#52 | Taj Mahal

 

This is from a while back now, but Agra was one of the coolest places in India that we had visited. Agra wasn't a city I was familiar with but of course I had heard about one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal. We had visited the beautiful grounds with our travel guide who shared the story of an emperor working with a world-class team to design the Taj Mahal and surrounding buildings. It was originally developed to honour and hold his late wife who passed while giving birth. To this day, the original family who worked on the exterior apparently still works on the repairs to upkeep this romantic piece of history.

Yours Truly

#51 | Portland Donuts

When we were getting ready to visit Portland, we heard of multiple things that we needed to do. Some of the items on that list included coffee, microbreweries, vintage stores and donuts...yep, donuts. Now if you know me personally, you'll know that I'm not a dessert guy (I'd rather eat two savoury meals). But luckily for me, I can get down with a cake or pastry every now and then so I knew this was something that I wouldn't pass on. I was told that there are tons of places to check out but there's always going to be a debate on the PDX staple - Voodoo Doughnut or Blue Star Donuts.

On the same day that we got into the city, we went to hunt down Afuri (which we had eaten in Harajuku in the fall). Right beside Afuri just happened to be Voodoo located beside a walking alley with a variety of restaurants including an old fashioned bar and an oyster restaurant. This place is known for its branding with their suggestive slogans and over-the-top donuts. Voodoo has become so popular and successful that it opened its own location in Disney World. Our friend Matt who we were with mentioned that we had to check out the place for ourselves.

The first thing that came to my mind was "punk". It wasn't only naming their donuts after rap stars and words you probably shouldn't say at a Disney resort, but the staff, decor and interior played well with the loud music and atmosphere. I thought it was really cool and the lineup out the door suggested that others thought the same. Unfortunately for me, that's where this cool factor ended. I ordered the "Voodoo Doll", a raspberry filled yeast donut with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake to symbolize a pin. It was mediocre and I ate it as quickly as I could just so that we can could continue with our day. The experience was neat but the product isn't something I'd return for.

The day after when we exploring downtown, we decided to take a sugar break at Blue Star Donuts. These guys currently have eight locations in Oregon and three in California. The space was bright, clean and there was lots of natural light from all of the glass windows. The staff were helpful and explained to us all of the favourites that they had available and let us sample a few items as well. I went with a matcha lime donut and Aash chose a buttermilk cake donut. 

I took a bite and realized this is what I've been missing and said "this might be the best donut I've ever eaten" letting an uncontrollable smile take over my face. I've only ever had one donut that could potentially compete with this (Cartems in Vancouver) and because of that, we visited another three times. We tried other favourites from the blueberry cake to the orange olive oil, which resembled a levelled up Hostess powdered mini donut. I just ate supper and am so full, but would love if I could crush another one of these cake donuts.

If I lived in Portland, I would be tempted by this place all the time. It has an atmosphere where you can take a laptop to do some work, drink a tea and pretend contemplating ordering a donut. I'd likely end up Instagramming my donut and not get any work done. At this point it sounds like I'm being petty and complaining, but I really loved hanging out here.

My suggestion is that if you ever visit Portland, check out Voodoo to say that you went and immediately follow it up by walking five minutes to the downtown Blue Star location to get a quick dose of reality to see who really wins this "Voodoo or Blue Star?" debate.

Yours Truly

#50 | Tokyo, Japan

Japan has always been on my bucket list to travel to. When Aashna and I were booking a trip to visit her family in India, she found a flight that would allow for us to spend 24 hours in Tokyo, giving us a taste of what the city has to offer. I've always been drawn to the fashion, food, culture and sights that I've seen online and heard about. After spending a week or two deciding whether we should book a trip back in November, we pulled the trigger and started to plan on how we wanted to spend our time in the city.

We watched multiple videos and read lists and decided to just try to take in what the city had to offer as 24 hours really wasn't a lot of time to explore the city. This led us to spend all of our time in Shibuya and Harajuku, they had a lot of restaurants and shops that we wanted to pop into. We arrived in the city around 4pm that day and wanted to visit as many stores as we could before they closed. We popped our heads into a bunch of stores like Don Quijote Megastore, Supreme, GIP Store, Blue Blue Japan, The North Face and more. Here we got to take a look at nifty home items and fashion aficionados putting their outfits together. Fashion was really crazy out here, everyone looked laid back but the pieces they wore were intentional and thoughtful.

After all of that shopping, we had to rest our legs and grab a bite to eat. We knew we had to find some sushi and ramen. After viewing multiple blogs and knowing that Aash preferred a chicken broth, we found ourselves at Afuri ordering ramen from a machine and sitting at the bar with a full kitchen right in front of our eyes in Harajuku (this restaurant now exists in Richmond and Portland). The unique thing about this ramen was that they incorporate yuzu in the broth giving it a nice citrus taste. Other meals in this short amount of time included very impressive sushi (both on a conveyer belt and at the airport) and a bubble tea joint to get our caffeine fix to keep us going.

At this point we roamed the busy streets to people watch and make it back to our hotel. We stopped into random businesses, window shopped and stopped at the Starbucks back in Shibuya to watch the world's busiest crosswalk in action. I think Shibuya Crossing is a solid representation of what Tokyo is - safe, busy, organized and entertaining. After gazing at the sights, we were ready for bed. We took a five hour rest, wandered down the streets of Tokyo, headed to Narita airport to do some more shopping and then we were off to visit the family in Mumbai.

I'm dreaming of the day we get to return!

Yours Truly

#49 | Selvatura Park, Costa Rica

During the afternoon of our stay in Monteverde, Aashna and I decided to spend a couple of hours at Selvatura Park in Monteverde to walk the trails and experience the hanging bridges. The bridges vary from 50m to 170m in length and 12m to 60m off the ground. I'm afraid of heights but this couldn't be missed as the views were absolutely amazing. On the beginning of the walk we received beautiful weather and saw monkeys climbing up trees and across some of the suspension bridges. Once we had walked 3/4 through the park the mist approached us with looked really cool as we stood on the high ground. At the moment, I remember saying "I can't believe it hasn't rained today." and to my surprise we got poured on. We came prepared but many others did not, I'd recommend a fully waterproof (not water resistant) jacket for your stay in Costa Rica especially if you plan on visiting the rain forests.

 

A couple of places we enjoyed stopping at during our stay were Taco Taco Taqueria for a bite, Tree House for live music, drinks and dessert and Beso Espresso & Roasters for an afternoon pick me up. Next up on our trip was Manuel Antonio!

Yours Truly

#48 | Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica

Our shuttle dropped us off directly at our bed and breakfast, Camino Verde. We were greeted with hospitality by the owner and his family with a coffee and a 'Pura Vida'. Once we had checked into our space, we went to the front desk to ask questions about tours and activities around the area for the following day. We decided to go with a tour of the Monteverde Cloud Forest and transportation to the hanging bridges.

To give you a bit of information on Monteverde, it is a town known for being near a cloud forest. Cloud forests are quite unique because of the low-level of clouds that I believe are formed from the effects of wind and moisture from both the Pacific and Caribbean Oceans that are met at the high regions of the forest. The specific forest nearing the town is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve which is protected to preserve the lives of different wildlife. We were recommended to check out this area of Costa Rica by some close friends of ours and it certainly did not disappoint.

The tour of the cloud forest began at 8am the next morning where we and another couple were picked up and driven about 30 minutes to the entrance of the park. Generally the park officials will select a path for you but because it was low season our tour guide took us to his favourite route which included a waterfall at the very end. Our guide was a local to the area and took courses before he began working which was proven as he provided us with facts, spotted creatures with his telescope and gave us the history of Monteverde, without him it may have just felt like a regular walk. For me it was a refresher on the biology classes I took in high school as he grilled us on our previous knowledge. We saw many different birds, plants and creatures that were specific to this region of the world (we even saw a dead tarantula in a hollowed out tree) and the tour itself felt like a private tour. 

Once we made it back to the entrance of the park we headed to the hummingbird garden. They feed the birds here and it can honestly be quite scary when these birds fly right past your face. It was also difficult to take photos of them because of their speed and quick change of direction but it was really cool to get so close to them. I highly recommend if you visit Monteverde that you book a walking tour with a guide for the full experience.

Yours Truly

#47 | Shuttle to Monteverde

We toured with Monteverde Tours from La Fortuna to Monteverde. We were picked up directly from our hotel in a shuttle bus and taken to a small boat at Arenal Lake. From there we rode across the man made lake where we were picked up by our second shuttle and taken to our bed and breakfast. The ride was peaceful, the staff were nice and we made some friends that we would continue to see for the remainder of our trip.

Yours Truly

#46 | La Fortuna, Costa Rica (Part 2)

Our last day in La Fortuna was fantastic, at this point I was getting used to the cloudy skies above the rain forest. Low season was incredible, there really weren't many tourists in the area making our short visit that much better. That morning we had decided to check out the La Fortuna Waterfall. Our plan was to beat the rush bright and early so that we could have the area to ourselves for a bit. We ate our breakfast quickly and waited for our cab to arrive.

When we arrived we saw this amazing view above of a waterfall spouting into the center of a forest. The main parts to this park were the waterfall itself and an orchid trail. We followed the waterfall path first, it was about 500 steps down until we would would arrive at the base. On our way down we got a good glimpse of what this habitat had to offer, there was lush green forestry, butterflies and a bunch of birds as well. The walk was quick and easy and we kept moving quicker as the sound of water became louder and louder.

When we reached the waterfall there may have only been three people taking photos, so we were lucky enough to take in the views and sounds of the La Fortuna waterfall. Unfortunately there was a staff member who was chaining up the creek area as he told us that the rainfall from the other day makes it unsafe to be in the water. I wasn't too upset though, the water was a lot more murky than what I had seen in photos when we were doing research for your trip. Aashna mentioned to me that on a good day you could book a tour and repel alongside the waterfall which would be cool for the adventurous type. I sat around visualizing myself swimming and repelling and that was good enough for me.

Once the place began to get a little busier we trekked back up the 500 stairs and made it to the orchid trail. On many of the trees within the trail you could see beautiful flowers with small signs offering information on the orchid. I was never really one to be interested in birdwatching and flower spotting but this trip may have changed me into a new man.

Once we had finished up at the park, we went back to the town to grab some lunch, waters and kill some time before we had to catch our shuttle for our next trip. Below are some photos I took of the church, the town park and a little market we passed by on the way to grabbing another casado meal.

Yours Truly