Five photos for CWBC Five

Five photos for Cee’s CBWC

This challenge kept me very busy for a few hours! Lots of fun editing and colouring in.

Cee says photos can be black and white, desaturated, sepia (brown tones) or selective colour.

Five tiers, Shimabara Castle, Kyusu Islands, Japan – using greyscale Kagoshima

Five sun loungers, Bali – using Bandicoot Beautiful Bali

Five Columns, Collbrook Bridge, Regents Canal, London – touch of colour Exploring London

Five arches and five windows – Seville, Spain – in Sepia

Hotels I’ve Stayed In – Old and New

This week for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge the theme is Old and New.

Over the years we have stayed in a variety of establishments – from two star to five star. It’s not always the five star hotels that are the best, I prefer ones that are a bit quirky and a view is even better.

OLD

Named after an American town and in the style of a Portuguese villa but located in Japan! This was a very cute hotel complete with an iron gated elevator. There is also the famous Chapel Bussola with its magnificent spiral staircase and stained glass windows. A sensational place to hold a wedding.

The Hotel Saigon Morin is not located in Saigon but in Hue which is around a three hour drive from Da Nang. Established in 1901 by a French businessman Mr. Morin and built in a French colonial style with a wonderful courtyard inside the hotel. Over the years many famous people stayed here, one was Charlie Chaplin. In the evening they have clips of his old films showing on the wall.

Both of the above hotels are small boutique hotels. The Plantation Hotel had a fantastic swimming pool in the middle of the buildings surrounded by palm trees and our room opened up onto it.

The Belle Rive Hotel in Luang Prabang overlooking the Nam Khan River. We had the bottom left room, complete with our own front door. We loved this hotel and walked over the road in the morning to have breakfast by the river.

NEW

The Stones, Bali

We enjoyed our stay at The Stones in Bali, such an opulent hotel. The bath was on the balcony, we never did use it! As you can see there is also a helicopter landing pad on top of the hotel. We stayed here for a week a few years ago when there was an extremely well priced trip from Perth in the local paper.

**Taj Krishna, Banjarra Hills, Hyderabad**

The Taj Krishna was definitely a five star hotel, complete with excellent service. We stayed here for a week with our two travelling companions, Laurence and Maddy a few years ago and had the best time. The staff here could not do enough to make our stay memorable.

**The Stamford, Glenelg, South Australia**

Staying here was part of our road trip across five states. We had a wonderful room overlooking the ocean.

My A to Z Travel Challenge – F is for Fukuoka

Fukuoka, Japan

Fukuoka is the first place we stopped at during our road trip through the Kyushu Islands. It is a city of canals, waterways and bridges. It said to be the oldest city in Japan. We were staying at the Hotel Okura which is located overlooking the Hakata River. As we were only here for two nights we didn’t have much time to see this city so had to decide where we wanted to see most.

Walking over one of the canals on our first night.

In the lobby of the Hotel Okura

Fukuoka Castle Ruins

I really wanted to see one of the castles here but was a bit disappointed that it was only ruins! But we had a good walk around and there were some great views over the city from the top. Built at the beginning of the 17th Century and torn down in the 19th Century, because it was viewed as an unwanted symbol of the feudal past.

Fukuoka at dusk

One of the shopping centres we walked through

Fukuoka is also home to the famous Canal City which is called a city within a city, and has a canal running through it. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for a wander around as we chose to go to Nokonoshima Island instead.

For our last night we stopped at a British Pub called Morris Hippo! strange name and enjoyed a few drinks here before dinner at Cafe Otto overlooking the canal.

Our handsome drivers!

Other places to visit in Fukuoka:

Fukuoka Tower
Ohori Park
Tochoji Temple
Kushida Temple

Hopefully we’ll visit again as I enjoyed Fukuoka very much

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F is finished and next up is G!

Beppu to Kumamoto – 3 June 2017

Driving back through middle today to Kumamoto to catch ferry onto Nagasaki. We had a couple of stops on the way of course! Besides being famous for its onsens Beppu is also famous for its “Hells”. These are spectacular hot pools, boiling mud and geysers which make up the “8 Hells” of Beppu. More info here. These hells are not for swimming and are now mostly a tourist attraction and you do have to pay to enter. To make it more interesting they’ve added a few animals!

Capybara – Large rat

Mountain Hell

Sulphur Hell Beppu, Kyushu Islands, Japan

Then off to Kurokawa Village for lunch. Another very traditional village. After this had a quick photo stop overlooking Mount Asa. Kurokawa village so quaint and we all loved it here. Little windy cobblestoned streets and alleys.

Walking down to the village

Teeny tiny cafe

Enjoying a custard donut

Overlooking Mt Asa

Beautiful patchwork of fields

Fukuoka to Beppu

Fukuoka to Beppu

Friday 2 June

Today we picked up our hire car with the driving to be shared between our two trusty drivers, Vaughan and Anthony. The route I had mapped out for us was slightly bizarre! In our nine days in Kyushu we travelled West to East to West to North to South, but it was the only way I could see to get every place in that we wanted to visit. It was hard also because Anthony in his excitement kept calling out different places he wanted to visit. And so it went…

We drove first to Kokonoe Bridge. It is 390 meters long, 173 meters high, 1.5 meters broad and it is the highest suspension walking bridge in Japan. Vaughan actually experienced vertigo on this bridge. It was extremely windy in the middle of the bridge. You can see Mimata Mt. and Waita Mt in the distance.

After this hair raising experience we stopped somewhere in the mountains for lunch. Found such a quaint place. Scenery was incredible from here.

Then onto Beppu with a brief stop in Yufuin a popular hot spring resort. We’re now in the Oita Prefecture.

Arrived late afternoon to Beppu Bay Royal Hotel overlooking the ocean. Just the one night here – why? Anthony said he liked the sound of the name Beppu. The hotel was situated just outside the town but I chose it because of the perfect views especially from our bedroom window.

As there were not any restaurants around the hotel we taxied into town around 15 minutes away and found a great Korean BBQ place. Food was delicious and our waiter hilarious. A good night.