Kyoto I

Hi all!

After arriving super early and settling my luggage at my hotel in Kyoto (~7-ish), I set out to explore the city I was most excited about and have captured my heart (and my wallet). A good tip is to buy the 1 day bus pass (600 yen) and you’re all set for exploring the city. The subway pass (600 yen) is not necessary for getting to most of the attractions so don’t make the same mistake I did by buying it. But if you really do need the subway pass, buy the subway + bus pass combo. That will save you about 100 – 200 yen as compared to buying them separately (which I did because the tourist offices were not yet opened when I arrived in Kyoto – downside of arriving too early).

I started out with the furthest place from the city centre – Shimogamo shrine. It is one of the most important and oldest shrine in Kyoto, alongside the Kamigamo shrine. The shrine is free to explore and because it is a lot further out, you only get a handful of tourists at the site. Most of the patrons are devotees which made this visit a nice, zen start to my temple/shrine visit in Kyoto.

I find this pretty interesting – the tying of a rope around a tree/rock etc. to keep spirits tied to them and prevent them from harming others.

Totally in awe at how peaceful and pretty this place is.

Next is the famous golden temple – Kinkakuji. At 400 yen/adult, it’s really quite an underwhelming place. Even when I arrived at 9 am (just as it open its doors), there was already a long queue in place. The crowd was huge and once inside, you basically move with the flow. Aside from the golden pavilion, there’s nothing else of interest in this area. So I quickly left for Ryoanji.

Ryoanji, or the stone garden, (500 yen/adult) was surprisingly a superbly nice place to visit. Other than a stone garden that strangely made me feel quite calm as I sit on the wooden steps and zone out, there was also a beautiful garden behind the temple compound. The “zone out” was nice until I was almost “kicked” off the steps by another tourist.

It is pretty unique that the cleansing basin is in the design of a coin.

Look at the beautiful weeping sakura trees!

Yudoufu – a vegetarian tofu restaurant located within Ryoanji. Because of the high quality of water in Kyoto, tofu (despite being a common dish) is one of the specialty items. I was a bit hesitant to eat here because of mixed reviews, plus, it is pretty pricey (3300 yen) for a tofu only set meal.

But I don’t regret it. I think of it as paying for an experience and a great view of the blooming sakura in the garden. For those who are more meat-based eaters, dislike tofu or considerably plain tasting meals, then this might not be a place you would enjoy. I was more focus on the texture of the tofu and its raw taste so this made me appreciate the meal a lot more. Also, I generally consume a lot of tofu on a daily basis as my source of protein, so I am quite used to it.

Just look at this, where else will you be able to dine with such a view!

A simple delicacy of tofu in clear water that goes well with plain rice, served with a side of different pickles, tofu skin, tofu-version of a pudding and salad. It’s a simple meal but it is made with high quality ingredients that came together to make it a refreshing and cleansing lunch to the palette. I was also rather appreciative of the simplicity of this meal that made tofu the focus rather than all the flavours that come with the addition of various condiments. It was a good meal and a good lesson for the heart.

After the meal, I made my way to Nijo castle (600 yen/adult). There was a long queue of about a 15 mins wait to get my ticket. But the weather that day started to warm up a bit so I was feeling quite warm in my sweater, jacket, heat-tech leggings and jeans. It made me wonder if I should go shopping for some summer clothes because I only brought stuff for cooler weather. Fortunately, I didn’t need to make any purchases because it started pouring rain over the next few days and the temperature dropped.

As with most castle, I went in to have a look around but it was not of much interest to me.

After the castle visit, I groggily made my way to Nishiki market after dozing off in the bus I thought to be heading in the right direction before realising I was moving in the opposite direction after 20 mins. Silly and tired me. If I was leaving for home right after Kyoto, I would have bought some food items from here to bring back because they looked really good. However, I had another week in Japan so I could only feast with my eyes.

Having heard good things about the elephant factory coffee from Simon and Martina’s vlog about Kyoto, I headed there for their coffee and cheesecake (1100 yen in total). It’s a really small and quiet place with a laid-back atmosphere.

Coupling the bitter black coffee with a dense, slightly sweet cheesecake really hits the spot for a mid afternoon perk me up.

I left the cafe for boroniya – a bread shop that came highly praised from Simon and Martina’s vlog. As I made my way through a leisurely stroll across the city, I came across this river view that made me think of it as a classic Japanese scene. I loved it. Can I also highlight how clear the river water is – I’ve not seen such clear waters in the city other than in Japan.

The bread here has this croissant style edge with a soft, fluffy interior. I got a slice of the butter flavoured one for breakfast the next day and an apple and cinnamon one for desert. Both were so wonderful that I came back on my last day in Kyoto to buy a loaf of earl grey flavoured bread for breakfast for the rest of my remaining days in Japan. It was love and sadness when I ate my last piece. The earl grey was my favourite of the lot but I am biased towards most tea-flavoured things when they are good (since good ones are hard to come by).

A quick snap in the middle of the road when the light was red.

Yasaka shrine

I absolutely adore the vibes coming off all these olden architecture.

Hokanji temple ( or the Yasaka pagoda) situated right in the middle of olden Kyoto. There’s a number of kimono rental shops lining the streets and you’ll see tourists hobbling around in the uncomfortable wooden clogs that pairs with a kimono.

The packed streets of Higashiyama as I made my way to Kiyomizudera temple (400 yen/adult). Fortunately, I arrived at the temple just as the sun was starting to set so this shrouded the temple in a beautiful warm glow that made the visit so much more special.

Some devotees praying in the temple.

Cute little love stone. It is said if you can walk and touch the stone with your eyes close, you’ll be with your partner for a long time.

I just can’t get over how rejuvenating and heart warming to witness the setting sun as the sakura sways and falls in the cool spring eye. It was truly a moment for strengthening the tired soul in me.

Headed to the Gion district and spotted 2 geishas and a maiko rushing for their evening duties. I actually saw 2 geishas standing in an alleyway (which I was supposed to turn into but missed) just off the main street waiting for their taxi. So when I turned around to walk into the alley, I was shocked by how white their faces are from the powder. So I stood around, wanting to snap a picture but feeling it would be quite rude. But their taxi came quickly and they rushed off.

After turning into the alleyway, I was just wandering about the area hoping to spot more of them. Then I saw a maiko getting off a cab and rushing into a restaurant, guided by the restaurant employee. It was quite a memorable experience even though I don’t have any shots of it. So cool!

Walked over to poncho to feel the vibe before heading back to the hotel for some random dinner nearby before resting for the day. Till the next post, bye!

Hanoi day 4 & 5

Hi all!

This is my last post from my trip to Hanoi and today we’ll start off by walking into the Old Quarters after the early morning shower where we were “forced” to hideout in KFC (the one near Hoan Kiem lake).

Maybe it was the weather (Vietnamese see rain as luck), maybe it was a coincidence, but we came across 3 couples getting married that day. Marriage in Hanoi was an interesting affair. A car will stop in the middle of a narrow road to allow the couple to alight. At the same time, other cars will start blaring their horns due to the road hold-up while motorcyclists calmly navigate through the road obstacles. The couple would alight to a medley of poppers releasing confetti as they walk down the short aisle to a temporary tent where the ceremony would be held. It was an interesting blend of road obstruction, joyous ceremony and popping confetti.

I just pitied whoever had to clean up the roads, way to many confetti everywhere. After the unexpected ceremony, we wandered into one (of the many) coffee shops that littered the streets. We had a latte made from weasel coffee beans. It was good and the coffee high was right smack in the ass.

Of course, after the coffee break, there was a mad scramble for the loo amongst the four of us. There’s not a lot of washrooms in the old quarters and when we found one, despite how dodgy it looks (it was in a narrow “alley” between two shops), we went in as the bladder call was waay too urgent. Lol! There’s 2 kind of toilets here, the normal sitting kind and then there’s the squat ones. For the sitting one, you get to have some privacy as it is in one little room/cubicle. But for the squat kind, it’s a full-on open concept. Firstly, there’s two squat toilets facing each other. Next, there’s absolutely NOTHING giving you any form of privacy.  People can just go in and out of the washroom and see you doing your business. Can we say awkward… It was a serious toilet culture shock to me, hahaha.

So after the toilet break, we wandered about the market section in the old quarters where I saw the slaughtering of a porcupine. Wanted to take a picture here, but I couldn’t get my camera to focus. Apparently, my brother switch it to manual focus without letting me know and he didn’t switch it back to auto-focus. So irritating! Do anyone else get like that? I mean I get really annoyed when people borrow my things and don’t return it in its original state or promptly. It’s like I lend something to you and I still have to prompt you to return it to me??? I feel it’s basic/common courtesy to just return things promptly and in its original condition after you’ve finish using it.

Enough of my short rant and let’s continue :). We eventually came across Hang da galleria (somewhere within the old quarters area) and saw some art works/pictures and did some shopping before lunch.

Lunch was at Old Hanoi restaurant that my uncle had introduced to us and I’ve also seen a number of reviews raving about this place on TripAdvisor.

Old Hanoi Restaurant

Address: 04 Ton That Thiep, Hanoi

They certainly do have a wide array of dishes. Maybe we didn’t order the correct ones, but the food held no wow factor. Though they did have this crab soup pho (I can’t really remember the exact name now) but it was interesting. The tomato taste is quite strong though and I couldn’t really taste any crab so….

Anyway, one of the dish we ordered was fried tilapia and we were kinda expecting a single, big fish NOT small baby tilapias. Seriously, it’s kinda disturbing and cruel to kill so many tilapias just to make a single dish 😦 .

After lunch, we headed over to the Temple of Literature. It was here that I got my first taste of tourist influx within the Hanoi city. It’s a beautiful temple compound with too many tourist in a single location. Maybe I was jaded from the past few days where contact with other tourists were kept to a minimum. Yes, there were tourists around but there’s a limit to the number of tourists that can seat in a single boat in Halong Bay or even interested in seeing the perfume pagoda on a rainy day.

Here’s an interesting pattern on the roof-top of the temple

After the temple visit, we got lost, wandering in circles trying to find the Hoa Lo prison. The prison provided some information to the Vietnam War but it was severely biased in their POV especially regarding the American prisoners, which is expected, so I would take things with a pinch of salt.

We ended the day by walking over to Hoan Kiem Lake to shoot some night shots of the turtle tower (see below) which I remembered seeing in Running Man so heh.

We practically crawled down the street in search for our dinner venue like a bunch of starving zombies. But, where it was supposedly located, you’ll find a missing 34 shop. Just continue walking further down the street and you’ll be able to find the restaurant.

Restaurant 96

Address: 34 Gia Ngu, Hoan Kiem 

I think the dish below is called Chả cá thăng long. It’s a Vietnamese style fish pan-fried with tumeric and dill and eaten with noodles. It’s definitely one of the best dish we’ve ordered from the place (or even Hanoi). Their chicken pho was nothing much to rave about while the other dishes were mediocre but nothing too crazy. If you’ve a chance, you should definitely try out this dish!

The next morning view, I visited the lake to get some pictures to portray the difference in day and night scenery. Plus, it is nice to see so many old folks coming out at 5-6 am in the morning to exercise. The way the flowers adorned a portion of the lake really added live and beauty to this place. If I had the time, I can definitely see myself having breakfast by the lake, chilling.

And I’ll end this post with the empty streets of Hanoi that is rarely seen unless it’s early in the morning. Bye!

Hanoi day 3

Hi all!

Day 3 in Hanoi was probably the most challenging trip for me (and the most worrisome one). A day before I flew to Hanoi, I had a random hyperventilation attack which entitled a visit the hospital. Since I was on holiday in December, I was pretty stress-free. Hence, it was unlikely that the attack was induced by stress. The doctor also commented that the attack happens more commonly to females and as of now, they have no idea what the possible trigger for the attack could be. And it is with this fear that I would experience a sudden hyper-ventilatory attack, that I attempted to conquer the steps to the pagoda.

The day begun with a short rainfall which occurred intermittently till late evening. Our guide for the day, phượng (it means phoenix and I had to google translate it from English to learn the spelling in Vietnamese) led us to the Yen River. The ride, which took about an hour or so, was supposedly supposed to be romantic and I can sort of see why. But when it was drizzling and our seats had puddles of water on it … wet butts, not so romantic anymore. Lol.

After “docking” our little sampan boat, we headed up the slippery slope to Thien Cung, which means Heavenly Kitchen. We entered through the South gate (pictured below), which had Chinese characters decorated along its walls. According to our guide, the language Vietnamese originated from Chinese as the people of Vietnam tried to make sense of these characters and over time, it evolved into the current Vietnamese we know today. Pretty cool huh? It also explains why I could understand certain Vietnamese words since its pronunciation bears a close resemblance to its Chinese counterpart. 

Within the beautiful temple compound, despite the slight drizzle, the air was fresh (compared to the city) and it felt good when I took a deep breath. The hills which surrounded the temple also created a serene backdrop which added to the calmness in the area.

Here’s a funny frontal angle of a stone tortoise

After the temple visit, we had lunch before we tackled the steps to the perfume pagoda. You can tell from the massive lack of pictures along the way to the pagoda that I was simply trying to survive the climb. The roads appeared to be a mix of gravel (?) and rocks that had a smooth marble texture and finishing. It was slippery (I almost fell a couple of times), the steps became much higher nearer to the pagoda and for someone of my stature, I was practically doing 90 degree leg raise the whole time. Plus, I’m not the fittest person around. But anyway, I managed to make it to the cave and here’s a picture of its iconic entrance, which supposedly resembled the mouth of a dragon.

Just before I exited the cave, I thought the light filtering in made for a nice shot.

On the way back, we spotted a few men whacking the water with a pole. Apparently, it’s their attempt at fishing. But I don’t get how the fishes will appear. Won’t the fishes swim away if they felt this kind of disturbance to their home? #sobefuddled.

And here’s a selfie act caught in action, lol. Seriously, the boat is pretty unstable and we’re all not wearing life jackets. But then again, yolo!

And dinner for the day was bbq pork with noodles (it was super good and I highly recommend it)

and a vegetable, noodle rice roll. The roll was pretty plain by itself, but kind of refreshing at the same time because of the crunchiness of the vegetables and the mint leaves. Till the next time, bye!