Before I went off to Dubai for a short work trip, most of the casual reviews from friends described an artificial city, a fake metropolis.

But I like cities. So I didn’t think it would be anything short of pleasant. Malls, restaurants, first world transport and amenities, what’s not to like?

Since I was there for work, I was nestled in the shinier side of town amid gleaming steel and glass structures. My hotel was also next to the sprawling Dubai Mall. I had ventured in one lunch break, and The World's Biggest didn't fail to impress.

Wikipedia says it has more space than 50 football pitches. Holy crap.

The Burj Khalifa building

The mall houses a huge aquarium.

Right above the aquarium, there is an artificial sky with twinkling stars.

A very sanitised 'gold souk' market area inside the mall.

The Dubai fountain in the day is the centrepiece connecting a number of Emaar's properties: the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, The Palace hotel and The Old Town souk-themed shopping area. The US$200 million project was done in 2008, and (clearly this doesn't happen only in Singapore), its name was the winning entry in a contest.

Perhaps emblematic of much of the nouveau riche culture in Dubai, there was a shiny Lamborghini parked outside the Dubai Mall. Inside, plastic-covered seats. Lol.

The Palace hotel

On my last day in the city, I had the afternoon free, so I wandered away from the downtown project towards the other side of town, where the (actual) souks are. I suppose it must be a sign of China’s economic progress, but we were constantly accosted by touts along the street yelling "ni hao".

And not "konichiwa". Japan's economy has seen better days, but I've been grown accustomed to barks of "arigato" and "Nippon" on travels abroad, although it's become less of an occurrence in recent years.

Chinese tourist at the old Dubai fort

The cityscape outside of the downtown project is a vastly different world to the Dubai Mall and race-to-the-top-of-the-world projects like the Burj Khalifa.

'Made in China'

1 UAE Dirham per ride across the river: 34 Singapore cents/27 US cents

On a window at a workers' quarters

A large mosque down town

Sprouting up from the dusty, brown landscape of the less-posh side of town was a clean new metro, newly-launched in 2009. It runs two lines through the spine of the city right now, and three lines are in the works.

Back near the hotel to wait for my flight back at night, I had some dinner by myself at a bustling Italian place overlooking the lake, I mean fountain.

Over dinner, I read this thoroughly depressing article, describing the gap between the working underclass of immigrants from poor Asian countries and the (much more) privileged Western expats and of course, the Emiratis themselves.

One day about town clearly wasn’t enough to make me an expert verifying the article’s claims, but sitting there at the restaurant surrounded by white expats and Emiratis, it made me think about how none of the Indian workers I saw in the day were anywhere to be found nearby.

The difference was stark.

In 2010, Emiratis made up 17% of residents in Dubai. A good majority of the rest of the city is made up of Indian workers in blue collared designations.

This is hardly something to bat an eyelid at, but the silent oppression and human rights violations described in Hari’s piece made it hard to swallow.

Cars waiting outside the Dubai Mall

The only supermarket at the mall: Waitrose

A spot of tea

The fountain in action, by the same guys that designed the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas. No wonder it looked a little Oceans Eleven.

A giant iPad camera

Hakone is ridiculously pretty.

Fushimi Inari Shrine

AKB48 is a girl group in the country with a ridiculous 59-member headcount. They have merchandise, CDs and a cafe dedicated to them, however, so I guess you can't knock their financial success.

If Tokyo didn't feel like your stereotypical idea of Japan, Kyoto sure fit the bill. Arriving in the city from bustling Tokyo felt like a jerk back into the '80s—that is, Japanese TV from the era—from the slightly dustier buildings to shoulder pads and pre-Gatsbied hairstyles.

On the bus, an old man asked us where we were from, and proceeded to excitedly name two things he knew Singapore for: Changi Airport and “prime minister” Lee Kuan Yew. Since it's been a good 20 years since the man served as prime minister, it was all very fitting as a scene out of the '80s on that bus, lurching towards our ryokan.

Reviews of Kyoto online seem mixed, but having spent an extra, unplanned day in the city, I think it's one that you have to give a chance.

Sure, it doesn't reach out to wow you as quickly as Tokyo does, but it grows on you quickly as a great place to live and visit from some of the cities, even those as fast-paced as Tokyo.

For one, Kyoto is by no means a sleepy town. Its bustling downtown area sports malls and shops you can waste an afternoon in, and around the city hall area are smaller, upmarket shops and cafes.

Its offering of massive shrines and gardens are its main treasure, however. From the sprawling imperial gardens to the Fushimi Inari shrine, these provided a distinct character and respite from the cityscape.

Orange pillars of the Fushimi Inari. What do you mean you've seen this shot already in a travel book?

We also stumbled upon a suddenly quiet, still street in Gion, where geisha entertained behind unlabelled restaurant doors to an exclusive patronage. Up the street, there was a guy loitering with a camera, and we paused near him to look at the map when suddenly, a geisha scuttled out of one of the houses, eyes averted, and hurried quickly into a waiting cab before it sped off into the darkness.

One interesting thing to do was going to the public bath house, or sento. I thought the sign outside was ramen, because it looked like a steaming bowl of soup, but I realised it's a steaming soup of naked people. Close enough.

Nonetheless, it's not as unsexy (or sexy, depending on your taste) as that. It felt like a great penny spa, and scrubbing down before soaking in the hot water was incredible just before bed.

I would absolutely recommend going around Kyoto by bicycle. The city is prepared with bicycle lanes and cars go much more slowly than in Tokyo as well.

It's also easy to navigate, being smaller than Tokyo, and the river running down the spine of the city was invaluable as a navigation landmark. 

Going across the whole city in one day by bike is a little ambitious, albeit still doable. My sit bones ached for two days after, though.

Apart from its rather intense love affair with mochi, Kyoto was a lovely holiday-from-a-holiday in Tokyo, and showed a much more regular, yet charming side of Japan. I'm glad I didn't miss it.

Some review online said this koi-cha (thick tea) at the Ippodo Tea Company outlet was a must-try. It was pretty much green tea paste, which only later became something resembling green tea after about four washes with water. Try it if you're curious.

Pachinko parlour

Clean toilets, polite people and crazy neon lights. This is the Tokyo I've read about, and for the most part, found it was absolutely true, especially on the clean toilet bit. (I think Singapore can try to be as first world as it can, but the toilet situation back home is a dead giveaway to how first world the people may be, as glitzy as the cityscape is. But I digress.)

Those, like me, expecting an antiseptic wonderland will be pleasantly greeted with fast and clean automations, although reports of its vastly advanced phones are perhaps gross exaggerations. (On that note, I'd love for someone to tell me why their phone user interfaces are so text-heavy.)

The thing about big city holidays is it's sometimes difficult getting a huge whiff of the city's 'feel' at once, because concrete jungles and their chain stores can feel homogenous at a glance.

Tokyo is perhaps best digested in its districts, Which often delivered different stores and even different people milling about.

The perfectly coiffed hair in Roppongi, for example, explains how you can find a hairdresser at every turn. The hipster side of town in Ebisu was a delight to navigate as it uncovered little shops and eateries in its back allies.

No surprise, Akihabara turned out to be the highlight of the trip; an 8 hour jaunt whizzed by and I ended up being the last person in Yodobashi Cameras being gently urged out the door.

We also visited Super Deluxe, a trippy hipster bar that happened to be celebrating a hoola hoop charity drive. We stepped in and were greeted with video montages projected onto the walls as people gyrated inside psychedelic, flashing hoops.

And away from all that was the most pleasant walk through Yoyogi Park, although I haven't yet decided if its massive baritone crows added to the experience.

Amid Japan's fabled tough education and stringent work life, there is the sense that you can be whoever you want, at least on the fashion side of things. Guys wearing what can only be called a skirt (or a kilt, if you forced the matter), pairing that with tights or skinny jeans, the crazy hair and make up—I saw numerous girls walking casually down the street in full white-face mime make up and elaborate Victorian outfits.

One of the things I enjoyed most was ending the night at an izakaya, or bar where they serve a variety of small plates with your drinks. I don't know how often the Japanese do this, but I'd probably put on the pounds if I lived in the country and replaced dinner with cheap beer and fried finger food.

When it was time to go, it seemed like there were still a thousand things that were left unchecked. Pastries yet to be eaten, coffee joints not found, music venues not yet visited. Tokyo was what I thought it would be and more, and I felt like I had barely skimmed the surface.

Double whammy courtesy of the Bangsar Village II store directory in Kuala Lumpur.

"Maybe they won't notice the pine in pineapple."

I was in LA last month for my best friend, Jody's wedding, and apart from the beautiful wedding, the rest of LA was a welcomed sedate change to the last time I visited, four years ago. I had to check Facebook for that date, and I can't believe it was four years. That probably explains how different it was this time round.

Okay, no age jokes. Let's get to some photos.

So we went to this spa in Ojai for her bachelorette, and coincidentally, it was Reese Witherspoon's wedding nearby and a whole bunch of celebrities were staying at the same place. We saw Renee Zellweger crossing the lawn, and she looked like she was just minding her own business getting from one place to the next. Too bad the paparazzi had a different spin on that.

It was beautiful, but the spa had special cell phone reception blockers to reduce introduce stress. Boo, hiss. 

Just before leaving for the airport, Jody's husband asked if I wanted regular and safe Mexican food or dodgier, authentic fare. I chose the latter. 

The harness makes him look like a highly-intelligent, highly-skilled monkey.

Sadly, that website doesn't seem to be valid.

Churros om nom nom.

At the Getty.

An interesting hair salon at Melrose.

Say what?