon tea. Decisions, decisions. We had thought about going one of each to sample them both. But with lemon meringue pie and scones on offer – we both opted for the classic.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

And so cheap compared to Australia or Japan, where nowadays you’ll 50-50 dollars for afternoon tea. We also ordered a glass of wine each (pretty much for the first time during the trip. Wine was very hard to come by anywhere that we had been to at least).

I loved the little baskets which the teapots came in:

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

A cup of English breakfast always soothes away any stress or worries. It’s amazing how calming a cup is.

Time to settle in. Lots of foodie goodness.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

Feeling right at home:

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

Yummy sandwiches which tasted divine after living on rice and noodles.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

The desserts were worth it purely for the lemon meringue pie:

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

The chocolate gateau cake was also really good.

And my only complaint about the scones was that there was only one each (and not two).

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

The vanilla cream that accompanied the scones was to die for. I could have just drunk that creamy vanillary goodness.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

Can’t resist chocolate:

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

And my personal favourite: lemon meringue pie

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

Probably the best lemon meringue I’ve ever had. Perfect balance of tartness, good pastry crust and sweetness on top. They were so good, we asked to buy additional tarts for take-out. They happily obliged. Take-away tarts were sold by the threes, so we got six of them. The French pastry chef made them fresh for us to take out. We looked very classy as we got them put into styrofoam containers.

From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea
From The Strand Yangon afternoon tea

And that’s afternoon tea in Yangon done. A shame I only got to do one tea there, but not so many establishments offer it anyway.
The Strand Hotel offered excellent value and tasty food. Extremely satisfying.

Expect some more high tea reviews in 2016.

Underwater freediving in Palau

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Some gratuitous photos of me underwater freediving in Palau. Met a photographer there whom I spent some time hanging out with. He took these cool pics of me. I am pretty sure I was a mermaid in another life.

From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau
From Underwater in Palau

Palau: Long beach island

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Palau was an amazing country. Unbelievable pristine waters. A water lover’s paradise. I had such a wonderful time there. Was totally in my element and was in the water every single day.

This is long beach island, where at low tide, it’s a long stretch of beach and white sand that reaches an island.

The water clarity is truly incredible.

From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island
From Day 2 Palau – Long Island

Kayaking in Palau

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Hello there.
It’s been forever since I’ve posted. This year has really gotten away. And my life is consumed by work and overtime. Work has been taking over my life, leaving little time for blogging, which is a shame, because I have soooooo much to blog about.

Recently, I went on a holiday to Palau under the guise of an open water swim race. I did actually did the 5km swim race even though I didn’t do any training. It was more an excuse to go to Palau. Such an amazing holiday. Am tempted to go back there. It truly is a spectacular water paradise. Although I will admit it, it kind of didn’t feel like I was getting away from Japan as such. Most of the tourists are all Japanese. All the tour operators and day tours are all in Japanese. And the menu’s everywhere were in Japanese.

Day one, I joined a kayak tour and it was run by a Japanese tour operator. Everyone in the group was in Japanese except myself, so they seemed to always get me a separate English speaking guide. The Japanese tour guide, led the Japanese people in Japanese and I kind of got my own local Palauan tour guide who spoke English.

The morning started off with a very gentle, not at all strenuous kayak through Nikko Bay.
We took a boat out through some waters to a floating dock where we got into some kayaks and then leisurely paddled through the crystal clear waters.
It was amazing.

From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau

The floating dock:

From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau
From Nikko Bay kayaking – Palau

The water has to be seen to be believed.

Naoshima Diary: At Uno Station

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The Cliff notes of my long weekend trip to Naoshima:

Friday night: Depart Tokyo station after work. Board 7:30pm shinkansen to Okayama station. Arrive Okayama station at 11pm. Check into hotel for the night and crash out into bed.

Saturday morning: Early breakfast. Check out of hotel at about 8:10am. Board the 8:24am train departing Okayama bound for Uno station. (Change at Chayamachi enroute to Uno). Alight at Uno station about an hour later.

Destination Uno reached. A most awesome name for a train station and a small port town.
I was quite excited to be at a place named after a card game.

From Uno station
From Uno station
From Uno station
From Uno station

At Uno with numero uno!

From Uno station
From Uno station

Okay, let’s try that again and let’s try to not get hair obscuring the face.

From Uno station

That’s more like it.

Outside Uno station are two giant monuments. This one….

From Uno station

And this one: the Goddess of the Sea:

From Uno station

And now it’s time to smell the cheese:

From Uno station

And incidentally, ticked off another prefecture – Okayama prefecture done. Only another 8 (?) to go!

Hello Kitty dim sum

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

I was in Hong Kong in May for a work trip. Whilst there, I had to visit the Hello Kitty dim sum restaurant.

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Little dumplings that were too cute to eat.

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If you’re a hard core kitty fan, this is the place to eat at.

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And if that is too much  food, you can the leftovers home in not a doggy bag, but a kitty bag!

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Simply purrfect.

Naoshima red pumpkin

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Ugh, I have a huge backlog of blog posts, or rather photos to upload.

Here are some from about 9 months ago. I never finished that Naoshima diary.

In addition to the giant yellow pumpkin found near the Benesse art park, there is also a red pumpkin sculpture by the ferry port, the main arrival point onto the island.

From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin
From Naoshima red pumpkin

I framed Roger Rabbit (a visit to Okunoshima)

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Kicked off another item on the Japan bucketlist and went to Rabbit Island (formally known as Okunoshima).

From Rabbit island

Last weekend, took an early flight to Hiroshima and then from there a bus to Takehara station and then a train to Tadanoumi and then a port to Okunoshima island. A plane, bus, train and a boat hop away from Tokyo and I was finally on Okunoshima.

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

Okunoshima is a tiny tiny island within the Seto inland sea, inhabited by rabbits. The island is pretty much uninhabited, but is a popular tourist destination. There is only one large hotel on the island which is usually always booked out, so we went “glamping” instead. (Glamping = glamour camping).
All accommodation on the island was booked out, so we got a special package from the hotel’s campsite area. The package was amazing value. 7000yen got us a tent (already set up), ground mats, a tarp and table set, buffet dinner at the hotel, buffet breakfast at the hotel and use of the hotel onsen. You can also BYO tent and set up on the campsite, but it was so nice that they set up our campsite and got to use the hotel facilities.

Prior to arriving on the island, at Tadanoumi ferry port, you should be sure to buy the rabbit pellets. You can buy 6 packets for 500yen. There is no food on the island for sale for the rabbits (or humans for that matter). The island has no shops and we struggled the first day when we discovered there were no shops, restaurants, conbinis etc, and only a couple of vending machines). Be prepared to bring your own food and be sure to buy the rabbit food when you buy the boat tickets.

From Rabbit island

The only facilities are at the hotel where there is a shop and restaurant to get food. Apart from that, there is not much on the island, apart from a lot of rabbits. There are also a bunch of military remnants and the poison gas museum. Okunoshima was used as military island during the war, and was the base for a poison gas manufacturing facility. The island has quite the sinister history. Very fascinating though. But a lot of people died as a result of the poisonous gas effects.

We arrived on the island at about 1pm. It was a beautiful day so we pretty much walked around the whole island (which has an approx. circumference of 4km). There are a lot of military ruins and remnants to see as you walk around chasing and feeding the rabbits. The island also has a bunch of really nice beaches, the water looked so clear and clean. Would be great in summer for a spot of camping and swimming.

Brace yourself for cuteness.
Who framed Roger Rabbit?
I did!

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

Eating cabbage – Lady and the Tramp-style

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

Tiny bunny:

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

The rabbits eat right out of your hand

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

The bunnies are so adorable:

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

And here’s a gif:

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

Also no cars on are allowed on the island without a permit and there are no residents on the island, only the people working at the hotel:

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

Military remains:

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

Seto Inland Sea:

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island

A photo of a photo in the hotel lobby:

From Rabbit island

Quite a few of the rabbits have mangy or scratched out eyes. They get into fights with each other.

From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island
From Rabbit island