Travel Bits: July 2023

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Gearing up for my vacation...... 


As I gear up for my upcoming month-long trip, I am busy trying to get as much work done as possible before I travel. While I will always have to work on-the-go, I at least try to keep that to a minimum because I wanted to use my "free" periods in the nights during the trip to write my book. Yes, I am writing a book of short stories. 

In-between the sight-seeing and partaking in local festivities like a good old-fashioned tourist, I also intend to explore some other parts of the cities that I am visiting which are not considered "touristy". These will include the Yanaka and Kanda areas of Tokyo as well as some of the often over-looked towns in Niigata and Yamagata Prefectures of western Japan. In Vietnam, I intend to explore Nha Trang on foot.

For shopping, of course I would be visiting Tsutaya and Itoya for stationery, Montblanc for pens and Isetan for all kinds of other stuffs that one can only find in Japan. I am not sure what I will buy in Vietnam because my last trip to the country was more than two decades ago! But I am fairly sure I will find something that will interest the shopaholic in me. In Hong Kong, again, it will be a trip to the local Montblanc boutique. If I run out of my shopping budget by then, window shopping will have to suffice!

Food-wise, I am sure I will not have any cravings going unanswered in Japan. The only worry is whether my wallet will have enough Yen for everything I want to eat. And when I arrive Vietnam, nothing will come any closer to satisfying my hunger other than a piping hot bowl of Pho. Okay, maybe two bowls! In China's southern city of Hong Kong, local delicacies such as smelly tofu, roast goose and dim sum should do the trick to both make me happy and help me put on more weight!

And when I finally return home to Singapore after close to 27 days away, I will have a lot of catch-up work to do. Whew........ August is going to be both exciting, tiring and expensive for me! 

I posted the below picture on my social media account last week to update my friends that I will not be exactly travelling around the world in 80 days but around Asia in 27 days!

Pas exactement le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours, mais c'est le tour de l'asie en vingt sept jours!

I will be travelling by plane, trains and cruise ship around Asia in 27 days this August!


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