asia 2019

tour of asia, done the right way

At the start of 2018, Kei (my travel bud and best mate) had an epiphany to do a tour of Asia at the beginning of 2019. At the start of January 2019, it wasn’t a dream anymore.

Our travel dates: Jan 2nd - 27th 2019.

We were lucky enough to have either family or friends everywhere we went that took us around. This didn’t only save us so much time, but took the thinking away from us. This just means that our itinerary was not very planned, rather planned on the day or with who we were travelling with. However, see below for a little about each place we went to and the. things we did, from what I can recall…

a lil video I put together of our trip

itinerary

a snippet of a live house we went to in Taipei called ‘EZ’

my recommendations

While it’s hard to put together a couple of recommendations from travelling to 4 different countries, here were 4 of my favourites…

  • eat seafood from Addiction Aquatic Development in Taipei

  • eat at Uobei Shibuya Dogenzaka in Tokyo

  • visit Choi Hung Estate for their colourful basketball courts in Hong Kong

  • fly a lantern at the Pingxi Lantern Festival in Taipei

addiction aquatic development

A gourmet marketplace in the Zhongshan District, this is a seafood lover’s paradise. From hot pot to sushi to fish grilled or fried, the independently owned stalls offer seafood cooked with almost every method imaginable. We went with crab… delicious.

uobei shibuya dogenzaka

Probably the most famous sushi train in Tokyo, and rightfully so. 100% put this on your list. Best to click on the image to see our full scale demolition… yes… that is 50 plates 😋

choi hung estate

Honestly, these building are some of the most vibrant and stunning public housing buildings I’ve seen. The bright rainbow colours make it a very aesthetic location to come and snap a photo - or play basketball if thats what you desire.

Per wikipedia: The Choi Hung Estate (“Choi Hung” meaning ‘rainbow’ in Chinese) is an old public housing estate in Hong Kong that was built in 1964. This complex features 11 blocks of residential apartment buildings, a car park, and a basketball court.

pingxi lantern festival

Feels like something out of Disney with endless lanterns being set free into the sky. The dates are very limited so be sure to time it so you can be part of the proper festivities.

A history lesson by Offy Chang for Cathay Pacific

The tradition dates back to the Qing dynasty, when Pingxi was a remote but affluent district that had to deal with bandits. Villagers often took to the mountains to escape these dangers in winter. When the worst of the winter had passed, sky lanterns were flown to signal that it was safe for them to return. This became the Lantern Festival, now Pingxi’s most important cultural event, held on the 15th day of the first lunar month (19 February next year). Although you can release sky lanterns any day of the year, Lantern Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival (24 September this year) are the most popular periods for the tradition.

 

asia gallery

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