Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

I booked a leisure day trip for our second day in Labuan Bajo via Traveloka . When I say leisure, I meant a non-diving trip. We have a live onboard trip booked for the 3rd to the 5th day but that one is a diving trip covering different places and adventures so we tried to cram the other must-visits of Komodo National Park in one day. For breakfast that morning, we had breakfast boxes that the resort had prepared for us by order. The tour was operated by East Cruise Komodo and it was an open trip consisting of thirty-something people. East Cruise Komodo picked us up at Sudamala Resort where we stayed at 5:30 am and brought us to the harbour. The re-registration process at the harbour took about half an hour and after we were assigned a boat, we boarded. On the boat, our tour leader collected what was supposed to be the entrance fee for the National Komodo Park. It was IDR 150k per person for locals and IDR 300k per person for foreigners. We never saw the tickets but later on, we foun

This time I am going to take a little break from the overdue Japan 2019 series and write about our most recent trip to Labuan Bajo. If you are not familiar with it yet, Labuan Bajo is part of East Nusa Tenggara in central Indonesia, a starting point to visit the Komodo National Park famous for being the only place in the world where you can see the Komodo dragons . Well, unless you count the zoos. Having been the host of the 42nd ASEAN Summit in May 2023, Labuan Bajo has gone under a major facelift. Labuan Bajo area is actually pretty small, but it boasts several luxury resorts like Plataran Komodo , Meruorah Komodo , and AYANA Komodo . These resorts are super nice to unwind by the beach without the overwhelming crowd you would find in Kuta or Seminyak area in Bali. That being said, the main experience in Labuan Bajo is to go on a live-on-board Phinisi boat! We'll talk more about this later. Our Hotel We took a 3-hour flight from Jakarta CGK airport and landed at Komodo Airport in

If you think about the most famous and most printed pagoda in Japan, it has to be the Chureito pagoda. Not only it is printed on a variety of postcards and tourism ads of Japan, but it also is on the cover of the popular JR Pass! For many years I wanted to see it but our itinerary had never fit.. until this time! I figured since this was a big family trip and we are renting a car for the day, we just had to make the time to see it.  The Chureito pagoda is perched on top of a hill. If you want to see the famous view, there are just under 400 stairsteps to conquer. Opa and Yokoji-san declared defeat in advance so the rest of us including Oma started our ascend. 

It was a great day to go to the grand Mt. Fuji when we went. The sky was clear blue and the air was nice and cool. For this day trip, we hired Yokoji-san and his car to take us around. Yokoji-san is surprisingly exactly the same age as my dad! He is very friendly and fit. He has visited Indonesia several times and he seems to work with the embassies quite a bit. When he picked us up, he brought a little translation device to communicate with us but I snatched this opportunity to practice my Japanese instead.  We were picked up from the hotel in the morning, and Yokoji-san drove us towards the famous mountain. We originally didn't think we could go up as it was in December and it's not usually good weather around that time. However, on that day, the weather was very nice and the Mt. Fuji 5th station was open! So up we went!

Cute photo op at the factory If you are ever in Tokyo, rather than staying at the overcrowded Shibuya and Shinjuku, I would highly recommend trying the Hotel Villa Fontaine Shiodome. The rates are very reasonable, and you get a nice, comfortable room. If you're lucky, you will also get a view! This picture below is of goodies I received from my friend the night before, perched on my room window sill. I was very fortunate to have tasted apples from her brother's apple orchard!  

Miss Kiki and her Melon Pan We left Kobe on the morning of our 6th day in Japan and headed out to Tokyo. We took a regular train to Shin-Osaka Station and hopped on a shinkansen (bullet train) from there to Tokyo. I had made plans to have lunch on the Shinkansen, so when we arrived at Shin-Osaka Station we rushed to Kobe Bifuteki Deli to get some Ekibens (train station lunch boxes). The Kobe Bifuteki Deli can be found in the Eki Marche inside the station and has a variety of beef steaks to choose from for a fancy bento. At Shin Osaka Station

Kobe Luminarie If you are ever in Kobe in December, check if the Luminarie is going on. The Kobe Luminarie is a light festival commemorating the victims of the  Great Hanshin Earthquake and is an annual event since 1995. The hotel gave us a map, and Miss Kiki and I decided to go check it out. We had to line up and it was a massive amount of people lining up with us. However, it was a moving line and we got there fairly quickly. The lights were beautiful and they added classical music in the background for an elevated experience. Oma originally wasn't going to come but when DH and Opa decided to join in, Oma came along. When you pass the lights, you will find a night market with a variety of vendors. We tried a local warm wine that we liked a lot. That evening, Miss Kiki and I had a pretty awesome dinner. It was at a Red Rock, the restaurant famous for their Gyudon, but this time they sell slightly different things and we had a delicious pork rice bowl. Kobe Luminarie Map

  Himeji Castle On our 5th day in Japan, Oma, Opa, DH, and I went to Himeji, a city near Kobe where you can find one of the nicest white castles in Japan: Himeji Castle. Also called the White Heron Castle, this castle is both a national treasure and a world heritage site. It's very easy to get to, though it takes about an hour by train. Meanwhile, Miss Kiki who was a Potterhead at that time went to Universal Studio in Osaka. The castle itself is within walking distance from the station, but there is an option to rent bicycles by the hour.

 While the Japan Winter 2019 series is put on hold again, I wanted to take the time to write about our stay at MesaStila Resort And Spa in Magelang, Central Java. It was the beginning of July 2022 and we had a school holiday. This is during the time we started traveling again after all the lockdowns and whatnot. The three of us plus a few of our friends decided to book a couple of nights' stay at MesaStila.   MesaStila Resort And Spa is strategically positioned near the mountains of Central Java. This coffee plantation-turned luxury resort occupies a vast land area and takes pride in its curated authentic traditional Javanese Rumah Joglo villas procured from places all around Java. The resort also features a swimming pool, horse stable, garden and farm, a coffee shop, and of course, a working coffee plantation. The beauty of same-island travel is that we can drive there. It takes a bit longer, but overall if you count the waiting time for air travel, it's actually better to dri