Peru trip - Puerto Maldonado + Lima (part 3)

This is part 3 of our Peru travelogue. 

Part 1 - Peru 2026 - a perfect itinerary

Part 2 - Peru trip - Cusco

Part 3 - Peru trip - Puerto Maldonado + Lima 

Day 6 - Puerto Maldonado - Tambopata (JunglePro Lodge)

We had booked JunglePro's 3 nights Tambopata tour of Amazon rainforest. As part of this, they provide airport pickup/drop, lodging inside rainforest and various rainforest activities. Amazon rainforest is huge and it borders almost all latin American countries, a small part of it is in Peru. In Peru, there are two places to see the rainforest - Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado. We chose this because of easier connectivity. 

We landed in Maldonado in the morning and were escorted to the JunglePro Lodge's base station. We had some time before another group had to come so we went to Plaza de Armas of Puerto Maldonado (where else). There we had our brunch - all local street food.  One of the famous street food breakfast in Peru is potato+eggs - two boiled potatoes + two boiled eggs with some mint/mustard sauce. It is healthy and tasty. We also had empanadas. The veg options are few but they are ok. We also had flan :)

We had a group of 4 other girls from Guam - an American colony near Taiwan. Our guide was a rainforest localite who learnt English. His name was Freddy and he was amazing - lot of jungle knowledge and stories. 

Our day 1 was a 3 hr boat ride on the Tambopata river to get to the jungle lodge. Along the way, we saw largest rodents on earth - capybaras. We also saw turtle, reptiles etc.  JunglePro's lodge is very well built - reminded me of the JungleLodges in Karnataka. They take care of food, stay, wooden based cottages with mosquito protection. 

At night, we had our first activity - Jungle nightwalk. Freedy led us into the dark forest. Forest is alive, lot of sounds at night. We had to wear gumboots - the trail was sludgy, and applied some mosquito repellants. Freddy carried a special UV torch - animals like scorpions can not be seen with naked eye but they light up under UV light. We saw tarantulas, large spiders, spider-webs, large ants, and many other animals. 

One of the best part of the JunglePro lodge were its meals. We had the best meal here of the entire trip. They would feed us breakfast, lunch dinner. Lunch or dinner had rice and dal - black masoor dal is a staple there. Having dal-chawal in peru was heavenly and it was well made. Since we had shared that we are vegetarians, they would make special dishses for us - sometimes mushrooms, sometimes sauted vegetables They had different salads, potatoes, tofu etc. After a long activity, we would have food and sleep peacefully. The food, stay, nature really reminded me of River Tern

They also had a bar counter where you had to pay for drinks. Interestingly, the payment was to be in cash only and that too in dollars. I have rarely seen a country accepting dollars instead of their own currency as cash. 

There was no cellphone reception, but they had wifi, so Whatsapp calling was possible. 

Day 7 - Macaws eating clay 

Day 7 began at 3 am. We had to leave the lodge at 330, travel up the river for 3 hrs to reach a clay hill. There, in the morning, colorful Macaws come to lick clay. Clay is natural detox. Macaws lick clay to neutralize acids and other minerals that is their in their wild diet.  

For the 330 am boat ride, the lodge guys gave us blankets. Thankfully, we had our jackets. When the cool breeze hit our faces, we slept. It is amazing how the boat guy navigated the river current. The river is not clean, so navigating the debris without daylight was a challenge. But these folks are pro now. 

Macaws are magestic birds - so much color, beautiful wingspan.  To just see them, it was splendid. The guide taught us to use telescope+phone camera to click highly zoomed in photos and videos. We saw parrots, owl, and even a sloth

The breakfast was organized next to the river only. They had boiled eggs, pancakes, banana chips, coffee, fruits etc. The boat-ride back was peaceful. 

In the evening, we went to visit a nearby lake (40 mins by boat) . Here, we saw rain - it was heavy. We first time realized that why is it called a rainforest :) 

Day 8 - Day hike and tower

We did a 4 hrs day hike to walk to a nearby lake. Anacondas live there appratently but we couldn't spot any. The walk on the way was refreshing - through the jungle and we saw many cool things. Before leaving, the guide cut out a termite nest and by the time we got back, we saw the nest has been fixed. We saw a trail of red-ants travelling with us for about half a km, on the trail to get some specific substance from a tree. We saw Peru monkeys, old huge trees with giant trunks. My cool photo is of this monkey eating banana here - 

JunglePro had constructed a 50-floor high watch tower near the lodge. In the evening, we went to climb there and see sunset. 

Day 9 - Tambopata - Puerto Maldonado - Lima

Day 9 was just traveling back from the lodge to Lima. We took boat from lodge to reach Puerto Maldoando, then a bus to reach airport, then a flight to reach Lima and then a Uber to reach our Airbnb. We had booked an Airbnb at Miraflores and it was centrally located. 

Our Airbnb was a 1BHK and a good kitchen with washing machine. It was spacious and well maintained. Rating is 3.5/5 . 

Our Airbnb was close to the Kennedy Park which is famous for having cats live there. Somehow, they have created an environment for the cats to happily exist there. The civil/municipal workers take care of feeding and cleaning them. (Some) Cats are friendly and they let to pet you 

Day 10 - Lima downtown

Lima is not a safe city. Only Miraflores and Barranco neighborhoods are considered safe for tourists. But, the downtown Lima, its Plaza de Armas, is at the centre. How to go there ? We ended up booking a walking tour and it took us there. Interestingly, the guide took us via public bus which was also a good experience. Lima, like any over-populated city is battling traffic problems. But, they have dedicated bus lanes, so buses do go faster. But, their bus stops have high demand. While coming back, we saw long queues of people waiting to get on. But, overall, bus management and cleanliness was good. 

At the historic centre, the guide took us to various churches - couple from inside and others outside, old Spanish houses, gave restaurant recommendations, and overall shared the history of Peru. He also cautioned on what was safe to walk and what is not. The tour was informative, weather good. So, overall a great experience. 

Once the tour was over, we had ice-cream near the Plaza. We took the guide on his recommendations and visited two restaurants - one which served traditional pisco sour, and second one in Chinatown. We did our own walking tour, aimlessly exploring the city. At one place, we saw dentist equipments, machines, drills, etc being sold like wholesale goods, and folks at the side-walk asking random people to get their root canals done, at 50% discount :). We saw couple of girls selling artisinal breads from a food truck . Walking without any aim was real fun. 

It is not fun when everything is going good. Some adventure has to be there. We were exhausted after walking the whole day, We took an Uber to reach back to our Airbnb, only to realize that we do not have the right keys, Turned out that at the icecream shop, I had used their restroom and returned the Airbnb keys instead of the restroom key (which had hombres on its keychain) . We quickly took the uber back to the cafe, did the traffic thing again. Fortunately, they had the key. We got the swap done, and finally, went back to airbnb, battling the traffic again. 

At Lima, we have been cooking breakfast and some meals. Near to where we were staying, we had Vivanda, a upscale grocery store. We bought water and veggies there. 

Day 11 - Museums

Day 11 was our Larco museum day. Larco museum hosts historic artifacts - both from Spanish time and before. It is rated very high and rightly so - very well maintained with a rich colletion of artifacts. It covers thousands of years on what happened to Peru, old settlers, their pottery, textiles etc. Very neatly explained with audio-guide as well. 

One thing that I remember very well is that Spanish folks looted a lot of gold from the Incans. The Incan royalty had the habit of weating gold-plated breast-plates, armors, crowns etc. So, Spaniards looted them all and took it back. Only to realize that it was only gold colored and didn't include actual gold. It is funny and sad at the same time. 

The museum was blasting AC and I was not wearing any jacket because the outside weather was warmer. So, upon reaching home, I had a little temperature and we decided to call it a day. We had plans to visit Barranco that day but we dropped it. My temperature reached 101+ later and I took Dolo and slept it off.

In the evening, we stepped out to taste good hot chocolate. The cafe next door had jigsaw puzzle setup. So, Kanishka and  I solved the puzzle and drank hot chocolate.

Mira Flores also has lot of Casinos and we were living walking distance from them. But, in this trip, I could not visit even a single one. 

Day 12 -  Sick in foreign land. 

This was the last day of our trip. Tomorrow was the flight back. Our plan was to eat at Astrid Y Gaston. We had made lunch reservation. Lima is well known for having 3 restaurants in top 50 restaurants in the world . We wanted to try one even though most of the dishes are non vegetarian. But, they did have some veg options. 

My fever persisted through the night. In the morning, it was not coming down. Since we had just returned from Puerto Maldonado, a thought came - could it be Dengue? There were a lot of mosquitoes in the rainforest. Earlier I was dismissive and then thought that so what if it is dengue. But, then a google search showed that flights during Dengue can be life threatening. Kanishka was also having similar symptoms, with fever.

So, we finally decided to get the blood work done. In a foreign land, visiting hospital, this was a first. The first two nearby diagnostic centres we went, the communication was hard, we used Google-Translate. But they said that it would give reports in 2 days. We didn't had the time. Kanishka then took us to British American Hospital. They were super helpful and took me to emergency. 

A doctor consultation in Lima is 350 Soles (~INR 10.5K) and emergency visit consult is around 600 soles. Healthcare is crazily expensive there. We took the emergency option to get 2 hr bloodwork done. The doctor was nice and the hospital very cooperative. Both Kanishka and I had tests done and got our reports negative. Huge relief. But, I was feeling low energy, so we bought electrolytes and kept on sipping that. Thankfully, Kanishka was able to claim insurance and we got 80% of our expense back. Phew!

Evening was peaceful. We just went out for dinner at a Japanese place, had ramen and then had churros for dessert. 

Day 13 - Travel back

Recovering back, there was some energy. So, we finally did the boardwalk in the morning. It was nice and walking felt good.  Boardwalk had the famous kiss statue there. We walked back to the Airbnb. We ended up visiting the Kennedy cats park for the third time :).

Flight back was ok. Watched a lot of movies. Diners card was very useful - we used lounge access in almost all departure lounges in Peru. They were small, crowded but good food, and free water :) 

Our return was very long - Lime - Amsterdam - Delhi and then to Bangalore. We could not check in to our Delhi - BLR flight, I think it was sold out, so we had to take premium economy. 

The reverse jet-lag and body recovery took another week. The fever indeed took almost 1.5 days from our trip. But no one can plan for these things.  It did leave with an interesting experience. 

Overall, a great trip - new country, new experiences, new memories. We may not go back to Peru - lots of things to see in the world, but it is a worthwhile experience to go there. Machu Picchu alone makes up for it. Rainforest is a bonus. But, it is a developing country with crime - not much motivation to re-visit it. But, worth every dime to experience it once.  

Peru trip - Cusco

This is part 2 of our Peru travelogue

Part 1 - Peru 2026 - a perfect itinerary

Part 2 - Peru trip - Cusco

Part 3 - Peru trip - Puerto Maldonado + Lima 

Day 0 - Flight 

BLR -> Paris -> Lima -> Cusco

We took the bold decision to directly go to Cusco, that is to not spend a night in Lima. We kept a gap of 4 hrs between landing at Lima and then flying to Cusco. We had to collect our luggage and re-check-in for the domestic flight. But, our flight departed late from BLR, landed late in Paris, the next flight from Paris was delayed and then we landed an hr late in Lima. But, thankfully, we were on time. As they say, fortune favors the brave... or in our country - this was a masterstroke of planning. 

At Lima airport, we got the first taste of lack of veg food options... if the airport had so few options, then what would happen. We landed at Cusco at 10 pm and the hotel had booked us a taxi for pickup. It was cold but manageable. 

Our stay was at Amaru Colonial Cusco, one of the rare original Spanish architecture based hotels. The entrance is via a small one-vehicle wide cobbled road with no space to park, but once you are inside, it was awesome. Overall, our hotel would be 4/5 for decor and 3.5 overall. 

Day 1 - Cusco

Kanishka found an excellent city tour. It covered - 

Plaza de Armas - Q'enco  - Saqsaywaman - Puka Pukara - Tambomachay - Coricancha 

The starting point was walkable from our hotel.  At the Plaza, some kids were practicing for the festival, we saw the dance and roamed around there. It is a pretty cool hangout places with fancy cafes and activities going on. 

We hopped on a bus to cover these places. Most of the places are ruins of Incas. Usecase of some are known but others, it is a guesswork. For example - Puka Pukara was a market, it sat at the intersection of the Incan trail and a detour to get to Cusco. Now, it is all ruins. 

My favorite of the mix was Saqsaywaman - this was built as the meeting place for the Cusco leaders to welcome guests. It has three layers (floors) of zig-zag well structured stones. Some of the stones are huge and they are not local. They were dragged from 12-15 kms away. Dragging those stones with human hands plus some ropes, would have been an engineering feat at that point. 

Our guide also shared a glimpse of local challenges. The rates at Plaza De Armas are 2-3x of rates at other places. There is a lot of corruption in Peru. The trust on govt. is low. Many of these sounded familiar to us. 

We were tired by the end, so we decided to skip Coricancha and instead headed for lunch. Our lunch was at Vida Vegan Bistro Cusco . I had my first taste of Vegan Pisco sour ( a national drink which typically contains egg). We had burger and pasta and paid 20 soles (INR 600) for two bottles of water. First lesson that water in restaurants are not free.  Post lunch, we went to hotel and crashed.

We stepped out in the evening and again visited the Plaza.  Our dinner was at this Chia Vegan restaurant. The food was amazing. Peru is known for its variety of potatoes and we had one here. 

Day 2 - Cusco to Ollantaytambo via Sacred Valley tour.

We checked out post breakfast and dragged our suitcases on the cobbled street to meet the tour-van. Our night stay was at Ollantaytambo. Kanishka did the clever booking - Sacred valley tours includes Ollantaytambo, so she found one who can give us the tour and also drop us there. That made things simpler

Sacred Valley tour started with a local textile shop Textile quechua . Cusco is known for making winterwear using LLama wool. At this shop, they showed the process of how the wool is made from the llama fur. Pretty good exerperience. They also were selling stuff, the quality seemed good but so did the prices, so, we didn't buy anything. 

Our next stop was Chinchero. Another Incan ruin with a beautiful step farming setup. It was burnt down to prevent the Spanish inquisition here. Next stop was Maras Moray - a circular terrace farming place. Our guide told story that it was like a farming laboratory for Incans. After returning back, I got curious and did more research. The farming laboratory theory is now called bogus. But to sell a narrative, it is pretty cool. The sights here were also great.  Maras Moray was peaceful, green, serene. 

Our next top were the Maras salt mines. We also stopped before at a salt shop and bought expensive salt :) Salt mines are unique, cool, and crowded. But, worth a visit. We had authentic buffet lunch after this. The buffet had few good veg options and flan for dessert. We were sorted. 

Upong reaching Ollantaytambo, we skipped the Ollantaytamo ruins from the Sacred valley tour. We wanted to do so at our own pace. We checked into the Airbnb, which was right next to the Plaza de Armas of Ollantaytambo. Our airbnb had kitchen, so we headed out to buy water and veggies :) 

At the local market, we saw a 7 gallon water being sold from 12 Soles to 30 Soles. Kanishka did her best to bargain but they were better. Veggies were fresh, juicy and delicious - this is an hilly area, so veggies are grown locally. The market was also like a local basement kind of market but still okay-ish clean. Not as clean as Japan ones :) but a lot better than Bangalore. 

At midnight we celebrated Kanishka's birthday. We bought a local brownie but got looted. The brownie was very small and it was for 15 soles. The Ollantaytambo market was a good walk, not much crowds in the evening, well lit and weather was also good. 

Day 3 - Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is worth the hype! 

It is hyper commercialized. The trains to reach there are expensive but they are luxurious. There is no road access.  Machu Pichu allows only 4500 visitors per day. One has to select which routes to pick for sightseeing, and the route #2 - where you can walk among the ruins get sold out the fastest. Then you have to book the trains, the bus from train station to entry point, a guide for local sight seeing etc. Kanishka did all the planning here and we booked the Panoramic route which in my opinion is the best one :) 

Machu Pichu was never finished. It was not a functional city, it was still under construction. It was abandoned when Spanish folks came. Spainiards never reached here, so it was under moss and ruins until it was rediscovered by a adventurer geologist. It is one of the new Seven wonders of the world. 

The train journey is very scenic. We follow the Urubamba river nestled in the mountains. It is like a Vista dome train. The attendants are multi-talented. The attendants does the job of ticket-checker, serving food-drinks, and in the onward journey, we had a mini traditional ritual that was performed by the attendants only. On the way back, Kanishka booked the other train company - Peru Rail and they are also getting into apparel. So, their attendants did a whole fashion show ramp walk. The number of things expected by attendants is just amazing. 

Machu Picchu was surreal. Our guide was an expert in taking Insta-worthy photos and made us pose. But once the photo-shoot was done, we got time to sit and admire the wonder. It is amazing. Between the mountains, so quite, peaceful. You get to see the whole thing only in the Panoramic route and I think it is the best one. If you are inside, you do not get to see the big picture, the expanse of it. Only in Panoramic, the beauty comes alive. 

The station town is called Aguas Calientes. After Machu Picchu, we walked the streets and had lunch at Iskcon themed vegan restaurant by the name of Govinda. The whole town is pricey.  We had some quinoa khichdi and it was yum! We walked through the markets, bought our souvenir magnets here. 

We had dinner at a train-bogey themed restaurant next to the station only. The food was awesome. We walked back to Airbnb. This was the highlight of the trip - best day. 

Day 4 - Ollantaytambo

Day 4 was meant to be chill day.  We had carried Theplas from home. Breakfast was boiled eggs, Thepla, yogurt and salad. I think our meals during travel are way more healthier than at home :) 

The market outside the ruins was interesting, After the walk, we ended up buying sweaters and caps. Kanishka demonstrated her bargaining skills - I could not believe that we got 60% discount. 

We did a leisurely walk to the Ollantaytambo ruins and explored it. Beyond the ruins, there were some spots even higher and we had to walk there. We took an easy stroll to climb and reach there - it was sunny but not super hot. 

The Ollantaytambo ruins are special - it was a living  city, fully functional one. When the Spaniards came, they attacked the city but a 19 year old warrior was able to defeat them. This is the reason they never reached Machu Picchu, they turned back there. All Incan ruins have certain things as common - a Sun temple for example. Incan worshipped the Sun god and June 24st, they celebrate the Inti Raymi,  a festival dedicated to Sun god. It is difficult to understand how people lived during those times but the space is huge and structure is solid. 

Post the ruin visit, we had lunch at the Plaza and had the worst Burrito ever. And at the cost of 50 soles, it was a loot. We visited our favorite local grocery store, bought bread, butter and stuff and then had a nice salad + bread as dinner. We also used this day to do laundry :) 

During the evening stroll, we tried local street food. One such drink was Emoliente - a herbal drink made of roasted barley, lemon, sugar and herbs. It is served hot and it was awesome! Our Airbnb had kitchen, heater and hot water. It was next to plaza. It was one of those Inca ancestral home, next to the cobbled streets. I would rate it 4/5 for the experience. 

Day 5 - Back to Cusco

We took a cab from Ollantaytambo to Cusco. It was a 3 hr ride. Our driver knew english. He was from the  jungle but spoke english fluently, On the way, we say these purple colored drinks sold in bottle and we asked him what it is. It was Chicha Morada , made of fermented corn. We bought it and it was awesome! 

Our one night stay at Cusco was at hotel Hacienda . This was far from the Plaza. The hotel was ok - basic, functional. It was next to the Pedro market, so that is where we started. 

Pedro market is the local grocery+food+chocolate market there. It has vendor stalls selling all kinds of things. One such thing is roasted guinea pigs :) We tried some cakes, some random items, empinada and finally found a vegan restaurant there - Vegan Pinto and had one of the best ROI (taste over money) meals. We were full but the meal was yum! 

After this, we went to see the Coricancha museum - it used to be an Incan temple taken over by Spanish clergy and it was then their sacred place. We didn't had a guide so we didn't enjoy it much. The one thing that I remember is reading about the history and it is here we learnt that Incans used to believe in sacrifices - they sacrificed kids too, sometimes burying them alive in ground. So, Incans were also superstitious and had places to offer sacrifices and many such weird rituals. 

Post Coricancha, we went back to the plaza. This was a parade day there - a local festical where they shift the statues of some renowned old priests from one church to another. It was festive atmosphere there. 

We had bought a group-pass to get access to multiple-sites. Kanishka figured out that it included a local cultural performance. It was fun. The music is really like the traditional one - lot of flute. It is a govt. run institution, so things are still how they were in 70s :) But we enjoyed it. 

Dinner was a walk to a pizza place - fresh oven baked pizza was good. By this time, we were using Uber, so we took the uber back to hotel. 

Next day, we took the flight to Puerto Maldonado

EU trip 2025

7 countries, 10 days. Work trip. Late-Oct, early Nov timeframe. Not the ideal time to visit

Itinerary - 

• Sat, 25 Oct - Land in Helsinki, Finland  
• Sun, 26 Oct  - Day trip to Tailin, Estonia via Ferry
• Mon, 27 Oct - At Helsinki. Evening - leave for Oslo
• Tue, 28 Oct -  At Oslo. Evening - train to Stockholm Sweden 
• Wed, 29 Oct - At Stockholm, Evening - Flight to Frankfurt, Germany
• Thu, 30 Oct -  At Frankfurt. Evening - train to Amsterdam
• Fri, 31 Oct -   At Amsterdam
• Sat, 1 Nov -    At Amsterdam. Evening - Train to Paris, France
• Sun, 2 Nov -   At Paris
• Mon, 3 Nov -  At Paris. Evening - Flight to BKR

Interesting points -

Helsinki - 

Not much to do in the main city. Though city walks are lovely. Did not explore much. Our hotel - Hotel Hobo, was really good! Visited cafe Fraser, just opposite the hotel which has been there for close to 150 years. Walked a lot in the city. Great city to walk ! 

The above is inside the main cathedral at Helsiniki. The round sphere is a replica of planet Mars, where each cm represents 10 km of Mars surface. They had hosted this within the cathedral which was interesting. 

Tailin, Estonia 

Lovely day trip from Helsinki. The ferry ride was awesome. Barely missed the ferry ride, one has to be 30 mins before the departure gate closes. Tailin is a old-style European city. Hugely hit by war, but not reconstructed to have the old city feeling. We did a old-city walking tour and did a quick stop at Museum of Torture - the highlight of the trip. The city is a great one to walk on. The walk was informative. 

Would recommend visiting here!! 

Oslo and Stockholm - No sightseeing and no photos. It was pure work

Frankfurt, Germany 

We had about 90 mins before our train to Amsterdam. 90 mins are good to enjoy a quick walk of the city

No Frankfurt trip is complete without this iconic place :)

Our train to Amsterdam was cancelled. We ended up going from Frankfurt HBF to Frankfurt-Airport station -> Koln (Cologne) Germany -> Amsterdam (via Rotterdam). We got a fellow passenger who was also taking the same route. It was good for strangers to interact.

Amsterdam - 

Once the work was over, we went to the downtown and explored the market there. The market was lively. Christmas lights were on, a pianist was playing at the square, people were happy. Seemed good to see explore this. We just walked and ate. Had Dutch pancakes, stroopwaffle, bought souvenirs, cheese. 

Next day, we took a day trip to country side to see windmills, cheese making store and show making workshop. Good fun day trip. 

We got a scare in our return to catch the train to Paris. The taxi driver was really smart and we had to run to catch the train. I was almost convinced at a point in time that we would miss it. 

Paris, France

We had a day and we did the walking tour along with just walk to Eiffel Tower. Walking tour was good, it was raining. Walking Paris was fun! We also saw the place where Princess Diana died. Also, visited a museum which was free of cost and saw Mattise's famous Dance painting. Had lunch at a bakery. Dinner was at a vegan restaurant called Maslow (interesting but okayish).  

Japan 2025 - Perfect 9 day trip - Part 2

 

This is Part 2 of Kanishka and my Japan trip 2025. The first part covered what we liked and didn''t like about Japan.  In this blog, we will share our itinerary. 

Our itineraries are crafted to perfection. They have mix of things that we like - some museums, some local / cultural bits,  some outdoorsy, some touristy, some rustic - a unique blend of experiences that are chosen carefully.  

Day 1 - Our flight landed in Tokyo in the afternoon. Our first thing was to go from airport to Tokyo station, via the Narita express, and then take the train to Kanazawa. It was a daring plan, new country, different train systems and no idea how to switch trains etc. All in a short window to reach hotel by reasonable time. Our hotel in Kanazawa was carefully booked to be about 700m from the train station. 

Why go via all the hurry? Our visit coincided with the annual festival of Kanazawa . The next day, there was going to be an awesome parade as part of the festival itinerary. We wanted to attend it. 

Onboarding to Narita was simple but at the Tokyo station, it was a world of its own. Underground stations have markets, shops, a whole city in itself. At the ticket line to buy ticket to Kanazawa, the guy asked for our tickets that we had used to reach the Tokyo station, thankfully, we had not thrown them away. Still not sure why he asked for it. The train journey to Kanazawa was good. By the time we reached the hotel, it was 8ish pm. 

Our dinner was at Izakaya Musashi, a quaint Gastropub which had good veg options. Our first introduction to Izakaya was delicious, a little pricey though. At night, we strolled on the quite streets of Kanazawa - nicely lit by street lights.

Day 2 - Out hotel in Kanazawa was Hotel Forza Kanazawa. It had complimentary breakfast which we enjoyed each day. Forza kanawa was next to the local Omichi market. After breakfast, we did a quick stroll through the market. I had never seen a cleaner sabji-mandi/fish-market ever. Not even in US. Japan is another level in its cleanliness

Day 2 was busy. We walked to the local Kanazawa castle where they had all these stalls owing to their festival. It was a mela. The stalls were of nearby prefectures who were asking residents of Kanazawa and tourists like us to travel to their towns, selling their town tourism. To get traction, some of them had folks dressed as samurai, some had freebies. 

At Kanazawa castle information centre, we learnt that there is a volunteer led group which gives free english tours of their garden - Kenroku-en. We took their offer and a nice lady gave us a free 90 mins tour. Kenroku-en garden is amazing. It has a waterfall (manmade), a lake, beautiful trails and trees. It is not huge either.  There is also a residence home inside the garden. Each garden is like a king's summer retreat and has a place to stay/relax. The residence was now hosting a dolls exhibition which was good to explore. Post the garden, we also visited the Kanazawa shrine

After Kenroku-en, we walked our way down to the parade route. Along the way, we had cabbage hotdog kind of item on a stick with some very long french fries. The ice cream above  has god leaf covering - something which is unique to Kanazawa

The parade was grand, festive and full of local spirit. It had giesha, bands, boy scouts, ninja, dragon, fights and what not. Very local and cultural. Very Japanese - highly organized, clean and simple. 

After the parade, we rested for sometime at the hotel. Our day was far from being over. In the evening, there was a flute performance - a Geisha would play flute on a boat at the Kenroku-en lake, under the moonlight. It was too good to miss. so we went and saw that. The performance was good but only for 15 mins long. There was also the threatre performance of Noh at the castle. We attended the performance but found it to be too slow for our taste. hat 

After the performance, we went to have dinner. Most places were closed and we wanted to try local. We found one places and were lucky since another family had just got in, perhaps after closing hrs. Our local restaurant did not speak English. But our other family were kind enough to translate for us. We bonded over Google-translate :) 

Here is where we had the template for our Izakaya - soya sauce, sticky rice and vegetable tempura. Here they also gave us edmame

The day was not yet over. On the walk back to hotel, we saw a long night food market and when there is night market, we have to go check it out. We were full in stomach, tired, but we walked the length of market

Day 3 

Day 3 was meant to be light - we woke up cozily and had a sumptuous breakfast. We walked to see local houses os Samurai or other foot soldiers. Kanazawa is a castle town, so there were kings, samurais and soldiers in the old days. The Samurai house are a treat to visit - they have lovely architecture, simple interior decor and an amazing personal garden :) . Inside one of the Samurai houses, we had our first and only tea-tasting ceremony. A matcha tea which is okayish to drink but almost like a habit for locals. 

After the Samurai houses, it was time for some introspection and zen, So we went to D.T. Suzuki museum. Mr. D.T. Suzuki was a zen practitioner and a philosopher who had significant influence on Japanese culture. His museum was serene, and relaxing. we stopped there for a bit. On the way to museum, Kanishka briefly went to McDonalds and I clicked a picture. Right outside, the D.T. Suzuki museum was another Samurai garden, albeit a public one. It was amazingly beautiful. 

We walked down to checkout a museum of bowls. Similar to Berlin's museum island, Kanazawa has a section where there are 4-5 museums. We checked out one and then decided to walk back to hotel.  Our lunch was at this curry place which had chole with tofu curry. What more can we want

Our dinner was hotel-made, bought from local shops. Kanishka got soya sauce and some other items from nearby grocery store. 

Day 3 - Day 3 was departure from Kanazawa. But before I check out, I wanted to share this pic of their breakfast tray - a nice 6 bowl tray that we had used daily. 

Day 3 itinerary was to move from Kanazawa to Kaga - an onsen town. We had to take a train for this. 

Kaga for me was the best part of the trip. It is a village with a main downtown street, some temples etc. We ended up just strolling the entire village. Stopped at small restaurants and had local delicacies, one of them being Kuzu bar. Kaza also had a old traditional bathhouses and this was our first experience with a Japanese bathhouse. 

Japanese bathhouse, separate sections for men and women. You go in full naked into a hot water pool and relax there. After that, there are taps along-side the pool for you to apply soap/shampoo and have a bath. It is incredibly relaxing. In the old days, when soldiers would travel, then these bathhouses (onsen) were build for them for communal baths. Makes sense to conserve water. Also, there was procedures which makes sure that the hot water is clean. It is a unique and refreshing experience. It is a concept that we saw in Germany also. 

We had booked our stay at Rurikoh which is an onsen hotel. We ended up doing onsen hopping, first at the old and moden public bathouses and then later in the night at a private onsen.  The hot water is really hot. Rurikoh also gave us Yukata for free which we gladly wore and roamed around the streets there. 

This was also Kanishka's 40th birthday. We had a noodle dessert, known as Mont Blanc for cake cutting. Dinner was at a local Izakaya. There was a drum show at the hotel and in the night, we dipped our feet in hot water. 

Day 4

Day 4 morning - the Kaga experience continued. In the morning, we went to the public bath of Rurikoh and it was open air hot-spring. It was just surreal, pure natural hot water under an overcast sky. We were debating if we had enough of Onsens but this was a right decision. Onsens also freshens you up like anything. This was followed by a authentic Japanese breakfast buffet, served on the table. It was awesome. 

Rurikoh remains the best stay place and Kaga was the best destination for me. It was away from crowds, no itinerary, no frills. Perhaps, the closest glimpse of authentic Japanese culture. Our next stops were Kyoto and then Tokyo, and now we were getting into the touristy territory :) 

It is the small acts that make you remember the travel. One such act has been imprinted on me. We were at the Kaga station and had to take a train to Kyoto. There were no direct trains. We had to go to a station (forgot the name, lets say X) and change train. I was not sure if I should buy both Kaga to X and then go to X and then buy ticket to Kyoto or can I buy both here. It is a small village railway station with only one employee at the counter and she was dealing with a customer ahead of us and that took 5 mins. We were patiently waiting behind. She seemed very diligent about our job. When our turn came, we asked tickets to go to X,  then I paid for them and she printed those. Later, I asked her if I can buy tickets from X to Kyoto here as well, or should I buy this at X.  She realized that I can save money if I buy a direct ticket to Kyoto via X. She explained the math and it was pretty substantial saving(~30%).  She didn't had to do this since she had already printed one and the easiest would have been to print another one. She also didn't berate us by saying that yo should have told this earlier. She cancelled our current ticket, refunded the amount and then issued a new ticket. During all of this, we were communicating in broken English, with some google-translate thrown in.  The sense of duty and helping others is so much ingrained to them and it is just amazing. The pride-in-the-job concept is so powerful. I feel that if you have to build stronger nations, this is the key. When everyone does their job well, strong nations are built. 

Our Kyoto stay was at Hotel Tomiya with Ms, a Scandinavian decor hotel, close to station with no lobby. a machine an entrance but thankfully, they had help staff to guide us.  Our first stop in Kyoto sightseeing was Ninja museum and it was a very touristy experience. Meant to be insta-grammable. But still fun. We had dinner at a local vegan Ramen place  (Moon and back ramen bar).  Kanishka had booked a walking tour in the night but it was raining heavily. Like heavy heavy downpour. I was thinking that they would cancel the tour but that was not the case. There were 6 of us plus the tour guide and he conducted the entire tour in this heavy dowpour with umbrellas. The good thing was that streets were empty, so we had the place to ourselves. But, we were wet, our shoes, socks, feet were wet. But, it was an amazing experience. Kyoto still has an active Geisha culture and we learnt a lot about their world. 

Day 5

It was still raining on Day 5 morning. So, we decided to go to a museum, thinking it will be indoors and less crowded. But, boy was I wrong. I had never seen a more crowded museum before. Seemed like entire Kyoto was there. We spent couple of hrs learnings about the Japanese history. Even though the museum was crowded, the people were super chill about it. They would take their time to wait in lines to see the exhibits in order. Move slowly, take their time and were extremely patient about it. Again, a part of culture that shocked me.  We had lunch at a local vegan shop and it had a nice poster below

We walked a lot and then visited the handicraft museum. This is actually a local handicraft store, two buildings of local craft that they were selling. Like Delhi-haat or dastkar but in a fancy shop-like setting. Good experience. Mostly expensive items

From here, we walked to a cat-cafe. Japan has this culture of cat cafes where you can spend time with cats. You pay for time and drinks there. Buying drinks is mandatory. This cafe had healthy well-fed cats and it was fun to play with them for sometime. 

Post cat cafe, we were looking for dinner options and stumbled into Nijiya Kyoto - a hole in the wall joint which serves the best Vegana Izakaya. The place is so small that it can only seat 6 people at a time, at a bar-counter kind of setting. This food was perhaps the best food of the trip. There were two people serving the food and it was just amazing how much can be packed in such a small place.  

After food, we were full but craving for some nice ice creams. 

Day 6 

Today was checkout and take the train to Tokyo. Kyoto to Tokyo trains run as if they are local, every 5-6 mins. These two stations are 250+kms apart. We had no prior reservation, so we just walked and booked and had trouble finding seats - many trains were full. Trains in Japan are extremely comfortable. 

We had to change trains, walk a lot dragging our suitcase, but finally we were at our hotel. At Tokyo, we were staying at Ryokan asakusa Shigetsu . Ryokan means traditional Japanese inn. We picked this hotel because it had an onsen on top. You sleep on the ground, on  a mattress on top of bamboo chatai . It is an authentic experience. This place was also next to Tokyo's oldest temple and walkable to a train station. 

Near the oldest temple was a huge market, including a market which sells all the plastic food items. Plastic food items are also such a brilliant Japanese idea - instead of putting real food items on display where food will go waste, there are these plastic replicas which look exactly as the food. And then there is a market dedicated to it.  We just strolled in the market. 

In the evening, we went to the Museum of roadside art and I have never seen anything as bizarre as this one. It is so bizarre that it is cool. Walking with no expectations, it takes sometime to understand WTF is this. But, then the writings on the wall say - what is art - isn't it meant to challenge you . And this museum challenges in you in many many ways. The best part is that we had no idea before we walked in. Tokyo is known for its quirky museums but this one is a topper. I will highly recommend this, but it is not for faint hearted folks. 

Near Asakusa, there is a space needle which gives you a high-rise view of the city but it is expensive. The internet hack is that, nearby, there is a Asahi HQ building who have a beer joint on their top floor and you get equally good view of it. You get good beer and it is cheaper. We went to the Asahi place and enjoyed the lighted Tokyo city. 

Day 7

Day 7 started with a walking tour starting from Akihabara. The walking tour was okay-ish. Since, between Shogun and the Kyoto walking tour, and the Ninja museum, we knew the history. But Akihabara was awesome! 

Akihabara is an experience that again is quintessential Japanese. It is a world of its own. First, there are these massive figurines/manga shops. We decided to check one building which had 9 floors, each with a different aspect of this, full of people. Then there are these arcade game centers where you can just spend the whole day playing arcade games, claw machines etc. And then it has these maid-cafes; we went to maidcafe-athome which is the birthplace of moe moe kyun . Each experience in Akihabara was like something that one will never get outside. 

Day 7 was also the day we had Sushi. We went to a Sushi-bar . At a Sushi bar, you sit on a bar counter and on the other side, there is a chef making live-Sushi for you. It was like an everyday QSR restaurant, nothing fancy, but it had good Sushi. Day 7 dinner was at home (hotel). Japan sells curd, soya sauce satchets, cut cabbage etc and you can make salads at home. We also got Theplas from IN and it made a quirky dinner but delicious. 

Day 8 

Today was 14 June and it was my birthday. We had a great day planned ahead of us. But our first stop was visiting toilets. Tokyo hosted olympics and as part of that they had an art project to have designer toilets installed at various places. It was called the Toilet Project. Each one designed by a different art designer. One of them is designed that the toilet is transparent when not in use and then as soon as you lock in from inside, it changes color and becomes opaque. Just fascinating. We ended up visiting two of such installations

We were now just walking and our next stop was to see the Shibuya crossing. Known as the busiest crossing, we had time to just check it out. 15 year old me would have never gone there, saying that it is just an intersection where people cross roads,  but I am mellow-er now. Anyways, we want and it was okayish. Along the way, Kanishka clicked whole bunch of flower photos. 

Next two events were planned by Kanishka for my 40th. First one was lunch at a Michelin star restaurant - Daigo. This was going to be our first Michelin star restaurant. Food was good, small portions, multipe courses. Each item explained to us by the staff, setup in a cozy setting where we were only ones in the room and the room had a private garden. The food was good. I do not have the palette to understand what makes a Michelin star and what does not. So, I can not comment on that, but it was good. But, what we also remember, and probably will never forget, is that their dessert menu was a slice of watermelon. Japan, a place known for its desserts, a michelin-star restaurant known for its creativity, and we got watermelon slice for a dessert. We cannot forget this. 

We went home, slept for a while and our late-evening program was to visit TeamLabs Planets. Before TeamLabs, we were hungry and next to the planets venue, there is a open barbeque place and we had fries and sprouts there. A very Americanish experience in Japan :)  Team Labs was awesome. So much creativity, experiences packed in one place. we loved all the art installations. In another world, I would just go and spend a day here. The experiences are amazing and I think it is the feeling that  we carry more than anything else. 

Day 9 

This was the journey back day. But, we had a morning to ourselves. In a city with so many things to do, what do you pick up if you have 3 hrs. We decided to keep it simple and go back to basics - visit a garden. We visited the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden - it is one of those decisions which makes this itinerary a perfect one. It was raining mildly and the garden was in its prime green beauty. Plus, understanding the design of Japanese garden, it is simple but an awe-inspiring experience. Garden is paid entry, small-ish one but had all hallmarks - stone bridge, flower garden, ponds, waterfall - you name it.  This was a perfect way to end the trip! 

I do not think that I have experienced so many new things in one country as much as we experienced in Japan. From gardens, to onsen, to concept cafes - cats, maids, to teamLabs, to roadside art museum, to Izakayas, to Michelin-star restaurants, to samurais and parades. Japan has been a perfect way to spend our 40th birthdays. 

Thank you for reading.