~ Tioman Island ~

Date of my Trip: 21st - 24th May 2009

This is my only holiday trip for 2009 thus i am really excited and look forward to taking a break... Since the Redang trip, i miss snorkeling...

Garfield & I woke up super early to catch the 6.30am Five Stars bus at Golden Mile Complex. Being the early bird.. i persuaded Gar to take cab earlier so we could reach Golden Mile at 6am (as told by Five Star the time to reach). In the end, the cab was fast... and we reached at 5.35am. I was 'dio' by Gar dun know how many times,hahaaa....

It was a 4 hrs bumpy bus ride to Tioman! Their road is horrible or should i say the driver is very hiong..... 晕车的人肯定受不了！



Initially, we tot that the ferry ride will be at 11am but was informed that it had been changed to 12.30pm. GOSH! Have to wait for 2 hrs.........to pass our time, we went to a nearby malay food stall to have our lunch.

Lunch was a funny experience. I was totally in a loss on how to order. People seems to scoop up food on their own plates? I looked left and right and finally a malay guy faced me and say:" nasi?" Then i nodded. He passed me a plate of rice which i assume that i will have to chooose and scoop my own food since everyone is doing the same. Fear of them charging me a lot if i scoop up a lot, i dare not scoop much. Done and i was blur blur again... where do i pay? No one was at the counter...... i gave up and went back to my seat, thinking that probably we will only pay after eating?? To my surprise, a malay lady came to us with the amt to pay written on a small slip of paper. 他们真的很随性。。



12.30pm: We boarded the ferry to Tioman~




Gar's fav tibits during the journey..




I wanted to go updeck to view the sea but were not allowed to.. ~_~

Clear Blue Water surrounded the Jetty that we arrived at! Right in front of us were hills and along the beach were our stay - Paya Beach Resort...






however, we were both lucky and unlucky. Lucky us escaped the rain but unlucky us were unable to go according to plan due to the heavy rain that poured down right after we stepped into our chalet. Speaking of our chalet, i was not harbouring hope that the chalet will turn out great. I expected it to be quite run-down and 'sandy', probably similar to Costa Sands Resort. Wow.... it was not what i expected. The standard chalet was well-furnished with a double bed and 2 single beds. There was a tv too (although the reception is very poor with only one workable channel). Most importantly, the room is clean and we are just footsteps away from the beach! Even the white chair outside our room is clean.. I felt proud to choose this resort over Berjaya and saved $100,hehehe..The only problem we faced is the room key which Gar has to push and push and really PUSH to get the key completely into the keyhole. (Well.. they are already looking into changing the key lock to card lock)




Stuck by the rain, we stayed in our room until it was near to dinner time. We took a stroll by the beach before dinner... hmm... unlike Redang, Paya beach does not stretch out endlessly but is blocked from other resorts by jungles & huge boulders. The sands were not as soft as Redang too.. similar to East Coast but cleaner though. At least the water is still clear~





Our Chalet Resort..

Dinner was a surprise too!! The theme of the buffet area is a ship.. there were both clean & neat indoor and outdoor seats. Most of the buffet food were quite delicious too~ On one night, there were fried squid.. on the other, there were lamb chop & chicken wings!! I regretted not eating more though Gar ate a lot..=P




After dinner, there was nothing much to do hence we had an early sleep & prepared to rise up early for a snorkeling trip on the next day.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*The 2nd DAY

After a good breakfast buffet (hee, i like their tea), all who have signed up for their snorkeling package has to meet at the jetty at 9am with their life jacket & snorkeling mask.

Happily, we dragged my bag pack with water bottle, bread, camera etc & life jacket & snorkeling mask and waited at the jetty. We could see familiar faces who boarded the ferry together with us to Tioman.

Our full board package includes a snorkeling excursion to Coral Island & Marine Park..



My Batman~ keke..




First stop is at Marine Park. Boy... we were shocked by the amount of big fishes swimming near the jetty!! Gar & I tried to squeeze bread in our pockets and hold it on our hands so we could enjoy feeding the fishes while in the water...... Kong bu lor!! The moment we stepped in, all the fishes surrounded us until i felt 'squeezy'. Not knowing how i could feed them underwater (fear of all the big fishes rushing to my hand and BITE it off! haha...), we threw breads in front..在那一瞬间，那些鱼全部冲向面包的方向。。

Mischevious Gar even threw the bread towards me so that fishes could rush forward to me!! Hate him for doing that! Hehe...

Somehow accident happens when i'm snorkeling. The last time i touched the barnicles on the pillar, not knowing it is untouchable. I think i ended up having itchy and swollen hands...

This time round, a fish (i guessed) created a cut on my sole.

Stupid me should not have pushed back my leg so hard when i was doing frog style swimming towards Gar... caused me pain for the rest of my swim in Marine park and for the rest of my day..

But seeing the colourful fishes is a compensation for the pain =D
It's cute to see some of them swimming in a group..

Although i was in pain and my sole was swollen, i wanted to snorkel at the next stop as i know the swim will allow me to forget my pain. At some point, i really felt like crying......

The second stop is at Coral/Reggis Island. As the name said, this place is more of seeing the coral than the fishes. Our guide has offered to lead us and so we followed him to the right side of the island... 哪里知道，美的珊瑚却在另一边!

It's a pity that i did not really enjoy myself here because
(1) I was using my energy to snorkel ard the island......
(2) I was desperately swimming against the waves to prevent myself from getting closer to the rocks...
(3) Due to the above, we were the last to board the boat... the last part where we were snorkeling towards the boat were the most beautiful area to view corals but where got time when everyone is waiting on the boat!!

Gar got a cut on his hands when he bumped into one of the big rocks. Luckily it was not swollen or else i will have felt guilty.. as he was trying his best to protect me along the swim..

We had a good wash before we had our lunch of fried rice & drumstick~

Both of us have considered to keep the snorkeling mask and continue to snorkel at the beach in the afternoon....... owing to our cuts and tiredness, we gave up the idea and decided to feed the fishes at the jetty with our remaining breads



Tons of small fishes under the jetty!


A closer look



View from the jetty

We also trekked to the rock fall.

Late afternoon came and we proceeded to trek after we took a nap/rest (my sole is killing me + my 贫血 'attacked' me during my bath!)

After walking some wrong ways, we headed towards the right direction (thanks to the guidance of the locals) behind our resort..

Well...................the trek was a disappointment. The rock fall is not a waterfall. It is simply a stream that flows between and over the rocks. However, it is a good way to get some exercise if not for the mosquitos that have been constantly bitting us during the trek!

Seems like a bad day with fish cut and mosquitos bites? Neh... i felt the most horrible wounds are from the bed bugs we 'enountered' on our first night. While i am typing this, i could still see the bite wound on my hands... i really hate bed bugs because they are very hard to spot and their bites can last for many days !!

We ended the day with a scrumptious BBQ dinner by the beach at a pub...


BBQ Chicken Wings. . . Satays . . .Stingray . . . Sotong. . . .Hooch. . .青岛beer. . .



Heaven~

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*The 3rd DAY



We conquered a harder trek in the morning - The Bunot Trek!

It was not like any trek i had trekked before.. totally natural and rocky!!
As the locals call it - trekking through the jungle.

For me, it was adventurous and fun. But for Gar, it seems like any other NS training,haha..




At the start of the trek, there were piles of big brown shit everywhere..
"what is that?" i was wondering.
"could it be dangerous big animals?"

To my delight, we saw a family of COWS~ hehe..





So they are the shit culprits... it's interesting to see the local fencing up their residence to block off the cows from entering.

Further down the path, we went through a 2nd bridge..

and trekked on soiled jungle grd. I feel so proud of myself for completing the trek to another 无人beach!! This trek is unlike the trek i walked in Blue Mountain.. it was truly natural pathway of soil and rocks. There was even a steep pathway which i had to touched the rocks and support myself up and down. Thanks to the electrical wire and red cloth markers, we were able to follow the right trek and successfully reach the next destination.



If i'm not wrong, the deserted beach should be called Bunot Beach too. There was really no one in sight when we reached. I regreted for not bringing my swim suit along as the beach was really beautiful and serene with clear waters....




Can u see how clear the water is?

By the way, we were 'heng' again. During the trek, i could hear thunder sounds (though the sky is blue).. if it rains during our trek, i could not imagine how difficult and dangerous it will be for both of us to trek back. Rain god is good to us and only started the rain when we reached our chalet~ hehe..

I took the leisure time to read a book and sat outside our chalet... enjoying the cool and fresh air while waiting for the rain to stop.

Lunch... nice~



For the rest of the day, we simply rest and relax...
Playing poker cards in the room with Twisties as rewards..
Lying under the hot sun on a mat....
Dinner by the beach again....
(oh, i like the last day dinner buffet!! There is bbq sotong, lamb chop and chicken wings!! I wonder if it's because of the big group of NUS divers hence the difference in food..)
Strolling with Gar along the beach at night...

Some more photos of Tioman...when the sun sets..








*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*The 4th DAY

Time to go home! We checked out at 10am and waited till 12pm in the resort cafe..

This time round, we had the chance to sit on the upper deck which is open. I love to see the sea and enjoy the sea breeze......


8 hrs of ferry and bus ride & we were back at Golden Mile

Home Sweet Home~

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* A Special Corner For...........

1) The Cats in Tioman Island



Because they are soooooooooo adorable.........
Have you ever seen a Singapore cat walking around your 2 legs and simply sit down between your legs so you can sayang them?
Have you ever been followed by a cat so as to get attention from you?
Have you ever see a Puss-in-boots look-alike cat stretching onto your chair and look at you with pathetic big cute eyes?

Yes.. i did =) They are the cats from Tioman...

(This cute cat is concentrating on the hole in front of him.. waiting for a rat?)

2) Mr Snail



The snail whom i tot will die cos someone told me i cannot simply pull him up from the plank...
The snail whom we saved from exhaustion and landed him on his source of food..
The snail who has been a photo model for Gar...



---End---

妥协

Beginner Baking Class

(an outdated post)

Last year my colleagues and I went to attend baking classes at Creative Culinaire..
I'm gonna post the photos to remind myself to bake more!~ (^_^)

-->Class 1


Sunflower Cupcakes & Walnut Cake


Marble Butter Cakes..

--> Class 2


Pandan Chiffon Cake!

--> Class 3


Rainbow cake that cannot roll.. with a little mouse...
(this is actually a failed cake, hehe... but the process is hilarious..thanks to Dy for laughing together with me instead of blaming me =P)


Roar! Tiger Roll...

--> Class 4


Black Forest Cake (it's really an achievement to do this cos i feel it's hard)


The Pandan Checkered Cake


mama & my decorated cake (Sweetcorn cake)

Dy & mama: Thanks for attending the baking class with me.. it's great to have u 2 ard =D

My recent bake..Scones and failed Pandan cupcakes =(

Guess Where is Sky?

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TADA...........................



I could not find him and caught him sneaking into my brother's bag.....

经典的一句话

幸福的婚姻，不是鲜花玫瑰钻石，而是懂得包容对方的不完美。。。。

Tioman Here Lingz Come!!!

I'm going to Tioman tomorrow!!!!

HOHOHOO..............

I'm going to go Snorkelling & Trekking and i hope the sea sand is as soft as Redang where we could lie on the beach and look at the stars............

I'm going to think of nothing and just daze there.

Can't wait to take lots of photos..............

Cheers to Tioman~

10.20pm

Yawn.

Hmm.......

Mind Blank...

Hungry.....

If no food, den i shall starve till tml morning for breakfast..

2 more weeks to Tioman and i really waiting for that to come as i wana take a break. But first and foremost, i hope to clear most work before i go so as to have a peace of mind.

Today my mum called me to ask me to sell Sky (our dog) away.. she even asked me to sell it on the internet.

she ah..everytime 口是心非

who is the one who always feed Sky chicken wing?
who is the one who always talk abt Sky?
who is the one who always help to take Sky for a walk and bath him?

If i really sell Sky, i bet the first one who cries will be her lor.......

But stupid Sky is so hard to train. I feel like giving up too.

To think i spent so much on him... his dog food.. his toy... his toilet..........his medical fee.......

PLEASE SKY............dun pee on the kitchen floor anymore..........

-_-"

It has been a moody & lazy day

I feel.....

I do not have enough time for myself.

Weekend always travel past me like a rocket.

I feel a bit tired with life sometimes. Yet there's nothing much you can do but to go on living and working to support your life and your daily expenses.

I'm fine. Just talking as a tired Lingz whose legs are sore too..

Tomorrow is the last day of my intermediate baking class~ 上一堂课，我获益良多。。。希望明天的感觉和上个星期是一样的！

最sian的是星期一要作工。。

Next month i can predict to be a busy working month cos many ppl is on long holiday!
4 colleagues going to Australia. (should be 4, thanks to Jia for correction)
2 colleagues going to Taiwan.
1 colleague & our admin volunteer going to China.
While i'm going to Tioman... (ya,small peanut compared to their trip..)

I think i starting to talk rubbish on this blog again. =X

I'm so big now & why do i still have such HORRIBLE NIGHTMARES???

I woke up with a fright just now. . . . .

HATE IT!

My dream scared me to the extent that i didn't dare to open my eyes to face the dark even though i'm awake.

My light is on and i'm facing the computer to calm myself down. I wonder if i can still go back and have my beauty slp cos' i cannot stand having not enough sleep!

When i was very young, i used to have nightmares associating with vampires, ghosts etc... because i loved to watch horror shows. After being frightened by these dreams frequently for a period of time, i decided it's time to eliminate watching movies of horror genre.

This time round, i had a sicko nightmare.. not abt ghost.. not abt dracula.. but abt sicko ppl...
I was watching from a perspective of a pretty lady whom i dun know who..
she has a sicko husband...
cant exactly remember the earlier scenes but the last scenes was she saw the future that her husband actually tortured her and her mother (i decided i shall not go into details). Hence, she climbed out from her flat's window, amazingly jumped on all the air-cons to escape and hop on a cab to her friend's place. However, the cab driver was up to no good and wanted to drive her to somewhere ulu and. . . . . She jumped off the cab and sway sway bumped into her husband who was driving. This is where i woke up cos i will not want to continue with my dream witnessing how he tortures his wife.

If dreams can be interpreted, what does my dream imply? Few days ago, my colleagues was saying they dream this person that person (also colleagues)... i rather have such dreams just now.

NEH! I shall nt think abt it anymore! It's 4.30am... & i have to wake up at 630am. SIGHHHHH............. do you think i will be able to go back to slp with continuing the gross drama of my dream?

Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Gold Coast Part 3)

23 May 2008...

I am going to tell u a very horrible story that happened to me in the morning of 23 May 2008. Can you imagining your partner chomping on the following items in the morn?
- Chips
- Tim Tam
- Sausage
- Water
- Orange Juice
- Coffee

如果是我，一定拉肚子。。。

Breakfast aside..we took Bus 700 to visit Honeyworld & Wildlife Currumbin Sanctuary.

Along the way to the places of attraction, we saw several big spider webs!! And then Kai became engrossed in taking spider photos............

There were spider webs weaved between each trees!

Spider gallery :









(with courtesy from Kai & his camera)


Entrance of Wildlife Currumbin Sanctuary


Entrance of HoneyWorld

Both places of attraction were just opposite each other. We decided to go for the Live Bee Demo & Tour and forgo Wildlife Currumbin Sanctuary as we had seen those animals in Dreamworld on the previous day.

As the tour starts at a later timing, we took a stroll at a nearby beach..



















Heading back for our tour..


Something wrong with the sign indeed,hahaha..

HONEY TOUR!

First Stop:


Viewing the Bee Hives..



A closer look


He taught us how to identity the Queen Bee..

Second Stop :

It was a disappointment for me as I thought i could wear that suit and be inside with him. Basically we are separated by glass while he demonstrates how he uses the smoke to chase away the bees hence removing wooden frames covered with honey from the bees.


Bees building their honeycomb to store honey


This is already partially filled with honey..





Third Stop (how they extract honey from the beehives):





After the tour, we bought about $60 worth of honey products..royal jelly is the most expensive..

We travelled back to Surfers' Paradise for our lunch at Clock Hotel

They issued us this device when we made our order. When it sounds, it means your order is ready for collection..


Our Rump Steak

We didn't plan anyting for the afternoon and had some last minute shopping. It was simply rest & relax. I could not stop laughing when Kai was trying to be funny on our way back to apt..

Well..We went back to the beach every night for night shooting of the beautiful moon we saw on the first night but the dark sky was covered by clouds for the rest of the nights..

As such, we went back to our apt to prepare for our home cooked dinner of instant noodle with mushrooms, tuna and beef soup.

-Early sleep for departure back to Singapore on the next day-

24 May 2008...

Our flight is an early flight.
The airport transport bus is already outside our apartment waiting for us but we were unable to find our room key which we were supposed to drop into a key box before checking out! I was so frantic! If the room key is not found, there will be a penalty charge!! In addition, we could not miss the transport bus to catch our early flight!

In order not to miss the bus, Kai went out to inform the bus, leaving me along in the apt to search for the room key. I repeated my search again in all the bags and suddenly my sixth sense told me that the key might be accidentally thrown into the dustbin. OH GOSH! I was right!! I found the key after rummaging in the dustbin!

What a fright in the morning......

Well, of cos there is no answer to who have thrown away the key but i suspect we must have accidentally wrap it up with the instant noodle last night and ya... it landed in the dustbin.

It reminds me of another blur incident of both of us with the key. There was a night where we left the key hanging in the keyhole outside the apartment door!! Ya.. we could not find the key too and i was again the one who discovered the key hanging outside the door. Nothing was stolen, heng ah!

Anyway, our flight was not a direct flight from Gold Coast to Singapore as there were no budget airline that flies from GC back to Singapore! To save on cost, i discovered we could travel to KL from GC and then take another later flight from KL back to Singapore... hehee.. i know i am very budget-conscious~

I have heard ppl saying that foreigners do not know where Singapore is. I finally have the chance to experience that. The airline counter staff in GC asked us if Singapore is part of Malaysia while helping us to check in.... -_-"

While waiting in Kuala Lumpur airport (P.S. KL Airport is very messy and crowded.......), a very rich uncle came to sit and chat with us. He and his whole extended family went to Macau for a holiday and stayed in Venetian Hotel! And i vaguely remembered he was the boss of a brand which i can't rem....... Anyway, he was mostly chatting with Kai while i quietly ate my food,haha..

Both of us were very tired after the long flight of 8-9 hrs in total and a holiday of 1.5 weeks......but i have brought back beautiful memories of a country which i have never step foot on.. =D

-- End of My Australia Trip in 2008 --

Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Gold Coast Part 2)

22 May 2008 (Dreamworld!!!!!!!!)

Gold Coast has mainly 3 amusement parks - Dreamworld, Movie World & Sea World.
We didn't have time to visit all the worlds so we decided on Dreamworld which we felt should be the best choice for us amongst the 3.

We microwaved sausages for breakfast.. convenience of having a kitchen~
After booking our airport transport tickets, we took TX2 to Dreamworld~

The bus passed by Australian Outback Spectacular which i have seen on tv and has wanted to go. However, after some consideration, i gave up the idea as the package is quite expensive..


Entrance of DreamWorld


The first ride we went to is the Thunder River Rapid inside Goldrush Country



Water will splash up from ard the seats as if you were travelling down river rapids. Luckily we did not kanna much water..

The above was the first ride we took.. There were other much more exciting rides around the theme park. The theme park was divided into different sections, each has its own theme..

Introducing some of the rides we took:

-->The GIANT DROP:
Level of thrill is super high..

Kai braved this alone.. hehe..
I'm not courageous enough to take such rides. Roller coasters are still okay with me but vertical drop... *shiver*

-->The Log Ride:
Lvel of thrill is so-so..


Just sitting on a log... and the log will travel up at a point and voomph! slides down fast at one pt..

--> Tower of Terror~~
Level of thrill should be horrible for me


Similar concept to Giant Drop but travel up at high speed and drop down at high speed at a curve...
Hee..kai tried this but i didn't..

--> The Claw!
Thrill level is unsure...

We didn't get to try this ride. It operates just like pirate ship, just that it 'flies' more than 180deg high and at the same time, rotate in a circle (it's not a pirate ship shape, it's a circle shape whereby people sits in a circle). Scary plus giddiness.........

--> Wipe Out
Level of thrill is fun!





As you can see, the 2 handles rotates our seats in 360deg.. it gets scary at some pt when i'm high above & it suddenly plunges down. Everytime i'm upside down, i'm afraid to open my eyes,hehe...However, it's fun and we took the rides twice~

--> Captain Featherword's Ship....
Level of Thrill is -_-"

Well........ it's simply a ship that goes ard a lake inside Dreamworld. As there are fixed timings to board the ship, we rushed to board it, not knowing the ride is slow and boring. It was the same view all around the lake..

There were other rides that we took eg. The cyclone (roller coaster)..but we locked up the camera so we could just enjoy the rides.

Besides amusement rides, there was a section called 'Australian Wildlife Experience' where we viewed an Oakey Creek Farm Show, saw animals such as koalas, sheeps, pigs & got up close to kangeroos!!

被围栏围着的动物:



DINGO



EMU




WOMBAT



Red Kangaroos..


Tasmanian Devil.. he was sleeping so we were unable to get any shoot of him..

all the above are animals i have not seen before in Singapore Zoo. The wombat is very cute.. it keeps walking left and then right.. not sure what he is doing.. hee..


We also saw the White Tiger..

We had close encounters with the following CUTE Animals~:

LLAMA
(The llama (Lama glama) is a South American camelid, widely used as a pack animal by the Incas and other natives of the Andes mountains. (from wikipedia))



We bought a pack of feeds..

But came to realise feeding can be dangerous!! (note the sign: Please be Careful. sometimes i may mistaken fingers for food)

So we decided to put a test on the..
GOAT


The naughty goat bite on our paper bag and.....

Swallowed it!!!

Conclusion: They might eat anything so better to be careful..

PIGS!!


Pigs fighting for food...

Sheep


We went to an area where kangaroos were roaming around and visitors were free to feed them =D *ecstatic*






I think he's not interested to take photo with me =...(




I'm trying to communicate with the kangaroo,haha..


I witnessed the baby kangaroo (in front) climb out of his/her mother's (behind) pouch!!!!


CUTE cute~

More kangaroo photos..





KOALAS

Koala is another must-see animal in Australia. It's a pity i didn't get to hug any.. 不舍得付钱..hehe


This koala looks like he is dangling himself on a branch while sleeping.. such an adorable posture~


Mr Koala again


His sanctuary..

Oakey Creek Farm Show


Hmm.. the main highlight of the show is shaving off the fur of a sheep. Nothing else interests me. Oh ya! Another highlight is to see Kai being invited to join in the show!



In the middle is Kai. He was forced to wear an ugly outwear with chest hair! He had to shave a fake sheep too... (i think he will prefer to do it on a real one)


Their speed of shaving a sheep is fast and quick.


A naked sheep..



Each of us get to have some sheep fur as souvenir. But i threw it away already as the fur is quite dirty, with dirt and some black piles (seems like faeces)


I spotted a rat running on top of the hut during the show! i tot that was part of the performance that they will show us! hehe..

Our last ride before we left is the bumper car... we took this ride for 2 times and really had fun bumping into one another.

We left Dreamworld at 5pm.. went to the supermarket and cooked up our Pasta, chip + ice-cream dinner at our apartment~ (By the way, lunch at Dreamworld was really expensive. A simple fast food meal will cost about 11-14 dollars...)

Here's a corny photo from Dreamworld!

Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Gold Coast Part 1)

20 May 2008

Today was a day of travelling.....

We woke up at 5 plus am and walked all the way from our lodging to the train station so that we could catch the early train back to St James station (and rent a car to Gold Coast).

As we have to wake up super early, the hotel has kindly prepared bread and spread for us the night before so we could have our breakfast before we leave.

I wonder if it's our 命运 to walk and walk and walk..

When we reached St James Station, we walked the familiar route to Hertz (near to our Sydney accomodation). The friendly counter staff served us and passed us the key to a White Hyundai Auto car. Each of us paid about AU$200.

As it was already quite late when we reached Hertz so we hurriedly rush to the carpark to get the rented car and embark on our journey to Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise at about 11am...


Starting our journey.. will be driving through the Harbour Bridge~


yeah~ across the Harbour Bridge,hehe..


Is this considered a lake/river/creek? Both of us tot we could see the ocean but all we seen are such views..but of cos' they are nice to view too.


Our rented car!! Hehe.. our first break for lunch..
We didnt stop for quite long as we need to rush our way to Surfers' Paradise(SP) before it gets dark. We stop by to buy burger to eat while he drives..


Everywhere looks so relaxing unlike Singapore where everywhere looks busy..



Our Lunch!


A big stick of meat bought from during one of our breaks. The Big Version of Satay~

Oh ya... the helpful yet not so helpful device essential for us to find SP:
We had to depend entirely on him for direction as our maps were limited. This device is so cute.. he led us to ulu ulu route which we at first believe shld be short cut. Later on, we highly suspect he led us to a detour instead of short cut!

Anyway, we were on the road most of the time so there wasn't much photos to share.

Once again, i have to credit Kai for the whole journey from Sydney to Gold Coast.. because he was the only person driving for the whole day from 11am to midnight!! *_* Yes, i'm guilty for tiring him like that but i have no choice as i do not have a licence. It was amazing we could reach GC at midnight as the journey was really long and towards the end, Kai was super super tired.

However, i'm not entirely useless~ hehe..
(1) I didn't sleep thruout the whole journey! I aspired to pei him 因为有难同当！他不能睡，我又怎么可以睡呢？
(2) Upon his request, i read to him all the speed limit that we drove by.. so he is alert and can hear my sweet voice constantly, hahaha

So i played a vital role to keep him awake thruout the journey. It's a hard role but i did it =X

This is an entirely new route that we have nv tried before (obviously) and we were afraid it could be dangerous to drive in late night (we dun know how safe it is to drive on Australian roads at night). However, we have no choice but to keep moving forward till we reach our next accommodation.

But i love the entire journey because it was exciting and fun. Fun to try out a whole day driving like this. Fun to just simply sit beside him thruout the journey. Fun to experience adrenaline rush whenever GPS directed us to a dark road with limited or no lighting. Fun to have seen 2 small kangeroos and 1 squirrel along the road when we were driving along dark roads.


My Fav Sign along the way!!
STOP REVIVE SURVIVE!
SO CUTE~




Yes.. this was how dark it is at times. Thanks to the GPS, he loves to lead us to dark dark roads..

Once we reached our apartment in GC, both of us were so tired that we hit the bed immediately after our bath...

21 May 2008

=Budds Beach Apartment at Gold Coast=

Our Fried breakfast from left-over dinner. Behind is the interior of the apartment..


The Kitchen~


The Living Room & balcony~


Our Bedroom~

Since we had some time before we need to return the rented car, we drove around and along the coastal line..stopping at various parts of the beach..





I missed the Pacific Ocean i saw in Taiwan and I saw it again in Australia, Gold Coast~

The weather looks great right? Ya.. it's a big contrast from where we came from. From shivering cold to warm windy weather..
Although the sun is shining, there are strong winds blowing hence there are not many people swimming or surfing in the water as the water is damn damn cold..


Surfers!! Surfers' paradise must of cos have surfers~


这样才是真正地叫蓝天~


This is not along the coastal beach but something like an inland beach..


This is absolutely a dream place to live in..

Well, it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful white car who has been thru thick and thin with us the day before..



We walked around the small town before heading back to our apt & hit the beach for sun-soaking...



Back at the beach..shedding our jeans and replaced it with shorts~

Testing how cold the water is.. in the end we didnt get into the water because it is really cold! Although there was sun, i was still wearing my cardigan on cos the wind just keep blowing...




I told kai to take this photo as I like the effect that the rock makes when the waves hit the coast and flows back..

Can you also see how clean and soft the sand is?


Sparkling seawater is the prettiest..

Since we could not swim in the water, we played with our camera and took very funni photos..

A competition btw me & Kai on who can take the best photo for Coca-cola!!!




Conclusion: I think i can pose better than Kai, hahaha


Seagull flying really low..


I like this photo, so sweet~



Artistic photos which i like personally.. hee




(UIC oh UIC...)
Very Artistic Photos..=P

I was very sad towards the end of our beach-ing afternoon.........
Because I spoilt my camera......
Silly me dropped my camera onto the sand while happily covering Kai with sand.....
The lens was open.....
Sand got into the front and side of the protruding lens..

Anyway, i have bought another new Camera but i still feel the old one is really a good camera.
Tis makes the trip more expensive than usual =S

Nonetheless, it was already 2pm and we have not had our lunch yet! we quickly went back to our apt, cleaned up and rushed out for our lunch at a local fast food.


Grilled Lemon Chicken (chicken again..):


After some groceries shopping for our dinner & next day breakfast, we went back to put our things and headed out at night to Surfers' Paradise Night Market


I love the night mkt as some booth was selling unique hand-made items..Both of us were in love with this hand-painted souvenir that we each bought one for ourselves. This is mine:


We also saw lovely koala bears wearing grad hat scented with lemongrass smell..

We took a stroll on the cool, dark and peaceful beach after all the shopping. It was a night with clear sky and moon. (",)

Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Blue Mountains)

18 May 2008

-Travelling via train from St James to Blackstone(due to trackwork)-
-Shuttle bus from Blackstone to Katoomba-

We supposed to catch the explorer bus (a bus that travels around Blue Mountain) to our next accomodation but we missed the last bus. Bo Bian.. we have to walk all the way to our lodging... walkable distance but it's super duper chilling outside!! How long did we took to walk? I can't remember..it was such a relief when we reached Belgravia Guest House..As no one was staying in the Guest House, we paid Au$12 more & upgraded our stay to La Maison Boutique Hotel.

There are also sauna inside the hotel hence after a meal of instant noodle, we soaked our tired body in the sauna and have an early sleep..

19 May 2008

[Blue Mountains: In 1788 the Blue Mountains were originally named "Carmarthen Hills" and "Landsdowne Hills" by Governor Phillip, however, it wasn’t long after, that the distinctive blue haze surrounding the area saw the change in name to the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains is densely populated by oil bearing Eucalyptus trees. The atmosphere is filled with finely dispersed droplets of oil, which, in combination with dust particles and water vapour, scatter short-wave length rays of light which are predominantly blue in colour.]

Woke up early to see the Blue Mountains.. we had toasted bread and cereals at the hotel dining area. Blue Mountains is the coldest place in our itinerary as we are at a higher altitude. All my cold protection has to be used - gloves, scarf, jacket etc..a stove stands right in the middle of the kitchen area to keep us warm.

Seeing the Blue Mountains was first on our agenda. We have planned our trekking journey starting from Echo Point lookout to our endpoint - The Scenic World (where we could choose to take cablecar, railway train & scenic skyway)

We walked from our lodging to Echo Point lookout..and reached Echo Point lookout
See how blue the sky is?

This is the Echo Pt lookout~

Overlooking the Blue Mountains..

The 3 protruding rocks are called The Three Sisters.
[The Legend: The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.
The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.]

Another view of The Blue Mountains From Echo pt lookout, we started our trekking towards Scenic World through the giant stairway, three sisters and several lookout pts. . . . Photos we took along our 2 hours+ trail...
Yes! We are strong walkers..hahha...







Some stairs were really steep like this! I have to hold on to the handle tightly while walking down the stairs.. Some walker were coming from the opposite direction and i really pity that they have to climb up the multiple stairs while we happily walked down.. *hee*

Ya.. it's me holding on to both sides of the handle.. it's scary you know. Towards the end of the numerous stairs we climbed down, I was having feeble knees and weak limbs.. every step i took makes my leg trembles a bit.
Yes! Halfway through the walk!!!

A tree that could be struck by lightening?

Towards the end of the walk and before reaching The Katoomba Falls, we saw this:
And we climbed down frm the trail to take photos (which was not allowed... =P)
mini waterfall from Katoomba falls?

After walking a distance away from the place we climbed down, we saw the pathetic Katoomba Falls (the water stream above me)... Winter time so....... no water..... sigh........



Finally.. we have reached the end of the trail... And of cos.. we reached Scenic World~

The Scenic Railway Train..

walking along the Scenic walkway... nothing much to see except trees and cliffs ard us..

The Scenic Cableway..

remember we were climbing down the steps.. now we are taking the cable car up the mountain.. (Heng no need to climb up any stairs.. so totful of the tourism org there =D)

我们算是看够了Blue Mountains吧。。so next we hopped on to the Blue Mountains Red Explorer Bus which will take us around the Katoomba. By the way, the bus ticket is super expensive. AU$28 per person... and it only took us less than half a day to tour Katoomba... which means we only literally ride on the bus for less than half a day. Both of us were quite 心痛..

The Expensive BUS..

On the bus..trees alongside the road were pretty.. We alighted only at 2 stops. The first is Leura Mall. Dun be mistaken that it is a shopping centre.. it is simply a street with shops alongside the street. But it is a short street with i think less than 20 shops..Sigh, nothing much to look at..

The most interesting thing we saw in the Leura Mall. The sign on the bench said: "Seat for Bored Husbands" Lunch was simple: Fish & Chips & Bbq chicken..

I saw on the Blue Mountains website that there is a chocolate factory in Katoomba. I was soooo excited to go there because i was imagining Charlie & the Chocolate factory kinda of factory in my head!! I was excited to see their choco-making demostration too! 可是最后我好失望！！！！！
Entrance of the Chocolate Factory.. i was still harbouring hope that it will be a fun place~

To be exact, it is not a factory.. it is just a cafe... I was utterly disappointed when i reached there. In addition, both of us rushed there just to be in time for the choco demoo but they conducted it at an earlier timing..so we missed it..
Since we are already there, i ordered DIY chocolate for myself. But it was not nice cos we had to add in the amt of choco bits and milk by ourselves. The proportion i supposed is not right.

It was getting dark as the sun is setting.. Both of us walked over to the Honeymoon Lookout to have some romantic moments.. (How i wish but the reality is... to see the sunset view so that Kai could get some good photos..)
Before the sun sets.

And the sky turns darker..


We were lucky to meet a full-moon night...Kai really got a good shot of it.. We walked back from Echo Point to our lodging.. it was really cold so Kai helped me to da bao dinner while i stayed in the hotel to wait for him.

When i pen down this blog and think back of the nature I saw..it was beautiful and magnificent.. 令人很难忘。。尤其自身走进大自然，仰望着蓝天、巨山、夜空的感觉是非墨笔可形容的。。希望大家也能从照片中欣赏到Blue Mountains的魅力和宁静。。



-End of Blue Mountains blog-

Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Sydney)

17 May 2008...

I was really tired because we have been rushing and walking a lot during the day. However, there were children sitting behind us.. the noise that they make made us unable to sleep.. sigh



View during the train ride.. (notice the steam rising from the lake? I wonder if that is some sort of 温泉?)

Due to some delay, our train reached Sydney late by 2hrs..

Kai and I dragged our luggages.. and tried to search for our next accomodation - City Resort Hostel. The route is damn horrible.. We are unsure of the route to go to and there are slopes to conquer along the way!! I really bth.. but yet Kai wanted to quickly rush to Opera House so he could get the best shot before the afternoon sun appears. So Kai helped to drag my trolley bag while i carried my backpack + sling bag.. hehe...i really cannot make it whenever there is upslope..

After checking in, we left our barang x2 at the hostel (as our room is not ready yet) and walked to the direction of the Opera House & Harbour Bridge..

Opera House (Front, Side, Near & very very near VIEW!)







Yup... crazy kai has captured all angles of the Opera House (even night shot!)

Harbour Bridge:



You know what? The prettiest photos i felt are not any of the above but these:



I like this especially... The seagulls were all looking at the same direction.. this really needs good timing and good luck to capture *Hee..*



View from the Opera House:

Gorgeous..=D

As we walk towards Harbour Bridge...
There were many seagulls......



A PINK TRUCK!! Cute..

There are also street performers..



Three sweet kids watching the street performance too.. =)

Next, we went to The Rocks (A mini outdoor bazaar)




We had Turkish kebab & Baked Potato for lunch..


Souvenirs sold at The Rocks are comparatively more expensive than Queens Victoria Market.. luckily i bought most of the souvenir at QVM (that's why my luggage is so heavy!)..

Pk & I decided to take a ferry at Circular Quay to Darling Harbour so we could get a sea view of Opera House & Harbour Bridge... Then we will take the ferry once again back to view the night view of the Opera House & Harbour Bridge.


On the ferry to Darling Harbour, another tourism spot of Sydney


Ferry leaving Circular Quay..




Across the Harbour Bridge..






I like this picture taken by Pk.. 阳光、乌云和海浪的对照好美。。


This is one part of Darling Harbour..


We saw another street performance at Darling Harbour. It was interesting to watch the first performance but all the performances seems more or less the same. He also performed fire-eating... cant remember what else but it was not very interesting so we walked off to Chinatown after watching for a while.


四海一家牛车水在悉尼。。

There was nothing much to see as it was similar to other Chinatown so we walked straight through the streets and head to Paddy's Market for some shopping..


By the time we arrived, it was already evening time and some of the shops were already packing up to close shop.

I was feeling colder as we were constantly walking on the streets.. The winds were blowing into our faces too. On our way back, I had to stand behind PK so stronger him could help me block off the strong wind.

It was late so we hurriedly travel back to the harbour to catch the ferry and also took night shots of Darling Harbour..





Is this a solar boat?




Night shot of Darling Harbour & Opera Hse on our ferry..


The Opera House at night.. i prefer its night look =) Mysterious yet Pure..


A full moon =) Romantic...but... i was freezing cold when i reached the harbour.. the wind esp out at sea... the night coldness.. in addition to drizzle..
I could not wait to reach our hostel which we have to take the tram back and walk a distance to reach -_-" I was also worried about our safety as it was already late and the route to our hostel does not seem safe enough (i vaguely remember there are cameras installed at one part of our route back to our hostel, does it means the crime rate there is high?? *adding on to my coldness*)

Nonetheless, we reached our hostel safely.. hee..

We checked in to our small room (This is the worst accomodation of my entire trip.. i suspect the bed has bed bugs or some biting bugs cos' i was bitten by them when i was asleep..V_V)


Both of us were hungry as it was late and we have not had our dinner yet. We decided on Strand Bistro, somewhere near to where we stay.. In addition, we saw somewhere that there will be a 10% discount when we present our room key..


It was hard to spot this place as it was a pub cum eatery which we did not expect so..


Our dinner!! His Honey Mustard Chicken & My T-bone Steak!!! Sigh...there is definitely lack of communication btw our hostel and Strand Bistro. When we presented our key, they have entirely no idea that there was a 10% discount. So there was no discount at all.. anyway, the food wasn't so bad though.

18 May 2008...

We have another half day left to spend on Sydney before we head to our next destination - Blue Mountain....~~

In order not to waste any time, we woke up early in the morning and went to the kitchen to have our breakfast. Breakfast is so DIY..each room was issued with a blue box of utensils. Breads were left in the kitchen to be toasted on your own. I felt a bit uneasy to be sitting with strangers for breakfast. After our breakfast, we were supposed to make sure our utensils are clean before returning back during check-out.

We checked out and left our luggages inside the reception counter and took tram to Darling Harbour, embarking on our half hour walk to Sydney Fish Market.

PK was attracted by the morning view of Darling Harbour before our walk...





Seagulls drinking water.. so cute..



Tada! The Sydney Fish Market where we indulge in fresh sashimi, oysters and blue eye cod fish!!


All the seafood sold are fresh from the sea..
Being a seafood lover... how i wish i could try every single seafood there..



Oysters... drool...


LOBSTERS... drool drool...


AND ALL the SEAFOOD WITH SHELLS... !!

Well, the above are taken at the wet market area..
wheras this is the place to buy your fresh seafood and eat them!



Me staring at the Sashima tinking about what to order..


Not only selling fresh seafood but also grilled and bbq seafood..

The first food we bought is Sashimi from the..


They were really fresh..


And cheap too.. hmm.. didnt realise the sashimi we bought were actually quite cheap.. Anyway, if you noticed, our chopstick costs $0.15 cents each and the soya sauce & wasabi costs $0.20 cents each... if i knew, i would have brought my own from Singapore..


I think i must be seeing how thick a piece of sashimi is.

After Sashimi, we discovered a nice outdoor area for eating:

A harbour was behind us with boats & yachts.. clear sky.. good weather.. seagulls flying ard... heavenly sia..




These were on our table.. =P..

Finished!!


A pelican swam by while we were eating.. it adds on to the heavenly feeling..

A closer look



View from our seat..




On our way out, we saw this and i wanted to try one stick of fat seafood


At some point of the Sydney trip, we passed by a interesting park where there are people playing english chess..




Can you spot the rainbow?? It is my first time seeing rainbow reflecting out from fountain... wow...

It was late.. we had to rush to catch the train to Blue Mountain and in turn catch the explorer bus that ends its service in the evening.

It's the end of my Sydney blog and i will like to dedicate this to dearest PK who has helped to carry my barang barang with sweat & muscle.. =)

Thank you so much!

Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Melborne part 2)

14 May 2008...

Rabbit left early in the morning for work, leaving me alone at her apt. I tidied the bed and my bag...intending to embark on a brave solo journey to my next lodging - The Ritz for Backpackers.

Carrying my bulky backpack and dragging a heavy trolley bag, I waited for my tram at a bus-stop withstanding the cold air that blows right onto my face (luckily Rabbit helped me to buy the tram tik beforehand). It was a long wait....

My tram finally arrived and skinny me managed to drag the trolley bag up the tram (with quite a bit of effort,haha..). I have totally no idea which stop i must alight as it is my first time travelling to Fitzroy Street which is outside the Melbourne main city area. The bus-stop no. to stop is no. 132 but i can't find it and i alighted at the bus stop no. after 132. Clueless me was standing along the street not knowing what to do but to walk back the bus direction hoping to spot bus no.132 or a pub name as indicated on my itinerary sheet. I walked and walked...there was not many people on the street for me to ask directions as it was early in the morning. I was thinkin in my brain:" Wa liew, how cum so far? Did i overshot by a lot?" At this moment, i was a bit worried that i might have alighted at the wrong stop. The wind continues to blow on my face.

Finally!! I saw Elephant & wheelbarrow Pub which is the pub located below The Ritz for Backpackers!! YEAH! I was happy for a while but the happiness stopped the moment i saw the long staircase that i have to travel before reaching the reception of the hostel. ARGH! I was already very cold and tired after dragging my heavy trolley bag from a distance.. Bo bian.. after looking left and looking right, there was no one ard who could help me. The street as usual is so quiet.. I gathered all the strength i have left and dragged my trolley bag up the stairs with my bulky bag on my back.

I catched my breath at the reception and checked in. Shit man.. another flight of stairs to my allocated room! -__-" I felt like a weak and lost lamb. Yes, finally reached the door to my room...~



I rested in my room for a while and went down to wait for Kai at the reception area. He arrived at 12.30pm.

After being with rabbit for 3 days, my role is to bring Kai to Melbourne city to see see look look. So we took the Mel tram (trams there travelled in the middle of the road with tracks..so different) back to the city.


and tried Lord of the Ring... opps! Should be Lord of the Fries..


The fries are bigger, soggy (nice type of soggy) and hot.. great to eat on a cold weather~ There are diff sauces to choose from but you have to pay extra~

And we also went to try Crepes.. (yap, our lunch is very japalan)


along one of the eatery in this street..


On this day, we also tried the famous Koko Black Mocha as strongly recommended to try out by Rabbit. Both Kai & Me love it.. one of the best mocha we ever had (but of cos the price for one cup is nt cheap sia)



I have to satisfy kai's photo-shooting urge so we walked along Yarra River both in the day & at night.. beautiful shoots by him:


Ya.. normally he shoots the scenery while i shoot him.. haha..


Hehe.. another shoot by me again..


A bigger & clearer view..


ya the above 2 photos are def not taken by me.. chio, i like how the building reflects on the water..


Another direction of the river


Walkway along the river


Bridge to other side of the river where crown casino is located..

Here are the night photos of the same place:














Slideshow of the fire performance outside Crown Casino (a second view of it)

In the afternoon..Both of us has been walking along the streets, exploring Melbourne City..


A Camera museum cum shop that we stepped into..along Elizabeth Street


Ouside old Melbourne Goal.. i wanted to visit this but after looking at the price, i feel it might not worth it.






One of Melbourne parks that we walked by..


The leaves are really pretty.. even if you don't sweep them off, it forms s beautiful part of the park.





We passed by Chinatown at night



墨尔本 and 唐人街 is indicated on each red lamps..


Not Chinatown but one of the streets we walked by..




Federation Square..


Mario Kai is jumping in front of Mr Mario~

End of the day. We headed back to our hostel..My first time bathing in a shared bathroom..luckily it was clean and neat

I didn't have a good night slp for my first night in a hostel, thanks to the fire alarm. I was awakened by the loud fire alarm! When the alarm sounded, i didnt know what to do and looked at the still slping, unaffected pig beside me. I looked out my window, no one outside.. i opened my door and peeked outside.. no movement. I tried shaking the pig up but no response......... I was frantic inside but i didn't know what to do as it could just be a false alarm. As there were no commotion at all, I paced up and down my room. After 10-15 mins of sounding, the fire brigade arrived. Hmm.. but no action nothing. Assuming nothing has happened, i lie on my bed and continue my beauty sleep.

Can you imagine that the pig does not even know what had happened on the next morning i asked him? Kong Bu........ if there is a real fire, he could be the first to die. I will be the second. "-__-"

15 May 2008...

I have booked an Ocean Road one-day tour from Otway Discovery and both of us woke up at 6am for this =D
Ocean Road is one of the must go tour spot for tourist in Melbourne! The trip will be alongside Pacific Ocean. It's the only out of city tour attractions we are visiting so i really look forward to it. However, the journey is super long and tiring and we have to get up and down the bus several times. On board the mini bus with us are a Singaporean who is travelling alone and Australians from other parts of Australia.. Most of them are old ladies and boy! their energy level is super high! They could talk non-stop thruout the journey, cracking jokes, laughing.. If this was a car full of Asian, the situation will be the opposite. Well.. the weather is cold but sunny =)

Our first stop: The Bell's Beach (I think it's a beach for surfers but it was the cold season so there was only 1-2 surfers surfing on the beach)




View of the Great Ocean Road from the Bell's Beach viewing platform.



2nd Stop: Split Point Lighthouse



A closer view of the lighthouse


从灯塔脚下一眼遥望的景色。。


haha.. i can see my own shadow from this photo..


The sun, the lighthouse and me! Somehow i like this photo.. the sun seems so low.

3rd Stop: Beach walk & The Great Ocean Road Sign






Getting your feet on the sand of the Beach..



The tour bus then drove past some coastal towns (Torquay, Lorne etc..) for us to take a look. However, there was no stop.. just simply viewing from the bus..


Fourth Stop: Lunch Stop and Koalas!~

The lunch somehow disappoint me as I didn't expect to be just sandwiches.. moreover, sandwiches which you have to make yourself with the companionship of bees flying ard your food. There were also tea & biscuits. It's not because the food wasn't nice enough.. i was disappointed cos of the expectation we had. Nonetheless, it was a new experience, making your own sandwiches and eating with trees & birds around you.

We walked around the place and was told by the tour guide to look out for Koalas on the trees!!! Oh forgetting the sandwiches, this makes me happier.. hehe..


Can you spot the Koala?


This should be easier.. hehe.. so cute.. keep hugging the trunk


The bird that accompanied us while we ate our lunch..

Walking further into the place, we saw birds-feeding by other ppl..





Then we also saw more koalas!!!! too bad I didn't have the chance to hug and touch them..

Fifth Stop: Rainforest Walk of (Great Otway National Park?)

Before we walked through the rainforest, the tour guide bought us to another place for more photo-shooting..



This old lady is very cute.. she actually posed in front of Kai's camera..














A shoot we took during our toilet break.. even scenery near our toilet is pretty.. haha..

Sixth Stop: The Twelve Apostles


Note those stand alone rock stacks? Those are apostles... according to the tour guide, there are supposed to be 12 of them but due to constant water erosion, now there are less than 12 (can't rem exactly how many left..)








The Cape Otway..


The sun is setting..



Last stop: Loch Ard Gorge & London Bridge (is falling down...)


Is this the Loch Ard Gorge? Frankly speaking, i can't remember.. so many rocks..


The London Bridge: The tour guide told us a story of this London Bridge. When the rock collapsed forming the London Bridge, a couple was stranded on the London Bridge. They were rescued back on land of cos.. however the news appear in the newspaper. Because of the news, the wife discovered that his husband has another women! (which is the couple stranded on the London Bridge..)


View on land leading to outlook for the London Bridge..






Time to head back.. on the bus waiting to be 'transported' back to our accomodation for a good rest after a long day of travel..

Before that, the bus stopped at one the towns so we could have our dinner. We decided to have Macdonald for dinner as it seems to be 最划算. there was a chinese noodle eatery but it was too expensive for a simple bowl of noodle which we could get it much much cheaper in Singapore.


Hmm.. now then i notice their burger has no lettuce! Is that why kai felt their burger seems to be smaller??

16 May 2008...

A view of our hostel kitchen..





wa! Fully occupied..


Today is the day we will be leaving Melbourne for Sydney by Train..

As our train timing is at night, we decided to venture the city again..
I brought Kai to QVM early in the morning..


and tried Churros which Rabbit said is nice..we were unable to get it during our last visit.

Churros is actually Spanish Donuts... sweet with icing sugar.. crunchier than donuts.. :)

Kai is hungry.. i wanted to bring him to Metre Long to try out the pizza and spag.. however, i could not find it at first. After walking a long distance along Lygon street, we managed to find it but it was not opened... sigh... hungry us could not wait for them and we settled our lunch at one of the eatery selling also pizza and pasta..



My cabonara...

After filling up our stomach, we walked back to QVM for more shopping..

We saw Chicken Wings! hehe.. i feel like eating it so we bought some and decided to travel to Treasury garden and Fitroy garden to sit down and enjoy the food..In addition, we bought ice-cream to share..





I felt a bit bo liao so we took these shots! Heheh.. one of my fav shots.. we had to wait for the sun light to appear before we could take.. the sunlight came on and off.



Kai didn't want to take this photo so i pointed a gun at his head! keke..







Time past. It was already evening time. We went to buy some sushi & tibits to eat on the train for our dinner and hurriedly catch tram 16 back to our hostel.

There was a JAM! Jam was somehow more jialat in Melbourne as trams travel on tracks. Imagine if the tram in front of us breaks down, how are the trams behind supposed to travel ahead? Both of us were very gan jiong in the tram as we had to catch the 7.55pm train.. we even considered to just walk all the way back to our hostel which was really quite far. Furthermore, we will have to walk a distance to another bus-stop to catch tram 96 to Southern Cross Station.. Argh..

Heng we reached our hostel at 6.50pm which leaves us about 1 hr to travel to Southern Cross Station. Luckily both of us managed to reach on time..



Southern Cross Station..


While waiting for our train to arrive..


Finally...

-- On our way to Sydney --

Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Melborne part 1)

10 May 2008... Lingz will be heading to Australia at night & meet Rabbit on the next day *excited*


My last meal at Popeyes before on board Jetstar to Melborne, transiting at Darwin...
(Thanks to kai for accompanying me ^-^)

Sidetrack: Some photos of T3 taken by kai when he flew over to join me



An ad i saw while waiting in Darwin to board the plane..


Somehow i love to sit by the window sit and look down from the plane.. the land always look beautiful and natural..

11 May 2008....


I took a city shuttle to Elizabeth st and waited for Rabbit at her apartment. It was a long wait and i was quietly standing around while listening to a grp of chinese talking to each other in English...I didn't expect her apartment lobby to be cosy and clean..needless to say, her apartment is also nice & cosy~


Rabbit bought me to Metre Long for my first meal in Australia. Highly recommended by her and it is really delicious to the pt that i still misses the pasta! It's my first time trying eggplants with pasta too.. oh, i really miss it...

It's time for a walk tog with rabbit so that both of us could digest our delicious lunch =)

~~~~At Melbourne University~~~~







Rabbit really know all the nice eating places in Melbourne so she bought me to this dessert shop called Brunettis to take a look at their cakes & desserts. After which, we went to try the gelati ice-cream which she likes it a lot.. really special as they have many unique favors! I tried the lychee & nutella favor~ It was cold but it was worth it =D hehe..

Melbourne's chinatown..


We went back to her apartment before dinner for a sweet chat.. =)
Mekong Vietnamese Restuarant is one of the must try in Melbourne so slurp.. here's the food i ordered

Not exactly one of my fav as compared to Long Metre's pasta & pizza but nice to have a try. I bet you can notice the bean sprouts ... hehe.. that i nv eat of cos.. but i love pig's blood,hehehe.....

It was my first night in Melbourne hence i have an early sleep due to tiredness from the long ride and the constant walking in Melbourne St. I also stoned a bit on Rabbit's sofa and watched Grey's anatomy before i hit the bed~


The soft cosy sleeping area that Rabbit set up for me!!!! She 特地 transported this matress for me with the help of her friend.. I will not be able to have such nice sleeps every night without this. Thanks gal~

A small sweet & memorable treat from Rabbit.....

It was the best cupcake i ever had. If i have the chance to go back, this is one of the must-buy i will get for myself...*Drool... how i wish i have the recipe to this...

12 May 2008...

View from her apt:


As i was really impressed by the mini cupcake, she bought me to Little Cupcakes for breakfast.. it is a small shop that sells mainly cupcakes, muffin & tea. Country style, i like =) We tried to secretly shoot photo of their nicely displayed cupcakes inside the display freezer but FAILED!

So.. we only shoot those that we bought..AWwww... i miss them.. lucky Rabbit...

Shopping time!



Big donuts & pretzel display along the street!

I didn't really buy a lot..only about 2 tops from sportsgal.. i guessed I was conscious on my spending as it's only my 2nd day in Australia. I won't want to end up broke towards the end of my trip..Poor Rabbit who shopped with me seems to get more stuffs than me.. =P

We went to Chapel st for some more shopping and I tried Boost Mango Magic..which i later discovered that Boost is available in Singapore too.

Sushi for lunchie.. and know what? I was amzed by this:

Because... it is so cute and user-friendly! Can't Singapore sushi shop use this for take-away sushi so people can 'drop' the soy sauce accurately on their sushi without dirtying our hands? packet soy sauce is so inconvenient..

During our shopping, we walked into 2 tea shops. The variety of tea that they sells are Wow.... a lot... i think you can almost find all kinds of tea there. Both Rabbit & I was tempted to buy but we didn't in the end. I found one of the brand T2 in Singapore but when i have made up my mind to buy it this year, none of the tea favor attracts me as there were only tea favors that i'm not familiar with or attracts me.
It will be nice to drink tea once in a while be it at home or in the office..


We went back to chinatown for dinner before proceeding to Crown Casino which Rabbit said there will be a surprise for me to see???
Hee.. i ordered noodle with pig's blood again.. paisei, i'm so deprived of it in Singapore.. =P

I was kept in the suspense what i will be seeing.... and TADA!


(Opps, this video is tilted as i'm not sure how to turn the video around)

I will be posting photos of crown casino later as kai has used his camera to shoot great night photos of the place. At every hour at night (not sure what time it starts), fire will 'shoot' out from the tall stands outside the casino in sequence and rhythm.. it's like a dance performance by the fire.. marvelously stunning..豪华..

Enjoying the cold & peaceful night, both of us enjoyed a mud cake tog before heading back to the apt for a good night slp... (*+*)

13 May 2008...

I had a great night of sleep but Rabbit did not sleep much, prob due to the caffeine effect of the tea..

How could i miss the famous Queens Victoria Market (QVM):
The Wet Market section:




Oh..choco... hmm..=P..


The fruits section:


Other sections:




See how clear and beautiful the sky is?


I bought softtoys here for some of my friends as 手信 from here..it was a great buy but will take up quite a bit of space in my luggage though.


Soupy Lunch before heading back to apt for a rest.

I had never tried cheese with crackers before. we gathered all the ingredients from QVM and went back to try it out with the kind rabbit demo from my dear galfren..




On-going demo..


Finished!!!!!!!

Well.. the taste is great for tea-break~ cheesy.. crunchy.. with tinge of sour taste..and an additional touch of fresh salmon. . . . . . . .. . .

(^O^)

After a nice tea-break, we shopped ard for boots..
As rabbit needs to go back early to prepare her lunch for work tml, we had a quick dinner (皮蛋粥和油条） at a Chinese restaurant and head back to the apt.

Rabbit will be heading for work the next day while i will be meeting up with Kai to start of the next part of my Aussy tour.. Thanks to this dear gal for being my tour guide throughout the 3 days without any complaints. There are places which i will never know without her recommendation.. *smile* 谢谢你。。

Thailand 2007 with SCB (^_^)

27 October 2007 (First Day):

First step on Singapore Budget Terminal.. waiting for departure to Thailand ~
("-")

On Board the budget Tiger airline.. --> A 45min express bus ride to our lodging - Samran Hotel --> Tired timing: 9 plus pm... In order not to waste our time, we took a cab to Suan Lum Market. It was already 10 plus.. An architect (forgot what it is) at Suan Lum Market. Shooting at the door does make you look haunted (referring to the person under the yellow light) The other view of Suan Lum Market.. --> Shopping time so no photos.. --> I remembered the first item i bought is a pair of birkenstock for pk.. Hungry hungry hungry.. (both of us has not have our dinner yet!!!) So we had our dinner place at Safari Steak. Actually both of us were finding a large food area recommended by SCB's bf but we simply could not find it. It was damn damn late and we were super super hungry so we just settled down at this place to eat..This meal costs us 660 baht ~ = $28!!!!!!! Furthermore, it's not really worth the price.. --> At Samran Hotel at midnight. Unable to sleep well... 28 October 2008 (Second day): A small blur mistake made by me in the morning. Owing to 时差, i forgot to adjust my hp timing by 1 hour later and despite having lack of slp, i managed to wake up at 6am!!! (i wanted to wake up at 7am -_-) Blur me woke up, took a bath and only then realised i woke up 1 hour earlier!! Poor SCB was awakened by me too....... hehe Yummy... delicious breakfast from Samran to start off our first morning in Thai Thai~ Setting off to our first journey of the day --> Chatuchak Market!!! SHOPPING HAVEN!! (9plus am...) Behind SCB is Chatuchak market (crowded with cars & ppl...) We walked and shopped from morning all the way till 5pm and i could still rem both of us were so tired after the long and hot and squeezy shopping. I didn't get as much as i expected but SCB bought quite a lot i tink. Here are some interesting scenes we shot during our shopping: Chio photo (credit to my lovely friend SCB ^_^) Yup! She is holding the teh tarik sold by the above encik! HEHEHEE..........we took several photos and all are blur!! (credit to SCB also...hahah) Food stall along the road.. Street performer.. there were quite a few of them and most of them are of young age. I remembered SCb has videoed one young gal who wore big pink wig and danced according to the music blasted from her stereo. I'm impressed by her courage but at the same time felt sad that they have to come out on the street to perform at such a young age.. Our lunch.. Awww......... i simply cannot resist the cute dogs sold there.. Everyone that stepped into Bangkok will definitely step on foot to CTC market. Everything can be found there!! From clothes, bottoms, accessories to ornaments, kitchen wares and even pets! After a bath back at the hotel (and to throw all our 胜利品 in our room), we went to MBK to dye our hair as recommended by SCB. It was indeed worth it! 不止不会很贵。。There is a computer at every seat for us to surf while they work on our hair!!! You won't be able to find such facilities in Singapore saloons at all! I leisurely checked my emails, chatted with my friends on msn while waiting for my hair to be done..how i wish every saloon is like that and ladies will not have to wait for 3-4 hrs for their hair to be ready (especially when you are doing rebonding!) SCB is very nice.. we didn't have time to have a proper dinner so as to make it within the saloon operation time, she went to da bao for both of us so we could fill up our stomach while dyeing our hair in the saloon. So we were eating, surfing and dyeing...keke.. thins like this will only happen when i'm with SCB. However SCB was not satisfied with her hair colour so we went back to the saloon the next day to redye..She was really satisfied on the second dye though.. Tada! Our hair has transformed~ We tried Green curry and Pad Thai for dinner... ended up i think it sucks...esp my green curry... 我们的胜利品！！！ * * * 29 October 2007 (Third Day): On our itinerary today is The Pratunam market and the Platinum mall..Although these 2 places are wholesales places, you could still find good and cheap clothes here. I got most of my clothes in the Platinum mall. As for the pratunam mkt, it was a big disappointment as my expectation was high to someone's comment that it is a nice shopping place. The way that leads us to platinum mall.. ~ Lunchie time at the food court inside Platinum Mall We took a hell lot of time looking at the cute cute things inside this shop.. was extremely amazed by this (towel squeezed into cake & ice-cream design)! At that time, it was not out in Singapore yet.. Well.. we head back to MBK again as SCB redyed her hair while i shopped ard in the mall. As compared to MBK, i felt Platinum & CTC are definitely better shopping places for the girls.. people used to tell me MBK is recommended for shopping but i guess it is overrated. Both of us were hungry after we get our shopping and hair done so we settled at a Japanese restaurant for our dinner. 看起来好好吃对吗？我根本没有吃到！！！！It was an incident that I could still remember clearly. The restaurant was about to closevbut they were still taking in orders.. hence SCB and I have ordered our food. My food arrived first and out of habit, i waited for hers to arrive before i savor my food. During the wait, we chatted, we joked, we took photos but the most regretful thing we didn't is to try my food! (SEE THE nice picture above, drool..) We waited and waited and waited.... suddenly we find it odd that SCB's order took so long. In addition, we also observed that the next table persons who came later had their food already. Of course we called the waitress and tried to ask her about it. Their explanation was that they forgot to inform the kitchen and the food was not prepared at all!! Okay, fine.. we can forgive about it if they could prepare it. However, they told us that they can't cos their cook has already left! (at this point, both of us were quite fed up due to hunger... due to the wait.. due to the constant communication barrier btw us and the waitress + manager (Yes, we are in Thailand) and due to their attitude) Obviously it was their fault but instead of helping us to solve the problem or attempt to offer any compensation, they gave us an non-sincere and unhelpful look! We were so fed up with their attitude that we raised our voice! In the end, he said they will cancel the bill of our arrived food. Both of us were so fed up that we didn't want to eat at that place anymore and left. (that goes my untouched sashimi..) Walking back to our hotel, we changed to eating at a steamboat place. Well, although it is very cheap (only 110 baht per person - About S$5!! @_@), the food does not look very hygienic though. SCB: "gosh, all chao ta....." 30 October 2007 (Fourth Day): Siam Square~ review seems to be good on this place so we decided to dig out this place and Shop! We had a hard time finding it and no one was able to give us a clear direction.. in the end we tink we found it (which i'm still not sure if it is Siam square though. Anyway, we saw many Bangkok students while walking ard. Some of them were really prett... and although they were in uniform, all of them were wearing different pretty shoes and has let down their nice long hair... too bad i didn't get to secretly shoot them. SCB's camera were going crazy at this pt too. We went to ICE Monster! I really like this place cos I like their ice dessert~ Towards later of the day, 我们找到一个好好逛的地方，就在MBK旁边..it could be hard to find cos only one storey of MBK has a link connected to this place and it is not very easy to find. (I suspect this should be siam sq instead) I bought lots of clothes here and guess what? We even did nail design too! Cheap cheap cheap sia... My fishy fishy foot.... i miss the fishes... SCB's flowery hands... chio hor? Following the link, we went back to MBK for dinner. Mr Meng's Dim Sum.. hehe.. i like this place too cos their dim sum is quite nice. However, SCB has a headache so didnt get to enjoy the food.. All my favorites.. hehe...... We ended the day with tibits shopping at the local supermarket.. 31 October 2007 (Last Day): I dun remember exactly where we went to on the last day but i vaguely remember shld be platinum mall. We did not really finish shopping the whole mall so we went back on the last day. Even on the last day, i bought a lot of tops,hehe....... On our way back to the hotel.... We made a good deal with the cab driver who drove us to the airport...=) It's 2009 now and i hope to go back and renew my closet one day.. =P -HOME SWEET HOME-

First day of 2009 at Genting Highland *cold*

My first travel trip in 2009 is to Genting Highland..
I celebrated New Year Eve and count down in a 18-seater Konsortium bus.. on my way from 2nd link to 云顶高原.


Originally we booked seats on a 26-seater bus but not sure why they have upgraded us to a 18-seater bus instead. Anyway, the 18-seater bus is really shiok! There is sufficient space for us to stretch our legs out, the head rest is comfortable and it's the first time i could sleep on a bus (without the help of the neck pillow). The only downfall is the cold air-con inside the bus which makes my sleep very uncomfortable. Even with my socks covering my feet and my jacket covering me, it was still insufficient to 'fight off' the cold air that keeps ' attacking' my skinny body. . .. .
My comfortable sleep came only when the bus travelled up its way to Genting (i suspect the bus driver increased the temp of the air-con as the air outside was already cold enuf)

Our sleepy bodies reached Genting at about 4-5am.........
4 - 5 AM..... and.............. we can only check in at 2pm............
SIGH.. initially i tot if there are rooms, we might be able to do an early check-in. I was wrong. Luckily, there is a place for us to deposit our barang barang before it's time for our check-in.
Although it's 4-5am, there are many ppl in the lobby! People sleeping on the seats.. people walking ard.. people queueing up.. people sitting in Starbucks cafe lim kopi..

I saw a poster that says that there is free admission to the theme park on new year eve night with firework displays......... 羡慕....

What did me & pk did from 5am to 2pm?
We queued to deposit our bags..
We walked around the whole First World Shopping Mall and viewed all the closed shops' gate...
We sat down, lim kopi and read 8 days & CLEO...
We cruised the casino...
(shops opening)
We played pool... (I won more games than PK, heehheeeeee)
We ate a RM6.50 Chee Chiong Fan & Merry Brown for breakfast and Kenny Rogers for lunch...















As we have booked our hotel with Konsortium, check in was done at another place (not the lobby). The place was congested with PEOPLE!! Heng we have obtained our queue no. earlier at the lobby when we reached & it has spared us the agony for waiting for 200+ ppl b4 we could check in. I could still rem our lucky no. is 7040 and all we need to wait are 39 check-ins in front of us~ (I was so so tired that i fell asleep while lying on pk's shoulder)

After all the la la chap chap... we only stepped into our heavenly room after 3pm..........
TIRED......& i took a nap for 2 hrs.........

Zzzz............

Dinner was chicken again.............. Hainan Chicken Rice at Hainan Kitchen for me.

A surprising find for us was the movie we watched after dinner!
Have u heard of the movie "IP Man"?
Will you read the title as 'I' 'P' 'man' if you have not even heard of the movie before? I did and so did many who were ard me discussing if they shld watch this movie...
Then stupid PK keeps laughing and laughing and laughing w/o telling me what's wrong..
AND THEN he 模仿 the sound of the title into how those superhero movie title will always sound (eg. Superman~) just so to irritate me..

It is a chinese movie and its chinese name is 叶问. It will read as Ip Man (pronounced as 'yip mun') in Cantonese and that is why its English name is "IP Man".
http://data.ent.163.com/movie/product/00000UPD.html

This is a nice movie and shld u have the chance, do watch it. 叶问 is Bruce Lee's Shi Fu and thus as the name of the movie says, the movie is on his story. It is an action-packed movie with humor injected.

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

Early in the next morning, i saw a cookie monster sitting on the bed munching on Famous Amos cookies........... gosh............

Brunch is at 好味 Hou Mei..













Again we have to decide what to do next. Theme park was out as it was foggy and raining (Pk didn't want to go too). Casino was our only choice..sadly, i lost RM 150 in the casino. =........(

It was a bad day.

We watched a lousy movie named 'The Spirit'. I didn't even know who acted in that movie. All i know the story originated from a comic and the filming method was somehow very 70s 80s which is clearly not my cup of tea.

It was thus a really bad day.

We played pool again and had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant.....

Back at our room, pk taught me how to play texas poker.. with tic tacs & Hacks as our chips, haha.. this was fun! As it was a bad day for me, i lost all my chips to him!

Some genting photos..

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

last day of my mini holiday.. sian.. it means i'm one day nearer to work.
We had our last meal at Pizza Factory and proceeded to the bus terminal to Singapore.
This time round, we travelled on a 26-seater coach.. hmm.. not bad too.. i guessed in future i might choose 26-seater coach for long hrs trip to Malaysia :)

Meaningful Stories...

無論和誰聊天，如果說到某某得到了哥哥姐姐或者父母的饋贈，大家都會說：

『我要是有這麼好的哥哥姐姐或者父母該有多好啊！』

我們習慣聽到這樣的感嘆和羨慕。

那天，偶然看了一則小故事，講的是一位先生在聖誕節得到哥哥送給他的新跑車。

車子相當漂亮，停放在門前。當他出來準備開著新車去兜風的時候，

發現車子旁邊有個七八歲的小男孩圍繞著車子轉，

眼睛貪婪地看著車子， 一會用手摸摸車身， 一會摸摸輪子。

這位先生走過去。男孩問：『先生，這是你新買的車嗎？』

他說：『不是，是我哥哥送給我的聖誕節禮物。』

男孩的眼睛立刻放出異彩，大聲喊道：『哇！是你哥哥送給你的啊！』

得到肯定的回答後，男孩感嘆道：『我多麼希望……』

這位先生想，下面的話一定是：『我多麼希望也有這樣一個哥哥啊！』

可是，男孩的話卻出乎他的意料，

男孩說：『我多麼希望我也是這樣的哥哥啊！』

男孩意外的回答讓人感動。

他決定帶這個男孩一同去兜風。

男孩興奮地上了車，並同時提出一個要求，說：

『先生，您能不能在另一條街區停一下？』

這位先生按照男孩的請求在另一街區的一所房子跟前停下來。

男孩飛快地跳下車跑到房子裡，不大工夫從房子裡背出一個四五歲的小男孩。

他把男孩放在門前的台階上，高興地介紹說：『這是我弟弟！』

這位先生看見，他弟弟雙腿嚴重殘疾，不能走路。

男孩興致勃勃地對弟弟說：『弟弟，你看，將來我要給你買的就是這麼一輛漂亮的車。你快看……』

我的雙眼被淚水蒙住，再也看不清眼前的字。

生活中的我們，得到和索取已經成了習慣性思維。

男孩出人意料的行為和話語讓我意外地感動，好久好久不能釋懷。

心若改變，你的態度跟著改變；

態度改變，你的習慣跟著改變；

習慣改變，你的性格跟著改變；

性格改變，你的人生跟著改變。

在順境中感恩，

在逆境中依舊心存喜樂，

認真活在當下。

五年來的早餐

在一個很忙碌的早上，大約是8:30，一個大約八十歲的老人家，想找一個醫生幫他拆線。

他很趕；但醫生正在幫人做手術，所以，他一直在等，不停地看錶。當時這個護士自己不是太忙，看著老人家好像很趕似的，自己又沒什麼好做,好吧!讓我來幫他拆線吧！

我叫那個伯伯先坐下，然後，我再把傷口上的布一層一層地拆下，一邊拆一邊和那個伯伯閒聊。

護士小姐特然好奇地問：「為什麼你這麼趕？」

「是呀！因為我約了人9:00，真不好意思，麻煩了你！」

護士好奇的想：八十多歲的老人家應該不用上班的了，什麼事情讓他那麼趕呢？老人家說：「是呀…是呀…我要趕去老人療養院陪我的老婆吃早餐。」

護士小姐就更加好奇：「啊呀！原來是進了療養院啊！沒有什麼嘛？」

老人家答：「啊！沒事了，柏金遜症罷了，都好一段日子的了。」

護士小姐幫他拆好了線，看一看錶：「哎呀！你會遲到，怕不怕你的太太會擔心你呀？」

老人說：「不會，這五年來她都不認得我了，我去不去，其實她都不知道。」

護士小姐很好奇地問：「她已經不認得你五年之久啦！？你還每天早上都去？」

老人笑笑口，拍拍護士的手說：「她不認得我，但我認得她，那就可以了。」跟著他就慢慢轉身走了。

護士看著他的背影，眼淚慢慢地落下來了。她自己想：這就是我需要的愛情。

真正的愛情不只是身體上，不只是講浪漫氣氛；

真正的愛情是接受，接受以前的對方，現在的對方和將來的對方。無論他以前是怎樣，現在或將來是怎樣，快樂的人不一定要最好。

快樂的人是把他所有的都看成最好的。