Portmagee

Thu 27/8/26

Wicklow to Portmagee

Today we would be taking a long drive from our guesthouse in Roundwood, County Wicklow to Portmagee in County Kerry, covering a distance of about 400km and would be taking about 5 hours. We had to make this long journey today as I have booked a landing tour to Skellig Michael island, a Unesco Heritage Site for tomorrow morning. Other dates were already fully booked.

We opted to take the country road instead of the highway (motorway) as we wanted to see the scenic views of the countryside. From Roundwood, we took the Wicklow Gap way and stopped for a photo near Lough Nahanagan while it was raining. It was too beautiful to skip, although in the rain.

a Wicklow Gap way view point

Wicklow Gap way view point

We planned to stop by Rock of Dunamase on the way, but the road to the location was closed for public today due to the Electric Picnic festival. We tried to use another way, but was also diverted by traffic police. It was raining heavily anyway, so perhaps it was the best decision for us to skip it today. We ended up stopping for coffee takeaway at a petrol station somewhere in before continuing the journey to Portmagee. 

view of Dingle bay on the way to Portmagee

We reached our guesthouse Skellig Port Accommodation (EUR 80 or RM 388 per night) at 5pm. After checking in and refreshing ourselves, we made our way to the nearby Kerry cliffs but was told they were closing soon and we had only 30 minutes for viewing. So we decided to go tomorrow instead.

We then drove to the nearest beach Reencaheragh (not really a beach) to take some pictures, then drove to the parking lot near the Portmagee pier to cross the bridge by foot. 

view of Portmagee channel from Reencaheragh beach

Portmagee town view from the bridge

Portmagee (left) and Valentia island (right)

It was then time to head back, prepare dinner and rest for the day as we would have to follow up on the early morning update tomorrow at 6.30am whether the landing tour to Skellig Michael island would proceed or not, depending on the weather.

Wicklow

Tue 25/8/26 

It was 2pm when we left the airport and made our way to our destination today, Wicklow with a stop at Lidl to buy groceries. A woman at the counter randomly asked us how to cook the salmon that we bought. 

We reached our accommodation The Lodge Guesthouse (EUR 90 or RM 436 per night) located at the border between county Dublin and county Wicklow at 4pm and it was raining. Since we were not really hungry, we had dinner of seared salmon with spinach which we cooked and then retired early as we were very sleepy. 

The Lodge Guesthouse

Wed 26/8/26

Wicklow National Park

It was still raining when we woke up in the morning. Partner In Crime prepared breakfast and packed some sandwich for lunch while we go for hiking. We saw wild deer at our house compound. 

We decided to proceed with our hike to Djouce Mountain nearby although it has not stopped raining. I suddenly remembered that we had forgotten to take some of our groceries inside the fridge, so we drove back to the house. Luckily it was just about 20 minutes away. 

We first stopped at the Lough Tay viewing point to take some pictures of the Lough Tay lake but it was very cloudy. Then we parked at J B Malone Car Park (free of charge) to do the Djouce Mountain hike. We read that there were car break in incidents so we made sure that our belongings were not visible. 

Lough Tay lake

It was still raining when we started the hike at 10am, and visibility was very poor. We couldn't see beyond 100m, but we continued on until reaching White Hill after about 30 minutes when we decided to turn back as the weather was still not improving. Along the way we saw sheep grazing. We only covered a distance of 4.61km in 1h 5m with elevation gain of 196m.

low visibility during the Djouce mountain hike

low visibility during the Djouce mountain hike

view from White Hill 

We decided to drive to Wicklow National Park via the Sally Gap and parked at Glendalough Upper Lake car park (EUR 5 for whole day), located about 30 minutes away. Fortunately it has now stopped raining. We first took some pictures at the Glendalough Upper Lake, and then decided to do the Spinc Trail loop since it was still early at 12 noon and we could only check in at our next guesthouse after 4pm.

Glendalough Upper Lake

Glendalough Upper Lake

We did the Spinc Trail clockwise, reaching Poulanass waterfall shortly and continued climbing until we reached several view points of the Glendalough Upper Lake. It was really beautiful so we stopped a lot for pictures. We saw more wild deer here, although there was one who was not afraid of humans and came very near to us looking for food. 

Poulanass waterfall 

wooded area trail

first view of Glendalough Upper Lake

view of pine tree forest

second view point

view point of lake and forest

beautiful views 

boardwalk Glenealo valley

Glenealo valley

stone walk at the valley

a friendly deer spotted down at the valley 

deer up close

stream down at the valley

Miner's village ruins

While we stopped to have lunch, we rescued a tired bee. We couldn't find any flowers with enough nectar nearby so we brought him until the car park to feed him with water diluted with sugar (that we had in the car) to give him energy. Once he was energized, he flew up high like a drone. We hope he made it back to his colony.

not enough nectar

giving glucose water

We completed the Spinc Trail loop in 3h 45 mins including stops with a distance of 11.13 km and elevation gain of 436m.

We then drove shortly to our next guesthouse The Loft near Roundwood (EUR 126 or RM 610 per night) about 17 min away and self checked in. No more further activity for today, so we prepared dinner at the self catering accommodation and then called it a day.

the Loft

KUL-DUB

 Mon 24/8/26

We would be taking a 9 day trip, starting from Dublin to Wicklow, Portmagee, Killarney, Lisdoonvarna (near Doolin), and back to Dublin We would spend a half day in Dublin before returning to Kuala Lumpur  with our flight back scheduled at 815 am. For this trip, we booked our tickets through Qatar Airways, part of the OneWorld alliance. In this trip, we transited at Doha (DOH)  before arriving to Dublin (DUB), Republic of Ireland. We bought our ticket about a week before the departure date (24 Aug). Our return trip ticket cost RM 9202 per person. 

Traffic was building up, we arrived at KLIA at after 1 hour 20 mins (normal traffic would take 45 minutes). After checking in and immigration clearance using the MyBorderPass app, we made our way to MH's Golden Lounge at the airside, after taking the aerotrain. We went to the Platinum side where there were less people so we had a bit of time to relax and enjoyed dinner of mushroom soup, oxtail soup and pan seared seabass before it was time for boarding. We departed on time at 9.50 pm.

pan seared seabass

mushroom and oxtail soup

We chose seat 3E and 3F at the centre.  We were given the Diptyque amenity kit and pajamas. For inflight meal, I chose the spiced lentil soup as starter, seared chicken breast with mushroom as main course,  and ice cream for dessert . For light snack, I had beef pastrami and cheddar sandwich.  I had mint tea for the pre departure drink. 

3E

centre seat 3E and 3F

salmon appetiser

seared chicken breast with mushroom

ice cream

beef pastrami and cheddar sandwich

We arrived Doha at 11.35pm. We had about 8 hours of layover time before our next flight to Dublin at 8.00am so we made our way to Platinum and Gold lounge (we bought the business lite ticket so we don't have access to Al Mourjan lounge) to have our prayers, shower and have some meal of croissant, omelette, latte and arabic coffee (given with Qinwan dates) which were not served in flight (because it was a night flight). 

breakfast at Platinum and Gold lounge

We then made our way to the boarding gate and took the bus. For the morning flight from DOH to DUB, we were seated at 5K and 6K with privacy doors, but not a Qsuite. For breakfast, I chose greek yogurt with mixed berry compote, cheddar cheese omelette with chicken sausage; and smoked salmon on sesame bagel for light meal.

seat 5K by the window

the new Diptyque kit

privacy door

6K

greek yogurt with mixed berry compote

cheese omelette with chicken sausage

smoked salmon on sesame bagel

We landed Dublin on time at 1.30 pm. Immigration was smooth, just a question on our itinerary. 

We then picked up our rental car (Avis, at the rental car parking) which we had to take the shuttle bus from Terminal 1. Our car was a Suzuki Swift. The rental cost RM 2772 for 9 days with full coverage and unlimited mileage.

our Suzuki Swift

We opted for 15 day Maxis roaming for RM99 per person 

It was 2pm when we left the airport and made our way to our destination today, Wicklow with a stop at Lidl to buy groceries. Dublin was cloudy today with a temperature of 19C

Tashkent

Tue 9/6/26

Today we only ventured out at 9am as we were still tired from late night arrival yesterday.

From our hotel in the train, we walked to the metro station Tashkent and took the metro to Chorsu station to do some shopping at Chorsu Bozor. The metro ride was very cheap at UZS (RM 1) per person per way regardless of how many stops to reach the final station. We tapped our card at the turnstile during entry only and is not required at exit.

Tashkent metro station

We had breakfast of plov, shashlik and a pot of tea at a restaurant at Chorsu Bozor for UZS 70K (RM 21) paid by cash. After that we bought 1 kg of macadamia nuts (UZS 100K or RM 31), 1 kg cherry (UZS 100K or RM 31), 1 kg (UZS 130K or RM 40), halba sweets (UZS 30K or RM 10), a big bread and small bread (UZS 30K or RM 10 ), 10 fridge magnets for (UZS 100K or RM 31) and a traditional Uzbek long vest for UZS 65K or RM 20.

Chorsu bozor

breakfast of plov and shashlik

bread

Since our backpack has become heavy from the shopping items, we decided to return to our hotel and unload them in our room and rested for a bit before venturing out again, taking the metro to Yunus Rajibiy station changing line at Oybek to Ming O'rik to take pictures of the historic Hotel Uzbekistan with its Soviet brutalist architecture and then sitting on the bench at Amir Temur square park eating the bread we bought just now.

Tashkent metro station

Yunus Rajabiy metro station

Hotel Uzbekistan

Amir Temur and Hotel Uzbekistan in the background

resting at the bench at Amir Temur park

After it became too hot to endure, we made our way back to the hotel, but stopping by at Kosmonavtlar station to take pictures. 

Yunus Rajibiy station

Kosmonavtlar station

We went out to have late lunch at 3.30pm by taking Yandex to Glinka Besh Qozon restaurant for UZS 20.5K (RM 7). We had wedding standard plov and choykhona plov set, salad and soup with a pot of lemon tea for UZS 164836 or RM 56, paid by credit card. We initially wanted to order only 1 large set of plov as we were not that hungry but the waiter insisted that each person should order a plov. I did feel really full from all the rice taken.

wedding standard plov and choykhona plov set

lunch at Besh Qozon

After lunch, we went back to the hotel taking Yandex which cost UZS 17K (RM 6) and then packed our luggage, rested and waited until 8.30pm to leave for the airport for our flight back to KUL scheduled at 2350. The Yandex from Tashkent train station to Tashkent airport costs UZS 25K (RM 9).

We didn't get any lounge access at Tashkent airport for Batik Air's business class so we used the remaining of our UZS cash to buy a cup of hot tea for UZS 25K at one of the airport cafes after clearing immigration. Although the café displayed prices in EUR, we could still utilize our UZS cash. All the duty free shops after immigration displays the price tag in EUR. 

Our flight departed on time and we arrived KUL earlier than the scheduled time at 10am. However, we had to wait a while for our luggage, and then there was a drama with the KLIA taxi driver who insisted that the ride to our home should cost RM99 instead of RM 91. All the numerous times we took the KLIA airport had always cost RM 91, which I showed my receipt as proof (the latest trip being in April 2026), but the driver kept on insisting for us to go back to the counter which had cost us another 30 minutes. Perhaps next time we would consider to take Grab again.

late night snack

idli breakfast

briyani breakfast

good morning

Thank you Uzbekistan for the wonderful memories.