I flew into Japan after spending pretty much a whole day travelling. My flight arrived at 7PM local time and I figured it would take a while to get my bags, get through customs, and get out into the city proper. It looked like a good hour on the train from Narita Airport to Shinjuku, …
Category: Travel
Jul 22
Don’t Blow Your Nose in Public – Matt’s Top Ten Tips for visiting Tokyo
I’ve been recently reminded that immersing yourself in a foreign culture is an act of bravery. It may not seem like it to the seasoned traveller, but leaving the familiar for the unknown where you don’t peak the language or read the signage can be scary, overwhelming, and panic inducing for the best of us. …
Jul 21
Travel Review – Qantas International Business Class, A330
When: 15th July 2016 Where: Brisbane to Tokyo I’ve grown up flying Qantas. When I was younger, my father took the Flying Kangaroo everywhere for work, and I’ve been a Qantas Frequent Flyer member since I was ten or twelve years old. Qantas likes to boast it is the Spirit of Australia, and it does …
Oct 10
Memory Lane: Family
I’m sitting on a near empty Malaysian Airlines Plane bound for Penang from Kuala Lumpur. Outside a muggy haze covers everything, although it’s harder to see in the dying light of a sunset hidden somewhere beyond the smoggy horizon. The tarmac is concrete grey -probably actual concrete when you think of it – I wonder …
Oct 09
Travel: Germany
The thing about Germany is that most people speak English and an English-German phrasebook is only so good when you’re going to Bavaria. Sure, they’ll understand you, but they use different words. ‘Ciao’ is goodbye for example. The language isn’t completely different, but well, my friends in Germany were quick to point out I didn’t …
Oct 02
Travel: Thoughts on Dubai Airport
They have cars on the duty free shopping floor. Stepping off the plane into the desert heat feels a lot like my trips to Asia – that rush of warmth that smacks you in the face when you step out of the plane air conditioning and out onto the aerobridge feels very much like Hong …
May 28
Vivace: Restaurant Review
Where: Level 1, 50 High Street, Auckland City Cuisine: Mediterranean Food: 5 Service: 4 Ambiance: 4 Value for Money: 4 Overall score: 4.25/5 When the word ‘honeycomb’ is written onto a menu, I instinctively think of the confectionary—take some sugar, heat it to a caramel, add sodium bicarb and watch it chunk up into a …
Jun 03
Hong Kong: Shopping – Top 7 tips and places
Hong Kong is renowned as a shopping destination, and has everything from the highs of high fashion to the cheapest of outdoor markets. It has midrange shopping malls filled with more H&M, Zara and Uniqlo stores than you’ll find in any of Australia’s major cities. You don’t need my help to find those, or the …
Jun 03
Hong Kong: Food – Top 3
Everyone who knows me, knows that food is a giant part of my life. It’s the main reason I won’t be on the cover of men’s health anytime soon, but you know, I can live with that. Hong Kong has a rich culinary history, starting with the local Cantonese cuisine, the food brought in by …
Jun 02
Travels in Hong Kong: Top 7 Travel Tips
Hong Kong is for three things: Fashion, Food and Fun. If you want to have four Fs, you could very easily add Friends to the list as well. I used to live in Hong Kong when I was younger. My dad got a job there in 1994, three years before the territory returned to China, …