Taiwan Trip 2: Post Winter Summary

Trip Overview:

On this trip, I handled most of the pre-planning and bookings—location, accommodation, and a rough itinerary. I learned from the last trip that my siblings were basically there just to teman me (heard they were discussing about it among themselves), so this time I changed my mindset and took the lead in decision-making. 

Delegating the Task:

• For this trip, my sister handles navigation because my phone battery is tragically weak. But, I have this cool mini superpower—a remarkable visual memory. Once I go through a route, I pretty much lock it in. So after the first round, I’d often end up leading the way back or on the next day’s outings. Handy, right?

• For deciding where to go and what to do, I’d research, discuss, and finalize plans the night before. I stayed flexible since I had only two main goals: explore and nature walk. Everything else was based on what the place had to offer.

Itinerary:

• Day 1: Kaohsiung
  
• Day 2: Kaohsiung
• Day 3: Tainan
• Day 4: Kaohsiung
• Day 5: Taipei
• Day 6: Taichung
• Day 7: Kaohsiung > KL

Places worth mentioning during this trip:

• Shoushan Zoo, Kaohsiung
• Pier-2, Kaohsiung 
• Anping Tree House, Tainan
• From Impressionism to Modernism exhibition, Kaohsiung
• Animaga & Ghibli Exhibition, Taipei
• Deking hiking trails, Taichung

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Weather:

Let’s talk weather—because wow, it was a bit of a rollercoaster. I went to Taiwan in winter three months ago, but this time it was post-winter. The temperature ranged from 17°C to 27°C. Some days I wished I had my winter jacket (especially up North when it rained), and other days I regretted not wearing a thinner shirt during a hike. Classic “layer and pray” weather.

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Steps, Shoes, and Super Legs

I clocked about 60 km in 6 days—so roughly 10 km a day. I brought new Skechers walking shoes for this trip and they delivered. No leg pain, no backache, just solid walks.

Highlight: The Deking Trail 10–9.5 in Taichung. It was a solid huff-and-puff session—minimal chatting, maximum stair climbing. Thank goodness we came back via a different path; I can’t imagine descending Trail 10. Watching fellow hikers hustle up and down on a weekend was oddly inspiring. Nature really does something to the soul, huh?

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Spending:

• Flight tix: RM 1,065 (I bought an easy cancel ticket, with an extra +7kg, breakfast and insurance)
• Airbnb + Hotel: RM 1080.50/2 = RM 540.25
• Internet: RM 50 for 7 days
• Cash + TnG: RM 1,000 (rough estimation) - this includes food, uber, shopping, tickets, high speed train etc

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Not everything went perfectly, of course. There was the earthquake. The rainy, moody Taipei day. The canceled Alishan trip I was lowkey looking forward to. Kaohsiung didn’t quite hit the nature spot like I’d hoped. And don’t even get me started on the repeating Indo food lineup.

But you know what? We were safe, we made it back, and I had a lovely distraction during Eid. So, Alhamdulillah, I’m grateful for this trip. For the little wins, the new paths, and the chance to breathe somewhere else for a bit. 

Note: Lepas ni I malas nk bawak my siblings, they were just there to teman me anyway – I'll find group trip pulak.

Taiwan Trip : The Winter Trip Summary

Pre-Planning: I did this last minute and booked the ticket just less than 3 weeks before the trip. No extensive pre-planning like I usually do, I got 2 weeks of holiday from the office, and I decided to use it to complete one of my 2024/25 goals - The Taiwan Trip. 

I used Notion to plan and track everything, I also make used of their AI function to ask what/how I should make use of the week I was in Taiwan. I went there during the busiest holiday (Christmas & New Year), so there was a difficulty in finding accommodation, had to jump from Airbnb and hotels 5 times during the short stay. I left Sofi with Af and went on this trip with my younger brother.

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Itinerary:

• Day 1: Taoyuan, Taipei
• Day 2: Jiufen, Taipei
• Day 3: Taoyuan
• Day 4: Taipei > Taichung
• Day 5: Taichung
• Day 6: Taichung > Taipei
• Day 7: Taoyuan 
• Day 8: Beitou, Taipei

If I could repeat this again, I probably wouldn't go to Taichung on that date because everything was closed on that one free day we were in Taichung, and Taichung was far from Taipei - but, we had no other choice but to go out of the main city during those busy holidays. 

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How much we walked: I walked and hiked around 75 km in that week. Love it. I walked around 7 - 14 km per day. I wore good walking shoes, so my legs were not in pain, but my back was sore because I brought my backpack everywhere. I guess this is a sign that I need to strengthen my upper body. Also, extra socks, always bring extra socks and of course, shoe deodorizer.  

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Return flight tix: This also includes 7kg+ extra carriers, side-by-side seats, and flight insurance.

Total: RM 1920 / 2 = RM 960 per person

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Accommodation: I planned this last minute, during the busiest season in the year (Christmas + New Year holiday). So everything was almost fully booked, we had to book from Airbnb, Agoda, and several hotel from Trip app : 5 places in a week. 

Total: RM 1643.26 / 2 = RM 821.63 per person

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Camera: I bought a pre-loved Papershoot Camera as a backup - sempena we were going to Taiwan, it would be fun to use a Made in Taiwan product (as I was aiming for one for a while now, and it was my early birthday present). I'm planning to use the pictures I took from this camera in the zine.

Preloved Camera = RM 300

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Insurance: I bought the insurance from TnG app brought to you by AIA.

Total: RM 58 for a week in Taiwan

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Winter Attire: I used my old winter attire (still works wonderfully even after 6 years from the only trip I managed to use). So, for the winter season above 15°C, these worked for me:

• Uniqlo heat tech shirt long sleeve +
• Uniqlo Ultra Light Down +
• Uniqlo Winter Coat
• Long john + jeans

But below 0 - 15°C back in the day, I also added another thick winter sweater + long johns + extra shirt. Even then, the coldness crept in and I can't function. 

What I would change in the future for my winter attire? I would exchange jeans for something more comfortable and versatile. So I can have pants with more pockets during long walks and hikes, stretchy for happy tummy and not as rigid as jeans (maybe dah tua) and sweater for sleeping/home use sbb tanak campur dgn baju luar during travel kn, lupa. Tido mcm cocoon dah every night. 

I think it is easy to create a capsule wardrobe for winter trip sebab I managed to only use 2 long sleeve shirts tukar2 the whole week: the dark brown one and the black one. 

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On App:

Klook: To avoid using cash and queue up + I wanted to collect points, I just used klook app to see any attractions that I wanted to go to and bought the ticket from Klook. Very useful. 

• Easycard Taiwan - RM 40.90 (this card is like TnG, buy it early and pick it up at the airport, can topup at their machine)
• Bus Ticket Taipei - Jiufen - RM 12.35
• XPark Taiwan Aquarium Ticket - RM 80.95
• "Art Nouveau" Light & Shadow Exhibition - RM 61.39

Trip.com: It is my first time, yes, I booked all the hotels through Trip. I compared all the basics: Agoda, Booking, Airbnb but found all my accommodation through Trip.com. 

Google Maps: To find places to eat, to hike, to explore. 

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Internet: Just did roaming for 8 days, I think it was around RM 100 from Hotlink app. 

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Payments: As a pre-caution, I made sure I activated 3 debit cards (hahaha, I know, a bit extra kan). 

• So I used up almost all payments in Family Mart, 7/11, Uniqlo, Cosmed, Watson and Daiso using my TnG Debit Card. It is easy because I could just topup the ewallet and control my spending (and to avoid any scam ke accidental big payment). 
• I linked my Wise debit card to Uber when we needed to use Uber there. 
• As for my Maybank debit card, that was "in case of emergency card" (if we needed to book something bigger like flight ticket or hotel). 

I brought RM 800 cash but it wasn't enough - most of the restaurants and small shops asked for cash or Line Pay (if I'm not mistaken). So, bringing more cash would be the best way to shop locally. But you can definitely use cards in the city - local Muslim restaurants, no cards, mostly cash. 

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Bag: I used Bellroy Workpack together with me throughout the whole travel (probably around 2kg daily) - this is where I keep all the important stuff and basic necessities (map, passport, money, daily snack, tissue, book, camera, and water bottle). Then I borrowed Ma's luggage for the other stuffs like clothes (sebab her luggage is only 2.5kg when empty). Paling mencabar is keeping winter clothes in such a small luggage (answer: compression pack/vacuum bag). 

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Food: Tayah la bawak Brahim's ke anything pre-cooked, semua kena rampas kat airport T^T It would be advisable to bring snacks (energy bar, kurma, kismis, nuts sbb very useful for outing). Also, bring daily fiber + vitamin sachets. Other than that, we dined out because we stayed in hotels, mana boleh masak2 pun. At this age, sapa larat makan meggi lagi. Halal foods were easy to find on Google Maps (esp in main cities), just be ready to walk 1-3 km from train stations. 

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Note: I would definitely wanted to come again, like seriously considering to return to enjoy more slow hikes and nature walks. I've never loved any other place since Japan tau T^T Nasib bawak adik yang boleh layan pergi hiking, tqiu Mi :F

Travel : Morning Thoughts

At least 3 of us siblings (my older sister, my brother and I) travel quite a lot. We hardly let our money in the bank stays long, and we plan on our own travel trip every 6 months or even less than that. There are always plans to be made, places to go, money to be saved for our next travel. 

It seems a bit unhealthy because we keep on planning. Never staying. Too anxious to get away. We always had to go to the airport to send/pick any one of us. We need to update our calendar because there are one of us with travel ticket ready and planned in near future. Ma worries about how much we are spending on this / with whom we are travelling / clashing events / crimes & accidents / natural disasters / diseases / anything else moms could be worried about. 

And I'm always ready to leave.

I've talked about this for more than half of my life and I don't even know why I'm still here. 

This house, this loans, all these things still weighing me down. 

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I already have plans ready for 2 travel trips this year and I will share with you when it's getting near. But if you can't wait for detailed stories, you can have a peek at my Patreon.

Osaka - Kyoto 9 : The Videos

Can't believe it's already 2 months since we went to Japan. I think I already wrote almost 10 posts on the last trip, I'm not sure whether I want to elaborate more detail on that escapism (because I'm already planning on a new escapism project for the end of this yeaaar) :D

Af compiled the part 2 for our Osaka - Kyoto - Nara trip last weekend. The video started with some shots in Nara, Expo 70 (Bampaku-kinen Koen) and Kyoto (on our final day), all taken after my family went back home and we got extra days to explore together. A lot of green and nature walk than usual walks with my family. Here is the video :

Note : 

• I noticed the doves in Japan were almost twice bigger than those in Malaysia (not sure whether if it is because of the cold whether), but they were all huge, chubby and adorable.
• Garden, parks, and forest are accessible everywhere. I think the Japanese tries to utilize the nature as much as they can. So people can get their dose of nature all the time. It's therapeutic. These places are soothing, calm and very clean T^T I was so happy I could cry T^T

And here's for the part 1 :

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Osaka - Kyoto 4 : Osaka & Places You Should Go :D

I've been wondering on how to write in detail about things that happened in my latest Japan trips, the places I went to, and the foods we ate. Compared to all my previous travel posts, this trip was the longest - so I wouldn't want to write day-per-day stories (14 posts only for the days, not including all other extra posts around it are a bit too much). I decided to write it by places : Osaka - Kyoto and Nara. This way I can focus on the stuffs that worth mention on each places. So people who are planning on their own trip can use these posts as reference as well :D

Images are usually auto-compressed in blogger, so I don't quite like it. You can check out my Japan photos from my Ig or Flickr album here.  I'm not much of a person who keeps my own portraits these days so I hardly have pictures of myself anywhere lah :p Who wants to see my faces in all my travel pictures (like what's the point?) So this is an album of my Japan trip, the things that I found interesting and were nice to my eyes.

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On Osaka & its places, using the Osaka Amazing Pass (3,000 yen). All ticket passes accumulated were supposed to be around 4,200 yen and the train rides for those 2-days supposed to be several thousand yen more. But we used the Osaka Amazing Pass, so we only spent 3,000 yen for those 2 days full of activities, places and train rides !

There are a lot more places listed that we can go for free, but there wasn't much time to cover all.

• Osaka Castle (600 yen)
• Museum of History (600 yen)
• Museum of Housing & Living (600 yen)
• Ferris wheel ride at HEP5 (500 yen)
• Osaka Science Museum (400 yen)
• Tempozan Pier and Marketplace (free)
• Tempozan Ferris Wheel ride (800 yen)
• Tsutenkaku Tower (700 yen

Not using Osaka Amazing Pass :

• Kaiyukan Aquarium (2,200 yen) - (discounted : 2,100 yen)
• Tennoji Zoo (500 yen)
• Shiseiki Alley (free)
• Dotonbori Street (free)
• Joypolice ride at Hep5 (800 yen) - (discounted : 600 yen)
• Namba City (free)
• Expo' 70 (250 yen)
• Expo City (free)

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If you buy the pass, make sure you use it fully in those 2 straight days. 

Among all the places I went my favorites were :

• Kaiyukan Aquarium

• Tennoji Zoo

• Expo' 70

• Tsutenkaku Tower

• Museum of Housing & Living

I didn't like most of the ferris wheel rides because it was a bit too scary - too high and it moved when people in the cart stood up or changed sits :F All the museums are nice as well, it's more interactive and we can do a lot of things as well : especially Museum of Housing and Living where you can experience the real-size old Japanese town and 4-level Osaka Science Museum where you can play around like kids :D

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Extra note :

Kaiyukan Aquarium and Tennoji Zoo were my idea - because I really wanted to see their zoo and aquariums, the last time I went in Tokyo, it was super fun! Although the aquarium ticket was a bit expensive, it was worth all the money spent. I saw a lot of new sea animals that I could never think of, and most of the animals were just a glass away. Kaiyukan Aquarium was so big, we spent almost half of the day inside. It was nothing like all the aquariums that I went to before. You'll be walking around the biggest tank with so many sea creatures swimming inside. It is one of the biggest public aquarium in the world - so it is a must go spot. I collected almost all the stamps here - they have stamp stations at so many corners with different animal design.

Tennoji Zoo - even thinking about it makes me smile. Maybe some people are against the idea of locking animals in the cage when they are supposed to be wild and free. But without zoo, I can't imagine seeing wild animals in real life and without actually seeing things in front of my eyes, it's hard for me to feel connected. I'm the kind of person who needs to experience and see things in front of my eyes to 'feel'. So zoo and aquarium are my happy places, I love animals, I love looking at them. The difference between these zoos and the local ones we have here is how they made the barrier between human and those animal as small as possible. We were only separated by thick glass so you can look the animals as near as you want. One of my favorite was floating hippopotamus' butt - we went down to the tank separator down to the fake pond that you can also see from above, and the hippo was showing its huge butt to us. But even how hugeee and heavy it is, the hippo's body keep on floating in the water not reaching the floor. Those big feet with tiny high-heel like feet were hopping and I felt so happy.

Expo' 70 - I don't think people travel to Osaka and have extra time to visit this place. It is located at the Bampaku-Kinen Koen station, you have to take the monorail to reach here. It was quite far from the city. The reason we visited the place was because Af wanted to see the Tower of the Sun. For me, the statue looked a bit odd. The statue is located inside the Expo '70 Park so you can buy an entrance ticket before heading inside. We were of course greeted by the huge statue, it was around 70m high so you can see it lurking from all over the park. We walked all over the park - to the blooming plum garden (I thought it was sakura) so we finally experience the blooming season before we went back home, to the Camelia garden, looked over the budding tiny tulips on the ground and some bamboo tree mini forest. There are many garden without green leaves and flowers as well - because it is still considered cold and too early for spring.

So that's what I felt about Osaka.
Sure, Osaka is a busy city, with buildings and huge crowd of people compared to Kyoto & Nara. But Osaka got a lot of commercialized attraction spots worth visit.

Anyway, Af compiled his take on the Osaka x Kyoto part 1 video :D

ESCAPISM #12 Osaka x Kyoto - PART 1 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

Osaka - Kyoto 3 : The Days, the Activities, and the Places

So like I mentioned in the previous post, we went to Japan for 14 - days : many days spent in Osaka, 3 days in Kyoto and 1 day in Nara. How did we planned out the days? We actually planned the night before, every night after dinner we'll have a small gathering to discuss the plan for the next day. It's a bit hard to schedule it properly because we don't know how long we will take on each places, or how far each places were located, so we just have a rough idea of what we are going to do. That way it won't be like a rush tour, we were trying not to do the tour hopping thing, instead, we waited for the right moment to let everyone finish up what they wanted to do (or tried to-lah, at least).

Susah betul jadi planner and trying to make everyone happy =.='

Here's our rough schedule :

• Day 1 : Arrival, check-in at Namba near Dotonbori
• Day 2 : Kyoto ( Day 1 Kansai Thru Pass ) 
• Gion-Shijo
• Arashiyama
• Day 3 : Osaka
• Tennoji Zoo (supposed to be our resting day after the extreme 12 km one-shot, Kyoto exploration the day before so I suggested we spend the day at the zoo) 
• Shiseiki Alley
• Day 4 : Exploring Osaka ( Day 1 Osaka Amazing Pass )
• Osaka Castle, 
• Museum of History
• Museum of Housing & Living
• Ferris wheel ride at HEP5
• Joypolice ride *not recommended
• The top of Tsutenkaku Tower for a sunset view
• Day 5 : Exploring Osaka ( Day 2 Osaka Amazing Pass ) 
• Osaka Science Museum
• Kaiyukan Aquarium
• Tempozan Pier and Marketplace
• Tempozan Ferris Wheel ride
• Day 6 : A whole day with Ishijima Sensei in Namba
• Day 7 : Resting day, but we explored Dotonbori at night, we found Mithilia restaurant at Dotonbori for dinner
• Day 8 : Kyoto ( Day 2 Kansai Thru Pass) 
• Nishiki Market
• Fushimi Inari + hiked to the top of Mount Inari
• Day 9 : Check out day, we spent the day waiting for our other Airbnb check-in time because the bag was super heavy - we found the Honolu Ramen near Namba City - highly recommended
• Day 10 : Nara 
• Deer Park,
• Kohfukuji Temple
• Yoshikien Garden 
• we found Naramichi Jinnayah halal ramen *not recommended
• Day 11 : Expo' 70, Bampaku-kinen Koen & Expo' City (Osaka Unlimited Pass)- we found Soba Dining - recommended
• Day 12 : Exploring Kyoto one final time (Osaka-Kyoto Keihan Pass) 
• Shimogamo Shrine
• Kyoto Imperial Castle
• Kyoto Manga Museum
• Day 13 : Check-out day, exploring Namba and slept at the airport - dinner at U-don, KIX - highly recommended :D
• Day 14 : Flight home

Images were shared in my Instagram multiple images by days during my stay. I don't really feel happy sharing images in this blog anymore, knowing the ugly auto-compression Blogger uses that I don't like. 

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So as you can see, our days were packed with activities and each place wasn't near to one another. We had to do a lot of walking. 123km in 14-days means we walked around 8-10km per days, almost every day. By evening, our feet usually ached/sprained so we had to soak our feet in an icy-cold water bucket to let it heal faster for the next day activity. It was that tough, I soaked at least 3-4 times in those 2 weeks. We usually walked for the whole day, with a short rest for lite lunch and tea-time and train rides. Kesian ma :D I already told her, we are a bit hard-core in exploring but she insisted in following so sometimes she complained - we let her rest in several resting spots (like cafes with wifi) so she'll get the heat and wifi and she'll be happy (lol).

The reason I tried to put all activities as much as we can is because honestly, I have a lot of places in mind that I want to go to in this world and I'm not sure when I'll reach this part of Japan again. So I really wanted to cram every single things inside, plus this was a family trip so I hardly got my silent moments where I can reach out to the solidarity of new places. The feeling was different than all my previous trips, but the experience was still nice :)

Osaka - Kyoto 2 : The Tourist Passes

In this trip, we played tourist - I wanted my family to experience everything Osaka & Kyoto got to offer without thinking too much about the money - because Japan can be a bit expensive if you don't plan it properly. So by the time we reached the airport that morning, I searched for a tourist information center to choose which passes we might need in our trip. It was a long discussion in a long queue, and my siblings gave me the power to decide on which passes to buy. So we bought this passes in the first week when we arrived :

Osaka Amazing Pass ( 2 days - 3,000 yen ) Where to buy ? *****

The pass to go to all the visitor's attraction in Osaka and the train/subway rides. It was a value for money, thank God we bought it because we didn't have to pay most of the ticket fees afterwards. By the second day pass usage, we already almost finish up all the listed places, we tried everything they offered because we already paid the super-discounted price. I urge you to buy this if you are exploring Osaka. We went to the castle, to the Tsutenkaku Tower, twice on different ferris wheel ride, awesome museums, discounted huge Kaiyukan aquarium, the zoo, etc. Too bad we didn't have more time for a cruise ride - I think that's the only thing we missed from the guide book. 

Kansai Thru Pass ( 2 days - 4,000 yen )  Where to buy ? **

A pass to use all the train, subways and buses in Kansai (Osaka - Kyoto - Nara - Hyogo - Wakayama - Shiga ). You'll get a guide book, map and coupons. But we just went to Kyoto twice, because we didn't cover most of the Kyoto parts we wanted on the first day. If I knew we didn't have time to explore the other part of Kansai, I would have bought the Keihan 2-days Osaka-Kyoto pass for only 1,000yen.

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After my family went back to Malaysia, we went to Nara without any passes and I spent over 1,600 for return train ticket (which was too expensive - almost 3 times more without any passes). So the day after, we searched for a tourist information center to buy more passes for our remaining days. We still wanted to go to Bampaku-koen, outskirt of Osaka and another one-time exploration in Kyoto. So we bought :

Osaka-Kyoto Sightseeing Pass ( 1 day - 700 yen ) ****

When you buy the pass, you'll get a book of coupons you can use. So you still need to pay to enter certain places but with discounted prices and free gifts. It is way cheaper than buying without any passes that might reach at least twice the price. We went to Kyoto again for the third time and it rained (ha-ha).

Osaka Unlimited Pass ( 1 day - 500 yen ) ***

We bought it because we wanted to visit our final spot and that is Bampakukinen-Koen where Expo' 70 is located. It was quite a long ride as well and without passes, it might be a bit pricy, so after we discussed with the lady at the tourist counter, we just bought the Osaka Unlimited Pass. But we had to add more fees afterwards because to go to Bampakukinen-koen, we need to change to a monorail that was not listed in the pass. This pass is useful if you want to travel in main parts in Osaka - not including any free passes, just discounted coupons.

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So plan properly! They have a looooot of passes to offer, almost every major train line got their own passes that you can buy from. If you are planning on a 1-week trip, for example : maybe you can allocate 2 days for Osaka, 2 days for Kyoto, 1 day for USJ and 1 day for Nara. So for every day you want to explore on certain area, you can buy the passes to get a great discounted price. What you can do is allocate at least 10,000 yen for all the passes to buy at the airport when you arrive there - make an initial plan beforehand and show to the tourist center people, ask for their opinion and choose wisely :D

Note : We didn't go to USJ as my brother and Aja wanted because I'm not so much of a theme-park person. So they probably sulking over it because I managed to drag them along to the huge Kaiyukan Aquarium and Tennoji Zoo, but not USJ :D But I tried soooo much to keep everything under budget and tried not to make any of the family members feel like they are on a tight money budgeting because some of them only brought RM 500 to spend in Japan la weyy =.= How to survive that. 

Osaka - Kyoto 1 : Post-Japan in Words

The reason I was unavailable for the past 2 weeks was because I went to Japan (again), this time to Osaka - Kyoto - Nara. This can be counted as my third Japan trip, if I exclude the time when I was growing up in the country : I grew up in Hokkaido, I visited Fukuoka for a student exchange program in 2000, I visited Tokyo with Af in 2015.

Why Japan, again?

I actually went to Singapore and Indonesia last year, the feeling wasn't as much exciting as we hoped it would be. We are already in love with Japan since our previous escapism so going to a place that I know we'll surely love is fair for both of us. We did gave a chance to travel to other countries during the gap between Tokyo and this trip.

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Pre-planning :
We planned since early 2016 - after a discussion with my family, and we booked the flight ticket on July 2016, so it was a long-awaited trip for all of us =.=' I gave such a long gap so everyone can collect money for the family trip. Airbnb apartment were booked in early 2017, around 3 months before our flight date.

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Differences between this trip and the Tokiyo trip :

• This was a semi-family trip, because Ma was complaining about our trip to Tokyo - that I didn't let her tag along. So this time I did asked everyone to follow us on our Japan trip, but they had a 9-days trip with us while we extended to 14-days. Family trip is different than our usual travel escapisms.
• We went to Tokyo during a transition to Autumn, so it was a bit rainy and the weather was breezy nice - *the big flood in different prefecture was alarmingly scary though. In this trip, it was a transition from winter to spring, so it was cold. Most days was below 10ºc , some places were icy-windy. I don't like winter, never did.
• I brought more money in this trip because we were staying longer than before. In the Tokyo trip, I spent around RM 1,000 during our stay - each day was recorded. In this trip, it's hard to keep track money especially if you are bringing your family members along and 'belanja2'ing others. So I spent around RM 1,500 in this trip but I can't really put in detail like I did before.  
• I doodled in my book almost every day : on things we did, places we went and foods we ate. Compared to my previous trip in which I didn't do the drawing straight away, this time I followed my Bromo & Beijing trip. It is way easier to make a travelogue when you already have something fresh doodled in your book as a record.

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How much we walked?

If you are an iPhone user, there's a feature in Health that you can use to track your steps automatically without turning on any app. It is just there, tracking your steps and that's my favorite free embedded feature in iPhone :D By clicking on the app : Health > Activity, you can see how much we walk + run for the day, and how many steps we took. So that's how I keep track of my walking distance in Japan.

• 27/2 : 6.5 km ( Arrival day )
• 28/2 : 12.4 km ( to Kyoto )
• 1/3 : 8.3 km ( to Tennoji Zoo & Shiseiki Alley )
• 2/3 : 11.7 km ( Exploring Osaka )
• 3/3 : 8.8 km ( Exploring Osaka )
• 4/3 : 10.2 km ( A day with Ishijima Sensei & Dotonbori )
• 5/3 : 5.3 km ( Rest-day & Dotonbori Street )
• 6/3 : 11 km ( to Nishiki Market & Fushimi Inari, Kyoto )
• 7/3 : 7.7 km ( Check-out, Namba Walk, and check-in )
• 8/3 : 10.4 km ( to Nara )
• 9/3 : 11.1 km ( to Expo City, Bampaku-Koen )
• 10/3 : 11.1 km ( to Kyoto )
• 11/3 : 8.7 km ( Check-out day & Namba )
• 12/3 : 3.9 km ( Departure day )
• Total : 123 km, not counting the last day.

Many days in Osaka, 3 days in Kyoto and 1 day in Nara. 

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Return flight ticket :

Like I mentioned above, we bought the ticket over half a year before during Airasia promotion including chosen seat and insurance. The flight was over 7 hours and I didn't bring books - can you imagine that?

Money : RM 794 each person

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Accommodation :

We booked for 2 apartments - 1 with the whole family, and another 1 after the whole family went back home to Malaysia, so we searched for a smaller place to stay.

Airbnb 1 : Namba apartment (wifi) : RM 272 per person, total was RM 1908 for 8 nights

Airbnb 2 : Sembayashi Loft (wifi + bicycle) : RM 229 per person, total was RM 457 for 4 nights

Total : RM 500 per person for 14-days trip (last day were spent sleeping at the airport)

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Camera :

Oh, I finally upgraded. Remember I used to use the iPhone 4S since 2011 and it was slowly dying - I suffered the phone's weak battery, frequent blackouts and so many issues. Before the trip, I went to the bank and took out my savings to buy a new iPhone SE. I did consider to buy other than Apple product though, for so many months, it was almost become a joke between us. But a love is still a love, I'm an Apple user, I'll know I won't feel the same as before if I change to other devices. So I bought it and I'm super happy with my decision now (as I look back to the moment when I was deciding). This is the only device I used to take photos, nice ones, if you agree with my Instagram posts :D I brought along my Lumix but didn't even use it. 

So, one device it is : iPhone SE.

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Useful stuffs :

• Learn about their tourist passes offer because they are super convenient and a super value for money. There are so many passes to buy from the Tourist Information Center at the airport (be ready for a long queue) or in Shinsaibashi if you are already in the city. Read here for the passes we bought.
• Know your budget. My budget was RM 1,500 but I brought RM 2,000 for emergency usage. We activated the debit card use outside of the country (just in case). 
• Halal foods 101 : take the pamphlet at the airport (with all reachable listed restaurant in Kansai area), OkashiChecker to check ingredients in kombini foods (especially snacks and chocolates - hope they will add more into their database when I visit Japan again), Citymaps to download offline maps of the cities I wanted to travel to (and they have Halal food spots!).
• I always use Airbnb to book apartments online - never tried hotels or backpackers hostel, just affordable small apartment to live in a house like a local, cook, and free bicycle (+pocket wifi).

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People :

We are just a bit too reserved to mingle around with other travelers or even locals, can't seem to grab the idea of being friendly whenever I travel just because I was travelling - we are both introverts and aren't good with new people. So I don't mind being quiet because we are quiet-beings whenever we are with strangers. Not like unfriendly-kind-of-way, just quiet and won't simply chat with random people without any strong reason. Just pure introverts by heart. So not chatting with people all through our travels doesn't seem odd, because we just don't do it here, ditto anywhere else.

Japan is a great place to feel isolated and we can get the quietness we longed for because they are as reserved as most introverts. Plus, all introverts love other introverts - they give the right amount of space :D 

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Note :
It will going to be a super long series like my previous Tokiyo Trip - because I'm detailed as that :D But I will also post other stuffs as well alongside of the escapism stories. Hopefully this written travelogue will help any first-timers/planners that are planning on going to Japan soon.

Singapore Trip 3 : Things I Bought from the Trip 02

This time I managed to wake up before 4.30am. I went to our small kitchen to make hot Neslo that smells so nice in the morning and ate a banana. It started to rain. Early morning, hot drink and rain, a great combination to start a day.

I'm continuing to list things that I bought in the previous Singapore trip - because all items deserve the mention :)

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NoemoArt/Pooi Ning Chia postcard :

Her booth was located right behind my booth, so I went to look around many times. She is an illustrator from Johor. One postcard that caught my eyes was a printed illustration of her hand-drawn Pekan Nanas (1950-1960s) map. She mentioned that it wasfrom an old map of her hometown - I'm guessing in Johor. I really love hand-drawn maps so I finally bought one from all the coins I collected during the first day of the event. The postcard costed $2. 

I also asked her to sign the card and took her cute little namecard as well. She packed it in a nice transparent matte envelope. Loooove.

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Evangelione's postcard :

When I walked past Evangelione's booth before the event started on the first day, there were rows of her cute little hand-sewn dolls lined up. The next time I walked past by again several hours later, all her dolls were sold out :o This happens several times already as I met her in other previous events.

So there's nothing else for me to buy except for $1 printed postcards. I bought one as a support, 3 small ladies in teapots. It is so adorable I love it. I asked her to sign it in the back of the postcard :

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MiniFanFan namecards :

I met her ! She stopped by at my booth and told me that she recognized me T^T I was at the verge of crying + sweating nervously. She told me that she already joined the event several times and chatted with me for a few more minutes, but I can't quite remember what she asked or said because I was too nervous.

I didn't managed to buy anything at her booth because I didn't have the budget :F But because I already bought her postcard from her previous event, I guess that's okay then. I took 2 of her namecards though, because it was so nice to see and collect.

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Other links :

EEChing's Handmade (Malaysian Crafter) | Chris Chew Yi Wei (Singaporean Illustrator)

Heimlo (Indonesian Designer) | Dodolulu (Hong Kong Illustrator)

Mossery (Malaysian Planner) | Paper Therapy (Indonesian Crafter)

Muffinsaurs (Illustrator) | HappyDoory (Malaysian Illustrator)

Tiny Supplier (Singaporean Crafter) | When I Was Four (Singaporean Illustrator) 

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I saw/met a lot of illustrator/designer/doodler/crafters in this event. Quite an impressive crowd. The event was not solely focused on design + arts, but more to various of things that we can do ourselves : independent clothing lines, pottery/ceramic makers, personal coffee maker, hand-sewn items, jewellery makers and so much more. 

If you want to go to the event, please do. It's quite an eye-opening experience for me to see how many people from Asia came down here to open a booth together :)

Singapore Trip 2 : Things I Bought from the Trip 01

I woke up at 6.15 am, much later than I planned the previous night. I was having vertigo for the pass 5 days so I decided to meet a doctor last night just to get some advise on the matter because I was planning to start my running training soon. It's almost around 1 month before my 21km run. But the doctor advised me to just stay at home and rest for a few more days before I start my training. Just to avoid any accident :o

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Anyway, I wanted to post some items that I bought from Public Garden's event at Singapore that I joined last 2 weekends. This sticker set were made by Naela Ali, an Indonesian illustrator that I've been stalking from her IG. She uses water colour as her main medium - and I like her soft subtle way of colouring things. The ones that I never wanted to try because it isn't really my style, but still things that are awfully nice to see and collect! :D I personally like the japanese foods sets from her illustration. Not quite liking the style of her other illustrations like cats and people and random shots, so I just purchased this set only. 

This sticker pack costed $10 - converted into RM is around RM 30.
That means this is the most expensive item I bought in Singapore during my trip :D

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I tried several times to repost these images, but blogger seems to auto-compress all images and I can't get sharp images. So I'm a bit annoyed. I managed to post it into my pinterest and copy the image's link to repost half of the images. While another half are still a bit blurry :

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She hand-cut these stickers, but unlike my OCD-ed cut with exact spacing between all items and their borders, these are more messy. Some I can't even ignore - like the ChocoBaby box and Milk Bottle with a cat cartoon on it? *see image below. Af might roll his eyes over my OCD-ness, but well you have no idea how people like us feel about this yo :D

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Anyway, these sticker pack is my favorite so far :

Note : I did bought this pack from his boyfriend *I assumed it was his boyfriend, because she was entertaining other customers when I went to her booth on the last day. Didn't found any courage to ask for her autograph tho :D

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Singapore Trip 1 : Public Garden, Suntec Convention Hall

The decision for my 25th booth :

I've booked for the event so many months ago when I was still working as a freelancer. Along the way between my new job and Bromo run, Zika came into the picture. It hit Singapore in September and it was spreading slowly, calmly. My mom was worried, Af's mom was worried. So I couldn't decide on whether I should go or I should just cancel the trip. Every day I checked on the news  about Singapore : Zika, it was there, slowly spreading, not like wild fire. But like a really old lady trying to cross the road. Alarmingly slow, but it was there nonetheless.

I finally decided on going 4 days before the event. I booked the flight ticket and hotel for Saturday morning - the event day, and to get back home as soon as possible after the event ended on Sunday, that night. The original plan was to drive to Singapore on Friday, after work with my siblings and Af. But I decided to cut everything short and just go to Singapore for the event instead. Af wanted to join me in my first international event, so he booked the ticket as well. 

The flight costed around RM 200 for return ticket and addition of 20kg to bring all my doodle items in a huge luggage. As for the hotel booked nearest to where the event took place in Suntec City, I spent around RM 300. There wasn't any places cheaper than that, other than hostel - which I'm trying to avoid in this trip. 

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The event's day : 

The weekend started fast. We woke up at 2.15am, and by 3.00am we were both already in front of Ma's apartment, waiting for Ma and Aja. They sent us to KLIA2, by 4.00am we already checked in and sent my luggage. Our flight was scheduled to board at 6.00am, so we had a quick breakfast at Mc'Donald inside while waiting. I will forever hunted by the cancelled flight to Cambodia because of my own recklessness and I'm avoiding that to happen again the best way I can by being several hours early.

One hour later, we arrived at Changi Airport. First thing first, I took a free map at the customer service. After my previous backpack trip in Tokyo, I have a habit of collecting city map at the airport. It's always free, and it helps a lot. Studying the map was pretty easy, especially their train system. It is exactly like what we have here in KL. 

We took the train from Terminal 2 to MRT and to get to Promenade, we had to change 2 times. At Tanah Merah and Paya Lebar. Simple as that. Everything was nicely labelled and pointed to the location. We just had to follow the arrow.

  

And so we arrived at Suntec quite early, the shopping malls weren't open yet. Except of Giant, where I bought several things to eat like bread, biscuits and boxed juice. We found a foodcourt afterwards so we decided to stay there for awhile, to wait until the convention centre open. I sketched that morning's story in my sketch book while Af read Haruki's novella, After Dark - until 11.30am when the hall opened.

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The event :

The hall was big, packed with rows and rows of tiny wooden desk and 2 chairs. I was excited, full with energy. My very first international event ! I thought to myself. And so Af helped me getting ready for our booth and I took several stories to be shared in my Instagram - because yes, I was super excited. I haven't feeling like this for quite some time. 

The business later was a bit slow, getting my first customer took some time. The hall was really cold, packed with a lot of human all around and I was again, like the person I am, I began to feel awkward and out of place. That's the price of being an introvert. Things were tough for both Af and me, these two awkward Malaysians trying our their luck in neighbouring countries. It was even harder for me to make decent conversation with people. I managed to nod, and smile and answer gibberishly.

Those 2 days of coldness, packed with human like tinned sardine, barely any sales - just a decent $150 collected in 2 days. All by selling stickers only - which was impressive. I met fellow Malaysians : Minifanfan, Eeching, Evangelione, Noemo, HappyDoory, Mossery, also famous Indonesians : Heimlo and Naela Ali from Asobi. Most of the names that I've been stalking in my social media platforms. 

My highest point at the event was when I met Yellowmushmellow for the first time, in person. She was with her sister, she stretched her hand to give me a handshake - which I reached awkwardly. I hardly remember what I said to her, I think I answered to her questions, I was being awfully shy and awkward. Like I never wanted to meet her in person or something - padahal I've been wanting to meet her for so long, I am her biggest fan. Ever. I don't think that was even possible, for anyone to be so unpleasantly shy in meeting their idol in person. Haiyooh. She later gave me a pack of present, the one she was supposed to send during last Raya on her random Eid gift-away. I opened it gleefully after we bid goodbye to each other. 

She has no idea how highly I think of her.
Thank you Aida, I really-really-really like it - A LOT.

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Outside of the event :

We walked in Bugis Street and Bras Basah area on Sunday morning. We managed to find a mamak's small restaurant in near Bencoolen for breakfast. Later using the small map, we searched for any malls with stationary shops for me to buy a pencil lid :D The one I've been using finished the day before so I couldn't doodle anything in my sketch book. The short morning walk turned into a pencil-lid-hunting. After 2 malls, we finally found one in Bugis Junction and then we headed to the event's place right away for our final day booth opening. There wasn't any exploration much other than that morning's short walk.

Note :
Everything in Singapore is commercialised and expensive *the rate is times 3, guys. So there's nothing much to do if you go there without wanting to spend much. Plus, I only brought SGD100 in this trip, just for the change when people buy things and foods.

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Thoughts on the event & market :

Based on my personal rough observation I noticed that Singaporean got different taste than Malaysians. I saw what they picked up, how they lighten up when they saw certain objects. Even though at first I thought everything depend solely on each people's preferences, like certain people like certain things just because they feel connected to certain items - this wasn't the case at all. I managed to see an obvious pattern when I saw that they like vectorised-stickers a lot compared to hand-drawn digital illustrations. At first I felt like it was rather odd - because for me, vectorised illustrations are a bit stiff and not so personal. I mean, any designer can do vectorised illustration, right? - so as a designer myself I don't feel connected to my own vectorised works. Or something like that. But they keep on picking up those same stickers over and over again. So I'm guessing they do have a certain taste and style that they all agree to appreciate.

So in my case, I didn't meet the right market. I am a designer, but I try not to sell my designs - I'm more prone to my own hand-drawn illustrations. Outside of my designer's bubble, I like to think of myself as a self-exclaimed illustrator. So, yeah.

I already got an invitation to open another booth in the same event for Christmas and according to other Malaysian independent artists - the sales are much-much better and the crowd will be more overwhelming than this, so they are definitely joining. As for me, I think I need to change my technique for different market. I decided to not join their next event in December.

Note : Booth fees was SGD$200, I managed to collect SGD$150. So minus flights and hotel, I think I didn't really reach my target. Although it was a failed attempt, it is still nice to see a new environment, and new international market. Just to see how deep the lake is. Dip, dip, dip. Until next time :) 

Plus, I really need to think of ways to improve my props and make them all easy to travel and not so heavy and nice to the eyes, because obviously my stickers are expanding like there's no tomorrow :

Bromo Trip 6 : Surabaya - Bromo Day 3, The Run

Check-in and Goody bag pick-up (on Saturday after our tour) :

We asked Pak Inem to drop us to Tosari Village because we wanted to check-in and pick up our goody-bag but Pak Inem insisted on waiting. He said that we already paid for the day and it was too far to go back to Baledono Village on foot.

So we went to the Tosari Field where everyone was around, people was setting up stages and booths, it was scheduled for Tengger Art Festival later in the afternoon but we had to cancel to go because Pak Inem wanted to send us back to the hotel and we haven't rested since 12am the previous night. We reached the registration booth, gave our printed copy and they gave us the goody bags consisted of Bromo Marathon t-shirts, a bottle of mineral water, several promo coupons and free lunch coupon for Sunday, everything in a white Bromo Marathon tote-bag.  

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Running Day :

Our running day started as early as 4am in the morning. The night before, we discussed with the innkeeper about our shuttle bus pick-up point. So it was confirmed that the bus will arrive roughly around 5am in front of Intan Homestay not quite far from our hotel. We waited for 4 more other runners and walked together to the pickup point. It was a 5-mins walk.

Tosari Village, where the running event was located is around 5-6km from Baledono Village - where we stayed. So soon after, we arrived to the location. It was still a bit early, the road was to be closed around 6am and our run was scheduled to start at 730am. So we waited awkwardly, pointing to random people - giving them names based on what they most resembled with :D

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Food/breakfast :

We both ate my brother's healthy energy bar consisted of kurma, nuts, oats and honey. It was the most decent stuff to be consumed before a run starts - because it was not too heavy for the stomach and it felt enough. But during half of the run, I did feel super hungry. I took a note on bringing extra energy bar for after run. Anyone interested in buying energy bar, can definitely inform me.

The run :

Here is the rough map of our run that I did not bother to study before the run. Our 10-km run consisted of 50% of road trail and 50% of dirt trail. That means the first 5-km run was quite easy because we were all running down-hill on road trail. The weather was cold, the sun started shining, the view was magnificent - everything about the first 5-km is great. That's like a honeymoon phase.

And right after we arrived at KM5 and reached the checkpoint, things started to get tough. It was almost impossible to run because we were on a stony dirt trail that we needed to hike and it never stopped. There was almost no flat-land all throughout the final 5KM. If people wanted to stop, they need to stepped aside of the road, to in front of people's house road.

This was my longest time taken to finish 10km run. I've done dozen of 10km+ run, so I never thought this would be any different from all my runs and training. But it was, because I never trained for any trail-run + uphill run before. It was also a bit annoying because I run so many runs and I trained so many times for the past 5 years and I get this result =.=

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Mistakes :

• I didn't expect 10km trail run would be tough, but it was. So, padan muka.
• I didn't understand what elevation graph meant, so I never bothered before. Now I understand what it means to run on a mountain trail. Ha.
• I didn't wear any sun-block. The weather was cold all throughout the event so it didn't felt like I was exposed to the sun much. But I did, my skin is peeling since after the run.
• Should have bring another energy bar for post-run because feeling famished while running is a weird feeling.
• Never underestimate a run that you never run in.
• Lack of uphill training. 

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Summary :

The run was fun, challenging and exhausting. I forgot what it felt to feel like this. It is interesting to be running in a such a nice weather with great mountain view. I didn't regret trying out the 10K course at all, imagine if I did register for a half-marathon, on a hilly mountain. =.= 

For anyone who runs and wants challenge. I suggest Bromo Marathon 2017, it was worth my time and money spent! But don't forget to train for uphill and downhill run, because there were almost no flat tracks in Bromo :D

Am I going to enter the run again? 

Probably not soon. If I do run at Bromo again, I make sure I train properly and ready to enter a half-marathon on a Bromo trail run.

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Post-run :

We slept in for a few hours after the run. The muscle pain were a normal pain along the legs, knee and ankle. No injuries noted.

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Bromo Trip 5 : Savannah + Whispering Sands + Bromo Creater

From Mount Penanjakan, Pak Inem brought us to 3 more tour locations in the Bromo National Parks. All places located quite far from one another, so this tour took us several more hours to complete. Most roads were full of dirts and volcanic sands. We were still riding in Pak Inem's old jeep, not talking much. The road was rough, it was like a never-ending bumpy rides. Nothing about the tour was comfortable and relaxing. Other than hopping around, snapping pictures, we can hardly think slow and enjoy the preserve nature in their national park. 

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On our way to Savannah Bromo :

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 Savannah Bromo 

Savannah Bromo is a nice hilly place that look like we were in Switzerland. The area was surrounded by hills, some people even call it Telletubbies Hills because of the resemblance. The weather was just nice, jeeps waiting in the dusty parking lots, tourists all around snapping pictures. 

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Whispering Sands

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Bromo Creater

We already stretched our pockets for this expensive tour for 2, so when we reached Bromo Creater area and realized that we needed to rent for a horse or hike up for several more KM to reach the top - I said no. :D I was so exhausted from the all-nighter and tour and all the non-stop travel, I can't wait to rest. So we only walked halfway to the top, took some pictures and walked back to the jeep.

Horse ride will cost around 80,000 IDR to and fro. If you want to hike, you can. Be ready with a face mask and water.  

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Note :

There are many tour offered in Bromo; on IG/FB, online, offline, in villages around. If you have time to make researches and explore options, please do so. For the 2 of us, 750,000 IDR for a 8hours midnight tour + rent jeep + 4 locations + Goody Bag pickups in Tosari. Not including the Bromo National Park Access Ticket that costed around 220,000 IDR.

So plan well ! If you want to go for a tour, find friends and go in a group, for me personally, it was a little expensive for a short visits to what's offered by the nature. Everything was commercialized, you can barely see the meaning of the tour. It was nice visitation, yes, but not a successful exploration.