The Big Summary

So after 405 days on the road, our trip is over and we are back in London; adjusting to not living out of a backpack, having a routine and waking up in the same bed every day. The trip was incredible and we loved every minute of it. We really didn’t want it to end….

Asia summary

Three amazing months in Asia flew by as we visited (and ate our way through) Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, Myanmar and the Maldives. Asia has always been our favourite continent and this trip reaffirmed it’s position at the top of the tree. Destination highlights Driving around the beautiful lush green hilly scenery in Northern…

You know you’re in Japan when…

It’s normal to walk the streets in a kimono and clogs: They auction bras in the street: Toilets are amazing and never dirty:   There are cafes where you can play with cats: You can buy snow monkey souvenirs on trains: People chainsaw ice in the street: You can order your dinner from a machine: …as…

A glimpse into Kyoto’s temples and shrines

Kyoto was the original capital of Japan for a thousand years until 1868 and it is justly famous for its thousands of temples, shrines and geishas. Becki had visited on her previous trip but was keen to explore again so we hit some of the major sights on our two days in the city. Kinkaku-ji (The Golden…

Sipping sake like a local

From the snow monkeys, a long day of travel (train-train-bus) brought us to Takayama in the Japan Alps. After loving our time in Furano and Shibu Onsen, we were excited for more time in and around the white stuff. A relatively small town (by Japanese standards), we checked into a cozy hostel (think heaters under the…

Snow monkeys just trying to keep warm

From Tokyo, we headed 300km northwest via the super fast bullet train to the small village of Shibu Onsen. We were here for two reasons: to spend a night in a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) and most importantly see the snow monkeys (Japanese macaques). Ryokans have been part of Japanese culture for centuries and…

A taste of Tokyo

We only had three days in Tokyo so wanted to see as much as possible of this vast metropolis (with a population of around 14 million). And in our 72 hours, we saw many sides of the city across the different neighbourhoods we visited. We based ourselves in a cool hostel in Asakusa, one of the older areas of…

Hokkaido: there’s snowhere like it

After much planning (there’s a lot to see and it’s expensive, so we wanted to maximise our time), we decided to begin our Japanese fortnight in the north of the country, on the island of Hokkaido. The main reason was the winter festivals in and around Sapporo, the largest city on the island. The downside was visiting in…

Places I am looking forward to most

I can’t wait to visit everywhere on our route but these five places are what I am most looking forward to: USA: it’s never really been high on my list as I was always more interested in exploring places which I believed were different from the UK, however now the thought of road tripping in…