Tag: Asia

Categories
Asia Japan

Olympic Year

Top of the list of places to visit after travel restrictions are lifted has to be Japan. For most of us visting Japan will take us as far out of our comfort zone as we can go in a society and culture that on the face of it looks very much like our own.

As the rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games draws nearer, the government is working to put safety measures in place for overseas visitors, with a possible lifting of the current entry ban as early as April 2021. 

This would allow the Japanese authorities to fine tune the arrangements ahead of the July 23rd start date for the Olympics. Thats just five months away so it might be a good time to start making your travel arrangements.

In the meantime you might like to watch “James May: Our Man in Japan“*

Any links with an * by them are affiliated, which means get a product via this link and a contribution may be made to us.

Categories
Asia City Singapore

Super Singapore

Written 100 years ago, many of us will know the song “On a Little Street in Singapore” from Glenn Miller, Bob Dylan or Manhattan Transfer. Today, it’s the attraction of those “Little Streets” that draw us to this Island State. Those “Little Streets” are the result of Singapore’s multi-cultural, colonial and wartime past and make it a destination in its own right rather than just a stopover. Being uniquely placed at the tip of the Malay peninsula, at the cross roads of trade routes it has been the meeting point for Asian and European cultures.  British influence is clearly evident as many of us are familiar with the Raffles Hotel named after Sir Thomas Raffles who brought the British to the island and the Anderson Bridge named after the Governor of the Region in 1910. 

Due to its size and history there is so much to see and do, it’s all very easy to access and so much can be packed into such a short space of time.  On the one hand you have traditional Chinatown and on the other the Sands Skypark and shopping in Orchard Street.  Singapore’s nickname is “City in a Garden” and it’s possible to get away from it all at the National Orchid Garden and the Jurong Bird Park which home to 400 species of birds.

Categories
Asia Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Penang

Made in Malaysia

Travelling around the world you suddenly hear or see things and you go I didnt know that. Well my daughter have a fascination with shoes and in particular Jimmy Choo. We always thought of Jimmy Choo being a British icon. However we discovered that Jimmy was actually born in Penang, Malaysia where his father, a shoemaker taught him the craft. He came to London to study in 1982 and the rest is history.

Penang, Malaysia
Penang, Malaysia

Most tourists to Malaysia spending their time in Kuala Lumpur, seeking out the city’s delicious local cusines, art galleries, shops and famous landmarks and then moving on to one of the beautiful penisular coastal resorts where you can rewind and unwind. However try and make time to visit Penang, it has a completely different feel to Kuala Lumpur, with a unique mixture of British, Chinese and Indian influences.

With all year round warm weather there’s always a good time to visit and outside the capital it is still relatively unvisited by western tourists so do yourself a favour and visit before the crowds arrive.