Our main activity for this trip was to walk the 熊野古道 Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Trails, which are ancient pilgrimage trails on Japan’s Kii Peninsula, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site along with the sacred sites they connect.
The trails offer various trekking options, ranging from half-day strolls to multi-day treks. Since we aren’t the most active couple, we opted for the easier half-day walks, on the Nakahechi pilgrimage route. The route starts from Tanabe on the western coast of the Kii Peninsula and traverses east into the mountains towards the three famous Kumano grand shrines, namely 熊野本宮大社 Kumano Hongu Taisha, 熊野速玉大社 Kumano Hayatama Taisha and 那智大社 Nachi Taisha.
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Time to hitch a ride with Dr. K to Melaka!
Our niece had started her university studies in 京都 Kyoto, Japan, and we decided to go over for a visit during our holidays 🙂 Despite the typhoon midway during the trip, we still had a great time! Here was what we did:
The weather turned out better than expected, and we decided to go ahead with the hike from 貴船 Kibune to 鞍馬 Kurama as planned.
Dr. K was going back to Melaka over the weekend and we decided to hitch a ride 🙂 Just like the previous trip, we thought to explore another city while en-route to Malacca.
We woke up bright and early at 5am, and GoJek-ed to the airport, reaching way ahead of time to check out the Harry Potter set-up at Terminal 3, and to have breakfast. This time, we tried The Green Market at Terminal 2. Food was pretty decent! There was a Harry Potter exhibition at the airport, so we had fun taking some selfies before the flight 😛
We had bought our train tickets (¥12.50 per adult one way) to 绍兴 Shaoxing so we did not have to rush for time this morning. Unfortunately, there was a train delay and we arrived at 绍兴 20 minutes behind schedule. The train station was a big building with no visible cab queue nearby for us to try to get a cab. Finally, we decided to pay a premium (¥15 per pax) for a private car by the driver who offered us a ride to 东湖. According to 百度 Baidu, a 10 to 15-minute cab ride would cost around ¥20.
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 