Tour and See The World!

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, last part

2010-09-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, last part

Finally, I've come to the end of my series on South Korea, which I visited in June 2010, this year. I will be flying off to London soon, and will be definitely posting up wonderful pictures of London and the London School of Economics, where I will be at, soon enough! I will also be touring England once again, so you can expect pictures of my varied travels :)

However, back to the topic at hand - the final travel pictures of South Korea! Some of you might be wondering why I haven't written about or shown pictures of Dongdaemun and Namdaemun (or something like that), the Dong Da Men and the Nan Da Men, which are gates, and which are also very famous for demarcating areas of shopping in South Korea. Well, the thing is that this is my travel site, and I love theme parks more than I do shopping; however, I have added in Dongdaemun right here in the pictures in this post. Without further ado:

Below you can see the very famous and high class Shinsegae, nearby Myeong-dong (which you can read about in my earlier post). This is a departmental store for the rich or the up and coming parvenus.

Apparently, many women go to South Korea for cosmetics and stuff like that - people literally cry out BB CREAM!! FACE SHOP!! FACIAL MASKS!!! when they are here. I kid you not!! So, here, I've included odbo, which sells facial masks and BB cream and all the rest of those interesting cosmetics that South Korean women crave. I can assure you that Mavis loved those facial products as well :)

And finally, as promised to my faithful readers: below, you can see the famous shopping complex/ shopping mall at Dongdaemun. I did not visit Namdaemun this time when I toured Korea, so my sincerest apologies to those who were hoping for more!

You have been right here touring South Korea with all its interesting places and shopping malls with Mavis and me, here on Tour And See the World! travel blog. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world - special thanks to Mavis

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 8

2010-09-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 8 - Myeong-dong shopping district!

Hello and welcome back to Tour and See the World! In today's post, I visit the Myeong-dong shopping district, which is a shopping area and commerical/business zone in Seoul, South Korea. It is very popular and apparently the tour guide brings hundreds of thousands of tourists to this spot every year. Many people who visit South Korea indeed do so for the amazing opportunities to shop, eat and get all sorts of other trinklets. I would say that if you like shopping or window shopping, this is the place to be! Without further ado, I hope you like the pictures of Myeong-dong that I show below:

The last post of miscellaneous pictures of Korea will come right up, so stay tuned here! Thanks for reading and browsing, and cheers.

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 7

2010-09-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 7

I think this little section is very worth it for teddy bear lovers and fans for cute, cuddly things... I visited and toured the Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju Island, Korea! Here are the pictures I took while at the amazing Teddy Bear Museum, which boasts of all sorts of teddy bears ranging from historical figures to traditional Korean figures, and many many more types of curios and interesting things that you can see and enjoy!

Below, for instance, you can see the original care bear series on the shelves in the museum ... before they got modernised into what we are familiar with today!

Below you can see an interesting mix - Disney bears, simulating Disneyland, with Mickey Mouse bear and many other familiar yet quaint icons and characters! There are many such exhibits for you to look at and identify.

This is the entrance to the famous Teddy Bear Museum! I would say that this is a very nice, tame and cultural experience, so it is definitely worth a tour and a short visit, for beginners, and a long visit if you are a teddy bear expert and love such cute and cuddly creatures! I loved this place very much and certainly it was for me one of the highlights of Jeju Island (for instance, I didn't appreciate the All In House that much simply because I watch few Korean dramas.)

Thanks for viewing these travel pictures and cheers. More to come on Korea in my tour blog; do stay with me as I tour and see the world!

Tour and see the world!!

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 6 - More Scenes from Jeju Island and The All In House

2010-09-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! - The All In House, Jeju Island, Korea!

Hello and welcome back to my travel blog! In this post on Jeju Island, we visit the All In House at Jeju Island, Korea! I know that not all my readers are fans of Korean dramas but this was indeed one of the attractions that I visited while on tour in South Korea, so here goes - The famous All In House in Korea that hosted and housed some gambling show or something like that. I myself am more a casual viewer of Korean shows. The fans or professionals of Korean dramas would definitely appreciate this place better than I have, so for that I sincerely apologise. The wonderful pictures follow below here:

This is how Jeju Island looks like... another wonderfully natural scene of the coastline at Jeju Island. By the way, after touring the All In House, we tourists later went for some high powered water ride in the sea soon thereafter! I can tell you that the scene right here is indeed beautiful - but the water is incredibly cold and very, very salty...

The All In House! This is the main tourist attraction here.

This is the famous church, which seems to be a cross between a Protestant Church and a Catholic one.... but oh well, it's the movies! (There is no Jesus on the cross, yet there is a Mother Mary at the back of the Church. Then again, it's the movies and this was built specially for the show.) The All In House is at the back of this place, so let's call this the All In Church :) It's part of the set.

More to come on South Korea here on my travel site, so please stay here with me. Thanks for reading and viewing, and cheers!

Tour and See the World - All IN!!

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 5 - Scenes from Jeju Island!

2010-09-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 5 - Scenes from Jeju Island!

I also visited Jeju Island, which lies to the south of South Korea - a very interesting and lovely island! I heard from the tour guide that there are more women in Jeju island than men because in the past, the people were mainly fishermen or fishing folk, and the vast majority of Jeju islanders who were male were involved in fishing. Whenever there were huge waves or, for want of a better euphemism, water accidents, then there would be more widows and unmarried women. Interesting nugget; probably apocryphal, I'd say.

I hope you love the wonderful scenes from Jeju Island below - don't worry, I will post the famous and very popular All In House, from Jeju Island, in the next post here on my travel blog!

I understand that the whole island is volcanic, and as such boasts many small hills and small mounds or mounts. This is one of them, and Mavis and I climbed up the little hill/mound/mount. It was tough! So we gave up and went for grape ice cream instead. Come on, we're on holiday - exercise is optional :)

This is the famous mysterious road in Jeju Island - the road seems to be slanting upwards and indeed to all eyes and passersby, the road is indeed going upwards. Yet the bus seems to be effortlessly moving up the slope, although the engine is turned off. Can this be proof that the laws of gravity are merely suggestions or guidelines? The five tonne vehicle is moving up the slope without the power of the engine, contravening gravity! This is worth an actual visit because it is such a cute, and curious, tourist attraction. A must see!

Jeju Island being an island and traditional and all - you should visit the traditional Jeju Island village. There you can be regaled with the tales about how women do all the work - because there are just so few men! I would say it's an incredibly unique island attraction, but I wouldn't visit it a second time.

The wonderful seaside with its natural beauty - while not as exciting as the travel pictures I have from Australia, which boast of coasts and the Indian Ocean, this is a scene of Jeju Island's rocky and apparently volcanic seaside. For Singaporeans it's quite interesting to see, feel and live nature; we don't have much of these natural rocks, mountains and volcanic bits.

Soon to come, anyways - your fave All In House at Jeju Island! Please do stay tuned to my travel site; thank you very much.

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 4 - The Korean War Museum (War Memorial of Korea)

2010-09-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 4 - The Korean War Museum (War Memorial of Korea)

Welcome back to my travel blog! I showed pictures of Lotte World and Everland, exciting and wonderful theme parks from South Korea, in my earlier posts. Now, for something slightly more serious and sombre - the Korean War Museum, officially called the War Memorial of Korea, located in Seoul.

Mavis and I visited this museum as part of the tour package, which offered various tourist attractions in the bargain - and this is one major attraction for history lovers or for students or people who are interested in the history of the Korean peninsula, or military history. We arrived at the museum in the morning and it was raining heavily, adding a sense of gloom and - may I say it - doom to the atmosphere of the drab building with its colossal parade square. Many Korean children and students were there for their national education as well.

Overall, I rate this attraction quite highly, as I am a history buff, but it's certainly not for people who cannot stomach it or who don't like history, I guess! (Don't worry, after this post on my travel site, I get right on with showing you usual tour pictures such as scenery, fun activities, and farmland pictures of agricultural Korea!) Without further ado, here are the photos:

Thanks for reading and cheers - do stay tuned here on my travel site to tour more dimensions in a very interesting and unique country, which South Korea definitely is!

Tour and See the World

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 3 - indoor theme park Lotte World!

2010-09-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 3 - indoor theme park Lotte World!

Welcome to Seoul's coolest indoor theme park, Lotte World! (Which I always jokingly call Lotti World instead of the LOH TAY world that it's supposed to be called.) Located in Seoul, South Korea, Lotte World is one of the most exciting indoor theme parks in the world, with many activities ranging from ice skating to sitting on wonderful fake hot air balloons, to even a kind of wild-wild-wet water ride in the theme park as well! Yes, believe it or not, this theme park is indoors! It boasts an ice skating rink!

There are also some shopping opportunities and everywhere in Lotte World, including its neighbouring Lotte World Hotel, you can see their mascots or characters - Lotty and Lorry, the two anthropomorphic, racoon-like bear mascots. Lotty and Lorry have a whole range of merchandise for sale as well. I was lucky because of the Korean War resurgence scare, which made the exchange rate in the Singapore dollar's favour, so I bought many souvenirs for Mavis and myself. Kids and adults both like this theme park, although Lotte World is more suitable for children and young couples.

The wonderful pictures from Seoul's Lotte World follow below - do enjoy:

I have been to Lotte World twice, and it has never stopped amazing me from the first time I toured it. Staying in the theme park's hotel was also very interesting and a new experience, especially since I was there during the World Cup period. (South Korea lost to Argentina though, so that was quite sad.) However all said, I simply love it here! Thanks for reading and cheers.

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 2

2010-09-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, Everland Theme Park, part 2

Welcome back. I won't be posting about my trip in the order that I went, meaning in chronological order, but I will be instead posting about themes. And my first theme in my South Korea trip is Everland, also known as Yongyin Everland Theme Park. (Hey, this homegrown South Korean place is so good to visit that some people compare it with Disneyland!)

Everland is so beautiful and interesting that actually a single travel blog post isn't going to do much justice to it. I visited Everland in 2005, and revisiting it in 2010 was simply marvellous. I would say that Everland is a myriad mixture of a theme park, a zoo, a flower garden full of flowers and arrangements, and also a shopping complex. It's all that rolled into one park, and I strongly recommend that you visit it when you visit Korea! :)

There are many areas and zones in Everland that you can visit and play in, depending on your interests and hobbies. I would say that spending one day there is sufficient if there aren't many people and it isn't crowded. However, if Everland is crowded, most likely you'd have to visit it a second time to see that you've not exhausted all its possibilities! Without further ado, please enjoy the wonderful pictures that Mavis and I took from Everland, South Korea! Thanks for reading and cheers.

Tour and see the world! South Korea trip - and in this post, Everland Theme Park :)

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 1

2010-09-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! My South Korea Trip, part 1

Welcome to my South Korea trip! In the next few blog posts, I will be writing about and posting pictures of South Korea, but mainly the places that I have visited and the theme parks that I like. Admittedly, there are many people who visit South Korea for reasons different from mine - they go because they like Korean movie or TV stars; they go because they want to see the sights and sounds of a country with hills and trees; or they go, like me, because they want to go to play at Lotte World and Everland, and try the hot springs and dip into the pools at the Decksan Spa!

So stay tuned here on this travel site of mine where I will post about all these interesting sights and sounds and more! I visited Jeju island and other parts of South Korea, mainly Seoul. Apart from Lotte World and Everland, as well as the Decksan Spa Castle, I also visited the War Museum in Seoul, the famous mysterious road in Jeju island (I think!) where cars mysteriously move up slopes, the famous Teddy Bear museum, the Green Tea museum and shop, as well as some other small time but interesting places I visited with Mavis. Thanks for reading and I hope you love my travel pictures!

Tour and see the world - South Korea!

Tour and See the World! Perth, Western Australia, part 12 Final

2010-07-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Perth, Western Australia, part 12 Final

Perth doesn't just consist of landed real estate, the Swan River, the City Centre and Miss Maud of course... it also has a lot of other attractions that you might want to visit! I visited the Colonial Gaol (jail, as we call it in English :) ) which basically is a museum in Perth that details the harsh yet interesting lives of the early settlers in Australia. I also visited the Margaret River Chocolate Company, which is a must visit for Singaporeans, because when I was there, there were literally hundreds of Singaporeans eating chocolates and ice cream there. If you're feeling "kiasu", you can always get the free samples to eat rather than paying for your chocolates. (Don't say I didn't tell you.) Also, the vineyards, the vineyards! There are many, many vineyards in Perth - I visited and toured two of them, but I can only remember one of the names. That one of them was Sandalford Wines, Perth, which you can see in the picture below. So to sum up, you'll get to see: a jail museum (small one), the famous Margaret River Chocolate Company, and Sandalford Vineyard (near Perth, the Margaret River and the Swan River).

This brings me to the end of my series on Tour and See the World about Perth, and Western Australia! I would like to thank my uncle for bringing us around Western Australia, and for playing one of the best hosts I have ever met. I loved especially the sights, scenes and sounds of Australia, particularly the nature sites and the nature reserves. I love Australia and I am pretty sure you will love it too. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and See the World! End of series on Perth, Western Australia

Tour and See the World! Perth, Western Australia, part 11

2010-07-11T07:32:00.001-07:00

Tour and See the World! Perth, Western Australia, part 11

OK, I am back after a short break from blogging and writing on various topics! Let's jump right back into it. In this post, I show you pictures of real estate in Perth, Western Australia... and a scene from the City Centre as well as Miss Maud, which apparently is a very famous hotel chain. Miss Maud is a Swedish Hotel (I think the full name is something like Miss Maud Swedish Hotel) and can be found throughout Perth, selling all sorts of pastries, cakes, food and of course providing some kind of hotel stay as it is mainly about accomodation, after all. I would say that it appears to be a major "in" thing in Perth. A kind of must-do! Without further ado: wonderful landed properties by the Swan River, in the wonderful neighbourhood where my lucky uncle stays, the Perth City Centre, and the Miss Maud hotel in the heart of Perth... right here!

In case you think that was the last post on Perth and that you're going to miss out on many good pictures of vast vineyards and huge wide open spaces - don't worry! Another post on Perth, Western Australia, is going to come right up here on my travel site. There were many places I toured and visited while staying with my uncle. Please stay tuned for more interesting places I have visited!

Tour and see the world! Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and See the World! St Mary's Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia part 10

2010-07-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! St Mary's Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia part 10

OK we have finally reached Perth proper here on Tour and See the World! I first show you pictures of St Mary's Cathedral here in East Perth, Western Australia, followed by the picture of a Dutch explorer (I think! I should go and check it up one day) overlooking the beautiful Swan River in Perth. By the way, St Mary's Cathedral is, according to my uncle, a Roman Catholic Church that seats the archbishop. I hope you do enjoy visiting; I certainly enjoyed looking at the half modern, half not-so-modern construction of the Church!

The Swan River is Perth's most symbolic and resident river, and it's definitely something you'd want to have a nice long look at! I even took a cruise down the Swan River; I would recommend a cruise or even just a Transperth boat ride. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for Perth's City Centre and real estate options!

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! Observation City and the City of Stirling, Western Australia part 9

2010-07-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Observation City and the City of Stirling, Western Australia part 9

In this post, we visit Observation City and the City of Stirling in Western Australia! There are quite a few names for the famous big hotel here, as my uncle told me, some call it Observation City, while others call it Rendezvous Hotel. Then I went to see the official site and discovered that it's apparently called Rendezvous Observation City Hotel, Perth. This hotel overlooks the soft white and very very beautiful Scarborough Beach, and of course overlooks the beautiful Indian Ocean. It's a pity, however, that when I visited the beach, some vandals had marred the sign "City of Stirling" though. Nonetheless, the clear blue skies, beautiful beach, and the vastness of the Indian Ocean more than make up for that!

There are also many Rendezvous Hotels around the world, and not just in Perth, Western Australia. They are also in other parts of Australia, in New Zealand, in Malaysia and Singapore and even in China! However, I think that the main unique feature of this particular Rendezvous Hotel is that it overlooks the beautiful Scarborough Beach, whilst remaining the tallest structure in the neighbourhood (as all the other buildings there are low rise). There are more places in Perth, Western Australia to come in future posts - so please do stay here with me as I tour and visit places in Australia!

Tour and See the World!!

Tour and See the World! Joondalup, Western Australia part 8

2010-07-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Joondalup, Western Australia part 8

In this post, we tour and visit Joondalup, Western Australia! Sadly, I didn't take many pictures of Joondalup (oh well!) and so we're going to make do with these: first and foremost, the beautiful view of the beach at Joondalup; second, the bicycle and running track along the coast at Joondalup; and finally the Lakeside Shopping City at Joondalup, where my uncle, father, brother and I had our breakfast and lunch and went shopping! As some general information about the city would be quite relevant here, I got information from the Joondalup City website: Joondalup is a small city about 99km sq in size, cosmopolitan and international in nature and atmosphere, especially at and around the city centre, and it is 25 mins north of Perth along the Mitchell Freeway. In other words, it's northward and near Perth. Hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures of this very picturesque place, which should be worth a short visit if you're at Perth!

In the next post here on my travel site, I write about Observation City and the City of Stirling! I do hope you've enjoyed visiting and touring Mandurah, Fremantle, Sorrento Quay and other interesting places I've visited in Australia. Don't worry - there are more pictures to come. Do stay tuned for more beautiful places that I have visited in Australia; the main travel and tour attraction, Perth, is coming right up soon. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and See the World!!

Tour and See the World! Sorrento Quay, Western Australia, part 7

2010-07-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Sorrento Quay, Western Australia, part 7

In this post, here on my travel site, I show you the beautiful Sorrento Quay with its serviced apartments for rent and the wonderful yachts and boats in their bays, floating gently upon the peaceful water! There are also many novelty and simple shops at Sorrento Quay. Sorrento Quay is about 20 minutes north of Perth, Western Australia and boasts a beautiful view of the ocean. I also went to have a look at the Sorrento Quay website and found that it is located on Western Australia's Sunset Coast and that it's actually completely named the Sorrento Quay Boardwalk! Be careful not to fall into the water while walking alongside the quay, though! And also be careful of the flying birds when you're walking... wear a cap, if you know what I mean :) Below, you will see: the beautiful boats and yachts in their berths, the apartments for rent (or also probably for buying as well), and last but not least the mall/ shopping areas of Sorrento Quay. I think this place is definitely worth a short visit, and definitely worth a long visit if you're considering buying a yacht!

Isn't Australia beautiful?? :) More to come on Perth and Western Australia in future posts here on my travel site! Observation City, St Mary's Cathedral, Joondalup and other parts of Perth coming right up, as soon as I've time to post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more; cheers!

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! Claremont Heritage Trails, Western Australia part 6

2010-06-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Claremont Heritage Trails, Western Australia part 6

In earlier posts, I wrote about Kings Park, Cottesloe Coast, Subiaco, Fremantle and Mandurah in Western Australia, here on Tour and See the World! In this post, I visit Perth's Claremont Heritage Trails. Actually, I think it should be said that Australia has a lot of beautiful parks and wonderful trails to walk along as well as scenic rivers and wonderful ocean coasts, so this one might actually seem pedestrian amongst the many wonders in Australia. But oh well, I visited it so here goes: you can see the many boats and yachts in the river (I believe it's the Swan River), and the park is big enough to explore and certainly cosy enough for picnics on a good day with fine weather! :)

There will be more scenes of yachts and sailing boats, especially since I also visited Sorrento Quay, which has many yachts for sail (that's a pun, I meant many yachts for sale :) ). Sorrento Quay will come up soon in this travel site, boasting of its boats and wonderful serviced apartments overlooking the yachts in their bays. More to come on Perth and Western Australia here on my travel site, so do stay here with me as I show you the beautiful pictures from my Australian tour. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! Kings Park, Western Australia part 5

2010-06-30T00:48:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Kings Park, Western Australia part 5

Hello and welcome once again to Tour and See the World! In this post, we visit Kings Park, Western Australia! In the pictures below, you see: first, Lovers Walk, which sadly was closed when I was there due to a possibility of landslide and heavy rockfall. Secondly, the signboard for the famous huge and gigantic tree, the Gija Jumulu, which was transported a long long way to Perth from North Western Australia! Thirdly, you can see the beautiful skyline of Perth, as seen from the commanding heights of Kings Park. Lastly, there is that very interesting signboard/post, but also with some Indonesians filming a movie in the environs of Kings Park!

Not captured in the pictures above, but also very important and interesting: the Kokoda Trails/ Kokoda Tracks, which simulates or retraces the Second World War; the WWI and WWII war memorials in Kings Park which commemorates the fallen; the Swan Brewery Co Ltd, which can be seen opposite Kings Park and is very visible even from a great height; and the Jacobs Ladder, among many other sights and sounds.

Sadly, I didn't get to see many other things or fully explore the park, since Kings Park seems to be incredibly huge and spans an incredibly large area. There are many other interesting places to visit and see within the Park. I think Kings Park is very worth visiting (i.e. it's a must see), especially since there are many Singaporean visitors who have never seen such beautiful landscapes, scenery, or natural environs. I would say it's incredibly beautiful and definitely worth a visit in Perth.

More to come on Western Australia and Perth - do stay tuned! Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! Cottesloe Coast, Western Australia part 4

2010-06-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Cottesloe Coast, Western Australia part 4

Welcome back to Tour and See the World! In the last few posts, I posted about various places I visited in Western Australia: Subiaco, Fremantle and Mandurah. Do please click on the above links to view the pictures, thanks! In this post, we visit the beautiful and scenic Cottesloe Coast, Western Australia! I show you the beautiful sunset that I managed to catch, as well as the beautiful coastline, rocky yet majestic cliffs, and also the map of the area.

Some of you might be wondering what Cottesloe Coast is all about, so I copied and amended the description from the Town of Cottesloe's website for your benefit:

"Thinking of the beach, thinking of Norfolk Island pines, thinking of a Western Suburbs lifestyle?? - that's Cottesloe. Just 15 minutes west of Perth, Western Australia, Cottesloe is internationally famous for its superb beach and terraced lawns overlooking the Indian Ocean. Whether you're a local or a visitor, Cottesloe's village atmosphere and seaside heritage demands exploration." They couldn't have said it any better - I think Cottesloe's really a great place to visit! Here are the pictures:

Thanks for reading and viewing my pictures! More pictures to come here later on this travel site - I will post, in no particular order, also pictures of Claremont Heritage Trails, Kings Park Western Australia, Perth itself, Sorrento Quay, Joondalup, St Mary's Cathedral in Perth, and the famous City of Stirling with its Observation City (aka Hotel Rendezvous, I think). Stay here with me as we Tour and See the World! Thanks for reading and cheers.

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! Subiaco, Western Australia part 3

2010-06-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Subiaco, Western Australia part 3

Hi, I'm back! In the last post, we visited Fremantle in Australia. In this post, we visit Subiaco, a small city in Western Australia! Subiaco seems to me to be quite a small city, very nice and quiet, with a gentle atmosphere. My brother likes it very much! I show below some of the shops, restaurants and the Australian version of the MRT (trains, rail services) as well. Without further ado, you're visiting Subiaco:

In the next post, I bring you to visit Cottesloe Coast to see the beautiful seaside, which is just marvellous and oh so beautiful! I even catch a sunset while visiting wonderful Cottesloe coast. Do stay here with me on Tour and See the World! Thanks for reading and cheers.

Tour and See the World!

Tour and See the World! Fremantle, Western Australia part 2

2010-06-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Fremantle, Western Australia part 2

In the last post, I showed Mandurah (in Western Australia) with its beautiful boat cruises and very nice atmosphere. In this post, we visit Fremantle, which I think is some kind of port city along the Western Australian coast. My brother and I even had a joke when we saw so many birds eating at Fremantle - when seagulls want buffet, where do they go? To Fremantle! When seagulls want to gamble? They go to Burswood! Nah, kidding. Anyways, beautiful pictures of Fremantle follow: The Maritime Museum in Fremantle where you can visit the exhibits and read all about the crazy mariner Cornelius who murdered many, or read about ancient maritime history and the story of imperialism; the nice city of Fremantle; and last, but not the least, the famous Fremantle market as well.

At Fremantle we also sat by the river side and watched the birds fly around. There were many yachts and boats as well! I think those were very lovely. OK, I'm done for today :) I think Subiaco follows in the next post, so do stay tuned for beautiful, nice and interesting pictures of Australia!

P. S. Oh, when I was there it was a Sunday and the next day was a day called Foundation Day, which seems to be a general public holiday. I might read about it and write about it in future posts, but that's just to let you know why the Fremantle market seems to be so busy in the morning! :) More to come in future posts on my travel site; do stay tuned and here with me.

Tour and see the world! Fremantle, Western Australia

Tour and See the World! Mandurah, Western Australia part 1

2010-06-22T03:08:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Mandurah, Western Australia part 1

OK I am BACK!!

Wow, this is going to be hard, but I'll try - my relatives who stay in Perth gave me a beautiful, wonderful tour of many cities and towns in Western Australia, and so I shall just start with Mandurah. First up - Perth itself is very beautiful and a very nice place to live in (and as we Singaporeans say, a very nice place to retire to as well). After a good night's rest on the first day, we took a 67km (or 65km?) road trip down to Mandurah to visit our first stop. In later posts to come, I show you nice pictures of Fremantle, Subiaco, Cottesloe Coast, Kings Park, Claremont heritage trails, St Mary's Cathedral, Joondalup, Sorrento Quay, the City of Stirling and its very famous Observation City (which is actually a big hotel!!!) and of course, Perth itself as well as the surrounding areas of beautiful vineyards, farms and land, land, glorious land. Those were all the places I visited during my stay at Perth, where my relatives stay in a two storey house overlooking the Swan River. Have I mentioned or reiterated that that's a most picturesque, quiet, lovely residential neighbourhood area in Perth? :) Lovely! Anyways, here are the pictures from Mandurah first, and more to come in future posts!

Oh yes, you can take a cruise at Mandurah, just as you can take a cruise along the Swan River at Perth. You might just want to do that. I fell in love with Western Australia right away. To come in the next post here on my travel site: Fremantle! Do stay right here with me on Tour and See the World :) Thank you.

Tour and see the world!

Dear Readers, Did You Miss Me? :)

2010-06-20T08:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Readers, Did You Miss Me? :)

I am back from my holiday! Did you dear readers miss me? ;)

I will be posting here on Tour and See the World soon - with new posts, new pictures and more interesting articles on various places in Western Australia that I visited, as well as Seoul and Jeju Island in South Korea! Yes, I visited those places when on holiday from the 4th to 19th June.

There was some travel complication in South Korea due to the crisis in South Korea, which I will dwell on now. Initially, I was supposed to go to Seoul for holiday from the 14th to the 20th, but then because there weren't enough people who wanted to go to Seoul by itself, the trip was cancelled. That was really bad. However, I really wanted to go back to see Korea again, especially with Mavis, so we trooped over to another travel agency to see if there were other trips to Korea, and voila! SA Tours was really good - and this is my personal opinion, very good in terms of the hotels and the itinerary, although the service wasn't that good per se.

The catch was the new trip from SA was from the 12th to 19th, and so... I landed in Singapore (from Perth) on 11th early in the morning (it was an early morning landing) and in the evening on the 11th I went to the airport to fly again, totally exhausted but excited (it was an early morning [12th] flight). So to sum up - I came back to Singapore, slept a bit, unpacked and repacked, and then flew off to Korea for my tour.

Since this is an importance notice, I will also write about two more points:

1. I will be posting pictures together and words together. Currently, I put words in between pictures, but I find that formatting and writing in such a way puts a strain on my luddite-y skills. I also find that too much effort. I am really sorry for those who prefer commentary - but think about it: some people like to see travel pictures, whereas some are here to read about places and travel tips, so I am catering to both groups. You'll see that it is more convenient for me and for you.

2. I am posting less pictures! Please don't be upset... hahaha! I shall rephrase. I am posting less pictures of Australia and Korea for this time round, thanks to a mistake that I have made. For Australia and South Korea I did not set my camera properly and all the pics have turned out to be L, which takes up a lot of disk space and therefore I have less pictures to begin with (but they are of higher quality).

Thanks for staying here with me on my travel site, and so come and tour and see the world with me and my wonderful travel companions, family and friends! Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and See the World! :)

I know you miss me

Tour and See the World! Notice

2010-05-28T02:59:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Notice

Dear dear readers, friends, buddies, fellow travel bloggers, and passerbys :)

Here is a short notice: I will be away in Australia from 4th to 10th June 2010, and will be in South Korea from 14th to 20th June on holiday. As such, I will not be posting for a while due to my travels and also... my birthday celebrations (well, as my birthday falls in June every year). I will be back right here with more interesting and wonderful pictures of the various places I visit, as well as more articles on Australia and South Korea!

And one fine day, this year or next, I might start writing about Singapore, my beautiful island home in the sun.

Thanks for staying here with me and I will be right back with you in no time at all. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world - Notice: I am going away on holiday in June. Will be back soon!

PS: Further small notice (emotionally-laden and sentimental one) : If I do fly to London later this year to do my master's degree at the London School of Economics, I will also write many detailed posts and put up many beautiful pictures of London in England here on my wonderful travel site. So here is to more nice long years for my travel site. It's been a few years already and I'm still going strong, posting pictures and writing emotional "thank yous" like this one. Thanks to all my readers and loyal supporters for your help, encouragement, contributions and comments over the years. Hasta la vista!

Tour and See the World: Short Series on Sydney, Australia, part 2

2010-05-16T22:32:00.001-07:00

Tour and See the World: Short Series on Sydney, Australia, part 2

Welcome to part two of the short series on my travel site, on Sydney, Australia! If you wish to see the previous post on Sydney, Australia, here is the link: Short Series on Sydney, part 1. Special thanks once again to bb :) who has sent me these nice pictures of Sydney during her holiday with her family members there. Without further ado, here are more interesting pictures of Sydney!

Well, I am pretty sure that the above two pictures were taken in Sydney's Chinatown... fairly certain about that! The first one says Tai Yuen Cafe and the second one is translated as "Understand Virtue and Trust" in English. I also remember that when I was in Manchester, on the very first day of my student exchange we all trooped down to Chinatown to have a Chinese buffet, which we all loved very much! I guess that's what some of us buffet-loving Chinese Singaporeans do when we are on holiday.

And that brings me to the end of this short, two part series on Sydney, Australia. I am going to visit Australia soon also to visit my uncle, and will be taking lots of photos so that I can share them with you on this travel site. Thanks for staying here with me, and cheers! More exciting pictures to come on Tour and See the World!

Tour and see the world!

PS Special thanks once again to bb :)

Tour and See the World: Short Series on Sydney part 1 (contributed by one of my fans :) )

2010-05-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Short Series on Sydney part 1 (contributed by one of my fans :) )

Hello I'm back! Special thanks to my dear bb :) , who contributed this short picture series to my travel site Tour and See the World - on Sydney, Australia! I think my travel blog, while very simple & primitive and not quite as high-tech or developed as other famous people's travel sites, like Eunice Khong from Travelerfolio, is quite nice and cosy... and if I may say so, sweet.

Nice friends of mine write in occasionally and some of them (like bb :) ) contribute photos of interesting places that they have visited. I will be visiting my uncle, who lives in Australia, in June. So in June, I will be first flying to Australia and then to South Korea. Don't worry dear readers - I will bring my camera and take lots of nice photos to share them with you! Yes, more photos or interesting places to come. And without further ado - my short series on Sydney, Australia. There is no commentary as I wasn't the one there; this series is contributed by the sweet bb :) Thank you!

Thanks for reading and cheers! A second part to the short series on Sydney, Australia, will follow in the next post here on Tour and See the World. Thanks for staying here with me.

Tour and see the world with bb :)

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 13 - Japanese Vending Machines!

2010-05-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 13 - Japanese Vending Machines!

Here is the last instalment to my Japan trip! Alright, admittedly this last part to the series wasn't some very exciting part of my travels, but about ... vending machines in Japan! And oh, a very cute baby I met at Disneysea while at that theme park. OK, here goes:

Here is a cute Japanese baby asking for donations at Disneysea. Just kidding. This kid, like me, was also a tourist visiting Disneysea.

And now here come the most ubiqitous feature in Japan. When you visit, the first thing that strikes you in Japan is... the predominance of the vending machine!!!

The Japanese are also big on recyling too... and here are more vending machines from Japan, the land of vending machines (and the land of the rising sun).

Even in the mountains - I kid you not - there are vending machines! This one is from a temple in Nara I believe. Amazing! There are vending machines everywhere in Japan.

I hope you've enjoyed my series on Japan and the various places and sights and sounds I experienced while I was there. Thanks for reading my travel blog and cheers!

Tour and see the world with me!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 12 - Disneysea!

2010-05-03T07:47:00.003-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 12 - Disneysea!

There are so many things to post on my travel blog, so here goes: my first instalment in a long time, a really long long while! I first visited Japan in 2005, and then visited it again last year in May (was it May? I think so) during Mavis' "glad trip" to Japan. I am glad I went on that glad trip, because it was the first time that I had been to Disneysea, Japan. I visited Disneyland in 2005 and it was a real blast, and this time I visited Disneysea, the other theme park at the same site!

To add to the mood, when we visited it, it was raining - I kid you not! But the Japanese all went there in the rain anyways, and so we did. That's the spirit - and that's the correct atmosphere. Disneysea and "Disneyrain" :) Without further ado, here come the first set of pictures from Tokyo's Disneysea:

Here's a funny looking Japanese man standing behind the famous Disney logo/motif/ mascot/ icon Mickey Mouse! Cute.

The theme from Arabian nights - the one and only famous Aladdin, from Disney.

Mavis and I went for this one, and the puffer fish went round and round we got really disney - I mean really dizzy! :)

You can see Terror Towers in the background here at Disneysea in the picture above.

In an interesting imitation of Ninja Warrior, stay tuned for ...

More pictures, more action, more places to visit in Japan and more places elsewhere as well, and more tours and visits around the world!
(How's that for an advertisement for my travel site with a bang!)
I will be back, and soon! Thanks for visiting.

Tour and See the World: Japan, Disneysea!

Tour and See the World! Notice

2010-04-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Notice

Hello I am Shawn, the author of this travel blog! :)

Well, actually it's a picture blog, but there's a reason for it. Oh, I am rambling.

Anyways, I have just completed my degree and have now left school! That's great for me because I can resume posting beautiful pictures of various countries that I have visited and toured. The thing is that I should also be including lots of interesting text and comments on the places I've visited, but as you all know, there's so much to write about and so little time for all the varied things that I love to do. Anyways, this is just a notice to my loyal fans (such as Zara and Mavis) that I am back from my exams and will be resuming by posting lots of nice pictures on my travel site! As I have many interests, and many things to do, and to catch up on, I shall be posting lots of pictures and write in my usual writing style - erm that works out to be not much here on this site!

Sorry for those who want to know about the bus services in Manchester (where I travelled to for my student exchange) and all that kind of stuff. I might post stuff on that when I am free though, but for the moment my travel site just boasts of pictures of many interesting places that I have toured and seen!

This year, 2010, I will be travelling to Australia to visit my uncle Eddie and then I will be visiting South Korea also, going to exciting places such as Lotteworld and Everland :) Which I always accidentally and ironically call Neverland, but never mind!

When I come back from my holidays in late June, I shall of course be adding those to my wonderful site. So please do stay with me, and have a nice time staying here!

Thanks for reading my notice, and cheers! I am back and I've not abandoned my wonderful picture site, full of nice places and more tours to come :)

Cheers,
Shawn

Tour and See the World with my travel site!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 11.5 - Mount Fuji, and some blinking faces :)

2009-12-14T01:41:00.000-08:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 11.5 - Mount Fuji, and some blinking faces :)

One must always keep promises - and I promised that I would put up the pictures of some of my beautiful models, I mean, people, up on my site, so here they are: the amendment and additions to the part 11 on Mount Fuji, Japan! These literally are the people I tour and see the world with :p

Here is Mavis outside the hotel, where one can see Mount Fuji in the background.

This is Yong Yuan and myself, and hopefully I've spelt his name correctly.... I met him during the Japan trip, as he was in the same tour group as me, and we had a great time walking around and visiting the various tourist places. Once we even went out in the night, walking around the city centre, and we stumbled upon (I kid you not) a Singapore restaurant selling Singapore food... in Japan!

This is Mavis once again... at Mount Fuji itself! It was very cold at the top of the mountain!

Special thanks to my models (including myself :P :p :P) who reminded me that I need to put nice people into my nice travel blog :) Upcoming - pictures of Disneysea in Tokyo, Japan! When I visited Japan with my parents in 2005, we visited Japan's Disneyland, so this time, I went to experience Disneysea instead. More to come here on my travel site, so stay with me; thanks and cheers!

Tour and see the world - with Mavis and Shawn!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 11 - Mount Fuji

2009-12-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 11 - Mount Fuji

Hello!!! And welcome!! I am back from my long hard semester doing six difficult modules, and I am back here to write on Mount Fuji. OK, since I'm lazy, I'm just going to post pictures and let them do the talking, since I can always write about my visit to Japan when I am feeling more hardworking. - I'm glad to be back - !

I don't think I've posted up my pictures on Mount Fuji yet, so here they are for you to enjoy! Thanks to my dear, dear readers who have commented and said nice and beautiful things about my travel site! I have "outsourced" some of my other websites as I'm busy with my Honours thesis and so I'll just focus on this one, and a couple more. I can't post pictures and write about beautiful places often, I'm sorry - but I'll do my best to upkeep. Anyways, without further ado: come with me as I tour and see the world :)

The tour buses and tour coaches in Japan, as well as in any large country, usually stop at rest points and rest stations, much like this one. Mavis and I stopped to rest at this place above.

This is the beautiful Mount Fuji in Japan, and isn't it picturesque and exquisitely beautiful? Sometimes people can't see Mount Fuji from the hotel because it's blocked by clouds and mist, but on this day I got lucky and Mount Fuji showed me her beautiful side.

This is the outside of the building from which I took the pictures of Mount Fuji..

And here's another Mount Fuji picture.

I love Mount Fuji; I hope you do too! Anyways, I will post more travel pictures and write more about my trip to Japan, as well as other places I've toured and visited, in future posts here on my site. Thanks for reading and special thanks to those who have nice comments, like Zara and the anonymous people who write nice things to me! Do pls leave your names and contacts, travel websites/ travelogues/ other travel writers' blogs and other info so that I can write back to you. Thank you very much and cheers!! :)

Tour and see the world - back!

Tour and See the World! Notice

2009-09-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World! Notice

Hello all my dear dear readers,

I've got an announcement to make about my travel site! Thanks for following me on Twitter and sending me nice, interesting comments and writing about my travel site; thank you very much! However, there is a slight problem... but don't worry, nothing too serious.

I haven't been posting pictures and writing about various places in Japan for some time now, because I have been busy with lots of things. For that I apologise, because some of my loyal readers have asked about my latest instalment of travel pictures. Japan is beautiful, where's Mount Fuji, and how about more pretty Japanese girls, they say. I know, I know...! I will have more time to post up beautiful pictures of Japan and all the other exciting places I have been to, and there will be many more posts to come.

However, and here comes the annoucement:

I am reading a degree for Honours (Social Science), in Economics (major) and History (minor). As such, for the next three months or so, I will not be posting because I have to work on a major proposal.

No worries! I am not abandoning my travel site, which has generated many visitors for me and many interested well-travelled or well-read readers who consistently ask me questions, give me comments about travel places, and travel tips. I am basically just taking a three month break from travel blogging, and I am begging your kind pardon. I am really sorry!

In the meantime, do keep your kind tags on my travel site coming and do contact me, from time to time. Zara, my friend, has already completed her education whereas I am in the last stages of mine (but there'll be more to come in the future, I can assure you).

Thanks for your kind understanding, and don't worry, I am merely taking a break! Thank you very much and sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Thanks and cheers,
your very sincere travel writer, travel pictures poster,
Shawn

Tour and see the world! Am just taking a break from this travel site, but will be flying/ travelling/ coming back soon!

PS Next year, I am sooooooo going to South Korea and Germany. Have actually already been to these two places before, but will travel to different parts this time.

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 10 - travel videos

2009-08-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 10 - travel videos
Tour and see the world with me!

Normally I don't post travel videos on my travel blog, because technically I am a dinosaur/ luddite/ traditional travel blogger or travel writer... but NOW look at how high tech I am :) :) I have attempted to share some of the sights and sounds with you; you can view the pictures in earlier posts on Japan here on my travel site. Thanks for watching and cheers!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 9 - Yamashiroya, the best toy shop in Ueno, Tokyo

2009-07-17T01:38:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 9 - Yamashiroya, the best toy shop in Ueno, Tokyo

Welcome to Yamashiroya toy shop!!

Mavis and I visited Tokyo, Japan, and we had a look at the biggest and most interesting toy store in the entire country - Yamashiroya, the coolest toy shop in Ueno, Tokyo, in Japan! Apparently boasting of 7 levels of various kinds of toys, this is one of the best toy shops in Japan, if not the best. The interesting and cool pictures that I got of the toy shop might interest you, even if you're not an avid collector!

Gundam is a product of Japan - see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno!

Remember these cute guys? Pokemon, Digimon and whatnot... see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno!

Since we are in Japan, I also shot this interesting Japanese model... model toys and making models and replica toys are important in Japanese urban culture for teens, I guess! Guess what I am going to say next?... You got it right: see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno!

The vast array of merchandise and toys from all over the world and from Japan is bewildering.... see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno! Here, Mavis looks up at the vast quantities of toys.

And this last picture is the most important: that's how Yamashiroya, Ueno looks like! Be sure to visit this place as it's worth having a look at the many toys and diverse Japanese toy products inside. You might want to come here because it's a great place to be, full of youths and urban culture. This place made me feel at least 5 years younger! Haha :) Next theme coming right up here on my travel site, so please stay tuned. Thanks for reading and cheers!

PS I have a few simple and personal things to comment on - first, special thanks to my friend Zara who comments on my travel site whenever I post new travel pictures and new materials, thank you very much! Second, in my personal blog, I've become very famous - for better or for worse, I don't really know - but it's good to know that over here my beautiful pictures of various interesting places invites the right travel crowds! :) Third, actually based on the logic of economics, I should focus more time and effort into my finance and other more important sites because they generate more income for me, but what can I say - I love this travel site the most and I've the most feelings for it, so here I am again. Tour and see the world is my favourite site and I like writing on it the most, even at the cost of earning less money from my other sites.

Tour and see the world! Ueno, Tokyo, Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 8 - the Kimono Show

2009-07-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 8 - the Kimono Show

We went to see a kimono show while visiting Japan - and surely everyone knows that kimonos are a very important and integral part of Japanese culture. Most tourists should know that. Besides, it was a good chance to look at yet more pretty and beautiful Japanese ladies... Kidding! Of course. We visited the kimono show because it was part of the tour package, and some planner out there felt that visiting such a cultural show was good for our edification :) Let's see the kimonos on the various models below!

I wanted to make the above picture the last picture at the bottom of this post, but due to the fact that I am a luddite at the computer, it ended up in front. Anyways, you can see the beautiful and intricate designs and patterns on the kimonos at this interesting kimono show in Tokyo, Japan!

I personally feel that this is the most beautiful girl that I've seen on my tour in Japan, and certainly her kimono is one of the more interesting and bright ones, quite unlike some of the other more sombre and more traditional kimonos.

To save time or to provide some comparison, these two beauties came up at the same time, sashaying down the catwalk. PREDICTION: I am guessing that my travel site's search rankings just moved up the scale a lot - because many people who rarely visited me in the past will be visiting me very often to have a look at the girls of the kimono show and the girls I saw while touring Japan!

The kimono suppliers knew that I thought this girl was the prettiest, so they sent her out again, and here's another picture of her in a different kimono. More themes from Japan to come on my travel site - I've arranged some photos of vending machines (not because I am vending machine person or something, but because those machines represent Japan, I can tell you!), the biggest toy shop in Japan (apparently!), Mount Fuji (of course, because everyone knows that Mount Fuji "IS" Japan), and other interesting places I've visited and toured. Thanks for reading, stay with me, and cheers!

Tour and see the world! - Tokyo kimono show, beautiful Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 7 - Japanese girls!

2009-07-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 7 - Japanese girls!

Anyone who travels to Japan or visits Japan will know that Japanese girls are among the cutest/ prettiest/ best looking in the entire world. Well, my travel posts are divided and separated into various themes, and today's travel theme on my Japan trip is : good looking Japanese girls - and where Mavis and I saw them in Japan! In fact, one of the next few posts on my travel site will deal with Japanese vending machines... because there are many vending machines in Japan! Haha :)

Japanese like to visit theme parks, such as Disneyland and Disneysea. In this case, even when it rains, they put on their rain coats and go all out to play and visit theme parks!

Apparently Japanese girls have the most interesting fashions/ fashion-sense in the world! Mavis and I were at MacDonald's (OK, the reason why we were eating there is that the MacPork burger is very cheap in Japan and money is one heck of a scarce commodity in Japan) when we saw these two beautiful Japanese girls in the most intricate, daedal dressing. I asked them for permission and we managed to get this beautiful picture for my travel blog! Personally I think Singaporean girls will not dress like this, and then even if they did, they wouldn't let others take photos of them. Arigato to the two beautiful girls :)

This is a serendipitious and surreptitious shot we took of a nice Japanese girl at an ice cream shop. Sorry, pretty Japanese girl! But we were pretty sure we wouldn't see you again on our travels and didn't want to miss this. Anyways this was a famous ice cream shop. There are many different types of flavours that you can try at Japanese ice cream shops, from wasabi to green tea and whatnot! This picture was taken secretly when we were at Shinsaibashi, Tokyo.

Gothic looks and Goth are in too... and this picture was taken at Disneysea theme park. These two girls were - mind you - standing in the rain taking pictures of themselves! We meet all sorts when travelling...

Even the Japanese teenage girls are pretty... and this was taken while touring the streets of Tokyo. Japanese girls are really cute and pretty!

When visiting Japan, one should go and watch the kimono show - and these are the ladies we saw at the Japan kimono show while visiting Japan! Let's visit the kimono show in Japan, in the next set of travel pictures...

Tour and see the world! - next up, the Kimono show in Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 6 - Shinsaibashi

2009-06-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 6 - Shinsaibashi

Tour and see the world - and here we are in Japan :)

Shinsaibashi is in Osaka, Japan, and it is a main shopping area that has many shops and places to eat, drink and much more. Tourists and teenagers come here very often, apparently. There is a wide open area with many buildings, with many brands and many companies, and there is a covered shopping street as well, here at Shinsaibashi in Osaka. Mavis and I had our dinner here when the tour guide brought us to this very interesting, colourful and exciting place!

This is how Shinsaibashi looks like in the evening... and I must say that it's quite nice!

We had to recognise this gigantic crab (apparently there are four of them) hanging outside this restaurant - so that we could meet our tour group again, amidst this concrete jungle!

Warning - a vulgar Singapore joke follows! - Do you know that apparently steamboat/ buffet is called NABE in Japanese? And worse still, did you know that crab is called KANI in Japanese? So that makes... if tourists want to eat crab steamboat buffet: KANI-NABE! When the tour guide told us this, we all laughed in the tour coach and nearly fell off our seats!!!

Here above you can see that we visited a Disney store. Later on, there will be pictures of our tour at Disneysea and all the nice, fun, and exciting rides that we took, and of course - you can read and see how fun Disneysea is!

A simple glance at Wikipedia informs me that there is a youth culture here in Osaka where Shinsaibashi is... and one look confirms that. I hope you loved the interesting pictures above! More to come on Japan, soon! I have divided the future photographs and pictures into various sections, ranging from touring various places, to vending machines, to pretty Japanese girls that one can see on the streets of Japan, and much much more. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world - Shinsaibashi, Osaka, Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 5 - Universal City Walk (Osaka)

2009-06-18T23:21:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 5 - Universal City Walk (Osaka)

In the last few posts, I showed you interesting and exciting pictures from Universal Studios (Osaka). After visiting and exploring Universal Studios, Mavis and I took a walk outside the theme park and saw an interesting mall, called Universal City Walk (Osaka) - and it was a very fun and hip place to have a look! We toured the mall and here are some pictures from City Walk:

Hard Rock Cafe is universal... and here it is in Osaka. Perhaps you might want to visit this place - to buy souvenirs or something. "Love all, serve all!" :)

The Japanese have all sorts of cute and interesting toys! In fact, in future posts, I will have an entire section devoted to Yamashiroya Tokyo/ Ueno, perhaps the biggest toy, anime and manga shop in Japan? These toys here are cute, but Universal City Walk's range of toys cannot match this incredible toy shop that I will talk about later, in future exciting posts on my travel site.

I enjoyed my tour and travels in Japan! And having shared my Osaka travel pictures with you, full of fun and excitement from Universal Studios, I hope you loved them as I do. More exciting places and areas that I visited and toured in Japan, ranging from Mount Fuji, to Shinsaibashi, to Disneysea and much much more, will be upcoming. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 4 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

2009-06-07T21:24:00.001-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 4 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Welcome back to my series here on Japan, and here we are at the Universal Studios series of pictures in Osaka, which I visited as part of my packaged tour of Japan. It was great visiting and touring Osaka overall, but Universal Studios (Osaka) has the greatest votes from me and I love it! :)

Being a city dweller, I am very used to city scenes and love them very much. Singapore is a city state, in fact, so I am used and accustomed to seeing buildings. That's probably why I love Universal Studios (Osaka) so much; because it has all sorts of quaint, interesting buildings, it sort of reminds me of some old, quaint built up area similar to Singapore but different, with the only interesting exception that it has all sorts of famous "brands" and famous characters! Did I also mention that Singapore is going to have its own theme park as well? Anyways, without further ado, here are the beautiful pictures:

Waterworld is quite famous, and the act there is quite nice to watch! It's worth going to Universal Studios just to see the explosions and the sounds present at Waterworld's act :)

This is a famous "brand" - remember that old movie, Jurassic Park? This theme park is worth visiting for this exciting ride and also for the fond memories of having watched this exciting movie. Universal Studios brings back fond memories for people who are sort of movie buffs.

This is an even older movie theme, and it's Jaws - the movie with that shark and whatnot. I watched it on TV when I was young, and this was great! Haha this is also worth a visit when you travel here to Osaka Universal Studios. By the way, all these pictures of Universal Studios were taken by me when I was visiting the theme park itself onsite and they are all my own personal pictures, not taken from any online sources - so I'd appreciate it if you inform me or ask my permission if you want to borrow my pictures. Just a reminder!

I had lunch with Snoopy at the nearby Snoopy restaurant - and of course, who can forget Charlie Brown and Lucy and the rest of the Peanuts gang? There are so many things to see and do at Universal Studios and I loved visiting it very much. In the next post, I will put up pictures of the nearby Universal City Walk Osaka, which is a shopping centre area nearby, that has all the hardcore Universal Studios visitors' favourites - Hard Rock Cafe, shirts and souvenir shops, and Universal Studios merchandise. I went to Hard Rock Cafe and I also toured the mall. More to come here on my travel site, so stay here with me; thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world with me!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 3 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

2009-06-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 3 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Welcome back to my series on touring Japan, and I am still posting pictures of Universal Studios (Osaka). Universal Studios is a great leisure theme park and a great place to play when you visit! I do suppose that all of us tourists have different priorities when travelling, and I do acknowledge that some people don't really like theme parks. Some people prefer instead scenery and other attractions or landmarks, other than movie "propaganda" and whatnot, but don't worry - there will be a lot of Japanese scenery and other Japanese attractions in future posts, I promise!

There were very few people in the theme park because the Japanese government had closed schools and prevented people from moving around or travelling here in Osaka, during the period I was there. I was there during the H1N1 period, you see. This means that there are very few people in the pictures below, but well, I benefited because this meant almost no waiting time at all for the various rides and attractions! Please enjoy my pictures:

This is a restaurant with lots of model cars that are all extinct already - vintage cars!

Hello Kitty is uniquely Japanese in many ways, and here is a Hello Kitty shop in Universal Studios (Osaka). During the course of my trip in Japan, I saw many Hello Kitty shops and various forms of merchandise.

One thing that I like about theme parks such as Universal Studios and Disneyland/ Disneysea is that there are many things to take down on camera and photograph - and all the various attractions are always so quaint or nice or colourful. I hope you loved my pictures here on Tour and See the World, stay tuned for more beautiful pictures!

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 2 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

2009-05-31T03:57:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 2 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Yes, I visited and toured Universal Studios (Osaka) on the second day of my exciting and interesting Japan tour! As I promised, here on my travel blog are the pictures of my fun-filled and very interesting day in Osaka Universal Studios. One interesting thing is that, due to H1N1, and the fact that the Japanese mainly stayed indoors during the period that I was visiting, there was no queue at Universal Studios, even though normally theme park visitors might have to wait and queue for about 2 hours for a 5 min ride! (This same nominal rule also happens to apply to tourists visiting Disneysea and Disneyland theme parks in Tokyo.)

Without further ado *drum roll* ...

Here are the beautiful pictures from Universal Studios (Osaka) in Japan. I hope you enjoy my pictures!

Welcome to Universal Studios (Osaka)!

Thanks for reading my travel blog, and I promise more and better pictures of the various theme park attractions at Universal Studios, and much much more! Thanks and cheers; stay tuned!

Tour and see the world with me and Mavis

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 1

2009-05-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 1

OK, this is just the beginning, so do please bear with me!

The Japan tour I will write about starts from Osaka and ends up in Tokyo, Japan. So the very first day, I only managed to get these photographs when I landed in Osaka, as it was dark at night, and we all know that tours count travelling as the first day. (Travel tour leaders and tour agencies need to feed families.)

First of all, from Singapore, we flew to Tokyo International Airport, also known as Haneda airport. Then, we took a domestic flight to Osaka. We stayed in the airport hotel, known as Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport. Apparently this hotel is very famous, and in any case, it was very comfortable and we enjoyed our stay there!

This is how Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport looks like.

Another view of the famous Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport.

This is how the airport terminal wing looks like. The Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport happens to be right opposite to the airport terminal.

NOTE

I won't be posting for the next few days as I am checking exam results and then deciding to do an ISM or some other form of academic research. So I won't be writing till next week. But no worries - there will be more pictures of beautiful Japan in the next post, of course! In the next post, I visit Universal Studios Osaka. Special thanks to Mavis Lim and special thanks to Miss Doris Mak who recommended that I visit Universal Studios in Japan. It was interesting experience of a lifetime!

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 4

2009-05-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 4

Hello to all my dear loyal readers! How have you guys been? Have all of you been fine and doing well so far? I am back from my holiday in Japan. I visited many places there, mainly Osaka, Nara, Yokohama and Tokyo (naturally), and of course Mount Fuji also. My trip was fantastic. I have lots to say about my holiday trip and will be soon posting up many many detailed pictures and detailed descriptions of my fun time enjoying my holiday in Japan! On this note, I must say that this holiday was not marred by H1N1 despite its outbreak in Japan. (And I was in Osaka, the main centre!)

Since I am going to spend the whole of the rest of the year writing and posting about Japan, since I have a mountain of pictures and digital photographs of everything from Mount Fuji to the little shop down the road, I will finish up this post with a last instalment of exciting pictures from Venice in Italy!

(Sorry to any Italian readers... I have more pictures of Japan than I have of Italy, so it makes more sense for me to write more about Japan, sorry!)

Do enjoy the following pictures and tour and see the world!
(Special thanks and special appreciation to Mavis Lim, for all her pictures, her help and much much more. Need more be said? :) )

Thanks for reading, and I do hope you enjoyed the segment on Venice in Italy. On a completely unrelated note, did you know that the Japanese have in Disneysea a replica of Venice in Italy, replete with gondolas? I will be going on to write and post beautiful pictures about Japan in my future posts. Some interesting readers and scouts have written nice things about my travel blog and have written that I specialise in Britain. Some went on to say that I specialise in Europe also, which up till now may have been true. After all, I've written about Manchester, London, York, Oxford, Cornwall, the Lake District in England, Liverpool and much more, and also about my grand Europe trip covering Paris in France, Zurich in Switzerland, Milan and Rome in Italy, Bratislava in Slovakia, Vienna in Austria, Munich and Berlin and Potsdam in Germany, and finally Stanstead Airport in London, and much more. Now, with the next post, here we visit Japan and truly make my travel site a trip around the world - tour and see the world with me and my friends! Thanks for reading and cheers.

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 3

2009-05-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 3

I will be going off for my holiday in Japan (Osaka and Tokyo!) in a few days' time, and so here I am with more pictures of Venice in Italy.

Anyways, I just have to say this: I know this is the holiday period and so there are few of my erstwhile supporters reading this travel blog of mine and looking at the various travel and tour pictures, so I understand! I really do. Do please write to me and comment on my tagboard or here at this post on Venice when you guys come back from holiday, especially Zara, my blogosphere friend :)

Anyways, I can describe Venice as very beautiful and full of boats, water, waterways and gondolas... water, water, water, water! Well that's about it for my use of language describing Venice, although my history teachers and Michael Kelly from school will beg to differ (or be angry at the paucity of my language).

Well, pictures speak louder than words when it comes to my travel site, anyways. Do please enjoy the beautiful pictures that follow and I will see you when I come back from my tour of Japan, with more pictures of Italy and Japan in future!

Thanks for reading and cheers! More pictures of Venice in Italy to come in future posts, here on my travel site! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Tour and see the world

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 2

2009-05-10T07:40:00.001-07:00

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 2

OK, since I haven't been posting a lot of beautiful pictures and haven't been writing a lot of materials for my travel site here, I am making it up by adding a lot of pictures today. Wow, here's the second set of beautiful pictures from Venice in Italy... the ones that I promised would be more beautiful than the more, or merely slightly more boring pictures in the earlier set.

Here goes, I'll let Italy do the talking for me as I am too lazy to write more about Venice! :) Heh heh heh... sorry!!

Tour and see Venice, Italy! Part 2

Sitting on a gondola in Venice in Italy is great because you can see all the great waterways in Venice... :)

That's it for this post now.

More to come in future posts, and you can see more of Venice, Italy. The gondola rides and all those waterways really make me feel that I miss Italy already, although I only visited Rome and Milan, and it was my other intreprid traveller friends who visited Venice.

Do stay tuned! Thanks for reading and all the best to you :) Cheers!

Tour and see the world!

PS One day, when I feel really hardworking and inspired to write, I shall write all about the travel experiences I had in Europe, especially in Italy. It is romantic, but then again, Italy is also quite ... different ... (dirty, smelly, yet sometimes clean, full of churches, yet full of vice, boring yet vibrant, full of history yet with some hint of modernity amidst backwardness, poor yet seemingly rich, divisions abound... ... ... ... it is hard to describe in one post so that shall be my future travel assignment for my travel blog, I guess).

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy

2009-05-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy

First, my sincerest apologies to my faithful and good readers! Especially my Manchester friends, my travel friends, my best friend Mavis, and also Zara who writes and comments on my travel blog often. I have been doing so many exams that I have smoke coming out of my ears.... and now I finally have time to write on my travel site.

Also, one major update: I am going to Japan soon, from 19th to 25th, so don't miss me... if you even miss me at all! :) I will be visiting and travelling to Osaka and Tokyo, especially going for the sights and sounds of... Universal Studios in Osaka Japan and Disneyland in Tokyo Japan! I can't wait for my holiday. Quite naturally when I return from my holiday and my great tours, I shall write all about it and also post up the pictures. I don't have to work these holidays, so I have quite some time to blog and write, but then again, there's IPPT and that's going to take up some of my time. That means: I am back here to blog on my travel site! Thank goodness.

I also have been invited to write on travel site Rubin.com or something like that, and I am very flattered. I might do something about it because this means that my star is on the rise and I have the chance to rise up in the blogosphere pecking order ... or even challenge the bigwigs of travel writing! :)

Alright, now onto business. I mean, onto travel writing and photo posting. In the last post I wrote about Paris and Disneyland and you saw the most beautiful pictures of Paris Disneyland, one of my favourite travel destinations. Now, my intrepid traveller friends have gone to many places, and one of the places is...

Venice, Italy!

Here are beautiful pictures from Venice, Italy... a romantic and beautiful place, in its own way. But before the beautiful pictures, here are some pictures of Italy when you first see it... a little bit "boring" first.... .... :)

More pictures to come on Venice, Italy, in the next post on this travel site. These pictures don't look exciting at first, then they get better in the next post. More to come in the next post :) :)

It's great to be back in the travel blog writing circuit. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world with me

Pictures from Paris Disneyland, France - part 3

2009-04-02T00:11:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Paris Disneyland, France - part 3

Here are the last set of pictures from Paris Disneyland, in Paris, France! :)

Because I am too busy to write full sentences on my travel site, here are just glorious pictures of Disneyland!!! SorrYYY!

Tour and see the world!

I loved Disneyland, and I love it still! Disney rocks :)

Tour and see the world with me!

PS I would like to thank June Ang and Mavis for accompanying me throughout Europe, and we have visited the most interesting places and had a lot of fun on our Europe trip!

Pictures from Paris Disneyland, France - part 2

2009-03-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Paris Disneyland, France - part 2

Tour and see the world - Paris Disneyland, France!

Well, here I am again! I have some time to write about Paris and Disneyland, and some time to post some really beautiful and interesting pictures about Paris in Europe, so here I am :) As I mentioned in my last post, I don't expect to win travel blog awards, so I don't post pictures and write stuff merely to participate in travel site competitions. I do post when I have time off my busy schedule.

Did I mention that after all my suffering, I will be going to Japan, to visit Tokyo? Haha yes, that will mean that I have another chance to write about Tokyo Disneyland later... in Japan! And Universal Studios, another great theme park, which is really exciting. Good stuff to look forward too - holidays, holidays, holidays! Holidays in Japan! Great stuff. Back to the topic...

Without further ado, here are more beautiful pictures from Paris Disneyland, France:

And I think this one is very cute: ciao, adios, later dudes!! :) :)

I hope you loved those. More to come, here on my travel site, where you can tour and see the world. Stay tuned! Thanks for readings and cheers.

Tour and see the world :)

Thank You to My Readers! - Tour and see the world

2009-03-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

Thank You to My Readers! - Tour and see the world

About the recent NTS Travel writing and travel blogging competition

Recently I participated in the NTS TravelBlog competition, and the outcome of the travel site competition was ... I lost, of course. Only NUS students could vote for the site that they liked the best, and Mavis and all my other friends helped me by getting their friends to vote for me as best travel blog and all the rest of it.

However, the main thing is not about winning or losing. I think the main thing is to participate, and I would like to thank my readers from NUS who voted for me and for all the support from my friends and all!

I was quite happy when I made it to the Top 5 Travel Blog for the travel writing and travel blogging competition and even though I didn't get any prizes in the end - I am touched by my friends and readers. Thank you all very much!

I would like to thank everyone in one way or another, and do forgive me if your name does not appear here, because I have had so many friends helping me for this:

Greatest thanks from Tour and See the World to:

Mavis Lim, and all the friends and relatives she mobilised
L. Ai Ping
Shawn Han
Zara (online support!)
Quek DF
Lee Junfeng
Wang Fan
Max Auw
Chen SH
Yeung KF
Lee Sin Wei Crystal
JQ, JY, Jun Ang, Colinho, Mag
Gladys Lee
Mou HT

Thanks for all your help and support! And thanks for forwarding the competition email to your other friends and pals.

I think the most important thing for me when writing my travel stories and writing about my travelling experiences and commenting on pictures is that I meet many people online and offline. Some people have been very instrumental in my writing career and some have been very friendly and helpful to me, giving me support and even blog awards - like Zara :) I am touched that Mavis and friends helped me a lot - and even though the voters went for other travel sites instead, I am happy to have so many good friends online and offline.

Thank you very much!

More to come on Disneyland in Paris, France - so do stay tuned on my travel site - Tour and see the world! :)

Cheers,
Shawn

Tour and See the World - NTS TravelBlog competition

Pictures from Paris Disneyland, France - part 1

2009-03-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Paris Disneyland, France - part 1

Tour and see the world!

OK, initially I wanted to post on North Wales in the UK, and had in fact got the pictures and text ready, and everything was set to go up on my travel site, but... suddenly, I found the pictures were corrupted, and somehow I just couldn't upload any of them. Oh well. I was quite sad, but never mind. So, in the end, I decided to change track and put this series up first instead, while I resolve technical issues... here comes Paris Disneyland! :) (Now actually, this is probably more popular than writing on North Wales.)

I first went to Tokyo Disneyland in 2005, when I was still serving my National Service. Visiting Tokyo and visting Disneyland were the best things that happened to me in that year apart from getting an award for my National Day Parade 2005 contribution. I loved Disneyland very much, and in fact, am going to visit Japan again later this year - to try out Disneyland or Disneysea :)

Mavis and I also visited Paris Disneyland, and she later on also visited Disneyland with her parents as well. So as you can tell, we love Disneyland - and France's quite OKIE as well :)

Anyways, here are the beautiful pictures of Paris Disneyland right here for you - enjoy as you tour and see Disneyland in Paris, France!

More pictures to come on Paris Disneyland! When later this year, I revisit Japan and see Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disneysea, we will have more pictures to see of more Disneylands, and you can tour and see the world here with me :) Stay tuned, as there are more beautiful pictures to come here. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world

Pictures from Birmingham, part 3

2009-02-16T23:08:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Birmingham, part 3

Welcome back to Tour and See the World! In this series, I post pictures of Birmingham in England, UK. My intrepid traveller friends Mavis and Gladys visited Birmingham in England, among many other interesting places, and here's the last instalment of pictures of Birmingham.

Anyways, just for the sheer heck of it - the sheer fun of it - I was passing by the Arts canteen walkway one day and then I saw that there was a travel blog competition, and so I gravitated towards the booth - and now, I've signed up for some travel site competition. I don't know what's going to happen, but well, it's just for the fun of it and besides I won't win anyways (not with pro travel writers and pro travellers like Eunice K. from Travelerfolio, who's very pro!).

Anyways, here are the last set of pictures from Birmingham, so do enjoy as you tour and see Birmingham with Gladys, Mavis and me :) I am feeling a bit lazy, so I shall just post pictures and write rather little. Heh... :p

Oh yeah, this is a common sight. Train stations and trains! :)

And just as a totally irrelevant aside, when I was going to Oxford, I passed by Birmingham and we had to stop there, as the connecting bus did not materialise. I think the bus was delayed or something. So the bus service provided a taxi to take us to the train station, and from there we travelled to Oxford by rail :) This was the spot where I was. Just like in the picture!

And voila, what a blitz, we've come to the end of the series on Birmingham in England. We had a look at the City centre, the Bull Ring, Victoria Square in Birmingham, the churches and also many other interesting places like the BBC and much much more, here. Thanks for reading and cheers!

In the next post, here on my travel site, we will travel around the UK to many other places, and there will be more beautiful pictures of the great places that we travel to :) Stay here with me, cheers.

Tour and see the world

with Mavis and Gladys

Pictures from Birmingham, part 2

2009-02-15T06:44:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Birmingham, part 2

Here is the second set of Pictures from Birmingham, part 2. Do enjoy them as you tour Birmingham in England:

This is the BBC branch in Birmingham. Every major city here in the UK has one BBC branch, including Birmingham and Manchester of course! This is the TV productions centre. You can visit the place and have a look for yourself to see what goes on behind the scenes - you can even visit the gallery and you can try weather broadcasting yourself :) In your very own video!

This is victoria square, a big atrium or big space, in the middle of the city centre here in Birmingham. There are fairs going on sometimes and this is one of the more quiet moments.

This is also taken from the Victoria Square here in Birmingham in England.

Here are some beautiful and very cheap road side flowers - these flower shops are all over Birmingham and they make the place very lovely. Mavis and Gladys wanted to buy some flowers, but the journey back to Manchester was too long, so they didn't :P

More pictures of Birmingham in England to come in future posts, so do stay tuned and thanks very much for reading. Cheers!

Tour and see the world :)

Pictures from Birmingham, part 1

2009-01-31T04:07:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Birmingham, part 1

Tour and see Birmingham, UK!

I have been very busy with school (what's new, haha!) and now I have some time, so here are some pictures from Birmingham in the UK. Mavis and Gladys visited this place and we have also passed by Birmingham on several occasions.

Well, first let's have a look at the Birmingham City Centre. Birmingham is one of the more populated cities in England and it is very vibrant and bustling!

St Martin's Church in Birmingham! This Church is very important and is located in Bull Ring, very near the Selfridges.

St Martin's Church is very famous, because even Wikipedia has an article on it, proudly exhibiting pictures of St Martin's in the Bull Ring.

This is the famous facade of the modern Selfridges building in Birmingham. Selfridges shops are department stores and these are all over England. There is one major Selfridges shop in Oxford Street in London, there is another one in Trafford in Manchester, another Selfridges in Manchester City Centre and finally also this Selfridges in Birmingham, correct as at 2009.

You know how we learn new things every day? I was in Manchester and never wondered about Selfridges & Co. as we saw it there, but now I know that Selfridges is rather famous in England, when I blog about it, here in Singapore. That is an interesting nugget from my point of view, when I think about it! Selfridges is a great place to shop, although it's rather expensive, and I've been to the one in Manchester City Centre and also the one in Trafford Centre. You may wish to visit the Birmingham one.

This is a view taken from the bus, but then again, it shows part of both the St Martin's Church and also part of the Selfridges & Co. building, and that's rather interesting! When I was on my way to visit Oxford, I also passed by this very same image - as the route to visit Oxford was also through Birmingham.

Anyways, more interesting pictures to come here on my travel site, when I have time to write and post more pictures of beautiful Birmingham. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading and cheers.

Tour and see the world!

What's to come here in Tour and See The World! :)

2009-01-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

What's to come here in Tour and See The World! :)

First and foremost, I am here and writing again, because I've lots of time now that it is going to be a long long holiday period! :)

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year, and Gong Xi Fa Cai! :)
Or Gong Xi Fa Cai, hong bao na lai (i.e. Happy New Year - Congratulations, now bring out the money! give me the money!)

OK, what will I be writing on and also presenting a lot of pictures on, in future posts on my little travel site? I once passed by Birmingham on my way to Oxford, as I was travelling to Oxford with Mavis. As I understand it, she and Gladys have been there before - as my loyal readers should know, Mavis and Gladys are really intrepid travellers and have visited many places in England (whereas I have only been to most of Central Europe during my student exchange in England). So the next posts here on my travel site will be on Birmingham in England :)

After visiting Birmingham in England, Mavis also visited North Wales in the UK. Practically every one I know who has been to North Wales have comments about it, some on the beauty of the place, and some on the culture of the place which apparently is different from the rest of the UK, or something. Well, I merely share Mavis' pictures and interpretations of the place with you, and you can see what she saw by looking at beautiful pictures of a beautiful place!

There are also going to be a few posts on other places in Europe as well, and these will be quite interesting. My intrepid traveller friends have also visited Paris Disneyland (I was there!) and also Venice, in Italy, and I will be covering those places as well.

Thus, the plan for this year, give and take, should be ...

beautiful pictures of Birmingham in England and the surrounding areas;

beautiful pictures of North Wales in the UK and its environs, as well;

some kind of detailed expose or some detailed introduction to Disneyland, and Paris Disneyland in particular (I have been to the Disneyland in Japan but did not take many pictures of it, so that was wasted!!);

and Venice, beautiful Venice, in Italy.

Alright, that is a long enough post, and we will see how this year goes, given that travelling and blogging are great stuff, but work and studies crop up every now and then. I intend to visit Japan somewhere in June this year, and this time there will be extensive visits and explorations all over that country, so that I can write about it when I come back. Although, the problem is that I do feel a bit sad that I worked my way during the recent holidays and did not go to the USA or Australia or Malaysia at all, and earned money instead.

Did I mention Happy New Year? :)

Cheers and thank you very much for reading!

Tour and see the world 2009
I try to make my travel blog better and better - give me a chance :)

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Leicester, part 3

2009-01-12T00:05:00.000-08:00

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Leicester, part 3

Welcome back! I mean, I am back! :)

Finally I am in school and having some little time to write about Leicester in England! Welcome back to Tour and See The World, my travel site! I have so many travel photos and pictures of various places. I have decided that since the very last post in ages was about Leicester in England, this post shall conclude and round up my pictures that I have about travelling tour around Leicester. And so without further ado, here they are:

See this? This is quite typical English fare... and besides Singaporeans love food, and when they travel, they want to eat and dine and eat and dine! :)

Caught my eye: This was quite cute, so I put that in. Seen in Leicester!

This is one is quite artistic, so here it is too! Yup - seen in Leicester!

And to sum up - this final picture! That concludes this section on my travel site about Leicester in England. I hope you loved the travel pictures!

Anyways, I apologise once again that my travel blog, while full of interesting pictures and interesting places that you might want to visit, has not been as professional and super as Eunice from Travelerfolio. I am sorry! Anyways, about Eunice: She's professional in writing about travel, and although she praises me (rarely, though! haha) she is the professional and I am quite the amateur, writing about travelling and posting travel pictures, for fun and not as a profession.

Thanks for reading and more interesting pictures and beautiful places in England to come! Thanks and cheers.

Tour and see the world -with Mavis

Tour and See the World! Notice

2008-12-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Tour and See the World! Notice

I have been incredibly, incredibly busy, but where are my manners?

Merry Christmas to one and all, and Happy New Year!

I have been busy with work, with Christmas, and also with many other things. So much so that I realised that I had very little time to blog, and amazingly it turned out that I had written more for my travel site during examination time, rather than holiday time, which is now. And then again, even the holidays are going to expire soon - i.e. soon it won't be holidays for me, as Christmas is almost over and the New Year is merely a few days away.

And so I write this to say sorry to all my loyal readers and my online friends, that is, bloggers and travel writers and other writers and their friends and families, whom I have gotten to know. I am really sorry that I haven't been putting up beautiful pictures of England and other countries. The saddest thing is that due to the recession, I haven't even had the chance to go to Malaysia or any other country on holiday - I have been instead working hard at research to earn a miserly? minute? $8.47 an hour. I am really sorry!

When I have time I shall resume posting up beautiful pictures of beautiful countries and all the different, various places that my friends and I visited. The pictures of those places are all waiting and sitting here, waiting for me, and they will come soon. I am sure.

So after a long rambling post, and then again, I've got to go back to my research on ultimatum games...

I am sorry! And I shall post beautiful pictures of beautiful places and countries as soon as I can, right here on my travel site. It's amazing to note that I have been writing for many months already and the new year 2009 is almost upon us.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Shawn

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Leicester, part 2

2008-12-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Leicester, part 2

I actually finished my exams quite a few days ago and thought to myself, hey, now I will have lots of time to write my travel blog and write about the things I wanted to do - how to travel, tips on travelling and all sorts of stuff like that on travelling! But then I did lots more of other things and had less time to work on Tour and See the World, ...... ....... but NOW I am back! :)

That is, I'm back till I go off to Genting in Malaysia for holiday. It turns out that I won't be going to either the USA or Australia - the recession has got worse, and honestly the financial tsunami has definitely hit the tourism industry, as well as my pocket. So I will be going to Malaysia instead, on a tour package/ travel package... it's cheaper to visit Malaysia you see!

Anyways, enough grumbling and enough complaining... :D

tour and see Leicester! :)

More pictures from beautiful Leicester in the UK, including Leicester university. Enjoy the pictures here, thank you very much for visiting!

This Leicester comedy festival was a really interesting one, as well as a crowd puller for the tourism/ tourist industry!

Leicester - typical England-y look here?

Still visiting Leicester university I believe....

Gladys and Mavis, my intrepid traveller friends!

Leicester - and just for laughs! :)

They're cute. And arranged neatly in a circle! That's it.

More pictures on England to come later! Thanks and cheers. Gotta run!

Tour and see the world with me!

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Leicester, part 1

2008-11-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Leicester, part 1

And also come pictures from Coventry as well... that I snuck in at the end of the post here... heh! :D

I have almost finished my examinations and have two more papers left, so I have some time to blog, and so - voila! - here I am.

Mavis visited Leicester as well, when she was touring England with Gladys, and in particular she has a friend studying at the University of Leicester, so naturally she made a trip there to visit her friend's place. Apparently, also, Coventry is near Leicester, so that explains why there're a couple of pictures from Coventry as well.

In any case, let the pictures do the talking - my hands hurt from writing so much and typing isn't making it much better - here goes: Pictures from Leicester in England, as well as some Coventry pictures that got into the mix as well! Enjoy :)

Picture from Leicester University... where Mavis visited her friend who studies there...

I felt that this picture was very nice and decided to put it in - Leicester in England is very beautiful; looks nice doesn't it?

A high up view of the area ...

Coventry university... as far as the eye can see...

I found this one very interesting... I am Roman Catholic, so that makes me Christian. Interesting sign here! So I decided to put that one in as well.

Alright, back to studying I go, for my last few papers! Gotta go, thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world! - Leicester

Some rambling comments - since it's my travel site, after all.... :)
More pictures and interesting articles to come in future posts here on my travel site, and in future I shall be posting and writing more about travelling in general and Singapore in particular. How can it be, that I have more pictures of England here on my travel site than Singapore ones? Haha. Same question that someone commented on Eunice's Travelerfolio. But I am not that famous yet, so I can afford to put up more pictures of places all around the world first before some people can put up snide comments!

Besides, it's much easier to write about Singapore and write about general things and tips than it is to source for pictures and go through many files.

Then again, once my exams are over I will be travelling either to the USA or Australia and then I will indeed have more pictures and more sources to write about, and less time and energy to write about Singapore! Hahaha :)

Pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon, part 2

2008-11-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon, part 2

Tour and see the world! - we're at Stratford-upon-Avon for this post in this series!

Hi, it's me again :) Technically I should be studying for my four exams which are coming up really soon, but I've decided to put out yet another interesting post with beautiful pictures for my loyal readers! Thanks to all my loyal readers and also thanks to all the new visitors who come to visit my travel website. Thank you people very much, and I do hope you like my travel blog! :)

Anyways I'm currently doing a series about Stratford-upon-Avon, which everybody should know, even if they have not visited or gone to that place yet... yup Stratford-upon-Avon is the place where Shakespeare was born. Here are more beautiful and interesting pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon in England, UK.

I must say that the place looks quite quaint! Anyways, I wanted to say also that there is a museum of witchcraft and wizardry somewhere in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, but sadly there aren't any good pictures of that for me to show you - so here's Rother Market instead! :)

Gnarled and mangly eh....?

It says The White Swan...

And to cap it off, that's Gladys at the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon! Yup, she travelled with Mavis, my friend to many places in England, and Stratford-upon-Avon was one of the places that she went to. More on the other places that my intrepid traveller friends visited, coming right up!

After my exams and when I have time to write all about England, travelling, visiting beautiful places like Stratford-upon-Avon and the like.... oh well! So So So Sorry. And thank you very much. Cheers, and thank you for reading.

PS I can't wait till my examinations are over, because then I will be go backpacking in the USA and in Australia, and of course I will take many great pictures to share with all my readers. Two more weeks to go! It's very stressful... but that's life as a student I guess! Gotta go...

Tour and see the world

Pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon, part 1

2008-10-31T01:23:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon, part 1

I managed to find some time from my busy work schedule - studying, exams, studying again - to blog, so here I am once again! First and foremost apologies to my loyal readers and also thanks to Zara, who has awarded me another blog award for my site! Thank you and when I have time I shall definitely receive the award so that I can put it up on my site, so thanks Zara! Also, a hearty thanks to all my readers and visitors to my travel site.

Tour and see the world! :) With Mavis

These here are some general pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon, which is very famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare, one of the greatest playwrights who ever lived. I myself am a fan of Shakespeare but the problem is that my friend Mavis who visited Stratford-upon-Avon isn't, so she kind of missed out on the importance or significance of visiting Stratford-upon-Avon, but that's alright. So we'll do what we can - since she visited Stratford-upon-Avon as well as Birmingham and other places in England, she got the pictures a bit mixed up, so let's see if I sorted them out properly! :) :)

Alright, here's my attempt on pictures from Stratford-upon-Avon, the famous place where Shakespeare was born and a tourist attraction to millions from around the world!

I found this picture nice, so I put it in - but I am sorry that I don't know much about it except that it's somehow related to Shakespeare!

Stratford-upon-Avon looks something like this, but more to come on Stratford-upon-Avon...

Tada - now that's more like it. The reason why most visit Stratford-upon-Avon. Here's Shakespeare's house in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, and I promise more pictures in the next post here on my site! :)

Strictly speaking, isn't the Minories Shopping Mall in Birmingham? So how did this get here? I am confusing myself... hoho. But Mavis told me she took this in Stratford-upon-Avon, so I'm including this picture here as well.

This is the famous clock tower on the left, and many people love to take pictures of this here at Stratford-upon-Avon. Also, this picture is how Stratford-upon-Avon looks like - a more representative picture for you to visualise visiting this very nice and lovely place!

OK, now I have to rush back to work... so more interesting pictures to come here on my travel site! Stay tuned, thanks and cheers :)

Tour and see the world - with Mavis!

Pictures from Liverpool, part 3 - Tate Liverpool Museum and Albert Dock

2008-10-23T03:12:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Liverpool, part 3 - Tate Liverpool Museum and Albert Dock

Tour and see the world with Mavis!

I have been really busy and have had little time to post many pictures of many interesting and beautiful places all over England and the world. But now I have some time, so here I am to add to my travel blog and try to make myself famous enough to win more visitors :) Heh...

There are many attractions and interesting sights and sounds in Liverpool, but one place that many people like to see would be the Albert Dock. In addition, there is the famous Tate Liverpool museum located at Albert Dock in Liverpool, England. Here are some pictures so you can see these places and see how they look like! :)

Albert Dock is basically a dock - a complex of buildings and warehouses along the river in Liverpool, and Tate museum is a famous museum.

Tate Liverpool...

Some of the complex of buildings seen from the dock...

How the dock looks like...

More various complexes of different buildings and warehouses along the dock here in Liverpool...

And that's about it! I am told that many people visit Albert Dock, although I am quite curious as to the attraction value, since I am Singaporean and we have lots of water around us. Singaporeans like myself don't seem to have an interest looking at docks, or maybe it could just be me... :P Nonetheless, this might be worth a visit and a nice long walk and a nice long look because many people do visit Tate Liverpool museum and Albert Dock. Do have a look when you are there :)

More pictures to come in future posts on other places in England that my friend Mavis visited! Stay tuned to see interesting places and interesting pictures on my travel site and cheers! :)

Tour and see the world with Mavis and me

Pictures from Liverpool, part 2

2008-10-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Liverpool, part 2

Thanks to all my readers for giving me blog awards and support for my travel site! Here I am again with my second post on Liverpool in England! Come and tour Liverpool through the eyes of Mavis, my traveller friend!

When you tour and see Liverpool which would be the major sites and most important places that you would visit? Let me suggest some places in Liverpool that you should see when you are there :)

Presenting in this post: The sights and sounds of Liverpool!

See this great big sign? Liverpool was designated as European capital of culture 2008 :) It has galleries, museums, bars and everything else that a great capital of culture should and must have!
There are many things to see and do there in Liverpool in England, naturally!

The Liverpool city centre - where everybody will go to have a walkabout! And do some shopping here as well...

Liverpool's football team is rather famous in Europe but not so good nowadays in the Premier League, so why not pay a visit to their Liverpool FC Club Store? Haha oh well. I am a Man Utd fan so you can see that there are many more pictures of Manchester and Man Utd here on my travel site, and only the Liverpool FC store. Hahaha! :) Okie, I am sorry - I'm so biased.

I thought that this in Liverpool was nice and artistic, so I put this picture in...

We are obviously in China - no - it's still Liverpool. Speaking of which, there are Chinatowns all over the world! It's quite amazing to see that it's possible to eat Chinese food here in Liverpool in England, and I must admit that I had a lot of Chinese food while in Manchester. Come on, every day - burgers? Eating burgers daily is not good for health you see, so Chinese food is quite good.

Liverpool is also famous for the Beatles and Lennon :)

I am really sorry that I don't have many more pictures of Liverpool, the Beatles and the rest of the city with all its myriad attractions, but oh well, tried my best :)

Do stay with me here on this travel site, where there will be more beautiful pictures of England and other various places of interest. Stay tuned, thank you very much!

Tour and see the world with Mavis - she visited Liverpool!

Tour and See the World has accepted another blog award!

2008-10-16T02:52:00.000-07:00

Tour and See the World has accepted another blog award!

Tour and See the World has accepted another blog award!

Thanks to Zara from Journey that never ends :)

Sorry to interrupt my loyal readers who are currently following the series on my travel site about Liverpool - but I have another announcement to make! I have been kindly given another award from a kind hearted fellow writer, Zara, who writes her site "Journey that Never Ends". Thank you very much!

Tour and see the world has currently two blog awards given by and nominated by very kind and charitable blogger friends; I would like to thank Zara, my friend, once again for this kind, nice award.

In the next post I will resume my Pictures from Liverpool, part 2, and continue the series on my travel site on England and UK in general.

Stay tuned for more interesting posts and tour the world with me as I show you places that my friends and I have been to! Travel with us from the comfort of your desk/ home/ laptop and come and see the world. Cheers!

Tour and see the world with me and my friends!

Pictures from Liverpool, part 1

2008-10-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Liverpool, part 1

Tour and see the world with my friend Mavis!

As I was looking back on all the pictures and posts and articles here on my travel site, I was thinking about the times I spent in England and all my travels in Europe. At the same time, I realised that I have come a long way from being a totally new blogger to someone who is more established. I have several loyal readers and I have visitors from all over the world coming to see my travel site and reading my articles, and even got nominated for a blog award! Also, I saw how I took in good suggestions from my readers (I used to have small location pictures/ I used to put all the words together, and all the travel pictures together/ and I don't know what other mistakes I also used to do when I first started blogging about travelling), but let's just say things weren't glam then, haha! Now my site is much much better and things are looking good, although I don't have as much time to blog about stuff now that I am studying in Singapore.

In any case, this series of travels will be on Liverpool, with my friend Mavis! She visited and toured many places: Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham, Shakespeare's home (we all know where that is in England, don't we?), North Wales and Venice, while she was in England with me studying on exchange. More interesting pictures and great articles on these other places in England and Venice in Italy to come in future posts, so do stay tuned for a great extended series of pictures! This particular series here is about Liverpool. Today's travel post is about general pictures in Liverpool, because if you are Liverpool FC fan, wouldn't you like to know how the place looks like, if you haven't visited it already? :)

Come and tour Liverpool with Mavis and friends!

The Liverpool town centre/ city centre looks like this, and it's remarkably similar to Manchester city centre in my opinion ... and England, while beautiful overall, can be quite dreary in winter and when there is rain.

This is a closer up shot of the place!

Well, everybody pays a visit to the Liverpool FC club store, right? :)

This is my friend Mavis and she's standing here right in front of the Liverpool FC club store - and it's freezing! No wonder in England they always say the phrase "as changeable as the weather", because it can be nice and lovely one moment and the next, you're almost frozen to death in England! OK, I am exaggerating, but it's quite like that.

Stay tuned for more beautiful and interesting pictures from Liverpool in England!

In future posts here on my travel site, we will be visiting and travelling to Leicester, Leicester university, Birmingham, North Wales, and even visiting Shakespeare's home! More to come, so do stay with me. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world!

Butterfly Award for Tour and See the World!

2008-10-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Tour and see the world has won its first blog award (online award for my travel site)

Butterfly Award for Tour and See the World!

I have been awarded a blog award from my friend Ivana, who has given me the

Butterfly Award - for the coolest blog I know!

Thank you very much! This is my first blog award nomination, and I really don't know what to say but THANK YOU!! :) Danke schoen!! Merci beaucoup!!

I was awarded this award from Visit North Sulawesi.

Actually there are apparently some rules to accepting blog awards online, but then I cannot follow them because I really don't have much time to blog, as you guys already know. When it comes to the holidays, I have lots of time to travel and lots of time to blog, when it is the school term, I don't travel much (I only travel to school) and I study and work very hard. So sorry! Genuinely, I have no time or effort to think about who I want to nominate, then send them a notice and then wait for them to reply, because that will take a long time and a lot of effort. However, since you may want to know who I'd nominate, if I did, I would nominate Eunice from Travelerfolio and Ivana, because of their kindness and support for me, and also because we are all pals in this travel blog/ travel site industry, call it what you may! Thank you people :)

At the same time, thanks to my other loyal readers and friends I have met online, like Zara, Bridge and the list is endless. (See also, if I give 7 awards to some friends, other people and other online friends will come and hammer me / hantam me, so 'tak boleh la).

Nonetheless, here as requested:

The rules are:

1) Put the logo on your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on yours.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Here's a request for all of you who wish to spread joy around and stuff like that - if you wish to nominate your friends, do spread this prize around :)

Thanks and cheers! My travel blog will improve and become better as time goes by. Thanks for all the support and care you guys have given me and contributed to my site, this travel blog site, and my other sites. Do visit also my other blogs, because I have many blogs on various topics and write on many diverse topics apart from just writing on travel.

Ideas on how to become rich
How to learn German fast
English Language Resources Online
Get Your University Degree Online

I have no formal/ official nominees, but I would say that all my blogger friends have blogs and websites much better than mine, and that's not humility, that's honesty. (Eunice, Zara, Asian Traveler, Ivana... and others). So you are all winners, travel bloggers or non travel bloggers alike. Thanks for reading this long and erm ... exciting advertisement and award acceptance post, and I shall be posting more pictures from England in the next few series, followed by maybe a series on Singapore. Basically, more to come from my travel site, so stay with me and come with me to visit the world!

Cheers :)

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Cambridge, England - part 3

2008-10-07T09:32:00.001-07:00

Pictures from Cambridge, England - part 3

Tour and see the world with Gladys !! - last part on Cambridge :)

I have been awarded for my beautiful blogs and my friends have been praising me on my blogs, so thank you very much for reading and supporting me all this while! I try my best :) I have a nice travel blog here and my visitors are increasing day by day, so that's great - and soon I will have no time to reply to all my nice comments on my tagboard from all around the world. Hoho.

As you know this is a series on Cambridge in England, and here, as promised: the sights and sounds of Cambridge in England! I hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures, and here goes:

You didn't expect to see this here in Cambridge in England right? Neither did I nor Gladys my intrepid traveller friend.

We call this a pasar malam in Singapore... so this concept is global :)

I thought this one was artistic, so I put it in... :)

And punting down the river and enjoying the sights and sounds of Cambridge in England is a must... did I mention I went punting when I was in Oxford in England? :) It was a very interesting thing to do there and I loved it very much.

And to cap it off: Cambridge in England! Well, that's how it looks :)

Wow, I've done so many posts about England. Well, it was a great time for me on student exchange there, so I was and am quite in love with beautiful England, although some might disagree. Anyways, bye for now, I'll be back soon to blog about the world :) Cheers!

Tour and see the world with me and Gladys

Pictures from Cambridge, England - part 2

2008-09-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Cambridge, England - part 2

Tour and see the world with Gladys

Welcome back to my travel blog :) To my loyal and faithful readers: I'm really sorry I haven't had enough time to blog and write and post pictures because I have been very busy. I think this is the first and last time I will be apologising, because I am always busy, so please forgive me!! :)

This is a series on Cambridge in England, where my friend Gladys went to visit and have a look at the university and visit the city itself. Guess what today's post is about....? Yup it's about Cambridge university itself, of course. Let us tour around the university with my friend Gladys!

I myself wanted to study either at Cambridge or Oxford last time, when I was studying for my A levels, and then later found myself in the University of Manchester - so how interesting life is sometimes! Have you ever wondered how Cambridge looks like? Now you know :) Hope you enjoy the beautiful travel pictures!

This picture above is a bit dreary but it's England... sometimes this happens... :)

In the next post here on my travel site, we will visit the sights and sounds of Cambridge in England. Stay tuned!

Hope you loved the pictures and they motivate you to have a look at Cambridge or go there for a visit one day :) Cheers!

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Cambridge, England - part 1

2008-09-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Cambridge, England - part 1

Tour and see the world with Gladys again! :)

I never had time to go down to Cambridge for a look, although I had visited and toured Oxford while in England. I also went punting down rivers in Oxford and had even visited the famous Harry Potter place... where you can see all the fun stuff on my travel site here - just refer to the sidebar for Harry Potter for Harry Potter fans, and Oxford for Oxford and England/academic/ studious/ whatnot fans.

Well, my friend Gladys went for a trip down to Cambridge, and there are many pictures of this great place that she shared with me. And since I have a travel blog, here's a section and series on Cambridge. Do enjoy the pictures on Cambridge and tour and see Cambridge through an intrepid traveller's eyes! :)

At first glance, a firsttime visitor might say that Cambridge is similar to Oxford, or other university places in England! :)

This was quite interesting, so here's the picture - of Beneficial Finance - what a name!

This is one of the reasons to love England - nice fields and lots of relaxation. Hard to find these kinds of things in Singapore! Seriously.

OK, I don't know why I put this one here, hahahaha! :)

Welcome to Cambridge! More pictures to come in future posts here on my travel site. I am sorry that I haven't been posting recently, but due to work - school work and many other activities that I've been up to, I haven't had as much as time as I wanted to explore the world and also post many pictures that I have here on my harddisk on my computer. Oh well. Stay tuned here!

Tour and see the world
with me and Gladys

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 4

2008-09-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 4

Here is the last instalment on Cornwall and Charlestown in southwestern England :) Lots of interesting and nice pictures to share of this place.

In case you want easy access to the other segments and other pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, places in England that one might want to visit and tour, here they are:

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 1
Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 2
Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 3

This is a beautiful vehicle that you can see... and it's interesting too! :)

This one here is also very interesting as well... you can guess where these pictures came from right? Which places do you have to visit to see these? Faithful readers of my travel blog will know that only one place you can visit in Cornwall will have this kind of thing for you to look at - clue: it's very popular with tourists and visitors from all over the world... :P

This is, after all, England, and so people come here to see and visit England, quite naturally (not just look at statues and sculptures). This is a typical England scene.

This one is of course from Charlestown, the seaport that visitors and tourists like to go to. See the ships and boats in the harbour (the little and famous seaport) here at Charlestown!

And then here's a picture from the train, on the way back to Manchester - travelling away from Cornwall and Charlestown. As I've said, this is the miscellaneous post on Cornwall and Charlestown, so I do hope you've enjoyed the pictures of the Eden Project, Cornwall itself, and Charlestown and the sea. Many tourists, travellers and visitors love to visit and travel to these places in England, so do see the pictures and do please feel inspired to travel! Cheers and thanks for reading.

Tour and see the world with me and Gladys!

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 3

2008-09-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 3

Charlestown! :)

Having seen Cornwall, here's the second part of the visit - Charlestown! Charlestown is a working port in St Austell, in Cornwall. There is a harbour to see here as well as several interesting beaches, nice lovely houses to see with interesting Cornwall - Charlestown architecture, and definitely this is quite an interesting tourist destination. There is one little catch though - it's a small place and only really worth a short visit! (Quite unlike the Eden Project, featured in the previous post, which is worth a longer time in terms of exploration because of its depth and size, literally and figuratively.) Let's have a look at Charlestown :)

Typical English country sight ... this is one of the common sights here in Charlestown, and there are many other places like this here in England.

The beautiful seaside, the marvellous rocky cliffs - the natural beauty of the place here in Charlestown is great!

Charlestown is also noted for being a port that people/tourists love to visit, and here's why...

The reality is that while it's beautiful, the place also looks rather simple - well it's just a sea port with an excellent view, so it can be explored and covered rather quickly.

Two ways to look at this - the road to Charlestown, or this is the end of the road... metaphorically? Excellent photography by my intrepid explorer friend, Gladys Lee.

In my final post on Cornwall and Charlestown I shall put up all the other miscellaneous and interesting pictures of the places for you to enjoy... hope you enjoyed the pictures and commentary!

Tour and see the world with me and Gladys!

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 2

2008-08-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 2

So did you manage to guess what those domes were (the domes that Gladys visited while in Cornwall)? That's right - the Eden Project.

This entire post is devoted to the very interesting Eden Project! :) I have heard often that going to Cornwall, most people will visit the Eden Project because it is the largest and biggest tourist attraction there. Eco-loving people and environmentalists visit the Eden Project also, for obvious reasons other than us tourists. Here, I will share what the intrepid traveller Gladys shared with me on her travels and exciting time in Cornwall: information and interesting tourist facts and nuggets of information about the Eden Project!

First she saw this gigantic bee (don't worry, it's not real of course) at the Eden Project and that was a real sight to behold!

This is Gladys on the inside of the domes. The Eden Project is basically a gigantic greenhouse for both experimental and environmental education purposes. It simulates and showcases/ exhibits real ecosystems from all over the world and is very important for both educational and scientific research purposes.

More of the imposing domes from the outside... this is a common view, and you can get to see this on Wikipedia, thus visiting the Eden Project without even going and travelling to Cornwall in the UK! :)

Gladys taking a rest ... and taking a photo :)

A different angle of the eco domes and the greenhouses that make up the Eden Project...

There is also beautiful and amazing countryside all around, and a lot of greenery.

And I wanted to show some flowers, so here they are! Haha just as decoration to my travel blog, because some of my visitors love plants, greenery and flowers. OK, that's enough about the Eden Project - so do come and visit Cornwall and have a look at the eco projects and all these interesting and educational exhibits and more at the Eden Project! I personally think that this is one good, noble and worthwhile project, and it's a great tourist and educational attraction, so you may wish to visit the Eden Project.

In the next post, more to come on Cornwall and Charlestown.

Tour and see the world with me - and Gladys!

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 1

2008-08-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Cornwall and Charlestown, part 1

I've been to many parts of the UK and travelled mostly around England, as well as Europe of course, as you can see on my travel blog. Well, here are more pictures of the UK, and from Gladys Lee, my traveller friend. While I was out exploring Europe and out exploring Manchester, Gladys had been touring England and doing a lot of sightseeing and visiting all on her own. And in some cases, with her friends as well. Gladys went to Oxford with me, for instance. In this series here, I am going to write about what Gladys told me of Cornwall and Charlestown, two small and quaint places in England!

Cornwall is the most southernwestern county in England, that lies in the West, and is basically the part of England that sticks out on a map, if you ever should gaze on a map of England. Charlestown is just a port in Cornwall. These two places are quaint and interesting, and Gladys told me lots of stories about them.

This is a picture of Gladys and her friend Lydia, as after all, since Gladys was kind enough to contribute to my travel blog, I might as well put her picture and her friend too :P You know, in a sort of interesting way, I have travelled more extensively in Europe and Manchester, but Gladys has travelled less extensively in Europe and Manchester and very much more of England. So that makes me a kinda "Europe" person and Gladys a "UK" person... nah. She's more well travelled than me, hands down!

This is how the sea looks like from the train. It is interesting to see water, because we certainly do not get to see any of that in Manchester!

The countryside view...

Nothing to comment on this picture, but don't worry, the fun's just starting...

Now, what on earth is this place and what on earth are these funny things? I'll tell you in the next post on Cornwall and Charlestown! Stay tuned :D

(PS An aside: Bridge, my online blogger friend, would have written about visiting these domed places: if you can guess what place this is that I visited, write in to me "what place is this" and then you might win a prize :) Or at least she would have asked: "Comment and guess what this place is for!" But I have no prizes to give out and don't want to entertain wild guesses.... haha because I also didn't know what it was when Gladys showed it to me, and when she told me, the answer just came in a *snap* - so easy.)

Tour and see the world with Gladys and me

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 7

2008-08-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 7

Life is complex, and art is complex too - so I've decided to put random pictures of Greater Manchester here in this interesting last post on Manchester in England. Yup, this is a complex and funny post.

I have been very fortunate and lucky to have the chance to visit and tour many interesting places around the world and I certainly loved Manchester (barring of course one racist incident and one small crime against me when I was there). A small point on crime against tourists when travelling: I do suppose that there is crime in every country, and in any case, when I was there in England a small little racist incident does not mean, and did not mean, that all Mancunians are racist; don't get me wrong! :)

Here are some pictures from Greater Manchester that made it to my travel blog, Tour and See the World: do please enjoy!

This is Salford Quay... quite beautiful and very Englandly, isn't it?

Marks and Spencer - of course :)

I used to go to Piccadilly Gardens often - to take the bus, to meet friends, to go to town, to travel to other places, and so much more... there are fond memories of this place.

The beautiful view of the inside of Trafford Centre - the biggest mall in the whole country, I think! I have visited many malls in my life, and this one is the size of many Singapore malls put together in one single place. It was great to be there, and there are so many things to do and see and one can, of course, shop there.

All in all, my Manchester experience was great! Do visit all my other posts on Greater Manchester here on my site, and the links here are for your own convenience:

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 1
Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 2
Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 3
Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 4
Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 5
Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 6

Thanks for touring Manchester with me ... we shall tour other parts of England in my travel blog. Where will we go? The intrepid Gladys has the answer ;) Stay tuned!

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 6

2008-08-12T18:01:00.001-07:00

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 6

Tour and see the world with me! - Manchester City

Here are lots more pictures of Greater Manchester, and in particular, as promised, here are the pictures of Sports City and the Manchester City football stadium. I visited Old Trafford as you know, but I also visited the Man City football stadium to watch an Arsenal - Man City match, back in February, where Arsenal won (sigh). You may want to visit this place yourself when you travel here to Manchester in England, as Sports City and the Man City stadium are great places to visit. And maybe catch a game too!

This is the view of the surroundings, taken from a height from the Man City stadium. The surrounding environs look very Englandy, if there is such a word!

This is the stadium, and inside you can see that there are many football supporters even when the stadium is not completely full of spectators. I think if you visit England you may want to tour some stadia and also catch a good football game yourself. It's definitely worth the experience!

And of course, you get to see the starting line up and when they start running onto the field...

And then here comes the kick off! We came to the City stadium to watch the match and here it is... in action! It was very exciting!

And then of course, when the match was over, I took another picture of the outside of the stadium. This is how the place looks like from a distance. I had a great experience visiting this stadium and it was great to catch a match, although I don't recall having gone for the Man City stadium tour. Perhaps there is no stadium tour, unlike Old Trafford's stadium tour, or we simply had no time. For Man City fans worldwide, you might want to take a trip there, and see if there is a stadium tour and a museum tour as well! Hope you enjoyed my pictures and touring with me!

One last post on Greater Manchester to come here on my site. Cheers and thanks for staying with me :)

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 5

2008-08-03T00:49:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 5

Tour and see the world with me! - In this case, Tour Old Trafford!

Earlier in my travel blog posts, I showed pictures of Manchester United in action, as well as Manchester City. Here, in my series on Greater Manchester in the UK, I am going to show more pictures of Manchester United at Old Trafford - so come and share these interesting pictures and tour Old Trafford with me!

First up, this is my friend JS, who wanted to show that he was a die hard Manchester United fan, so when we went to the Theatre of Dreams in January to see Manchester United play football, he actually bought a scarf. We went back to visit Old Trafford many times during our course of stay in England - to visit the Megastore (Man U Megastore), to watch Champions League matches and much much more!

This is how the stadium looks like when you approach it from the bus stop. First, we visited Old Trafford by taking the Bus 25o from the Manchester City Centre, from Piccadilly. This is the majestic sight that greets you when you arrive at the Manchester United stadium.

This is the sight that you can see inside the stadium - the grand stand where all the people come to support the world's greatest and most money spinning football club. I love Manchester United! :)

We also visited the changing room while we were there. There are many places to visit and many things to see when at Manchester United, so do visit the stadium and do go for the Old Trafford stadium tour, where you can get to tour the entire stadium and see all the various parts of the stadium and see the changing room and much much more! Did I mention that there is a Manchester United museum as well? My friends went on the stadium tour more than once because it was simply great!

This is what you can see above the Megastore - so do visit this one if you are interested in shopping and buying stuff. I visited this place quite often! :)

And of course, who can forget this very important picture - Manchester would not be complete without... MANCHESTER UNITED TROPHIES! Yep, I am biased. Do visit Old Trafford and do go for the stadium tour! I was there in January 2008 and I loved it ... and so will you, unless you're a Chelsea or Liverpool fan :P

For Manchester City fans, have no worries, in the next post, here on my travel blog, I will write about Manchester City! Do note that all pictures, all ideas and thoughts are from a foreigner's perspective visiting Manchester and are not indicative of what everybody thinks, cheers!

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 4

2008-08-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 4

This section of my travel blog may not interest people much, but it interests me, so here it is - pictures of my hostel and the place that I stayed while here in Manchester in the UK! I have mixed feelings about the place, because while I was here in England, I experienced good times as well as bad times, and this was where something very emotional and tragic happened to me when I was studying in the University of Manchester. On a happier note, most people who visit Manchester will not have the chance to visit these places, so haha - perhaps you could consider yourself privileged to see Pankhurst Court and Dalton Ellis halls in Manchester! :)

This is the facade of Pankhurst Court II, the place where I stayed while in England. The room was quite small sized, but I had an attached bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink, so it was actually a very nice place to stay. I didn't have many visitors while I was staying there because I spent most of my time, when I rushed back, talking to my ex-girlfriend in Singapore.

This is the larger picture of Pankhurst Court and its surrounding environs, and it is quite beautiful. I stayed in quite nice surroundings, although I must say that Manchester is not always that safe, especially at nights, so travelling should be done in the day or before 8PM.

Next to Pankhurst Court is Dalton Ellis hall, and here is one wing of the place, where my Da Ge used to stay. I would wait for him downstairs so that we could go to family gatherings together, and it was great fun. We loved to have meals in the common room where we could talk nonsense and enjoy our company.

This is another view of Dalton Ellis hall.

Well, that's about it for the place I stayed in Manchester - Pankhurst Court. Pankhurst was also part of Dalton Ellis hall and shared common facilities and areas.

In the next post, I shall be visiting everybody's favourite stadium - Manchester United at Old Trafford, and in subsequent posts, Manchester City stadium at Old Trafford! Stay tuned to my travel blog :)

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 3

2008-07-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 3

Tour and see the Manchester City Centre with me!

Here are the other attractions here in Manchester that I had a look at and visited while at Manchester in England. In my series here on my site on Greater Manchester, I explored the city centre in my last post, and here it is continued on this post. Enjoy the sights and attractions of the Manchester city centre!

I actually don't know what this is called, but this is one giant ferris wheel that every one will look at the moment they are here in Manchester city centre... as it is the biggest and most famous thing around. It might be worth a visit and you might want to have a ride on it to see the sights of Manchester from a high vantage point.

This is the Triangle, a shopping mall and shopping centre, which I visited often. It was one of my favourite haunts, and is quite popular as a place where Manchester teenagers hang out. There are only a few other competing shopping malls, and Arndale, the other major shopping centre, is right opposite the Triangle. This place might be worth a visit because it has a gigantic square where they are hundreds of people feeding birds, watching a gigantic screen with rugby on it, as well as many other sights and sounds of Manchester city centre life.

On the left you can see Urbis, and on the right, to the right of the sign, you can see the Printworks, which is the cinema and chill out place to visit.

Odeon is the cinema company here in Manchester, and in England too, I think. This is a better picture of the Printworks, and it is the place to visit for good food, ice cream, movies and other sorts of entertainment here in Manchester. Might be worth a visit - and did I mention, there's a Hard Rock Cafe too? :)

This is the part that reminds us that this is England after all, a typical English scene in Manchester, and I love it very much. There are many things to see and do here in Manchester and I loved visiting the city centre a lot.

(Note that all these are from a foreigner's point of view, as I am from Singapore, so I may have missed out some places that Mancunians love and appreciate. I try my best to cover everything on Manchester, which played an important part in my life, though :) )

More to come on other places in Greater Manchester here on my site, so do come and ...

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 2

2008-07-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 2

Tour and see Manchester City Centre with me!

In my series on Manchester, I will be showing a lot of pictures of Manchester City Centre, the University of Manchester where I studied, the neighbourhood I lived in and the like, as well as more pictures of Urbis, Old Trafford, Salford and much much more from Manchester. Here are some pictures of the City Centre, near Piccadilly, and there will be more pictures of the City Centre in the next post, showcasing the big ferris wheel and other attractions and sights and sounds of Manchester.

I have a fascination with signs, and this signboard is artistic and serves as a reminder to me of the various places that I visited and went to here in Manchester city centre. Also, there is a philosophical ring to it, isn't there - when you think that you are at the crossroads? :)

The Triangle, Printworks, Urbis and Piccadilly are all important and must-see places here in Manchester! Do remember to visit them and have a look if you pay a visit to this place.

More scenes of the city centre, bustling with life. I find that Europe in general and Manchester in particular are not as clean as Singapore, but that is my own personal opinion, and also, we have very strict laws against litter and rubbish. Manchester is beautiful, but the occasional glass bottle and lots of tissue paper, dirt and grime on the streets, which are cleaned by machines every now and then spoil the urban scene a bit.

At the same time, there are these cute and very quaint stands to have a look at. They sell all sorts of things, primarily food, and one can buy sausages and hotdogs from such a stand! There are a lot of these to see here in Manchester!

This is the famous Arndale shopping mall that I have been talking about in my post and other earlier posts. If you want to do a lot of shopping or to spend lots of pounds, here is your chance, and you can do a lot of shopping here in Arndale. Shoppers must visit this place to have a look, or even go window shopping here in Manchester!

Here is another picture of Arndale, showing the escalator up to the fast food joints. A must visit for those who want to put on weight - KFC, Burger King, Macs, and much much more! Do visit Arndale shopping centre when you are there in Manchester - it's a nice place to have a walk around and there are lots to see and do. More to come on Manchester City Centre in the next post, so stay tuned! :)

Tour and see the world with me!

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 1

2008-07-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Greater Manchester, part 1

Tour and see the world with me, and in this post, with my friends and people I've met!! :)

After my Europe tour, I spent most of my time touring and visiting various places in Manchester instead, so here is the series of my Manchester experiences. I am going to write about Old Trafford, Manchester United, and also other interesting places. That's why this series is called Greater Manchester. Later, I am also going to feature other places in the UK that Gladys visited, such as Cambridge, Cornwall and much more - yes, I told you before that my friend is an avid traveller and loves to travel and tour, especially since we were on exchange here in the University of Manchester and did not have to study so hard :) However, before I begin with my final instalment of my Manchester pictures and my Manchester experiences, I would like to share the interesting people I met during my tours and travels, and also during the course of my stay and study here in Manchester. Here are some of the many and varied interesting people I've met while at Manchester.

This is pretty and interesting Gladys Lee, who has lent me many pictures for my travel site and also been very instrumental in the creation of my travel blog, as she knows a lot of computer skills as well as a lot about photo taking, travelling, and the like. As I've said, my friend is an avid traveller and has visited many places both within and outside the UK, which I will be featuring in my blog, in later posts, so stay tuned! :)

The pretty lady holding the L'equippe is my French teacher, Daphne, from Canada. She lived in France and was born in Canada, where they too speak French, and she has an excellent command of French. She taught me French while I was at Manchester during my exchange programme, and the sad thing is that I didn't learn much formally in school and had to depend almost entirely on her skill and expertise. Thanks Daphne! My travels and visits to places in France was kind of assisted by her :) And I love chateaux and voitures!

This above isn't really someone I met, but when I was touring the museum, in particular the Urbis exhibition, I saw this very interesting posture and just had to take this picture down. Well, we don't get this very often, visiting museums here in my country :)

This is my Economic History professor, Dr Joseph Harrison, whom I met while studying here at Manchester. I like him very much and we could talk about everything, not just about work and studies, but also about travelling, visiting Germany and visiting Spain. He speaks Spanish and is an expert in Spanish history, language and culture.

And the final two are pictures taken in Manchester of my friends and me - my good buddies and pals which helped me throughout my experiences and my stay here at Manchester. Thank you very much! We had many fun experiences studying, touring, visiting and travelling together. Thanks once again, friends!

Tour and see the world with me!
And in this post, tour and see the world with me and my friends and people I've met! :)

My friend Gladys' Tour in Belgium - Pictures from Belgium 3

2008-07-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Gladys' Tour in Belgium - Pictures from Belgium 3

Here are some final random pictures of Gladys' tour in Belgium. But before her tour of Belgium pictures, here are some of SNOW in London! The amazing thing is that these pictures were all taken in... SPRING! It snows in spring, here in England, so the old saying, as "changeable as the weather", is true and probably orginated here in England.

It snowed in London, and Gladys was there during her break, coming back from Belgium to England! Here are the pictures...

More snow from London in England, and then now, back to pictures of Belgium - hope you enjoy this final instalment of beautiful pictures of interesting Belgium. Gladys and I enjoyed swapping lots of stories about our tours, and her stay in Belgium was fun and fruitful.

Hope you enjoyed the beautiful pictures! Belgium is very beautiful and looks interesting, albeit a bit dreary and dark, but then again, sometimes Europe has this overall look of darkness. Overall, beautiful Belgium was one of Gladys' fave places :)

Tour and see the world! In this series, tour and see the world with me and Gladys! :)

My friend Gladys' Tour in Belgium - Pictures from Belgium 2

2008-07-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Gladys' Tour in Belgium - Pictures from Belgium 2

Tour the world with me, and in this mini series on Belgium, with Gladys, my intrepid traveller friend :)

Gladys, my travel friend and good university friend that I met while studying at the University of Manchester, while I was in England, loves to travel by boat and go for those boat cruises and boat rides while doing her tours and travels. You can see some beautiful pictures she took of Belgium while taking a boat cruise ride down the rivers and waterways, and her pictures are excellent.

Anyways, to take very good advice from my blogger friends and travel site friends, here is a new formatting style for my Tour and See the World travel site! I'll know if this works if I don't get any more complaints or any more advice to make changes here and there, although it is quite interesting in itself to see how the posts have changed and evolved over time.

(Although I suspect that my pictures and photo taking skills, when travelling, have remained fairly constant and very consistent - I like to use the rule of 3rds when taking pictures and being a guy, I sadly usually go for buildings first and then people second.)

Without further ado, here is the first picture of the scene of Gladys on her way to take the cruise ride and boat trip to have a look around Belgium. Or so I am guessing from what she told me of Belgium and its waterways.

And this is a picture of the river bank in Belgium... with little animals and birds around :)

And here are the other tourists and guests who were also on her boat ride. Many people like boat cruises, I guess...?

This is how Belgium, or at least the built up building areas of Belgium, looks like from the waterways.

And finally, back on land, Gladys got to see horses and stuff. Well, quite an interesting boat ride, nonetheless?

Tour and see the world with me! And in this series, we get to tour with my friend Gladys Lee :)