A to Z Travel Challenge – Travels with Ali

My A to Z Travel Challenge – Y is for Yufu and Yoshinocho, Japan – 🇯🇵

Yufu and Yoshinocho are both located in the Kyushu Islands of Japan. Situated in the Southwest of Japan.

Yufu

These are some of the photos I took on our trip to Japan a few years back. We visited Yufuin Onsen Village one afternoon, famous not only for its hot springs and holy shrine, but also art galleries and museums.

We had a fabulous afternoon here, a bit touristy, but a glimpse into village life.

Yoshinocho

On the same trip we spent a morning at Sengan-En Gardens, located in the Yoshinocho district, Kagoshima. Sengan-en is a traditional garden and stately home built by the 19th head of the Shimadzu family, Mitsuhisa, in 1658. We couldn’t visit the house as it was being used for filming. There are some lovely gift shops here selling local artwork and sweets. This is also where the famous Satsuma Kiriko glassware is sold, unique to Sengan-en and made at the glassworks next door.

The traditional red door, only affordable to the very rich

Water images from around the gardens

We had a wonderful morning here in these beautifully maintained gardens. It would be fun to watch scenes being filmed.

Thanks for reading, until next time!

My A to Z Travel Challenge – W is for Westman Islands, Iceland 🇮🇸

Heimaey is the main island of the Westman Islands, surrounded by 15 other islands. We visited here as part of our Icelandic tour a few years ago. Its population is approximately 4,300 people while all the other islands remain uninhabited. It can be reach by ferry from Vestmannaeyja or from Reykjavik.

It’s a beautiful little island, with abundant wildlife, but mostly famous for the puffins. It also has two volcanoes, Eldfel exploded in 1973 with all the inhabitants having to leave the island for almost six months! The island was left under lava and ash, but with the help of foreigners and other Icelanders, it was cleared to make it habitable again for the Westman Islanders.

The volcanic rocks we passed on the ferry

Before checking into our hotel we did a tour of the island taking in the puffin sanctuary.
It was August when we visited, the time when the baby puffins are born. The puffin parents stop feeding their young early so this forces the babies out and into the town looking for food. The lights at night attract the young and they fly down in their hundreds. It is a pastime for the youngsters of Westman Island to rescue these young birds and the next day the children take them to a safe nesting place on the island.

After seeing the puffins we then went onto to walk the volcanic trail around Eldfell Volcano, Anthony decided he would walk to the top later on that afternoon. He mentioned it was tricky to descend because you tended to slide down!

The new volcanic island formed from volcanic eruptions from 1963 to 1967

We were staying one night at the wonderful Hotel Vestmannaeyjar, where we had a great room overlooking the harbour.

It’s a lovely little town to explore on foot and we had the afternoon and night free to ourselves. Anthony wanted to try the local delicacy of baby puffin, a bit sad after we had just seen them! So he did get his wish after we found a pub for lunch.

Photos from around the town

A very fine Oldsmobile — Open air fish drying

Before leaving the island the next day our tour driver picked us up to visit the black sand beach, Reynisfjara, very popular with locals during the summer.

I loved the setting of this tiny island and it’s well worth a visit if you ever get to Iceland, a beautiful hidden gem full of colour and history.

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That’s it for W, next should be X but I’m stumped with this. So it will be straight onto Y!

My A to Z Travel Challenge – V is for Vientiane, Laos – 🇱🇦

Vientiane is the capital of Laos and the largest city, it is located on the banks of the Mekong River very close to the border with Thailand.

We visited here a few years ago for three nights before heading off to Luang Prabang. There is still a French influence around, especially the architecture. The Laotian cuisine is very delicate using herbs such as lemongrass, coriander and basil. Some of the dishes you might eat are sticky rice (Khao Niaw) sticky rice is a staple throughout the country. Minced Meat Salad (Larb) Green Papaya Salad (Tam Mak Hoong) Steamed Fish (Mok Pa) Baguette Paté (Khao Jii Paté) Wet Noodles (Khao Piak Sen) Lao Sausages (Sai Uah, Sai Gok) Noodle Soup (Phor).

The hotel we stayed at was called Green Park Hotel, a small boutique hotel set in beautiful gardens. After we had checked in we arranged with the concierge to hire a driver and car for the next two days. The next day after breakfast overlooking the gardens, our driver met us to start our first day. We were lucky with our driver, a happy chappy called Mr Vong and delighted to be our tour guide.

Green Park Hotel

Nam Ngum River

Our first stop today was the Nam Ngum River where we would be taking a river boat cruise including lunch. We had a couple of mini breaks on the way to take in the scenery.

Nam Ngum River Vientiane, Laos — Deep fried chicken feet

We stopped off at a small concrete pontoon in the middle of the lake, and up some stairs there was a lady selling all types of woven goods, local dried fish and gooseberries. The baskets and pots were made by the inmates of a nearby prison. We couldn’t leave without purchasing something. I hoped somebody remembered to pick her up at the end of the day!

A relaxing few hours was spent aboard our boat, eating lunch and drinking beer just watching the world go by. Not too sure about the chicken’s feet, but a favourite of my hubby, there’s no accounting for taste.

Soon we were back in the car off to our next stop which was the COPE museum.

COPE Museum
Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise

During the Vietnam War American bombers dropped over two million tons of cluster bombs on Laos, even though this was a neutral country. To read more about this terrible event in history click on history.com.

I must say I was shocked to read about the horrific suffering that the Laotians had suffered, visiting this museum was a real eye opener.

Feeling very sombre, we drove into the centre to have a quick stop at the Nam Phou Fountain.

Day two was a drive to the Buddha Park, home to weird and wacky sculptures depicting different humans, animals, gods and demons.

There is one sculpture shaped like a pumpkin with the tree of life on the top. It has three stories representing hell, heaven and earth. Entrance is through an opening which is a mouth of a 3-metre-tall demon head and climb staircases to the top. Each story contains sculptures depicting the level.

It was quite claustrophobic climbing up a very narrow staircase from the inside. Coming down was even worse, with no handrail and a panic attack on the way, I froze to the spot. Mr Vong had to hold my arm and hubby my ankle I manoeuvred inch by inch towards the edge! There were six Japanese men in suits no less, waiting patiently under the midday sun to come down after me. I wondered at one point if I would have to be rescued by a helicopter – a drama queen to the last!

A very interesting morning!

Completely exhausted after this, we drove back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon at the pool. All in all a very successful two days in Vientiane.

Extra info: To enter Laos from other countries you have to fly into Vientiane, Wattay International Airport so it’s worth a stop for a few nights. Visas can be obtained on arrival, a copy of your passport photo is okay to use. It takes around 20 minutes to drive into the city. We flew from Singapore to Vientiane using Lao Airlines and were very happy with the service and flight. The currency is the Kip but US dollars are widely accepted, so it’s useful to have both currencies.

Have a wonderful time if you ever do visit.
Thanks again for stopping by and reading!

Next of course is W

The next stop after Vientiane

Laid back Luang Prabang, Laos – October 2016

The second part of our trip to Laos was to the incredibly beautiful Luang Prabang. This tiny town is encircled by mountains and sits on the banks of the Mekong and Nam Khan River. We flew Lao Airlines from Vientiane and had arranged for a driver to take us to our hotel. We stayed at…

My A to Z Travel Challenge – U is for United Kingdom – 🇬🇧

Continuing with my A to Z challenge of places I have been, where else but the UK for U as it is where I was born and lived for 30 years!

My featured image is of Mepal, a very cold winter’s sunset.

Starting off with Liverpool which is in the North of England. We did only manage one night there, because as usual on our trips back to the UK it was all about catching up with friends and relatives.

Liverpool

Moving down to Mepal, which is very close to Ely

**Ely Cathedral**
There is a very interesting history on the link above about the cathedral, founded by St. Etheldreda

Travelling to Essex, my hometown

Leigh on Sea, on the South East Coast of Essex
A cute little seaside town, full of pubs, cafes, craft and gift shops

The oldest pub in Leigh, dating back to 1850

Maldon, Essex

The second oldest town in England and famous for its sea salt. Full of colourful barges and pubs along the estuary, it’s a great place to while away an afternoon.

My A to Z Travel Challenge – T is for Thailand – 🇹🇭

Thailand is a country that I’ve visited many times over the last thirty years! As you would imagine I’ve seen countless changes from sleepy beaches dotted with small basic huts to ridiculously large resorts with five star hotels. Although Bangkok has never really changed that much, always busy 24 hours, just three days is plenty there! Thailand is a country where you can have almost any type of holiday, hiking, biking, swimming, diving, shopping, drinking, relaxing and of course eating the most delicious food. I can’t say I’ve done everything but the options are there! It’s such a welcoming country and I look forward to many more visits.

This post is just about two of the places I’ve loved the best, Koh Samui and Khao Lak.

Koh Samui

Koh Samui is the second largest island in Thailand, Phuket being the largest. It lies off the East coast of Kra Isthmus. Before Koh Samui had an airport it was a fairly difficult place to travel to. I remember when I first visited in 1989 we travelled on a bus from Bangkok to Surat Thani and then a ferry. It was around 11 to 12 hours! I’m not sure I would ever do that again.

My daughter and I went a few years ago for her 25th and we stayed at a fabulous “adults only” resort near Fisherman’s Village, Bophut. We spent our days shopping, drinking and relaxing on the beach on beanbags instead of sunbeds.

We loved this resort with it’s swim up bar, so easy to walk from the pool to the beach in just a few steps.

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Hubby and I have also been to Koh Samui and stayed at Mae Nam beach, at the very top of the island. It wasn’t a fancy place but just right for us. The larger resorts tend to be set quite far back from the beach and it’s the less expensive ones that actually have the best location.

The small individual villas were perfect

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Khao Lak

We first visited Khao Lak in 2000 and when we mentioned it hardly anyone had heard of it. It was recommended by a travel agent when we lived in Hong Kong. Back in the days before internet travel and online booking so we were really taking a chance. Flying into Phuket and then driving back onto the mainland with a driver sent by the hotel, the journey was around 2 to 3 hours. Nowadays it it much quicker with a new bridge and highways being built over the last decade or so. We stayed in one of the only resorts on this very long stretch of the coast and loved every minute.
Sadly as everyone knows the 2004 Tsunami swept many of the small resorts away along with thousands of tourists and locals alike.

We ventured back quite a few years later with some trepidation but just took the chance like many others. I’m so glad we did as this is still one of the most amazing stretches of coastline in the world.

One thing you can be sure of in Khao Lak is turquoise seas and stunning sunsets.

We will definitely be back again to visit Thailand, hopefully sooner rather than later

Thanks for stopping by 😎

My A to Z Travel Challenge – S is for Santiago de Compestela, Spain – 🇪🇸

Santiago de Compestela

After leaving Ribadesella we drove onto Santiago de Compestela, a city that many people end up in after walking the Camino de Santiago route. One of the images that is stuck in my head was the amount of people sitting on the steps of the cathedral with knee bandages! We were only staying for one night here as my hubby wanted to see the burial site of St. James.

St. James’ remains are reputedly buried within the grounds of the cathedral, which was consecrated in 1211.

The small town is easily seen in one day and very interesting. There are wonderful alleys to wander up and little shops to browse in. We always buy something from every place we visit, a t-shirt, tea towel or some useful kitchen utensil. We both bought t-shirts this time from a small boutique.

Church of María Salomé, Santiago de Compostela,
Built in honour of the Apostle St. James´ mother

That concludes our mini trip to Santiago de Compostela. It was great to spend some time here exploring and glad we made this part of our Spanish road trip.

My A to Z Travel Challenge – R is for Ribadesella, Spain 🇪🇸

Ribadesella is located on the North Coast of Spain and looks out over the Cantabrian Sea and the River Sella runs through there. I chose Ribadesella to break our journey from San Sebastian to Santiago de Compestella.
We stayed for two nights in the Hotel Gran Sella with a beautiful room overlooking the Playa de Santa Marina. This hotel was a former 19th century palace belonging to the Marquis of Argüelles.

The Esplanade in front of the hotel goes on for ages and we had a wonderful walk along the seafront. It is home to many old houses at one time owned by prosperous returning merchants from overseas, places like Chile and Mexico where they had made their fortunes. Apparently they date back to 16th and 17th century but surely must have been renovated many times since!

One of the houses formerly owned by a returning merchant

After a cocktail on the verandah in the hotel we drove over the bridge into the small harbour where there are many seafood restaurants. We just chose one at random and were not disappointed. We ordered a seafood platter for two, but was large enough for four.

Underneath this huge plate of fish there was a layer of potatoes

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Day Two in Ribadesella

Anthony had read about the Tito Bustillo Cave (Cueva de Tito Bustillo), known for prehistoric wall paintings of animals and figures, probably dating from the Magdalenian age, 29,000 years ago, and wanted to visit. We walked from our hotel but when we arrived found that we had to book to enter, that day all the times had been sold out. There was only the museum to wander around. It’s a good excuse to visit again.

In the afternoon we drove up into the mountain village of Mierres and found somewhere for lunch.

I took this photo because I was intrigued by the photo behind it!

We hope to go back one day to Northern Spain and explore more of the seaside and mountain villages. The food is wonderful and the scenery outstanding.

Some other places we have also travelled

My A to Z Travel Challenge – G is for Geysir and Gulfoss, Iceland

Both Geysir and Gulfoss are located within the Golden Circle in Iceland. These were places we visited a few years ago on an Icelandic Air tour. We first had one night in Reykjavik and the next morning boarded our coach to the next hotel which was Hotel Grimsborgir. Geysir This was our first destination outside…

by Alison May 18, 2020August 24, 2020

My A to Z Travel Challenge – J is for Jerez, Spain 🇪🇸

An Afternoon in Jerez

by Alison June 30, 2020August 24, 2020

My A to Z Travel Challenge – E is for Ephesus, Turkey

Ephesus, Turkey We visited Ephesus on our Mediterranean cruise many years ago. We took my parents who were then in their early eighties. This was one of our ports of call along the way. Docking in Kusadasi, we took a bus tour organised by the travel desk on the cruise ship to Ephesus. Even though…

by Alison May 5, 2020August 24, 2020

My A to Z Travel Challenge – Quang Nam Province, Vietnam 🇻🇳

Quang Nam Province is where the Unesco World Heritage town of Hoi An is situated. It is a mix of Vietnamese, Chinese and French style buildings. Hoi An sits on the banks of the Thu Bon River and there are many waterways around the area.
We have stayed in Hoi An twice before and visited on a number of other occasions while staying in Da Nang. It gets busier with each year and there is hardly any room to move crossing over the little bridge.

The two hotels we stayed in were just outside of the small town, Hoi An Historic Hotel and Hoi An Beach Hotel. Early evening is the best time to go into Hoi An Ancient Town as it’s a bit cooler then, although not much!

Fishing for the daily catch, views from our balcony

An Bang Beach

The beds are so close, no social distancing here! Crawling from the bottom is the only way to lie on them! No secrets are safe here.

Restaurants and Bars in the walking area of Hoi An

Bikes and doors

Views of the other side of Hoi An

My nightly cocktail – Pina Colada

Hoi An is such a wonderful place to visit but so many places in Vietnam are. It is one of my favourite countries to visit.

My A to Z Travel Challenge: H is for Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, Vietnam🇻🇳

Hanoi Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, where we spent four days a few years ago. Hanoi was not a place that interested me as I had heard it was quite industrialised due to the influence of communism. However it was somewhere where Anthony wanted to visit, and I can’t always have my own way! After…

by Alison May 28, 2020December 5, 2020

My A to Z Travel Challenge – O is for “Oh where in the world is this?”

I have to say I am completely stumped with O and cannot think of a place I’ve visited that is worthwhile posting about. So I’m just going to display a few photos and see if anyone can guess where they are. Some easy, some hard or maybe not if you are well travelled!

No. 1 – Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh

No. 2 – Mlini, Croatia

No. 3 – Nokonoshima Island, Fukuoka

No. 4 – San Sebastian, Spain

No. 5 – Tegunungan Waterfall, Bali

No. 6 – Canmore, Canada

I’ll post the answers in a few days!

My A to Z Travel Challenge – N is for Nagasaki, Japan 🇯🇵

Nagasaki was part of our 9 day road trip through the Kyushu Islands a few years ago and we spent two very busy days and nights here. There were four of us on the road trip, me, hubby and our two good friends Cheryl and Vaughan. Vaughan and hubby did all of the driving. We…

by Alison August 9, 2020January 17, 2021

My A to Z Travel Challenge – P is for Porto, Portugal 🇵🇹

A few years ago we did a road trip from Biarritz to Porto. We ended up in Porto purely for the reason that it was convenient to fly back from. Anthony had been many years ago and said he wasn’t very impressed. Well we were in for a wonderful surprise.
I had booked an apartment for two nights overlooking the Douro River and we couldn’t have had a better view. Although the apartment could have done with a bit of work it was more than okay for two nights and the view made up for any complaints.

Douro River, Porto, Portugal — View from our balcony of Luis I Bridge

We only had two full days here and we made the most of every minute and explored as much as we could.

There was a fabulous tiny restaurant attached to the apartment belonging to the owners and we had dinner there the first night. The food was amazing especially the grilled sardines.

The next day we set off early and walked along the river and took in the views. We stopped off at the Sao Bento Railway Station as someone mentioned it was a place we must see. The station had the most amazing murals decorating the walls.

Above a slideshow of the murals in the Sao Bento Railway Station representing Portuguese history and daily work.

Next we had scheduled a walking tour over Luis I bridge to visit the Port houses on the other side of the river. There were five included in the tour, we managed two, but for me there’s only so much port I could taste!

We crossed back over the river and found a bar to have a bottle of wine and some tapas and found we were just in time for the annual procession of the saints. Good timing for us as we had front row seats.

The next day we were already checking out at 11 am. We found a souvenir shop to leave our luggage, which was very handy because when we were in Vigo there was nowhere that would take left luggage. We headed up to the cathedral and stopped there for a while to enjoy the amazing views over Porto.

Enough time here and it was onwards and downwards to town to look for lunch and a spot of shopping for you know who!

Shopping time!

Modelling his artisan waistcoat – “Made in Porto”.

Two days in Porto is just not enough and we will definitely be back to explore more of this beautiful city and the rest of Portugal, whenever we can get on a plane again!