Dhampus (Nepal)

Dhampus was one of my favorite places in Nepal. It gives a stunning view of the ice-capped mountains. Although the mountain resort I stayed in lacked in facilities like heater, stable supply of electricity, towels and toiletries, I have really enjoyed my stay on the mountain.

From Dhampus, you could see Fish tail mountain, Annapurna, etc. It is supposed to also have a good view of the sun rise, but because of the weather, I could not see it. 

It is a long ride (about 6 hour) from Pokhara, and the ride back to Kathmandu took me about 8 hours due to traffic jams.

Begnas Lake (Nepal)

Begnas Lake is only about a 20-minute ride from Fewa/Phewa Lake. I went to Begnas Lake on a Saturday and there were many locals who were having picnics and parties there. There were also many school children who were having a school trip. Though it was pretty foggy, I have really enjoyed the view of the lake.

The was a small hill with a hill-top guest house, the top of the hill gives you a good view of the lake and the small village.

In my opinion, the highlight of the visit was horse-riding! I really love horses, and at Begnas lake, there are private horse owners who offer a ride on the horse for less than 2 USD. The man first led the horse with me riding it, and then let me ride the horse on my own. Other than horse-riding, you can also engage a boat and row it in the lake.

Kathmandu Durbar Square & Tribhuvan Museum (Nepal)

The Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square was splendid site (and sight)! There are plenty of Hindu and Buddhist temples, and of course, plenty of local worshippers.

The entire site was huge, and would take more than three hours to finish exploring the place, inclusive of the palace museums.

My two favorite places in this site is the Hanumsn-dhoka Royal Palace and the Kumari-ghar. The former has been made into a museum which will give you a better understanding into the history of the monarchies IF you have a tour guide with you. The museum provides really brief descriptions of the exhibits and it is advisable to engage a local guide to provide you with greater insights.

Next, the Kumari-ghar is interesting because it is the home of a living goddess. The goddess is a young virgin girl who was selected based on her different attributes. Her 'term' will end once she experience her first period. The goddess will make appearance about three times a day, but I failed to catch a glimpse of her.

In addition, most of the windows of the buildings have windows pronounced as aki-jar (sorry I'm not sure of the actual word). It is because, during the ramu period, they kidnap beautiful girls all over the land and in order to protect the girls, these windows did not allow people from outside to see into the buildings.

All in all, the Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square is definitely a must-visit in Kathmandu!

Swayambhunath (Nepal)

It is another UNESCO world heritage site in Kathmandu. There are both Hindu and Buddhist temples on the hill. And on top of the hill, there's a pretty good view of Kathmandu, if there is no fog.

The are many handicraft and food sellers along the way, and there are many local devotees. However, the highlight seems to be the monkeys which were roaming around the site. They are really aggressive and you should not hold any food or plastic bags while walking if you don't want the monkeys to come snatching your food away.

Overall, it's a pretty nice place to visit ad there are many intricate carvings of the Gods and Buddhas.

Oedo Onsen Monogatari (Tokyo, Japan)

Cost:

Adult ¥1980, ¥1480 (evening)

Children ¥900

Directions:

From Yaesu station, walk through the Yaesu underground shopping street, keep left and look out for exit number 24 (but I'm not very sure about the exit number), once you climb up the stairs from the exit, there should be a bus stop right in front of you and there is a Macdonald's near the bus stop. You can take a direct shuttle bus to the onsen, but be sure to check the shuttle bus timetable as it is not very frequent.

Official Website:

http://www.ooedoonsen.jp/higaeri/english/

Don't get your hopes too high, it is not really a 'themepark' but still, a great visit. Once you step into the entrance, you are supposed to take off your shoes and put them into the lockers to the left. Then you can go to the counter to get a locker key for the locker you are assigned to, and a tag which will be used for payment. Before you go to your locker in the changing room and start stripping, you are able to choose a yukata which you will wear for the rest of the visit, there are quite a few designs to choose from. 

So after choosing your yukata, you can change into it in the changing room, but remeber you are supposed to wear undergarments, there are instructions in the changing room teaching you how to wear a yukata properly.

Then you'll step into the common area where guys and girls will meet, and everyone will be wearing their yukata which is quite an interesting sight for tourists. :) The common area offers vending machines with free green tea, barley drink and water, there are many souvenir stores, food stalls and festival games' booths. The prices of the food sold were quite steep but you will definitely eat there because hunger usually strikes after onsen.

The entrance to the onsen area is at the common area. Once you are ready to get into onsen, go to the onsen changing room. The lady at the entrance's counter will pass you two towels, you can only bring the small towel into the onsen, if you try bringing in the big one, she'll stop you. After taking the towels from her, just go to the lockers and strip naked. Haha!

There are many hot baths available, and an open-air natural spring which I really liked! There are also saunas, cold baths and massage baths. It was a really great experience! I tried every bath. Oh, there is also a massage service but it is an additional cost.

I like the area where you blow-dry your hair as there are many products available for use! From foot cream to facial toner, to hair treatments. :)

After ossen you can once again explore the common area in your yukata. I tried the festival game which requires you to use a pair of chopsticks to pick up stones. Well I failed the game and got a consolation prize. :/

So after you're done, you can return the yukata in the changing room and settle your bill using the tag given. Oh yes, BEFORE you enter the onsen, it is good to first check the timings for the shuttle bus so that you could make use of the free service once again :)

P.S: the onsen is located at Odaiba where there are many other tourist attractions like the huge ferris wheel and marine museum. So it's good if you can spend the day there and go to the onsen in the evening.

Edo-Tokyo Museum (Tokyo, Japan)

Cost:

Adult ¥600

Student ¥300

Directions:

From Ryogoku station (Oedo Line), exit from exit A4, turn left, bypass the first building which is the museum's office, and turn left again to walk to the museum's entrance.

Official Website:

http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/

The museum was pretty good and an audio guide is free for rental, you can obtain it from the counter where you purchase the tickets. The exhibits were pretty comprehensive and there was an exhibition room which has interesting gadgets in the exhibits. For example, the building will be 'opened' and you can see the interior of the buildings. The gadgets work thrice a day, so take note of the timing and stay around.

It is not a very big museum, but it's quite worth a visit to know more about how Tokyo transformed to how it is today. There were quite a lot of tourists but not to the extent of crowded. Oh, and there's a nice restaurant on the first storey, which was named Finn's (?). 

Universal Studios Japan (Osaka, Japan)

Cost:

Adult 1-Day Pass ¥6600

Adult 2-Day Pass ¥11000

Directions:

From Osaka station, take JR line to Universal City. Exit from the station and you will see a big shopping area called Universal Walk. There are MANY takoyaki shops in the complex and an awesome JUMP! store! Oh, and a Takoyaki museum which I didn't have time to visit. Okay, so you just walk along the Universal Walk street and you'll reach Universal Studios.

Official Website:

http://www.usj.co.jp/e/

Honestly, Universal Studios Singapore is much better! USJ only has 6 rides for adults, Spider-Man ride will be down for two months, so we are left with 5. One of them is a super lame ride called 'Back to the Future', it's just like a car, u sit in it and watch graphics -.- it did not move at all, all it did was shake a little. Gosh, it was labelled as a 'dynamic ride' how misleading! USS's Transformers is way better. So now we are left with 4 adult rides... The Space Fantasy and Jurassic Park are quite fun but not very thrilling. And there's another pretty okay ride - the Jaws. It's not exactly a ride I'd say... No thrill, no excitement, just a bit of fun. And the last one is the super thrilling roller coaster which I gave it a miss. Lol. It is freaking scary to watch ><. But frankly speaking, my threshold for thrill is pretty high but I'm timid. Perhaps if I've been on it I'd say that USJ is worth a visit :p

Well anyway, for USJ I'd only truly recommend the Space Fantasy and the Hollywood Dream roller coaster, other than that others are quite boring and simply not worth the SGD84~ admission ticket! In contrast, USS has more to offer,  the blue and red roller coaster rides, transformers, the Mummy etc.

It seems that USJ is more kid-friendly, there are many rides and play lands for children as compared to adults. Oh yes, and it is not really a place for tourists as all of the shows are in Japanese and there is no subtitles, translations :( so we can't understand the shows and they seemed to be pretty lame! 

The shows I'd recommend would probably be a Rock n Roll show as the songs are in English and they sing 100% live, and also the hello kitty fashion show which is simply tooooo kawaii!!! Hahaha!