December 2017 – Bellion Travels

Visiting an Owl Café in Tokyo

Sorry but not sorry, I’m not a fan of cats. Since Japan is known for its Cat Café’s and Tim is so fond of cats, I made my utter best to convince him not to go to a cat café so instead we compromised to visit an owl café. C’mon owls are so cute and adorable and you don’t get to see them every day and not everyone has them as pets.

We booked a 7PM slot with Owl Café & Bar Owl Village located in Harajuku, Shibuya. As soon as we arrived the staff sat us down to have a hot green tea with a delicious dessert on the side while they were giving us a short briefing before heading in the Owl Room. Basically, it’s a small sanctuary where they take good care of owls and set them free once they are recovered.

So here are top 10 things we’ve learned about the owls: –

A group of owls is called a parliament.
Most owls hunt insects.
Owls can’t see things close to their eyes which makes them farsighted.
Owls can turn their heads 270 degrees (COOOOOL!!!!)
There are 200 different species
Owls even eat small mammals and can eat 1,000 mice a year. (This fact made me love Owls even more because mice scare me).
Owls are nocturnal which means they are energetic at night time.
Female owls are larger than males.
Barn owls have heart shaped face (AWWWWWWH)
Owls fossils lead back to 58 million years. (IMPRESSIVE)

Tim and I highly recommend the place. You will get to interact with the owls and the owl experts are always ready to answer your questions.

December 30, 2017

Nissreen5 Comments

4 Days and 3 Nights in Baku

My friend Noor found a good offer on Holiday Factory for 3 nights in Baku and the package included 4-star hotel stay with breakfast and round-trip air ticket. So, we decided why not visit. We found out that the E-Visa is provided to specific nationalities so of course Tim got an E-VISA. However, Noor, Mimi and I had to apply through the consulate. The procedure is quite easy unless you travelled to Armenia which was my case and I had to submit additional documents.

Due to the Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijan and Armenia haven’t been in good terms so just make sure you haven’t been to Nagorno Karabakh area to avoid getting your visa rejected.

Holiday Factory representative picked us up from the airport and dropped us to the hotel. As soon as we checked in and left our luggage in the room, we went to a restaurant called Dolma located near old baku and a shopping area. Dolma means stuffed food, everything we ate was delicious but the cuisine is filled with butter.

Well, to summarise what we did in 4 days, here was our itinerary.

Day 1:

Baku city
Ate at Dolma restaurant and walked around the shopping area. (Nizami Street)
Explored the corniche and parts of the city.
Venice spirit of Baku
Flaming Towers

Day 2:

Walked the old Baku city
Maiden Tower & Palace of Shirvanshahs
Wanted to visit all the galleries but unfortunately everything was closed even the Modern Art Museum.
Monument of Richard Sorge
Booked a tour for the next day
Dinner at Firuz.

Day 3:

Tour

Mud Volcano
Gobustan Park
Bibi-Heybat Mosque
Yanar Dag
Ateshgah
Heydar Aliyev Center
Dinner Mangal Restaurant

Day 4:

Smoking Shisha in Old City on a rooftop.
Airport – back to Dubai

Tim and I personally liked Baku. It’s modern yet cultural and has a mix of contemporary and old. We would like to visit Azerbaijan again but next time will be in the rural areas to learn more about the people and explore the country’s nature.

December 23, 2017

Nissreen4 Comments

Back to Blogging and I turned 29

Hi Guys,

It’s been awhile since I wrote on my blog. Well, we’ve been going through lots. Besides work, I had to sort out a lot of paper work and get things organised for our move. Also, I’ll be taking a big risk next year which I can’t talk about yet but you’ll eventually find out.

Well let’s talk positive, Tim and I have travelled to 3 countries this quarter. We’ve been to Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Kenya. Another big news, I turned 29, WUHU. Of course, I will be writing about the countries on a separate post.

So here is a random post of how I promise I will be back to blogging. I’ve also been studying basic video editing just to share with you our activities.

Anyhow, on 10^th December 2017, I officially turned 29 years old. Since Sunday is the first day of the week here in UAE, we celebrated my birthday a day before at Atmosphere. It is the highest restaurant in the world and located in Burj Khalifa on the 122nd floor.

Tim and I had a 5-course meal including a high tea menu. In addition to that, we had unlimited drinks with gold leaf petals and a professional violist playing classical music. Tim and I had a wonderful time and later visited my dad and brothers for a cup of coffee.