My Travels

New home

2012-02-12T20:24:00.003+08:00

I went away!! :)

2011-11-20T10:32:00.003+08:00

Yes! I did!!!

After weeks of trying to organize a week off work, it finally happened and I went away to Guangzhou for the week. I didn't go visiting temples and tourist attractions, but spent most of my time shopping *grin*. They have heaps of wedding stuffs and everything is sssoooooooo much more affordable! Could have gotten my gown there for a much better price!

Things have changed quite a bit since I last updated the blog..... I did say that I was heading home for good, but that has changed now. I am still moving, but moving to Sydney instead for at least 4 years for work. I'm still very apprehensive about the move (the relocation, the new faces, new healthcare system, and of course, not having my wonderful friends from Melbourne with me) - the fear of the unknown as a close friend has said.

Anyway, another 3 weeks of work before I start looking for a place in Sydney and heading home for a couple of weeks to organize a few things. Next year is going to be a very big year for me..... our wedding, the move and starting my specialty training.

*sorry for the diversion from my usual traveling babble - just thought I should share my important events!*

And I will put up some random photos from Guangzhou at some point. We did do a few touristy things - 2 temples and a cruise *grin*

Here's a glimpse of Guangzhou by night :)

And yummy roast goose!! :)

Making changes

2011-09-11T15:46:00.002+08:00

Saying goodbye to the cold wet days of winter, we're now in spring.
This space of mine's very much neglected this year, a true reflection of the lack of holidays I've taken this year. I've been home many times for short breaks but not the sightseeing ones.

It's been a big year for me (and yes, it's only September!). Good in some, and not so good in some. Disappointments in a few and hence, a change is needed. I'm moving home for good which means a big paycut which translates to almost non-existent holidays. It's depressing to know that to travel in the future, I'll have to spend months and months to save up.

I have a terrible feeling that this space might have only 1 or 2 posts a year :(.

Anyone knows of any travelling/holiday/vacation bodies who'll pay to have me write about places? Actually, they may not even need to pay me.... just the transport,lodging and spending money on food. That's all. I promise

Oh my god!!

2011-06-03T16:10:00.000+08:00

Can't believe its June already and I haven't posted a single thing since February!
So swamped with work, holidays and weddings that I haven't had any time to update.
But will do soon!! :)

Bali : Non-diving visits Part 2

2011-02-20T22:17:00.004+08:00

We started our first day of non-diving with visits to several places, mainly shrines and temples starting with Pura Segara which is only about 5 minutes drive from our hotel, Sanur Paradise Plaza.

The shrine outside our hotel lobby

Canang
*Prayers offering*

We had the same driver for the rest of our trip which was good in a way, despite his english skills being somewhat restricted. Nevertheless, he was punctual and courteous.

Entrance to Pura Segara

Pura Segara is one of the oldest temples in the area and is located just next to the Sindhu Beach close to the Grand Bali Hotel.

@ The entrance

It was actually empty when we went to the shrine which was lovely. It felt really undisturbed, not commercialized and truly tranquil. Although not big and grand, it was probably the best shrine I've visited in Bali.

Entering into the main grounds

Love how colours stands out

It was this picture on my guide book that made me decide to visit this temple. And I'm glad they've put this picture in there.

Pura Segara is still retained in its original state and parts of the temple/shrine was made from corals.

Main altar, I think

More canang

Canang is readily seen anywhere in Bali, whether its outside a temple or shrine, shops or homes. Our diving group also always puts on in the ocean just before we leave for the deep ocean every single time we depart from the beach. It is truly an important part of the Balinese culture.

From there on, we walked over to the beach to have by the sea. Shaded by the trees, watching the sun streaming past the leaves, looking at the clear blue skies with the cool sea breeze was absolutely great!

Beach view from the entrance of Pura Segara

Where we were seated for lunch

If only I could lie here every day

We had lunch from one of the random restaurants along the beach (there was heaps of them!). Wasn't too bad the meal, and I suppose the surrounding environment is a BIG plus!

My lunch

From there on, we decided to move on to several other tourist attractions before moving to our new accommodation for the night which was in Seminyak.

First stop, Bali Museum.

RP 5,000 per person, it wasn't too bad. But we did end up hiring a guide as well just to give us a better clue of what's important to pay attention to as we were a little pushed for time. I don't think he cost too much either.

Main part of the museum

The guide was telling me about the three main gods in their culture, being Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. But I can't say for sure what else he told me as I could not remember any of it! This is what happens when I leave too much time between the trip and blogging. *sigh*

One of the gods

The above, I believe, is an important God in literature/studies/education unless my memory has totally gone haywired. Our guide did give me a very detailed explanation and tolerated all my too-many-questions but this is so bad that I can't remember them :(. So, most of this visit is just gonna be pictures.

One of the shrines in the museum

From courtyard to courtyard

Gorgeous statues

And the next picture is one that I definitely remember - the King's Bath!

Not so sure if it was that luxurious. I think I would actually not want to take a bath there... but maybe, during that time it was really clean and pretty. It was surprisingly deep, this bath. Almost like a little pool. Amazing...

Next stop was just next door - Pura Agung Jagatnatha.

One of the more important temples in Denpasar, they were preparing for a big day so there was heaps of preparation work going on in the temple which was fabulous news to me!

Pura Jagatnatha also means Temple of the Lord of the Universe, and was built in 1970s to worship Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, a supreme God of the Balinese Hindu religion.

Entrance to the temple

I'm not sure if there is an entry fee on daily basis but we were asked to leave donations (almost compulsory) on entry that day, but maybe because they were preparing for the next day? But the amount was at our discretion (sort of) so I suppose that was ok. And we paid on exit. But it did sort of feel forced.... and we paid half of what was requested. Not very nice of us, but there was no entrance fee stated and the amount they had wanted was actually quite a bit..... But anyway, they just nodded and took the money with a smile, so I guess that was okay.

Lots going on

Offerings

Loved the colours

Throughout our trip in Bali, I noted that a lot of the sacred statues were wearing a cloth. I was later told by our driver that the cloth is called Poleng and is used to symbolize good and bad characters. It is usually worn on certain shrines called tugu, for temple guardian statues and in ceremonies.

The main part of the temple was the tall monument that sits in the middle of a square surrounded by statue guardians and a moat. That central area is sacred and can only be entered by a priest.

As far as I can remember, this was not a major festival (i.e a yearly even or something), it was either a fortnightly or full-moon event. I can't say for sure. But still, the preparations were plenty and it really looked like a grand event.

The main part of the temple

Worshiping/praying

After that we were off to the Bali Market at the recommendation of our driver.

We sort of cheated and only went around part of the market as it was a true market. As in a true wet market with fish, pork, chicken, vegetable, whatever you can name. We were both quite tired and just went to have a quick look at the vegetable bits and bought some fruits.

No shortage of chillies here :)

Lady making canang

Lots of canang for sale

We probably did try and fit in too many things to do that day as after the market we went straight off to Tanah Pura Lot which is one of the famous landmarks in Bali. To be honest, we didn't really enjoy it - maybe we were too tired, or it was too humid and it had just rained. Plus the sun was not out, photos were crappy and there was no sunset to see!

So there's nothing much to say about the place and there are just gonna be pictures, despite them being terrible.

Sun on the wrong side :(

One of the shrines in the area?

What I remember enjoying in Tanah Lot was the grilled corns. It was absolutely yum! I think they coat it with a layer of chili or something that made it taste oh-so-good! :D

Master at work

Production in progress

The actual Pura in Tanah Lot is quite a distance from the car park. The place is so commercialized that you walk at least 400-500 metres of souvenir stalls before actually arriving at the shrine itself.

Handicrafts for sale

Stalls

And more stalls...

By this time, we were both knackered and a little grouchy so we decided to head towards Seminyak and check in at our villa. A little rest before going out again for dinner.....

Entrance to our private villa

We stayed in Grania Bali which is located in Seminyak itself. A rather secluded villa, sort of in the middle of nowhere... but quiet, tranquil, serene and private. Just exactly what we needed.

Right on!!

Our little private pool

The lovely bedroom

It looks out to the pool!! *grin*

The little ornamental corner

Living hall

Everything about the place was perfect except for the hall. It was a little stuffy when we got in that day, even a little humid. In addition to that, they have the fridge and water dispenser right in the hall so that was not helping with the heat. We ended up turning the water dispenser off as it was quite warm!

The open style bathroom :)

And then it was time to head for dinner...

Bye bye villa... for now :)

We headed out to Jimbaran for dinner that night as I wanted to eat by the beach, on the sand facing the ocean having seafood :P

Dinner place

The grills

The whole place is so commercialized that it was almost impossible to see the sea. It wasn't just our restaurant, but tens and tens of restaurants around the area, with lines and lines of tables. Honestly too over populated.

But lucky us, we had the front line table facing the ocean. Absolutely blissful watching the waves as we were having dinner. Didn't have that the whole time though - had a bunch of school kids standing right in front of our table taking pictures, looking at the ocean, talking loudly... so not entertaining. But anyway, after they left, it was an absolute bliss :).

Our prime seats :D

Bali : Non-diving visits Part 1

2011-01-30T15:04:00.004+08:00

I spent quite a bit of time trying to fit in things to do after our dives during the day much to the chagrin of the boy. One of the things that I had definitely wanted to see was the famous local performance - the Legong Dance.

It was quite hard trying to find one online but our hotel's tourist desk were really good - they had a whole list of shows with places and times all in a piece of paper so we only had to pick and choose which ones we want to go to. I settled for the Legong Dance in Ubud.

Entrance of Ubud Palace

Our show was presented by Sadha Budaya Troupe and tickets were Rp 80,000 each. It had a total of 7 performances plus 2 instrumental shows.

Waiting patiently for the show to start

And the show begins!

The first performance was the Gabor dance, otherwise known as the Welcome dance. "Panyembrahma is the presentation of an offering in the form of a ritual dance. The dance symbolizes the joyful reception of the Gods who attend a temple festival". The dance is mainly performed by young girls which usually ends with them throwing flowers to the guests and praying gestures as a welcome and blessing.

Welcome dance

The second dance is the one that I enjoy the most!

Baris/Warrior Dance

The Baris dance is a traditional dance where they glorify the manhood of the Balinese warrior. It is named baris which means line, to represent the lines of soldiers in war and was also the name of warriors who fought for the King of Bali. It may be performed by either a boy or a girl.

What fascinated (and also freaked me out :P) me the most was the eye movements the guy/girl was able to make. His pupils and iris literally dances! It was quite scary in the beginning but after a while, it catches your eye and attention so much that it became the main highlight in the show - for me anyway. You really have to see one to understand what I mean. (But only from a good one - coz one other that we saw, the guy was no where as good).

The next dance was the Legong Kraton Dance which is a classical piece used to entertain the king and is performed by young girls in colourful costumes. In our performance, the story tells of King Lasem which was an arrogant king who desired the unwilling Princess Langke Sari.

Legong Kraton Dance

The rest of the show were a little bit of a blur... but I still have a few pictures :D

The Bumblebee dance

Just before the Bumblebee dance was the Taruna Jaya Dance which was just so-so, hence no pictures. The Bumblebee dance is also known as Oleg Tambulilingan which tells a traditional Balinese love story.

The courtship of he-bee and she-bee

The last dance was quite amusing - Topeng Tua Mask Dance. Topeng Tua is an old man who has rather rough and brutish matter but was all funny anyway. A little scary to begin with as he was trying to be serious but cracked funny postures/movements towards the end.

Closer look at the man or rather - the mask

After the show, we moved to have dinner at a close by restaurant recommended by our driver. Unfortunately, the food was only mediocre so I wouldn't really recommend the place but it did have a pretty colourful souvenir store which kept me entertained.

Coloursss....

On the other hand, I would highly recommend where we had babi guling! It was absolutely awesome! Not that I had much elsewhere, I only had it at one other place than this. But SY did have babi guling on his last visit and he too, finds this one awesome!!!

The awesome meal

Man, this shop should really give me free meals for the advertisement I providing.

2nd time :D

On a random note, we also decided to try out some massage/spas in Bali and had our driver recommend us one in Kuta. He took us to Ratu Bali (I think), which is on the higher end of the scale. It didn't look modern and in fact, I was worried that it looked a little dodgy.

Ratu Bali Spa

Massive place

It was actually pretty good and the massage too. And the place is massive! I would recommend it to people except that it was actually pretty pricey and it may require bookings for weekends or during the day despite it being huge as it is apparently really popular.

Happy Holidaysssss

2011-01-26T09:10:00.003+08:00

A month ago I was feeling depressed about not knowing when I'll be going away again.
And this week, I'm over the moon!
I'm going away in Feb, March AND April! Not to an exotic land or fascinating cultures, but to a warm and loving environment - HOME! :)

Feb's a pleasant surprise thanks to you.
March's a friend's wedding
April's just part of my annual leave.

No visiting foreign lands but I'm just as happy, if not happier! :)
And another 2 or 3 weeks in Oct/Nov - maybe a getaway then
But for now - Yippie!! *does a happy dance*

Bali Diving

2011-01-15T10:26:00.010+08:00

There isn't that much to say about Bali Diving - It was good and fun eventhough we didn't get to see any mola-molas or manta rays. That was disappointing but oh well, what could we do? We still had a fantastic four days diving in the East and Scuba Seraya is the best in my opinion, eventhough it was 3-4 hours away. We booked in to dive with Bali International Diving Professionals in Sanur.

Our pick up

BIDP

So this post is mainly just pictures and pictures and more pictures. The boy has a much better camera than me - so the different standards in pictures. But he got me the newer version of his recently, so next time maybe my pictures will be just as good!! :)

My first clear look of an octopus :D
*a little overexposed picture*

Banded snake
*My first encounter and frankly, it kinda freaked me out*

His signature shot :)

@ Manta Point
*or Batu Belumbong (I think) if you don't see any Mantas.. :P*

Fire Goby

Giant Puffy

Christmas came early..

I love this shot

And now for some of Scuba Seraya!

We only had 3 dives there I think, but it was all fabulous! I love searching and pleasantly surprised by what I find at the bottom. The hide and seek games with the marines life that attempts to camouflage. It's so rewarding. Eventhough I almost died there. Okay, maybe not die - but perhaps on the way to a pneumothorax.

I was happily diving along with the rest, staying at the back as I was taking some pictures. The dive master, I suppose, was pretty happy with our skills and hence was happy to sort of let us go at our own pace without hovering over us. But at one point, my weight belt fell off and I was starting to float to the surface (we were probably at about 15-20m?). I was kicking so furiously to get to SY and luckily he turned back to look for me (probably his every 2-3 minute check on me) and saw me in distress. Looking back, as we couldn't reach for my weight belt he handed me a piece of rock. It's quite funny now, but at that time, I honestly thought this might be the end of my diving adventures (As people with history of penumothoraces are not recommended to continue diving). And so we were, trying to stay at the bottom and trying to replace my weight belt after. Lucky for me again, the divemaster turned back this time and quickly came to help me. I was so relieved when I saw him!!

And well after that, we just continued our dives as usual. LOL. Typical!

Shrimps galore

Jacks

Swimming with the Jacks

Peek-a-boo

The colours are always brilliant on his camera!

And we spent the last day of our dive in East Bali trying to spot for mola mola (although I knew it was impossible to sight them at that temperature) and perhaps for some manta. But to my dismay, neither of the two. Sigh... Will have to come back in the future!

Nurse shark

2011

2011-01-04T21:01:00.002+08:00

It's the New Year! Hopefully it'll be a much better year as 2010 hasn't exactly been kindest to me. It wasn't bad, just wasn't my greatest. But that should mean that things should only improve! :)

Haven't got any leaves approved for this year yet and it's starting to feel a little depressing. I haven't travelled that much for 2010 and I can foresee that it'll be even less for 2011. *sigh*

I need a holiday STAT!

*or at least know when will my next one be*

Mt Tarawera, Orakei Korako & Lake Taupo

2010-12-22T17:16:00.004+08:00

I've read about the Mt Tarawera tour on Lonely Planet but it was a little hard to locate on the net but my lovely travel buddy found them and we promptly made bookings for the trip as soon as we were sure of the dates.

We arranged to be picked up at the Rotorua tourist information centre at 8 a.m. The morning started out really badly with our hotel. Firstly, they did not deliver our breakfast at 715 as requested and then the reception was not attended by anyone which meant that we could not check out even if we wanted to, which meant that we had to return to the motel to check out after our trip. So in the end, we left a note voicing our displeasure and left so that we weren't late for our tour.

Fortunately, our tour only had 2 of us as the other party cancelled, and the lovely guide, Jude took us back to the hotel as it was closer to get to Lake Taupo after we finish Mt Tarawera without getting back to Rotorua. So we headed back to the motel in hope that someone would be there now and someone was, so we checked out. Jude also found out that we weren't served breakfast and made the lady in the motel made us breakfast-to-go. Hahaha.. I have to say, Jude was quite an imposing figure :) . Executive on Fenton - you were disappointing.

Anyway, we made it to Mt Tarawera behind the intended schedule but hey, there was only 2 of us! It was like a private tour! :). And Jude was the lovely tour guide anyone who wish for.

First views of where we're headed

The mountain is privately owned and there is only one company that is allowed to bring tourist up there for a tour. Our tour cost NZD 266 for the both of us. We took the guided half day volcano adventure tour. They're probably best contactable via their website : www.mt-tarawera.co.nz

Our path

We took the short scree, crater walk and crater exit. The other ones requires absailing and mountain climbing so we skipped it. The short's good enough. The other option for those who doesn't want to go into the crater as it can be quite steep, is to walk around the volcano.

Making our way

In the hands of our trusty guide, Jude

Sneak-peek of what we're in for

The actual downward walking into the crater was quite daunting initially. The ground was made up of loose pebbles and there wasn't much grip on it despite wearing trainers. And the walk, it was some experience! Because there wasn't much grip and the degree of downward slope was quite extreme at certain areas, we were made to dig our shoes into the ground when we walk. The right way of doing it is that your legs , up till about 3-4 cm above ankles to mid calves should be buried under the ground and you sort of slide your way down with your feet. *Do wear dark coloured pants and covered shoes*

Making my way down

The happy 2

We weren't allowed to take photos while going down into the crater so there's only 2 pictures of the process. The photos doesn't do it justice though - it looks wayyyy steeper in real.

And now, some random photos because I took so many of them!

The fab 2 :P

The path we conquered! Hehehe~

Don't be fooled - it was still quite steep off the the side!

Finally made it back up *It was freezing!!!*

Mt Tarawera

The mountain had the largest eruption in New Zealand in living history. The 1886 eruption was the most impressive and it lies over one of the most active fault lines in the world. The 1886 explosion extended to 17km long of area and magna was ejected over a 6 hour period. The last explosion was also a mystery in the sense that it exploded sideways and not upwards, which was unusual as all it's previous eruptions were of upwards. We were told that it was unusual for a volcano to change its eruption ways. Interesting....

@ Base Camp

We then drove back to base camp to collect our 'certificates' and to sign the guestbook. More volcanic informations are available there for those interested.

There are 5 volcanic alert levels and they differ slightly in the frequently active and reawakening volcanoes. Generally, level 1 is dormant/quiescent state and level 5 are large hazardous eruptions are in progress.

Our transport for the trip

Love the car plate! :)

We didn't finish that late in the end, it probably only took us about 2 hours and a bit to finish up. We picked our car up from Waimangu and headed off to Lake Taupo, our next destination. We had lunch at one of the cafes opposite the Lake which was wonderful!

Cafe

Forgot what the place is called but the burger that I had - it was really really good!!

My lunch

They also sold random food items in the shop, even indian spices and things!

Items for sale

We checked in to our accommodation for the night - Lake Taupo Motor Inn. I booked the luxury suite which was only about 10-15 bucks extra from their standard room which was a bargain! It was a 2-bedroom place, LCD TV and mini kitchen! It was great!

Just realized there's a CD player above the couch!
*LOL*

My room

Both of the rooms were quite similiar - both cosy and nice with electric blankets. Absolute bliss! :)

After dropping in our bags and things we then headed off to our next destination - Orakei Korako.

Orakei is about midway between Lake Taupo and Waimangu, so it was a little of a backtrack for us but we were quite hungry when we left Waimangu so that was ok. Anyway, we arrived at Orakei Korako at about 3 p.m and spent about 2 hours there. The thermal area is actually located across the lake from it's visitor centre but their boat runs on demand, so that was good. Plus it only takes 3-5 minutes to get across.

Walkway entrance to Orakei Korako

On the boat

When translated, Orakei Korako means The Place of Adorning. Apparently, Orakei was also the site of filming for the BBC series of "Walking with Dinosaurs". The visit begins with taking a boat across Lake Ohakuri and the first thing that comes to view is the Emerald Terrace which is the largest silica terrace in New Zealand.

Arriving at the 'hot' land! :)

Found this interesting and a little disturbing

Loved the strong colours

There was 9 main points in Orakei but we had one that we absolutely had to get to. And it was the furthest of all - Ruatapu Cave.

Fred and Maggie Pool

Te Kapua - "The Golden Fleece"

Looked nothing like gold, it is called Te Kapua which means clouds in Maori. The was formed in the 131 AD and is 5meters high and 40meters long.

Ruatapu Cave

Also known as the sacred cave, it is within the Hiwa Nga Ana (Hill of Caves), which origin is still uncertain. There is only 2 geothermal caves in the world, the other being in Southern Italy.

In memory of a boy

Love the blue/emerald waters!

The pond at the bottom of the cave is known as Waiwhakaata aka pool of mirrors. The blue waters seem to have a calming effect. It was only after reading the information guide that I dare to touch the water. *It is usually not recommended to touch any water in a geothermal as the temperature can be quite high*. It said that the pool had a unique ability to clean jewellery due to its acidic and chemical composition.

Looking down at the geothermal

Where we came from - across Lake Ohakuri

Loved the scenery!

The famous Kiwi

We then drove back to our motel for a rest before heading out to dinner. I was so tired by then that I was grumpy and couldn't wait to climb into bed for a quick nap while K went out to Lake Taupo to have a look-see.

We then booked in for dinner at one of the recommended restaurant (that was also in the entertainment book - YAY! ) - Pimentos Restaurant.

The wall displays

The displays were really quite interesting as they are made from random tools in a workshop. Like pieces of wood and some screws and nails and things. Really quite an art.

And our glorious dinner! It was really really good and I would recommend anyone heading to Lake Taupo to visit this place. It may not look like much on the outside, but the food was really good. K thinks its the best we've had in NZ (I think it comes second - will let u know which comes first for me in a later post :P)

Our appetizer

The delicious main :)

Wai-O-Tapu, Waimangu and Rotorua

2010-12-18T21:14:00.016+08:00

We started off early that day, leaving Auckland early in the morning so that we could arrive before 10 am in Wai-O-Tapu to see the Lady Knox Geyser which erupts daily at 1015 am (with help of course).

Lady Knox Geyser *unprovoked*

We arrived on time to the visitor centre to purchase our tickets for the geyser and also for the thermal wonderland which cost NZD 55 per person. This also included the entrance fee for Waimangu Volcanic Valley.

Commentor and provoker
*see the froth building up?*

The weather was absolutely freezing that morning with drizzles throughout the whole morning. It was painful to be standing in the cold waiting for the show to start. But once it got rolling, it was good!! :)

Starting up

The story behind how the geyser was discovered was pretty interesting. According to the commentator, the 'hill' used to be of a small pond of some sort and workers around the area used to sit around it to have lunch and occasionally wash their utensils. One day, one of them accidentally dropped a soap into the water and then it began to froth and then erupted. Since then, it was 'christened' by a Lady Knox and has continued to be the star attraction in Wai-O-Tapu.

Full effect!

From there, we then drove back to the visitor centre to continue our visit of the thermal wonderland.

To be honest, I didn't actually enjoy this thermal wonderland as much as the next one. It felt too commercial and everything was rather bare, which I suppose may be what it was supposed to look like.... But still, the next thermal park that we went to was much prettier!

Anyway, we'll get to Waimangu later. Now, for some pictures in Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (Only putting a couple, as the rest look.... uninteresting).

The Champagne Pool

This pool is the largest hot water spring in Wai-O-Tapu. It occupies a 7000 year old explosion crater which had formed from an eruption.

For those interested in the details

There are lots of craters in this wonderland that ranges from 5-50 metres in diameter and up to 20 metres in depth which are formed when surfaces collapse into ground forming the craters. They really just look like deep holes... like a well, but with smoke coming out.

The next picture is probably my favourite in this park. The Devil's Bath.

Isn't it just the most eye-catching pond?!?!
The green was actually quite fluorescent!

The Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland opens from 830-500 pm, (last admission at 345pm). To get tickets for the Lady Knox Geyser, it is recommended that one arrives no later than 945 a.m eventhough it only erupts at 1015 as you need to drive from the visitor centre to the geyser (which is only about 5-7 minutes away).

Our next visit of the day was the Waimangu Volcanic Valley which is the world's newest geothermal system. There is a couple of walking tours and bus services in the valley itself which makes it quite convenient. The walking tours are generally about 1-2 hours each. We decided to walk on our own as we always do (so that we could skip all the uninteresting things :P).

We had a couple of highlighted must-see things in this valley and basically made our way there right away on supersonic speed.

Frying pan

This lake occupies 38,000 square metres making it the world's largest hot spring. The average lake temperature is about 50 celcius. Not somewhere I want to be in!

We then proceeded to our main destination - Inferno Crater

I was excited to get there as we were told that the lake may sometimes be bright blue in colour. But I also remembered being apprehensive about it as I wasn't sure if we were gonna be lucky enough to see it in its brilliant colour. The colour of the lake changes depending on the amount of activity it is undergoing. It can be of a dull grey colour (which I have seen enough!!) when the levels are low and then when it is in it's optimal state, the lake will assume a brillant skyblue colour.

And we were lucky!!!!!!

Look at that blueeeeeeee~~!
*It was worth all that leg cramp and SOBOE!*

The water temperature ranges between 35-75 celcius depending on the level of the lake. The water could also be very acidic at pH 2.8 at times.

After that, the two happy people from Melbourne left Waimangu with big smiles and headed off into Rotorua's town for a quick lunch before taking off for more touristy activities!

Rotorua Visitor Centre

Lunch @ Lime's

We were quite pushed for time as we had booked in to watch the sheep shearing show in Agrodome at 230 p.m and the restaurant was absolutely packed! The lovely waitress however was really kind and did try to warn us that they might not be able to serve us in time. But we decided that we really wanted to dine there and so we did. And they were so prompt with our orders and food, it was amazing! My lunch however wasn't, but K's was really quite good. Me and my poor choices. Who can I blame? :(

Meeting some friendly faces in Agrodome

We arrived at Agrodome on time and the place was absolutely packed with tourist. I had a sick feeling in my stomach that this might be a wrong choice of activity as it was probably gonna be a corny show. But I was so wrong! The show was amazing, the host were hilarious and the whole experience was far more enjoyable than I expected.

My favourite - the Merino
*love how his face seems to bury into his fur*

The performers

The entertainer

The show was for an hour and a bit and at the end of it, there's also a milking the cow demonstration, feeding the little lambies and a photo session for everyone.

Sleepy look

From there we then checked in to our hotels directly as we were both so exhausted from the day's activities. We stayed at Executive on Fenton's on the main street of the town, which was a fairly new motel. We had a really unpleasant time with the accommodation the next day *check next post for more*

Executive on Fenton's

Our room

The room was quite bare and had a small telly but the bathroom was great! The only thing that wasn't that wonderful was the smell of the water, or maybe the town. I don't know. All that sulphur in the air was starting to get to me. We had a quick rest before heading out to dinner/show/performance in Mitai Maori Village.

We booked in with Mitai Maori Village for their "Beauty by the night" which included Hangi ( a traditional ground cooked meal), a waka (warrior canoe), culture performance, glow worm walk and visit to the next door Kiwi conservative centre.

We arranged for a pickup from our accommodation which arrived pretty much on time. There was actually quite a few that was going to the same place.

Introducing us to Hangi

Hangi is the traditional cooking method by the Maori's where food is placed on the ground to be cooked. The process takes quite a few hours.

Sneak peek of what's coming! *yums*

We then started off the performances bit with the waka, which is a canoe performance where the warrior paddle along a river singing/performing a song. It was quite entertaining!

Waka

After the Waka we then headed off for a 45 - 60 mins performance of the local cultures, which was really good. For me anyway. Here's some pictures - check out their expression!

He looks scary!!

And now, some dances :

And now it's the girl's turn!
*The paintings on the face were really quite amazing*

Pictures just can't do justice to the show, so here's a video. I really enjoyed the energy from the performance.

And we were off to dinner...........

Dinner was buffet styled and the food was pretty good. And enough to go for seconds! It was yummsss...

And some local drinks to go with :)

And after that, we went for a walk in the area looking at glow worms and also to the kiwi conservation centre. Wasn't really my thing so there isn't much pictures to show. Plus, the kiwis were really hard to look for!

At the Kiwi Conservation Centre

MAS Travellers Competition

2010-11-26T12:24:00.004+08:00

So unprofessional but please head to,

http://mastraveller.com/Blogs/Vietnam/2010/11/26/Gorgeous-Vietnam/1037/

to vote for my entry for a travel competition for free airtickets.

I promise I'll blog with great sincerity about Paris if I win the tickets!

*pretty pretty please*

Bali Day 1 (Uluwatu Temple)

2010-11-11T15:24:00.010+08:00

My much awaited holiday to my much dreamed about destination - BALI!! I've always wanted to go to Bali for the much raved about beach and culture and food! So this time, we've incorporated a 4 day diving slot into our week-long holiday.

We flew with Air Asia not because of their prices, but because of the time flexibility with the flights and well, MAS was fully booked anyway. But as far as I could remember, MAS did not have that many flights though.

His pre-ordered chicken rice
*much nicer than mine!*

I had the famous Air Asia Nasi Lemak but was much disappointed with it. I've had it before in the past and it was really quite good. Not anymore unfortunately.

Nasi Lemak Air Asia

Our flight itinerary was changed a couple of months prior to departure to an hour later than the initial time which made it harder for me to organize our ground activities. But anyhow, we were promptly met by the dive operator's driver on arrival to Denpasar International. We stayed in Sanur Paradise Plaza in Sanur, which was only 10 minutes from the dive operators.

Hotel Lounge

The hotel was fairly big and catered for quite a few events, both national and international companies included which made the hotel appeared packed and busy most of the time. Fortunately, that was only in the lobby and their main restaurant. Otherwise, the rest of the hotel was pretty nice and quiet :).

We stayed in their Deluxe Balcony room which was spacious and clean equipped with an LCD for our convenience. There was plenty of channels to choose from! The hotel's service was also really quite good especially at the visitor/tour service desk.

View from our balcony
*Pool cabanas*

I had initially wanted to go to Tirtagangga Water Palace but unfortunately was led to Uluwatu Temple by our guide who didn't speak good English. I guess what got to me then was he never did actually say no, we can't go to Tirtagangga because it's too late and we are going to Uluwatu. I only realized that we were going to Uluwatu after realizing that we were kinda backtracking back to the airport. I wasn't impressed.

Anyway, away we went to Uluwatu Temple for the evening. We were there fairly early, almost 2.5 hours before the Kecak Dance was meant to start which was a bit of a pain in the neck. We could have potentially headed to somewhere before this temple!

View of the ocean from Uluwatu Temple

Built in the 11th century by a Javanese Priest, the temple is a much visited location by both tourist and locals. It cost Rp 6,000 to enter and we were both given sarongs to don over our shorts as a sign of respect to the holy temple. We were also given a 'tie' to put over our waist as a protective token from the spirits.

Love the achitecture of the temple

The temple is also inhabited by a large number of monkeys which were both a pleasure and terror to watch. There was too many of them and some of them can be quite aggressive. The are notorious for snatching sunglasses/spectacles and there was no shortage of this happening while we were there.

They move so quickly that in just a blink of the eye, your glasses are in their hands and occasionally dangled over the cliff edge! There is a local man who 'retrieves' these spectacles/sunglasses from the monkey by exhanging it with food but somehow, as entertaining as it is, I can't stop but feel being cheated for those unlucky owners. It's like that's the man's main occupation. But that's just me. The owners probably feel grateful to that man.

One of the thieves...

We then proceeded to walk around the temple for the next 40 minutes while our guide made arrangements to purchase tickets for the Kecak show which cost I think RP 60,000 each.

Cliff edge
*reminds me so much of the 12 Apostles*

The performance areas is a good walk to the left from the main entrance to the temple and is fairly large. We were about 45 minutes early for the show so it was relatively empty but by 10 minutes before it's due to start, it was jam-packed!

The empty seats

And 30 minutes later,

Check out the crowd!

Kecak Dance is one of the more famous dances in Bali because unlike other traditional performances there is no musical instruments in this performance. The sound effects and rhythms in the performances are instead hums from a group of male performers.

Prayers before the performance

The entry

The group of male performers humming

The Kecak Dance story revolves around Rama, his brother Laksamana and wife Sita, Vishnu the God, Ravana the demon and Anoman the White Monkey General.

Sita and ?Rama/Laksamana

The story was about Rama who lived in the forest with his brother, Laksamana and wife Sita. The demon Ravana had fallen in love with Sita and lured Rama and Laksamana away with a golden deer. Sita was initially protected by a magic circle that Laksamana had formed but was unfortunately tricked by Ravana in an image of an old man asking for water.

I think this was Garuda, the magic
bird who tried to save Sita

Rama and Laksamana was then helped by Anoman, the white monkey who delivered a message to Sita who was held in Alengka. While Anoman was there, he was captured by 3 very silly and entertaining servants of Ravana and was put in a ring of fire. He was however protected by his magic and was not hurt and instead burned the entire palace down and save Sita.

Anoman, the white monkey and general of
monkey armies where he was being tied

Protected from the fire by his magic powers

After the show there was a photo session with the characters from the play but it was so crowded and being 2 very hungry people we quickly headed for the exit and headed for dinner. I had wanted to try Babi Guling which was one of the local specialties and I wasn't disappointed. Our driver took us to this place that served such delicious babi guling that we went back for a second visit a few days later! :D

The yummy babi guling @ Nusa Dua

Fiji (Final)

2010-11-06T10:18:00.000+08:00

There isn't much else to say about our final two days in Fiji. We basically took it easy and spent the day lazing in the resort, sipping coffee in the afternoon and visiting the cultural village. I had initially wanted to see the cultural show but it was always in the morning and only on certain days. So we didn't make it.

We had wanted to have a final meal in Oasis but it was closed for lunch by the time we got there. How upsetting! :( . We really loved the curry there. Anyway, we settled for another place by the pond : Water's Edge. Not as good as Oasis, but still ok.

View of the pond from Oasis

View from Water's Edge
*same pond, different angles*

It was actually pretty nice :)

Lunch 1

Lunch 2

And from now on, there's just gonna be random photos as I can't remember the sequence of things and realistically, this was an R&R holiday :).

What was different in the convenience stores in Fiji was how things are chosen and sold.

Order station

See all the grills in the shop? Both stores that we've been to were the same. The customers have a standing area in front of the grill and all the goods are behind the grill. One stands from there to look at all the items and choose, and then shopkeeper will get them for you.

Store front no 2

It was really quite an experience. Not sure if it deters some people from buying things, or if they lose some business over the layout.. But I'm the sort that walks around the grocer and pick up things here and there - and buying things I don't need. LOL.

Public bus
*No windows!!*

We were meant to catch a bus from Nadi to Pacific Harbour and I hope that wasn't what I was going on if we did end up taking the public transport. What if it rains?!? Which it did when we first got there...

Anyway.... our hotel has Lovo Night once a week, which day exactly I can't remember but guest from other hotels come by too so I guess it must be pretty popular. The entire restaurant was packed!

Buffet style local food :)

Our 'candlelight dinner'

And what's a Lovo Night without cultural dances and performances!

The girls

And the boys...

This is where I can spend everyday :

Missing it loadssss.....

Random painting in the hotel

Random displays

View for tea time

I thought it was quite funny :)
*Hehehe*

And then it was time to head home :( . We decided to rent a car and drove ourselves to the airport. It worked out to be about the same price as hiring a private taxi and we had to convenience to stop at whenever and wherever we wanted too. It was great! We hired the car through a travel counter in our resort with Thrifty.

Leaving for the airport

Bye bye Fiji :(

We transited in Sydney and the view of the city from the sky was magnificient! :D

Sydney city lights

One of Harbour Bridge
*Sorry, it's a bit hard to see :P*

Of Happiness, Contentment and Love

2010-11-02T04:15:00.000+08:00

KLCC

I do not usually blog about my trips back to KL as I didn't used to think of is as a holiday as per say. It is a holiday, but not one where I travelled into foreign places. But yet now, I find that it is these holidays that I should pen down as it is these holidays that give me the utmost happiness.

This time round, apart from spending time with family and friends, I attended a friend's wedding, met another whom I haven't seen for 3 years. And of course - where's KL without food :).

Leny & John's beautiful wedding

With Miss AC :D
*the apple of my eye*

SawLing whom I haven't seen for 3 years! :D

And I got introduced to a new love :

Snowflakes!! :D

*Love it. Addicted.*

Among others :

Uni!!!!!

Deep Fried "sexy prawns"

Shabu shabu @ Puchong

Steamed crab

And my all-time favourite/must have :

Tom Yum Koong Noodles from Secret Recipe
*yumssss*

The short 3 weeks (minus 1 as was in Bali) was an absolute joy. I miss being home already! Just don't know when will my next trip me, if it will be a couple of months, 6 months or 9 months. Unless I can find all that holidays to attend the weddings of a few friends :) .

Right now, another time beckons. Before the next holiday.

Loving it~!

2010-10-24T17:35:00.004+08:00

Just got home from Bali - love water, food and best of all, the villa! =D. Only disappointment was the case of the missing molas and mantas, which means that we just have to go back again! :)

Back at home in KL now, enjoying the life of a bummer before heading back to reality in Melbourne. If only I could freeze time! :(

@ Pura Besakih

Pura Uluwatu

Breakfast by the pool
*Now, THAT's living! :D*

Fiji Shark Dive

2010-10-14T11:06:00.002+08:00

*Hello*

Our Shark Dive was not without a hitch, but BAD (Beqa Adventure Divers) did make it up to us at the end of the day.

We woke up enthusiastically in the morning in anticipation of our shark dive that we've waiting for days for only to be told that it was cancelled as we were having breakfast that morning. It was very responsible of the dive operators to come in and tell us individually and leaving us their numbers. Andrew was professional and honest with us about the fact that we might never be able to do the dive on this trip. The reason for the cancellation of our dives was because the dive shop was a rented property of a certain hotel that had been confiscated by the military for financial reasons. And the dive operators were not sure when they would be able to re-open for business.

We did scout around and eventually enquired with Aqua Trek for their Shark Dives, but they were fully booked for the days that we were there. But it was all good in the end when Andrew contacted us later in the day to say that they've reopened and they were giving us an extra dive day for free for the inconvenience! *YAY!!*

Bull Shark

The shark dives comprise of 2 dives for the day, with the first descending up to 30 metres in depth to watch the main show. The regular attendees were the famous bull sharks, black tip and white tips reef sharks, lemon shark, silvertip and nurse sharks, as well as the occasional tiger shark. She only makes an appearance about 1 in every 7-8 dive days and we were not of the lucky few.

The homeless remora
*kinda look alien-y* :P

He reminds me of the fatty shark in a cartoon
*I forgot which one*

Feeding time!

Check out the teeth!

I have to say the two of us do end up with the best seats in the house. Usually right behind the feeder, or just a slight off to their right. The sharks often feed and swim away on the right making the views marvellous. Though, the sight of their sharp white teeth gave me goosebumps. One of then even swam right over our head at extremely close range. *grins* We didn't take that many pictures as we spent most of the time taking videos.

And here's the video of our first dive :

We survived!

Map of the dive site in Pacific Coast

The main area of the Shark Dives for both BAD and Aquatrek is at the marked Shark Corridor on the map. Most of the other dives that we've done on the other days were mainly around Beqa Lagoon.

We did two day's worth of shark dives with BAD, one being the complimentary dive for the inconvenience. It was lucky that we took up their offer, as the second day's dive was much much better! The first day's dive was just so-so as there wasn't that many sharks, but many more of the larger fishes. Thankfully so for the better second dive - as we had to give up our kayaking along the gorges to go for the shark dive! =D

Auckland

2010-10-10T10:04:00.000+08:00

We started out early in the morning, almost missing the check-in time as we had to make a turn back to the house as I had forgotten something. So, instead of dropping off the car first, we checked in before we parked the car.

We flew with Emirates but once again, the flight was delayed but only for an hour. Still, it meant an hour less in Auckland. Not to mention that the both of us were so tired as we barely had any sleep the night before. And I had just gotten off nights the day before.

Our first stop was One Tree Hill as it was on the way towards our hotel. For some reason, the weather seem to be adamant on making us wet. Each time we got off the car it starts raining and it will stop the instant we get back into our car!

Monument @ One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill, or also known as Maungakiekie in Maori is actually located on a volcanic peak. I was told that there was summit did actually have a single tree in the past, but was unfortunately removed after acts of vandalism in the past. A monument was built in return for the significance of the lost tree. Till today, there is no specific tree that represents the name of the hill.

The drive towards the summit was actually a pretty tight drive, and there was only a handful of car park spaces. Many had chosen to walk there, but we of course, being the 2 lazy people drove up instead :P. We probably only stayed for 5 minutes here as it started to pour. Even taking photos was becoming a challenge that I just gave up and ran back into the car :( .

We then drove down the hill towards an observatory centre. I initially thought it was an observatory tower to look into the city, but it was actually a proper observatory/planetarium. It is located in Cornwall Park of the One Tree Hill area. There is actually 2 parks in the area, but because they sit right next to each other, they are often perceived as 1 single park.

It was actually pretty nice inside, which I am sure I would enjoy if I had the slightest idea in astronomy. So, we only spent a very short time there.

We then drove into the city and checked in at our hotel, Rydges Harbourview. I scored a pretty good deal for the hotel, paying only NZD 95/night for a double room which had 2 double beds. It was recently refurbished, so it was all new and nice. There was a slight confusion at the start where they gave us a king room but it was all good in the end :).

The comfortable bed
*with 6 pillows each!*

Large big windows to let the sun in :)

By the time we've checked in, it was already about 4 p.m so we only dropped off our bags and quickly left to see other sights of Auckland. We didn't actually had that many things to see, but I was told that it was because we were without a local. Hhmm... Not so sure about it.

Our first stop was meant to be Mission Bay as that was where everyone had recommended to me as the famous Movenpick was there. We however diverted to a weekend market in town, which was closing at 5 p.m. I was expecting a big market, at least something half the size of Victoria Market and was hugely disappointed.

The market was tiny, located in a gravel car park and there was perhaps, 15 stores? We went on a quick round of the stalls and decided to settle for some food there. I had the taroyaki and Karen had the mini donuts and we got some chips to share. The chips were pretty good and looked pretty too! :D

Chips stall

Your uconventional chips :) *yums*

What amazed me in the market was how most people were spending. Most of them were using credit/debit cards and not cash! In a market.. Quite a sight.

From there, after going round and round in the city, we decided to head towards Mission bay before it's too close to dinner time. Everyone that knew we were going to Auckland had recommended the famous Movenpick Ice-cream in Mission Bay. Of course we had to go :).

Movenpick

I could only wish that the rain would leave us finally.. but no it didn't. Once again it started raining when we got off the car.

The ice-cream everyone raved about...
*It was quite good, but not as good as Al Fredo! :P*

A quick shot of Mission Bay before hopping back into the car

We were both so tired that we decided to hea back towards the hotel for some rest before dinner time. And Sky Tower of course. But not before some sleep time. And on our way home, we just had to take a snap shot of this :

NZ's version of Safeway/Woolies

I don't know why, but we couldn't stop laughing when we say the name. We were probably so used to associating the green logo with Woolies/Safeway that seeing it being Countdown was just too funny. No offence to any Kiwis :). Even the interior and shelves were similar to the ones in Oz. Heheheh

I took a quick nap while the reliable Karen did all the road planning for the next few days on the GPS *shy*. How I like someone else doing the planning when I'm on holiday. Hahahaha.

Last tourist stop of the night - Sky Tower!

It was located just a block away from our hotel, which made it really convenient for us to walk to instead of taking the car. We actually decided to valet park our car because it was cheaper than parking it in a public car park. Not to mention that the street parking all had a 120 minutes time limit.

@ the I-site of Sky Tower

Being economically-driven, we had taken quite a few brouchures from the airport while we were queueing for immigration. Tips : If you have yet to book most of your activities, be sure to grab the Rotorua guide and Arrivals guide. There was plenty of discount vouchers in the booklets that will help save heaps. We also purchased the Entertainment Book before we left Melbourne which again, helped us saved quite a bit.

Standing at 328 metres tall with the highest viewing platform at 22 metres, it offers a 360 degrees panaromic view of the city. It takes 40 seconds to get to the observation level. The Tower receives more than 750,000 visitors every year. There steps leading towards the Main Observatory Level and has 1,029 steps which the fastest record time taken to climb it was 5 minutes and 7 seconds.

And now, the pictures will do the talking :

To be honest, the Sky Tower was quite a disappointment to us. I may offend some here, but the Tower was small, poor constructed in terms of the viewing windows. It was hard to have a clear view of the city due to the condensation of the windows as well as dirt. I guess have the slanted viewing windows did not help as one's view was always obstructed by trails of water. Maybe it would have been much better if we were there during the day. I can only say that I am proud of the Eurake Towers in Melbourne after this.

We only spent about 20 minutes on the top before making our way to the gift shop which had this :

Hehehe... Cutesy :D

It was already 9+ by the time we left the towers to search for dinner. There wasn't much to eat at all, so we settled for Korean nearby. The food wasn't too bad, but we weren't all that hungry. It was more of let's eat so that we can go back to bed later. Hehehe.. Lucky for us, the trip improved tremendously from here on, both in terms of weather and tourist attractions :).

This was the sign outside the Korean Restaurant
25: 00 hours *hehehe*

Ziplining in Fiji

2010-10-05T10:21:00.001+08:00

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision as our Shark Dive was delayed due to the military shut down of the hotel and dive centre that we had booked in with. We didn't find out till the morning of the dive but fortunately for us, there was an afternoon session.

We arranged for our trip with Rosie's Travel, located at the lobby of our hotel. Hassle-free and transportation arranged. The activity itself was FJD 130, and a further FJD 25 for transportation each.

The adventure activity was located about 30 minutes from our hotel, and we got picked up in clean and comfortable new vans :). All delightful!

All geared up

There was a 5 minutes briefing session on safety as well as information about the place. There was I think about 9 or 11 lines, and the longest extending as far as 200 metres. One also involved going over some water. There wasn't much else to say except to enjoy ourselves really!

And now, pictures galore :

And off we went :D

Our guides

There was about 3-4 guides on our trip and they were fantastic! All extremely friendly and accommodating to all our requests, it was a great trip.

I have to say, the scariest part of zip lining isn't the bit where I was dangling along the rope as I zip along (except when I do 360 degrees turn :P - the trick to avoid this was to lean back), but it was the part where u jump off the edge of the platform. But only for the first couple of times. After that, one just kinda gets used to it.

Waiting for our turn

One of the lovely friends we've met
Do not let the picture fool you - it was one big fat juicy pede.

And off we went again!

Landing safely on the 'grounds'

The boy doing some stunts - backflips

It was so fun! :D

Over the stream
*where I almost crashed at the landing... LOL*

The end of a wonderful day

It was truly an enjoyable 2 hour for us, especially when we had nothing planned for the day after the dives we cancelled. Definitely something that everyone should do when they're in the Pacific Coast!

New Zealand in a nutshell

2010-09-30T20:42:00.008+08:00

Just got home from North Island in New Zealand for a 6 day trip. Absolutely exhausted and we only managed to visit Auckland and the central part. Perhaps next time when I plan on going to the south island, a much longer time is available!

Best hotel : Lake Taupo Motor Inn (although we did book in for the luxury suite :P)
Worst hotel : Waitomo Caves Hotel (extremely run down, not to mention that we found out it's haunted the day before we departed! :S) And oh, Executive on Fenton didn't provide the best service despite having really nice rooms.

Best activity : Black Water Rafting in Waitomo - extremely fun! And boy, the glow worms really do look like stars in the sky! And we loved Mt Tarawera walk with Jude. She was the best! :D
Worst activity : Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal - the most commercialized of all the geothermals, but the least impressive

Best meal : Huhu Cafe in Waitomo. Definitely the best! Lonely Planet definitely hasn't failed me here.
Worst meal : Can't remember.... nothing was that bad.

That's it for now! Will update soon.

For now, it's work for a week before I head home *YAY!*
And then we're off to Bali for a week *double YAY YAY!!*

Fiji ( Part 2)

2010-09-10T10:44:00.001+08:00

At dawn

We stayed with The Pearl, which is one of the better hotels in Pacific Harbour. It was surprisingly cheap for a 5* star hotel. For some reason, they were running a promotion at that time, so it only cost FJD 221/night which was a pretty good deal! The hotel was recently refurbished, so it looked really quite new and I loved the lobby. It was a minimalist setting with large couchs and always had a breath of fresh air with it's open concept.

Our lovely accommodation for 6 nights

Didn't notice the bouquet till the next day! Nice touch~ :)

We woke up early the next day to head over to the dive shop to organize our dives and gears. We booked our dives with Beqa Adventure Divers (BAD), as it was recommended by the hotel. The other dive operator that also runs the shark dives is Aqua Trek. I don't actually know why the hotel recommended BAD as Aqua Trek was actually in the hotel's compound.. Not that I minded. The service from BAD was pretty good.

Gearing up for our first dive

The thing about Fiji diving that wasn't impressive was the choppy sea. For anyone who knows me, I have a terrible vestibular system. That meant motion-sickness pill popping for me. Same goes for the boy. We always travel out to and stay at sea all day between the dives, which was pretty rough on the first few days. I've always been the sort that looks out for the shore breaks, coz it gives me a break from feeling nauseated.

First dive: Seven Sisters.

First view - The Japanese Trawler 1994

The giant lionfish

The lone ranger

Our lovely DM for all dives - Sivo.

Having worked with BAD for the last 4 years, Sivo was really friendly, although not very talkative. His English was pretty good, and he definitely had an eye for spotting critters. He amazed us when he found a frogfish hiding behind some corals. Definitely not an easy sighting! Not only that, although he didn't participate in the shark feeding, he is qualified to do so. Probably wasn't allowed to feed the sharks as he had to keep an eye on the clumsy two of us :P.

And the following is what Fiji diving is famous for :

Fiji Corals Definitely breathtaking. We no longer see such
beautiful corals in Malaysia unfortunately.

Loving the coral passages

My dive buddy photographing intently

And now, for the soft corals and sea fans :)

Highlight of the first two dive day!!!

Leopard Shark!

It was just coincidental that we spotted the shark. We were diverting to the other side of the coral as the current was getting too strong. I'm glad we diverted! Probably as long as I am.. we estimated about 1.5 metres

We also did a few dive throughs, which was quite interesting although a little scary initially going in to the dark but ultimately seeing the light at the other end :)

Sivo - Looked like he was praying.. LOL

The calm sea

Wasn't very often that we had the calm waters. This was taken when we went to hide away from the wind behind a large island. The water was still magnificiently blue and clear. It was also here that one of the divers did some of his diving skills requirement for open water.

Loving the water

What truly struck us was the large sea fans. As big as one of us, the sight of it was truly awesome. We do see a lot of sea fans in our diving time (although it's not been that long!), the sea fans in Fiji were truly large and gorgeous! People always say that if you spend long enough looking at the sea fan, you'll see lots of little critters/marine life on them - unfortunately for us, the currents were always so strong that it was virtually impossible.

Sunset from our rooom

Feeling quite tired from the day, we decided on having dinner in the hotel itself, at Mantarae Restaurant.

Hotel restaurant

His spaghetti cabonara

His dinner wasn't all that yummy, but mine was pretty good. We've decided that the Fijians eat quite healthily. The food was a little bland for us, so we ended up topping up most of our food with salt.

My lamb shank :)

We did have our lunch packed by the hotel on our first day as we didn't know what time we would get back from our dives. Fortunately for us, the dives usually ends at about 2 p.m so after the first day, we decided to head back to shore for our late lunch. The heavy breakfast ties us over anyway :P.

Massive sea fans *SY and Sivo*

More corals

Sea fan and the shark behind it

Blue spotted sting ray :)

Christmas trees :)

I don't know what this is called

Nudi nudi!!

Loving the corals once again

We had our second night dinner at Oasis, which is located at the Cultural Village. The restaurant had a very simple setting but the food was really pretty good. And for a reasonable price too! We ended up revisiting the place quite a bit during our stay.

The Oasis

Bula!

His curry dinner with rice and roti *sorry for the angle*

Dippings for his dinner

My garlic prawns with local vegetables

Self rewards :)

2010-09-05T11:00:00.004+08:00

It's been a month of work, uncertainties and sleepless nights. To get through it, I've planned for another holiday in 3 weeks! *yippee*

3 weeks to North Island in New Zealand and
5 weeks to Mola Mola and Manta Rays!

Fiji

2010-08-17T14:49:00.001+08:00

*Note : This is a very angry post*

As he was going to be here for 7 weeks, we decided to go away for the first week as I also had the week off. Dying to get into clear blue seas, we debated between Vanuatu and Fiji, and then between Raki-raki and Pacific Harbour. Ultimately decided on Pacific Harbour as they have the famous shark dives.

Leaving Melbourne at 6 a.m

The planning of the trip was challenging as only a handful of airlines fly to Nadi, and being me, wanting to maximise time spent there, we've decided on Jetstar. Plus, it was also cheaper than the other airlines. Only to be extremely extremely disappointed with the service.

The flight with Jetstar included a connecting flight. We had to fly from Melbourne to Sydney and then take another flight to Nadi. This was a pre-arranged flight with Jetstar. It was not one that you buy separately. Anyway, we landed at Sydney 5 minutes late, and as we landed in T3, we had to catch a bus to T1. And we did get on the first bus that arrived. But anyway, we made it 2 minutes late to the counter to check in (despite walking at a supersonic speed). We were told as we were late hence : No flights for today, no reimbursement, we can get on the flight TWO days later. Even after we explained that it was the flight that was delayed. (Logically, you would think that the airlines will know if some of your passengers were arriving late on connecting flights that your airline has pre-arranged).

Our itinerary
(You would think Jetstar would give more time between the flights)

Anyway, another couple (which also came from Melbourne) arrived at the counter 10 minutes later. Guess this time the ground staff can't help but acknowledge that there was a problem with our bookings. And oh yes, we could not be put on the same flight because the airline was overbooked. OVERBOOKED. Because the airline had decided to try and make more profit on banking on passengers not turning up. Tickets we sold because we were late. Yes... TWO FREAKING MINUTES LATE. (And oh yes, Jeststar - I noted that you were still selling the cheap fares at 11 p.m the night before online). Nothing but disappointment.

Finally, we were asked to head towards their office for further follow up, as once the other passesngers arrived, there was no denying that the airline was at fault. Instead of trying to tell me that I was at fault for their flight itinerary. Sometimes I wonder if people are just plain racist or youngist.

The cafe where we sat and waited

After spending 1.5 hour loitering in the airport, we finally had an answer. We were placed on another flight (for the same day - or I would have really consider plunging a scalpel on someone) but FOUR hours later. Fine... so long I can get to where I want to get to on the same day, instead of the crappy 2 days delay. And they offered compensation.

Now... this was the other problem.

Dear Jetstar,

If you have no intention of making this compensation, please do not offer this letter out. If you are going to make it hard for us to validate that coupon, please do not offer it out. I would honestly think better of you, rather than being given this letter and then made to call different departments (and even QANTAS). The staffs that I spoke to were polite and nice, but it does not rectify the inconvenience and your less-than-honest offer.

Please discard your 'goodwill' in this letter if you have no intention of fulfilling it.

From your disappointed customer.

Anyway... after spending hours in the airport, both very tired as we only had 2 hours sleep and the boy had just gotten off an 8 hour flight the day before, we were exhausted by the time we arrived in Nadi. Not to mention the phone calls to the hotel to let them know we were arriving late as we had already previously arranged for transport. And upon arriving in Nadi, to then have to seek for other alternative transport to the hotel. (We were staying about 2 hours from the airport). All plans were cancelled, we were hungry and tired. So not the start the holiday I had wanted.

Arriving late in Nadi

After a long 2.5 hours journey to Pacific Harbour, we finally arrived at our hotel. The first thing we did was to ring room service for food. We were absolutely starving by then!

Our room

By the time we were done, it was already quite late so we headed off to dreamland in hope that the holiday will improve from the on.

Jacques Reymond

2010-07-15T16:04:00.000+08:00

Okay, let's be honest before I start. This is not a travel post, but a food post. I know I know, it's meant to be my travel blog. But I cannot not share this experience. Just like how I shared the Iron Chef Sakai's experience in Japan last year. So, here we go :

I made a booking for the place about a week before we went, but I think that's possible because we went on a weekday instead of the weekend. Apparently, they can be booked out for months for weekends.

We started off with a French pastry that was served, which was freshly baked and had such crispy crust and so soft and empty inside. The butter taste of the bread was just so nicely done without being overwhelming.

The restaurant
*I love the fireplace*

We decided on the degustation meal, the non-vegetarian option. Actually, I had already on that weeks ago. LOL. It was a 9 course degustation meal.

Lemongrass, spinach and rock lobster soup
Fragrant tiger prawn
Sweet potato and tumeric ice-cream

As odd as the combination is in the soup, the taste was heavenly. It was tasty and rich. The prawn was pretty ordinary but the sweet potato crisp. That went really really well with the tumeric ice-cream.

They have a wine that matches every single dish on the degustation menu but as we both aren't big fans of alcohol, we decided to just do just one wine but was told that they won't really match all the dishes. Instead, they recommended 2 wines to go with the food, but was happy to split each glass of wine into 2, so we both still ended up with just one glass each. Fantastic service! =)

Sandwich of spanner crab, mirfin and fresh wasabi jelly,
lacquered petuna ocean trout, black bean and sweet corn dressing.

To be honest, I don't wasn't really that impressed with the sandwich but the ocean trout! That tells of an entirely different story. It was just slightly undercooked for a fish for me, but the texture was so wonderful and it tasted very much like unagi, rather than ocean trout. But I absolutely loved it! It wasn't undercooked as per say, but it was well... not your usual well-cooked fish if you get what I mean. But it's that undercook-ness that gave it that wonderful texture!

Wild barramundi, almond and bush mountain pepper caramel,
yogurt and black garlic, kaffir lime and lemongrass espuma

Oohh.. the lemongrass espuma - it was just simply gorgeous. The amount of flavour in that bubbles was just magnificient. I have never tasted anything like that.

Peking duck and Hervey Bay scallops, peking juices, spiced
marshmallow like crepe, crispy rice, ginger sesame and pandan oil

As most who knows me, I am not a big fan of ducks especially of the roasted kind but this was fabulous! I do not regret not asking for them to swap this dish into another. The meat was pink and succulent, and had that melt-in-your-mouth sensation.

Highland venison like a warm carpaccio, horseradish mustard
dressing, butternut pumpkin with honey and bitter chocolate beignet

This was pretty good too, but not one of the best in the whole menu. The meat was once again perfectly cooked and the flavours of the dressings and the meat just went so well together.

Western plains suckling pig and tamarind, celeriac and bitter almond,
dashi apple veil, dancing bonito flakes and rosella chutney salad, cavalo nero

The skin of the suckling pig wasn't the actual skin of the pig, but was artifically remade with other ingredients but it tasted really quite similiar to the real thing. It's amazing how some chefs can come up with such creative ideas!

Pacific rim martini of pineapple, passionfruit, and banana

liqourice ice-cream and honeycomb

As I am totally against eating bananas, I had mine remade without the banana without a fuss. The waiter was quick to respond and had my dish remade in minutes. It was great! I have no idea how the original tastes like, as mine was without the banana - but still, it was pretty good. The creaminess of the ice-cream and the little crunchy bit was a really nice surprise.

Millefeuilles of chocolate : white chocolate mousse, pure
Caribbean chilli ice-cream, dark chocolate mousse and praline ice-cream

Oh my god... that Caribbean chilli ice-cream is to die for! It tasted like your usual chocolate ice-cream but a little touch of chilli and then before you know it, it hits you with a bang. Absolutely heavenly. If there is only one dish that I can have again, I would choose this without a single doubt. We were both staring at each other at how amazing it tasted.

Petits fours

By the time we were done with dinner, we were almost the only patrons left but there was no hassle on time and I am pretty sure that if we had wanted to, we could have stayed longer. What I loved besides the food is the ambience. The dim lights, the fireplace, it was cosy but still romantic. Plus, we had the seat next to the window which was really nice. It was an amazing experience!

Berlin

2010-07-10T13:49:00.022+08:00

Back to the Europe trip. Been almost 3 years, so it's just going to be the pictures talking rather than anything else. Especially when I didn't have the intention to write up my travels then hence, the lack of information and pictures.

We started the journey from Brussels on an overnight train with Eurostar. For a moment in the train, it almost felt like I was a refugee on the run with the state of the carriage in first impression. But honestly, it was a pretty comfortable sleep. It was just cold. But it worked out perfectly for us, as we spent the entire day in Brussels, hop on the train to Berlin and arriving there bright and early (Okay, maybe not so bright =P). And saved on one night of hotel stay.

Arriving in Berlin Hauptbahnhof :

Christmas tree

Being the overnight train, we arrived there fairly early, somewhere between 5-6 a.m if I remember correctly. We spent a bit of time walking around the station trying to find a way to get to the hotel And we weren't even sure if the hotels would take us at that hour.

Anyway, we finally caught a cab in from the main doors and off we went to the hotel, who were absolutely the greatest as they allowed us to check in that morning at about 7 a.m. or so. Oh my, we were just so glad to have a bed to sleep in while we wait for one of our other friend to join us from London. We stayed in Mercure Berlin City Hotel OST.

Brunch @ a random cafe down the road
*not the greatest*

Berlin TV Tower

We didn't waste much time and headed right back into the heart of the city, making Alexanderplatz our main transport terminal. After spending ages trying to find something that we could read, or someone who could speak English, we ended up at the DDR museum.

Outside DDR Museum

Located just opposite the river from Berlin Cathedral, the interactive museum was indeed a very hands on experience. Depicting the lives of East Berlin during the German Democratic Republic time, it was a very interesting museum in it's displays and notes.

Among the displays were :

Beach time!

GDR apartments

There was a mushroom of these apartments throughout the time and even now, we can see it on the outskirts of town and even sometimes, along the tram systems in town.

Kitchen layout

And being so close to Berlin Cathedral, I managed to pester the other 3 to visit it with me =). How could I walk away from it when it was just less than 50 metres away?!?!

Berlin Cathedral

And of course being Christmas, the church had a beautiful Christmas tree on display! The Cathedral also had a museum above and a 'balcony' area that allowed us to look down on the city.

Paper model

And we then settled for a hot cuppa near the DDR museum. Always a good choice when it's freezing cold and when you're in good company. A lot has changed since then, but it was still a good trip worth penning down =).

Christmas decorations

We then went to the Jewish Museum Berlin to finish off for the day. Another really interesting museum. A little scary/eerie at some points but that was mainly when I was reading about what happened during the Holocaust and during the war. I really felt for them, especially when I was standing in the Holocaust Tower.

It was also in Berlin that I built a relationship with museums on holidays. I remember every single cringe I had when a friend was talking about visiting all these different museum on this trip before we went, but honestly, I think you've opened my eyes to history. And now, as anyone can tell, I am a fan of visiting all these museums/prisons/historical sites in all the different places that I've visited.

One of the displays in the museum

Shalechet (Faling Leaves) by Menashe Kadishman

A truly gripping moment here when I stepped into the area. The wide opened mouth of the many faces here was a startling display of suffering and sadness during those times.

The wishing tree

------------------------------------------

Started the next day with a visit to Charlottenburg Palace in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. It was a fair walk from the train stop and I remember having to ask a couple of people for directions. Anyway, all's good as we did finally get there.

Charlottenburg Palace

It is the largest palace in Berlin and as all palaces in Europe, was packed with tourist. Cameras were not permitted in the place during that time, hence the non-existent pictures in my camera.

The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and given to Sophie Charlotte, wife of Friedrich the Third.

We spent a few hours here with headphones taped to our ears for information. Think the rest were quite bored by the end of the first couple of hours and was just there to humour me. Hehehe.

So, off we went for lunch!

I've heard so much about sausages in Germany that I just have to try some. We ended up at one of the local restaurants opposite the palace which was packed with people. The only trouble we had was that the menu was completely in German and the waitress couldn't really speak English. So we ended up pointing at other patrons' meals to order ours.

And then we headed off to one of Berlin's Christmas Market. Must bigger than the one in Brussels, it was located in Gendarmenmarkt, which is one of the most popular squares in Berlin.

The famous WeihnachtsZauber on Gendarmenmarkt

Loved the surroundings

There was quite a bit to see in this market, and was definitely more packed than the Brussels Christmas Market. There was a large amount of food being sold here, both in stalls and 'cafe/restaurant' settings, ornaments, displays, nuts, snacks and the must-try-if-you're-there Gluhwein.

Some of the things on sale

Gorgeous items

I love this pictures - all the canopies and stars
*It felt almost magical*

We headed off to the Haus Am Checkpoint Charlie Museum for the rest of the evening, spending a couple of very insightful hours there. The museum ws started in 1962 but was only a very small place, making up from just a couple of apartments but now, is a very large museum eventhough it did not appear that way on first impression.

The museum bear some resemblance to the others that we've been to, in terms of depicting the lives of the citizens during the GDR time. But this museum also offered a lot of information about how the people felt about the regime and also how they tried to escape to the other side of Berlin. There were so many stories to be told, so many moments that was just so upsetting or touching. How families stand on each side of the walls to meet, without really seeing or touching. All while still in the fear that you might very well just be shot for doing so. Or the many escapade methods that has been devised and used and some successfully and others not so. The Berlin Wall does indeed have a very strong history.

Outside the Museum

---------------------------------------------

The next day had a couple of us getting up early to head into the shops so that the other two could get a bit more sleep. But what was more fun than being in the shops for me was the chocolate shop near the U-Banh! The displays were just out-of-the-world!

Outside the metro station

Check out the chocolate displays!!

The famous Berlin gate

Don't know what this was...

The chocolate tower

And the chocolate Santa! :D

We did a bit of shopping before heading to another museum or display centre. I had to go to the place on my own to meet the others, which was a little daunting considering that I can barely read the road signs. But as usual, a good samaritan came to my aid. I still thank my lucky stars for each time anyone comes to my aid when I look lost in a foreign country. Anyway, this wonderful man not only pointed me to the direction of the museum, but actually walked me there so that I don't get lost again. Hahaha. Yes - to a lot of my friends, I probably do have that perpectually lost look that screams help =P

A bit of confusion happened while we were meant to meet here, so we probably lost about 2 hours trying to get back to the hotel and to return to the place again to visit the place together. I was a little annoyed I have to say, since we were already quite pushed for time. But then again, that's the whole point of the trip - to travel together. So, it was all good =).

Finally we're entering! =D

Definitely worth a return trip after that 2 hours because I really quite liked the centre. Perhaps it was the strong and interesting history of Germany and Berlin. I love historical museums/centres.

Can't really remember much of the actual displays, so am just going to put up random photos. A lot of the photos had us in it, which made it quite hard for me to find those without people in it.

Ah.. if only men still dressed like that..

Parts of the Berlin Wall

Directions in life

'Ouch'!

Sniffling out

Quote : "The Ministry of State Security has a particularly invidious method for detecting undesirable citizens. Human body odours were captured and archived using smell preservatives. A Stasi employee collects a "suspects' " body odour with a specially prepared sterile cloth. The cloth is then concealed in the upholstery of an ordinary looking chair. The "suspect" who is offered this char leaves his "smell-mark" this way. The cloth is then preserved in an airtight jar. Smells stored like this can then be used when needed. Sniffler dogs can learn the smell and track down or identify the person concern."

*shudders*

The entry fees also include a visit to a nearby bunker, which is located probably a 3 minute walk from the centre. Can't remember how many it was able to occupy, it just looked a little eerie to me and definitely not somewhere I would have wanted to end up in. If I remember correctly, I don't think that bunker was ever used.

Bunker beds

And oh, I almost forgot! The pedestrian traffic lights in Berlin was really cute. It wasn't your usual green and red man. Theirs had hats on them and looked really quite adorable! There was a traffic light display in the centre and I suppose they do know that it's darn cute, so there was even sponge ornaments of them!

Berlin's pedestrian men

As it was New Year's eve that night, we settled for a nice dinner somewhere close to the centre before heading back into the central city for a walk in the city with all the other happenings in town and ultimately ended up with a cuppa near Postdamer Platz. We headed back to the hotel as one of us was quite ill, so we bought some beers back. Not a bad choice - we had a display of fireworks for at least 15 minutes from our room! Perfect end to the year and that holiday! =)

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

2010-07-09T10:45:00.017+08:00

Well, this wasn't exactly a holiday but still, I think it would still be good to share. That's what I do when I no longer have the luxury of having time off work for extended periods. Weekend getaways will just have to count as a holiday.

The trip started out with a terrible weather, but that's Melbourne's winter for you. It was gloomy and rainy all day on Saturday, but thankfully improved by Sunday. Just right for our horse-riding plans :).

Not much pictures on the first day as the weather looked terrible, and we didn't actually go anywhere interesting (outdoor) as it was freezing cold. We did start the trip pretty late, so by the time we made it there, it was already pretty late for lunch. We initially wanted to go to Ten Minutes by Tractor for lunch but their kitchen had already closed, so we went to Noel's instead. Which was a fabulous alternative!

His - Pan fried Atlantic Salmon

Mine - Duck with beetroot risotto

I am never a fan of roasted ducks, but that's partially of the smell so I was more than open to try this dish which turned out to be fantastic! The duck was so nicely cooked that the meat was still soft and juicy.. Yums!!

We only happened to stumble on Noel's as it is on the same main road as Ten Minutes by Tractor. The restaurant isn't very big and definitely isn't as noticeable as the others around. They only had a small signboard on the outside, so try and look carefully in case you miss it.

I think it's run by a family, where the mum cooks most of the dishes and her son *I think* was our waiter for lunch. The restaurant is quaint, and also sells drawings by local artist. It is really quite a pretty place with privacy.

Anyway, after lunch, we decided to head to Ashcombe Maze in Red Hill as the rain had stopped but when we got there, it started raining again! So we only managed to snap a couple of pictures outside.

Knight in shining metal

Lavender Faerie Queen

"The beautiful and mysterious Lavender Faerie Queen tends the fragrant lavender plants. Her magic enhances the fragrance of the lavender and helps the oil production. The bees hum a song to keep her happy as she goes aboug her work. That is why there are so many bees in lavender. Rarely sighted in today's busy world, she can sometimes be seen at her favourite retreat : Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Garden..."

Obviously I didn't get to see her as I didn't even enter the garden. But still, a pleasant read for the terrible trip!

And what else can we do while in Mornington? Wine tasting of course! =)

Tuck's Ridge

Tuck's Vineyard

It was my second time there, as I really liked one of their wines from there in the past. Vino Dolce. It's a sweet wine, which not many would like. Anyway, they only had 2 choices of sweet ones and I didn't particularly like the other, so they recommended that I head towards Red Hill Estate as they had more choices. How nice! Talk about being friendly competitors!

Off we went to Red Hill Estate.

Wine tasting bench

A much larger cellar area for tasting, they also sold other products like jams and things which I have to say, the strawberry jam is really good! Other products :

Looks yumss..

"Icky". Hahahaha!!!
I wonder if it tastes icky too...

They were also holding some sort of barrel art competition, so they had the winner from last year on display. If you ask me, it looks like a mini monster truck. But in a cute way... actually, it reminded me a little of Howl's Moving Castle.

Winner of 2009 Barrel Art Competition

And finally, I surrendered to the weather and we decided to check in to our accommodation for the night.

Fairways Resort

It wasn't a 5 star hotel but it was a comfortable stay - the room that is. The service was quite disappointing. There was nobody at the reception past 5, and breakfast is delivered to your room the evening prior, and god.. I don't know what else. Oh.. on their website it says that there's DVD available for rent. Well, no. They don't have it. Thank god for oovie movies.

Our little outdoor space

Our room

Thankfully, Safeway was only a short distance away. And thank god for my GPS.. as the receptionist was definitely oh-so-not-helpful. Safeway was only a turn right at the end of the road, go straight on the round-a-about and turn right before you reach the T-junction. Can't get any simpler than that. But she couldn't explain to me how to get there... and tried to divert me to some other shop which was even harder to look for. *argh* . All hail to the GPS =P.

Anyway, off to better stuffs - we managed to get a place for dinner at the famous Montalto. I was so glad I made reservations for dinner as the place was absolutely packed that night. And dinner - it was marvelous!

Kitchen bench

Complimentary starters - pumpkin soup
*just gorgeous!*

I ordered quail for my entree and pan roasted snapper with thyme for my main where as he had cold rabbit meat for entree and venison for main.

My appetizer

His cold rabbit appetizer

My yummy pan fried snapper

His venison

And of course I had to have desserts. I am still looking for my perfect souffle so we ordered the chocolate souffle which was pretty good, although a little to sweet for us.

Chocolate soufflee with ice-cream

--------------------------------------------------------

We started our morning at the well-known Blue Mini Cafe for breakfast, which was recommended by the hotel. Located just opposite Safeway, the cafe was packed with people when we got there and it wasn't even a small cafe.

The compulsory caffeine fix

My egg benedict with added mushrooms

His bacon and egg on toast

We managed to get a seat next to the window which would have been really nice if there was sun. The weather was absolutely being fickle. It was sunny one minute and then it rained intermittently for the rest of the 40 minutes that we were there. My heart sank when it started to rain. How were we going to do our horse riding that afternoon? :(

Gunnamatta Horse Trail

It was still raining when we left the cafe but thankfully settled by the time we arrived at the horse riding place. We booked our ride with Gunnamatta Horse Trail, which apparently was featured in Getaway. We booked a private ride for the St Andrew's Beach Trail which turned out to be a really choice. There was no waiting for other people and it was just.. well, private =). A general ride was AUD 98 each, and an additional 40 for each person in a private ride.

While waiting for our horses

Mine was a pony instead of a horse but that probably also because I wasn't as tall as others :(. My little ride was called Jeda, who was a rather temperamental pony who had a mind of her own! At one point, she just diverted herself onto another trail although the trainer's horse was just an arm's away! And she took Jordan with her on her little rebellious run. *Jordan was his horse*

The rebellious Jeda

There was not much to see when we were on the bush trail, mainly just going between trees and trying to get use to the horses. But the beach.. Oh my god, was just gorgeous! And being on a horse.. it was just priceless!!

SY and Jordan

Our 'trainer' was Erin and her horse was Mr. Bean. Poor Mr Bean.. it appeared that he had eaten a little too much or was just in the midst of a gastro attack.

See what I mean? :D

Didn't take that many pictures as I was trying my best not to fall off a horse. Okay, it wasn't that bad. It was a really fun ride, but being my paranoid self with all the terrible neck injuries I've seen in neurosurg was taking over, I was just trying to minimize my risk of falling over.

It was here that Jordan decide to leave our group and joined another group who was on their way home. It was hilarious trying to get her to follow us again which was really quite cute. It also seemed that she often seems to be in a world of her own.

Jeda on the other hand, is a independent thinker. She will go on her own trails and she will stop to nibble on grass no matter how hard I try to stop her. And she is also a little princess - she will walk around puddles of water just to avoid getting wet. The other two just couldnn't be bothered. Fussy for a horse!! But sure is darn cute.

And the best thing was, the weather held up till the last 15 minutes of the ride! At some point, it was even warm during the ride. Really didn't mind that it rained by the end of it... we did have about 80 minutes of good sunshine!

Loved this moment

We started with the horses walking, which was really nice but everyone had to eventually trot (which is like a little jog for a horse) in order to get to the beach in reasonable time frame. At first, it was really quite scary as I couldn't coordinate my movements with Jeda, but after a while, it was really fun. Only that both Jeda and Jordan occasionally decide to gallop on our way back!!! That was a little scary. But they only did it for short periods.

By then, as rain started pouring again we decided to head back to Melbourne early instead of visiting the other places. I had wanted to go to Cape Schanck as well as the gardens but obviously the weather had different ideas.

And we had hot pot for dinner!! An absolute delight in the cold cold night.

Sezchuan Hot Pot

Sliced beef :)

Hanoi, Vietnam (Part 3)

2010-07-06T12:45:00.001+08:00

We did a lot more of our third day in Hanoi, as it was finally the one day that we had the whole day to the city. The other two days prior were really just half days.

Anyway, much to the cringe of the boy, I woke him up early on a Sunday so that I could go to all the places that I have planned.

First stop, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

HCM Mausoleum

Located in Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi, the place was packed when we got there and we weren't even late. The museum was only opened for half the day on a Sunday and best of all, it's free entry :). There wasn't just foreign tourist that was crowding the place, but also locals and students. That's a good sign though. It's always nice to see locals at tourist attractions.

School Children

Photography is prohibited in the area and there were also very strict dress code. No shorts or skirts and no bare shoulders. Fine by me, it was pretty cold that day anyway! But they were also pretty strict when it came to social etiquettes too. All couples were prohibited from holding hands and had to walk in lines of 2. Straight lines. That I felt... well, maybe a little too strict. It wasn't like anyone was making out or anything.. Oh well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do :).

The mausoleum is closed for a couple of months every year, in October and November when Mr Ho travels to Russia for preservation work. It was quite a surreal experience to see a deceased person lying on a bed in a room. We could only see him for about a minute as it was a moving line that goes around his bed. Surprisingly, Ho Chi Minh had actually expressed wish to be cremated but instead was preserved...

Right next to the Mausoleum is the Presidential Place as well as the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which of course, to enter incurred a fee. But what I was disappointed with was that we had wanted a tour guide, but you could see how reluctant they were when they found out that there was only 2 of us. Well, it was a free service and I suppose they then live on the monetary gratitude that tourist would give for their service, and seeing 2 teenage-looking Asian kids, they probably just thought it wasn't worth the time. Anyhow, I was annoyed, but only for a minute because we managed to get our hands on some brochures. But still..... one would expect that a fellow Asian would at least be a little more helpful to us. And this was our second experience here! *DAMMIT!

The Presidential Palace

The whole complex (Ho Chi Minh's Vestige In the Presidential Palace Area) consist of the Presidential Palace which was formerly known as the Indochina's General Governor Palace, The Garage of HCM's used cars, The House where HCM worked as a President in 1954-1958, The House on Stilts as well as other areas such as the pond, the Mango Road and Fruit Garden.

One of his 3 cars in the garage. My favourite of the 3 :D

Right next to the garage is the house where he worked from in 1954.

Bedroom

Dining room in the House of 1954

I found it a little sad to see that dinner was only set for one person. Does it mean that he often dined alone? Doesn't he get lonely? At least if I dined alone now, I have the company of my idiot box.

President HCM's working room

From there on, we walked past the pond to join the queue in the House of Stilts which was were President HCM worked and lived in from May 1958 until August 1969.

House on Stilts

The house was really made up with the barest necessity and had really, only 2 rooms. It showed his ways in the practical way, demonstrating the importance of simplicity and modesty.

From there on, we walked on to the shops and grabbed a quick snack at the nearby stalls which was crowded with locals. It was nice, to mingle among the locals instead of fellow tourists and try something local.

Souvenir shops

One of the cap stalls

My own personal Vietnamese bodyguard

Upon exiting the Presidential Complex, one would come across the Ho Chi Minh Museum but we diverted to the One Pillar Pagoda first.

One Pillar Pagoda

Built in the 11th century , the One Pillar Pagoda is one of the most iconic Buddhist temples in Vietman. The history behind the pagoda revolved around an emperor who was childless and dreamed that he met a Goddess who handed him a son while seating on a lotus and shortly after that he married a peasant girl who bore him a son. The Pagoda was then built to demonstrate his gratitude to the goddess. The Pagoda is built in a lotus pond, which was similiar to what he remembered from his dream.

The Pagoda's altar

Right opposite the stairs on the pagoda is another worship area which was packed with the people.

There was a practice that the locals were doing here with a knife, rice and coins in a bowl and some water, which was really interesting. I was trying to look for a sign or something to explain what it might be, but couldn't find one :(. It was really interesting!

Hhmm... would appreciate if someone could tell me what practice this might be

And off we went to the HCM Museum

Once again, it was absolutely packed!

The museum was built in accordance to the wishes of the Vietnamese people. It was designed to show their respect and gratitute to their great leader and to teach both locals and tourist about the greatness of this man. The museum was built in 1985 and was finished in May 1990. The same times that UNESCO resolution recognized him as a hero of national liberation and a great man of culture. Fee is VND 15,000.

President Ho Chi Minh

Some of the museum's exhibits :

I miss being on a trishaw!! :(

We left quite soon afer that, just walking through the museum taking in the pictures and displays. There was a lot of history in the museum, which I am sure will interest many. If only we weren't so pressed for time.

On our way out, we saw the queue for the Mausoleum.. man, and was I glad we arrived early! It was super long!

Queue to the HCM Mausoleum

And off we went to our next destination :

Temple of Literature also known as the Centre for Cultural and Scientific Activities.

At the entrance

(Fee : VND 10,000)

Built in 1070 under the reign of King Ly Thanh Thong, 4 statues of Confucius, Chow Kung and Confucius's 4 best students were carved. Being Vietnam's first university, it used to educate royaltys, noble families and other political influentials.

In the history, Confucius was born in ancient China in Shandong province and was a great educator, politician who founded Confucianism which has very strong influences in the Chinese culture. He was also very well-known as a famous teacher.

Turtle steles

What caught my eye here as the number of turtle steles. On the 'board' right above each turtle stele are the names of scholars who have passed the imperial exams as a symbol of success as the exams were very hard to pass.

Making wishes/prayers for success

Just like the wishing fountains, people leave money on the turtles for luck. Some students were also walking along all the turtle steles, touching each of them at the head for good luck.

The entrance towards the Main Hall requires us to pass through a couple of courtyards and several aches, which by the time you enter the area where the turtle steles are, it is a concrete courtyard. Moving further along will bring you to the Main Hall.

The Main Hall seemed a lot more like a Temple than a university given the altars, worship figures and the bright painted red surroundings.

Phoenix & Tortoise

The phoenix and tortoise statue on top is a popular picture in many travel guides, in which I am not sure if there's a symbolic meaning or simply because it is a pretty sight.

Mr Tortoise

Going further in *I think* will bring you to the House of Ceremonies which houses a giant Confucius statue. I'm not so sure what other Gods there was.

From there on, we hopped on to a trishaw towards St Joseph's Cathedral because we barely got to see the place yesterday and being so beautiful, it warranted a second visit. True enough, our effort was well-paid off as there were only a handful of people in the church which meant I could wander around a little.

Our ride

Traffic jam

And we finally got there!

St Joseph's Cathedral

It was an enjoyable ride from the Temple to here, as we went through small streets and that for me, was really interesting. Holidays are about exploring beyond your usual tourist-flooded areas and that was what this short ride did. *We eventually did take a much longer ride later in the day*.

Inside St Joseph's

There was no way I could have seen the beautiful inside of this church on the day before. And I was really glad we returned to take another look. Some might say that all churches look more or less the same, but not to me.. Each of them have their own uniqueness and despite how repetitive the image on the window glasses are, none of them are actually identical. But that's just me and my opinion :).

Off we go again, this time to Hoa La Prison, which is also infamously known as Hilton Hotel. Poor Hilton... the real hotel had to be named Hilton Opera Hotel in order to differentiate it from the prison, even today!

Hoa Lo Prison

Built in 1896, the prison was constructed to imprison protestors against the French colonist regime. The prison's initial capacity was to hold 500 prisoners but was continously renovated to occupy more, and by 1950s, the prison was able to hold up to 2,000 prisoners.

Life was very difficult in the prison, and was often referred as "Hell on Earth" for the Vietnamese patriots and revolunist. Everyday, prisoners were fed two meals of rotten rice, vegetables and fish. Very rarely did they have meat, and when they do, it was tough buffalo or old sow meat.

Prisoner clothes and things

Often, the prison is so crowded that the stronger prisoners would request for the weaker ones to be moved out so that they do not suffocate to death. Such is the condition of the prison.

Several times, checks were done to ensure that no revolutions was possible and in 1952, the guards forced all the prisoners to come out naked in the middle of winter for their search.

Between 1964 -1973, Hoa Lo Prison was used to detain American Pilots who were caught in Vietnam. This was how the prison got the name Hilton Hanoi. It was named by the pilots that were imprisoned here during that time.

Reading through the Hoa Lo Prison brochure that we bought from the entrance booth was very helpful as it told us a lot more than the exhibits. Most of what I've mentioned above was all from the brochure.

Leaving Hao Lo Prison

From here, we then had nothing specific to do and since it was still quite early, we decided to just wander around town just to observe the local cultures and daily activities.

And of course, we found our way to Sofitel Metropole, the most expensive and glamourous hotel in Hanoi. And man.. was it gorgeous!

Outside Sofitel Metropole

Opera House

And then from here, we hopped on to a cab which then brought us to one of the 36 streets only to have us hop on a trishaw to go around the 36 Streets in slow-mo :D. Hence, just pictures from them. I think we were on the trishaw for about a good hour an a bit.

Fruit stall

The start of our journey
*reminds me of smallers towns in Msia*

The metal street

Beep Beep! Make way. Make way.
Overload, overload!

*gasp* LEGO!!!!!!!!

Dong Xuan Market

Rattan baskets for sale

After that, we made our way back to Hoan Kiem Lake (which if anyone notices, is where we always come back to in town as it's the biggest landmark around!). Anyway, as we missed out on the Ngoc Son temple in the lake, I thought that it was only fair that it got another visit.. otherwise, it does seem quite silly to return to the lake that many times, only to have NOT seen the temple.

Entry to the temple costs VND 3,000 and needs to be bought before crossing the bridge. You may cross the bridge and not enter the temple for free. Admissions into the temple is between 8 a.m and 5 p.m.

The famous Huc Bridge

Ngoc Son Temple, aka Jade Mountain Temple was built in the eighteenth century to honour a national hero who defended Vietnam from an Mongolian army from attack. The temple is surprisingly quite big for the island that it is in, and offers a pretty good scenery from the little 'gazebos'.

Entering the main hall

The temple although had quite a few tourist, still attracts the locals. There was quite a few seniors sitting by the lake playing chess, which is a pretty common past time in the Asian community. And they are surrounded by fellow friends.. it was really nice.

One of the main altars

And of course.. where would Hoan Kiem lake be without....

Turtles are very closely related to the history of Hoan Kiem lake and it was only fair to have in the temple to pay respects to. Lucky us, we were actually able to sight one of the resident turtles in the lake that evening. Everyone was so excited and crowded along the bridge and pointed each time the turtle surfaced. I think we caught a glimpse of it twice :). Guess we were quite lucky!

Puppet guarding the door
*reminded me of the water puppet show*

Soon after that, we headed back to the hotel, which was only about 10 minutes walk to get a bit of a rest. We were both quite tired and was looking forwards to the aromatherapy massage that we had booked for that evening with the hotel. Honestly, the massage was only average and it wasn't aromatherapy as they basically just used baby oil.. but it was still quite enjoyable as I think we were both just pretty tired and ache-y.

We took a bit of a risk with dinner, deciding to head out to a street stall that we've passed every night while we were in town. It was only about 3 minutes from the hotel, just by the roadside where the tables at at knees height.

The place is always packed for dinner and it was not any different that evening. As it was our last day, if we did end up with gastro, at least we're already on our way home :). Oh.. they even have beer by the tap...

And we ordered our dinner.. *by recommendation of the staff, of course*

Stir fried beef

Stir fried squid with local vegetables

Roasted quails

Honestly, dinner wasn't as great as I hoped it was going to be but that's probably just because I was quite hyped-up about it because I see a large crowd everyday. But the food really isn't bad at all. Maybe a 7/10. *and we didn't end up with gastro :)*

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And then, it was time to go home. We had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel which by the way does have really pretty good breakfast, especially the pho/glass noodle soup.

With our ever reliable guide book

The yummy glass noodle soup :)

Breakfast selections

As our flight was only departing in the afternoon, I took the opportunity to walk around the hotel, visiting little shops - mainly souvenirs though and taking photos. There was quite a few handicraft/drawings/paintings that I would have loved to get for myself, only that I don't actually have anywhere to put them. They would look really nice in the house, but I don't own my own home!! *Note to self : need to start saving for a house*

Like these! I really liked these!

More souvenirs..

Eeeww!!!

:D ( I always like puppets/figurines/dolls)

Going about her daily business

And soon enough, it was time to say goodbye to another holiday :(.

Hanoi, Vietnam (Part 2)

2010-07-03T11:41:00.007+08:00

We only arrived back in Hanoi about mid-afternoon which meant that there wasn't really that much that we could do. But we did have tickets to the water puppet show that night!! :)

By the time we were dropped off at the hotel, there was really only 1 other sight that we could go to, which is the oldest temple in Hanoi - Bach Ma Temple, which is one of the grandest temple in Old Quarters. Unfortunately for me, they were just closing up as we arrived. Not to mention that it wasn't the easiest temple to find :(. Oh well, just a photo from the outside will have to do.

Bach Ma Temple

I was trying our best to look for a market that sold 'delicate' food, which mainly meant your non-usual fresh ingredients. Like lizards and things.. But once again, we were not able to find this.. but managed to walk around and observe the local life.

Your typical street food :)

Mobile market

We also tried making our way to Dong Xuan market, but frankly the map that we had was crap or either that, the town was really just too confusing for my liking. We either found the market but it was closed by the time we were there, or we probably never found it.

Anyhow, by then we were just wondering around aimlessly and frustrated and just walked and walked and walked and stumbled upon St Joseph. Which was great! At least my mood was lifted by then.

Some other random building we came across towards St Joseph

St Joseph Cathedral

The church was absolutely packed to the brim, there was worshippers who had to stand outside during prayers. It was relatively quiet when you're near the church's main doors, but just outside there church were lines and lines of street stalls which were packed. Opened in 1886, the church still conduct masses as often as twice a day, everyday. It had a sense of Gothic-ness in it's style, but that's purely my opinion.

As our puppet show was booked for 9 p.m, we decided to grab a quick dinner before heading back to the hotel for a rest prior to the show. And of course, we just have to walk along the lake and enjoy it's romantic feel :).

The famous turtle pagoda

Located in the other end of Hoan Kiem Lake, the pagoda looks a lot prettier at night. During the day, it just kind of look like an old uncared for temple.

Hoan Kiem Lake by night

And soon we settled for dinner at a nearby side street, at a street stall. Not a bad idea, the food was really pretty good and the servings were also pretty decent but only that there was just loads of noodles and just a little meat. We were hungry by a few hours after that!

Our young chef

Our beef Pho

Chicken Pho

And my favourite......

Chinese Donuts!!!!! :)

Nevertheless, I was really quite satisfied with dinner at this point and waited patiently till our show starts at 9.

Flower market near the food stall

The famous water puppet show in Hanoi is performed by the Thang Long Water Puppet Company which is located just next to Hoan Kiem Lake. Honestly, the whole place was packed with tourist and barely a handful of locals, but not that I minded. It was still a pretty good show in my opinion. Despite what others may say :P. A of our friends fell asleep when they watched it the last time.

The number of motorcycles at Hoan Kiem Lake

Thang Long Water Puppet Show

Tickets to the show

We had our wonderful hotel booked the tickets for us, which was about 60,000 VND which makes it to a few USD per ticket, so it really is quite a cheap show.

Performance hall

The stage

There was a total of 17 short stories, which really isn't that long. Each probably only took a few minutes.

Programme:

1) Rising the Festival Flag
2) Chu Teu or the Narrator
3) Dragon Dance : Four Dragons dancing on the surface of water audiences
4) On a buffalo with a flute
5) Agriculture
6) Catching frogs
7) Rearing ducks and catching foxes
8) Fishing
9) Harvest Festival. Returning to native land after college graduation.
10) Lion dance
11) Phoenix Dance
12) Legend of the Restored Sword
13) Children playing in water
14) Boat racing
15) Unicorns playing with ball
16) Fairy dance
17) Dance of four holy animals

The musicians

The dragon dance

Honestly, the show isn't all that boring despite the mundane sounding titles. It had it's funny and amusing parts that had the audiences laughing loudly, and there were the subtle ones that gathered a few snickers. So, definitely worth a go if one's ever in town. You have to decide for yourself if it's good. We both enjoyed it :).

Rearing ducks *I think*

Fishing

Harvest Festival

This one was quite a pretty one as there was more puppets which meant more colours :).

And my favourite, the Fairy Dance!

Hhhmm.. was pretty sure I saved a few videos from the show, but obviously have misplaced or deleted them :(.