Now that everything is slowly going to “normal”, I thought why not write a blog about what can you do in Abu Dhabi in 3 Days.
Day 1: Abu Dhabi City
Day 2: Fun day on Yas Island
Day 3: Art in Abu Dhabi
*Not a sponsored post
Tim and I visited Ethiopia from the 29th of November 2019 till the 3rd of December 2019 with our best friend, MIMI. The weather was perfect. It was a short trip and was booked last minute but we managed to do a lot. Thanks to KimKim for arranging our accommodation, our ticket and the tour.
Here is a tip: When travelling internationally to Ethiopia, use Ethiopian Airlines. We booked our trip with Emirates Airlines and did not manage to get a discount on the domestic flights. If you book through Ethiopian Airlines, you can then get the discount by providing your booking reference number.
This blog post is our itinerary around Ethiopia. Honestly, I wish we did stay longer and explored more. Hopefully, another time. I would say Ethiopia is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve visited and would rank it on my TOP 5 favourite destinations.
DAY 1:
We flew from Dubai to Addis Abba and landed in the afternoon. Our amazing tour guide, Mahi took us for lunch at an amazing restaurant called Kategna.
We then went to our hotel to check-in and to drop our luggage. We stayed at a very cozy hotel in the city called ‘Caravan Hotel‘. We became friends with the staff and learned Ethiopian time which I will talk about on a different post. We then explored our area and decided to check out a local cafe which serves coffee and sandwiches but we just went for the coffee and met locals and had a lovely evening.
DAY 2:
We checked out early in the morning right after having breakfast and drove to the domestic airport to catch our flight to Arba Minch.
First stop was at a local restaurant and they are known for their famous grilled Tilapia. Our tour guide recommended to explore the villages before it got dark then would take us to our hotel to check-in and relax.
As soon as we were done with lunch we headed straight to Gamo Gofa. They are famous for their vegetable and fruit market. We walked around, met locals and just enjoyed the nature.
Later, we visited the Dorze Village. Their houses look like the Elephants head. Our tour guide, introduced us to the prince of the village and he showed us around and invited us to his place. I will write a separate food post about what we ate at the village and generally Ethiopian food.
As it got darker, our tour guide suggested that we should head to the hotel to check-in, relax and have dinner. We stayed at Haile Resort. The hotel is owned by the famous runner Haile Gebrselassie.
Day 3:
We woke up really early in the morning for a long drive to visit the Konso Village, we walked around the village and bought a tiny mask from there. The site is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. The Konso people are known for cotton weaving and agriculture. Their religion tradition is called Waga/ Waga Sculpture.
Afterwards, we walked around the Sunflower fields and made a stop at the Konso Lodge to have lunch. Since we had some extra time for one more activity, we decided to go hiking at the National Park.
Day 4:
Right after breakfast, our tour guide wanted to take us to Lake Abaya but unfortunately, our boat didn’t work. We waited for hours to get it fixed but we all agreed, it was not meant to be. So instead, we decided to visit the Crocodile Farm before heading to the airport.
I slept the whole flight and when we landed at Addis Ababa. The first thing we did was SHOPPING. We wanted to buy souvenirs for our family and friends and of course US. Tim and I bought a painting, a wooden mask and clothes. We later went and bought coffee beans to take back home. OH MY GOD! Ethiopian coffee is the best.
At night, Mahi took us to an amazing restaurant with live performance called Yod Abyssinia Traditional Food. The food was very delicious and we had such a fun night. The performance was insanely good and they even made us dance.
Day 5:
Our day started at the Book Store, where I wanted to buy books for my brothers and myself. Our next stop was the National Museum of Ethiopia to meet Lucy, female of the hominin species.
Before heading to the airport, we did a quick stop to have a good-bye lunch together at a really old house that is now famous restaurant and is also a hotel. The place is called Taitu Hotel.
We were later dropped to the airport and flew back to Dubai 🙁
Tim and I have noticed that Taipei has an art district with lots of galleries and museums to visit but since our trip was short and we didn’t have enough time, we just walked around the district but couldn’t make a quick stop but here is what we’ve done in 3 Days.
Day 1:
We bought our transport ticket at the airport to be able to use the metro and the bus, it is very easy to navigate around the city, and you will not find any difficulty.
Our first stop was the National Palace Museum located in the Shilin District. The Museum has a collection of almost 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks.
Afterwards, we decided to visit temples so we managed to see the Longshan Temple, which was built in 1738, and we saw the Confucius Temple.
We had a lot of time to kill before the Night Market so we took the train and visited Taipei 101 and went on the 88th and 89th floor. Unfortunately, we could not visit the 101th floor because we had to book in advance. As it got late, we went back to the Shilin District and explored the Night Market.
Day 2:
Tim booked a tour online to explore another part of Taiwan and we really enjoyed the tour.
The tour included Yehliu Geo Park, Jiufen Old Town, AMei Tea House, Pingxi Lantern and the Grand Hotel Taipei.
Yehliu Geo Park: North of Taiwan. Formations include the famous Queen’s Head. We did a quick stop at the famous Golden waterfall.
Jiufen Old Tower and AMei Tea House: It’s located on the seaside mountain area in New Taipei City. The place is filled with really old markets from the 14th Century and we visited the famous Amei Tea House for tea and cakes which was also shown in the famous Japanese cartoon called Spirited Away.
Pingxi: A very old town known for Lanterns. We bought a Lantern and wrote our wishes and we let it go up in the air. I ticked that off my bucket list so it was an experience 🙂
The Grand Hotel Taipei: Before dropping us to Ningxia, we did quick stop at the Grand Hotel to take pictures.
Ningxia Night Market was our last stop and the place known for the famous Taiwanese traditional street food.
Day 3:
We decided to dedicate our last day to shopping and massages. Therefore, we visited Shi-men Ting and the Underground Mall at the Taipei Main Metro Station. Afterwards, we walked around the area of the National Museum and went for a massage.
Egypt as they call it in Arabic ‘Em El Donya’ which translates to ‘The Mother of the World’. is the third African country we travelled together.
During the UAE National Day holiday, we both decided to travel to Egypt. The main reason we travelled to Egypt was because the visa was easy to obtain (LO). Tim managed to get a visa on arrival while it took me 4 working days to obtain a visa from the Egyptian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Since we could only travel for 3 days, we narrowed our trip down to Cairo.
We heard from a lot of people how Cairo can be chaotic so we booked our tour with Fly Travel. 3 Days and 2 Nights in Egypt and we managed to have a blast. Our tour guide Karam, is very well educated and also has a sense of humour. He cracks jokes when explaining the history of the Pharaohs and Egyptian Civilisation which makes it fun and I guess it’s the best method to make people listen.
So below is our Cairo Weekend Itinerary 🙂
Day 1:
We visited the Pyramids, Sphinx and Papyrus Institute and a Cotton Store.
Try to avoid the Cotton Store, it was a major waste of time but we bought cushion covers which you can find in any market. Anyway the highlight of that day was seeing the Pyramids. OMG! GIZA indeed has some supernatural vibes. We highly recommend you enter the Pyramids, it is worth it. Although it’s narrow and could be annoying, it is worth the visit. Unless you are claustrophobic, so yeaaaahhh don’t go in. We also visited the Khufu Ship which is walking distance from the Pyramids.
After lunch, we did a quick stop at the Papyrus Institute and attended a workshop on how they make the paper. Tim and I bought a small art work to hang in our place. We have a habit of collecting artworks from all around the world and whats cool about the papyrus paper is that it’s waterproof.
At night, Tim and I scheduled an uber to take us to the Nile River. We decided to go on a boat ride along the Nile and they played Egyptian music. The locals were having a great time singing and dancing. The funny part, Tim and I were the only non-Egyptians on that boat and being half Middle Eastern I had to join and dance.
Day 2 of the Tour:
The historical tour that made us go OH WOOOW!!!
The tour began at the Egyptian Museum where we learned a lot about the Egyptian History and if ever you visit, I recommend you take a guide with you because you will learn a lot more.
The Museum preserves the mummies in a very cold room and we were not allowed to take pictures. I actually didn’t feel comfortable and I believe that the mummies should be put back in their tomb.
We later visited Citadel, Muhammad Ali Mosque and Sultan Hassan Mosque. We sat with our tour guide in the mosque to listen to the ‘Call for Prayer’ and had a deep discussion about Abrahamic Religions.
Before heading to the famous Khal El Khalili market, we went to the Perfume and Jewellery stores and bought a box of perfumes. After that we requested our driver to drop us to Khan El Khalili where we spent the night exploring the market and smoked shisha at a Sha’abi (Local) Coffee Shop just like what we see in Egyptian movies hehehehe.
Day 3:
WE FLEW BACK TO ABU DHABI
Our trip to Egypt was indeed very short and we would love to visit again and explore other areas of the country. If you are visiting Cairo, I highly recommend you either have an Arab friend or an Arab guide. It’s difficult for a non-Arabic speakers to navigate around the city.
*Not a Sponsored Post
Tenerife is a well-known holiday destination and the most visited Canary Island. It is also famous to be a honeymoon destination. Since it’s a 15 min flight from Gran Canaria we thought well why not visit it.
![20180407_160400-01[1].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/belliontravels.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/20180407_160400-011.jpg?resize=740%2C555&ssl=1)
We made a huge mistake by booking a flight that lands in the North and the apartment we booked was located in the South. There are two airports in Tenerife and we kinda missed that information.
Our apartment was in Costa Adeje so we rented a tiny car and drove South. It was a 1 hour drive. Regretfully, I forgot my driving license in UAE so Tim had to drive the entire trip. We landed early in the morning and arrived at Costa Adeje at 10AM.
The Landlord can only arrive at 4PM to handover the keys so we kept our luggage with a gentleman who was guarding the compound and we were picked up at 1PM to quad bike. The tour picked us up and introduced us to our group and we all drove to Mount Teide. We stopped at one of the villages for snacks and later that day, we went to the beach for a walk and to explore the area and had a proper Spanish dinner.
The next day, we woke up quite early in the morning, bought few items from the supermarket and drove to Jungle Park. We saw a lot of animals and actually enjoyed the Exotic Bird Show and the Seal Show. Afterwards, we drove around the island and checked out other resorts and hotels. As it got darker, we decided to head back to Costa Adeje for dinner. We ate at an Indian Restaurant which was packed with people, we actually had to wait for an hour to get a table. The restaurant is called Delhi Darbar and the food was delicious. We later went for a walk around the area and did some shopping.
We got back to the apartment quite late, so we packed our luggage and woke up early the next day to handover the keys to the landlord and drove back to the Northern Airport of Tenerife and flew to Alicante.
It was quite a short trip and we kinda wanted to stay a little longer because there were other activities to do on the island but we wanted to explore mainland Spain together.
In our 4 days in Bali, we stayed at an amazing resort called Sankara Resort which is located in Ubud. They serve amazing meals and offer free yoga classes early in the morning and the view is extremely breathtaking.
Day 1:
We arrived late afternoon because we had to wait for almost 2 hours for our luggage. We were picked up by the resort and since it got late, we decided to have dinner in the resort. They had a Traditional Night and served an amazing 5 course meal and we enjoyed a night of Balinese music and food.
Day 2:
Our resort offered a reasonable private tour around Bali. We started our day with a delicious 3 course breakfast and headed out to explore Ubud. Our adventure started at the Monkey Forrest which we highly recommend. We then visited a small town and walked through the rice field. Funny thing you need to pay for every level of rice field you walk to. Tim and I just used the drone LOL. After taking pictures and meeting locals, we continued our journey to the Volcano called Galunggung. We were so unlucky, it started raining heavily so we took lots of pictures and drove straight to the Holy Spring. The Tirta Empul Tampak Siring, the Bali Holy Spring Water Temple. When we arrived there, the rain stopped but the weather became so humid and SUPER HOT. I don’t do well in heat and I’m a desert girl but I’m used to cool weather and air condition. So whenever it gets really hot, I need tsunami of nose bleed. It was over flowing and I was standing in the middle of the temple. I rushed to the toilet, people thought I got beaten up and I left the toilet looking like a murder scene and I’m not exaggerating. It was so embarrassing so I paid the lady and helped her clean the toilet.
After relaxing for a bit and getting cold iced water and ice cream for me to cool down, we visited the Rocky Temple and the Elephant Cave. I felt like Lara Croft when we got there, I never would have imagine historical places like that. You see it in movies like Indiana Jones or something. It was WOW!!! Left me speechless.
We stopped to try different types of Balinese coffees and had the Luwak Coffee. The famous and most expensive coffee that has poop. LOL
Summary of the Day Trip: Monkey Forrest, Rice Field, Volcano, Holy Spring, Rocky Temple and Elephant Cave.
At night, we walked around the town and of course went for a foot massage (fish massage) where those little tiny creatures just bite your feet to remove the dead skin. Although it was my second time to do it, I don’t find it pleasant at all because I’m ticklish. Of course, we also had a full body massage followed by dinner.
Day 3:
We got up early in the morning to have breakfast and head really early to the medicine man. Our hotel guide dropped us to the medicine man who was mentioned in Eat Pray, Love. Sadly, he passed away; however, his son took over his fathers duties and read my palm. I’ve blogged about it previously. Check it Out ‘Meeting the Medicine Man from Eat, Pray, Love’.
After our session, we rented a moped and drove around town. We went to local markets to do some shopping. At night, our tour guide took us to the Bali Zoo and we went for a Night Safari and had dinner there.
Summary: Medicine Man, Ubud Market and Bali Zoo
Day 4:
We got up really early in the morning and had a quick breakfast and packed our swimming gear. We went for a swim under the Tegenungan Waterfall, Ubud. It was so slippery, everyone were helping each other not to slip.
As soon as we were done, the tour guide asked ‘so guys, where would you like to go?‘. I just shouted the WATER TEMPLE. The temple is called Ulun Danu Temple, it’s located in Bratan Lake. It took us 3 hours but we stopped to take a break but BIG BIG MISTAKE we stopped at the strawberry farm. If you guys don’t know, I’m allergic to strawberry so I started getting rashes so we had to move immediately. As we got there, it started raining so we took lots of pictures and stopped at a restaurant called De Danau. The food was delicious.
We later visited the biggest rice field in Bali and headed to Tanah Lot Temple to watch the sunset. We ate dinner at the local market and tried a lot of street food. That’s how we. Bellion Travels spent our time in Bali.
We booked a tour for the whole day which included the Mud Volcano, Gobustan Park, Fire Temple, Bibi-Hebyat Mosque and the Fire Mountain.
Mud Volcano
Land form that erupts mud and gas. There is no lava and the eruption is caused by hot water deep below the Earth surface. I highly recommend you visit it because it’s one of the most interesting places I’ve visited. Very unique experience.
Gobustan Park
In 1930, a group of miners discovered the stone formations, carvings and man-made caves which is now available for the public to see known as the Gobustan Park.
There are approx. 6000 rock engravings and it believed it dated back 50,000 years. The place shows settles, burials and inhabited caves which were held during the period of the last Ice Age.
The engraved art works on the rock consisted of men, animals, dances, warriors and pictures of sun and stars. There are more but we didn’t really get to see them. The park is preserved by Azerbaijan government and it is registered with the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Highly recommend to visit the Gobustan Museum which is located near the ancient park. Over there you will learn a lot about the history and the objects which were used by the Homosapiens and about animals that inhabited the land once upon a time.
Bibi-Heyat Mosque
The Bibi-Heyat Mosque is also known as ‘The Mosque of Fatima’. It is a historic mosque built during the 13th Century. The mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and is now a spiritual place for the Shia Muslims.
Ateshgah
Baku Ateshgah also known as ‘The Fire Temple’. It is a religious temple in a town called Surakhani. The temple was a holy place for Hindus, Sikhs and Zoroastrian. The temple was built during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Yanar Dag
Yanar Dag translates to Burning Mountain. Natural gas fire blazes on the hillside and the flames jet almost 3 metres high.
You can visit all those 5 places in a day.
We booked our trip with GetYourGuide.com to be able to explore Macau quickly and with a group of people. The tour consisted of 2 Indian families, 3 old single Singaporean ladies, 3 Israeli men, 2 couples from Australia, group of Filipino retirees from the US and there was us.
In our 9 hours in the city of Macau, we managed to do a lot and also learn a lot. So let me take you for a tour around Macau, the Chinese city which was colonised by the Portuguese and gained Independence on 20 Dec. 1999.
Our tour started from Hong Kong – Macau Ferry Terminal. We took the Turbo Jet to get to Macau crossing the South China Sea.
Here is what we did in 9 hours.
We got dropped back to the ferry to head back to Hong Kong.
Tip: It always rains in Macau, so get an umbrella because they charge a lot.
We took Philippines Airlines to Hong Kong from Manila. Before writing down the itinerary of what you can do in 3 days; I added the below map from Trails of Indo China to explain our trip in a more simplified matter.
As you can see there are 3 main islands which are all easily connected by a train.
Day 1: Kowloon (Orange Island)
We landed at Lantua Island where the airport is located and took the train to Kowloon. It took us almost an hour to find our hostel and we just gave up looking for it and asked a stranger if he knew where Urban Pack Hostel is located. He just pointed up and we realised it was on the 14th floor. (Interesting for a Hostel)
We left the hostel to have lunch and our first stop was to have lunch at the famous Michelin star Dim Sum Restaurant called ‘One Dim Sum’.
For day one in Hong Kong, we decided to check out Kowloon so we visited 4 main markets.
Tim and I decided to walk to the Garden of Stars to take a picture with the famous Bruce Lee Statue. Afterwards, we walked back to the hostel to get enough sleep for the the next day trip to Macau
Day 2: Hong Kong (Red Island)
Half of the day was spent in Macau.
As soon as we got back we took the train and headed to Hong Kong Island. We visited the Central Market and Mid-Level Escalator. Hong Kong Island was highly recommended for night life.
They’ve got great bars, clubs and restaurants. We spent the night at the Habour and headed back to Kawloon Island to have hot chocolate at Charlie Brown’s Cafe.
Day 3: Lantua Island (Yellow Island)
Lantua Island is the yellow part of the map. We got up early in the morning, packed our bags and took the bus to the airport. It worked out cheaper for us but took longer.
We headed straight to the airport and rented a locker for 5 hours at the Airport Storage.
Disneyland is located in Lantua Island but since we did not have enough time, we decided to go and visit Tian Tan Buddha followed by Ngong Ping Village and Po Lin Monastery. They are all located in the one area. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get on the cable car (AKA Ngong Ping) because it was under maintenance.
We headed back to the airport to catch our flight back to the Philippines.
So here is our 3 day itinerary in Hong Kong. We will post a separate blog about our stay and hostel.
Here is what we did in our 6 days stay in JAPAN.
You may have noticed from my previous post how I deeply, madly and truly fell in love with Japan. Tim planned our itinerary because it was his third visit to this amazing country so I left all the planning to him.
So not to make this post long and boring. I will post separately about each attraction in details and you can also scroll all the way down for the summary.
Here’s the thing, you can always play with the itinerary depending on your flights. If you land in the morning or leave in the morning so on.
Day 1:
We arrive at Narita Airport at 8 in the morning and took the shuttle bus to be dropped off to terminal 2 to take a train to the main station in Tokyo. As we go there we purchased a round trip ticket to Kyoto. Of course we booked the bullet train which is known as Shinkansen. It’s super fast and the speed is 240-320 km/h. CRAZY!!!
You can book a Shinkansen ticket online or at the counter (http//:shinkansen-ticket.com/) depending on availability. We risked it and booked it at the counter.
Keep in mind not all Japanese people speak English and most of the signs are in Japanese. Since Tim knew most of it and reads Japanese we didn’t find much difficulty, we recommend the Google Translate Image App, it is quite useful.
In just 140 minutes we arrived at Kyoto Station and decided to walk all the way to our hostel called ‘Khaosan Kyoto Theater’. Once we secured our luggage and freshned up, we took a train to the Bamboo Forrest and explored Arashiyama. We spend our time around Nishiki Market which is located 6 minutes from our hostel.
Day 2:
Way early in the morning we decided to go Temple hopping so it started with purchasing a bus ticket for the whole day. So we passed by Yasaka Shrine and decided to skip it.
We headed straight to Fushimi Inari-taisha. We walked it all in 3 hours and made it to the top.
Afterwards, we headed to the Golden Temple known as Kinkaku-ji. We also attended a tea ceremony over there.
We then headed to the Silver Temple which is called Ginkaku-ji. It has a Zen Garden and Tim and I just sat there for almost an hour admiring the nature of the place and just breathing the fresh air.
Our last stop was at Chion-In. We took pictures and walked around the area for hours.
Yes, there are much more temples to visit but we had a great time enjoying the moment surrounded by nature. We then ended our journey exploring Kyoto-shi, Higashiyama-ku, Gionmachi Kitagawa area and had dinner there.
Day 3:
We took the train and headed to Nara to feed the deers at Nara Park. We then visited Todai-ji temple and witnessed the biggest Buddha in Japan. It was MASSIVE. We headed back to the hostel to explore other areas in Kyoto but we met a group of people and decided to watch a Geisha show together which I highly recommend. Yasaka Hall Gion Corner.
Day 4:
We woke up pretty early in the morning and to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, As soon as we arrived, we went straight to the hostel to check in. We stayed at Unplan Kagurazaka which was very convenient and had a lovely coffee shop on the ground floor to chill.
Tim decided that the first we should visit was the Meiji Jingu Shrine (Shibuya), we later walked to the famous market called ‘Takeshita Dori’. Takeshita-don is filled with boutiques, cafes and awesome fashion for the millennials. The street offers cute, adorable and trendy items.
We continued our journey to Akihabara to check out the games and anime world. After having a very late lunch at ‘Ikinari Steak Ogawamachi’, we decided it was time to take a train and head to Kabuki Cho where we explored the night life. Amazing lights and lots lots of people. Just a fun fact: Fast & Furious 3 Tokyo Drift was filmed there.
Day 5:
First thing we did early in the morning was going for a Japanese bath at a place called ‘Odaiba Oedo-Onsen-Monogatari’. It is located in Koto, Aomi, 2 Chome. Please note people with tattoos are not allowed in, Japanese people associate inked individuals as part of Yakuza.
After spending almost 5 hours in that which we HIGHLY RECOMMEND, we then decided to have coffee at the Shibuya Crossing, Shibuya-ku to watch the famous intersection. Oh back to the Japanese bath, just know that you will have to be fully naked in front of strangers of the same gender and no one gives a damn. IM SERIOUS.
Back to our itinerary, we then went shopping at Omotesando and Aoyama. After buying a few items from there, we continued walking to the Owl Cafe & Bar Owl Village Harajuku to make it on time for our booked schedule. We enjoyed hot matcha tea and had a briefing about owls before petting and taking pictures. I was kind of an annoying person asking lots of questions.
Day 6:
Our last day in Japan 🙁
We checked out from the hostel early in the morning but kept our bags with the receptionists and went to explore Tokyo on our last day. We visited Senso-ji Temple and explored the local markets around it.
Tim and I stopped for sushi which apparently isn’t a thing in Japan but Ramen is. We had fresh sushi at a restaurant called ‘Asakusa Sushi Ken’. After eating a lot, we then decided to digest the food by walking to the Tokyo Obeservation Deck. Tim and I found it weird that the foreigners queue was quicker than the locals. We paid ¥ 2,060 for the first Observatory (£ 14) and if you want to visit the highest point, it would cost ¥3,090 (£ 21). That’s how our adventure ended, back to the hostel to pick up the bags and off to Narita Airport to Manila.
SUMMARY-As promised here is a short recap of the trip:
Day 1: KYOTO – Bamboo Forrest, Arashiyama and Nishiki Market
Day 2: KYOTO – Fushimi Inari-taisha, Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji, Chion In, Kyoto-shi Higashiyama-ku and Gionmachi Kitagawa.
Day 3: KYOTO & NARA -Nara Park, Todai-ji and Yasaka Hall Gion Corner
Day 4: TOKYO – Meiji Jingu Shrine (Shibuya), Takeshita-don, Akihabara and Kabuki Cho
Day 5: TOKYO – Odaiba Oedo-Onsen-Monogatari, Shibuya Crossing, Shibuya-ku, Omotesando, Aoyama and Owl Cafe & Bar Owl Village Harajuku.
Day 6: TOKYO – Senso-ji Temple and Tokyo Observation Deck
