South East Asia, The Far East & North America

Langkawi was incredible. We spent out last full day there exploring the island, we weren't too keen on renting motorcycles and we'd met two girls on the way from Thailand to Langkawi who ended staying at our guest house too. It worked out cheaper for us to rent a car and that's exactly what we did. It was all arranged by the receptionist and for £12 we had a Kia Rio delivered and we set off on our journey.

From the main beach resort we headed to the cable car which gave some amazing views over the island and the forest below. Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 Islands and they are dotted all around which makes for good viewing. On the south side of the viewing platform you couldn't distinguish where the sky met the sea which was pretty cool.

From the cable car you could see some waterfalls on the way down which weren't really accessible but nice to see from the car. From the cable car we followed the coastal road round to the black sanded beach past the cement factory, the Islands largest employer, and stopped off at a fish & chip shop! We couldn't believe it, it wasn't quite the same as home but still nice to finally find some vinegar and some battered fish. We then went to one of the most secluded beaches on the north eastern tip of the island which was amazing, black grained sand and no one else around we had good fun. After the private beach we jumped back in the Kia and were intending in going to play golf at a place we'd seen earlier. Turns out that the 'driving range' was a tin hut, 4 tyre markers in a field and a Malaysian man on a tractor so we decided to give it a miss. We passed back pass the airport saw a couple of planes set off and land and then back to the hotel.

The next morning we woke up early(ish) bound for Kuala Lumpur. As much as we dreaded and made jokes of our Malaysia airlines flight it was pretty good and for £9 all in there was nothing we could complain about. The only minor irritation was the Australian woman in front of me insisting on putting her chair back. I politely returned her chair to the upright position as my legs were well and truly squashed and she unleashed her venomous tongue on me and then pressed her call bell to tell the air steward on me. Pathetic. We moved seats and enjoyed the flight to KL.

We only had just over 24 hours in KL and we are glad we didn't have much more because it rained 90% of the time we were there. We stayed in Chinatown right in the middle of the hustle and bustle which was good because of our short amount of time there. We milled a around for the day done a bit of shopping and upon the advice of the girls we were in Langkawi with set off to search for a helipad which gave incredible views over the city. We got a drink at the bar on the 35th floor went up two flights of stairs and sat on the roof of the KH Tower where we watched the sunset behind the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers light up all whilst sipping a mojito.

Our next day in KL we spent part of the day wet from the monsoon rains, part of it navigating the stupidly busy city and the other part at the airport. Kuala Lumpur was good and although it was a busy big city it wasn't like the other big cities in South East Asia. I managed to get a hair cut from an Indian man in Malaysia before we headed to Tokyo. Our route to Tokyo was indirect and we flew overnight to make it easier for us arriving in Tokyo early morning as opposed to near on midnight.

We arrived in Tokyo early morning and took the metro to Asakusa and after a bit of a walk and getting a slight sweat on we found our hostel. For the first time in a long time we were genuinely looking forward to our accommodation that we had chosen. It didn't disappoint if you've never been to japan you have to google japanese toilets. I never knew anyone could get so excited about toilets but Ellie was mesmerised! We went out slightly jet lagged and went to see the Senso ji temple, the Tokyo Sky Tree & a walk around the local area. Despite Tokyo having the most Michelin stars of any city in the world we went to the supermarket bought some beef mince, some spaghetti and some pasta sauce. It was worth the 3 month wait the pasta was sooooooo gooooood. We were tired and after making our plan for Tokyo we went to bed ready to get up early the next morning.

The next morning we planned to visit the government offices which gave a view of the city from up high and we even caught a sneak peak of Mount Fuji in the background. Not the clearest view but you could make it out in the skyline. After the government offices and stumbling upon a press conference for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics we walked around the skyscraper district of Shinjuku before heading to Shibuya to see the world famous crossing and to Starbucks for a japan only (we. Hope not!) matcha green tea chocolate browning frappuccino. We visited a couple of famous shops some sights including the worlds only parasitological museum and the beer museum whilst scoffing down some octopus balls and matcha ice cream in between. We headed to the Tokyo dome that night to watch the Yomiuri Giants face the Dragons at baseball. We had standing only seats as they were the only ones left but it didn't matter it was a great spectacle and the regimented chanting from the fans who didn't raise their voices once and chose to clap as oppose to yell was interesting to watch.

Day 3 of our trip we headed to the Meiji Jingu shrine where a celebration was happening to commemorate the temple but seeing as we didn't understand japanese and couldn't make out what was going on we were at a a loss! We did find out later on what had happened though. We took a stroll around Roppongi stumbling upon a lively Saturday street full of weird and wonderful shops selling all sorts of clothes, shoes and souvenirs. We found the Tokyo science museum and took a walk around the gardens there which have remained untouched since 1949 Ellie fell in love with some turtles and then we headed back to our hotel. We went out for Ramen that evening and I had some chicken katsu but ordering it in Japanese with no English menu left us wondering what we were going to end up with for a while! It turned out to be great and we went to bed happy with full stomachs.

Day 4 we headed west to Mount Fuji. It was claiming season and we were joined by bus loads of climbers heading to Mt Fuji 5th station. It's a shame because you can't really see the mountain in summer due to cloud cover but we still visited and attempted to walk from the 5th station to the 6th but our trainers were no walking boots and we abandoned the walk after Ellie deemed it unsafe (LOL!) we spent a couple of hours at Japan's tallest peak, most of it in the clouds, had our bento boxes for lunch and took the bus back to Tokyo. We were desperate to take he bullet train one way or the other but it wasn't to be as it would require 4 changes take double the time and cost an astronomical amount. We left the bus back to our favourite area of Tokyo, Shinjuku to the arcade and the baseball practice centre before home ready for sushi that evening. It didn't disappoint Ellie had done her research and it was incredible. Made fresh in front of us at a traditional standing sushi bar we scoffed down some of the freshest tuna, squid and red snapper around along with some green tea and Ellie couldn't wipe the smile off her face she even said her life had been changed.

We had to leave Tokyo the next day but not until the evening which meant we had a half day of sightseeing and eating. We went back to our favourite sushi bar had a couple of snacks, on to find some yaki soba, prawn tempura and other delights before flying to LA. Tokyo was incredible, like nothing else we've ever seen. It was the cleanest city we've seen had the best food ever even if there was the occasional disaster in between. The people are also amazing, English isn't very widely spoken on more than a basic level and you're just spoken at in Japanese relying on hand gestures and pictures most of the time!

We headed for 18 where we've been jet lagged after going back 18 hours and we've been here for 2 days now. We arrived on the same night as the Emmy's but any plans of going celeb spotting at the red carpet fell apart when we fell asleep. Hollywood was the plan for yesterday and if you've never been to LA it's not like the LA you see on the TV. There's scores of homeless people and addicts lining the street which is quite sad when you consider the amount of wealth in the city.

We also discovered that our hotel is on the haunted hotels tour of LA, google Hotel Cecil if you've got a spare five minutes. The story of the murdered girl in the roofs water tanks last year is particularly alarming! We are collecting our car this morning and making our way to Santa Barbara for this evening. We'll be camping a lot of the time to save money and also experience something different. We'll blog when we can but it's soooooooo sad as this is our last leg before coming h*** in October. So much more still to see including a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

PEACE