Bridget McNulty

Indonesia to Japan…

// March 24th, 2009 // Inspiration, travelling

Indulge me! Reading through our itinerary makes me believe just a little bit more that it’s actually going to happen… (This is Leg 2, by the way – Leg 1 was yesterday).
Next we’re off to INDONESIA, or, more specifically, to BALI. We’ll land on the 30th of September 2009, and explore Bali’s palaces, temples, rice terraces and beaches for a couple of days, before heading off to PEMUTERAN in the far North. Apparently there’s very little English spoken there, but it’s unspoilt and lovely, and you can catch a bus to the port and take a ferry to JAVA for the day, which would be great.
We also want to experience MUNDUK, an incredibly beautiful area with one of the highest waterfalls and a lot of small homesteads to stay in. The more ‘real’ Bali we can see, the better!

The 16th of October will see us jetting off to CHINA, where we’ll land in BEIJING. We have no idea what to expect from China, but we’re very curious to see what it’s like. Mao Zedong said that, “He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man” so we’ll definitely do a tour of the Great Wall. And we want to visit the Forbidden City in Beijing, the best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China, off-limits to the world for 500 years. We’ll no doubt spend a few days exploring the city and eating lots of Chinese food!
We’ve been told, though, that SHANGHAI is the place to go in China, the most dynamic city in the world’s fastest-changing nation. We’ll be able to catch a train between the two cities, which is pretty handy. It’s apparently a city of stunning contrasts between old and new, and they have some great museums and galleries. It’s also home to the Yuyuan Gardens and Bazaar, a haven of shaded alcoves, glittering pools, pavilions and bamboo forests. Sounds stunning!

We haven’t decided yet if we want to fly into JAPAN on the 2nd of November, or take the ferry to OSAKA and then the bullet train to TOKYO. The ferry takes two nights, but it might be an intriguing journey… Once we’re in Japan, we want to explore Tokyo in depth. Supposedly one of the most fascinating cities on earth, with Zen temples rubbing shoulders with sci-fi cityscapes. Although we miss cherry blossom season, we’ve been told that autumn is the second-best, with dramatic orange and red foliage.
While we’re in Tokyo we’ll take a day trip to MOUNT FUJI, the highest mountain in Japan, at 3776m, and an icon in many Japanese pictures.
We’ll spend the second half of our time in Japan in KYOTO, home to 17 World Heritage sites, more than 1600 Buddhist temples, and over 400 Shinto shrines. Bamboo groves, geisha, temples and traditional restaurants are the norm in Kyoto, I can’t wait!