Singapore in 2 days

I’d always wanted to visit Singapore, but never really had the chance. Sure, I’d transited through Changi Airport before, but that doesn’t count. This time around, I planned a 48 hour layover in Singapore.

Being my first time in Singapore and with limited time, I decided to skip some of outskirt touristy stuff and shift focus instead on doing a bit of sightseeing around the downtown/city center area. To truly experience Singapore I spent most of my time walking around the the city waterfront. The waterfront promenade is central to so many attractions and landmarks, from ritzy 5-star hotels, to the Singapore Flyer and Merlion Park. Merlion, a half-lion & half mermaid, is like a landmark for Singapore.

Merlion Statue

Marina Bay

Then I did a bit of back-tracking towards areas such as Clarke Quay and the business district.  Then over the helical bridge, and all the way around towards Marina Bay. The promenade towards Marina Bay takes you on the famous F1 course and many restaurants and outside food alleys.

Fullerton Hotel

Part of Formula 1 track

Marina Bay is a modern place and offers a completely different view with the setting of the sun. The buildings are huge that dominates the downtown skyline. Its a nice place to wander around with plenty of shops, casino and you can go all the way up to the roof top garden.

Marina Bay

The cityscape changes dramatically in the night.I spent a few hours in the evening walking around the bay.  Its definitely worth to see the building spectacle at night

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Tokyo in 48 hours

My first impression of Tokyo was wow! its busy, chaotic, crowded, kind of surreal.  Its vibrant, fun and full of contrasts. You'll see traditional japanese buildings surrounded by modern skyscrapers, congested blocks of tall buildings but neatly lined with trees everywhere, absolutely clean streets but yet not a single trash can anywhere , toilets that requires an user manual. You can find everything from temples and parks, vending machines that sells everything imaginable, futuristic skyscrapers, fantastic restaurants, designer shops. There is something for everybody.

I spent the first day around Shinjuku & Shibuya. There is nothing touristy in Shinjuku but its very convenient location wise with Shinjuku train station, where you can take a train to anywhere in Tokyo and with all the major American hotels around it.

Shinjuku Buildings

The district of Shibuya is one of Tokyo's more famous regions, with the popular Meiji Shrine nearby as well as neon signs in just about every place imaginable. Shibuya was full of energy, bright neons, people and lots and lots of tiny restaurants and shops! You can spend an entire day walking around the area eating and shopping. And, there is the world famous Shibuya Crossing! My, that must be the biggest and most interesting pedestrian crossing . With one of the busiest subway lines in Japan, the mass entrance and exit of people produces the biggest crossing I have ever, and probably will ever see. Crossing it was pretty exciting, too! With people all around you, it was easy to lose track of which section of the crossing you were planning to go to.

Shibuya Crossing before the light turned green

After

A 10 minute walk from Shibuya you will find Meiji Shrine, as it is called in Japanese. Meiji shrine is in the middle of a huge park which very much feels like walking through a dense forest. It is a Shinto shrine. You could easily recognise that it is a shinto shrine by the torii gates that are found at the entrance and along the walkway leading to the shrine.

Torii gate at the entrance

There were also sake and wine barrels displayed along the way that were offered to the shrine. And an interesting thing was this huge tree which was surrounded by various boards with wooden tables right outside the shrine which was full of wishes and prayers of people from all around the world (judging by different languages)

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Wooden prayer cards

Empty donated Sake Barrels 

The next day I visited the Imperial Palace and Roppangi area of Tokyo. 

Roppongi is a nice district in Tokyo, home to most of the upscale hotels and various embassy/consulates including the American Consulate. Roppongi an interesting place for sure, but there's just a different feel to it than everywhere else I went in Tokyo. It's far more convenient than Shinjuku to most business, has a far wider food selection nearby and center to nightlife in Tokyo. I will definitely stay here if I happen to visit Tokyo again.

I guess that's finally all of my trip to Tokyo. Tokyo has been absolutely amazing.

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Hong Kong in 48 hours

On our way back from Thailand, we had a nice 2-day layover in Hong Kong and were able to go into Kowloon, HongKong Island, go to Victoria’s Peak, ride the Star Ferry, and all great things. 

We landed at the Hong Kong International airport which is built on an island by land reclamation. For the "Extreme Engineering" fans, Hong Kong Airport itself can be an attraction. The huge terminal is an impressive sight. Despite being one of the largest and busiest airport, it was pretty painless to navigate through the terminal building and pass through immigration, baggage claim and customs.

We took the airport express train which zips you from the airport to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The station and the ticket counter is inside the airport itself and arguably the most efficient and cost effective way to reach Kowloon or Hong Kong island. From the station there are free shuttles that will take you to all major hotels.




Hong Kong has many sights to see. Since we had less than two days there, we narrowed it down to seeing Victoria Peak and the Victoria Harbor which are must sees. Victoria Peak offers some fabulous views of the Harbor and Kowloon. The Peak Tram takes you to the top of the peak. However be prepared to wait in the long line to board the tram. We went on a weekday but still had to wait over 30 mins to get on it. The ride on tram itself gives you some spectacular view of city skyline. There are many restaurants, shopping and walking trails at the top. We ended up having lunch at one of the tourist trap restaurant and spent couple of hours walking around.The tram on the way back was empty so we could move on either sides of it to checkout the views.

View from Victoria Peak;

We spent rest of the day in and around Hong Kong central, which is where all the banks and other big businesses are. It is also home for the most expensive hotels, restaurants and designer stores. We walked around the the central district admiring the tall buildings. Most of the streets were very crowded especially the streets around Time Square and SoHo. We also took the pedestrian escalator which is the world’s longest escalator system that connects downtown financial district to the mid-levels neighborhood of condominium towers.In the evening we did the Harbour cruise on the Star Ferry. There are plenty of other cruise operators that you can choose from if you like the usual luxury amenities, but Star Ferry is very popular and is one of the icons of Hong Kong. It carries passengers across Victoria Harbor between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island and offers magnificient views of the harbor and city skyline. We got off at Kowloon and walked past the famous Peninsula Hotel. And yeah I was not aware of the world famous restroom on top of the hotel. Apparently the main attraction of the Peninsula Hotel are the restrooms on the top where the urinals line a floor-to-ceiling glass wall viewing the harbour and Hong Kong Island. who knew!

The next day we took a cab to the airport express train station. I was pleasantly suprised that the train station turned out to be just like an airport, it had check-in counters of all major airlines.You basically check-in your bags and collect your boarding passes right there. All we had to do after that is to board the train to the airport. At the airport we directly went through the security and almost had 3 hours until boarding.The Hong Kong airport facilities are amazing with over 40 restaurants,160 retail outlets and free wi-fi. We spent lot of time walking around the shopping area and for awhile I forgot that I was in an airport, it was like wandering in a shopping Mall. And what can I say, there was a "Popeyes" right there, there are hardly any in San Francisco bay area, so I just could not miss the oppurtunity to grab some chicken before heading towards our gate. -

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Day trip to Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Next day we decided to take a day trip to Phi Phi Island. We were so surprised that actually this hopping island tour from Phuket came with many different kind of packages and varying prices as well. We booked the most economical version of the day trip to Phi Phi Islands via ferry at our hotel. As usual, the package we bought included shuttle transfer from hotel to the pier.  We were ready for the pick-up at 7am. A shuttle van picked us at our hotel on time and there was a fair bit of waiting around for other travelers at other hotels, then it took about  an hour to get to the pier in Phuket.

The ferry to Phi Phi departs at 8:30 am from the pier. The pier was a bit crowded with both tourists as well as locals.I  think there are only 2-3 boats leaving to phi phi every mornings.The ferry goes across Andaman sea to Phi Phi Islands in about 2 hours.   Phi Phi Islands, where they filmed the movie "The Beach" is situated between the large Island of Phuket and the Andaman Sea. 

The island is so small there are no cars, but plenty of young tourists all around.  It's really crowded by the ferry dock and the main street.Getting from the boat to the main street,you have to pass about 20 touts for tours, boat hire, etc. The main street opens out a bit after a hundred meters, and you have a clear view of the Maya bay & beach. Maya Beach is known to be one of the world's most beautiful beaches. I am not really a beach person but It is really a tropical paradise with beautiful strip beach between two limestone cliff islands and has all the hotels, beach bars, restaurants, diving and climbing shops. No wonder its so popular among the adventurous backpackers from all over the world. We had a great time hanging out at the beach and exploring the island. But the heat was still bothering me. Just wished we had an extra day here so that we could enjoy the island in the evening when its much cooler. God, it was so hot that I thought I might fry, no kidding.

Maya Bay @ Phi Phi Islands

Some parts of the Island are just breathtaking, whereas some parts aren't so. The islands are gorgeous with clean beach and breathtaking back-drop, but that's the perception from the boat. Once you get on the islands, then you find all the things you are trying to evade by taking a vacation, meaning noisy crowds, overcrowded restaurants, leaving on a schedule, no relaxation, etc. Still a trip to Phuket is not complete without visiting phi-phi island. So even a cramped day great day trip to the island is worth it with plenty of  adventure. If I go again, I would probably prefer staying on Phi Phi island for a few nights, rather than doing a cruise from Phuket. 

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Phuket and Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

We arrived in Phuket after 15 hours on the plane (or 18 or maybe 20 hours, I have lost count). It was a big mess outside the airport with tons tourists who had just arrived, resort buses & taxis everywhere and very bloody hot !. Luckily Le Meredien (our hotel) had a kiosk at the airport and they helped us to get a cab right away. The Le Meredien resort was really nice, we checked-in and just collapsed for few hours in our room before venturing out to have a quick look at the night life.

Our Hotel staff recommended going to Patong Beach area for the night. Its like a downtown of Phuket island filled with bars/night clubs and restaurants, ofcourse then there is the beach. At night the place completely transforms. The main street with all the bars is blocked off and a party atmosphere takes over with heaps of tourists. I must say it was rather daunting navigating through the crowded street. Every stall owner yells and grabs at you as you walk passed them so we have said 'no thank you' about 5000 times. My god did that get annoying after the 100th time.

Anyways, people come to Phuket for the beaches.Phuket does have rather a lot of very nice stretches of sand.The 3 main tourist beaches of Patong, Karon and Kata are in the southern half of the island. We spent the next day hanging around Karon and Kata beaches. Kata seemed to be more popular with younger people. There were lots of backpacker type accommodation nearby and no shortage of internet cafes.

The next day we went on a day trip to Phang Nga bay.Phang Na bay region is dotted with hundreds of small limestone islands in the archipelago. A trip to Phang Nga Bay is part of many visitors holiday to the Phuket area.

First we went to the James Bond island which is amazing . The island is not really called "James Bond" of course - that's because scenes from the 1974 film 'The Man with the Golden Gun' were shot here. The island is called Khao Ping Gan, named after a leaning rock on the island, and the one that's in all the photos There were lots of tourists and we all had to line up climbing up and down the stairs leading up to the rock. 

James Bond island

On the way to Koh Panyee from James Bond Island we stopped at an island used as a base for kayaking tours. You can kayak through the tunnels and caves of Phang Nga Bay . We went kayaking around inner cores of islands only accessible at low tide due to the caves was a great experience 

Next, we stopped at Panyee village (Koh Panyee). Panyee village took about  30 minutes  from James Bond Island on the longtail boat. It is a floating village and quite an impressive place to look at. It's a maze of houses, paths, elevated walkways, everything built over the water on stilts! Boats everywhere. You can't get anywhere without a boat. But is equally an odd place when you when you think about it. It's what I would call a micro-society. Everything is built raised on wooden stilts, there's no livelihood here except fishing, and you can do that without living in such an odd place.  

Approaching towards Koh Panyee

It also has the tourist side, every day while the tours arrive there are stalls selling souvenirs, necklaces, shirts, shells, sarongs and much more. By the time we left, it was well after 5pm, and as we chugged back in the long tail boat back to the mainland, it was close to sunset.

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