Going Away For Peace Of Mind

Mummy dearest promised to bring me on a tour after I have recuperated to sort of get some fresh air and get away from things. So we are looking at going away around mid-July.

I initially wanted to go down South for the winter, so proposed the Lord of the Rings New Zealand tour, but she said no mountainous terrain and no skiing in my condition. Darn! Just when I thought I can finally try my hand (or leg) at skiing.

Now it is summer time in the Northern Hemisphere, and it will be very hot everywhere. We wanted to get away from the heat of our own country, to somewhere not too hot but not too cold as well. So we have narrowed down two choices - Northern Japan and Russia, where it is rather cooling even during summer.

I was sourcing online for tour packages the whole morning, and have come up with three choices. One, a seven-day Hokkaido tour. The others are two different packages for the Russian tour. So I called the agencies and managed to get the itinerary.

Hokkaido Tour

Day 1 : Singapore-Tokyo on All Nippon Airways

Day 2 : Tokyo-Otaru-Sapporo (Salmon Aquarium in Chitose, Otaru Music Box Museum, Otaru Canal shops, Mount Moiwa for a view of Sapporo City)

Day 3 : Sapporo-Biei-Durano-Sounkyo (White Chocolate Factory, Odori Park, Hokkaido Jingu Shrine, Furano Floral Festival)

Day 4 : Sounkyo-Asahikawa (Mount Daisetsu-zan Sounkyo Gorge, Shooting Star Falls, Silver River Falls, Otokoyama Sake Brewery Museum in Asahikawa)

Day 5 : Asahikawa-Noboribetsu (Shiraoi Ainu Village, Jigokudani aka Hell Valley in Noboribetsu, "Seduction of the Lights" event)

Day 6 : Noboribetsu-Sapporo (Sapporo Beer Factory, Nijo Fresh Seafood Market, Susukino Ramen Alley, Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade)

Day 7 : Sapporo-Chitose-Singapore (via Tokyo)

Russian Tour (Number 1)

Day 1 : Singapore-Moscow on Singapore Airlines

Day 2 - 3 : Moscow (Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, Boishoi Theatre, Sparrow Hills, Moscow Metro, Moscow Circus, Kremlin, Cathedrals of Assumption, Annunciation and Archangel, Church of the Virgin Gown's Deposition, Beltry of Ivan the Great, Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles, GUM Department Store)

Day 4 : Moscow-Tver-Novgorod (Kiln - once home to Russian composer Tchaikovsky, Tver on Volga River, Russian Plains, Novgorod)

Day 5 : Novgorod-St Petersburg (11th-century St Sophia's Cathedral, Kremlin, St Petersburd folklore show-cum-dinner)

Day 6 - 7 : St Petersburg (Fortress of St Peter and St Paul, St Issac's Cathedral, cruiser "Aurora", Memorial to the Siege of Leningrad in World War II, Peter the Great's Summer Residence at Petrodvorets)

Day 8 : St Petersburg-Moscow (Scenic train ride from St Petersburg to Moscow)

Day 9 - 10 : Moscow-Singapore

Russian Tour (Number 2)

Day 1 : Singapore-Helsinki (stopover)

Day 2 : Helsinki-St Petersburg (The Hermitage Museum, cruiser "Aurora")

Day 3 : St Petersburg (Palace of Petrodvorets, Pushkin's Sculptures)

Day 4 : St Petersburg-Moscow (Train ride to Moscow)

Day 5 - 6 : Moscow (Kremlin, Cathedrals of Uspensky, Blagoveshchensky and Archangels, Lenin Mausoleum, Red Square, Cathedral of St Basil, Arbat Street)

Day 7 : Moscow-Vladimir-Suzda (Golden Gates in Vladimir by coach, Suzda by coach)

Day 8 : Suzda-Moscow (Suzda City tour, Moscow by coach, City tour)

Day 9 - 10 : Moscow-Helsinki-Singapore

Come to think of it, Russia seems like a dream place for me. With its great cathedrals, and the olden Renaissance architecture, and the country of Tsars and "Father of Communism". What is the use of going to another place if one is not able to soak up the culture and history?

So I showed my mum the itinerary, and in the end we decided on the Hokkaido tour. Firstly, she was not able to take so many days off. Secondly, the Russian tours are too expensive, as we still need airport tax and visas.

Furthermore, my brother may be coming back and she wants to bring him along with us, since he has been stuck in China the past few years and missed out on a lot of our family tours. So with an extra person, our budget will be blown.

So Northern Japan, here I come! Which means I have only about two weeks to master some Japanese words, otherwise I will not be able to communicate with the people there!

Actually I would so love to go Hokkaido or Russia during Winter, then we can experience the full effects of Winter, only to have my mum tell me off for being mad, as she says going to places like these during Winter time, I will freeze to death before I can even do anything else.