Sitting in front of the computer at the Backpacker hostel, today is my last night in Sydney, will be flying back to Melbourne tomorrow evening. Backpacking is a great experience but it's also a very tiring journey. Everything from transportation to schedule is on your own judgement. But It's really really a must-try experience to explore a brand new territory. I enjoy backpacking, more freedom and more flexible.
Will be sharing my Sydney trip soon when I'm back in Melbourne. We have taken heaps of photo...nearly 1GB...haha...need to filter some of them.
Alright, gotta let other backpackers use the come and it's time to rest as well. Have done heaps of walking today, my feet sole are so painful now.
Night.
3rd day in Perth. Perth is such a lovely and simple city. I could not make a conclusion whether I like this place or not cos travelling and living are totally different thing. But at the moment I think this is a nice place. Not very complicated, safe and peaceful.
My uncle is my private tour guide and he brought me to all the attractions. Hmmm of course not too far away from their house. I wish I could go to see the Pinnacles and the wave rock but these places are few hours drive from Perth. Madness...so I guess I would not have the chance to go anyway. However, I'm not very ambitious in exploring Perth, I'm only seeking for leisure tour with good foods and little sight seeing. As I was not expecting my uncle to bring me from day to night. It would be too tired for him.
Today we went to Perth Zoo and The Perth Mint. So I guess I would not want to go to Zoo in Sydney and Melbourne. haha...hmmm the Zoo is not too bad at least the price is good not like the Australia Zoo in Sunshine Coast which cost $42 per entry. We did not go anyway. The zoo is well organized but few things were not in my satisfaction list. Quite a number of animal exhibitions were under construction and some of the animals were unable to be seen. A bit disappointed. For instance, Quakkas, which is one of the specialty animals in WA, was taken off from the display for the reason of under construction. Big disappointment. Deduct few cookie points.
My favourite Penguins
The other dissatisfaction was the orang-utan exhibition. hmmm...from biology conservation point of view, even though the animal is housed in the zoo, it should be given the most natural possible living area. However, they built a concrete play ground for these man of the forest. So...I think I'm not on their side for this. It's too man made and in fact it's not good for the animal. Sad case.
What do you think of it??
We spent 3 and a half hours in the zoo and left for lunch after that. We had Vietnamese food for lunch. The waitress recommended hot and spicy rice vermicelli to me. It's very tasty especially the specially made chilli but too big portion for me. yummy!!...But I cant accept the way they serve the bean sprout in raw...the raw smell and taste is out of my acceptable range. Nonetheless, I ate half of the bean sprout. Haha...proud of myself man! My high tolerance of food varieties. Now even better!
The Perth Mint was the next stop after lunch. It is one of the oldest Gold Mints in Australia. I went for the guided tour in which including a briefing on the mint history and a demonstration of gold pouring. Cost me $13 for a concession pass. So nice of them to accept my Student ID. They accepted my ID for the Zoo concession as well. Add a few cookie points for WA.
The only photo of mine of the day-at The Perth Mint entrance
Called it for the day. Dinner..I think it's affordable to skip. 50% of the noodles still occupying my stomach.
Eventually, we had Indian cuisine for dinner. We ordered few roti nan and masala tosai, went with some dahl and curry. I thought the dinner will be better cos I already told my uncle that i was still full, still, it was another blotted dinner. I really worry my mum could not recognise me after my Aus trip. But the curries were really tasty!! Yum yum..
8th May, Tue
View taken from my seat-Sun rise
View of Perth from the Jet plane
Landed on this city of light early in the morning. It was freezing cold. Heard that the previous night was only 8 degree Celsius. pheww... My uncle fetched me from the airport and then we went home to drop my stuffs before went to have McD brekky. At first, I still feeling a little tense and anxious cos I have not been meeting my uncle for years. I worried that I might not be able to communicate well with him and family. The tension was gone soon after I started to chat with him. He is a very humorous and friendly senior.
The first day we didn't do much. We went to the city, which made up of 4 main streets, namely Wellington St, Hay St, Murray St and St Georges Terrace. The Hay St and Murray St are the main shopping precinct where shops are dotted alongside the streets. The is one small alley which lead to a mall named London Court. It made me feel like standing in the middle of a London street. The architecture of this small alley is so much similar with those in London. Cool...
London Court
We had Japanese food for lunch. I drank 2 bowls of Miso soup. Oh man! I was craving for it! Hmmm but did not manage to eat my favourite octopus. =( It's alright next time I'll have it.
Swan River
After lunch we continued to walk at the St mall to watch some busking show and also to help digestion. Overeating from the lunch. My Uncle then drove me to a port named Hillary Boat Harbour. It has a resort, some shops and is a harbour for private boats and ships.
At night, I had dinner with the whole family included my cousin sister and her husband at a Chinese restaurant named Happy Meal. Another overeating meal...
9th May, Wed
The second day in Perth. The first destination was Kings Park. It's a park in the city where you can have a good lookout overlooking the city. It's quite similar with Mt coot-tha in Brisbane but the view from Kings Park is more stunning. It is because the Swan river which flowing through the city, that soften down the hardness of the concrete in the heart of the city. This gives the Kings Park's view additional cookie points. I would say It might be one of the few jaw dropping views that I've ever seen.
Humongous Cuckoo Clock on the floor in Kings Park
But I've a hard time walking in the park cos i was wearing my heeled boots. The cold precaution became my nightmare. My feet were so sore but just could not do anything. After Kings Park, we went to Perth Museum and the art gallery. haha...Auntie Dot was amused as she was saying I was one of the few youngsters who like to visit these places. Why not! They are free and in the meantime it's educational activities. Where to find man!
The only photo has me in it of the day-at Kings Park
The time spent in these two places enough to kill the whole afternoon. High tea, dinner and end of the day. My day in Perth was all about 'eat, drink, play and fun'. What a piggy life!...estimating to gain 2 more kg before I go back to Sg. Sian...!!!
Today is my second day in Melbourne. Ting dropped me at the Victoria Market before she went to work. I walked alone in the city for about 4 hours before she came to join me again for lunch. We went to this Vietnamese restaurant to eat lunch. Melbourne City is a very well-planned city whereby everything is just within the square. Even the worst direction learner could be able to walk in the city without getting lost. I reckon.
The weather today was not as cold as what I thought. I just wore simple jacket with a singlet. May be the cold time is not there yet!! pheww....After lunch, it was already 230pm and Ting had BBQ party at night and the invitation time was 400pm. So, we rushed back home when her friend who lend her the BBQ pit, was on her way to Ting's house.
The BBQ ended quite early, around 8pm. One of her friends came late and there were no more food left so they wanted to have supper. I tagged along with them. 3 pharmacists and 1 doctor...but they are quite funny and easy going. We went to a Nasi Kandar shop at Boxhill. No roti was served and the teh tarik was cold.
7th May, Monday. The third day in Melbourne.
Today I spent most of the time at home packing, resting and watching drama at home. Cos I'll be leaving for Perth Tomorrow. At night, we went out with ting's friend to have dinner at Lygon St. It's a street famous for its dotted Italian restaurants. But we ended up eating nasi lemak. haha...it's not too bad anyway. I like the sambal. After dinner coffee is a-must-custom here, I reckon. We went to Brunetti coffee house to have a cup of after dinner coffee. I had Italian hot chocolate which is a very thick and rich chocolate drink. It was quite surprising that I actually finished the whole glass.
We left the cafe at around 930 pm and reached home around 10pm. Left with less that 5 hours sleep after we cleaned ourselves. My flight is at 605am in the next morning and the airport is 45 minutes drive from our place. Madness...Really grateful to have a friend like Ting. Thank you so much to spend ur time with me...and sacrifice ur sleeping time.
The weather here is so darn hot now. Heard that it is 30 degree celsius outside. huh...Last night the temperature was still below 20 degree. The changes are so extreme. It made me feel sick. I feel sick...not only the weather but body just not feeling right.
Last day of my attachment, reports have been done, performance evaluation form has been faxed to the school, nothing to do at the moment. I just feel like going back home lying on the bed and resting. so sickkk....=(
In the midst of writing my final report, facing with thousands of words, undergoing after-meal syndrome, I'm almost dozing off. Damn!!...the main culprit is lack of self-control in watching drama for the last two nights. Only had less than 5 hours sleep a day. Tired...zzzzz....@@
I CANT CONCENTRATE!! Arrghhh...
The words are floating...my eye lids are dropping...!#*&~^*%
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Labels: Grumble
My last thursday on the gold coast. Then it'll be the last Friday and last Saturday. I have been busying for last coffee, last meeting, last cakes and so forth for these two weeks. So popular, cant stand it! =p (haha...phuut len,just kidding la, man!)
Truth to be told, I have not really packed my stuff yet. May be I have had enough experiences on packing, have been doing so many times of major packing througout these years in SG. So worry not, gimme one night, everything can be done. Thanks for all the helping hands in shifting my humangous luggages from one place to another in PGP, at times, there was no trolley. Especially thanks to BB, Dan, Dinesh and the girls. U guys are my heroes...hehe...=p
Nobody is going to help me carrying my stuffs this time round. So many airport transfers in the upcoming month and I'm alone most of the times. I hope I'm still surviving by then...muahaha...
BB said last night they went to watch Spidey 3 with 15 people (huge gang). I also wanna watch...sad. "(... miss the gang there ler..really...I miss all the 'chap pa lang' languages over there, our trademark Hokkien-Malay-English-Mandirin-Cantonese mixed conversation. Damn Funny!
I miss home town too...miss penang laksa, char kuay teow, hokkien mee, kuay kak, 'gu chai' chai kuay, cendol and countless hawker's food, though some of them are really unhealthy. There is no way to get the same taste sensation in other country. The ambience is different, people is different, materials used are different, nothing is the same at all. I could not find road side stall like in Swatow lane, Newlane, Chai Leng Park, Gurney Drive, and so on. I'm craving for sugar cane and soybean drink.
I'm just too much...you guys will definitely say:
" This girl ah, so hard to please eh!!! should not she be enjoying herself so much in this southern end of the globe? Has gone to so many places, has eaten so many good food and has tried ans seen so many new things....Dunno how to satisfy her. Jia lat la...!!" =)
>_<
Cos I strongly believe that whenever you go, you'll still longing and remembering your memories deeep in your heart. No matter how long it has been there, you'll still trying to recall them at times. I do. New memories are adding into our memory log from day to day, and we tend to forget the old. I don't want to.
So please allow me to be nostagic at this moment. I want to remember everything in the past, present and in the future. I'll absolutely remember the span of times that I've spent on the Gold Coast, that I will be spending in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. It's life time memories. I don't enjoy the feelings of leaving and farewell...I don't like the dramatic picture of cuddling and sobbing...I can't stand seeing people crying, I'll cry with them. haha...
Pen off...I'm starving.
Lunch menu: 2 pieces of meatlovers pizza + 1 piece of mud cake.
4th of May - last day of Industrial Attachment
5th of May - flying from Gold Coast to Melbourne
8th of May - flying from Melbourne to Perth
8-13th of May - Visiting my Uncle in Perth and sight seeing
13th of May - flying back to Melbourne from Perth
13-17th of May - preparing and planning for Sydney trip and sight seeing in Melbourne
17th of May - flying for Sydney
17th-22nd of May - Sydney backpacking trip
22nd of May - flying back to Melbourne
22nd-31st of May - free time in Melbourne
31st of May - flying back to Brisbane in the morning and catching follow-on flight back to Singapore in the afternoon
1st of June - perhaps moving house
9th of June - Graduation dinner at Highlander Bar & Restaurant
the month of June - Job hunting and house cleaning
22nd-29th of June - Academic Dress collection
1st of July - perhaps going back home and bring my family to attend my commencement
4th of July - Commencement date