Bali 2014 - Part 2

What is a cousin outing without the mahjong? We spent our idle teen years playing mahjong and sharing dreams. No surprises Rain secretly brought the travel mahjong. Know this woman for 30 odd years and I don't even know she got a travel set mahjong...lol.

I don't quite remember the name of this place now (this is what happens when you don't plan the itinerary). All I remember is that it runs quite a lucrative con. This is some temple that you can access when the tide is low. As you can see the tide is low now so me and Rain being the more adventurous two decided to flip flop our way over to see the temple. When we reached there, we were forced to be 'blessed' by the holy man. I said force because it is compulsory and a donation is mandatory too. If not mistaken there is a minimum donation amount too. And you aren't allowed to go into the temple. But it could be because there was some celebration the day we went so not too sure. It's like renting a Maserati and only allowed to pose outside with car.

Things like this gives my mouth a sour taste. Don't get me wrong, I do donate to religious institution, after all monks and holy man also need to eat but I would like to do so willingly please. I don't like things like religion and philosophy being forced down my throat. If I like being told how to think I would be living in China now.

Any hoo, being optimistic and not letting greedy holy men ruin our day, Rain and I did manage to entertain ourselves with Murad Osman parody.

Does this look familiar? I know .... I am too fat until block the scenery hahaha. Rain had a better pose or maybe a better photographer aka me.

This is another famous landmark - don't remember name either. I shall stop posting any more photos that I cannot explain.

I do enjoy our cousin outing more than I enjoy Bali. There is nothing here to attract a return trip except maybe the pedi and mani hahaha.I think we spend a lot of time chit chatting in our transport and just being silly. Could have done that anywhere really.

I heard they are already planning next trip in a couple more years. Taiwan I heard....hm...

Bali 2014 - Part 1

I have no interest in Bali but it is one of the top tourist spots for Koala land folks. Cheap and close beach. Anyway now that nephews are big, the cousins start toying with the idea of having a girls trip like how we used to do it when we were young. It actually started with Rain posting a photo of us in Sam Poh Tong when we were in our rebellious teens. Yeah, that is a far as our parents let us rebel when we were young.

Anyway after much deliberation, it was decided Bali. The whole trip was planned by our eldest cousin. The weather was quite sucky when we were there, It rained the whole time we were there so pictures were gloomy not to mention we had to cancel a few sightseeing as they were quite dangerous due to bad weather, one of them being the magnificent padi bukit. The one below was taken one the roadside. I made the driver stop because it's ain't Bali unless you've been to a padi bukit.

I got my first manicure and pedicure when I was there. The cheapest place to have it is Ubud. Our enterprising driver has arrangements with this establishment - Putri Bali and they are really cheap. I am sure their quality is good too but because there were so many customers, they did quite a rush job.

We got our nails and toes done, mine is brown. In hindsight, it was a bad idea cause it blended into my skin and looked like I got my nails pulled out haha.

But looked at my feet. Never looked sooo good with all dead skins exfoliated.

I could get used to this. Why does mani and pedi  have to be so expensive here!

Jenolan Caves

I get to go Sydney now and then on business trips and I usually ask if Nite wants to tag along. When she tags along we try to squeeze in a day trip of some sort. I have always wanted to go Jenolan Caves since I set eyes on it during my research for family visit in 2013 (my God time flies). As Nite can tell you it was notoriously hard to get a day tour that only covers Jenolan Caves and the special caves that I wanted to go namely the Jubilee Cave. Not saying the mainstream caves aren't worth visiting but I am not going 3 hours up just to see a cave that has the same features as the one back hometown. Yes I grew up in a valley and surrounded by limestone caves.

So, in the end, the best way is to drive up and Nite manage to find rather cheap rental from vroomvroom. I was a bit hesitant at first when I saw the little cherub but it has power and a host of automation that it took us awhile to figure out how to drive it. Nite was tasked to crash read the help manual and digest it. It was another half hour before we are on our way. Now if you are driving up and intend to use GPS,

1. If you are using your phone make sure it is Telstra. Nothing else works or you will get lots of  GPS signal lost.
2. If you are using a normal GPS unit, you are good.
3. If you are using 1 or 2, trust your GPS and not the highway naming system of NSW. Route 7 can come after 11, so trust your GPS, it knows where to go.
4. If you are neither the above, give the reception a call, they give very good directions which coincide with GPS.

Book ahead if you are going over weekends and intend to visit the special caves. All caves have their own timetable and you must be escorted at all times. I would say you can comfortably slot in 2 cave visits in a day but if you intend to slot in 2 special caves tour, it is advisable for your to stay overnight due to the timetable. I tried to slot in 2 special cave sessions as it looked doable but in the end, only managed to do 1 and another free cave tour.

The River Cave although not my first choice, is still very spectacular. It is like walking into Mother's nature jewelry case. I reckon I spend half the time with my jaw dropped. While almost everything in there is a wonder, there are a couple of crowning formations such as the ice cream cone,

The Olympic Torch and the shale (head over to Nite's blog to see it). You are not allowed to use flash due to the delicate nature of the cave environment but I doubt my camera phone can do any better - everything looks rather blurry. At times like this a proper DSLR camera like the one Nite brought a long, do wonders to capture these sights. Follow the link (on top) to see some of the better photos taken including the underground river that is the namesake of the this tour.

The photos also can't show you the magnitude of these formations. Seriously you have to be there to know what I am talking about. I could literally spend a few days in Jenolan Caves just to go through all the special caves.

I would love to come back here again to do the Jubilee tour which only admits 10 people at any one time and only 1 tour a week.

The bump of Koala Land

Is none other than Ayers Rock. It is also called Uluru by the Anangu Aborigines and for some reason I keep saying Ururu. I blame it on the Asian tongue. rrrrrrr.

Nite and me have decided there is no better place to go than Uluru during Easter because it is one of the places that operates during this long break. Many residents think like us too hence it's peak season. It is also one of the best time to visit as the weather is milder and sky is clear.

There are plenty of direct flights to Uluru now due to it's growing popularity. I would be more concern with accommodation because getting a ticket to Uluru does not mean you will get a place to sleep. After all it's just a big size resort 4 hours away from the nearest town. Yes Uluru is in the middle of nowhere on the Koala dessert. If not for the rock, it will just be camels there and we have a lot of camels.

So what do you do in Uluru? It's basically the rock and things you do around the rock like Uluru sunset tours, Uluru sunrise tours, Camel ride, motorcycle ride, bus ride, hiking, bush walking, having meals around the rock, star gazing, swatting flies.......OMG talking about flies. the flies here can't differentiate alive or dead organism. They just swarm around you and try to get into your body via your mouth and eyes. BUY A FLY NET. You can get it there for $12.00. It will be your life saver even though it cooks your head while you are wearing it cause it blocks the wind as well.

I highly recommend Camel to the sunrise tour and you have to pre-book this. I would have highly recommend the Start gazing tour too if I manage to book it, unfortunately I didn't so we end up just walking around in the dark trying to snap pictures of the magnificent night sky with our smartphones. Wishful thinking.

We also took the Sunrise Tour and Sunset Tour which comes with hiking trails. As a result, we don't get to sleep in and had to wake up even earlier than work days. Do you know that Uluru has a less popular brother called Kata Tjuta (silent T)?. If Uluru looks like a block of toufu, Kata Tjuta looks like someone dropped the tofu on the floor. But it is so much more fun and exciting to hike in Kata Tjuta than around Uluru. Highly recommend the Kata Tjuta hike. Just make sure you bring enough water, fly net and hat.

There are quite a good selection of food though seats are pretty limited so make sure you beat the crowd by going earlier. Nothing really stands out as dirt cheap. It's a resort after all.

All in all I enjoy my Uluru trip immensely but I think I have seen enough of that rock from all angles to last me for a while.

The Jewel of India

Is of course Agra's Taj Mahal. Why else would I go India? Taj Mahal makes the 3 wonders of the world that I have seen, Great Wall and Colosseum. Like a 3 course french meal, all the previous locations while great on their own is really building up to the main dish. But if you are coming from Jaipur, it only makes sense to stop at Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort before wrapping the whole thing up with Taj Mahal.

We almost have to skip Fatehpuh Sikri but thanks to our guide's death defying driving skills, we made it only to be ruin by the tour guide who

1. Keep scratching his crotch every 2 sentence. 
2. Throw us to the biggest holy man scam.

You have to see for yourself how magnificent the carvings in this place - every inch of it. Beware of the holy man grave. To pay your respect you must have your head covered and no shoes. It is said your dreams will come true if the price in form of donation is right. Donation here is disguised as numerous items that you can purchase 10x over their cost price to lay at the grave while making your wish. Obviously the more expensive the better. I have no objection to paying respect but to scam people - just turns my stomach. He is the worst guide EVER!

We came back feeling cross. Luckily the guide for Agra Fort and Taj Mahal turn out ok. Honestly after a few forts, they kinda look almost the same. The architecture is pretty consistent, the carvings breath-taking, there is the king's bedroom, the queen's bedroom, the concubine's room, the bath area and the leisure area.

For the grand finale...behold the Taj Mahal. We were shown glimpses of it from Agra Fort. You need walk a bit to go into the Taj Mahal. Also tourist have to pay more than locals but you get direct access. There are tons of Indians queuing to pay homage, pay more for no queue. On the left of the Taj Mahal, was a mosque build for the workers. Beware of the holy man in there. He is alive and will ask you for money after he helpfully show you all the spots where you can take the Taj from the inside of the mosque. Spots that are not that great and you probably can discover on your own. Learn from my mistake. AVOID HIM AND SAY THANKS BUT NO THANKS. People like this gives bad vibes to the place.

Essentially it's a big size grave. The coffins are display only. The real coffin is underneath to provide some peace and quiet. The whole mausoleum is build of marble. The interesting thing about marble is they glow as they absorb light. Imagine the whole thing must have lit up on a full month back in those days. We spend a good 1-2 hours walking around the place, gawking at the intricate designs.

No doubt it is a befitting end to our exotic-everything-is-possible-India. We also got food poisoning at the final day- goes to say no one can avoid food poisoning in India no matter how careful.

It's a lovely place but I won't be in a hurry to visit it again unless it is a company trip.

2 Days in Jaipur- Part 2

Ah, I will forever remember Albert Hall for 3 things

1. There is a creepy beggar child holding balloons and keep harassing us.
2. Nite once associate this with some tourist pewter factory outlet.
3. There are enough birds here to feed a small village in India.

Unfortunately all points have nothing to do with Albert Hall. Don't get me wrong - it's a fantastic place. It started with reluctance of going to a tourist outlet and resignation that one can't avoid them if one uses tours (even private ones) to euphoria and amazement of how such a beautiful building can be so well persevered and embarrassment of ever thinking this is a tourist outlet. Must be the angmo-ish name that misled us.

This is actually a museum with mixed theme. The only thing I remember out this visit is the awesome mummy they have there and the overly indulgence lifestyle their kings have. Their size will put Sumo wrestlers to shame.

The last place of note I want to mention is Jantar Mandar, an observatory. It still works accurately till this very day as proven by our guide. As I said, they build things to last. If there should a disturbance to the magnetic field in the world, India should never fear they are not able to tell the time. A worthy place to visit.

No visit to Jaipur is complete without all the places I just mentioned.

2 days in Jaipur - Part 1

In my humble opinion, Jaipur has much more to offer than Udaipur

1. The guide is more fierce, often enforcing his will on us.
2. There are more birds than anywhere else that I went.
3. The kings were more obese than anywhere else.

We cover all the mainstream sights of Jaipur and they are all magnificent in their own right. Again it's best to get your own guide and car as I don't really see a convenient way to go to all these places by public transport even if you are willing to be groped by the natives.

Amber Fort features exquisite architecture and design. It was crafted with endurance in mind. The designs are not painted but crafted by embedding precious or semi precious stones. As our guide said, paints fade with time and sun, stones last forever. Well said! There is also a mirror room that is said to be able to reflect the light of the moon or a single candle until the whole room lit up. Things like this really drop my jaw. I took a gazillion photos - none show the kinda effect that I wanted to demonstrate. There is also an elephant ride up the Fort from Base - it's fun but obviously a tourist rip off. No I didn't take it as our guide insist we can walk up. See Point 1.

At the end of the visit, you will see this Snake Man, Taking photos of him even from far, attracts a fee. It's actually quite freaky to pay him as the money tray is next to Snakey. I worry the snake will bite me if I don't tip him enough.

Jaipur has a nickname - Pink City, thanks to the King of England that cannot differentiate amber and pink. It's probably a good thing he never come here or else the fort will be called Pink Fort and all the obese kings will roll in their collective grave creating tsumani.

If you walk around Jaipur city, you will see a very uniform amber theme around it. The crown of Jaipur city is the Hawa Mahal a place for royal ladies to see the street without being seen.We did not manage to see the interior due to strong discouragement from our guide. See point 1 above.

This is also the place we had the best dinner. See Nite. Next up, Albert Hall and Jantar Mantar.

1 day in Udaipur

That's all you basically need to get a good sense of the city and what it has to offer. To get good historical and facts head over to Nite or wikipedia. When you are in India,

1. Absolutely get a guide unless you plan to hide in a shopping mall. 
2. Do not put too high expectation that the guide can offer you many insightful facts about the place of attraction. Knowledge is very surface but they are honest when they don't know something.
3. The guide's sole purpose is to help you fend off unwanted beggars and peddlers. Some guide will still let you be harassed. Feel free not to tip them if that happens.
4. Hire a driver as well. The last thing you want is to be groped in public transport especially if you are female.

Now we established the importance of a guide, the first guide we had was the best guide now that I think about it and we didn't even tip him. Although Udaipur has many palaces, most were bought over and refurbished into luxury hotels. Talk about pawning your heritage but it's probably a smart way to preserve it without using the government money. Thus whatever remaining attraction can be covered in a day assuming you also hire a driver. You will need to see the City Palace. Palace architecture always interests me, where the King eats, work, dine, shits and where the concubines and kids were.

From the palace it's just a walk away to the jetty to board a boat to Jag Mandir. The boat will also detour around Lake Picola where you can see the buildings surrounding it and the bathing and washing ghats which reminds me of how lucky I am to have tap water. As you can see the lake is like a big washing basin, the water is nothing much to be desired. However the surrounding view is very photogenic.

Jag Mandir is also owned privately but they still open up the front area for tourists. It isn't much to be honest. I won't sweat over it if I need to pass it over for some other sights.

Our day trip in Udaipur was rounded up by a visit to the Saheliyon Ki Bari - a garden made specifically for the 48 maidens that accompany a princess as her marriage dowry. It must be boring to be part of a dowry because your job ends as soon as the marriage is over and you are not allowed to go home. Well at least there is the garden. Would be better if it's a shopping bazaar, I am sure. One note worthy feature of the garden is the water fountain at the entrance re-acts to claps. The louder you clap the higher the fountains shoots. I leave it to you to figure out how a country that still washes and baths in lakes can develop something as sophisticated like an audio controlled fountain (~wink)

In between we break for lunch and it wasn't too rush at all. It was the most relaxing trip I'd ever had.

Merry Creek

Near Nite's old place was a strip of green forest. Through the forest runs a stream called Merry Creek. No there is no crocodile and you can't swim in it unless you are a duck. It is fairly shallow. Regardless I wish we have a creek near our place too. All I have is a Platypus Sanctuary with no Platypus. At least I haven't seen it. It felt pretty surreal walking around this little forest and I can imagine it makes a very good meditation spot. It also reminded me of the little creek that runs through the family durian plantation.

We bath there after a durian feast. Now I think about it, it was pretty overboard to bath after eating durian but we were kids. Any reason to play with water is a good reason.

The creek is well preserve too as the wild life that feeds from it hasn't turn into Godzilla. I was also impressed with the very DLSR snapshot I took with just my 3G iPhone. Looks like it still has some redeeming qualities after all despite being retired as an alarm clock now.

I miss durian feasts....

Where is the hot water?

On the last day of work in India...

Boss : Do you have hot water in your room?

Me: Yes I do. Why? You don't have?

Boss: Yea, guess mine is broken. Really unlucky. I stayed here 3 times and 3 times no hot water.

Me: That is really unlucky...did you try switching it on and off? Sometimes it helps.

Boss: What switch?

Me: The hot water switch.

Boss: There is no hot water switch.

Me: No way, Let me see... (points) this is the hot water switch.

Boss: That is hot water? But it says 'Geyser'!

Me: Didn't you read your welcome pack? That is hot water! What do you think it is?

Boss: I thought it is extra water boost for the toilet. You know the food here spicy....

Me: ROFLMAO....

The 10 things to know about visiting India

The title alone will probably get me some serious hits...

There are no China tourist ... really. Have you been to anywhere where there no swarms of China tourists? If you bored with long entrance queues, fighting for a good photography spot or even breaking through shoulder barricades to read up info boards, this is the da place for you. Though I need to warn you, there are a lot of Indians in the tourist places too and their fragrance is an acquired taste (nope, no racist).

The public toilets are clean and decent. I can't tell you how dirty some of the public places are but the toilets are always decent and clean, which is awesome, though you are advised to bring own toilet paper. There is always a dodgy lady which I suspect is the cleaner, selling toilet paper on the side. You might argue about it saving peanuts but it's a matter of principle here.

Monuments are surprisingly intact despite low maintenance and vandalism. Don't get me wrong, India has its fair share of wars. but they didn't invent gun powder and marbles are notoriously hard to burn down. I especially like the way the decorate things by carving and stones as colors. Japanese invented paint but the Indians...ah they invent (not sure about this) overlaying. Paints fade with time but stones last forever.

Nite will tell you this, children beggars are scary. They persist as if their clock of innocence will protect them from all mortal harm. As a matter of fact, we were stalked at multiple locations like Gollum stalks Frodo. Adults is easy to repel but little kids? We ran away. And I was thinking what if they met a pedophile?

Be the first to stand in front of the luggage belt, unless your luggage is so outstanding like Lady Gaga - not one will mistaken it for their own. I had witnessed with my own big-small porky eyes of people just grabbing luggage off the belt to check and after that just leave it on the floor. If your luggage is one of those black polo ones, I advise you to hold the bladder and wait until your luggage is out otherwise it might find a new Indian home.

Find a tourist that holds a decent camera and looks like they know how to use it. Better yet use one of those self expandable apparatus that can help you take selfies. Not that the locals will run away with your camera, but you might end up having this kind of picture.

Cows rule the road. Our driver puts all the F1 drivers to shame. He maneuvers our car like a 4 wheel, cuts lorries 10x bigger than our car size, zooms past everything at breakneck speed but will always make room for cows. So does other vehicles. Cows can be found grazing in the middle of highways, sunbathing on town roads and sleeping on lane ways and everyone will just avoid them like there is a protective bubble. If this cow is in China, it will end up in a pot by now. If this cow is in Koala Land, it will be on 7 o clock news and there will probably be a massive pileup due to cow.

It's perfectly alright to honk. In fact it is safe to honk and you are asked to honk. Honking is a greeting, a 'good day mate, let me pass'. However at night you are asked to your dipper lights. Guess a whole day of honking will drive you mad, literally. I was so scared and fascinated on the first road I can't sleep a wink.

The custom queue in Mumbai is one of the most commercially driven queue I have ever seen. They divide it by the price of the ticket you hold. First/Business class gets the priority queue. The rest, you can just all queue at the 10 other counters, nationals and non nationals alike. Guess they need to cover the cost of building the new airport.

They have many checkpoints and body search, a result of the terrorist attack some years ago. It's one thing to hear it over the news and another to see the aftermath. You would have thought the security will give you some confidence but it just make me feel leery that there will be an attack anytime soon. You are advise not to wear metal stuff unless you want to strip at every entrance. Women gets a room where a women security guard will scan you.

Fascinating India!

The Rush

Rush home, rush back, rush to oversea, rush vacation, rush home.. everything is blur for last 4 months. I am tempted to leave the blog just like that, cause I have so much in my mind that I want to write down, I basically don't know where to start.

Maybe, let's start with India is never a priority for vacation spots. I said that about Korea as well. Yes, karma, I ended up in India for a short work trip last month. Then I ask if Nite want to to tag along for a short trip. She said yes, bless her and thus I ended up with a side trip that include one of the wonders of world the Taj Mahal.

This is my 3rd wonder of the world, having seen The Great Wall and Colosseum. India is fascinating mix of extremities and contradictions. Just watching the locals going about their day to day lives was entertaining and whatever glimpse I have of the monuments and historical buildings were breath-taking. I wish I have 1 month here instead of just under 5 days. I would truly love to sit down and just soak in the history around each place that I visited but with just 5 days and 4 cities to conquer... we were on a tight clock.

It is also the first time I flew so long and had a layover. Though I manage to get snippets of sleep it was tiring and I missed my Choya again! Gr... Apparently you can only purchase alcohol 90 minutes before boarding as you are not allowed to take it abroad if you are bound for AUS.

I will definitely be back and grab you... until then wait for me in your display rack!

Long way home

Is anyone even surprise that my first blog after a long hiatus is from a kiosk in the airport.  I haven't play tourist in a long long time.... too long and it is good to be on the go again. I have never had to travel so long to go home. So long in fact I am starting to see those drama about animals finding their way home in a different light. Trust me Buzz, I totally know how you feel. At least you have the annoying cat and you don't need to go through 63 security checkpoints in the airport. I only have my books and this PC kiosk that I manage to hog.

I am so ready to be home not because I am homesick but because I am so over airport hopping.  I am boarding soon and if you are good... What am I saying' I mean if I am good, you will see some blogs next week.

As an ever optimistic blogger, I take all this as part of training for my next hopefully Turkey trip.  See me when you see me.

ps: I just realize the blog didn't get published, so I am publishing this today. Will be adding faulty Internet connection on top of the many things to improve for Mumbai Airport.

Tulip Festival behind my back yard

Sounds like a dream. Frankly I live in the middle of nowhere and usually had to travel at least an hour for leisure activities. Before you read, my backyard Tulip farm is not Keukenhof  and you don't go there with that expectation.

There are a couple of themes during the entire festival. We decided to go to the Turkey week simple because Nite and me have been to Keukenhof. There were about 4 segments of tulip patches and they have nicely leave a gap for visitors to walk past and admire them. There were a good variety of Tulips here and even some local art display which as far as I can tell bear no common motif to the tulips. There was also several fake windmills (how can a tulip farm no have windmill right?) which naturally becomes the popular photo spots.

However some overly zealous tourists squash the flowers with their big butts and bigger handbags while squatting between lanes. Some parents let their kids roam free. Cute when they are running down the designated dirtway. Little Godzillas on rampage when they ran through the flower beds. Sometimes I worry about the future of this world. 

They should do it like the Keukenhof garden where tourists were only allowed to admire them from safety distance or maybe wired the flowers so as to deliver mild electric shock to those who didn't clench their butt check and hold their equally fat handbags in front of them on their lap when squatting down to eye level with the tulips for photos.

As you can tell, I was quite pissed with their inconsideration especially after going loosing my own Tulips to the aphids. Don't they know how hard it is to grow tulips? Poor Nite had to hear me grumble as I kept a steady commentary on inconsiderate visitors.

Anyway my mood lightens once we are away from the tulip-squashing-tourists and on to the foodie area where there are a variety of turkey gourmet and belly dancer performance. If you've not deduce it, obviously performance rate higher than food here.

There was also a clogs shop which sells...well clogs. I think they make good tools for smacking-small-man (read in Cantonese)

Will I go there again next year? Probably and hopefully I don't encounter those big butts that put a ink blot on otherwise a wonderful outing.

Food and Wine Festival 2013

I thought I have done this but Nite's insistent I haven't. After a search through my post list (by the way I got 635 posts so it took awhile), I have to agree with Nite. Being famous for its variety of cuisine offers, it is no surprise the Food and Wine Festival is hosted every year here and it is no surprise at all I have made my home here! When there is food....

Around March each year, there will be a series of food events, restaurant hoping events, cooking class, winery visits etc etc - all designed to let you sample Melbourne's finest food. Needless to say the best packages are often sold out early before the promotion begins for the festival. Lion City should be proud, kiasu-ism is an international phenomenon now.

If you can't tell, yes, I am slightly disappointed the event that we wanted to sign up was full. After much pondering, we've decided to give the below event a try. The event was hosted in Portland Hotel, Melbourne. It's a private event and we have around 20 people or so. We were early cause we are not sure where it was and ended up idling at a nearby book shop. I like the book shop, it's very upscale and comfortable. Unfortunately I don't know my way back to said bookshop which can only be a good thing for me.

As mentioned in the menu, we were served canapes and sparkling wine to start off. The canapes were really good and it set the expectation for the day which I am glad to say, the organizers did not disappoint me. I only wish I can have more.

After awhile we are asked to be seated. Nite and me were fortunate to sit next to a winemaker. He is from Mornington Peninsular and he is one of the sponsors for the event. Opposite us sat a representative from the Wine Treasury which is also another sponsor. It gave me the perfect opportunity to call forth my business analyst questioning skills. We had a lot of in-sight into wine making and the wine retail from both of them. The food although in small portions were absolutely fantastic.

The host entertained us with stories on his excursion to catch the fish which he served on that day and how they milked out the caviar  Yes, you got it correct, the caviar in our dishes were milked out. No, that's not the reason we signed up for this event. Yes you milk the caviar of the salmon like how you milk a cow. No unfortunately there was no video footage of said milking process.

Throughout the entire event we were given 6 types of wine, some of them were very potent cause we were pretty stoned by the 4th glass. All of the wine are sparkly type which made me fart and burp. I don't like them at all except for the pink moscato (2nd picture). As you can see, I've only managed to capture 4 of the wine types that were served. 2 went missing dunno where and yet I am sober enough to remember most of events. So it's not too bad.

We initially thought we can do some shopping after the event. Luckily Nite had the common sense to drag me home and sleep off the tipsiness. In hindsight it might be a bad idea to shop when drunk. We had visions of both of us sleeping on the waiting couches inside the shopping center.

Nite, just realize there's a June Roast event。行こうか ? 

Chinese Oasis in the city

If I blindfold you and drop you here, you won't know that you are in Sydney. This small Oasis is a present from Guangzhao. I visited this place 10 years ago and visited it again last year Dec. It looked exactly the same, perhaps the trees are older now, maybe some ducks have died but I can't really tell.

The entrance fee is pretty steep, I can't remember how much I paid 10 years ago. However I understand it's free on certain days. There's a lucrative costume shop within this garden. You can rent your favorite imperial costume for a fee and stroll around the garden in it. I am sure everyone gets a kick out of pretending to be the royal imperial family for an hour or so.

I did that 10 years ago with my cousins. That time I swear we were the only ones doing it. Last year, I saw a queue in front of the shop. I am quite proud of it. Looks like the Chinese culture have expanded and more widely accepted.

Don't they just look lovely? Maybe I can ask my sister to dress up and I take pictures of her. What you say, piggy sister?

French Fine Dining

At the Sydney Opera house is the highlight of our trip and Guillaume at Bennelong is the epitome of fine dining. Pronounced as Gi-am not Gu-am nor gui-lou-me, this restaurant is right inside the Opera House and was one of the competition location for MasterChef 2012 not the mention the chef himself was a handsome botak man. All the perfect reasons to go spend AUD$200.00 on small meals serve on big plates by leng chai french waiters.

Bookings are almost 3 months in advance. We decided to go for the degustation* menu. (Ala carte's more expensive) With 5 people dining, we figure we can sample everything on the menu so each one choose one of each section - entree, starter, main, dessert. Unfortunately we didn't factor in the small serving on large plates. By the time you finish sharing, you just get a bite of your original dish. Of all the best laid plans....

The entree- Royale, baby scallops and fois gras 

The starter - Lobster with asparagus

 The main - Lamb

The servings do look really small but you will be surprise that it fills you up just nice. The best thing I like was the surprise dishes, served out in between your meals at no cost. Then we saw the cheese cart making its way around and we decided to hail it. The cheese expert, a french guy - with his heavy french accent, he explain the cheeses that he had to offer, the history of the cheese bla bla bla...which frankly I don't understand a word but I just nod away like some expert. I've read Who Moved My Cheese, that's gotta count right?

In the end he recommended the above cheese platter. We have to eat them clockwise and it's arranged from hard to soft cheese. It tasted really good until we saw the bill. That platter cost AUD$60.00. The French Cheese Expert must have some high salary.

It was the classiest fine dining I have ever been, certainly the most expensive cheese I have ever eaten. It's still the talk on the dinner table until today.

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*degustation - A menu in which a series of small portion of unusual dishes is offered for tasting.

Sydney 2012

Seems to have...

• More inter-racial relationship. Imagine how the next generation would look like. Maybe Miss World 2040 will be Miss Australia.
• More people asking for money on the streets. From young to old. At least do some street performance to earn it.
• More retail outlets. It has a Kinokuniya branch. It reminded me of Lion City.
• More fine dining restaurants. We been to 2 of them. Blog to follow
• More iconic attractions. 
• More Asians.

Old MacDonald has a farm....

Remember my exotic neighbour the Platypus? They stay opposite the cows. The place where I stayed used to be farm lands and there is this stubborn farmer who absolutely refuses to sell his plot of land, said he wanna farm until he is six feet under. Last I heard the land's worth 390m.

Farmer got some cows on his land (eya eya oh~). Every time I walk or drive past I'll see the cows grazing grass at the far side until one day they actually ventured to this side of the border. So I got all excited over a bunch of cows which thinking back, makes me looked kinda foolish but I shall not loose the opportunity to look at them up close. Besides how many of you actually saw a cow in real life?

Anyway they were rather shy, curious but shy. They wanted to get closer and yet scare. So they group together and stare at me from a safe distance. So I backed up a bit and they move forward. Then when I move forward, they backed up a bit ~ insert tango song~ dum dum dumdum dum.. After awhile, I manage to get them close enough to pet.

And no, I didn't pet them cause I scared they might chew my fingers. Now the reason I want to get up-close and personal is so that I can take a clear passport photo quality of the cows to show you guys, they actually have fur! VIOLA! Have you ever seen real cows with hair and fur? I swear the hair looks silky too like the Farmer wash them with Pantene. And they looks sooo adorable and cute, my heart just melt.

I wonder if I can ride them one day? Hm....