Chasing After Rainbows

As the actual day comes closer, and with electronics ready, how would it be like under actual use? In this case, it would also mean how convent (or troublesome) it would be to bring all the cables and chargers with me. Looking through the things I have, which were either bought for earlier trips or not originally planned for it at time of purchase, I could make multiple use of some to save up on additional chargers and cables. The only new thing bought for this trip was a 32GB microSD card with full-sized SD adaptor for my camera (and the unrelated iPhone 6 Plus). If my camera and the laptop I plan to bring uses a full sized SD card, why did I buy the microSD version instead, you may ask? Simple: using it on a camera phone. I know I mentioned iPhone earlier, but it is for my Android phone that serves as a (second) backup camera. It served me well during my Bangkok and the Paris section of Europe trip. Even if I did not end up bringing that phone around, at least I could...

(I should rename this series since I'm not just heading to Hokkaido only.) I have mentioned earlier in this series that I have dropped the Hakone section due to accommodation and cost issues, but there are other places that I have considered that did not make it to the planning stage that Hakdate did. While I do want to visit other countries, nothing seems to come to mind. As for within Japan, I did thought of (from west to east) Himeji, Nagoya, Nara, Niigata, Fukushima, Sendai, and Aomori. However, I found this to be too much to plan around, or I just couldn't see any place of interest in there. In any case, it's kind of too late to change my current plans without incurring cancellation charges. Flights are the most costly ones to cancel or change as those are paid in full instead of as a deposit.

A laptop. Deciding to bring it is tricky because it adds weight to my travelling bag and being one additional valuable item to worry about, but yet there are things that I can't do with alternative choices. Here are my choices: Smartphone – Use it for all my internet needs, including using Wi-Fi. This is what I had done on my travels so far, and even used it to book a flight from Venice to London Gatwick. Screen is too small for things that are not optimised. Mobile data roaming overseas is expensive, and getting mobile data of that country is troublesome. Tablet PC – I don't have one and, depending on the operating system it runs on (Windows RT vs iOS / Android) and the hardware features it has, it's could as well just be a smartphone with a larger screen. It does likely to have something called USB On-The-Go (OTG), but I don't want to carry an extra cable or adaptor. Also, I can't do any quick and productive writing with on-screen keyboards. Hostel PCs – This...

As part of any planning, there would be changes to plans. Additions to it, and of course, removal of some. I mentioned on twitter and part 2 of this series that I would be adding places to visit between Tokyo and Hakodate. These are Osaka and Hiroshima, with side trips from these two cities. I know that I have visited Osaka before, but since I was based in Kyoto, an hour to get between Kyoto and Osaka, and with many places in Kyoto planned, it's difficult to add places in Osaka to visit that, in retrospect, there were more places in Osaka (and a viewing area in Kobe) that I did not visit, so being based in Osaka this time, and staying there longer, would give me more room. (The real reason for duration being to fill up most of the gap.) There may be a chance that I would visit Kyoto again, but only for the Fushimi Inari shrine and Ginkakuji. Both of which I had visited before on previous visit, but I did not "exit" properly for one because I found myself lost from go...

Flights and hotels. When should you book? If your trip involves the two together, choose the flight first if you hadn't pick specific dates or duration of travel. The reason is that flight fares vary a lot on a day-to-day basis and you would have more flexibility, especially if the flights are at the start and the end of the trip. If travelling through various cities, you may also want to check if a one-way ticket to your first city and another one-way ticket to your last city would be cheaper than having a return ticket to one of the cities. Don't forget to include the cost of getting to the airport itself! What time your flight arrives and departs would also determine if you should save/spend on a night at the hotel. Some flights fly more than once a day, some only a few times a week, with the latter giving you less flexibility. If your flight arrives quite close to midnight, local time, where transport out of the airport may have ended service for the day, or have you ...

Being the northernmost part of Japan also means it is colder there. Obviously a lot colder than Onikawa, which is considered the Hawaii or Florida of Japan. Winter in Tokyo is not that cold where seeing it covered in a blanket of snow itself is rare. While I have been to cities further up north, which were the cities of London and Paris that I visited last year, the season was obviously the wrong one to expect to see snow: May to June. (Just to let you know the other extreme of what I've been through, I have stepped to the outdoors of Quatar's Doha airport, which was very warm.) I am unsure if the warm clothing I have in my wardrobe are sufficient. Might need to head out to buy if they are insufficient. The problem is that I don't know what to look out for other than the general temperature (-5℃ to +5℃) I think Hokkaido might have in early January, and clothing stores themselves not stating what temperatures they are designed for. A jacket for 20℃ weather is not the sam...

What trip would be complete without a camera to have a record of what you have seen? Especially more so if it is of somewhere where it isn't easy for you to get to enough to have the next time of being there being hard or impossible? Well, you don't need those expensive cameras, as well as expensive lenses and equipment to go with it, to get a good picture. A normal point an shoot camera will do. I don't recommend ones built into a mobile phone: it lacks a lot of features (though smartphones like iPhones has things like point focus and exposure), memory is shared with everything on your phone (less space for your photos and messy to organise), reduced battery life due to non-camerea related use (not good if you want to take pictures all day), analog zoom, the awkwardness of holding it. More importantly, how long does it take between activating the camera and being able to take a picture? And for phones with touch screen, are you able to take a picture without looking out ...

Since the previous post, I have more or less decided to enter Hokkaido by plane to New Chitose Airport. Shinkansen (Aomori is the furthest north it goes currently) would still be an option should there be an aviation or timing related issues. Initially, I was thinking of making a day trip to Hakodatte from Sapporo, but the travel time of 3 to 4 hours made me reconsider to maybe staying there for some days instead. Double that to make my way back. What can I see if most of the day was spent on travelling alone? Adding to that, it is winter, and quite far north (though London is the furthest north latitude-wise I've been), which means less sunlight. Timing-wise, I'm not sure of the exact dates yet as this is largely determined by flight and accommodation availability (and prices). I want to visit the Winter Festival in Odori park in Sapporo, but that is in February. Not sure when this trip would be, but it won't be any earlier than December. This also largely depends if...

It has been more than a year since my last trip to Europe, which made up of the Paris, Venice, and London. (Read my entries that I had written on this blog as I was travelling then, though I neglected to write the London portion of it there) While planning for that, there were considerations to visit Iceland, Berlin, Rome, Vatican City, and Zurich, but time and financial constrains limited this. Total trip was about a month. How is this related to this next trip I'm planning? Preparation, packing, and an unfamiliar environment that pictures and words can't make you fully prepared for it. My packing was so efficient, having experience from earlier travels (Hong Kong and Bangkok), the accommodation host was surprised that I only had two regular-sized backpacks instead of those large luggage bags with wheels commonly associated with a travelling tourists. My plan at the moment is to visit Hokkaido, with nothing booked yet, but where exactly should I go? At the moment, I'm...

Having travel abroad myself, I have went through the trouble of preparing for my travels. I have seen and heard of people who don't travel just because of the fear of the unknown, or not understanding the situation behind horror stories they may have heard, or while they are just about to travel, they have forgotten something important at the last minute. This guide assumes that you are not using an agent to help you or have anything that requires your attention while you are away that can't be done while travelling. This list is sorted according to how important you need to get things done, with the most important first. Get a passport This is the most important document you would need to travel. Some countries have agreements to let citizens of one country into another with just an ID, but you will need a passport for all others. If you already have a passport, make sure it isn't expired, or a few months close to the expiry date. The exact number of months varies b...

Places visited: Venice Marco Polo airport, London Bridge station, Vauxhall station, Westminster palace (Note: this was written on day 29, so details might not be in detail until i have image reference. Day 11, and days 14 through 16, are currently skipped) The last day in Venice, and also the first day (second if you count as transit to Paris) in London. Having a morning flight means that my time in Venice that day is just limited to travelling to the airport. The streets were empty, though as we got closer to the bus terminal (Plaza Roma), there are people walking around to get to work. Not clear which direction as Venice itself is a maze: even narrow passageways can be a major route with many possible routes, and random dead ends. The Venice airport took quite a number of minutes to get to from the main city area. The interior looks like the kind I would expect of an European airport actually. As Italy is part of the Schengen zone, flights to other European countrie...

Places visited (Day 12): Château de Vincennes, Gare de Lyon (via Vallorbe, Switzerland) Places visited (Day 13): Santa Lucia (Northern Venice) (Note: this was written on day 27) Day 12 The last day in Paris, and also where I would make my way to Venice. Because I was so cheap on expenses, the owner told me that I had to clean the room, or pay €20. Knowing how strong European European currency is, that is quite an amount in my home currency. So where do I go between check out and boarding the train? Well, there is this place I always walk past, but never went in, to a place called Château de Vincennes . (Pronounced as sha-tou-deh-varn-sen ) It's an old castle, but I didn't know the significance of it until I read that some well known authors were imprisoned there. Spent about 3 hours there. Where to next? Well, there is this big library near one of the station I went past days earlier (don't remember the name, but it interchanges with RER C and Métro lin...

Place visited: The Louve (again) (Note: this was written on day 24. Some details might have been forgotten.) Not being fully satisfied with the earlier visit (it was crowded), I decided to take another visit to the museum. This time, I had to pay the admission as it wasn't the first Sunday of the month. On top of that, I am not eligible for the student/youth discount, which is reserved for EU citizens. So, having there before, I kind of know where the other other entrance is, and what station to get off. The other entrance is not far from the subway station and then follow the underground shopping arcade that has an Apple store. There should be an inverted pyramid that lets light from outside in. (Guides and maps shows the entrance as the side of the nearby arch, visible from the glass pyramid main entrance, at ground level that goes below the ground.) It was hard to take a picture of the inverted pyramid without someone posing in front of it. Not much to ...

So the day has finally arrived! The plane departed the airport at the night of the 29th. To cut down the cost of the ticket, the flight had a stopover at Doha, Qatar. Quite a number of people don't seem to know where this is: it's in the Middle East. Surrounding countries include Saudi Arabia and Dubai (part of UAE). About 7 hours later, we arrived in Doha. What I was not expecting was that there were shuttle buses to the terminal instead of walking to it or having a bridge. The colour of the ticket holder and luggage tag I was given determines if I were to head to the arrival hall, transfer hall, the premium terminal, or the satellite wing. It took a while to step out of the plane as the shuttle bus could not accommodate every one. Really, why this, and why are they all at different areas? The terminal was crowded, and I could only find one toilet there that itself was full. When waiting, every seat was occupied. The sitting area after the collection of tickets to wai...

With experience from my previous travels, I have learnt on what to pack, and what not to pack. What complicates this is what could (or rather not) be brought through the airport and customs. Another thing to consider is the type of bag to bring along, and, if it has wheels, the "retain" it would be brought through outside the airport . You know those big fat bags with built in wheels and a handle that many people passing through the airport seem to be bringing along? You don't need to have/buy those bags. If it weren't for the handle, it would be difficult to carry, but what makes it difficult to carry in the first place? The shape of the bag, and, because of the bag's capacity, you tend to fill it up and even exceed the allowed weight of check-in and have to pay more (not cheap) if you still insist on not lightening the load to drop to the limit. Don't forget that the weight of the bag itself, including its handle and wheels, has its own weight. Also, thos...

One of the most important aspect of traveling far away from home is finding a place to stay, especially if there isn't anyone in that area to stay with that I know of. Not including my online friends that I have never met in real life, not many people I know of lived abroad. Heck, most of the people I know of hasn't even been abroad. Basically, I have no one. Due to the flight being booked less than a month prior to the departure day, that also naturally meant that hotels aren't booked earlier since the exact dates aren't known before booking the flight. As Paris was the first destination in Europe, that naturally means that the accommodation dates are closer, which also translates to lesser odds of finding a room at a good hotel as other people had booked it, way earlier . Sure there may be vacancies, but of non-consecutive dates, or of an undesirable price. I ended up booking an apartment, which works out to be cheaper than the available hotels I came across by as muc...

As part of planning, how do I get around plays a large part of how much things cost, where and how to get to and from accommodation, along with related activity relating to getting to and from there. Taxis in London are obviously out for me. Before I talk about intercity travel, I did take a look at getting to Paris from London via Train + ferry + Train combo as opposed to taking another plane or taking the more famous Eurostar. The cost seemed only marginally cheaper, though Eurostar might be cheaper if booked months in advance, but hey, we didn't even book the plane to Europe until less than a month to departure, and obviously I can't book a train with dates unknown. The big turndown was that, this route, meant that I could have possibly missed the last train into Paris after alighting the ferry at the France side of the English Channel. The town we would be stuck at seems like a small town with only a few hotels. We decided to take the Eurostar in the end. Either way, how do...

So, apart from making calls and using the internet , how do I pass the time during the long monotonous wait while travelling? Well, perhaps the plane taking off and landing, or train departing and arriving, and when on board meals are being served when I don't really feel bored. But what do you do when on a 2 hour train ride, or a 9 hour stopover at an international airport that doesn't have much facilities that I could access without paying too much? You can't expect me to just stare into blank space like a zombie or walking around aimlessly forever. (Walking around for that long is tiring.) Well, apart from going online, I could just play games, music or do some work, but I'm not bringing my iPod or gaming console, or my laptop. I could just stare at each individual stamp in my passport of the different countries that I had been to, but that's no fun when you have so many hours to kill. Well, it turns out that I have the kindle with me. The one I bought in D...

Among the different phones networks here, I am already using a phone that is commonly used around the world, which happily includes Europe. However, overseas roaming charges are there. Calling a local number while in the country, with the SIM card of the operator back home inside, is technically seen as an overseas call, which means higher charges. One way around it is to get a local SIM card or use a payphone. Problem with getting a local SIM card is that I would be travelling to an another country, making the call while in that other country also seen as an overseas call. In addition for prepaid SIM cards, I can't get the refund of unused balance. The same for using a phone card for payphones. How about using coins for payphones? Well, if you have several coins of specific denominations , that wouldn't be a problem, but, for overseas calls, that means inserting coins more frequently. In practice, who would even carry so many coins of the same denomination? Sure the paypho...

With the introduction of the Euro in 2002, the hassle and fees of changing currencies has largely been eliminated for this trip. The problem is that my home currency is not the Euro, and the UK still uses the British Pound. At least France and Italy, two of the countries I'm visiting, uses the Euro. Guess what. The flight I'm taking makes a stopover in a small country in the Middle East called Quatar. (Near UAE and north eastern corner of Saudi Arabia if you didn't know where) It has its own currency called Qatari Riyal, so I don't know how am I to obtain that. I don't recall seeing it at the money changers I have been to or walked past. On closer look, it does have money changer and has ATMs (unclear on fees or if international cards are accepted). It's not clear if my home currency is accepted there, but what is certain is that the Euro notes that I'm already bringing along would be accepted. (Some money is lost in the conversion though.) Sadly, I ...