Without terribly hot weather, I could live in Singapore! It overcame hardship during colonial and now shows diversity in culture toward prosperous future.
The city, small but full of amusements, attracts people and me from overseas. Facilities as well as amenities were available for tourists and citizens under proper management. Three days exploration could not cover all the spots open to me. However, it was clear from my first impression that why most people want to stay there for vacation or permanent residence.
The best attractive point for me was relatively cheap food price. Foods were made from fresh materials. The kinds of food with Asian countries' delicacy gave me a joy to be lined up in front of local restaurants every meal hours. I was in search for spicy flavor all through stay there. Tropical fruits galore were another temptation!
More surprising thing than I expected was that diversified ethnic groups flourish their own cultures with sincere respect to one another. This sustaining factor seemed to form what the Singapore is and what it has now. Nobody out of whomever I met in the middle of this travel expressed discrimination or showed inhospitality.
Hopefully, next travel destination will be Singapore again because visiting spots this time were very limited to downtown area and Sentosa Island due to short schedule. Enjoy photos and videos from below!
The place, ZhangJiaJie, is now getting attention for tourism from the world.
The number of visitors is in increasing trend every year.
In my guess by staying there a week, over 95 percent of travelers are Korean.
Korean travellers hit the record every year.
Spectacular panorama is available in most of places around this area
and is accessible by convenient transportation systems of bus routes and cableways
altogether. The cableways give travelers a chance to experience
fascinating view seen in the middle of free space.
The Chinese government designated this area as a National Geopark with
a big support from central and regional government.
UNESCO
also confirmed exceptional and universal value of this site
as a scenic and historic interest area on the world heritage list.
Exploring new chances for travel as well as protecting
it from damages coexists toward tourism promotion and environmental protection.
This area is, allegedly, designated as a venue for rafting and related events
of 2008 Olympic Games.
In other words, youngsters may consider this spot as a center of extreme sports in China. Related facilities are already available and will be usable in the future with appropriate amenities.
Travel destinations in or nearby ZhangJiaJie include,
Then, historical routes to understand cultures in Hunan province and
the origin of communism in China are open to you in ChangSha area as below!
You can drop by on your arrival or on the way to get to ChangSha
international airport upon your return.
Boarding on ferry at XiangJiang 湘江 (river), bifurcating ChangSha, will be a plus
for relaxation at the last night of your travel.
LieShiGongYuan (small museum and monuments for communism heroes)烈士公園
Video below shows you a hint how cableway will go with beauty outside.
You can snatch photo shots taken during my stay there from these links;
link1,
link2,
link3,
link4, and
link5.
Video clips are at your hand
from here, too.
Enjoy ZhangJiaJie!
As was often the case with me, packing my back was another long itinerary :)
Now, I am ready to board on the flight to China!
Forecast expected considerable amount of precipitation in our travel destinations, though.
God bless us!
Churaumi aquarium keeping the world biggest water tank
made me totally excited viewing whale shark seven meters long
in front of my eyes! Spectacular views from
so many species attracted me all through staying there.
We drove to northmost point of Okinawa. On the way reaching there,
visiting local markets and looking around seaside gave me another fun,
an experience of nearly untouched community from industrialized
or westernized Japanese society.
Yes, I had half day to return back to Korea! The last night only with my friend
was complete full of awamori.
Historical fact shows that Ryukyu Kingdom centered
in this castle lasted over 500 years independent from main land regime,
maybe, due to geographical separation. You can imagine it from world wide map, if available.
Trade over Asian region and diplomatic practices with China played a great role in forming Ryukyu culture.
Imported Thailand rice gave birth to awamori distilled from it.
Ryukyu dance reflects inferiority in relation with China.
Sefa Utaki, the sacred place believed to be created by goddess of Okinawa, had a view point toward Kudaka island also sacred. There was nothing in particular for me except triangular shaped stone tunnel naturally (I am not sure) eroded. The whole area is a world heritage.
The third visit place, theme park for cultural experience, was just so so.
We returned back to Nago a little earlier; We dove into awamori pool earlier, too.
Another ex-JOCVs joined dinner with us.
June 28, I swore that I would complete full verision of travel itinerary in Okinawa. Hmm...
It is nearly five months since my escape from awamori swimming pool. :)
At last, let me sketch something Okinawan starting this scratching.
Upon the pick up by Japanese friend,
we visited the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters
located in southern part of main land. One of ruins during world war II,
but well preserved, showed just tragedy that post war generation including
me can and/or may not understand.
After a short go-around, we moved to peace memorial museum.
(For more information, refer to brochure)
It was a museum keeping typical items,
such as miniatures of war fields, photos of war veterans,
documentaries of war in live, and so on.
However, my intention was to visit memorial stones located along the seashore,
in front of it. Names of war victims including around
90 Korean were inscribed to propitiate their souls. God bless all of them!
Facing awamori at dinner was a peculiar experience in drinking life.
High rate alcohol volume like whiskey made me drunken but feeling high spirit.
Another delight was drinking over fresh seafood with ex-JOCVs in Okinawa!
It passed nearly two months since my visit to Okinawa. Nothing except serveral scratchings on travel planning and accommodation there (Nago International House) was shown up this blog thereafter, though. Impressions upon my arrival in Okinawa include "peace", "calm", and "zephyr". The peace and calm can go together in terms of life style of Okinawa residents. The zephyr was what I experienced for the first time in my life; the real tropical wind flow touching me on the face all through my stay there. Visitation places were the mixture of historical, cultural, and entertainment basis with the help of ex-JOCV residing there (born in, also). Fortunately, I could escape from forest rainfall chasing me on the verge of rainy season. I will make sure that site photos with comment be ready on this blog soon.
2,500 yen per one night! This rate can go down to 1,300 yen for over eight nights.
Nago city government offers accomodation at Nago International House in promotion of international friendship exchange. The House is located near coral beach as shown below.
Red colored building on the roof is main facility in which office and Japanese/western style halls are located.
The building on the right side is lodging house. Reaching coral beach requires only 20 second walk! Unfortunately, it seems that information on Nago International House across the world wide web is extremely limited as shown from google search result as of May 23 :)
I have several hours to go to Okinawa island for my refreshment. Right now, luggage packing completed. Information from Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau was great help for visit planning. A certain ex-JOCV member gave me a big hand, too. More message drops are supposed to be shown in this blog upon my return on 7th of May.
