A Tale of 3 Weddings

I have always detested the idea of allowing the wedding industry to take advantage of me. I know everyone's gotta make a living, but the prices they charge for their estemeed services tend to lean towards the ridiculous, like RM 1200 for a 3 hour makeup session sort of exorbitant. The moment you announce that you require their services for a wedding, it's as if you've just given them the greenlight to fleece you. It bugs me because I feel that most of them would provide the exact same service for half the price if you didn't tell them it was for a wedding, so why should I pay more for the same quality of service? Or does paying more give me the right to go all bridezilla on them?

Unlike most of the r/wedding subreddit community, I didn't grow up dreaming of the day I would become a bride, in fact I think I dreamt of being filthy rich a lot more heh. As such, I didn't feel the need to throw an expensive perfect wedding, and let's face it, no wedding is ever going to be perfect, but I did want the food to be excellent, the ambience to be snazzy and to be the very picture of the beautiful, blushing bride instead of the frizzy-haired, chapped-lipped mess of a salary-woman I am most of the time. Since Wei Jin is from the north, I even had the perfect venue in mind for an intimate wedding dinner - Penang's Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, even though at that point in time it struck me that such a high-profile venue (sucks that it was featured in Crazy Rich Asians) could break the bank. But hey, maybe with about 20-30 pax it could still be affordable? The idea was to ROM somewhere in Sungai Petani or Penang Island and then have a nice lunch/dinner together with close family members. This particular idea didn't survive long, however, as Wei Jin pointed out that having a wedding in Penang would necessitate the invitation of a lot of unwanted (I'm sorry) extended family members from his side. Then we thought that having a destination wedding would be a good way to avoid the wrath of extended family members, since even though most relatives could very well be miffed at not being invited to a wedding if it's in the same city or state, they wouldn't care enough to travel overseas for one. I considered Koh Samui and some other Thai islands at first, but there weren't that many options for fine-dining and villas as I thought there would be, so I decided to go with another option that I knew would be swarming with villas and dining options - Bali. The guest list was to be our immediate families only, so basically only 4 people from my side, but Wei Jin's immediate family is much larger as they're pretty close-knit, and includes quite a number of people who would not be considered "immediate" traditionally. We would still have to do the ROM in Malaysia though and I was all set for a meal at Cheong Fatt Tze's Indigo Restaurant which actually had a reasonably priced lunch menu. If I couldn't have my wedding at the picturesque mansion itself, having lunch at the restuarant sounded like a pretty good deal, perhaps we could even steal some shots at the mansion eh? Sadly, in the end we couldn't do our ROM in Penang Island because Wei Jin's father insisted that his boss was a very important person who absolutely deserved to be invited to Wei Jin's and my wedding if the event was to be held so close to home turf. The cheek of it all. We were both very against the idea since neither of us were planning on inviting even close friends to our ROM, so why the heck should we be inviting some rando whom even Wei Jin barely knows? Wei Jin pushed back, but in the end to avoid conflict we decided that the ROM had to be far, far away from Penang, hence we went with the basic bitch (but still very beautiful) option of Thean Hou Gong, KL. BUT! Since Wei Jin's side is pretty religious, we still had to go through rites and prayers and all these had to be in Sungai Petani, so we decided to add on another simple session just for this purpose. And boys and girls, this was how we ended up with 3 weddings.

Wedding no.1 - Sungai Petani/Penang - September 2024

The first session was supposed to be just rites and prayers for Wei Jin's side followed by lunch, oh nothing grand, and we were only told the date about 3 months before the event. I still wanted my Indigo House lunch, but not surprisingly they were already booked for another wedding by that time. Didn't help that these rites and prayers are usually done on dates deemed auspicious by the Chinese calendar, so we would be competing with goodness knows how many other happy couples. I still prioritized food quality, so I didn't want it to be any random restaurant. Wei Jin and I also didn't want to have it at a Chinese restaurant since we were sick of Chinese wedding course meals by then. Kebaya Dining Room didn't open for lunch, and Suffolk House was also booked out. After going through all the "best restaurants in Penang" lists, we discovered Il Bacaro and thankfully they still had space for ~20 pax. The small snag was that it was Italian, and Wei Jin's side is very Chinese, but he assured me it would be fine, and it's not like we were spoiled for choices anyway. The menu offerred to us was a 3 course set lunch for RM85++ per pax, extremely reasonable considering even the most basic Chinese restaurants would be charging more than double. Finally we secured our restaurant, but the stress didn't end there, as what was supposed to be a simple lunch started to feel more and more formal as the event loomed closer and more people were added to the guest list. The final number was 28 pax, which in hindsight doesn't seem like a lot, but I remember freaking out, since I didn't even arrange for a make-up artist or photographer. My initial plan was to do my own makeup and I even joined a makeup class as part of my upskilling. During class my teacher told me straight that she thought I should engage the help of a professional. Wow, thanks for your faith in my skills. In desperation I tried to find a MUA a month-ish before the day, but of course they were all fully booked. Wei Jin told his parents of my plight, and they assured me they knew someone who would be up for the job. A makeup artist from bumfuck Sungai Petani that's not already been booked by someone else on an auspicious day? She must suck! I sobbed and howled, much to Wei Jin's distress, deciding that if she made me look like a clown I would wipe it all off and do my own makeup. Screw whatever my teacher said about my skills. The night before the event was... perplexing. I had to shower with a bucket of water with flowers soaked in it, and I wasn't even allowed to pick up the flowers from the bathroom floor afterwards, someone else had to do it for me. Then there were the prayers and Wei Jin's mum combing my hair just like in the TVB period dramas. During that time I didn't feel Chinese at all, everything was so alien to me. The next morning I went to the MUA's house in trepidation. She seemed like a nice enough older lady, and as she worked on me I glanced at the products she used and realized there were stuff usually recommended by reddit. I started to feel more hopeful that I may not end up looking clown-like after all. The end results exceeded my expectations entirely, and I have to say I actually prefer my hair and makeup that day compared to my ROM one. Turns out she's not too fussed about earning money, but picky about her customers, and doesn't want to go their place either, preferring people to come to her, which would explain why, despite her talent, she wasn't booked by someone else already.

After I was all dolled up, there was the tea ceremony where we proffered tea to Wei Jin's elders couple by couple (or singularly if they were not married/no living spouse), requesting them to drink tea and accept me into their clan. They in turn offered us both gifts (jewelry, angpau) and blessings, telling us to have many children yada yada. After all the proceedings were completed, it was time for our lunch at Il Bacaro. The wait team were a pleasant bunch, all smiles and attentive to the needs of our group despite the challenge of dealing with so many of us. We didn't book out the entire restaurant, I didn't even bother to ask how much it would cost to book the entire place, since this was supposed to be the "most informal" of our 3 events. The restaurant did set us up in a part of the restaurant separated from the other guests, 28 pax spreaded out over 3 different tables. I had preordered an antipasti platter with cheese, cured meats, figs etc. for each table to nibble on before the actual starters come, and when we were in the midst of it one of Wei Jin's aunts asked what the meat was. I confidently told her it was pork since it usually is pork right? I waved down a waiter to check anyway and assure them. "Oh it's chicken and beef. We don't serve pork here" came the reply, making me hope the ground would open up and swallow me whole. Background: Wei Jin's family are devout buddhists. So yes, I fed beef to a bunch of buddhist at an event where I was to officially join their family. Great job on the first day. Brilliant. To their credit, no one kicked up a fuss, but I still felt horrible about it. Thank goodness after that it all went smoothly, the food was pretty good and no other faux pas was committed. The lunch ended with a nice big group photo and Wei Jin and I chit-chatting to the managers(?) for a while. I even bought an art print of Campbell House, where Il Bacaro is located, as a souvenir for this occassion.

DAMAGE CALCULATOR
Dining : ~RM 4,000
Make up : Sponsored by Wei Jin's parents yippee!
Outfit : 0 for me because I wore one of my nicer Zara dresses, ~$600 for Wei Jin's outfit because his tailored suit was not done by then
TOTAL: ~RM 6,000

Wedding no.2 - ROM in Kuala Lumpur - March 2025

This was the event which I started planning the earliest, since the Penang one was sprung on us a little late. Since ROM in Penang became a no-no, I had two ideas, either I go with the option everyone based in the Klang Valley goes for - Thean Hou Gong, or I arrange for an officiant to come to a venue of my choice. I scouted around online for options for the latter, but honestly, there wasn't anywhere in KL suitable for an intimate event that caught my eye, hence I decided to be a basic bitch and go with the trusty Thean Hou Gong. After ROM, we would have lunch at a nice non-Chinese restaurant. In the past I usually got compliments whenever I wore a cheongsam, hence I decided to make full use of this and wear a cheongsam for ROM. We wanted to go with the old-Shanghai style theme ala Lust, Caution, so Wei Jin got his suit from a tailor that his aunt recommended. I looked at some ready-made options for my cheongsam but they all seemed too casual for a wedding, so I decided to splurge and go for a custom-made one. There weren't and still aren't many options for custom-made cheongsams in Malaysia (and I wasn't going to pay Singapore Dollars), the most obvious choice was local designer Meichi, whom I believe is pretty well-known in the wedding industry. I first approached her back in March 2024, and my first meeting with her was in May 2024. Mine was a pretty standard design of hers - a long halter neck cheongsam in my favourite teal, inspired by the main character in Lust, Caution, whose cheongsam I love so much, with some flowery applique on the front and side.

The entire ROM process was extremely tedious, I don't understand why the government doesn't make it easier for us, maybe to discourage Vegas-style marriages? We took the registration form from the UTC office in Sungai Petani sometime in late 2023 or early 2024, then had to get a commissioner of oath's stamp of approval, which we did late last year in Kuantan. Why Kuantan? Well we happened to be going back to visit our old friends and we took Monday off, so we decided to make full use of that Monday, if not we would have to take leave on another weekday just for this. Only halfway done at this point, we still had to go to JB to submit the form to the Ministry of Registeration and get their stamp of approval as well and only then was the form fit for submission to Thean Hou Gong, which we had to travel to KL for. Finally we could get our ROM date booking during the form submission. Initially we wanted the 3rd of March cause... 3/3 looks nice I guess, those double digits thing. Sadly 3/3/2025 was the first Monday of the month, and Thean Hou Gong reserves these first Mondays for their admin work which doesn't include ROM stuff, so we switched to Sunday, 2nd of March instead. I rented an Airbnb in Bangsar about 10 mins away from the temple so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic. Of course, mum and dad preferred to stay at home, so only Wei Jin's parents, aunt and grand aunt stayed with us.

Of course I had to consult Joanne when searching for a photographer. It's kinda hard to describe but the trend for wedding photography nowadays seem to lean towards this sort of soft Instagram filter look, which both Joanne and I detest. She linked me a couple of people whose style she approved of, and we got a few quotes but I realized I kept going back to Milan Teh's website to view his vibrant photos. It also helped that his e-mail reply when I asked for a quotation gave me a really good feeling, he just came off as a nice, affable person, even though we had only exchanged a few short e-mails. So even though it would cost me a few hundred ringgit more than someone from KL since Milan would be coming from Penang, I decided to trust my instincts on this one. And I am very proud to say my insticts did a good job indeed. Milan was always very responsive and proactive when it came to communication, for example, updating me when he arrived in KL the day before etc., which I cannot say for some of the service providers I've dealt with over the course of the weddings (yes with a "s") planning process. I think Wei Jin and I weren't the easiest models to work with, cause we're both camera shy and extremely awkward. Quoting Milan, "You're not smiling, you're just showing teeth!". Thankfully he was very patient with us. The photos came out vibrant and lovely, and even though we spent almost 2 hours at Thean Hou Gong taking photos, he only wanted to charge us an hour as he felt that we spent a lot of time waiting around since it was swarming with tourists and other just-married/to-be-married couples with their photographers. Of course I insisted to pay him for his 2 hours of time, waiting or no, but it was nice of him that way. Thank you Joanne and my intincts!

I don't have much to say about makeup. I knew I wanted to go with the old-Shanghai style and I didn't want my makeup to be too heavy, so I just pm-ed a couple of people I found on Instagram who fitted the bill and chose one that didn't break my piggy bank (some wanted to charge me more than a thousand bucks, cray cray) - Diana Tang. She was nice to talk to, and yes I was pretty satified with the makeup even though it probably wasn't the old-Shanghai style I told her about, but my hair left me wanting a little more though. She decided my cheongsam outfit required a clean look, so she did my hair up in a neat bun, but it felt a tad too simple for me, even though Priya insisted later that it was perfect. She also gave me a lot of anxiety because unlike Milan, she wasn't exactly the responsive type. As we got closer and closer to the ROM date, my mind kept conjuring up scenarios of my MUA not turning up on the day itself, leaving me to face the world ugly and bare-faced. Phew, I'm so glad it's all over.

Food-wise I did quite some extensive research and enquired a couple of high-end restaurants in KL - Skillet, Dominic, Entier etc. Skillet didn't have a private room big enough for ~20 pax, Dominic did have a suitable area but was turned off by the brusque PIC. Entier straight-up didn't reply, either rude or bad at doing business. I remember Sabayon was part of my consideration too, but their menu was on the pricier side. In the end I found a restaurant in my list of Saved Place on Google Maps - Cassis in TTDI. I had a good feeling about this place, perhaps because the price wasn't as exorbitant as the other fine-dining places, maybe because from the photos online it looked like a small restaurant suitable for an intimate event. Turns out my intuition was right, the menu offered was solid and dealings with the PIC went quite smoothly. We could also have the entire restaurant to ourselves if we had more than 16 pax, which I knew for certain we would definitely exceed. I know I'm patting myself on the back but I think minus the sweeping views of KL City that perhaps Sabayon would have been able to provide, Cassis was the perfect venue for our party of 36 adults and 2 kids. There was a main dining room with 27 of us (Wei Jin's + my fam bam, Priya and family, Wei Jin's friends, Kess + Natalie, Jason) while the BS3 group had a whole private room to themselves just across from the main dining room. It was a blessing in disguise that the date of our ROM was in the month of Ramadhan, if not my guest list would probably go up to more than 40 pax in total and possibly exceed the max capacity of the restaurant.

I barely spent anything on decor because the restaurant's original state was already cosy and aesthetically pleasing with its beige boho-ish theme, complete with small bunch of flowers on each table. Would I have liked to splurge more if I had the spare cash? Absolutely. Whenever I thought of organizing my wedding, one foolish desire I had was to deck the entire place out with fresh flowers. I couldn't fulfill this mainly because it would probably set me back a few unnecessary thousands. The sustainable part of me also whispered that it would be a huge waste of flowers since lunch was only gonna be maximum 3 hours at the most. So yeah, I had to give up that particular idea. Maybe 50 years later at vow renewal or something heh.

Anyway, the food at Cassis was great, every single dish was done very well, from the croissant starter to the corn veloute, salmon with perfectly crispy skin and finally the chocolate tart. The entire team were champs, excellent service. I decided that I MUST go back to Cassis again, this time purely as a guest and not having to worry about being an organizer, so I insisted to Wei Jin that we have to go there for our anniversary dinner next year. :)

The magical corn veloute
DAMAGE CALCULATOR
Dining : ~RM 8,000
Make up : RM 700
Outfit : RM 2,890 (Cheongsam) + ~RM 2,500 (Wei Jin's suits)
Photographer: RM 1,700
ROM fees : RM 300
Wine : RM 1,044
Bouquet : RM 390
Airbnb : RM 1,675
TOTAL : RM 19,199 Wow, I didn't think it would add up to this much!

Wedding no.3 - Destination wedding in Bali - May 2025

The Bali one was the most frustrating for a variety of reasons:
1. Initially there were supposed to be around 20 of us, mostly Wei Jin's side, since I only have mumkins, dadkins, Annekins and Mingkins. Wei Jin's aunt, uncle and cousins from KL pulled out quite early, claiming... actually I don't remember what excuse they used. Fine, it's fine, they had already come to the Penang event and KL ROM session anyway. What annoyed me was Wei Jin's brother and girlfriend who seemed to be joining at first, although now that I come to think about it, they never actually gave a clear indication when the topic came up. Anyway, they ended up only telling us a few months before the event that they would in fact, not be joining, because they didn't have enough leave. Annoyed is putting it a bit lightly, I was quite pissed actually, since by that time I had already booked accomodations for them as well, and had to do some re-planning after they declared they were flaking. It also irked me especially because they didn't come to the ROM claiming the same excuse, even though our ROM was on a Sunday morning. I also know they attended GEM's concert in Singapore the night before our ROM, so I was already nursing a bit of a grudge since I felt that they chose her concert over our ROM and the entire leave thing was an excuse. Since Wei Jin and his brother only have each other for siblings, it felt quite awful of him to miss both the ROM and Bali trip. He probably thinks attending the Penang lunch was enough to fulfill his brotherly duties. Almost wanted to call the whole thing off, but Joanne didn't join the rituals or ROM, so this would be the only event for her and Sengming.

2. Difficulties finding a suitable restaurant and makeup artist. I don't know why the heck I decided to have my wedding dinner in Canggu, I think it's because I assumed the hustle and bustle there meant there would be tonnes of nice restaurant options. Boy was I wrong. Ok actually I'm not wrong in the sense that there are indeed tonnes of restaurants in Canggu, it's just that most of the fancier places serve European or Japanese or fusion, whereas I was looking for Indonesian cuisine since we're in Bali after all. Just when I thought I could go with Sangsaka, they told me I could not have the private dining room unless I meet their crazy minimum spend of 19 million rupiah, which is not that feasible with only 12 of us, unless we spend a lot on alcohol, which I didn't want to do anyway. Their staff were also not were helpful when I asked if there were any other areas suitable for my party of 12. Merah Putih is probably the most well known fancy local restaurant, but alas no private or at least semi-private dining rooom. After what felt like endless searching, I stumbled across Iwa Restaurant at Hotel Tugu on one of those online lists of dining recommendations and found out they actually had a couple of nice private rooms. I usually have some reservations when it comes to hotel food, but honestly the mental exhaustion of trying to find a suitable place was getting to me and decided to just go with it, since the venue they offered, the Bale Sutra, was the most unique I've seen so far - a Chinese temple from the 1700s.

Finding a makeup artist was frustrating too, because our dinner was originally scheduled to be on Saturday but the few artists I asked didn't want to take such early bookings (I was asking more than 6 months before the event) for a non-wedding makeup session, holding out in case they can score a customer who wants bridal makeup I suppose, since that pays a lot more. The idea of not having a booking secured until a date much closer to the event was making me anxious though, so I decided to shift my event to Friday instead, in the hopes that it would be easier to get a makeup artist to commit. Eventually found Putri on Instagram and I felt like she did a solid job on both Joanne and I: Not too heavy, just nice. My favourite would still be the Sungai Petani artist though.

3. Wei Jin's side was to be flying in on Batik Air, while mum and dad were flying on MAS because mum doesn't do budget airlines. Thanksfully she didn't, because Wei Jin's family got royally screwed over by Batik Air. In the original ticket their flights were supposed to be around 8 - 9 am, leaving them lots of time to rest and freshen up before our dinner. And then, more than a month before the trip the flight was rescheduled to fly 1 hour later. That we could still deal. However, on the morning itself, when they were already at KLIA, they were all unceremoniously booted to the 2 pm flight because Batik Air overbooked their morning flight. They made a lot of noise, but the staff were apparently unapologetic and claimed they couldn't do anything about it. To add insult to the injury, even the 2 pm flight was delayed to around 3 pm, so by the time they landed in Bali it was around 7:30 pm in the evening, and with the horrible Bali traffic, they arrived at Hotel Tugu around 9:30 pm.

There are so many things wrong with this. First of all, why do we customers have to suffer the consequences of the airlines overbooking their flight? We bought the ticket for a specific date and time and the airlines should fulfill their responsbility somehow, even if it means they have to book us another flight with a different company. Failing to do so, they should practise the system of offering monetary reward to volunteers who are willing to take a later flight. This way, those who don't have a tight schedule may be happy to earn a quick dime, and their seats can be offered to those who urgently need to reach their destination by a certain time. But nope, all Batik Air did was offer the Lows lounge access, and Business Class seat for 1 pax because apparently that was there was only remaining seat left. Anyway, why couldn't they have informed us in advanced that the flight was delayed to the afternoon, so that the family could come to the airport later instead. Absolutely horrendous planning and a total disregard of their customers' time.

I felt horrible that the Lows all had to troop in for dinner after such a harrowing journey, without even a warm shower to freshen up. By then, I had already dismissed the hired photographer because we weren't sure what time they would actually reach due to the Bali traffic, so we didn't have nice professional photos with them either. At least, the food and performance by the hotel team, as well as the service provided by the wait staff was great, even though we had to delay our dinner from the original start time of 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm. I felt so bad that they had to wait so long for us, even though it wasn't our fault. We also couldn't enjoy our magnificent dinner slowly, since it was already so late when we started, and the restaurant was supposed to close at 10:30 pm. This Bali wedding was supposed to be THE main event, so it was a really a huge bummer Batik Air messed it up for us. Unless Batik Air somehow sponsors another overseas wedding dinner as compensation, I for sure will do my very best to avoid flying with them ever.

Yeah I think I don't want to talk about Bali anymore. I need to do a vow renewal or 10th wedding anniversary bash to make myself feel better. Some photos from the photoshoot at out rented villa before dinner, credits to local photog Tony:

Some shots at Hotel Tugu's Bale Sutra, which was already beautiful to began with, but I also paid Pivoine Garden some moolah to to arrange some floral centerpieces, and I must say they did an excellent job:

No professionally-taken group photo since the photographer had already left when the Lows finally arrived, but we take what we can get:

DAMAGE CALCULATOR
Dining : ~RM 4,500
Make up : ~RM 650
Outfit : ~RM 500 (Dress rental) Photographer : ~RM 900
Floral arrangement : ~RM 750
Airbnb + Hotels : ~RM 5,600 + ~RM 3,400 + ~RM 1,700 + ~RM 1,600
Transportation : ~RM 550
TOTAL : RM 20,150

If I could do it all over again, I would definitely not do Bali anymore, since even the support from Wei Jin's side of the family was lacklustre. I would probably just do one big event combining the rituals and the ROM, and it would be at Cheong Fatt Sze in Penang, and Joanne would also have to come during that time instead. I feel like such an idiot for going through so much hassle. Well, as much as I would have liked my wedding to be perfect, I am a firm believer that the wedding is just one day, or in my case, three days, and the coming days together are what matters the most. So here's to us, Beekins.

The Japanese Roadtrip: Kanazawa to Yokohama

I usually record my travels chronologically, but this time I thought I would do a ranking of the various places we visited on our family trip to Japan:
(i) Exceed Expectations
(ii) Twas Alright
(iii) Overhyped
Pretty self-explanatory right?

We wanted to escape the throngs of tourists said to be invading the major cities - Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka mainly, so we decided to go start in Kanazawa on the west coast and then do a road trip eastwards, stopping at a few locations along the way before finally taking a shinkansen from Matsumoto to Yokohama, the last stop in our journey. Well, we were naive if we thought we could completely escape the crowds, but compared to what we saw in Tokyo when we stopped there briefly before our flight to Kanazawa, it wasn't too crazy, apart from Shirakawa-go. I kinda miss the good ol' days when Japan was less popular and one would be surrounded by locals going about their day, making the entire experience feel more authentic.

Without further ado...

EXCEED EXPECTATIONS

Hida-Furukawa: It may be a sleepy town and you definitely don't need more than a day here, but this place turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the entire trip. I remember trying to do the itenerary and ended up coming up with ... nothing. Hence I found myself pleasantly surprised that one part of the town had koi filled waterways and beautiful old town-style streets to explore. We also had a fun time at the Hourai brewery. The saleslady was extremely nice, letting us sample the different types of sake they had to offer while giving detailed explainations which I tried my best to translate to the fambam. While we were trying out the sake, an ojii-chan from Tokyo casually joined us for a few samples and chit-chatted with the saleslady before leaving without buying anything, I even got an amazake recommendation from him before he ciao-ed. Did he just come for some free liquer then?

Trying out the various types of sake Hourai had to offer
We also had pretty amazing food here. The evening we arrived we had dinner at a small diner called Naniwa Shokudo ran by an old lady and a man I presumed to be her son. It took ages for the food to arrive despite there being only a couple there besides us (group of 6), since obaa-chan was the only chef (her son did warn us it would take a while), but the yakisoba was more than worth the wait, and this is coming from someone who doesn't even like yakisoba. The okonomiyaki was decent, but didn't wow me like the yakisoba did. The next day before we departed for Takayama we also had an amazing lunch at a restaurant called Ohako specializing in herb-based fare. I wasn't entirely sold on the hippie herb-based concept at first, but since the ramen place Hiro Dash we were supposed to go to wasn't open, we decided to go with Ohako since Joanne had heard good things about it. I suppose it was a stroke of luck that we ended up there, for the lunch platter we had at Ohako was not only extremely tasty despite being just fairly simple fare of rice with vegetables and hamburger steak (maybe the herbs added some extra flavour), but was also very pleasing to the eye thanks to the assortment of colours of the various dishes.

Godly yakisoba
Yokohama: Coming in a very close second and once again also helped by the lack of any expectations. I glanced through lists of tourist attractions there during the planning stage and it was always Chinatown or the Nissin Cup Noodle Museum at the top so I had resigned myself to shopping. When we arrived at Sakuragicho Station on Friday night, I was surprised to see the Air Cabin cable cars drifting serenely across the bay. The huge Ferris Wheel and Nipponmaru ship in the vicinity also made for a beautiful night view of the bay area. Unfortunately I don't have a good photo as we were all preoccupied with dragging our luggages to the Mitsui Garden Hotel, I only managed to steal a pretty close shot of the Nipponmaru.

I'm not sure why but there's a sort of Hawaiian trend going on in Yokohama, evidenced by a decent number of Hawaiian-themed restaurants and cafes serving things like pancakes, locomoco and garlic shrimps. We went to one called Merengue after dropping off our bags at Mitsui Garden. Since I have never been to Hawaii I can't comment on the authenticity of the food, but I did enjoy my garlic shrimps and fluffy pancakes. The cafe was also beautifully decorated to give off a tropical beach resort vibe and the waitresses dressed in voluminous hula skirts which I was extremely envious of. The next day we also spotted a Hula dance competition going on nearby when we were on the decks of the Nipponmaru, which used to sail the seas as a training ship in the 20th century, but now served as an exhibition. I really like the unexpected Hawaiian vibe though, and it got me thinking of visiting Hawaii soon, until I checked the hotel prices a few days ago and found out that hotels there cost around $300 dollars a night.

I also decided I had to take a ride on the Air Cabin and Ferris Wheel so I dragged Wei Jin and mum (dumped unceremoniously for the day by dad who wanted to go to the musuems) to both the following day . The Air Cabin ride took us across the water to the World Porters shopping centre and only lasted about 10 minutes one way. The Ferris Wheel felt a bit longer but perhaps it just felt that way because I was actually kinda scared while it was going up and up, my fear of heights suddenly taking over me. Overall Yokohama gave me a really nice vibe with the only downside being that the JR Yokohama Station was horrendously crowded when we went shopping there after lunch on Saturday afternoon, reminding me unpleasantly of Kinshicho and Shinjuku. I look forward to visiting again though.

TWAS ALRIGHT

Kanazawa: We only had one full day in Kanazawa which was definitely not enough to do it justice. During that time we managed to cover Higashi Chaya, Omicho Market, Kenrokuen Garden and Kanazawa Castle. Higashi Chaya felt like a discount version of Kyoto's Gion district, there was only two or three streets that were in the preserved traditional style. It was also a bummer we went on a day where there were no Geisha performances, I would have loved to see one live, blame Memoirs of a Geisha for hyping up the Geisha culture. We did visit Oshima Teahouse which used to be a real teahouse back in the days, but now served as a museum. What's a teahouse without tea? After wandering around Oshima's for a glance into the past, we had some namagashi sweets and matcha in their tiny cafe at the back of the building. Quite an enjoyable experience overall. Omicho Market was a bit meh to me, it felt similar to what I had already seen in Hakodate and Sapporo last year, just stall after stall selling various types of dried and fresh seafood. The boys looked like they had a good time snacking on uni and unagi:

The kaisendon we had for lunch was pretty decent, but there will always be a special place in my heart for the one I had at Chamu in Hakodate.

Kenrokuen Gardens and Kanazawa Castle are located in the same huge compound, and if I were going without the fambam I would make it a point to cover the entire area as I thought the gardens were beautiful indeed, but mum and dad decided there was no need to walk the whole place so in the end we only got to see about half of it. Initially I had bookmarked Shigure-tei to have tea at, but they were closed for a pottery exhibition that day, so we went to another place called Uchihashi-tei, which overlooked the Kasumigaike Pond, so we had a really beautiful view to enjoy with our second round of matcha and sweets. The sweets we had this time were unfortunately some pre-packed commercial type you could probably buy off the shelves somewhere, and while the taste was fine, it couldn't light a candle next to the fresh namagashi we had at Oshima's. I was interested in exploring Kanazawa Castle but apparently there's only a small part of it which can be entered and mum and dad also weren't interested so I had to drop that thought. Overall, I thought Kanazawa had quite a good variety of attractions, but we didn't have enough time there so it all felt a bit rushed. We also didn't get to go to the samurai district Nagamachi, that seems like a good reason to visit again in the future.

The proprietor(?) of Uchihashi-tei claimed it has the best view in Kenrokuen
Matsumoto: If given a choice to pick a city/town out of all the places we visited this time to settle down in, I MIGHT go with Matsumoto (or Kanazawa hmmm). It reminds me of Ipoh, not too crazy hectic like Tokyo, Osaka or even Yokohama, but not exactly in the boonies either. It also helps that the city is surrounded by mountains, lending it a plesantly serene air. We arrived here in the evening after our drive from the Hida region, and had to catch the Shinkansen to Yokohama the following afternoon, so we had effectively less than 24 hours here. Again, not enough time to do much exploring. The evening we arrived all we did was explore the shopping centre next to the JR Matsumoto station and stroll around the streets nearby before dinner. The next morning before our train ride to Tokyo we went for the Matsumoto Castle tour that Joanne signed us up for. I remember I was against the idea of going on a tour to a place we could easily explore ourselves, but it came as a package with the soba-making workshop that we were actually interested in, so we had to go along with it. Our tour guide (rats, I forgot her name) was a petite lady from the nearby Azumino region. She took us through the city to the Castle, pointing out interesting stuff along the way like the drinkable springs that could be found all over the city, perks of being surrounded by mountains. Matsumoto Castle itself was an extremely majestic sight to behold, I could barely think of Kanazawa Castle as a castle after setting my eyes on Matsumoto.

As mentioned, the Matsumoto Castle tour came as a package with the soba-making so we just went along with it, but in hindsight it was actually great that we ended up going on this tour. The Castle had a total of 6 floors - 1 floor hidden from the outside, fooling visitors, and enemies back in the warring days, into thinking that it had only 5, with some really narrow and steep staircases. I am 100% sure mum and dad would have given up on the second floor if there wasn't a tour guide urging us onwards and upwards. As it was, we covered the entire castle and even had a photo opportunity with a "ninja".

After the castle tour we went for our soba making workshop taught by a kindly ojii-chan. Overall, it wasn't too difficult and there was certainly a sense of satisfaction in eating the soba that we had handmade ourselves, albeit with lots of help from ojii-chan. As much as I enjoyed the experience, I don't think I have the time or energy to make my own noodles on a regular basis and will continue buying the dried version for my meals.

OVERHYPED

I guess it's not surprising these three ended up here, considering that out of all the places we went to they were definitely the most well-known and still frequently pop up on my social media newsfeed.

Kamikochi: As a wannabe-hiker, Kamikochi was the place I was looking forward to the most. I knew I wouldn't be able to get any serious hiking done with my entire family in tow and had set my expectations accordingly, but I still thought there would be more to see. It was a short 10-15 minutes hike from the Kamikochi bus station to the most photographed spot in Kamikochi - Kappa Bridge, and indeed it was a grand sight to behold:

Well, marred slightly by the crowds. I guess I'm being a hypocrite since we were contributing to the crowds as well, but you know what I mean! We couldn't even have a proper lunch because the queues at the few eateries in the area were horrendous, so we ended up having some pretty decent apple pies at Trois Cinq instead, which wasn't crowded since it was more of a cafe with no proper meals. After that we hike along the Azusagawa from Kappa Bridge to the Taisho Pond area, which took about an hour. The hiking trail ran through the clumps of trees (don't think I can call it a forest) growing along the side of the river with not much views of note. The Taisho Pond area was pretty but not as awe-inspiring as Kappa Bridge.

A peculiar warning found amist the trail
I guess this is another place I will have to visit again but next time I will hike in the other direction from Kappa Bridge to Myojin Pond since we didn't have time to do it this round.

We had a pleasant stay in the cosy Kyomu no Yado Yamaboshi at the nearby Onsen town of Okuhida after our hike. It's a small establishment, so it was quiet and we barely saw much of the other guests. Room wise pretty similar to the onsen resorts I've stayed at before, with the only special feature being a traditional hearth that us kids had tea around. There were 2 outdoor private onsens and 1 public one with both indoor and outdoor baths, just the right number of baths for those of us staying for a night (1 bath before dinner, 1 bath after dinner, 1 bath before checking out the next day). Nice but nothing too spectacular. What WAS spectacular was the food, especially the dinner we had. Onsen resort dinners are always extravagant, but Yamaboshi's was extra special because they also included a lot of the Hida region's specialities into the menu, so in addition to the standard stuff, we also had goheimochi and iwana on spits as well as Hida beef. The staff explained all the different courses to me in Japanese and it was my task to translate all these so the fambam could understand. She also knew some of the food phrases in English and even showed us her little notebook where she wrote all her English notes.

Takayama: Like Hida-Furukawa, Takayama Old Town (there's another part of Takayama that's modern and unremarkable) is another one of those towns with preserved buildings and retro vibes. Unlike Hida-Furukawa, it was bustling with yes you guessed it, tourists from all the world. The main street was full of shops aimed at tourists' wallets, from general souvenir stores to those specializing in one particular type of souvenir like senbei and miso. I found most of the shops pretty dull and was further discouraged by the crowds, until we found the Sake Theme Park, or rather, Funasaka Sake Brewery. This place had an interesting concept where you could get tokens for 100 yen apiece that you could then use at their sake vending machines, which for a token would dispense a small Japanese sake cup portion of your chosen poison. They also sell you the sake cup for a few hundred yen that you can take home as a souvenir after you've had your fill of sake. Of course, they also sold the full bottle versions of the sake there for interested peeps and Wei Jin got conned into buying the umeshu. I had heard of sake vending machines in Niigata before but didn't expect to be able to visit one on this trip, so this was a pleasant surprise. There were only about 10+ types of sake available for trying, but it's not like we could drink that much anyway with dinner coming up after that.

Speaking of dinner, I was actually looking forward to the Hida beef yakiniku since Hida beef is supposed to be the region's "meibutsu". It also took us a lot of effort to book the yakiniku place since a lot of the restaurants either didn't do reservations or required customers to call them for one. Joanne's friend Arissa who is half-Japanese and still has her Japanese phone number helped us booked a table at Akariya. Interestingly enough, there was a dispute going on between a Taiwanese tourist and the restaurant staff when we entered, with the tourist claiming his card was charged a large sum for no known reason, so we were just stood sort of neglected awhile as the staff was too occupied with the dispute. When we finally got our table we ordered lots of Hida beef and also some pork for Wei Jin. It was tasty I suppose, BBQ seldom isn't, but I didn't get the "melt in the mouth" feeling I was hoping for. It was also slightly stressful as mum didn't want to go back too late and was making sure we sped up our BBQing. Another interesting moment when the staff involved in the dispute before came in and requested my help to translate the Taiwanese tourist's Chinese text message from the bank. I did my best, a shame he didn't give us free dessert for my efforts. All in all, it felt like a steal to be having wagyu at a much cheaper price than what we're used to in Malaysia and Singapore, but I had also expected to be wow-ed by the beef and was left wanting for more.

Along with Kyomu no Yado Yamaboshi, The Machiya Hanare villa in Takayama was my favourite stay. The villa is part of a row of buildings sitting by the banks of the main river in Takayama (does it ever flood?) and has a deck overlooking the river, so when you open the sliding doors you can hear the soothing gurgling of the river outside and spy on the people (well, mostly tourists now) on the bridge going about their day. The villa was also tastefully decorated in a mix Japanese and modern style, the bedrooms had tatami mats and shoji sliding doors, and there was also a nice cypress bath in the downstairs bathroom but the living area and kitchen was contemporary. May the Gods grant me enough money so that I may own a vacation home like this some day.

The view from our villa
Shirakawa-go: Yeah... no, I don't think I want to go back for a long time. Don't get me wrong, it is still a beautiful place that's worth visiting, you don't get the UNESCO World Heritage badge of honour for nothing, but what with tourists swarming everywhere, yikes! We had booked a walking tour and our tour guide had a pretty good sense of humour and did a solid job telling us about Shirakawa-go, but there wasn't all that much to see in the first place, mainly admiring the design of the thatched roof houses which is called "gassho style". Mum got bored quite fast and even dad lost interest towards the end. Very picturesque but incredibly difficult to take good photos when there's just so many people wandering around. Before we came to Shirakawa-go we actually went to another much smaller gassho village called Ainokura, I thought they were similar enough and if one didn't want to brave the crowds Ainokura would suffice really.

I think I had enough of Honshu for now. Next on my list for Japan: The Chuugoku and Shikoku region (Tokushima, Okayama)? Or maybe Kyuushu (Miyazaki)?

The Unfit Hikers: Awed by the Caucasus

We just got back from Georgia less than 12 hours ago but here I am, I haven't been so eager to write about anything in a very, very long time but our trip to Georgia was so amazing I feel like I have to immediately put pen to paper, metaphorically speaking.

From what I've seen, Georgia is not that popular a destination for vacation among Malaysians and Singaporeans (and other Asian countries), which on one hand is a blessing cause at least you won't be surrounded by tourists all the time like what is happening in Japan right now. On another note I feel sad that the Georgian government isn't maximizing their country's full potential when they've been blessed with such beautiful nature and rich culture. Tbilisi Shota Rustaveli Airport is pretty small and feels dated, not bright and shiny like Singapore's Changi or Doha's Hamad, even KLIA feels more modern. That and passing through the streets as we travelled towards the city on Bus 337 gives me the impression that Georgia is still very much a developing country. Developing or no, their efforts in spaying and neutering street dogs is commendable. Almost every single dog we saw on the streets was tagged and they were all sweet and docile, unlike the mad hounds terrifying people in all parts of Malaysia.

A good boi
We had two nights in Tbilisi before our Kazbegi hiking tour, which I probably won't have time to write about. Suffice to say that Tbilisi old town was pretty quaint and the food we had was generally great too, although I have to say I am not a huge fan of khatchapuri, with all that cheese it's just too difficult to finish on your own. The thermal baths we tried in Abanotubani was nice (both before and after the hiking tour) but didn't feel as clean as those in Japan, maybe I just feel that way because they don't seem to enforce showering before dipping in the bath, which Japan is quite strict about. Special shout out also to Khedi Hotel because the room we had was so uniquely designed and the food was GLORIOUS. From the amazing kharcho soup and mini khinkalis which we had as our first meal in Tbilisi after stepping off the plane, to the breakfast the next two mornings, everything was yummy.

You get these cuties instead of boring signs

Top: The Big Georgian Breakfast Bottom: Matsoni with honey - both were amazing

The famous Chreli-Abano Spa
I was feeling a bit apprehensive about the hiking tour not only because I had not been doing any physical training before this (big mistake), but also because me being me, I was worried about having to interact with others, would people be unfriendly? Would it be awkward? Well, I need not have worried at all, because we had a blast with the entire team and so many fond memories were made during our 3.5 days together exploring the Kazbegi region. On the first day Wei Jin and I were 5 minutes late to the rendezvouz point at the Giant Bicycle Monument because breakfast in Georgia starts late at 08:00 hrs (meeting time was 09:00 hrs), and our breakfast at Khedi Hotel was so good that I couldn't bear to forego it. We also had to drop our bags off at the next hotel (Unfound Door) that we would be staying at after the tour before going to rendevouz with the rest. As a result, we scarfed down our breakfast within 10 minutes and spent the next 30 minutes in panic mode as we rushed from Khedi to Unfound Door and finally made it to the Bicycle Monument, breathing a sigh a relief to find our guide Sandro and the team still there. Then all 15 of us all climbed on to the mini van to start our journey to Trusso Valley for our "warm up hike", making a stop at Ananuri Fortress along the way. It was when we were on the bus when I caught some conversation in Malay, turns out there was another Malaysian couple on the tour as well - Rocky and Yati! We didn't expose ourselves as Malaysians to them at the start though, only when we finally started chit chatting during the Trusso Valley hike did we spring the surprise on them.

The journey to Trusso Valley took around 3 hours, it would probably have been shorter had Georgia had proper highways, but they only have a single lane in each direction. The last 30 minutes was especially uncomfortable because the van had to traverse across bumpy untarred gravel roads. It was extremely slow going and we were in a perpetual state of being jolted from side to side. Still, it was extremely worth it because even at the start the views were already very scenic, walking along the valley above the river.

After a couple of kilometers we were greeted by vast beautiful plains. A little further along there was also a small little shop where hikers can get drinks and some respite (can't remember if they have food). Shortly after the shop we stopped by a tiny bubbling lake with vibrant blue waters for a break. Sandro called it a lake, but I thought it was only slightly bigger than a pond to be honest. It was during this break that I started talking to Jeep who's from Thailand. He came together on this trip with his friend (whose name I still don't know). After this we hiked through plains dotted with ruins and inhabited by cows, before making looping back again and eventually ending up back on our initial track above the river. By this time my feet were starting to protest, which is only to be expected thanks to my lack of prior training.

The "Lake"

The entire trek was about 20 km long and I was extremely relieved to see our white van waiting for us where we left it. I was exhausted. Our driver then drove almost an hour or so to the village of Stepantsminda, where we spent a night at a simple inn run by a sweet Georgian lady, I wish I took a picture with her. The Georgian-style dinner - vegetable soup, chicken stew, roasted potatoes, kebabs, salad, beetroot, tomato and cucumber slices, bread and cheese, that she and her team made was heavenly, especially since we were starving because we didn't have a proper lunch (I had sadly misunderstood and thought we would be stopping somewhere for lunch before the hike). We washed the feast down with some home made wine and chit chatted with those sitting nearby - Baela from Switzerland, the Spanish couple Moni and Danny as well as the other South East Asians before heading off to bed early for a much needed recuperation.

This home-cooked meal was so good
I was pretty excited for Day 2 because we would be hiking the region near Gergeti Trinity Church - one of the most famous Georgian landmarks. Alas, Day 2 was also when I became fully aware of my poor physical condition. To save some energy, after a hearty Georgian breakfast the 4 of us Malaysians paid some Laris to the inn's priorieter to take us up the hill in a van to the Gergeti Trinity Church area while the others hiked an additional half an hour uphill. We met up with them on the hill, spending some time taking photos of the Church and surrounding mountains before continuing our hike up to the Gergeti Glacier. The path up was pretty steep most of the time, yet the Europeans, Kiwis, Tarkan from Turkey and North Americans were extremely quick, and we found ourselves constantly at the back of the group struggling to keep up. I fared worse than Wei Jin, who had to wait up for me as I made periodic stops, panting and coughing, heart pounding in my ears as my body struggled to fathom this sudden increase in physical activity. Even Rocky and Yati who are much older than us were quicker on average. Jeep's friend brought up the rear, making me feel slightly better about myself. The views were breathtaking though, watching the Church getting smaller and smaller in the midst of the sprawling mountains around it as we went further up, trekking through the light yellow green fields, enjoying the strong breeze and watching Sandro pick his mountain mushrooms for dinner. I wondered why the rest were in such a hurry, to me it felt like they just wanted to reach their destination, but for me the best part about hiking has always been the scenery and being able to immerse oneself in the incomparable beauty of mother nature.

The one, the only, Gergeti Trinity Church!!!

After what felt like forever, we finally reached Cafe 360 Degrees at the top of the ridge, paid an exorbitant amount for drinks and dug into our packed lunch prepared by our inn while savouring the fruits of our labour - the magnificent views of the pass... which I don't seem to have a nice photo of? Seems like in my utter exhaustion I only bothered taking a video.

Rocky enjoying a break at Cafe 360 Degrees
After lunch, the route forward to our next checkpoint (Deka Hut) was much easier, nothing too steep, mostly flat and gentle ups and downs along rockier paths, which I was extremely grateful for, since the part before lunch was BRUTAL. Then the sky started turning dark and we had to pick up our pace a lot in order not to get drenched. Thankfully all of us managed to get to Deka Hut before it started pouring. Deka Hut is a cosy little wooden-style alpine hut with a fireplace in the centre. It's summer so the fireplace wasn't lit, I can only imagine it would be even cosier in the colder weather, warming up by the fireplace. A couple of us had drinks while waiting for the rain to stop, I had a hot fruit tea which was pretty comforting after so much exertion. Seems like Georgian rains don't last long because it felt like less than half an hour later, the rain had stopped. Sandro was saying that those of us who wanted to continue on and reach the Gergeti Glacier would have to make it back to the hut in 1.5 hours. I had enough self awareness to know that my body would not be capable of such a physical feat, so I decided to sit the glacier part out with Yati, Rocky, Baela (who was taking a nap in the hut), the Canadian dude whose name I should really know but don't and Jeep. Wei Jin decided to continue on with The Fit Team while the rest of us South East Asians just hiked to the next mini "peak" along the trail which took us about 15 minutes and took selfies together before turning back to Deka Hut to join Sandro, Baela and Canada.

If you squint you can see Deka Hut on the left (The one on the right is Altihut)
On Sandro's cue, those of us who decided to stay at Deka started to make our way back to Cafe 360 Degrees, knowing that The Fit Team would be on their way back and catching up with us soon. I chit chatted with the dude from Canada (Quebec, to be exact) for a while before he picked up speed while I continued trotting along at the back. After picking up Jeep's friend at 360 Degrees (he didn't continue on to Deka with us earlier), we started descending through a different route which was on the same hill but a little way off from the one we came up from, enjoying the magnificent views and pleasant breeze again. It wasn't long before The Fit Team caught up with us there and took the lead, while I lagged behind with Wei Jin, who had successfully made it to the glacier! to enjoy the views. Going downhill doesn't make me huff and pant the way uphill climbs do, but it certainly brings a different challenge - moving in a controlled way so as to avoid knee and toe pains is a skill, a skill which I have yet to master. I have a feeling my shoes that day could have been tighter too, as I felt like my toes were constantly ramming into the front of my shoes. We were soon quite far behind, gradually losing visual sight of our team. The path down was blessedly straightforward though, except during one part where we had to pass through some thickets. We found Baela waiting for us there to show us the way, and we followed him all the way to the bottom near where we started in the morning, where he rejoined the rest for their additional half an hour hike back that they did in the morning. Naturally we decided to take the van with Yati and Rocky back to the inn, giving our poor legs and feet some much needed respite. After a warm shower we had our Georgian dinner with more homemade wine again. The food was 80% the same as the day before, but I'm not going to complain because it was really tasty. Also helps that we were famished after the day's efforts.

On Day 3 we had to bid nakhvamdis to the nice Georgian lady because we were moving to a different inn in a village called Roshka. We would be hiking there from another village called Juta. I was pretty ecstatic when Sandro told us we would be passing by Fifth Season during our hike. I had heard many great things about the views at Fifth Season and initially wanted to arrange a night there with Wei Jin. Eventually we had to drop the idea because the logistics didn't make sense, so I was really glad that we would be still be able to pass by, and maybe include it in our plans during the next trip here. It was a half an hour ride to Juta where the day started with more puffing and panting from me as we hiked up a steep slope from the village to Fifth Season. Sandro was telling us, specifically those of us who usually brought up the rear, that we would have the option of taking a horse for the first 6-7 km after departing Fifth Season, for 200 laris per person. It was going to be another long hike today with some steep parts. Wei Jin was sold on the idea immediately, since he was pretty sore and tired from yesterday's glacier hike and thought it better to conserve as much energy as possible. I thought 200 laris was kinda steep, but gave in since I was interested in horse riding and my legs were still in protest from yesterday. I've only ridden one once in my life as a kid, and I am almost sure it was in a zoo. All the other South East Asians opted for the horse option too, so while the non-riders started their trek after coffee break at Fifth Season, us riders had an additional half an hour or so to chill there.

Oh boy, the view from Fifth Season was glorious. Just in front of the main wooden building there's an open area with hammocks for people to relax and enjoy the views. I was so absorbed in savouring the beauty and trying my best to swallow my disappointment that I wouldn't be staying overnight here (not helped at all by Sandro who claimed their dinner was one of the best in the area) that I didn't realize that my arms (on which I had neglected to apply sunblock) were slowly being baked by the sun. It was a sunny and hot day, but it wasn't until I started riding my mare that I realized they were turning red. So, never underestimate the Georgian sun, even when you're from the Equatorial region.

I must emphasise that my photo doesn't do the scenery the justice it deserves
I love my brown mare though, she was sweet and good tempered, AND she's also a mama horse. I became the envy of some Hong Kong ladies from another hiking group who were also riding with us, since her foal was constantly by our side the entire journey, trotting along with his mama. We went in small groups of twos or threes, with our horses tied to our local guide's in front leading the way. Wei Jin's and my guide was a young local boy who looked about 12 years old. I was a bit apprenhensive to have such a young guide (does he have sufficient work experience?!), but it was all good and he was a pro. The first part of the journey was mostly flat and I was starting to question my decision to take a horse (despite my love for mama horse), but then came some parts that were more hilly and we even had to ford a few rivers and streams. We passed by the non-riders from our group after quite some time and I was shooked at how much ground they managed to cover during their 30-40 minutes headstart. Guess horse riding was the right decision for me after all. Our ride came to an end after about an hour at the bottom of another steep hill, and I was pretty sad that I had to leave my mare and her foal. Now I'm all pumped up and eager to do somemore horse riding, can't wait for the next time.

I hope you will live a good life

The Chaukhi Massif
Anyway, I thought having my mare do 6-7 km of work for me would give me enough energy to climb the hill in front of us, but I was dead wrong. I had barely started before being overcomed with exhaustion. Then again, maybe I would have just keeled over if I didn't take the horse. The Fit Team overtook us as we struggled upwards, and we met them at the top for our lunch stop, a nice spot overlooking the Chaukhi Pass. During lunch, we were visited by one of the friendly stray mountain dogs and I tried to feed him the sausage from my lunch pack but he was overly enthusiastic and I couldn't manage to take the clingwrap off before he swallowed it whole. I hope he's doing ok after consuming plastic. After our scenic lunch, Wei Jin and I started hiking 5 minutes before the rest (but they soon caught up) to the next viewpoint before we would start descending. Sandro warned that we would have to wait for everyone to reach and gather before descending together because the first part of the descend was a bit tricky. The viewpoint was only 10 minutes away and soon when everyone was together again we decided to take our first proper group shot, albeit with bad lighting.

It sucks that the only group shot we had was backlit so badly
Initially the descend was tricky as Sandro had promised because it was a steep trek through the shale covering the hillside, we all went very slowly with Sandro at the front, trying not to slip and slide too much. After going down for some time, the trail evolved to a switchback dirt path cutting through the grassy undergrowth. The Fit Gang went much faster here, as if they had knees and joints of steel, it was not long before we mostly lost sight of them. Being at the back again with the Thai boys, we occasionally cut through the middle undergrowth covered portion cautiously in order to shorten the route. It felt like a pretty long time going down, despite having a pretty nice view of the surrounding valley. We found Sandro and most of our group resting at the bottom, while some had gone on to check out a lake we saw from the top when we were descending. After a quick break we were on our feet again for the last part of our hike - getting to the vilage of Roshka. This part was relatively flat especially considering what we had covered the past 2 days, it was mostly trekking through the valley surrounded by fields and wasn't too interesting. There was a clear path through the valley to follow at first but after a while the path ended (this was also around the time the team that went to the lake rejoined us) and we had to hike through fields before a path appeared again. It was another 2-3 hours of hiking, mostly uneventful except for a particularly muddy portion where Sandro was waiting to help us, before we finally reached the village of Roshka, the end of the trail bringing us right to the doorstep of our inn for the night - Rockside Inn.

I guess there's probably not many lodging options in Roshka, but Rockside made our first inn at Stepantsminda feel like luxury. The place was dusty since there was construction going on, there were only 2 showers for all the guests to share (15 of us plus some other guests), and the rooms were also the bare minimum. I was also quite annoyed that they didn't have hairdyers nor would they give me milk for my tea. I mean, milk seems like a pretty reasonable request. Dinner was also much poorer fare, meat wise there was only dry roast chicken and some fried fish, and even those were not enough. I decided to give the Canadian dude my portion of roast chicken that he was eyeing hungrily, since it didn't look that appetizing to me. After dinner some of us continued sitting at the dinner table chit chatting and drinking chacha, and Sandro even taught us how to toast Georgian style, all in all it was a very pleasant evening with good company.

According to the itenerary we were supposed to do another long hike on Day 4 before heading back to Tbilisi, but Sandro told us the night before during dinner that it took a long time to get to that area and the views were not as good as what we had already seen. Apparently there's some miscommunication between the people organizing the tour and the tour guides. Anyway we decided as a group not to do that hike and instead settled for an almost 1 hour hike in the village of Roshka. Nothing much to shout about for this one, there wasn't much to see and it involved hiking on the road that the vehicles used. The road was also untarred and muddy. We were rewarded with a nice river at the end but that was about it. We had our last lunch together at a Georgian restaurant on the road back to Tbilisi recommended by Sandro. It was a hearty meal especially after yesterday's dismal dinner, badrijani, salad, kebabs and lots of khinkali, as well as all types of Zedazani lemonade (there's even a tarragon flavoured one that tastes quite foul) and of course, wine. Unfortunately I didn't save the name of the restaurant. I liked how the terrace had tonnes of grapes growing on vines, from which we plucked a few to try.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. I was dreading the moment that we would have to part, but it came to pass, and we said goodbye to everyone at the Bicycle Monument, our initial meeting point just a few days ago. All in all it was a fantastic experience that even the stay in Rockside couldn't diminish, and most definitely the best part of my entire time in Georgia. I am blessed to have met these people and I hope I will get to meet at least some of them in the future. May the Gods grant me the fortune to continue meeting great people on my future hiking tours. Svaneti next?