For me, Kyoto has the perfect balance of the Old and the New.  A place where traditional blends seamlessly with the modern and a feeling I thought I would feel in Athens.  During our time in Kyoto, we visited the usual tourist spots: Fushimi Inari Taisha; Kinkaku-ji; Kiyozumi-dera; Arashiyama; Nishiki Market; Nijo Castle; Gion.  Each site had it's own charm and beauty and when I go back to Kyoto, I would visit them all again.

Fushimi Inari Taisha
Even though you may not know the name Fushimi Inari Taisha I am sure you've seen pictures of it at least once.  It is the spot where you see hundreds vermilion torii gates that line a path like the one pictured below.  The torii gates are not the only attraction at Fushimi but it is likely the main reason tourists come here. 

We arrived Fushimi Inari via the JR line and as soon as we exited Inari station, the shrine was right there.  An alternate train line to get here is the Keihan line which stops a few streets over.  It is a nice walk through the streets with small shops. 

We decided to go to Fushimi Inari a earlier in the morning to hopefully beat the large tourist groups.  When we arrived at 930am, it was already pretty busy but not compared to how busy it got at noon when we left. 

Fushimi Inari-Taisha is the head shrine of the god Inari who is the god of rice, tea, sake, fertility, agriculture and of prosperity, and is one of the principle kami (or spirit) of Shinto.  The Kitsune, or fox, is believed to be a messenger to Inari. 

We spent a lot of time hiking up the mountain and taking pictures in between.  There is so much to see and experience along the way, so when you visit Fushimi Inari-Taisha, I would allot at least 2 to 3 hours to enable you to really experience the area and the beauty of Mount Inari.   It could be done in a little over an hour but that wouldn't do the place justice.  Be warned, the hike up to the top of Mount Inari is like a stair master challenge!  We only made it halfway up and according to my pedometer, we climbed 55 flights of stairs!

Kinkaku-Ji
Kinkaku-ji or the Temple of the Golden Pavilion is one of the most beautiful places I visited not only in Kyoto but in the world.  Admission is ¥400 (roughly CAD$5) and worth every penny in my opinion.

After a short walk from the front gates, you see this spectacular scene: (pictured below)

It is not uncommon to see huge groups of school kids on a field trip when visiting Kinkaku-ji, in fact, when we visited, I counted at least 6 groups of 15 kids or more.   We spent over an hour alone in the front area mainly because it was so crowded that I had to wait patiently to get good pictures but also because it was so beautiful and serene.  There is plenty more to see other than the Golden Pavilion but in my opinion, none are as memorable.

Shirakawa Dori and Pontocho

After a long day of touring the sites and attractions, it is nice to just relax and be brought back in time.
Shirakawa Dori and Pontocho are 2 great places to do just that in Kyoto.

Shirakawa Dori is a small section located in the Gion district of Kyoto.  From what I have read in a lot of blogs, this area is often depicted in animes and Japanese dramas because they have kept the old style feeling of the buildings and streets.  We visited this area at night and with the real Geishas/Maikas and tourists dressed up as Geishas/Maikos walking the narrow streets, it was easy to imagine being in the old Kyoto days. 

Pontocho is a great place to do some Geisha spotting.  Similar to Shirakawa Dori, Pontocho is an alley that has been preserved.  From what I saw, the shops in this alley are mainly restaurants and clubs but there are a few other stores as well.  The street parallel to Pontocho also has a large number of restaurants of many cuisines. 

This year's travel adventure was a trip Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka, places I have never traveled to before.  Prior to this trip, Tokyo was the only Japanese city I have visited and I was very excited to see other parts of Japan.

The first leg of my trip was a 4 day stay in Kyoto.  I flew into Kansai International Airport and the easiest and fastest way to get to Kyoto from Kansai that I found was taking the Airport Express train called "Haruka" line which takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes as it only stop about 5 or 6 times.   After collecting your luggage at Kansai, go to the second floor and across the pedestrian walkway to the adjacent building which is the train station.  There you will see 2 sets of automated ticketing machines, one for the Nankai Electric Railway and the other is for the JR line.   If you purchased the JR pass, I believe you need to go into the ticketing office to get it.  I didn't buy the pass so I went directly to the automated machines, selected English and bought my tickets to Kyoto.  When buying tickets for the Haruka,  there are 2 tickets you need to buy and it cost me around 2850 Yen.  I believe one was for 960 Yen and the other was for 1890 Yen.   Don't lose these tickets as you will need them to enter and exit the train platforms.

One thing that I found extremely helpful when using the various public transportation in and around Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima is to get an ICOCA card.   Prior to my trip, I read many blogs that weren't entirely clear if the ICOCA card was usable outside of Kyoto and Osaka.  I can say that from what I have seen, it is now available to be used all over Japan.  The only caveat seems to be that you can only get your deposit back in the Osaka/Kyoto area.

To get one of these cards, look for one of the automated ticketing machines for one that dispenses the ICOCA.  The price of the card is 2000 Yen (1500 Yen available for use, and 500 Yen is the card deposit).  To reload the card, you can go to any convenience store like 7-Eleven or Family Mart and tell the clerk you wish to do so. 

You can get the 500 Yen back when you return the card at the end of your trip but there is a 220 Yen service charge.  If your load amount on the card is less than 220 Yen, then it will take the balance as the service charge and you still get your 500 Yen back.  One good thing about the card is the balance on the card is good for 10 years, so if you intend to return to Japan within that time, you don't need to return the card at all.

The Court Hotel Kyoto Shijo was the hotel we chose to stay in during our time in Kyoto.  Overall, I would agree to the 3 star rating for the hotel.  It provided us with everything we may need while there and even had a laundry room if we needed to wash our clothes.  One thing disappointed me was that we booked a non-smoking room and they did not have any left when we checked in.  Luckily, the room wasn't too smelly and the next day when housekeeping came, they did a steam vacuum to the room and the smell was virtually gone. 

The room we got was a standard twin(standard) room.  Amenities included in the room were the usual bathroom items, sleeping robes, hot water kettle, tea and cookies (replenished daily), and slippers.  The bathroom has the usual Japanese toilet complete with heated seat and bidet.  But with all Japanese hotel bathrooms, it feels like being in a cruise ship.  The one thing missing from the room is a safe which it seems like isn't included in a lot of Japanese hotels.

The hotel is very centrally located and a bit outside of the busy section of Kyoto.  The Nishiki Market and shopping district is only about a 15-20 minute walk.  The Gion district is about another 15 minute walk past that.  Kiyozumi Dera is about a 45 minute walk (but be warned, its a bit of an uphill trek on the latter half of the walk).  To get to Nijo Castle, it is an easy 15 minute walk from the hotel.  To get to Arashiyama (the bamboo forest and the monkeys at Mount Arashi), its an easy 10 minute walk to the Shijo-Omiya station to take the Keifuku Line which is an above ground light rail tram to the Arashiyama station. I will talk about the sites I visited in upcoming posts.  :)  

There is a lot of restaurants close to the hotel as well as a Family Mart and a Fresco (supermarket).  I would recommend this hotel but if you want to be closer to the shopping district, then I would definitely recommend the Hotel Sunroute chain which we stayed with in Hiroshima and Osaka (more on this later as well).

That's it for now, stay tuned for the sites that I visited while in Kyoto.  For now, Mahalo Nui Loa :)

One of the things to do after a long day of touring is to hang out in the Pub Street area.  The sign above is located on the corner of Street 11 and Street 8 and the Pub Street area extends about 3 blocks in every direction.  Here you will find many restaurants and cafes as well as food carts and bars which come out at night.   It gets pretty crazy here once the sun sets in Siem Reap!

One of my favourite restaurants in the Pub Street area is Khmer Kitchen Restaurant which has 2 locations that are quite close to each other.  I ate at the newer location which is right on the corner of Street 9 and Hospital Street and is 2 levels.  The menu is extensive with Khmer and Western dishes costing anywhere between US$3 to US$7.  I loved this place so much that I came here 3 times during my 5 day stay in Siem Reap!  The two dishes I would recommend are the pumpkin curry and the eggplant with minced meat.

Walking on Pub Street after dark, you will find a lot of street vendors peddling various food items from fresh jackfruit to fried bugs.  And when you get even later into the night, the bar carts come out with music and drink specials.

There are 3 markets all within a 10 minute walk of Pub Street.  The Siem Reap Night Market and Kru Khmer Old Market Shop mainly sell souvenir items like paintings, silk, clothes, carvings, keychains, etc.  The Psar Chas market, which is also known as the Old Market has the same items as the other markets but in the morning hours until around 1pm or so, they also sell produce, fish, and meats. Bargaining is expected at these markets but unlike the markets in Hong Kong or Turkey, the prices they gave weren’t that inflated to begin with (maybe about 20-25% higher).

I am so happy to have had the opportunity to cross Angkor Wat off my bucket list.  The feeling you get when you walk the halls of the centuries old temples and being able to marvel at the magnificent structures built by the Khmer empire first hand is truly an awe-inspiring and humbling feeling.  If you ever have an opportunity to visit Angkor Wat, do so. 

- Mahalo Nui Loa. 

I booked my tour with Siem Reap Private Day Tours who I found through TripAdvisor where they received many good reviews including mine.  I opted to spread out my touring through 3 ½ days so my itinerary was very relaxed.  We often started a little bit later in the morning, around 9:00am and ended at around 3 or 4.  For me, this was perfect as we didn’t have to travel too much from site to site.  We were able to stay longer in each site and I was able to take hundreds of pictures at different angles and was even able to wait out tour groups for shots so that it seemed like I had the whole place to myself.  

In Cambodia you are required to have a certified tour guide to bring you inside the temples/ruins or you can explore on your own.  If you hire a private tour company to take your group around, most of the drivers are not certified tour guides and you may need to hire a separate one.  I strongly recommend doing so as each temple/ruin has its own unique history and may not be captured in a travel book.  Siem Reap Private Day Tours is able to arrange one for you in your preferred language.  Just advise them at the time of booking. 

The main Angkor Wat temple is as magnificent as the pictures portray it to be.  The complex is about 400 acres big, and give yourself plenty of time to explore it all, you will not be disappointed.  We arrived at 5 am to watch the sun slowly rise and illuminate the 5 towers of Angkor Wat in a gentle orange and pink glow.  Do not pass up the opportunity to climb the main tower of Angkor Wat.  The views you get at the top is not something you want to miss.

Apart from the main Angkor Wat complex, my favourite sites that I visited are Ta Prohm, Bayon, Banteay Srei and Neak Pean.   

Ta Prohm was featured in the 2001 Action Adventure film Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie.  While not a very large complex, the main attraction are the trees that have started to grow out from the walls and buildings.  In many areas, you see the complex weave of tree roots, climbing all over the walls of the structures.  When I visited Ta Prohm, my guide suggested that go during the regular lunch hour and go while the large tour groups were eating lunch.  Because of this suggestion, there were maybe 12 -15 people in the temple complex instead of the usual 100+.  We took extra time exploring the ruins and examining the carvings that are all over the place.

Bayon is a very mystical place.  There are 2 walls on the main floor of this complex that have very intricate carvings that tell the story of the Khmer of old.  They appear to show people doing everyday life activities and as you move down the wall, the scenes start changing to show mythical or historical battles during times of the Khmer Empire.  In the terrace area above, you see numerous smiling stone faces on the towers.  Some say the faces are a representation of King Jayavarman VII and others say that those are the faces of Buddha.

Banteay Srei is a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and is one of the temples that is outside of the city of Siem Reap.  You need to travel about an hour north to get to it and if you only had time to do one temple that is outside the immediate area of Siem Reap, this should be it.  Banteay Srei is built primarily with red sandstone which, depending on the light of the day, will give the buildings a very rich reddish, and pinkish hue.  There are very intricate carvings all over the walls of each building and statues that still stand intact after years of being exposed to the elements.  Thinking back and looking at my pictures, I would have loved to have been in Banteay Srei during sunset, the colours must be absolutely amazing.

Neak Pean is a temple built on a manmade island on the manmade lake Jayatataka.  It is believed to have been a hospital of sorts and the central pond inside Neak Pean is said to be a representation of Lake Anavatapta in the Himalayas whose waters are thought to cure all illnesses.  The temple area itself isn’t too big but it is still a neat place to visit.  It’s amazing how they were able to make these lakes and temples without modern machinery.  It must’ve taken years and hundreds or even thousands of people to do it. 

Angkor Wat is one of the places in the world that is near the top of my bucket list and I’m sure it appears on a lot of lists as well.  I have always been reluctant to cross it off my list because I was nervous about safety.  My love for travel and adventure finally won over my nervousness and in 2017 I was able to visit this magnificent and humbling area.

I’m a planner when it comes to travelling to new places, I like to research and like to have lists.  I don’t like to miss out on experiences in case I don’t get a chance to come back.  Since Cambodia is completely new to me, I decided a guided tour is best as opposed to exploring on my own.  

I have done a number of guided tours that had 20 or more people in them and I try to avoid doing those again.  The experiences of them are great and you get to meet new people but I like to travel on my schedule and have a little bit of control.  So the search began for a tour company that offered private tours.  Siem Reap Private Day Tours kept coming up with very high (and recent) reviews on TripAdvisor so I decided to book through them.
 
I found Mr. Kriss to be very pleasant and easy to deal with.  He was very quick to respond to my emails, considering I was across the globe.  In about 4 emails, I had my itinerary in hand, all I had to do now was show up at the airport and look for my name on a placard!  Mr. Kriss didn’t even want a deposit to secure the booking. Which honestly made me a bit nervous! 

In Cambodia, guides who are not certified by the government are not allowed to enter the sites with you.  Most tour drivers are not certified so you will likely need to hire a separate guide which I ended up doing.  I didn’t want my first (and maybe only) time in Cambodia aimlessly wandering ruins that I didn’t know the significance of.  Siem Reap Private Day Tours is able to arrange a certified tour guides, you just need to advise them at booking that you need one and what language.

If you are a Canadian citizen, you are required to obtain a visa to enter Cambodia.  You can either apply online for a visa or get one when you arrive at the airport.  I would suggest getting your visa online as the line I saw when I arrived at the airport was easily an hour long or more.  However, please be aware that there are a number of websites offering Cambodian visas that may not be legitimate.  Make sure you are accessing the Official Government website.

When I arrived in Siem Reap, I found out that Mr. Kriss wasn’t available to personally drive us to tour the sites but the driver (Sotea) he sent in his place was great. Sotea was always on time and very attentive to our needs.  He was very quick to give us more water and a cool cloth to wipe down after a lengthy tour of dusty ruins.  Our guide, Aime, was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humour.  He was very quick to answer our questions and explained the history thoroughly.  Aime knew I loved to take photos so he would give me extra time to get the shot I needed and even recommended off the beaten track spots that I would never have found myself.  One of these spots involved me having to climb into the ruins itself.  Something he told me was ok but not a lot of people do because of the difficulty of it.  It was very worth it as I got to explore a courtyard all too myself.

All in all, I spent 3.5 days touring Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples.  Some would say that’s too many days but I disagree.  I was able to spread out the touring and was able to slowly explore each site and soak everything in.  The days weren’t too rushed, the day often started at 830-9am instead of 7am and ended at around 3-4pm instead of 6-7pm. This let me enjoy the city of Siem Reap and its many hot spots instead of being dead tired at the end of the day.  I was also able to travel to sites that were further out of the city of Siem Reap which was a treat because there were fewer tourists.

In part 2 of the Angkor Wat series, I will do a quick review the Prince D'Angkor Hotel and Spa. Stay tuned and as always Mahalo Nui Loa.