Blogs - thetravellerguy

Blogs

Japan is a very nice place to visit, full of cultural wonders. The first thing that I noticed immediately after arriving by boat from South Korea is how much people constantly smile and laugh! People are so friendly, polite and very helpful!... Read More...

Did you ever watch the TV series in the mid 80's titled Shogun - starring Richard Chamberlain? Until recently, I did not realise it was based on a true story about an English sailor who was shipwrecked by a typhoon in the Pacific and blown ashore on the coast of Japan near Nagasaki in the year 1600, with eight other survivors...Read More...

Leaf-peeping in Japan

You may not be familiar with the term 'Leaf-peeping'. It's actually an informal term for going out to view the Autumn / Spring colours of leaves in the forests and in the parks. We don't have a word for it in English but in Japan it is a popular culture that's been around since ancient times... Read More...

10 Things you need to know about Sumo Wrestling

Sumo wrestlers are celebrities in Japan and have a high status in Japanese society. There is even a story that a famous film actress recently fell in love with a Sumo wrestler but his family didn't allow the wedding because she was considered to be from a lower class!... Read More...

Want to learn to read and write Japanese in 3 days

You are probably wondering how that can be done as Japanese is considered to be the hardest language in the world along with Chinese! Well I had the same view until I got over my fear and decided to look into it! But I also had some encouragement...
Read More...

Christmas lights in Tokyo

I took a long walk around Tokyo on the last Saturday before Christmas to check out its famous Christmas lights and absorb it's Christmas atmosphere. I started from Ginza late afternoon. Ginza is the posh shopping district of Tokyo and equivalent to Oxford Street in London or 5th Avenue in New York...

Melaka was once one of the most significant cities of the spice trade due to its strategic location at the narrowest point along the Melaka straits. Today, it's an unassuming regional city and a gem destination, packed with very impressive historical monuments. Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta and Magellan have all visited Melaka, owing to the global significance of the city during their times.... Read More...

The cruise began on the Li river with the motorised bamboo rafts floating past an endless procession of beautifully carved limestone peaks, of near perfect conical shapes. There were thousands of them and one can only wonder what God must have been thinking when he created them. It was at this point that I got a nice warm feeling of confidence, that I had finally arrived at the right place after a grueling 20 hour journey on a sleeper train, from Kunming in Yunnan to Guilin in South Central China... Read More...

If there's one way to describe Sydney it would be - a glitzy Metropolis with a great outdoor life! Sydney is about the fast life of a big metropolis with its Yuppy district, world class restaurants, flashy bars, fast cars, bustling nightlife, and surfing! With its location on the Pacific coastline, it offers travellers a good mix of city life with some great beaches... Read More...

Salvador, Bahia in Brazil was my first main stop of my long journey. I was going there to meet up with friends from London and go to the 2014 World Cup Soccer tournament.

The city was brightly decorated with the Brazilian national colours of green, blue, yellow and red. The world cup was underway and the National Brazilian Festival of Sao Jao was due in a couple of days time... Read More...

Emperor Menilik II Palace, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Emperor Menilik's Palace complex and Unity Park was opened to visitors on the 10th October 2019. Built in the late 1800's, this historic complex covers an impressive 40 Hectare area in the heart of Addis Abba, Ethiopia. In many ways, Ethiopia's cultural and historical depth far exceeds visitors' expectations of what they would find in a poor African Nation....Read More...