Singapore

The last stop on my Asia trip. Singapore was never a place I wanted to spend more than a few days, but upon working out my trip it just happened that it would easier to fly from this destination, and therefore stay for 6 nights. 3 nights possibly too long. It's an extremely clean country, with a great transport network and people have English as their first language, perfect for me! Not so perfect is the constant humidity all year round, the availability of mostly asian food and very expensive alcohol. Despite all that, I managed to have a lot of fun (even if there was a lot of hiding inside shopping malls for good air-con!)

I love asian culture and cuisine because of the sharing aspect, a little bit of everything! China town outside in the hot humid night time air, with free wi-fi so I guess it makes up for it.

Singapore has an abundance of awesome food, sights to see and places to shop. As a tourist it can become a little monotonous and samey-samey. 
Best $5 I spent in Singapore, ironically getting asian noodles and dumplings in "Little India". Little India sure is an experience, the floods of people makes it feel like I could possibly be in India, the heat and the staring, the constant staring. The food is plentiful and cheap here though, so I'm not complaining.

Gardens by the Bay. For an extremely young country that lies right next to the equator they create some beautiful attractions like these. Beautifully watered plants with some pretty amazing attractions.

Asia is best known for the night time scenery. Singapore does not disappoint when it comes to high rises and lights and shows, I was not disappointed. Marina Bay Sands has a light show every single night, that simply shows how many tourists they must bring in.

Somebody does not look impressed that I got the food before him. Meeting a fellow British person in a hostel is not hard, but one that you can totally rip the hell out of is another story. It's time like these where meeting people becomes a part of the experience, people who make it more fun than it probably would have been alone.

Italians, they love to ruin photos and they love to love themselves.

Gardens by the Bay, these lights are incredibly enchanting. Changing colours and dancing to the music at the light show every evening.

The humid air and blazing sunshine is something you cannot avoid here, so to make the most of it the Islands are easily accessible by ferry. St Johns Island full of party boats, family boats and rich people generally chilling. Rich people everywhere in Singapore.....

Hokkien, my favourite favourite dish in Singapore. Everytime I go back I get this dish, it just tastes delicious in every single restaurant, hawker centre, bloody of the street. Singapore cuisine is notorious for chilli sauce, and this chilli sauce just gave me sweats, but GOOD SWEATS all over.

Pie face.... an Australian company. Cute idea, cute pies, but cute does NOT mean tasty. Sorry, should have given this a miss and stuck to my Hokkien :(

Sentosa, the most famous island resort in Singapore, "entertainment island" for the local Singaporeans and a major tourist attraction. Trust me when I say you NEED an umbrella, you need 2litres of water and shade, lots and lots of shade when you come here; possibly a few towels too. I sweated my butt off. The island is a totally beautiful man-made place though, with so many activites that you could stay here for a while! (If you have tons of money to spare).

I spent a good half a day at Sentosa, but if you felt the heat I was feeling you'd want to leave too. I did go Segway-ing all the beachy area of Sentosa, but that was about all, it costs roughly $40SGD for a 30 min ride, and I'm not even sure that was worth it!

My 6 days in Singapore dragged on towards the end, people had gone, all the places were seen, but at least I managed to see old friends, make new ones and experience THAT heat. This drew Asia to an end, it was an extremely eye-opening and fulfilling trip. It gave me the freedom and experiences that would have been closed off to me if I hadn't have travelled solo, it opened my eyes to things and people I like and dislike, and I got completely immersed into just experiencing without limitations, just do and enjoy. I am thankful for all those I managed to meet on this trip, and all the things that I managed to do, mostly the experiences reveal your comfort zones, and the zones I was uncomfortable in (I am shy, trust me!). 

And from here, I guess it was goodbye Asia, goodbye to travelling.... until next time. Which came much sooner than I expected.

Osaka

Before my trip I was super excited to see Osaka, I thought it would be like kind of more traditional side of Japan. How wrong I was. Not only that, but because it was directly after Tokyo it was hard to live up to. I mean... if people saw the sight of me before my flight to Osaka, they probably wondered why a girl was tearing up by herself. I mean, I'm not cold hearted all the damn time.

First stop, food. Cica - an arts and sweets cafe that is mainly breakfast foods like pancake and french toast. I mean, not the cheapest meal, and not the most Japanese.... but you know when you're so hungry you're so hungry you're belly is acidic, that was me! No regrets though, it turned out it was a special kind of cafe.

One that customises your breakfast dish. They asked you what you want to be drawn on, even your face or your favourite celebrity. I opted for a giraffe, how unoriginal. This will remain the cutest french toast dish I have or will ever eat, until I meet an artist who wants to prepare a breakfast like this for me....

Onwards to Osaka Castle, who knew it would be such a long walk, in the blazing sun and humidity. I was dying. Remind me how people wear jeans in this weather out in Asia. My butt was probably showing sweat stains it was so hot.

Little back story to these little statues. These two were stolen by the Japanese from the Chinese during the war. If you're from China or Japan this war was a big deal and was less than a century ago. For reconciliation reasons of the two countries China donated these to Japan and subsequently Osaka, and to this day they remain here. (I found that interesting, maybe I'm just an old soul)

Osaka Castle! You have no idea how relieved I was to finally be here, a little bit of me died walking up towards this place for sure.

I was asked to join this photo, one of the very awkward moments of my day. If you haven't noticed already, the guy in the right is struggling to squat..

Osaka's famous dish: Takoyaki. I hate to admit it but actually I didn't love it all that much. Saying that in 3 days I still had it twice. I'm such a fat b****. It was more intriguing watching them make it than eating it, but a must try for Osaka. The second thing is okonomiyaki which is very nice, but SALT OVERLOAD.

I'd been searching for this for hours. I mean hours I spent just walking endlessly, trying to find Wifi, trying to speak English to a guy who clearly was trying to be polite and had no clue, but I got there!

Most expensive dessert I will ever eat, matcha shaved ice with mochi and red bean topping. Delicious, but again I'm a fat b****, and it cost me more than 1,500 yen. My heart breaks knowing I didn't finish it all.

On one of my final days I took a mini trip to Kobe, purely for the Kobe beef. I mean Kobe beef is famous and award winning, I wasn't NOT going to try if I was so close. To my surprise Kobe is a little seaside town and it is one of the cutest places, I definitely enjoyed the fact you could walk from one side of Kobe to the other in around 2 hours. I did exactly that, and know for a fact that sweat was dripping from every crevice. This little cafe I stopped by in the morning was a Jamaican themed burger place, and can I tell you they have the friendliest workers and owners! I sat outside on the bench unsure of where I was going and the worker came outside and just initiated conversation. If you've met Japanese people, you know this is a rare occurrence! So I decide to head in and have a coffee to start my day, and he lets his owner know that I was visiting and she gave me the best tips and places to go, she is THE coolest woman I've met.

One of the places she recommended was to the most famous Kobe beef place in Kobe. Wakkoqu. I didn't capture any pictures on my camera, and this photo is empty, but that is exactly how I felt after the meal. It was pleasant, but the price was EVEN MORE PLEASANT (sarcasm). It cost me a mind blowing 10,800 yen and the slice of beef was the size of my fist. Besides that I can now say I've had Kobe beef.

Osaka and Kobe overall was a pleasant surprise, people here are so friendly and I manage to make some good friends, and I mean I got to eat all that good food so I'm not complaining. That was the end of my Japan trip... how heartbreaking it was to leave, but onwards!

Korea Day 5

The fifth day consisted of a little visit to Gyeongbokgung palace which is surprisingly cheap. A ticket to all 4 palaces is equivalent to around £10 if I remember correctly. Unfortunately I only had time to visit this one palace. The day was boiling hot and humid and the sun beating down, way to go in not bringing an umbrella! The palace ground was huge, now of the buildings that big, but amazing nonetheless. 

The grounds are reminiscent of national grounds in England, full of trees but a little drier. I am sure without all the tourists this place would have been more beautiful, (including me), it was just so difficult to catch any image without capturing tens of others in it.

A teacher was taking around these cute kids, he was so enthusiastic and you could tell he loved his job. I think taking kids on historical trips like this make the job so much more worthwhile.

Palace grounds leading towards mountains, so beautiful away from the city.

This palace consisted of a couple of museums, which had rather strange artefacts and other displays. This museum showed the evolution of birth in Korea, which I guess is pretty cool, but kind of random.

As it hit 12pm, we had just arrived in time for a little ceremony, where the guards march and move around. In this boiling heat I salute them for being able to wear so many layers!

The cute ahjummas!

The youth stone or something along that, walk under it and you will forever remain youthful. The group of ahjummas giggled as they entered. SO CUTE.