Category Asia
I spent the last two days in Taiwan packing my stuff. I tried to minimize the amount of stuff I brought but still ended up squeezing it into my bag. I feel pretty well prepared however so I’m happy I could fit it in.
Everything laid out on the bed 
Packed and ready to leave
I arrived in Ho Chi Minh city late yesterday evening and I spent most of the day today trying to buy a motorbike. There were plenty of bikes for sale but none of them were to my liking; if the engine and gearbox worked … Read the rest
For several years now I’ve had a dream to go traveling in southeast Asia and, being a fan of independent travel, I wanted to do it the way the locals travel, that is by motorbike. After many years of dreaming about it I finally decided it’s time I actually do it, so I took three months leave from my job and bought some flight tickets. I will try to post at least something every day of the journey, but first, some things about planning and preparation.
The route:
I don’t have any exact plan, all I know for certain is that I … Read the rest
The standard for our business trips is that we get the weekends off but thanks to several delays we had to work during the weekend as well. On Monday however, there was some kind of festival going on and the customer’s factory was closed, so we couldn’t go to work even if we wanted to. Needless to say we didn’t waste the opportunity. Our customer was actually nice enough to let us use the chartered car for sightseeing so we didn’t have to spend any money on transport – the good part of being on a business trip I guess.… Read the rest
My company has sent me and two colleagues to India to install a machine. Naturally we will spend most of our time at the customer site but we get the weekends to ourselves and it just so happened that we arrived on a Saturday, so we got our first day in the country off. Me and one colleague, Scott, took the day to explore the city while our other colleague, who has been here before, stayed at the hotel. Our hotel helped us arrange a car with a driver that took us round to some of the more famous places … Read the rest
All through our stay here it’s been cold, windy and snowing, today the sun finally came out. Because of the strong wind last night however, the snow wasn’t as good as previous days. All the same I had a very good day, and it was nice to actually see where I was going. Thus concludes our week of skiing, except for some slightly adverse weather, both Renegade Wife and I have both had a great time.
Some general points about skiing here in Niseko:
The resort actually consists of three separate areas, Annupuri, Niseko Village, and Hirafu – Hanazono. Hirafu … Read the rest
I wrote my last post a few days ago, since then most days have been more or less similar; my wife has been practicing pretty much on her own while I have been up on the higher slopes searching for powder. We always end the day with the open air hot spring in our hotel.
In most Japanese bathes men and women are separated but here at Niseko Grand Hotel they have a mixed part. You can, if you want, borrow some kind of fabric swimwear at the reception, but it seems to be optional since a lot of the … Read the rest
Today it was time for Renegade Wife to learn how to ride a Snowboard. She actually tried a bit two years ago, but I doubted she would remember much. I know beginners often get tired easily, what with using muscles that normally don’t get much exercise and so forth, so we took it easy, and didn’t get to the slopes until around ten thirty.
The wife did remember the very basics and she managed to stand up, but it was slow going at first and she needed a long break every time she fell. Eventually though, she started getting the … Read the rest
I have promised my wife I will teach her how to ride a snowboard, but she was kind enough to let me go out on my own and enjoy myself the first day. So I got up bright and early and went out to rent some equipment. Like any ski resort, Niesko has plenty of ski rental places but I selectd one called Rhythm Sports because it seemed like they might have some higher quality stuff. Sure enough, with the premium package I got high quality equipment from Burton.
Geared up and ready to go I hit the slopes and … Read the rest
I’ve longed to go skiing for quite a while now so for this year’s winter vacation Renegade Wife and I decided to go to a ski resort. Since we live in Taiwan the best choice seemed to be Japan which suited me nicely since I’ve wanted to ski in Hokkaido for several years.
Today we set off to Niseko, one of the largest ski resorts in Japan. We flew to Sapporo then took a bus that trundled along the small roads for about three hours and we reached our Hotel around six in the evening.
It was much too late … Read the rest
The last day in Busan, we had one final thing we wanted to do before heading back. For few days now we had passed the Busan Aquarium several times, so we decided to check it out. I’ve been to a few aquariums before, and this one was pretty good, but not as exciting as I thought it would be. The only really fun thing in there was an enclosure of otters frolicking about, both in and out of water. With nothing more of real interest to see or do (if you are not really there for the beach life, there … Read the rest