Malaysian Memories

This trip gave us a glimpse into a part of the world we haven't explored much yet. From the diversity of cultures melded together, to the incredible food - a direct result of this diversity, to the breathtaking natural surroundings and wildlife, and the hustle and bustle of the big cities, Malaysia has a lot to offer. Splitting our time between exploring the big cities, KL and George Town before moving on to more of an island vibe was a great way to see and experience the differences in lifestyles of the Malaysian people. Aside from the delicious food, some highlights of the trip were the cooking class and the interactive wildlife park in Langkawi, the street art in George Town, and the Batu Caves in KL. I have the best partner in the world to explore the world with and we are blessed we could explore this beautiful country and the unique experiences it has to offer.

To live is to travel... until next time. Life is good! 

Langkawi

After a week exploring two large cities, KL and George Town, we made our way over to Langkawi for a week of beach and island exploring. A quick flight over from George Town, we quickly got our luggage and found our car rental rep waiting for us at arrivals and not too long after we were in our way with Z driving on the other side of the road. He made it seem quite easy though at one point trying to signal for a turn he engaged the windshield wipers instead out of habit of where he’d think the signals should be. We had a good laugh and he never did that again. He was quite skilled at driving and never ventured into the wrong side of the road. The roads in Langkawi are fairly good and traffic is usually fairly light. The only thing to really be on the look out for are wild monkeys who often line the sides of the road and decide to randomly cross whenever they feel like it. We decided to split our time on the island at two different resorts. The drive to the first hotel was about 30 minutes from the airport. 

Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 islands about 30km off the coast of northwestern Malaysia. It's a duty free island which makes is great for shopping with a lot of liquor stores, but surprisingly we did not find the prices to be much cheaper despite being duty free. The island is a beautiful outdoor playground with great beaches and tropical forested mountains inland. The island has a fairly long rainy season and we thankfully visited at the end of its dry season and only encountered one evening of a slight tropical rain shower that didn't last very long. 

We stayed at the St. Regis beach front resort situated on the Strait of Malacca which connects the Andaman Sea with  the Singapore Strait and the South China Sea. The resort was located in a bay and as such it was really evident when the tide was out because the water receded well away from the resort and left a muddy bay floor. When the tide was in, it was a great place for swimming so long as there were no jelly fish present and we lucked out with none visible during our stay. The water wasn't the clearest given the muddy bay floor, but it was very warm with gentle waves and wasn't deep. We had a lovely spacious villa with a plunge pool and deck overlooking the bay. The pool was a great place to cool off from the hot 38C but feels like 45C with humidity weather particularly when the tide was out. The resort itself was a bit spread out over a beautiful property that was both beachfront on one side and jungle on the other. We got to see a bunch of wildlife as a result including two different monkey species, eagles and other beautifully coloured birds including one that was a shiny emerald green. The bay also had a lot of fish that were particularly visible when the tide was in. It’s quite possible Z may have even eaten a few of these fish as the seafood options were abundant and always fresh. 

We explored the island a bit; Z found a barber shop as he felt he needed to get a hair cut. I guess the heat and humidity made his hair grow faster than anticipated. The rest of our exploring was tailored to taking in the outdoors and wildlife. We spent one morning at the Langkawi Wildlife Park. This interactive zoo was a really cool experience. The zoo is situated over five acres and allows guests to wander throughout at their leisure with opportunities to feed the animals. At the entrance you can purchase a little bag of food which contains a variety of different seeds and vegetables that the animals eat. At each different animal station there is a sign indicating what that species likes to eat or whether the animals prefer not to be feed. At one point you can walk through an aviary filled with hundreds of different bird species. If you have bird feed in your hand, the birds will happily come and eat from your hand as well as we got to experience with a swarming of budgies. There were a lot of birds I did not recognize, but also peacocks, parrots, swans, ducks, and turkeys. One of the more unusual animal pairings was an enclosure that contain turtles and deer. This enclosure was one you could walk into and Z had the deer following him as soon as he entered. We got to see a couple emu and learned they like to eat peanuts. 

After spending this time interacting with animals directly, our next excursion took us on a boat ride in Kilim Geoforest Park. This park is part of UNESCO's global network of geoparks. We had a private boat which took us through the sprawling mangroves and gave us a relaxing view of the diversity of the park including the limestone rock formations that lined the river behind the mangroves. We got to walk through a real bat cave; thankfully the bats remained stuck on the cave walls even when we shone a light on them. We also got to witness an eagle feeding and stopped in at a fish farm where Z took the opportunity to volunteer to feed manta rays. He says they were gentle in grabbing the food from him, and I'll take his word for it... I was not in the least bit interested in trying. 

The Langkawi Sky Bridge is located closer to our second hotel stay. The sky bridge is situated a top Mount Machincang and is an engineering marvel. You get up to the sky bridge via a cable car that takes you up 700 metres while you enjoy the magnificent, unobstructed panoramic views of the island and the dense green forest of the mountain. As far as your eyes can see you have a view of the Andaman Sea once you get to the top. This sky bridge is the longest curved hanging bridge in the world at 125 metres in length. It's 708 metres from sea level and is not for the faint of heart. On really clear days you can see over to Thailand and Indonesia. It was so beautiful up there! 

Our second hotel stay was at the Ritz Carlton. Yes a bit of a splurge and a once in a lifetime stay for us. This hotel resort was wonderfully situated in a private bay with a pristine beach and expansive rainforest grounds. The hotel's residences are built to blend in with nature and provide complete privacy from other guests. It was quite a spectacular place. Our room faced the ocean and was sunrise facing. One afternoon as we were lounging by the plunge pool a family of monkeys decided to pay a visit and invade our deck. It was quite the experience, but they kept to themselves and didn't really come close to us. We had booked a special wellness package which included a vegan cooking class which turned out to be such a special and amazing experience as we got to make a three course delicious meal under the supervision of one of the sous chefs and then the pastry chef for dessert. This experience opened both our eyes to a different style of cooking and food that we could see ourselves emulating back home every once and awhile. We also got to enjoy a sunset at the beach experience with fresh coconut drinks and what made this even more special was that there weren't many others at the beach then so we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves. Z enjoyed our sunrise kayak session; I wasn't feeling too great that morning so decided to stay behind. What is it with me and having days of not feeling well when we travel? It's getting a bit ridiculous I must say. Each night we were supposed to have a curated three course vegan meal at the restaurant of our choice, but the first two nights the restaurants couldn't figure it out correctly so we just enjoyed a three course meal of whatever we wanted. The last night we had a lovely specially curated vegan meal and were surprised at how quickly we actually felt full after the first couple of courses. We had the option of having breakfast each morning in our room, and tried it the first morning, but then decided we wanted to experience the breakfast buffet instead and switched to that for the other couple of mornings. And I'm glad we did because we sat outside and got to eat breakfast while watching really cute monkeys playing and eating in the trees. This stay was super special not only because we had booked the wellness package and got to experience a whole bunch of activities we otherwise wouldn't have, but because it was also such a tranquil and peaceful place set amongst nature. And getting to have this experience together was the best part!! 

George Town

Planes, trains, automobiles, oh and a ferry have been getting us around Malaysia. We took a 3 hour bullet train from KL to Butterworth before catching a 15 minute ferry across to George Town on the island of Penang. The train was quite a pleasant ride. We booked in business class and the seats were nice and roomy and comfortable. With this fare we were served a hot lunch and an additional snack closer to arrival. The connection to the ferry was easy and attached to the train station at Butterworth by a short covered walkway. We decided to split our time in George Town at two hotels located in different parts of the city. Our first hotel was a short walk from the ferry terminal and was well located in the older part of the city core. 

George Town is a colourful, multicultural city, known for its British colonial buildings, street art, Chinese shophouses, mosques, and has gained the reputation as the gastronomical centre of Malaysia. There is no shortage of places to eat with food hawkers, food markets, and restaurants. The city centre was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 and is where you find Fort Cornwallis, a bastion fort built by the British in the late 18th century. There isn’t much left to see at the site aside from some decommissioned cannons and some empty barracks. We did learn a bit of the fort and city’s history however which made the visit worth it. The Queen Victoria clock tower sits just outside the fort and was dedicated to three queen to commemorate her diamond jubilee. Just outside of the fort is Esplanade Padang Kota Lama, a large park great for gatherings and festivals. Impressive architectural buildings are found all around town including the city hall and town hall buildings. The Pinang Peranakan Mansion built in the late 1890s is a beautiful green mansion that was the former residence of the former residence of the Hai Sen secret society leader. Many buildings unfortunately have come under disrepair and appear to require significant investment to return them to their glory. The Sri Maha Mariamman Temple has the most vibrantly coloured sculptures of gods and goddesses adorning the main gate and facade. 

The large multicultural and religious influence is evident within the city. With Chinese, Indians, Siamese, Malays, Burmese, Arabs, and Europeans all represented in some fashion. The Little India quarter is the epicentre of Indian music, authentic clothing and jewellery shops, exotic spices, and savoury cuisine. We ended up having an Indian dinner one evening at a Michelin recommended restaurant called Sardaarji. The food here originates from the Punjab region in India and was such an explosion of flavours and amazing mixture of spices in every bite. A new food experience we tried was Burmese food. Our dishes were very flavourful and not too terribly spicy. This restaurant appeared to be run by a family and seemed to be more of a locals place, at least while we were there, there were no other tourists. Again no shortage of food options the biggest challenge being what to choose. We sampled as many traditional Malay dishes including Nasi Lemak, and curry dishes as possible. 

Aside from being a foodie’s haven, George Town is also famously known for its street art. Art pieces can be found everywhere and some even include physical objects you can interact with like man riding motorcycle which has an actual motorcycle built into the piece that you can sit on. The vast number of art pieces include murals, metal sculptures, and wall paintings on almost every street corner within the city core. The art pieces are intended to reflect the daily lives of the people of Penang often depicted  in a humorous and fun manner.  

The city is a fairly walkable city though does not have the best sidewalk infrastructure so you are often walking along side traffic. When on a sidewalk you have to be on the lookout for motorists who are trying to bypass traffic. The easiest way around if you are going further than a few blocks is by Grab. 

The Penang Botanic Gardens is a 30 hectare garden established in 1884. The garden today houses a rich variety of flora and fauna with some specific collections of plants like the fern collection, the herb garden, the cactus house and sun rockery. The most unusual and unique tree we saw was the cannonball tree. This tree looks like it is growing coconuts however these hard, woody round cannonball like shells contain a fruit which animals will consume. The tree also grows a beautiful flower. Watch out for wild monkeys, there are everywhere and for the most part leave you alone unless they feel you are threatening them some way which Z found out by taking one step too close to a baby. Mama hisses at him fiercely and probably would have lunged if he didn’t step back. They say never mess with wildlife!

The second part of our stay was in the Gurney area. This area is being converted into more of a commercial district filled with high rises, shopping malls and hotels surrounding some of the older traditional prewar houses and colonial bungalows that have not yet been redeveloped. Gurney Drive is a seafront promenade with large recreational park area, and ample walkways to stroll along the water. It’s famously known for the street cuisine and the seafront hawker’s centre. The area is still under development yet already provides the feel of an upscale area. Our stay here at the just opened (3 weeks in operation) Marriott was fantastic. We had a nicely appointed room with a lovely view of the promenade and waterfront below. 

Next up is the island of Langkawi, a short 20 minute flight away. 

Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia is a melting pot of different ethnicities and religions influenced mainly by Chinese and Indian cultures along with some European and of course the native Malay people. While predominantly a Muslim country, it is a fairly liberal country and very tolerant of other religions all living in harmony together. Overall Malaysia is a fairly safe country and the people are friendly but not overly engaging. The official language of the country is Malay, however English is widely spoken and is taught in school as the government recognized the importance of English as an international language. The best way to get around KL we found is to grab a Grab. Grab is Malaysia’s version of Uber and is readily available everywhere and so convenient to use through their app. We were advised not to use random taxis because you can end up haggling over the price and Grab rides are tracked making them safer. Driving in the city is chaotic to say the least. First, driving is on the other side of what we’re accustomed to and then there are scooters and motorcycles weaving in, out, and around all the cars to get ahead. Trying to cross traffic as a pedestrian is fun too and if you’re not at a traffic light, you just have to launch yourself when a window of less to no traffic comes up.

KL is a big metropolitan city undergoing transformative change with many new skyscrapers lining the skyline. Each of these skyscrapers has unique architectural design and characteristics to them so they aren’t just boring straight up in the sky boring glass buildings. Some of the shapes of the buildings are fascinating as they bend into the sky. Most famously known are the Petronas twin towers, standing at 452 metres (88 floors) with a skybridge  connecting both towers at floor 41 and 42 making them the tallest twin towers in the world and know the second tallest in KL. Designed by an Argentine architect, the towers took only three years to build and are designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art. Tower one was built by the Japanese while tower two was built by the South Koreans and rumour has it they competed with one another to complete their tower first with the Koreans completing theirs one day before the Japanese. Both towers are office buildings with Petronas taking up one entire building. A shopping mall and the Petronas Philharmonic Hall sit below the towers. Just outside the mall on the back side of the towers is a promenade with water fountains that in the evening display a light and music show called Symphony Lake. The towers are impressive to see both in the day and at night when they are lite up. Just completed in November 2023 and now surpassing the twin towers in height is Merdeka 118 Tower standing at 678 metres with 118 storeys. At a cost of $1.5B USD, we learned this tower almost bankrupt the country with corruption, money laundering and embezzlement landing Malaysia’s former Prime Minister in jail. The tower is impressive with its geometric shape and is a mix of hotel, commercial office, and residential space. 

There is no shortage of shopping malls and markets in KL, and given the exchange rate of the ringgit, everything was very inexpensive. While the shopping malls with every brand name and luxury brand under the sun provided a nice respite from the heat and humidity, the street markets were much more interesting to walk through and shop. So many shops selling souvenirs items, clothing, “brand named” shoes, “brand named” purses and wallets. I ended up buying myself a “Coach” wristlet purse. We were here just after Chinese New Year and the malls and many other places were still decorated for the celebrations with red lanterns hanging everywhere and mini mandarin trees situated at entrances of hotels and other buildings. With this being the year of the dragon meant many displays of dragons to be found everywhere as well. 

Where we were staying in KL city centre, you can really see how the new is overtaking the old. KL is experiencing rapid development and gentrification though there are still some hold out landowners who have hung on while development surrounds them. We really got a good glimpse of this from our hotel room and during a walking food tour we took. We’ve discovered one great way to learn about the local culture and food scene is through a food tour. The Sambal Street food tour did not disappoint. Our guide Kiran is a foodie enthusiast (and Miss Malaysia finalist!)who took us through Sambal Street lined with an outdoor food market where mostly locals shop. We ventured into Kampung Baru which is a very authentic old Malaysian neighbourhood filled with old traditional style wooden houses, many on stilts to protect them in the rainy season from flooding. During our four hour food journey we sampled 15 different dishes influenced by a variety of ethnic groups now calling Malaysia home. True to her explanation, Malaysian cuisine is an adaptation of all the foreign cultures and while many dishes appear similar to their origins, they are typically a toned down spicy version that still maintain an explosive of flavour. Our tour started with a visit to a fruit stand where we were able to try some unique fruits that we probably would have otherwise skipped over, like the salak (snake fruit) that on initial appearance certainly would have been a pass. Salak has a scaly, hard outside and is kinda prickly, yet easy to peel and once you get to the inside it looks like garlic cloves. It has a sweet, slightly acidic and firm texture inside, yet is also juicy. We also tried longan which is similar to lychee, and mangosteen. All tasted so amazing and were a great precursor to all the other amazing dishes we were about to experience. One of the other extremely unique fruits we got to try was durian. This foul smelling fruit is actually banned in many of the hotels we stayed in. Durian is definitely unique in look - large, oval and spiky, texture and flavour. The flesh is soft, somewhat custard like and has an oniony flavour. Summed up, an extremely odd fruit but not as pungent tasting as it smells, at least not the Malaysian variety we were told. As part of the experience we got to try our hand in making roti, one of the very popular dishes in Malaysia, obviously influenced by the Indian culture. With 15 dishes, it’s too many to describe each in detail, but some of them were Mee Goreng Mamak, Teh Ais, Nasi Lemak, Satays, and Puiu Bambi. Needless to say we got an amazing sampling of the variety of foods and fabulous flavours Malaysia has to offer. Our tour ended at the Pintasan Saloma Link, a 69 metre long pedestrian and bicycle bridge across the Klang River that brings you back to KLCC just in front of the Petronas towers. The design of the bridge was inspired by an ornamental leaf called Sirih Junjung which is offered at Malay weddings to symbolize unity. The bridge is best visited at night when it comes alive with an ebb and flow of changing colours lighting up the bridge.

There are so many ornately decorated temples, shires and mosques everywhere. We decided not to purposefully visit any, but if we happened to walk by in our exploration, we stopped to admire the decorative building and many statues. We did make a point to visit one religious site called Batu Caves however. This cave complex houses one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India. The limestone forming these caves is said to be 400 million years old. There are 272 brightly coloured stairs leading up into the caves. At the base of the stairs sits the 43 metre tall golden Lord Murugan statue, a Hindu god. The temple within the caves was built in 1920. As you approach the caves and on the surrounding grounds you will encounter troops of monkeys, mostly leaving the tourists alone but are apparently known for stealing people’s phones and bags if not careful. 

Our two and a half days in KL were filled with a lot of sightseeing and a lot of walking. It was about the right amount of time to spend exploring what we wanted to see and do and get a taste of Malay life.

Malaysia here we come!

Our plans to travel to Malaysia have been long in the making. Neither of us having been before thought it a great opportunity to explore somewhere new. Our journey to Malaysia was a bit convoluted but that was all part of the adventure. Our first leg was a 10 hour flight to South Korea leaving mid-day and arriving the next day in the early evening. Flying into Korea we flew over Japan and got a spectacular plane’s eye view of Mt. Fuji. Our layover in Korea was about 6 hours of waiting around in the airport. From Korea we then flew a red-eye 5 hour flight to Singapore. Thankfully we both got some sleep on leg two so when we arrived in the wee early morning in Singapore we weren’t entirely exhausted. We had four hours to kill in Singapore and if there is any airport in the world to have a longer layover, Singapore takes the cake! They have a lot of attractions for visitors to occupy their time with, like visiting an enchanted garden, a butterfly garden, a massive waterfall, and even a movie theatre; no movie for us though. The airport has plenty to do and see including lots of places to shop and eat. Our final leg took us to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and was a quick 35 minute flight on Singapore Airlines that even included a meal service. The service on Singapore Airlines was top notch, so efficient and extremely friendly. Our approach into Malaysia gave us a great view of the landscape and noticed how lush and plentiful their palm oil trees are. Malaysia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil trees and rubber trees. 

We knew we didn’t need a visa to enter, but discovered while boarding our flight over that we were supposed to fill out a digital visitor’s card before arrival. A slight amount of panic set in for me, which then got further exacerbated when Z tried to access the site and it was down for maintenance. Not much we could do besides hope that didn’t slow down our arrival process. We were the first in the immigration line, much to our surprise, no other flights arrived around our arrival time. We both had to individually see an immigration officer and after a couple questions, none of which were anything about the digital visitor’s card, our passports were stamped and we were off to collect our luggage. After three legs on two different airlines and not having our luggage AirTags register where they were since we left on our first flight we were relieved to see our baggage arrive and come off the plane relatively quickly; though a little worse for wear. A 45 minute taxi ride later we arrived at the W Kuala Lumpur around noon; and with crossing the International Date Line to get here, officially 48 hours after we left. 

The W is conveniently located in KL city centre and a short walk to the Petronas Twin Towers, the world’s tallest twin towers. We had a spacious room on the 15th floor with an amazing view of the towers. As in true W fashion, the room had unique decor with beautiful, modern art above the bed and a unique hanging light feature by the bed. Most everything in the room was automated with button controls at the side of the bed. We had a king sized bed, with a chaise lounger and chair off to the side by the floor to ceiling window. Immediately to the right of the entrance door was a walk in closet and just beyond that was a hidden coffee/tea station, mini fridge and elevated table with bar stool. The bathroom was fairly large with a separate soaker tub from the enclosed rain shower and with the toilet room at the back of the room. It was a lovely room and given Z’s loyalty we were surprised with the delivery of a nice bottle of Wolf Blass Shiraz and a cheese tray while we were out and about. Another perk was a welcome gift at check-in which in hindsight was only meant for us to receive one, but when we were shown the cool W KL branded water bottle and asked which colour we’d like, I immediately blurted out “one of each” without thinking and the front desk agent clearly didn’t have the heart to correct me so we got one of each! We later noticed that one of them wasn’t actually branded so we exchanged it at check out and they were so grateful for us pointing out the defect. Score on the water bottles! 

On the 12 floor of the hotel is the Wet deck, aka the pool area and pool bar. After such a long journey we decided to go for a dip and have some lunch before we started exploring KL. The pool was super refreshing from the scorching sun and heat. With humidity the temperature was around 37C with no breeze. The surrounding deck area had plenty of seating, though no real sun loungers ( guess that’s not a thing here?) and more seating under a covered area around the bar. It was a relaxing atmosphere during the day and in the evening becomes more of a “bar scene” with live DJ blasting the tunes. We enjoyed a couple complimentary drinks and canapés there one evening. 

The breakfast restaurant called Flock is a farm to table concept restaurant. The breakfast buffet spread was one of the largest and most diverse we’ve experienced. There was a pastry station towards the entrance of the restaurant and thankfully always far away from where we were seated so we weren’t tempted by the delicious looking treats. The range of food options was vast, including made to order egg dishes, breads and cereal, a large variety of cheeses, live growing lettuce you cut for salad, numerous curry dishes, a noodle station, different meats, a variety of dumplings, fresh fruit, and several different yogurts. There was a variety of fresh juices, smoothies, and power juice mixtures. The options felt endless and then there was even a selection of a la carte items we could order. Needless to say there was no reason to leave breakfast hungry. 

Nagano Snow Monkeys and Disneyland

We took a day trip to Nagano on a bullet train from Tokyo. The journey on the train took about 1 hour 20 mins and was a very smooth trip; even at that speed we were still able to take in the scenery. We had booked our tickets a bit late, so were unable to sit side by side on the way out, but were able to get middle seats with Z sitting behind me. The main purpose of this day trip was to go to Jigokudani Wild Monkey Park to see the snow monkeys. From the train station we had to still take a bus to the park and this part of the journey took us about another hour. From the drop off point we had about a 10 minute walk to the park trailhead through a residential neighbourhood. The walk on the trail was just over 2 km before reaching the actual entrance to where the monkeys were. The park opened in 1964 and provides a rare opportunity to observe wild monkeys in their near-natural environment from a close distance.

The park is home to the Japanese macaque monkeys which visitors can see up close and personal in their natural environment. The habitat has shockingly steep cliffs, with a river flowing in the lower valley and a hot spring pool in which the monkeys bath and chill in the hot waters. The monkeys roam freely around the grounds and amongst the park visitors seemly unbothered by the presence of people. It was fascinating to see monkeys this close and observe their behaviour towards one another, sometimes playing and sometimes appearing to fight with one another. Being so close you could really get a glimpse of their facial features and their fingers and toes and how they used their fingers to grab individual small pieces of grain to eat. There were a couple babies we noticed as well, both being carried on their mother's back. This was truly special experience. 

We went to the monkey park first thing in the morning which meant we still had the rest of the afternoon to explore Nagano. Nagano is famously known for hosting the 1998 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Walking through the city you can see different plaques and monuments symbolizing the games. The city was originally built around the Zenkoji temple which was built in the 7th century. Similar to main temple in Tokyo, the street leading to the temple grounds is lined with shops and eateries. The temple itself is beautiful and ornately decorated, and this temple remains one of the last pilgrimage sites in Japan. This is definitely worth the visit when in Nagano. 

We also spent a day at Disneyland Tokyo which was celebrating its 40th anniversary. After having visited Mickey at two of his other parks, why not take the opportunity to see him and his friends in Tokyo? The park is very similar to Disneyland providing a very classic experience, except the rides where language is spoken were all Japanese which made the Jungle Cruise an absolutely hilarious experience because we had no idea what was being said but the ride was the exact same as in LA's Disneyland so we knew the general script yet still couldn't understand it. A lot of the rides are the same except for a featured ride, Beauty and the Beast. We were lucky enough to ride this ride after standing in line for over an hour only to learn the ride broke down and then wait another 45 minutes to make it through the queue to get a fast pass in hopes the ride would be fixed before the end of the day. Thankfully we noticed on the handy park app that it appeared the ride was fixed and quickly made our way back and queued up once again, this time only the fast pass holders from when the ride broke down were allowed to queue up and so the line flowed a lot faster and we got to experience this really cool unique ride. One of the cool things about Tokyo Disneyland is the different unique food options at the park, like each of the popcorn stands offered a different flavour of popcorn and mickey shaped churros. Most of the characters we saw at the park were the same, but we did get to see Captain Hook and Piglet. The parades were amazing and over the top. The evening one was called Dream of Lights and each float lite up in bright lights and looked really amazing as they passed by the lite up castle. Visiting the park was without a doubt worth it and now only leaves one park to see. 

While we were only in Tokyo for a week, we packed in a lot, got to see a lot of really amazing things and had some really unique and amazing experiences. We'll have to return to explore some more and venture to other areas of Japan as well. 

To travel is to live... until next time... life is good! 

Tokyo

Tokyo uniquely blends ultramodern neon-lite skyscrapers with traditional, historic temples and shrines making it fascinating city to explore. There is no shortage of restaurants or places to shop in the city or any of the nearby prefectures which are easily accessed by Japan's extensive railway transportation network. We arrived at Narita Airport mid-day and after making our way through the long immigration queue for entry, found our way to the attached train station to pick up our Narita Express train ticket for our hour train ride into town. We found Tokyo to be very safe and a culture of people looking out for others. In fact, as we were making our way to the train platform, I had taken off my coat and draped it over my suitcase and at some point it had fallen over without me noticing. A very friendly individual chased me down and returned it to me, which was great because we were there in winter and it was cold. Prior to arriving we had obtained the digital Suica card which made riding most of the railway lines very easy because we just had to tap our phones at the station gate for entry and exit and the amount was automatically deducted from our balance. Reloading the card was super simple and fast too. 

We stayed at the Westin Tokyo, located in the Ebisu neighbourhood and a short walk from Yebisu Garden Place which we discovered was a popular area for locals taking pictures or recording videos probably for social media. The trees lining the pedestrian boulevard were all beautifully lite up with white lights. Also on display here is a five metre tall, three metre wide chandelier called the Baccarat Eternal Lights adorned with 8500 crystal pieces and 250 lights. 

We arrived the day after Christmas and basically all Christmas decorations had already been removed and preparations underway to decorate for New Years. New Years is a big celebration but the focus is on spending it together with family instead of going out to party. We saw a lot of people out shopping the last couple days leading up to New Years and on New Years Eve itself it appeared a lot more people were traveling to be with their families. The Japanese people are a culture rich in traditional and for New Years will display a kadomatsu at the front of a house or store entrance. The kadomatsu, also known as a "gate pine" is meant to bring good fortune and luck for the coming year. Our hotel lobby was still decorated with a beautiful Christmas tree and a miniature winter village with miniature train running through and a moving gondola at the village's mountain. It was quite ornate with a lot of attention to detail spent, but by the second full day we were there, it was all taken down and preparations being made and decorations put up for New Years. The hotel was hosting a New Years celebration for guests and others and seeing as we were there to ring in the New Year and after discovering the real New Years tradition, we decided we would go to the hotel's celebration and enjoy the evening there. It was a black and silver themed masquerade. Going to the hotel's celebration ended up being much easier because we were just an elevator ride away from a very enjoyable celebration with a live band, endless flow of champagne, hors d'oeuvres, and a fake-cash casino where you could play blackjack or roulette. We had a lot of fun particularly playing roulette when at the end of the day you didn't have to worry about losing any money. Most everyone got the dress code memo but one of the tables next to us either didn't or decided to flamboyantly just because. Who knows...

We spent everyday exploring a different area of the city and some of the other surrounding prefectures. There are a lot of similarities in the different areas, namely tall skyscrapers, shopping centres, and lots of restaurants, but there are enough unique characteristics that make them different. Ginza is one such neighbourhood. Known as an upscale shopping area of Tokyo, there are numerous international luxury brand name stores here and where we found and shopped in the flagship and largest store for Uniqlo in the world. This store is situated in an impressive 12-storey building. Another very interesting shopping street is Takeshita Street, situated in the heart of Karajuku, which is a narrow pedestrian only street roughly 350-metres in length. It is lined with shops and restaurants on either side and is jam-packed with people. Wherever you go in Tokyo you will find vending machines selling anything and everything from beverages to random nicknacks and trinkets. While very handy if you need something, it also felt a bit wasteful with all the packing and fuelling a hyper consumerism society. 

Akihabara is known as the geek capital of the world and is known for it electronics retailers giving it the nickname of Akihabara Electric Town. Also very prevalent here are all the neon-lit anime displays on the exteriors of the buildings. We of course visited this area at night to really take in all the anime displays. It was in this district that we also had a very cheesy but unique experience. We read about these novelty themed cafes called Maid Cafes. In these cafes, the waitresses are dressed in maid costumes and treat the customers as "masters" and "mistresses" as if they were in a private home, rather than as cafe patrons. The cafes are not known for their food quality but rather for the unusual presentation and the cutesiness behaviour of the waitresses and them putting on a karaoke performance. It was an interesting, and definitely one and done, experience.

Shibuya is a must see in Tokyo. Famous for the Shibuya crossing, it is also a major commercial and finance centre and is a centre for youth fashion and culture. Also found here are two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station and Shibuya Station. But what most tourists come here for is to experience Shibuya Crossing, a popular pedestrian scramble crossing which stops vehicles in all directions so pedestrians an inundate the entire intersection and cross whichever direction they need. It's common to see people rush into the street to take pictures or video the experience of crossing with thousands of others making the intersection always crowded. The volume of people is pretty constant at all hours of the day, making this the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world with as many as 3000 pedestrians crossing the intersection with each green light. Near Shibuya Crossing and down one of the side streets is where we dined at Genki Sushi Co. Now before anyone gets too excited here and starts to think that I now eat sushi, that's just crazy thought. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is a plethora of food options available in Japan for a non-seafood/fish eater. Genki Sushi Co. is one of those restaurants where you order your individual dishes on a little computer at your seat and then it gets freshly made and delivered via conveyor belt directly to you. To my pleasant surprise I was able to order quite a few dishes here like ramen, edamame, and the very traditional chicken fingers. On the topic of food, Japan also has a lot of very tasty curry dishes and obviously Kobe steak is popular. Monjayaki, shorten to monja, is Japanese pancake like dish that is cooked on a hot griddle at your table and eaten straight from the griddle with a small spatula. Monja comes in many different flavours and various different ingredients but its base consists of finely chopped cabbage and vegetables. The longer the mixture cooks on the griddle the more it becomes crispy and even that much more tasty. 

The district of Asakusa still retains more of a traditionally Japanese atmosphere and is where Senso-ji temple, the oldest temple in Tokyo, originally built in 645 AD is located. The temple was destroyed in World War II and later rebuilt to symbolize the rebirth and peace of the Japanese people. The outer entrance gate leading to the street leading to the temple features a giant paper lantern and four statues representing Buddhist gods on either side. Many Japanese visit Senso-ji temple dressed in the traditional kimono. Leading from the outer gate to the temple's second gate is a 200 metre shopping street filled with souvenir shops and eateries selling traditional dishes and sweets. Adjacent to the temple's main building is the Asakusa Shrine which was built in 1649. The second gate houses two guardian deities of the Buddha statues on either side of the gate. The temple grounds feature a quiet immaculately manicured garden.

Tokyo Tower is an Eiffel Tower inspired lattice tower and operates as a communications and observation tower. We had a lovely view of the tower from our hotel room and at night it was lite up with orange lights. At 333 metres, it is second tallest structure in Japan and is painted white and orange. A fairly quick elevator ride brings you to the main observation deck which gives you a unobstructed 360 view of the city. You can choose to walk up the tower as well. We chose the elevator up and the stairs down. 

One thing we noticed as we explored the various areas of Tokyo was no signs of homelessness. Originally thinking that perhaps it wasn't a problem as it is in other major world cities, we discovered as we explored the government office district one morning that this area seemed to be where the homeless population was located. Walking through this area still felt very safe, no one was aggressive or even openly begging. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government towers have an observatory open to the public and is free. The south observatory was open when we visited and it sits at 202 metres. On a very clear day, which was when we visited, you get an amazing view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. The trip here and the 15 minute wait in the queue for the elevator was well worth it just for that, let alone seeing the entire city from the tower's vantage point. 

As we discovered, Tokyo is filled with many unique experiences. One other unique experience we had was teamLab Planets which is an immersive museum where you become one with the artwork exhibits in the various rooms. One such exhibit is a room filled with knee-high water you walk through and as you move you see illuminated fish "swimming" around you. Another exhibit is filled with fresh flowers hanging from the ceiling which are lower towards you as you sit on the ground. Another room was a maze of giant white balls that changed colour with touch and triggered all other balls nearby to change as well. This was really a unique and cool experience.  

Japan is known for regular seismic activity and has pretty much experienced an earthquake of relative magnitude every year since 2001. While we were travelling back on the train to the airport all of a sudden everyone's phones lite up with an emergency alert notifying us of an earthquake that had just hit. Thankfully for us, the earthquake was centred on the Noto peninsula on the other side of Japan and did not have a direct impact on us or our travels, but at a 7.5 magnitude the earthquake caused significant damage from the initial shaking and then following tsunami. Over 200 souls were lost making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in modern history. The earthquake was felt all the way in Nagano, about 200km away from Noto and where we had visited just a few days prior. We are blessed that we were not in the area, but felt horrible for those directly impacted. 

Spending a week in Tokyo gave us a good glimpse of what the city has to offer, though it felt as though we only scratched the surface. This is definitely a destination to come back to visit again.