Egypt Guided Tour - Cairo (Dec 2004)

On our final day in Cairo where we get a transfer from hotel to airport, our flight out was in the evening. With time to spare, we decided to search for a place recommended in the Lonely Planet. With help from the hotel staff and a map, we located "El Fishawy" Coffeehouse (top row) to try their famous coffee. We also saw many tourists there with the Lonely Planet (Egypt) guide-book in their hands. :-)

(Bottom row) Notice the shops and street names did not even have an English alphabet in it. There was also a bazaar teeming with people.

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In Egypt, we started our tour from Cairo, flew to Luxor, took a cruise down the Nile to Aswan and then flew back to Cairo.

We joined Insight Vacations for this 9-day guided tour. While I am preparing the photos, do check out the guide books from Amazon.com.

Dubai (Dec 2004)

Back then, the Dubai taxi meters jumped at 50 cents per click! We learnt quickly to take buses.

The shopping malls in Dubai are huge. Top row 1st pic is Mercato Mall. 2nd row 1st pic is the Egyptian themed Wafi City Mall. You should try the Abra ride (top row 2nd pic) while in Dubai. It is near the Spice Souk (top row 3rd pic) and Gold Souk (2nd row 3rd pic). If you like luxurious living, why not drop by Burj Al Arab (2nd row 2nd pic) for a drink or high tea?

Wild Wadi (3rd row 1st pic) water theme park is near the Burj. You may also like to check out the Hard Rock Cafe (3rd row 2nd pic) in Dubai. The Jumaira Beach Park (3rd row 3rd pic) charged 5 Dhs per entry.

My travel experience

Let us take a break here before I upload more travel photos..

So, how do we travel?  We started our Europe trips with guided tours and later realised we could easily get around, as long as we can speak English and have a map to guide us.

In 2003, we started our Europe tour by joining the Trafalgar tour group in Rome for a grand Italy tour (http://exotic-italy-notes.blogspot.com/).  Our local travel agent booked our flights separately for us after confirming our tour package.  We "discovered" the ease of internet flight booking in 2004 and booked our subsequent flights with the most economical airlines thereafter.

In 2004, we took advantage of an airline's (Emirates) promotion of providing discounted hotel stay on transit and extended our vacation to that country (Dubai) after our main tour with Insight Vacations in Egypt.

While booking flights, we realized the conveniences of hotel confirmation. We started reading hotel reviews on http://www.TripAdvisor.com.

We made our most "daring" trip by booking only return flights and the first 3-night hotel stay in Athens, Greece, during Summer 2006. Majority of the trip was really free-and-easy, when we booked our next hotel stay via internet or phone the day before we travelled there. The Lonely Planet - Greece guide helped us a lot in Greece. We missed our ferry once and had to extend our stay at one of the hotels for extra nights. We were lucky there were vacancies, although we had to change rooms.

In Japan (2007), we foresaw possible language problem and pre-booked all our hotel stays. It is important to bring along a printed copy of the confirmation email, together with the hotel's address and map (if possible). Our travel guide for Japan was Rough Guide - Japan.

In all our trips (both guided and free and easy), it is useful to bring along at least 1 guide book (either borrowed or bought). During the free time for guided tours, the guide book referred us to some interesting side-places for our extra photo-shoots. Our favourite guidebooks packed with photos, illustrations and maps are from the Eyewitness Travel Series.

We learned during our travels to always be patient with others and always have a sense of humour. Time is at our disposal since we are on vacation.

I hope the photos inspire you and the Travel Guides help you on your next trip to the country. :-)

Greece (Aug 2006) - Athens

Our 3-week Greek Odyssey started in Athens. Here, we visited the Parthenon (top row, middle pic) on the Acropolis (the first of many hills we did not realize we would be climbing to see the archeological sites), and we also saw the Caryatid Porch of Erechtheion (top row, 3rd pic), supported on the heads of 6 shapely maidens (caryatids).

The middle row shows the Parliament building in Syntagma (1st pic), ruins on Ancient Agora (2nd pic) and a tombstone on the "Street of Tombs" (3rd pic).

The bottom row shows the reflection of the Acropolis (1st pic), Greece flag (2nd pic) and one of few cow figurines (last pic) scattered around the city. The one you see is titled "Greek Time". :-)

Greece - Delphi, Olympia, Nafplio

We spent a night in Delphi, where we saw a gigantic winged sphinx (top row, middle pic) in the Delphi museum the next day before we left for Olympia (middle row, 1st pic). In Olympia, we visited the place where they lit the first Olympic flame (middle row, 3rd pic). We next stayed 4 nights in Nafplio (bottom row, 1st pic), where we made day trips to Mycenae to see the Lion Gate (bottom row, middle pic) and the theatre of Epidavros (bottom row, last pic), where a coin dropped in the centre can be heard from the highest seat.

Greece - Crete

We started our island-hopping by spending 7 days on Crete.

We stayed in the old Capital, Hania, for 3 nights (top row, first 2 pics). We made a day-trip to Rethymo (formally a fortress). We then moved to the current Capital, Heraklio (also known as Iraklio) (middle row, first 2 pics), to spend the remaining days. We visited the Iraklio museum where, among other artefacts, we saw a headless girl sitting on a swing (middle row, 3rd pic). We made day-trips to Chersonisos (top row, 3rd pic), Archanes and Knossos (palace ruins, 3rd row).

Greece - Santorini & Mykonos

Our final 2 stops in our Greek adventure were on the enchanting islands of Santorini and Mykonos.

As with most Greek sites, Santorini town is situated high above sea level. We were fortunate to witness a wedding on the island while having dinner on our first night. From the coast, it is 588 steps up to the town. You can either climb up with your legs, take a donkey ride or go by the cable car. Santorini was formed after a big volcanic eruption. It is well known for its many white buildings. It was said the most beautiful sunsets in the world can be seen from Santorini.
Mykonos is situated in the centre of the Aegean Sea. The pelican is the official bird of Mykonos. The town is a maze of shops on the red-stone pavement. It has a hip nightlife, with lots of people on the street, even at 1 am.

We completed our journey by taking a ferry back to Piraeus (a port on the mainland) and took the connecting train back to Athens for our flight back.

Below are some travel guides on Greece and the Greek Islands:

Qatar - Doha (Aug 2006)

Doha (Qatar) in 2006 was still under heavy construction in most areas. It aimed to be the next "Dubai" in the Middle East.

We checked-into our hotel for the night after arriving. The next day, we decided to take the four-wheeled drive into the desert to see the sunset (2nd row) before asking the driver to drop us off at a huge shopping centre (where there is an ice skating rink on the ground floor!). After our second night in Qatar, we returned to Singapore.

Japan (Oct 2007) - Kyoto

What is a Japan trip without trying its authentic mouth-watering food (see above)? Oh yummy!

Our first stop was Kyoto. Kyoto is more traditional and life is of much slower pace than Tokyo and Osaka. We were glad to stay in a traditional ryokan in Kyoto. We also visited nearby places like Nara, Kobe and Himeiji. I still remembered the traffic crossing lights that play music during the green-man crossing, instead of just beep.

Japan - Tokyo

Our next stop was Tokyo. My impression of Tokyo was that it was a mixture of traditional and modern culture. We visited the Asakusa Temple (top row), Tokyo Imperial Palace (2nd row, 1st pic), dropped by Diamaru during its opening hour at 10am (2nd row, middle pic), saw some kimono-dressed Japanese at Ueno (middle row, last pic), witnessed the crowd at Shibuya cross junction (3rd row, 1st pic), saw cosplay "maids" near Akihabara train station (3rd row, middle pic) and rode the shinkensan (bullet train) (3rd row, last pic).

Hachiko the Dog

There was a Japanese tale about a loyal dog named Hachiko. The dog accompanied his master to the train station every day and returned each afternoon to greet him after work. Sadly his master departed one day, passed away and never returned to the station. Hachiko faithfully returned to the same spot at the station the very next day, and every day to wait for his master. This faithful dog touched many people. A bronze statue of Hachiko now sits in his waiting spot outside the Shibuya station as a permanent reminder of his devotion and love.



We also went to the futuristic-looking Odaiba (top row), kitchenware town (2nd row, 1st pic), saw Pokemon and Doraemon at Tokyo Animation Centre (2nd row, middle pic), passed by Prada building (2nd row, last pic), visited the famous Tsukiji Fish Market (3rd row, 1st pic), dropped by Shinjuku at night (3rd row, middle pic) and collected some stamps (chops) at the JR train stations (3rd row, last pic).

Japan - Osaka

Our final stop in Japan was Osaka. My impression of Osaka was that it was a fun place to visit, with the modern Universal Studio, traditional Osaka Castle and exotic eating places in Dotonbori.

Below are some Japan Travel Guidebooks from Amazon..