Himeji Castle

When we originally started planning our trip to Japan, the idea was never to spend our three weeks there in November. Our dates were set for October, but things turned out so beautifully with Japan putting on its autumn cloak in November. From the start, I never thought I would see a cherry blossom whilst […]

Best Fast Food Ever – Cambodian Fried Ice Cream.

I think something got lost in translation here because there’s nothing fried about this ice cream. Made in front of you while you wait, it is essentially a combination of fresh fruit and milk (could have been custard – was too fascinated to ask!), churned on a frozen flat surface. After being hand churned into […]

Cambodia – place of a thousand temples

We visited four temples in total, and there were many more. We slipped away from Angkor Wat just at the tour buses started to pile up, and also went to see Bayon with the serene smiling faces. We went to a temple where there ‘were no other tourists’ and played at Indiana Jones, and then […]

The last thing I ever thought I’d eat in Hanoi.

Traveling with two kids (whose taste buds are at various stages of development) means that every now and again we need to find our way to a pizza/pasta place, or our kids would just fade away. Eating apps have become very useful during our travels and scouting child-friendly joints our specialty. Here we are in […]

Vietnam – Mai Chau Valley

Visiting rural Vietnam, when you are in the north of the country, invariably includes a stay in Mai Chau Valley, approximately 140km west into the mountains from Hanoi. Here it’s lovely to cycle past rice paddies, on neat cemented roads, or take a hike through some of the parts inaccessible by anything but a pair […]

Koyasan

When spending so much time as we did in Japan you tend to open yourself to a level of experience that wouldn’t be possible on a quick ‘highlights’ tour. This is how we found ourselves on a hill – Mount Koya – sleeping over in a Buddhist temple in the town of Koyasan, finally orbiting […]

Miyajima

Visiting Miyajima was one of the highlights of our trip, being such a diverse and interesting experience. It was like visiting a mini version of Japan, as this small island sums up all the things to enjoy in Japan in one go. There is the Toril Gate, standing like a bastion in the bay and […]

Kimono

This was such a fun thing to do with my daughter, who loved the well-oiled machine of ‘getting dressed in a Kimono’ in Kyoto. These type of shops are found all over Japan, as locals also use them for weddings and other ceremonies. Here are some photos of us picking our kimonos – we were […]

Kyoto – Nara

This one turned out more adventurous than we anticipated, as we got mugged and laughed as other got mugged in turn. Yip, folk, you can get mugged in Japan by deer. Makes for a nice change 😉 Here some photos of an epic day, which the children loved. Needless to say, the deer got their […]

Kyoto – Arashiyama

It seems to me as we’ve slowly slipped down a steep slope to tourist mania. Somehow in Tokyo, I got the feeling that the city just absorbed everybody, with tourists melting in with the rest. In Kyoto, things were different – there were rivers of crowds at some of the sites, and at others, there […]