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Davao, the main city of prior Filipino president, is a mix of modern buildings as well as older structures. Lots of new late model cars are seeing along with traditional transportation. There are a lot of areas with trees and greenery, mountains and the sea (Davao Gulf) is close by. Just off the coast is the Samal island, which was occupied by the Japanese during World War II. There were so many Jeepneys plying the road providing reasonably priced transportation along predef

On the huge island of Borneo, which is part Malaysia and part Indonesia, about 1% of the land area is occupied by the country of Brunei, a prosperous nation which levies no taxes on it's citizens, provides free education and medical services and has $2/gallon gasoline. Brunei has a monarch ruling it since 1968 and it has huge proven oil reserves. Bandar Seri Begawan is Brunei's capital city. The Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is seen on the currency and all the restaurants and store

In a temple next to the Ubud palace, a performance depicting a story from the Hindu epic Ramayana is offered in an open air courtyard. About 500 tourists were in attendance when I went. It was a 4 act play followed by a fire dance. The story was that, Ravana, the demon king from Lanka abducts Sita, the queen of Ayodhya. Rama, her husband, and his helpers including the monkey brigade, create a bridge to Lanka and march to kill Ravana. Ravana goes to Sita where she is kept capt

Uluwatu Temple (Pura Luhur Uluwatu) is one of six key Hindu temples, Bali's spiritual pillars. its location on a steep cliff right next to the Indian Ocean makes for a very serene and picturesque backdrop. Surrounded by a dense forest, the entrance needs a fee of about 50,000 Indonesian rupiah for foreigners. You are required to wear a sarong before entering, which is provided freely. Located about half hour from Kuta or Bali, the Tempe is surrounded by a dense forest and had

Japan Rail offers an excellent, reasonably priced ticket for foreigners called the JR pass which can be used on local, express and the fast Shinkansen trains all over Japan, and it can be purchased for 1, 2 or 3 week validity. I had been to Honshu and Shikoku islands of Japan's four main islands so far and so decided to go to the wesetern island: Kyushu. I read about the natural beauty of Kagoshima , which is almost the southwestern point of the island. Using the JR, in the f

Called the Venice of Japan, Kurashiki is a walking city. The kurashiki river flows through it and has a few bridges like those in Venice. You can see people in a small boats, similar to Venetian gondolas, enjoying the views of the city. It is a cute and quirky place, I saw an antique shop with hundreds of dog statues on the roof. It is also dotted with many cafe's, traditional Ramen, Soba, Izakaya, and western restaurants. I saw a new swanky Hungarian goulash place, which se

The castle named after the city, Kochi castle, is over 400 years old and still intact with original tower and construction. As I walked towards it on the rainy morning, I got a glimpse of it from a far distance, and it looks majestic. I reached at 8:30am while the castle is open to visitors at 9am. Walking the grounds and around the fortress, I could admire its location and the view. The castle is well preserved. Like the ryokans I visited, the castle also requires all visito

Founded in the year 815AD, the 11th temple in the pilgrimage is named Fujidera, which means Wisteria. It is surrounded by a dense forest and looks very serene. The Wisteria was in full bloom, as I was lucky to be visiting during the month of their glory. The temple was the gateway to the start of the pathway to the 12th temple, Shosan-ji , which was up the hill, needing a six hour hike, including a 4000 feet vigorous climb. I had decided to continue seeing other parts of t

On the second day of the pilgrimage, I was up by 4 AM, a vestige of the jetlag, by 6am I was pretty hungry. I decided to go to the Sobe...

The long flight from San Francisco to Tokyo followed by a long ride in the Shinkansen brought me to the Okayama train station. The Shinkansen is usually fast and reliable but today it had something they announced as "invasion on the tracks". This resulted in a 45-minute delay. At Okayama, I took an express train to come to the Itano train station which is closest to the first Shikoku temple out of the 88 on this pilgrimage. The Jetlag and the long journey so far had had its