Ferry de Bakker

FERRY DE BAKKER EXPANDS ON HIS REASONS FOR PLANNING HIS TRIPS AS METICULOUSLY AS HE DOES.

We all travel to relax, or to discover, or to do both… or else to reconnect with a country, a region, a city or, best of all, friends, relatives and acquaintances. Travel takes us away from our daily routines and, despite the painful, annoying and irritating elements of it, will reenergise us, inspire us and fulfil us.

CHILL TIME

We love to go on a trip with the sole objective to refrain from any activity beyond the borders of the resort, or the luxurious villa you are staying in. Top hotels have developed splendid resorts, I love them: you get there, you check in, you relax, you check out and you go home. Refreshed.

Cities… Whenever we fly to Asian metropoles, we plan to leave on Sundays, as traffic conditions in major cities, such as Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong, are much better than during the week. Try, for example, to take the bus from Narita to central Tokyo during the week. Those readers who have tried this, know what I am talking about. Often, most museums are closed on a specific day. In Japan, for example, it is Mondays. For us this means this is the day we engage in local travel, or we plan other types of activity.

PLANNING THE TRIP

If and when we travel to explore, we will prepare for the trip, as Floyd Cowan has pointed out in the previous issue of

Asian Journeys. First, we reach out to the friends we have in the city or region we will visit. We have known most of them for many years and, as we have stayed in touch, they have remained good and loyal friends. This confirms the phrase that distance doesn’t separate people, but silence does. We make lunch or dinner appointments on one of the first few days of our trip, so that we can still incorporate into our itinerary any new ideas that come up during the encounters with our friends.

Exploring for us means, first of all, to check museums and art galleries. What exhibitions are on, do you need to buy tickets in advance, when are the quiet hours? Usually, the end of the day works best, as we have discovered on many occasions. It pays not to go in the morning, but to wait till 3:00pm or 4:00pm, when most people have gone home. This, by the way, works even better in amusement parks, like Disney or Universal.

FOOD GUIDES

Gastronomy is equally important. Therefore, we check various websites to make sure we end up with a list of the best, or different, or unique restaurants and wine bars. We always aim to try out a variety of local dishes, and modern, often fusion places that are not part of international chains. No, we do not check Tripadvisor, since we have had too many disappointing meals in the restaurants that were highly rated there. There are much better sources, for our taste at least. Our experience is that The Michelin Guides are the most reliable, and informative. We check out wine shops, wineries and breweries, as well as the best delicatessens.

We make it a point to view the most interesting architecture in the cities we visit. There are several websites to check, including Virginia Duran’s and Arch Daily. We love to walk and get out for city walks, especially if there is a historic centre, which is practically always the case. It makes good sense to get a local guide to join you for a morning walk. We will never pass by a bookstore, especially a secondhand one, without stopping and checking out what can be found there and we also can’t get enough of antique stores, art shops and those establishments that offer strange ware. The world, and every shop, is full of surprises.

GOOD TIME GUARANTEED

We find that planning your trips this way allows you to enjoy putting together an itinerary that guarantees you are going to have a good time when you have reached your destination. You will make the most of the time available to you, enrich your lives, discover new experiences, stay away from the crowds and go back home a happy camper, so to speak.v