Good Food and Views are Worth the Journey
This suggested itinerary accompanies my earlier blog, More Than a Oenophile's Dream. Read the blog for more detail and photos.
Access: Piedmont is within easy reach of Milan, Genoa as well as Nice and Monte Carlo but you will need a car to reach the towns and get around. The main city of Turin is well connected by train so you could opt to rent a car in Turin. However, if you are in Milan, I recommend picking up the car in Milan and...
Disfrutar means “enjoy” in Spanish; and this new addition to Barcelona’s dining scene lives up to its name. It was one of my favorite experiences in a recent trip to Spain and the one restaurant I would say you must try if in Barcelona. The food is modern but yet comfortable although some dishes definitely held surprises. The pedigree of the food reflects Disfrutar’s chef-owners, who were ex-El Bulli head chefs and I suspect that there is probably a fair degree of similarity in some...
This is my sister-in-law’s hometown – well, the beach part. There was a pier that burnt down. I took this photo in Nov. 2010 when we did a short road trip through Tasmania. This was taken with my first digital SLR, a Nikon D200, which I used from 2005-2013. I used an 80-200mm set at 120mm and f8, 1/250, ISO100. The lens weighed a ton. Incidentally, I think Tasmania is a good place to visit, especially if you want a place you can drive at your own pace and have your kids with you.
Michelin 3-starred Kitcho Arashiyama is known as a temple of Kyoto Kaiseki cuisine that comes with a high price. Reviews thus, are often mixed. Having now been there in winter and summer, I say that it’s worth trying at least once because of the complete experience it offers. However, if you’re just going for the food, you can get as fulfilling a Kaiseki experience elsewhere for a lot less financial pain.
I’m a sucker for Japanese ceramics, so to see the antiques that Kitcho...
Back in July 2003, I took a road trip in northern India from Manali to Leh (Ladakh). I undertook this trip through Country Holidays in Singapore who still offers this tour. It’s worth doing – scenery is amazing and the food was surprisingly good (I love Indian food anyway). These are probably the better photos from the trip. I hadn’t gone digital yet so these were either taken with negative film (Fujifilm Reala), positives (Velvia or Provia) or black & white film (Neopan) using Carl Zeiss lens on either a Yashica or Contax body. One of my cameras malfunctioned so I lost more than a third of the shots I took. Nowadays with digital, at least you’ll know immediately if there’s something wrong!
