Category: World

JAPAN: World Heritage Site Shirakawa-go

Many role-playing video games start out in a remote place hidden deep in the mountains. The hero’s home town is often depicted as a rustic village full of wooden houses with thatched roofs. Outside each house, you pass rice fields surrounded by rivers, perfectly landscaped gardens and trees with fruits ripe for the picking. Okami, which is one of my favorite video games of all time, has all these elements of the classical Japanese countryside.

Walking through the streets of Shirakawa-go felt like I was transported into a fantasy world right out of a video game.

01. shirakawago village japan gassho style house

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Tomb Riding in Cambodia (Part 1)

Cambodia is home to Angkor Archaeological Park, one of the most important historical sites in Southeast Asia. The site, which encompasses dozens of temple ruins, including Bayon, Ta Prohm and the legendary Angkor Wat, has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Partly because the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) was filmed here, this historic temple complex has been been on my motorcycle bucket list for years.

biking cambodia angkor archaeological park angkor thom gate

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Biking Guide: Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the main tourist attraction in Siem Reap, Cambodia. For foreign travelers and backpackers, biking is a popular way you can easily explore the temples around the massive complex. The roads between the main temples are paved and the distances between them are just right for bicycle touring. If you’re into biking at all, I think this is the best way to explore the temples.

Experiential posts:

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Bungy Jumping in Macau: Night Jump

Bungy jumping has always been on my bucket list. The thought of just leaping off a ledge and free-falling from hundreds of feet in the air into the unknown has always been something I’ve wanted to try. However, I always imagined the setting to be a bright sunny day, with friends and family cheering when I finally took the plunge. Jumping solo at night, after a long day of rain, amidst fog and right after a freak lightning storm was not exactly what I had in mind.

01. aj hackett macau tower china bungy jumping travelup

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Surreal Supertrees in Gardens by the Bay

As dusk fell, the towering trees lit up, tiny lights flickering like fireflies in between metal branches. Inspiring orchestra music started to play as the alien-like trees shifted colors. The blend of moving music and lights transformed the grove of metal trees into a magical rainforest. Everyone watched silently, their eyes transfixed at the spectacle above above. From below, I could see figures standing still along the curved skyway connecting the trees.

gardens by the bay singapore 01

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Cloud Forest in Gardens by the Bay

A rainforest under a glass dome, a waterfall you can reach through elevated walkways and a man-made mountain covered in dense vegetation.

gardens by the bay cloud forest 01

I’m used to seeing natural waterfalls and mountains in just their raw, rugged environment, often far from the city and involving long travel times to get to. So it was amazing to be walking amidst skyscrapers one moment, then enter a dome that replicates the conditions typically found in tropical mountain regions. Continue reading “Cloud Forest in Gardens by the Bay”

Khmer Booze: Must-Try Beers in Cambodia

Aside from temple-hopping by bike and sampling crispy bugs and spiders, we ended up trying a lot of different local beers in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh during our week-long trip to Cambodia earlier this year.

cambodia beer travelup

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Tomb Raiding a Jungle Temple

Towering trees perched from temples ruins; their roots spilling over like tentacles over the crumbling walls. A maze of secret paths led to doorways hidden in the rubble. Faded carvings in concrete seemed to hide secret codes just waiting to be deciphered.

beng melea temple cambodia tomb raiding

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Cambodia: The Yellow Sub Beatles Bar

While having dinner and drinks on Pub Street in Siem Reap during our recent trip to Cambodia, we noticed 3 couples carrying backpacks with camera crews in tow. They all headed in a hurry to a small side street. They looked like the cast of some reality TV show, so of course, we followed them. We didn’t catch them, but we spotted a red and yellow route marker flag by a yellow building with street signs of Penny Lane and Abbey Road on one corner. Amazing, right?

the yellow sub beatles bar cambodia imagine Continue reading “Cambodia: The Yellow Sub Beatles Bar”