Life, Travel, GRACE

Just came back from Japan last week. Went to Tokyo for conference and added side trip to Tateyama Alpine Route and Kanazawa. I must say that Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route was great. You can do the trip either from Nagano side or Toyama side. For us, we did it from the Nagano side. Took the Shinkansen to Nagano early morning. Then boarded the express bus to Ogizawa. From there, we boarded the tunnel electric bus to get to Kurobe Dam. From the dam, it was all the way up to the peak (almost). Murodo is the highlight of the route. This is the place where you get to see snow covered peak and lake. In spring, there's snow wall nearby Murodo station. From Murodo, we descended to Bijodaira and Tateyama Station to catch the local train back to Toyama. The fare for the entire route is not cheap, but it's worth it. A hike from Bijodaira to Murodo should be interesting, which can be considered in future. View from the tunnel electric bus, onward to Kurobe Dam Arrived at Kurobe Dam View of t...

Had a chance to visit Sweden in last end-May. The plan was to arrive in Stockholm, then took a train ride to Gothenburg, where I would attend a conference, followed by a bus ride to Oslo, Norway. After a long flight from KL via Bangkok, finally arrived at Arlanda airport on 27 May morning. Immigration clearance took quite a long time though. Then we proceeded to the bus stop to catch the bus to downtown. Our accommodation was just nearby the town bus terminal. After left the luggages there, we immediately went to rendezvous the walking tour in Old Town area. Luckily we managed to catch up with the group. One mistake in this trip, we should have got the Stockholm pass since visiting museums would be costly. Nevertheless, walking around the Old Town was enjoyable and cooling too; I underestimated the temperature there, thought it should be warm in summer like the other parts of Europe. Waiting for immigration clearance Arrival hall of the airport Bus stop View from the Old Town area

 If Yangmingshan is too far or too adventurous for you, try Xiang Shan (literally means Elephant Mountain) which is right in the city. The place is accessible by MRT. Just get out from Xiangshan MRT station, walk towards the park and you will be at the entrance in no time. Follow the signpost along the way. Be prepared for a series of steep stairway. At the stop uphill, you can get the closest view of 101 Tower.  The starting point of Xiangshan All uphill climb Stairway to the top If you see this, you have arrived at the viewpoint Taipei 101 Tower View along the way Benches Posting as a sign of achievement Night view of 101

 Life is back to normal. Lion dance performances can be performed like pre-pandemic era. Hope for a better year this year.

Had a chance to visit Taiwan again in last November. It was an invitation to attend a symposium in Taichung. So I decided to take a few days to explore Taipei before the conference. But this round I opted for hiking experience. Thus, the search for easy access of hiking venues around Taipei city. One particular blog has provided most of the useful information for my trip: www.nickkembel.com. I picked Qixingshan trail in Yangmingshan National Park as my first choice for the hiking. It's easily accessible with moderate difficulty level of the hiking route. To get to Yangmingshan, one can opt for the public transport right below Jiantan MRT station. The Taipei Performing Arts Center is just opposite the bus stop areas. I took the S15 mini bus which is bound for Lengshuikeng. Waited a few minutes, the bus came. There were many locals heading to the national park on that day. So I had to stand for almost the entire journey. Got off at Lengshuikeng Visitor Center (which is the last two s...

Last month we went to Kuching for a short trip. The first time on the list was to savour the local kolo mee. Well, not all servings are good though. We also tried the fusion food at The Granary. Needless to say, the meal served was great. But the price is at the high side. After lunch, we wanted to go to the museum. Unfortunately, it was closed for the day. So we ended up at the Borneo Cultures Museum, which we did not manage to cover all the floors. It's a fine museum which was opened in recent months.  The following day, we went for a short excursion on the outskirts of Kuching. We first stopped at the Fairy Cave (the other cave was closed for maintenance).  Excursion inside the cave was pretty easy for beginners. After exploring the cave, we had lunch at the nearby town, Bau. Prior to that, we stopped over at the Blue Lake, which is just beside the town. On the way back to Kuching, we made a stop over at the Paku Rock Maze Garden and old town of Siniawan. The rock garden wa...