Histoire de ma vie

My second visit to Hong Kong (Plus Macau)

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 18:05:00 +1000

It's been waaaaaaaaaay to long again and I think the last post I wrote was on Pangkor Laut Resort back in August 2015. To be real honest with y'all, I've been in and out for the past 9 months. So, here's a real quick summary about what I've been doing.
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1. I left Australia after I got married in August 2015.
2. I went for a family trip with my brother-in-law's family to Pangkor Laut Resort, which was the best resort I've visited by far. That was in August.
3. Then in September, I went to Singapore to meet my husband and we spent 6 weeks there before we went back to where we belong.
4. I spent about just a little bit over 1 month in my hometown, Medan where I grew some moss due to boredom. Ok, this statement is idiomatic. There is a saying in Hokkien that you sit for too long to a point where your butts start growing a pool of "moss". Well, excuse my graphic explanation but you get my drift. I even started my French lesson which I haven't had a chance to finish it yet. Or rather, this is me procrastinating.
5. One random afternoon, my mum suggested me spend some time in Hong Kong and stay with my uncle. That was the most brilliant idea ever came out from my mum. I considered her suggestion and after going through it with my husband, I decided I should! So I booked my tickets and off I went to HK.
6. After spending about 20 days in HK, I went to Singapore to meet my in-laws and spent X'mas and NYE there.
7. Just a couple of weeks ago, I went to Malaysia to celebrate my nephew's birthday and I only spent 2 nights there.

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So, there you go.... I had been busy for quite some time. Hence why I only have time now to sit down equipped with my iPad and start typing away. As a start, I have been to Hong Kong once 4 years ago but at that time, I only spent 4 days there and didn't get a chance to meet my uncle in Hong Kong, as well as my cousins. I have met my uncle on a number of occasions growing up but staying with him for 20 days was never an idea I was accustomed to because in general, I can be an introvert and because I didn't know my uncle very well, I didn't know how it would be like and I had never met his wife or if I did, that would be when I was a baby and I don't remember a thing about her. I also know I have a few cousins there and they are all much older than me but I also had never met any of them.
According to my mum, Stanley, one of my cousins came to Indonesia for a visit when he was 9 years old but afterwards, he never came anymore. I think I have 4 cousins in Hong Kong and all of them have kids of their own now.

I didn't know what to expect and this is the first time I ever lodged at a relative's house overseas. I'd be a lot less nervous if I were to stay in a hotel by myself. My flight was pretty late and the arrival time was also later than scheduled. I felt bad for letting my aunt and uncle wait for so long. I arrived at Hong Kong International Airport at 8.30 pm and my aunt and uncle took me out to eat some late supper. I think we got home after 11 pm and I unpacked a little bit before I crashed in bed at 12 am.
I had to wake up very early the next day because my aunt and uncle have a babysit schedule twice a week. Mondays and Wednesdays and because of that, they need to wake up early to walk my cousins' kids to school and pick them up from school in the afternoon. They didn't trust me enough to leave me by myself in the apartment initially. So I had to go with them although I would love to sleep more!!

My cousin and his wife were working at the time when I was there and they have this Indonesian maid who looks after their apartment and they recently just moved to a new apartment. I took a short tour in the apartment. The apartment is overlooking the harbour and just opposite Tsuen Wan in Tsing Yi area. The view was beautiful and uninterrupted by other skyscrapers. I stayed until my uncle picked up my cousin's sons from school and I met them for the first time. Oddly enough, I didn't feel like a fish out of the water. I immediately felt the connection with the kids and we got along!!! This is a rarity for me because I don't usually get along with kids during the first meeting. It usually takes me a long time to warm up to children because I am simply not a children person! After more chit chats and dinner prepared by the maid, we then took the train back to my uncle's.

The next day, my uncle and I went for a walk around the town. My aunt at her mature age now, feels tired quite easily, so she didn't come out with me and uncle a lot. Only when we went to certain landmarks that she would come along. Other than that, usually there were only me and my uncle bonding away. It was closing to Christmas at the time and everywhere we went, the buildings (mainly shopping centres), were decorated with Christmas ornaments and Christmasy theme.

To be honest, after going to tons and tons of shopping centres in Hong Kong and the list is endless as we know, i really stopped tracking where I went etc. Hence, I don't remember the name of this building. Sorry guys but this shopping centre seriously has the longest escalator in between floors that I know of and I think it's a hotel too!

We then took the train to Tsim Sha Tsui or popularly known as TST area and we walked along the harbour. During the night, this area becomes an extremely crowded and popular area for tourists to capture the night city skyline. I failed miserably to capture the beautiful city skyline at night because I couldn't be bothered squeeing in between aggressive people just to take some amazing photos. As I am writing this, I am still regretting I didn't try to elbow in between people to get the best spot. I gave up too easily!

As a comparison, TST is like walking along the harbour near Sydney Opera House or Southbank in Melbourne. It's the same kind of vibe and in TST you have some unknown artists basking on the street as well. Kinda like Australia. I love this kind of vibe. A relaxing one despite hundreds of people pushing each other to get the first row view of the city skyline. Other than taking the train, you can also opt to take the ferry too from Hong Kong Island to TST and vice versa. The cost is pretty cheap and you can mesmerise yourself with the night skyline view from the ferry. Be sure to sit near the water side so you could get uninterrupted view. I didn't take my tripod for this trip. So, taking a photo at night in a moving ferry was proven to be rather difficult. I did the best I could. In Hong Kong, you have to squeeze through the crowd in order to get the best of everything. A skill I had forgotten since I started living in Australia but I then quickly gained back when I was in Hong Kong and Singapore. That's where the term 'kia su' comes from. In a society where everything is scarce and in order to get the best of everything, you have to beat everyone else and fight for the first place. That's Asian mentality for you.

So that's Hong Kong Island. Well, for those who might be confused about Hong Kong, Hong Kong is divided into three territories and of course there is a lengthy history behind it but I'm not the best person to discuss history with. All I know is, there is Hong Kong Island where the infamous party area called Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) is and then there is Kowloon where TST is, and then there is also a newly developed area called New Territories. The area where my uncle lives used to be Kowloon but now is part of New Territories.

Any photographers would know it's very tricky to take a photo with sunlight directly blaring into your camera and it makes the subject looks like it's covered by shadow but I think these photos are still decent regardless of the colour wash effect. Oh and I was stupid enough to only carry my portrait lens because I wanted to do some experiments but I didn't realise we were coming here. Hence why the photos are very zoomed in.

This is the same view I took at night. You can see the same tall building in the middle and that ferris wheel on the left. This was taken during my ride on the ferry but out of so many attempts, this one is the most decent one to post. If you want to look at the ferris wheel close up, I happened to take a photo of it while I was on a bridge to the ferry dock in Hong Kong Island.

There you go!!! I still think this Ferris Wheel is oddly situated. Anyhow, I think it's meant for people to look at Kowloon view..... Maybe?? This is my second trip to Hong Kong and the first time I had a closer look at the ferris wheel.

I think I still love this photo the most. Although the yellow tone is quite overpowering but it makes the Kowloon area looks like the city of gold!! I took this view from my uncle's apartment. My Olympus camera takes some pretty good snaps at night and you don't even need much skill to take this photo and I am the living proof. An absolutely know-nothing-amateur-photographer.

My aunt and uncle organised a day trip to "The Peak". The Peak or "Shan Ding" is a popular tourists spot to see the entire city skyline of Hong Kong from the highest spot. It was breathtaking and you can visit it either during the day or night. We decided to go during the day because my uncle told me at night, we would have to wait for hours in order to get to the top because the queue starts from the foot of the hill. There are two ways to go up, one is by bus and the other is by tram. The ride by bus was quite fun actually. We decided to go by bus and on the way down, we took the tram. At the top, there are some free spots where you can take some photos but there is an exclusive area located within a small shopping centre at The Peak where you have to pay to go in but apparently, you get the best view uninterrupted by trees etc and the ground is even higher. I managed to take a pretty good shot I thought but maybe if I had paid to get in, I would've gotten a better shot? Maybe?

You see what I mean when I said my shot is not the best angle because you can still see the trees. I had to queue to get to this spot because there were too many people trying to take selfies.

See how most people would queue their lives to get some night shots at this view. I think it would be quite incredible. If I were with some friends on this trip, that would be something I would do. I was very thankful that my aunt and uncle were willing to spare their time and energy to entertain me and take me to beautiful places like this one. We didn't spend much time here because it was getting pretty chilly. We made a beeline to the tram stop and queue was already pretty long when we joined in. Hong Kong has one of the most efficient transport systems I know of. They have this travel card called Octopus (in Australia, we have Myki), but Octopus exceeds Myki in so many ways!
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First of all, you can use it to travel on the train, bus, ferry and in this case, tram. What's even better is that you can use the credits in Octopus to purchase things too! Mostly at the convenient stores and restaurants. How cool is that?? When will Myki catch up?? Never....

Oh look! The tram had arrived!! Well, the journey down was...... very steep! If you're afraid of height, this is not an option for you. You wouldn't even come to this place to begin with. It was pretty daunting because it was extremely steep that no one was allowed to stand in the tram. it was as if you're riding a roller coaster in slow motion. Slowly dangling you down with so much pressure when you're sitting with your back against the chair downhill. All the while during our ride, I couldn't help thinking what would happen if whatever suspending the gravity pressure ever snaps and the tram rolls downhill in the speed of light. Then we're really on a roller coaster ride down, not to mention, without seat belts on!

Despite the busy and super densely populated that is city of Hong Kong, I was awed to find some beautiful parks that I happened to walk past. I discovered this park near the foot of the hill of The Peak. I thought it gives Hong Kong a sense of warmth and nature despite being surrounded by skyscrapers.

On the weekend, my uncle asked one of my cousin's out to spend the day with us and my cousin, Stephen agreed to it. I was excited that I finally got to meet him for the first time in 27 years of my life! My uncle moved to Hong Kong in his late teen years and then he got married and he has two boys born and raised in Hong Kong. They never come to Indonesia to visit our family except for my older cousin, who came once with my aunt but I wasn't born yet. so maybe he met my sister when she was little. He had to work half day and then we met in the late afternoon at the train station. He resembles my uncle and I'd seen their photos at my uncle's. So I was kinda familiar with how he looked like. He is a very warm and caring person, oh and did I mention he was also very friendly too.
We chatted along the way to Stanley and we tried to catch up about where we were in life. The ride to Stanley was quite long and we took the bus. After a long week at work, he was pretty tired and he fell asleep in the bus. Likewise with my uncle. So I enjoyed the view of the coastline from the window.

After we arrived, we had some snacks at McDonald's and off we went for a walk along the beach.
Stanley gave me this vibe as if I was back in Australia. Shops along the beach and people walking their dogs as well as some western restaurants with colourful buildings. it was very summery despite the cold weather with winter soon approaching. It reminded me a little bit of South Australia or Hobart in Tasmania.

I love the small colourful boats are floating scattered on the water. Admiring my own photo composition and I thought, hey it's not bad at all!!

The sun was setting and the reflection of the sun made the buildings looked bright and gold-ish. It was an incredible view!

There was also a small stretch of local handcraft market near the beach. Just a short stroll up the hill and you can find yourself some souvenirs from the local shops.

See how colourful the buildings are! I think this bright yellow shop is either an Italian Pizza house or Mexican. My memory failed me since this trip was 5 months ago now....
I think the market I was telling you about is somewhere up the street next to this Italian Pizza House. Then take a turn right I believe. If I am wrong, ooppss.. Sorry....

We headed back to the bus stop after taking a stroll around the area. It was getting darker anyway. So, we got onto the double decker bus and we sat at the top deck. My cousin again, fell asleep during the journey as well as my uncle. I held on the opportunity to stay awake amidst feeling tired. The night scene of the ocean had its own beauty. Although as I looked ahead it was just darkness but I know that down below, it's the sea and I could see the water glittering shone by the moonlight. Across the sea was some houses with streetlights sparsely lit in between houses and created a stretch of diamonds from afar. It was beautiful despite maybe just a little spooky. As we reached the town, we got off LKF area and we walked to get some dinner at a Thai restaurant owned by my cousin's friend. The owner did give me his name card but I forgot where it is. So I can't tell you guys where this Thai restaurant is. Leave a comment down below if you want to know and I'll find out but this restaurant is one of the best Thai restaurants I've ever had in all the countries I've been so far! The coconut fried rice is a must-try dish! Rich with coconut milk that is not too overpowering and stuffed with fresh seafood presented in a coconut shell!

So unhealthy yet so mouth-watering. I will sure devour it anytime you present this to me.

So after dinner, uncle and I went straight home while my cousin had a birthday party to attend. So we parted ways afterwards.

The following weekend, I went to kids' paradise with my other cousin and his family (wife and kids). Let me present you........
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DISNEYLAND HONG KONG

Who doesn't love Disneyland? From children to adults to maybe a certain extent, the elderly people. Well, although I must admit this Disneyland compared to maybe like the one in Japan or LA is actually much smaller but it was still very fun and lots of activities to do. We went by car because my cousin came to pick me up by car but usually Disneyland is accessible via the MTR and there is a station dedicated to Disneyland and the resort. I've passed through the station before when I went to Da Yi San and the journey along the way is wonderful with the view of the ocean as well and mountains. There are varieties of rides and animation exhibitions in Disneyland and they also have a night show ended by fireworks at 8 pm every day. Maybe not so good for the environment. There is also a parade going on at night before the fireworks. Not sure if it's daily or just on certain days. My cousin's kids were happy to be my guide for the day and they were so excited to show me the behind the scene engineer work in order to put an animation film together in one of the Disneyland's animation exhibition. I was quite impressed.

There are really not many photos of me that I'm posting for this trip. Getting less and less narcissistic as I age. There's also something else I found as I become older. I found that my fear of rides is growing! I was never an extreme fan of rides but then I was fine with it most of the time. Anything involving 180 degrees ride, I am still okay but anything involving more than 180 degrees, especially 360 degrees ride, it's a no-go zone for me. No way in my precious lifetime I'll ever get onto one. I feel like my heart has weakened and I'm becoming acrophobic (fear of height) over time. I used to hike the mountains etc but I'm becoming a bit scared lately when I'm at a higher ground but it's only mild. I still hike and I still enjoy rides once I actually sit on it and strap myself safely with the safety belt.

Mini Disneyland Castle...

We also went to see a 4D show. I saw once when I was at Universal Studio in Singapore and that was interesting but my verdict is that the 4D show in Disneyland HK is better than the one in Singapore. The storyline and the 4D effect were better somehow. It was quite memorable for me. The kids loved it too. I think the show went on for 20 minutes and I felt like it was longer than the one in Universal Studio Singapore.

and then there was the toy story ride. Remember back in the 90s where one of the most popular rides was that pirate ship that goes 180 degrees and it goes back and forth vertically? Well, this toy story ride is kind of like one of those, except I think it goes higher than 180 degrees. One of my cousin's sons wanted to get on it and my cousin wanted me to go with him as both him and his wife didn't want to go on it. Their excuse was that they go to Disneyland very often. They had a point. So, I agreed. boy that was quite a ride. I felt like at any point, my heart was about to jump out and dance mid air. Little O even asked me to throw my hands in the air like I was in a club. I missed my childhood.

I love this theme the most out of anything else in Disneyland. Or maybe I just love Toy Story.

I must give credit to my cousin because he took this shot and it was quite nice. My cousin's son and I were somewhere at the back with me probably screaming with my mouth wide open. The little O probably had his hands up.

There was another cool ride in Disneyland. It is very similar to the Mummy ride in Universal Studio. If you're asking ok, what's that Mummy ride. It's like a roller coaster, except you're in the dark and then the train goes forward up and down and sideways slowly and progressing to quickly. Then it will stop after one round and then ever so slowly it starts moving backwards! Yep, backwards. The speed then increases to quicker and quicker while still moving backwards. They're quite similar except the Mummy theme is spookier although this one is also in the dark. I can't remember which ride this one is though. I'll never forget the Mummy ride but for the life of me, I can't remember which theme is this one in Disneyland.

After we got off, my cousin and his wife were laughing at my green face. We then went on to catch a glimpse of the parade. It just started not too long ago. I managed to snap some videos and photos. They were some pretty cool stuff.

I hope we know this one, it's Monster University. I love the movie. Would love to see Mike Wazowski character in the parade too. Maybe he's dangling somewhere from the truck and I just missed him.

This is probably one of the most popular Disney movies that I haven't actually seen yet. Cars. He's cute.

and then we have our old friends, Donald Duck and Goofy. My favourite characters back in my childhood days. Different from the kids nowadays with their favourite characters from Cars.

and of course, a Disneyland parade is not a Disney parade without a character from Toy Story! My favourite!!

This winter in Disneyland Hong Kong, they also set up the theme for Winter Wonderland and what is better than every girl's favourite Disney movie of 2015 to make up for the theme. FROZEN!! So they played the soundtrack hit "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel and there was a lightshow lighting up some of the Disneyland themed houses including the castle. At the end of the soundtrack, the audience on the street was showered with artificial snow. It was beautiful! While the soundtrack was playing, the lights on the Christmas tree blinked all over the rainbow coloured fairly lights in milliseconds.

The fireworks spot was different. It was near the castle. The fireworks was ok but not great. I haven't perfected my skill in taking fireworks shots. So I failed to take a good photo that could eliminate the smoke. So all my photos were rather smokey. After the fireworks, then everyone went home. My cousin dropped me back to my uncle's and we had such a great time. First impression on my cousin, he was like a big brother to me and he treated me like I was his little sister. I liked that. Moreover, I always wanted an older brother. His wife and kids were very nice to me too. They made me feel welcome and were very warm hearted people. It did feel like family to me although they were all strangers to me before I arrived.

I took a break from spending time with my cousin and I went back to spending time with my uncle. My uncle took me to Lantau Island, which I visited before on another trip few years back. Lantau island is well known for the Buddhist temple, which has since become one of the most popular tourist attractions. On my other trip, I took the cable car with my friend, whereas on this trip, we took the coach that took longer but a lot cheaper. Both means of transport give you two different views. If you're afraid of height, cable car is definitely not recommendable as it is a fairly long journey to exercise your heart.

The coach took longer (approximately 45 minutes). It was a cold foggy day when we arrived. All we could see was thick fog covering the top of Buddha statue but after a while, the fog thinned out. There is a small tourist village where you could stock up some souvenirs before you leave and you could also grab something to eat. There is even a Starbucks too. You'll need some carbs before you could climb those thousands of stairs to see the Big Buddha at the top of the hill.

See that Big Buddha at the top? You think that was not too far to climb? Well, you're wrong....

See how thick the fog is?

Good luck climbing those stairs. I huffed and puffed all the way through but I did get all the way to the top.

Each of the warrior statue represents the Chinese zodiac. I was born in the year of Dragon and apparently this statue represents Dragon. There is also English writing to explain about the warrior but I don't remember if I took a photo of it.

This is the second time I climbed to the top and took this photo. It was an excruciating journey to climb all the way up through the stairs but it was worth it.

You can visit the pagoda and donate to have some vegan meals as well and buy more souvenirs. The ambience was very serene. I did my prayers before descending down the stairs.

The view from the top was absolutely magnificent. It made me feel really small. I felt very at peace when I was at the top but also make sure you wear enough clothes.

This is the small tourist village I was referring to where you could find food, Starbucks and Buddha related souvenirs. This is also the pathway towards the stop for cable cars.

We took the coach back to town before taking the train back to my uncle's place. It was a very tiring day and we all just fell asleep very quickly as soon as we arrived back home.

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OCEAN PARK

I met my cousin again later in the week on a Saturday where they agreed to take me to Ocean Park with their kids. Ocean Park in my experience, is better and more entertaining than Disneyland. Just because it is a lot bigger than Disneyland and there are more things to do. From rides to seeing the penguins to Dolphin show. It really takes your entire day whereas Disneyland only takes about half a day. Well, you can choose to spend the entire day but for me, it's not necessary.

My cousin came to pick me up with his wife and kids and we jetted to Ocean Park. Literally, he sped all the way as if he was an F1 driver. His son was not kidding when he told me his dad drives very fast. I mean, very . very fast! Very fast is understatement. I think the entry fee is about HKD580. I think! Not cheap according to HK standard.

More cable car rides. How do people with fear of height live, really!

I look so fat in this photo, especially since I was wearing a puffy jacket too.

We took a wet ride with my cousin's wife and their eldest son but we didn't bring a raincoat because we would need them. Wet ride, remember? Duh! So, my cousin's wife bought the raincoats for us and guess what? The freaking raincoat costed HKD28 each! What a rip off?? It's AUD4.8! With Ocean Park printed on it. Who wants that? What happened to $2 raincoat??? Raincoat is really overrated but I must admit we came out dry because we had the raincoat on.

My cousin said I looked boring with the same standing smiling pose so I decided to do something a little crazy. I used to do this with my friends.

We took the cable car to see the dolphin show and there are more rides on this side too and if you see that roller coaster ride on the right, guess what? They're fake.

There's a cafe as well with an amazing view. So while your partner or parents taking the kids for some rides, you could chill here if you're the grandparents or the partner.

My cousin took a lot of hidden photos in my camera, This is one of the few he took.

I was told that they've done some expansion with the theme park and this was the first original theme park built in Ocean Park and now the size has doubled.

We missed half of the show but we still managed to catch some good shows. I didn't bring my zoom lens and it was hard to capture the moving dolphins. It would've been a much better photo otherwise.

After the show finished, we made our way back down via cable car and we went to see some sea life.

It was feeding time for these little guys when we got in. So most of the penguins were flocking towards the keeper guy who were feeding them. Who can tell me how to kidnap one of these guys home with me. Just kidding*

This gigantic stingray freaked me out just like when I went to one of the zoos (I can't remember where) and I saw an Anaconda for the first time and they tied this goat to one of the trees but the Anaconda wasn't hungry. So many people waited to see when would the goat be devoured but I guess the Anaconda wasn't hungry at that time. Poor goat waiting for its fate.

And we can't call it sea life before seeing a form of shark right? Flathead shark.

Christmas tree display was everywhere. I miss Xmas already but it's July now anyway.

LITTLE VEGAS, MACAU

My uncle and aunt took me to Macau and we took the ferry from Hong Kong Island to Macau. The journey is about 1 hour and return journey is about HKD400 return and when we went, it was public holiday I think, that's why it was more expensive. So that's about AUD68 return. Quite expensive for about 2 hours journey back and forth. We departed from the jetty at about 8 am, so we woke up pretty early. We bought the return tickets for 8 pm but we came back earlier than that because my aunt gets tired pretty quickly. I was staying in HK for about 20 days. It was a lengthy stay and I should've applied for a Chinese visa before I left Indonesia just because it was harder for me to apply in HK as they couldn't process my application unless I am on a temporary visa that allows me to stay in HK for more than one month, which is not possible because as an Indonesian passport holder, I am only allowed to stay in most countries as a visitor for maximum 1 month. I should've prepared myself better because it would've been more fun if I was able to visit ShenZhen.

We weren't planning to stay overnight in Macau just because around December, hotels are very expensive in Macau. I just wanted to have the "been there done that" experience, especially to visit the infamous The Venetian hotel. This signature luxury hotel is also located at other parts of the world. As soon as we arrived at the jetty, there are various free coaches to take you to various destinations. Usually coaches that take you to hotels are also free. The whole purpose is that because Macau is like little Vegas and there is a casino in every hotel, they encourage you to gamble and since transport is free, who would say no? That's also part of the reason why there's no visa requirement for tourists to visit Macau. Yay! More gamble! *Disclaimer: Please gamble responsibly.

THE VENETIAN (There's also one in Las Vegas)

Since The Venetian, there are more impressive hotels in Macau now like Galaxy Hotel (which apparently has theme park inside) and the new Lisbon Hotel. All these hotels and casinos are located in the new part of Macau, not the old city.

I remember seeing all this first time in Asian drama series when I was a lot younger and I thought to myself, I want to see them one day. Now that I have seen it, it felt good! That's why they say be careful of what you're wishing for because they might just come true!

More Christmas tree! The interior design just blew my mind! It really made me feel like I was in Venice.

I don't think the Swarovski ornaments on the Xmas tree is real. Well I was told so.

Galaxy Hotel I mentioned before. We did hotel hopping and when we were on our way to Lisbon hotel, we passed by Galaxy hotel.

There's old and new Lisbon and this one is the new one. You will be able to tell just from the architectural point of view as the old one, well looks really old.

The main foyer inside Lisbon Hotel

This piece of art is made of really gold by the way. Just the coating I'm sure.

After enough of hotel hopping experience, we also visited the oldest temple in Macau and I prayed there. Apparently there is a copper basin in the temple and if you rub you palm against the rim and rub in a quick motion and there's a squeaky sound, it means you'll be rich. Apparently for some people, the sound doesn't appear and for some other, the sound is very loud and the louder it is, the richer you'll be. I tried and it wasn't very loud but at least it made a sound lol

A-Ma Temple

If you can speak Portuguese, then I guess you can understand this.

It's one of the oldest municipal buildings as well as one of the popular landmarks in Macau.

There's another popular landmark in Macau and I first saw it in one of the Hong Kong movies back when I was a teenager and finally I was able to see it myself. It was none other than The Ruins of St Paul's. The route towards the ruins has been commercialised. Heaps of tourists from all over the world flock towards this popular landmark and throughout the entire stretch of street leading up to the ruins, there are countless of shops selling variety of Macau's popular snacks and street foods, such as beef/pork 'Bak Kwa' or what we all know as jerky. Their jerkies are so tasty and whichever shop you choose, they're all superb! You can even try for free and my uncle and I tried so many different ones to the point that it was not necessary for us to have lunch because we just tested all the street snacks for free! All of the shops provide samples for free because the competition is very high as there are countless of shops selling the same thing with little difference in terms of price. So, please don't confuse yourself!

Another famous snack in Macau is their freshly packed almond biscuits. I immediately regretted my decision to buy a few packs of them because when I arrived in Singapore, which was my next destination after Hong Kong. Why? Because they sell the exact same brand in Singapore and they're more or less the same price! Some would argue that the taste is different because if you get them in Macau, they're meant to taste "fresher" as they pack them immediately and sell them in the store, whereas the overseas ones would've been stored in the shelves for ages. Well, I haven't tried the one I saw in Singapore, so I can't vouch for anything but I was very curious. The ones I bought in Macau taste really good, especially the black sesame one (if you like black sesame). We tried so many cookies from all sorts of shops that I was so full by the time we reached the ruins.

*More snacks popular in Macau, such as their ginger sweets or dried ginger coated with crystal sugar. They're super delicious and you can get them anywhere in Macau. Also, who can resist Portuguese tarts while in Macau???!!!

Finally we arrived at The Ruins of St Paul's and it was packed with tourists!!

The church of St. Paul's was built in the 17th century and was destroyed by a fire caused by typhoon and now there's only the ruin left. There's nothing behind the ruin which is now a park.

This is the end of the street where they sell popular street snacks.

After climbing all the serious stairs.....

The view from top of the ruins. There's really nothing behind the ruins but it's an amazing historical piece that is left from the 17th century and should be preserved as best as they could.

We had lunch at one of the most popular restaurants in Macau but for all I know, there's nothing really special about this restaurant but somehow it was really packed when we arrived. We had to take a number and queue.

After waiting for about 20 minutes, we finally got a seat and we had some noodles which was not bad but I wouldn't say it was amazing either. Well, I'm sure most of those people queuing up disagree with me if they see this.

After walking around a little bit more, we headed back to the jetty and made our way back to Hong Kong. I was completely exhausted by then. We all fell asleep on our way back in the ferry and we looked like zombies. During my 20 days of stay, I had grown attached to my uncle and I was incredibly sad when I left. One of my cousins dropped me off to the airport with my uncle and I was very thankful that he got up at 3 am just to take me to the airport. I left extremely early in the morning. I'm sure my uncle was sad that I had to leave too because we were like buddies because we went around Hong Kong exploring different things together most of the time as my uncle and aunt are retirees so they have all the time in the world and are only looking after their grandchildren.

I'd love to see them again some time soon as they had treated me really well during my stay and I wish to repay their kindness. I miss them a lot to this day. I'd also like to thank my cousins and their wives, who have been very accommodating and hospitable. Although I met them for the first time, they didn't make me uncomfortable or awkward. On the contrary, they made me feel like I was part of the family. Indeed we are one big family. I miss the little monsters too (their children) but because when I visited, they were still young, hopefully when they grow up, they will still remember me, aunty 'B'.

Pangkor Laut Resort Trip 4D3N

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sun, 1 Nov 2015 19:55:00 +1100

Hello readers!!!! I know it’s been forever since my last post.. Well, let me see. My last post was about my third trip to Tasmania, which was back in April and now we are in the month of October (at least when I’m writing this, it’s still October), so it’s been 6 months since the last time I posted!!! Oh well, at least this entry won’t be disappointing because it is related to the trip I went in August to Pangkor Laut Resort in Lumut, Malaysia. Pangkor Laut Resort is one of the most expensive resorts in Malaysia and it is a private island housing only a few villas. I was very fortunate to be invited by my sister’s father-in-law’s family to join them on a family trip to the resort without paying! They booked 6 villas for 4 days and apparently, the usual price per night is approximately RM1,500 per night and it depends on the type of villa as well with sea villa being more expensive than the hill villa or garden villa. The names of the villas are pretty self-explanatory with sea villa meaning the villa is located on top of the sea in a shape more like of a hut. Garden villa means the villa is facing a garden and hill villa means it is located on the hills. There’s also spa villa, which is a more exclusive villa and it has it’s own pool and restaurant/bar for their guests, as well as spa facilities, which is accessible by other patrons from other villas with extra costs.

There is another more exclusive island near the resort, which is more expensive than Pangkor Laut Resort and apparently it costs approximately RM10,000 a night. The name of the island is (If I remembered correctly, it is called Marina Island) but just google online when in doubt.

My sister told me we were leaving home by 6 am in the morning, so I got up at 4 am to get ready. I couldn’t sleep the night before for whatever reason. So, I got up straight away and made sure I’d packed everything I needed. I had to pack my laptop because I was planning to do a video chat with my husband when I was there. So, my laptop bag was pretty heavy plus all the other small bags I had. I couldn’t beat my sister though, who had gazillion bags with her because she has two kids. We left home at 6:15 am and there were a total of 5 or 6 cars leaving together. This was meant to be a family trip for my sister and her husband’s family and another family friend who joined.The purpose of this trip was to celebrate my brother-in-law and his mother’s birthdays and also just so the family could spend some quality time together.

After driving for about an hour, we stopped by a kopitiam to get some breakfast. My sister and I ordered some toasts with eggs and sausages and a cup of Milo each. I caught up with everyone for the first time in a long time because I knew them 7 years ago when I used to study in Malaysia. Now everyone has their own kids already. How time has changed everyone, some for the better, some for the worse. After breakfast, we continued our long journey to Lumut to then take a speedboat across towards Pangkor Laut Resort. The journey was another 2 to 3 hours away and the kids fell asleep at the back with my sister. After what seemed to be a forever road trip, we finally arrived at the jetty and we took our luggages down. The valet service was great and there were refreshing drinks waiting for each guest as we arrived prepared by the staff there. We took a break whilst the staff were getting the boats ready for the guests and after all our luggages were loaded on the boat, we proceeded to the jetty and ready to depart.

The view from the speedboat was breathtaking!!

It was roughly about 15-20 minutes boat ride from the jetty to the port of the resort. When we arrived, there were a couple of staff who greeted us and escorted us to the main lobby of the resort, while the other staff were assigned to carry our bags to our designated rooms. We walked to the lobby and a staff member welcomed us and explained about the facilities that we could use freely around the resort and the various restaurants we could visit, as well as the buffet timings and local attractions. The staff also took their time to inform us about the special promotion for their spa treatments, which usually costs about RM800 to RM1000++ but just for the time we stayed, we could get an 80 minutes spa treatment for RM300 pp!!! I immediately seized the opportunity and told my sister I wanted to make an appointment for that. Another family's friend also made an appointment for the same date so we could keep each other company. I found that the staff there were extremely friendly and professional. I was immediately impressed as soon as I stepped off the boat!

This view was taken from the buffet restaurant

Whilst the staff were preparing for our rooms, we were escorted to the buffet restaurant for lunch as we arrived almost at lunch time. By the way, the check in time is pretty late. I think it was something like 3 pm. The buffet room was quite massive and it houses so many different cuisines, there were Western, Eastern, Malay and Indian varieties. There was also a range of desserts as well. The choices seemed to be never ending and I was pretty full by the time I started my second round of western cuisine. I must say the taste was not bad unlike most hotels food, which tastes average. I remember their mango curry was very yum!! After satisfying my stomach, I was offered a cup of coffee by the restaurant's wait staff and my lunch experience was then complete.

The Buffet Restaurant

Mi coffee

My very much sun burnt face!!

There is a section after you enter the lobby, which is called "The Library". It is open 24 hours with an extremely good wi-fi system. They also have 3 computers free to use for the guests. The seats are comfortable and there are also a few cabanas for people to lie down and enjoy the cool breeze from the sea. They also have a few books to read but I didn't check what books were stocked in the shelves. There weren't many I remembered.

The entrance to the library from the main lobby

We were called by the staff to advise our rooms were ready. Hooray!! After a very long day, everyone would like to take some rest, especially the kids as they needed to take a nap. We headed to our rooms to unpack straight away. Our villa was located at the hills and just imagine this, the villa is located at the HILL!!!!!! SO, we had to walk up a flight of stairs and take a lift up to the second floor, and then walk approximately 50 meters AND walk down a flight of stairs again before we reached the doorstep our villa. There is also an option to use the stairs all the way up. No, thank you. Well, now come to think of it, I'm very stupid not to take a photo of my journey from Ground floor all the way to the hill villa. The view was worth it though. Although there were some trees blocking the fantastic view, I still managed to steal a glimpse of the vast sea ahead and the green trees below our villa. This was what was awaiting in front of us as we stepped into the room.

To be fair, I was about to take more photos of this cute "elephant" from different angles but my niece was too quick to jump into the bed and destroy the elephant by detaching the head...... So, thank goodness I managed to at least take 1 shot of it while it still looked like an elephant.

There is a wooden sliding door to separate the hallway from the room just for privacy purposes.

This is the balcony outside the room. Although I must say that this balcony is absolutely not children friendly, because the gap of the fence is quite large. Children below 10 years old are absolutely not encouraged to play at the balcony without parental supervision. My niece was firmly reminded by my sister not to play outside.

I would go to this balcony to make an internet phone call to speak to my husband (oh, just a small note here, I am married now :)). I shall share about my civil ceremony in another post.

There is no signal over there in the island but apparently if you are a Maxis user, there is still hope for you guys. No one would know I was dead or alive unless I went to "the library" and used their wi-fi. It's an island after all and you're supposed to come here to relax. So, no mobile phone please!! Ah!! I forgot to mention this earlier on, when we were briefed by the staff upon our arrival, each villa received a pocket wi-fi, which you can use up to 10 devices I think. However, I was pretty disappointed with the coverage and the speed. It was pretty slow and sometimes it didn't work at all. I had to step outside at the balcony and stand near the door to get some sort of coverage to speak to my husband.

There is another sink looks exactly like this one on the opposite site. I assume this villa is meant for a couple, so there are 2 separate sinks with mirrors.

The villa also comes with outdoor jacuzzi, however I'm actually not a big fan of outdoor jacuzzi like this one just because it gets dirty very easily. Let's not forget that this is a hill villa. So, the villa was built at the hills, there are tree leaves that fall from their branches and make their way inside the jacuzzi, which makes it not as hygienic. It's also hard to clean after each use (but if you plan to use it only once, it ain't matter) as well as there are lots of monkeys in this island!!

So the story goes.... More than 8 years ago, I visited Pangkor Island, which is an island across from Pangkor Laut Resort and we joined a day tour. The tour guide took us on this boat ride near the islands and we hopped off this island, called The Monkey Island and it lived up to its name was all I could remember about this island. There were gazillion monkeys hanging out preying on humans' belongings. Well, maybe some of you can tell from my writing that I hate monkeys and NO, they're not cute!!! They could steal stuff and I shall prove you all about this later. One of the monkeys stole my friend's shoe and wouldn't return it until our perseverance convinced the monkey to spare us some mercy and returned the shoe to us. Well, we just kept throwing stuff up the tree aiming at the monkey so that it would drop the shoe. No animal cruelty involved!!

The bathroom has a separate toilet room so everyone is happy!! :)

After everyone took some rest, my sister decided to join the rest of the family members at Emerald Bay. I freshened up and we made our way down the beach. There is a shuttle van that picks up patrons to where ever they wish to go and one of the destinations is Emerald Bay. We waited outside the lobby area and the van would come very regularly to pick up guests. The ride was a mere 5 minutes ride but the road was windy and hilly. You can choose to walk as there is a walking trail for hardcore people and regrettably, I didn't get to walk the trail throughout my 4 days stay just because I wasn't allowed to go by myself and no one would go with me :(

It is called "Emerald Bay" for a reason I guess.

The beach is clean with white sands. Except for the fact that it was super hot and humid when I was there and no one was swimming.

The boys caught this little guy but we let it go afterwards. There were also plenty of fish to catch in the shallow water.

When we got back to our villa, there was a tiny drama. When my brother-in-law stepped outside to the balcony to get some fresh air, he saw some monkeys next door. We opened the window inside the room to check them out and we saw quite a number of monkeys were raiding the villa next to ours and we found out that the villa belonged to one of my brother-in-law's family friends. My brother-in-law tried to call them but no one answered. We just watched the monkeys raided their villa and they stole some food because I remembered seeing a monkey with a banana! When the family returned, we were told that most of their food disappeared but not only that, even a toothpaste went missing!! Time to freshen up "dat" breath monkeys! My brother-in-law called the reception and reported about the incident. We later saw the staff sent some employees up to deal with the aftermath. So, there you go. Don't ever think monkey is cute!!

I took this photo with my Samsung Note 4, as you probably can tell, it is not as good as my DSLR but it is actually not too bad for a smartphone and I did zoom in to get a better view of the monkeys and it did an alright job.

Dinner time was fast approaching, we took turn to take a shower and got ready. We went to the same buffet restaurant for dinner because the buffet was already included in the cost of our stay. There were so many choices from all continents and I chose to have some beef steak and pasta. I also had a few selections of desserts as well. I wouldn't say the taste was great but they do have a wide varieties for the guests to choose from. In the middle of finishing my dinner, I had a light bulb moment! I haven't managed to connect my phone to the Internet, but the location of the restaurant is just next door to "the library", so I used the wi-fi and called my husband, who was 3000 kms away. The connection was not too bad and we managed to do FaceTime briefly. Of course the connection would be stronger if I was in the library. At least I got to enjoy this view while talking to my husband through viber.

and this one is taken with my iphone5 without being edited. Let me present you some of the foods I had from the buffet restaurant.

This was also taken with my iPhone 5. I was walking around this area to talk to my husband, but if I moved closer to the buffet restaurant, the signal would be weaker. This area is an extended area from the restaurant but I guess this area is more privileged. I think the villas behind are garden villas.

After we hung up the phone, I walked back to the restaurant to join the rest and my sister's father-in-law suggested us to take a walk to his villa to hang out. Also, they usually fish for some squids during the night. Earlier in the evening, they set up the baits. So, they were eager to go back and check on their baits. I've heard stories from my sister about their exciting experience catching squids and being squirted all over with their ink. As a result, I was excited too. The view during the walk was absolutely breathtaking. The villas on the water looked like huts in Maldives resort. They looked very familiar to me, just like what you'd usually see in a photography magazine. Although I didn't do them much justice, at least I did try my best to capture what I saw.

The photo is a bit blurry because I didn't use my tripod. Only used my hands to hold the camera steady. It could be better!!

The walk felt a bit lonely because everyone had a partner except me and whenever I walked past a couple, I felt sad. This is the perfect resort for couples and young families. The walkway was very dark but well lit with dim lights. So, not to worry that you might fall into the water unless you're super drunk, but if you have small children, maybe tie a head torch on their head so they can see where they're walking to. The beach/sea villa is not suitable for very small children. You'll know the reason why below.

This view was taken from the balcony at the back of the sea villa. If you look at the villa next door, they share the same design, therefore the balcony looks the same. The fence gap is pretty large, therefore, a child of age 2 to 8 years old can easily slip through the gap and fall into the water below. If I remembered correctly, the resort also doesn't recommend family with young children to stay in a beach villa. The view is amazing though and imagine waking up to the sound of waves crashing into the shore. The best natural alarm there is.

That day was my brother-in-law's birthday. So, the staff member from the resort brought in a chocolate mud cake for my brother-in-law and we all sang a birthday song for him. He blew the candle and we continued to celebrate. My sister wanted to go back to our villa because it was getting late and from beach villa to hill villa, it was a bit of a walk. So, I helped my sister with the cake and we started walking back to get some early rest. I had to sleep on the couch because my sister, my brother-in-law and their 2 kids were sharing one bed. It wasn't a very comfortable surface but because I was extremely tired, I fell asleep with my earphone on listening to a list of my hand picked civil ceremony songs. The boys were drinking and chatting away outside in the balcony and I didn't even notice when the noise of their laughters became silent, a sign that I fell asleep deeply.

We got up at 8.30 am and we got ready quickly to make it in time for breakfast as the rest of the family members were already in the buffet room. We all kind of got sick of the buffet selections and would like to have something different. My sister's father-in-law booked a table at Uncle Lim's restaurant near spa village for tonight and it was meant to be quite famous there. Uncle Lim is probably the only Chinese restaurant in the island. Story has it that Uncle Lim was the first chef working in Pangkor Laut Resort and they decided to built a restaurant on the water and named it after him. He is now 80 years old and still frequents the restaurant almost every day. The big family decided to go to the beach that morning. So we headed down to Emerald bay again because that is the only beach at the resort where guests could relax and swim with ease.

The guys were catching some fish and other sea creatures while the kids were playing with sand. My sister's eldest daughter and her brother-in-law's eldest son fell in the water a while ago, so they are now traumatised and refused to play with water no matter what we bribed them with. They refused to go anywhere near water and chose to play with the sand instead.

The sky was pretty grey and the sun was hidden amongst the cloudy sky but it was still pretty hot and humid to the point I was struggling to open my eyes and my sunnies were somewhere in my bag on the lazy chair. As you can see, the water is crystal clear and clean.

The boys and my sister's mother-in-law caught some fish and put them in a cut up 1 litre empty water bottle filled with water, which they then set them free afterwards.

The folks decided to pack up and make their way to the restaurant nearby for lunch. We went to Chapman's Bar for lunch and I ordered rice with grilled fish. The fish also came with a special gravy on top and I swear that it was super spicy! Even for chilis eater like me! Well, I did try to look up for their menu online with no luck. I didn't take a photo of the menu but it is the only menu with fish, so you won't miss it! My sister ordered a mie goreng and the presentation looked amazing but the taste was quite disappointing compared to my grilled fish. I am a bit disappointed with myself because I became lazier and lazier in taking photos. There were so many things I didn't take their photos of. We also ordered some desserts, which came out extremely late. It only came out by the time my food got digested inside my tummy. I ordered their house gelato and it was pretty good but unfortunately, I didn't finish it because my sister was rushing to go back as the kids were falling asleep.

What you get to see if you dine in Chapman's Bar. I believe they also open for dinner as well.

I suppose this area is open for dinner, as well as if you decide to hold a function or any form of group celebrations. A wedding in Pangkor Laut Resort would be a dream come true but to dream usually costs nothing. If you are to do it for real, it will most likely cost you an arm and a leg. My dream was actually to have my wedding in Santorini but that can remain a dream for now. I will get there one day.

You thought you were invisible but you were not because I caught you!! :)

After lunch at Chapman's Bar, my sister wanted to take the kids back for a short nap before they left for swimming later on. I didn't want to join them for a swim because it was quite troublesome to pack my swimming gears and I couldn't be bothered. I would rather chat with my husband via FaceTime. We were only given 1 set of key for the villa, usually I kept the key with me. Before I left the villa, I packed my laptop bag with everything I needed because I wouldn't be returning to the villa straight away. My sister told me to meet them at the pool and we were going to dinner together from the pool. Dinner tonight would be at Uncle Lim's near spa village. I made my way down to the library and set up my laptop there. I called my husband and we spoke for quite some time, The Internet connection was quite stable and I was very happy that I was able to show my husband where I was. I spun around so he could see the entire library and a glimpse of the restaurant ahead. Dinner time was approaching and I told my husband I needed to meet my sister at 6 pm in front of the pool. I packed up my laptop bag again, hung it over my shoulders and off I went to walk along the coast on the footpath to the pool.

"Infinity Pool". I waited for a long time before I could take this photo because there were so many people swimming. This is the pool accessible by the guests across all villas but the guests living in spa villas have their own exclusive pool and their own exclusive beach!

My niece was trying to overcome her fear of water and she was being encouraged by her dad but she was not convinced enough and she just sat by the pool side with her legs in the water and she was happy with that but I'm sure as young as she is, she would like to play in the water but she still needs to work on that. My sister was looking after the little one and the little one has no problem with playing in the water. He had a children friendly floater on him and he would kick in the water to get moving like a pro. The kids finally got ready and my sister helped them dry themselves and afterwards, we started making our way to Uncle Lim's by walking the pathway from the pool towards the beach villas and straight on to Uncle Lim's. The cemented pathway merged with the wooden pathway at the end and we were walking on wooden "bridge" above the water. The view was incredible and we even spotted a massive lizard sunbathing on a big rock.

I took this view from the entrance of Uncle Lim's restaurant. The restaurant was also built on the water and according to my sister's FIL, this restaurant has been around for more than 50 years. It is very easy to locate because as long as you keep walking along the wooden bridge, it will lead you to Uncle Lim's.

This is the only Chinese restaurant in Pangkor Laut Resort and they do buffet as well. I'm not exactly sure how their "buffet" works because it is a seated restaurant and they bring out the dishes for you from entrée all the way to dessert. We had soup to begin with and it was quite spicy. I don't know how to describe the texture but the closest one I could think of is like shark fin soup but a spicy version. It was then followed by main, which consisted of some chicken, fish, fried prawns, vegetables and many more. Guarantee you won't leave hungry! We complained about the amount of prawns given and they gave us another batch free of charge!! Well, I'm not saying if you do the same, they would give you another batch for free too! Desserts followed after mains and we were given a range of choices from mango pudding, to avocado delight to banana split. I can't remember if there is another choice but I just remembered those 3. The banana split was the best of them all although I didn't get to try until our last night there. Again, I was very disappointed with myself because in this post, there are not enough photos of food. I hate myself!! :(

How Uncle Lim's Kitchen looks like. This huge rock is real by the way. They built the restaurant around it.

After dinner, we walked back to the lobby area and I separated from my sister. I sat down on my favourite couch at the library and I called up my husband via FaceTime. During my stay there, we usually FaceTime whenever we could because my mobile phone had no signal, so we couldn't text each other. I shared with him about my activities for the day and where I had for dinner and what I was planning to do next. Although the library is open 24 hours but I started packing up at 10 pm because I didn't want to walk up the hills by myself in the dark and I was very worried that I would get attacked by a monkey (although this theory is unfounded). By 10 pm, the entire library was vacant, except for a few staff member who occasionally passed by and nodded their head with a big smile to greet me. I felt absolutely safe but would rather not be by myself late at night although I'm pretty sure nothing would happen. I walked back up by myself and didn't encounter any other human being. We all slept pretty early that night because everyone had their own agenda the very next day. For me, I had an appointment for a spa treatment tomorrow. Yaaaayyyy!!!

I woke up at 8 am the next morning because my spa treatment appointment was at 12 pm but I needed to meet the family friend at 11.30 am at the lobby and then we would walk together from there. After everyone gathered at the agreed time, we then were picked up by a chauffeur, who drove us to the entrance of spa village. We could already sense the exclusivity of this villa and the tranquility of it. It was serene and there was no one there at the time we arrived. Apparently it was meant to be very exclusive. Depending on how many of you (I believe maximum amount of people in a group is 4), they only dedicate the slot just for your group. So, it is not crowded and you can completely let go and relax not having to worry about other people seeing you etc. We were greeted by a super friendly staff and we were told to wait for 20 minutes while refreshment beverages were served to us. We took this opportunity to walk around and take some photos. They have their own "infinity pool" and even their own beach. The guests don't have to go to Emerald Bay but Emerald Bay is still more beautiful in my opinion.

This is the waiting area

Perfect time to take this photo when there was no one swimming!

Here is another waiting area

We were called shortly by the employee advising us our session was ready. We started making our way to get our feet scrubbed and cleaned first.

I regret to say that this is the last photo I snapped before I disappeared inside the spa facility. I was contemplating to take my phone inside because we were allowed so. I wasn't planning to risk taking my DSLR camera inside. However, I was a bit worried because we were mainly going to be in the water and it was too risky to bring my phone in and because the family friend volunteered to bring her phone inside, I decided not to take mine. Thankfully I didn't. Although up to this date, I'm still beating up myself for chickening out. We were first escorted to our changing room where we were provided a locker each and we had to take off our jewelries and store them inside the locker along with the rest of our belongings. We were then wrapped in a piece of batik sarong professionally by a staff and then the key of the locker was pinned to our sarong. We were then escorted to what in lament term, I would call it as a cold swim. It was a type of treatment originated from the Malays. We soaked ourselves by walking down the stairs in the pool and man the water was so cold! We then wiggled our way to the man-made fountain and drench ourselves under the "waterfall". The depth of the pool was quite shallow. I am 167 cm in height and the water level probably comes up to my waist and that's about it. If not, maybe just a little higher. It is recommended though, to check with the staff before you try to jump into the pool as if you would in a public pool. In any case, a staff member is always present while you're taking your bath in the pool.

After some time, we got up all soaked up and we stepped up to this tiny pavilion where there were four types of herbs burning inside a stone made container with burning charcoal inside. There was smoke coming out of each hole with different distinctive smells. There were 3 of us, so we were instructed to lean forward and let the steam of smoke blanket our entire face and inhale the herbs. After a few minutes, we would switch to the next mixture of herbs and inhale the smoke and we kept taking turn until everyone was done. After this, we were escorted to a Japanese bath pavilion. Let's just say I hadn't taken a bath this way in a very long time. If any of you have never tried a Japanese bath style before, the washing area and the bath area sometimes are located separately but sometimes they are located within the same area as well. So you're meant to wash yourself first, which in our case we sat on a small "what seemed to be fitted for a child" stool and we scooped out the water from a wooden pail and washed ourselves thoroughly. A small bottle of soap, shampoo and hair conditioner were provided to us. The only thing was, it was quite uncomfortable to wash myself while wearing a piece of sarong because I didn't feel clean enough but I didn't want to go naked as well because there were other women with me whom we don't share that kind of intimacy as to go naked in front of each other. In any case, you are supposed to wash yourself while wearing the sarong.

After we washed ourselves absolutely squeaky clean, we stepped out of a sliding wooden door and we were greeted by another pool!! Well, this one is more like an onsen, a Japanese hot spring water bath. We soaked ourselves once more but this time, the water was hot and the weather was also hot. The kind staff gave each of us a cup of cool Japanese sencha to drink while we soaked in the hot mineral water bath. We all know it was meant to be good for our skin. We were called two persons at once. Well, when we were about to start our treatment in the beginning, they asked us if we would like to pair up but because there were three of us, a pair of mother and daughter, I told them they could do the treatment together and I would go solo. So we did. The mother and daughter were called first and I was left by myself soaking away but soon enough, it was getting too hot for me. So I sat at the edge of the bath and soaked only my legs. I was wondering what they were doing inside because I was waiting forever for the staff to come back out and save me from the heat. Eventually, they did answer to my prayers.

I was escorted into another "bath" house. How many baths did I need to take?? Thank goodness I smelt really good after the whole thing. Not really a bath. I saw a massage table that was wet and I was requested to lie down on my belly naked! Well, turned out that the employee scrubbed my back and then washed the residue away with water while I was still lying on the massage table. She then asked me to step away from the table and she handed me a clean fresh towel to wipe myself clean. She then wrapped another piece of batik cloth on me professionally. I felt like I could step out wearing that and feel ok with it. It was a complimentary gift from spa village. Another lady came to escort me to the waiting area, which I was then joined by the family friends. We were asked by the masseuses what kind of massage style did we like and we requested for Balinese massage. We were given a cup of hot ginger herbal tea for a refreshment and took our time to relax before we proceeded with our last treatment, which was a nice one hour and 15 minutes worth of Balinese massage! There were so many other types of massage worth having a dilemma!!

We were escorted to two different rooms. As soon as I entered the room, first thought came to my mind was "Wow!!! The massage pavilion was humongous! It was nicely decorated with a luxurious touch! The marble floors and porcelain sinks made the bathroom fits only for a princess like me, ahem! :) Jokes aside, the entire room made me feel so comfortable and I felt like I was being treated like a princess. My masseuse, who was a Balinese, escorted me to my "bed" where I would be lying face down. Before she started, she asked me which oil I would like her to burn on the oil diffuser. I asked her the differences and she told me each one had their own purposes, such as relaxing, refreshing and I can't remember for the life of me what was the third oil for. Anyhow, I chose the relaxing one and I did have trouble choosing one. I laid down on my belly and she started her magic touch. I did request her to only use medium strength because I was afraid it was gonna hurt but it didn't hurt at all. I didn't remember from which point but I did fall asleep whether it was halfway through or not even halfway through. By the time I was awake, it was because from a distance I could hear someone calling out for me. It was the masseuse asking me to turn around. I continued to fall asleep while she massaged my limbs and my head. Alas, the time went through too quickly! She woke me up gently by patting on my arm to tell me the heavenly session was over.

I gingerly tried to straighten up myself because I was still sleepy and she guided me to the wooden chair where a hot ginger herbal tea was waiting for me. I breathed in the smell of the herbal tea before slowly sipping it. I also took my time to enjoy the sea view just right outside the pavilion through the bar. It was one of the best experiences in my life which money can buy. Sitting there alone, I felt sadness in my chest because I was enjoying this serene view by myself and wished my husband was with me. It would be a perfect mini honeymoon for us but I snapped up to reality quickly and reminding myself I would get to see him soon and there are many experiences we will build in the future together. I stood up and told the masseuse I was ready to leave. She guided me to the changing room where everything started and I unpinned my key and retrieved my stuff and got changed. I folded the batik cloth carefully and inhaled the aromatherapy oil scene absorbed by the cloth because it was rubbing against my skin throughout my massage session. I walked back out to the waiting room and waited for my other 2 comrades. They came out eventually and we shared our experience. We waited for the chauffeur to pick us up from the main entrance of the spa village and he dropped us off near Royal Bay Beach Club where we would meet the rest of the family members and have lunch. This resort is the perfect place to spot a number of hornbills, like this guy over here.

The guys were leaving by the time we arrived but we decided to have lunch here. We looked up the menu and there were a variety of international, as well as Asian delights to choose from. We ordered two entrées to share and one of them was a pomelo salad with prawns drizzled with their special in house dressing. I must say pomelo salad is my new favourite now! I tried it twice over two different restaurants and they were so yum!! I like pomelo as a fruit but I never thought of mixing it with other veggies as a salad!

The second entrée was a pesto pasta with prawns and it was also very yum, except the pomelo salad still impressed me more than the pasta. We ordered the pasta because when we arrived at the restaurant, my brother-in-law told me it was very delicious and that we must try. It was still a very satisfactory choice.

Now, as for the main, we shared a dish called "Golden Pillow". This dish is THE STAR!!!
I must say the presentation of this dish wasn't the best but it was completely understandable due to the nature of its appearance. Why is it called a golden pillow? Well, it comes with this massive bun and the bun was already sliced into 4 sections and you are meant to peel the outer layer of the bun just like when you do with a banana skin. Inside the bun, there was curry chicken wrapped in a baking paper and then it was stuffed inside the bun. The bun was so soft and fresh and the curry chicken was so tender. The curry gravy was quite spicy, so beware of that! Apparently this golden pillow dish is a native dish originated from Ipoh. It was such a perfect combo! Well, the photo below is not the most mouth watering photo because there was no other way for me to make it look pretty but as cliché as it sounds, don't judge the book by its cover. The curry was much tastier than it looked.

After the heavy main, we ordered a dessert to share. We chose to have a sago with Malacca brown sugar, coconut milk and a slice of dragonfruit. When it came, the family friend noticed it was too sweet, for her health purposes, we asked for another one with the coconut milk and Malacca brown sugar to be separated from the sago and they gave it to us with no additional cost! Yay!!!

It was by far one of the best sagos I have ever tried!! We took no time to devour the whole thing and we didn't even exchange a word. We just nodded and looked at each other in agreement. When it comes to good food, I guess no word exchange is required and language barrier is not an issue. We left the restaurant with our happy stomaches. We then took a walk back to the lobby of the resort but on our way back, we stopped by a souvenir shop, where I bought a white top with a small Pangkor Laut Resort logo at the front of the shirt for my husband as a small gift. After that, I walked back up to the hill villa to drop off my paper bag from the souvenir shop and I had to get ready for dinner at Uncle Lim's again tonight because tonight is the last night of our stay. Instead of walking the long way although the view was a million dollar view, we took the shuttle to Uncle Lim's instead. On our way, we saw the "celebrity", Uncle Lim himself, was walking towards the restaurant. We had some similar dishes as previous night with slight variations. We also got to try the infamous banana fritter, which was super delicious! One of the most delicious Banana Fritters I've ever tried! You must go there just for the sake of trying out their banana fritters. After dinner, Uncle Lim came to each table to greet the guests, had some chit chat and he also took a photo with everyone. He came to our table and chit chat with the folks. We managed to take a group photo as well but not with my camera. Rest assured if you dine there, you'll get to see the man behind the restaurant's success.

I took the exact same photo during the day and this is the night view from Uncle Lim's.

After dinner, we decided to walk back to my sister's FIL villa and chill out there. My sister asked me if I would like to go back now and video chat with my husband. I seized that opportunity to say yes! First of all, it would be quite boring for me to chill out at their villa because the boys were fishing and the mums were busy attending to their children and gossiping away. I was the only lonely soul wandering around. My sister showed me the path back to our villa and it was a mere 10-minute walk. I took my own sweet time and snapped a couple of photos because no two exact same photos look the same during the day and night. The night cool breeze was comforting and I didn't feel so lonely anymore.

This is the walkway to the lobby. I should've waited until there was no one to snap a shot! :(

Upon arrival at the library, I found my favourite spot again. This time by the power point where I could charge my laptop and chat with my husband. There was no one in the library and I was by myself again. I shared with him about my spa experience and I also told him I bought him a small present. Halfway through our conversation, I saw my sister's family walked by the library and not long after, my sister walked by too. They went back to their villas and I continued to chat with my husband. I told my husband that it was the last night of our stay and we were leaving the next morning in the afternoon back to collect our cars and go home. By 10 pm, I told my husband that I should get back to the villa because I would get up early tomorrow morning to FaceTime with him again before we left. I went home and had a brief chat with my sister. We didn't have enough time to chat heart to heart because my sister was always busy with her kids. When I was staying with her, she had to squeeze in some free time to chat with me in between kids' napping time and before the kids went to bed.

The next morning, I got up at 8 am and started packing up to go home. I decided not to join breakfast today and strange enough, I had a bad craving for Indonesian instant noodle, pop mie and my sister happened to buy one prior to our trip. I asked for her permission to devour the instant cup noodle but turned out that particular flavour was very disappointing! I should've had my last buffet breakfast downstairs!! After my pitiful breakfast and all packed up, I put my bag aside near the door and equipped with only my laptop bag, I danced my way down to the library. I decided to use my phone to FaceTime with my husband instead of laptop. I sat outdoor this time. They set up some lovely bamboo couches outdoor and I just sat there all loosen up and soaked my skin with the warmth from the sun. I showed my husband where I was sitting and I flipped the camera around so he could see my surroundings. I told him we were leaving at noon and I needed to be at the lobby by 11.30 am. I was the only one who was ready, so I took my own sweet time to chat with my husband until the time came that I had to walk to the lobby. I also played my favourite music to fill in the gap while waiting. I left this resort with a different feeling to when I first stepped into this resort or even before we departed. Initially, I thought I wouldn't enjoy this trip because there were so many families with kids and I was the only one without my other half. However, having spent some nights by myself, I got to absorb the true beauty this resort had to offer without all the disruptive noise. I got to reflect on myself and thought, this place was astonishingly beautiful!

Sometimes, I need some space by myself in order for me to change my perspective and that moment would come where things are not as bad as I thought it was. After I hung up from my husband, I waited at the lobby for the rest to join me and checked out from the resort. The staff then collected our bags and transported them onto the speedboat. The staff were kind enough to take some photos for us and they all stood at the port and bid us farewell. They were still visible as the boat drifted away from the port and they kept waving to us up until we couldn't see them anymore as the speedboat drifted further away. This trip was an eye opener for me and there are many more beautiful places I would like to visit and next time, there will be me with my special someone :)

Easter in Tasmania (My Third Trip)

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 10:03:00 +1000

I have previously blogged about my trip to Tasmania in 2012 here and here and at that time, we went there with Spirit of Tasmania and we came back to Melbourne via plane. This time we decided to go by plane just to save time because we were only going to spend 3 days there. Although Easter holiday started from Good Friday all the way to Easter Monday, however the cheapest flight ticket going to Tassie was on Saturday early morning. Ticket leaving Melbourne to Tassie on Good Friday was still very expensive and Spirit of Tasmania ticket was more expensive than flight ticket, so duh! No need to be an expert in maths to figure out taking plane was more economic than the cruise. We had our itinerary sorted out 2 months beforehand and we also booked a hire car this time. Unlike my previous trip where we used bus 11 a.k.a our own feet to explore Tasmania. We,or rather I realised it would be stupid to explore the vast state of Tasmania by foot again. When I first visited Tasmania back in 2010/11, I had a friend who hired a car too so we could explore the mountains etc. Hence, I suggested to my friends that we should hire a car to explore Tasmania's finest mother nature.

Here's our itinerary and I will also tell you how it was the stupidest itinerary ever, but hey! You never learn until you experience it and that's kinda the whole point of travelling with your friends. You endure each other, you drive each other crazy, you give ideas and you compensate each other's weakness and most important of all, you experience this together and hopefully, become wise together. I personally think that when people think that travelling is only a waste of money and you need to have lots of money to travel, that's such a shallow thinking. First of all, travelling is not about how much money you spend, it is about the experience. It's about discovering yourself even more, learn to deal with problems that might arise and at the same time have fun and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. I guess travelling on your own or with a small group of friends are different compared to travelling in a guided tour. You're in your safe bubble when you're travelling in a guided tour and you don't tend to mix with the locals and learn to find your own path from point A to B and you only see all the touristy thing when you're on a tour, snap some photos with the landmarks and that's it. When you find your own path, you might discover things along the way and you might come across some obstacles. Sometimes it can be dangerous but that's the thrill. Back to itinerary by the way...

So we started from landing in Launceston airport, then we moved on straight away to collect our hired vehicle from the cheapest rental car joint ever compared to other major players such as budget, hertz etc. We got ours from Bargain car rental but this is the website we visited, Launceston Airport Car Hire. I can't quite remember the cost to hire the car for 3 days but I think it was approximately $245 ish or just a bit more for 3 days including standard insurance but you have to pay $2000 excess if damage is done to the car (i.e. accident etc). I think if you want to avoid paying excess in case if you do get involved in an accident, you may choose to upgrade the insurance cost to $80 a day. If you are a paranoid person, then you might want to go for that option. After we picked up our baby for the next 3 days (it was a Hyundai Accent), we drove down to the nearest Coles to pick up some food and drink to stock up in the car because we were going on a road trip from north to south. Given that it was Easter holiday and nothing is opened and it was also a Saturday, that was the best decision we made. We picked up some snacks and hot cross buns and a couple litres of water (not the healthiest food but would do for the many hours that we needed to drive) to munch on along the way. We drove just slightly more than 2 hours from Launceston Airport to Hobart city and I must say the road in Tasmania was bumpier than the road in other states in Australia that I have visited. Back in Melbourne, I could at least apply an eyeliner whilst in a moving vehicle. In Tasmania, I could barely draw my eyebrows properly. I had to draw bit by bit everytime we hit the traffic light. Vain, I know.

Another thing about driving in Tasmania is, there are waaaaaaaaay too many small animals' carcasses on the road. I guess Tasmania has one of the biggest cases of road kill compared to major cities in Australia and it would have to come naturally as Tasmania is a natural state built on natural mountains and lakes. I swear the population of animals there is more than humans. After a couple of days, we were more used to seeing dead wallabies on the road. So, if you ever decide to visit Tasmania and drive whilst you're there, please drive carefully and try to avoid driving at night. I will tell you why a bit later on down this entry. After what seemingly the longest drive or so we thought, we finally arrived in Hobart city (the biggest city in Tasmania).

If you google Hobart Waterfront, you will most likely come across this image, except I took this myself. I honestly do not have any idea what those buildings are and what significance they bring but I found them in Hobart and Launceston so they must mean something.

We were starving to death, so we drove to Salamanca to check out the market and see what we could get. It was so busy that Saturday and there were so many cars on the road visiting the market. We only found a one-hour parking spot so we did not have time to eat in a proper restaurant plus visiting the market. We decided to ditch the idea of eating in a proper restaurant and just grab what we could find in the market. The market is pretty much like Victoria Market in Melbourne on Sundays where there are stalls selling street food and hand-made crafts. Tasmania is well known for their wood quality, so the market sells heaps of wood crafts. They also sell honey, tea and knit-wear.

Within Salamanca place, there are more restaurants and at night there are a couple of bars around. I'm not sure if they have night clubs. Most probably not. Although Hobart city is pretty lively during the day, but I had been there when it was night time and there was literally nothing to do there. After visiting the market and because our parking time was up, we went for a walk near Wrest Point Casino Derwent River and we took a stroll.

We had to leave Hobart by 3 pm so that we could get to Port Arthur Historic Site where our first accommodation was before night time because we thought we could visit the Historic Site and take some photos there but then I realised we wouldn't be able to get in without paying even though the motel we were staying was literally next to the Historic Site and it was not cheap to go in there. They do guided tour during the day and they do ghost tour during the night. We had booked our ghost tour for the night but because you can't take photos at night, we thought we could sneak in from the hotel when we arrived but they fenced it off to prevent people from sneaking in :( The ticket to enter the site during the day is $32/adult I think and when we arrived there, it was already 5.30 pm and they close at 6.30 pm. The sales girl was willing to reduce it to $18 pp but I told my friends it wouldn't be worth it although I must say, the view was magnificent during the day because I had been there during the day on my first trip but during my first trip, I didn't have time to join the ghost tour. So I wanted to make it up this time. We had a bit of time before leaving Hobart and because we didn't buy dinner package along with the ghost tour (you have option to get dinner plus the tour or just the tour). We thought it was quite expensive, so we decided to only purchase the tour ticket but we realised there is nothing to eat at night in Port Arthur, so we had to eat first before the tour at night. We stopped by Mures Upper Deck where they sell seafood varieties and we got ourselves fisherman's basket to share.

They were fish, calamari, prawns and scallops with fries shared between the 3 of us. We were still full from the frankfurt sausage we had from the market, so this was plenty. During our 3 days trip, I must say we didn't have any proper meal because we spent most of our time in the car road tripping and it was hard to find a nice place to eat. We had to just make do with what we could find. I also blog about food as some of you might notice, unfortunately I didn't find anything blog worthy when I was in Tasmania (food related I mean). It took us about an hour and 20 minutes to reach Port Arthur Historic Site and the scenery along the way was breathtaking. Unfortunately I didn't take any photo throughout the journey from Hobart to Port Arthur and it was challenging to take a good photo in a moving vehicle and we couldn't stop as well because the road where we were driving on was fairly narrow and fairly busy. So, stopping in the middle of the road was out of the question.

A little bit of introduction about Port Arthur Historic Site...

Port Arthur was occupied by secondary offenders (those who re-offended after they arrived in Australia from Britain) back in 1850s. It was pretty much a prison. There is also a chapel which now is pretty much a ruin and the chapel was never fully constructed. It is now just a skeleton of a church which really gives you an eerie feeling at night especially when you're attending a ghost tour in the midst of heavy rain. The prison was then closed in 1877. There was a property development opportunity afterwards and some buildings were torn to build houses. However, there were growing ghost stories in the community and it quickly became a tourist attraction in the 1920s where people would visit the prison ruins. It was then taken over by the National Parks and Wildlife Service who received fundings to restore and manage the site. When you visit Hobart, it is almost in your "must-do-list" and you have to visit in the morning and at night because you would get two different atmospheres. In the broad daylight, it is a magnificent view with the strangely beautiful ruins that look like small castles overlooking the peninsula. At night, this is the last place you would want to take a walk by yourself because of how eerie this place is in the dark. Pity it wasn't raining heavily when we went there because the lightning and rain would have given a bigger scare to all the attendees.

Unfortunately because we were not allowed to take a photo with flash (some people do but I respect the rule so decided not to take photos with flash), I only took 2 photos while on tour because it was too dark to take any photo.

This is the photo of the chapel I mentioned above. The uncompleted chapel and according to our tour guide, a few attendees in the past "spotted" a woman peering through the window at the very top right hand corner (the lit part) but there is no floor foundation so there is no way a normal human being could stand up there. Well the truth remains a mystery. You're probably wondering how did we walk about exploring this massive compound in pitch black. Well, not entirely pitch black. The tour guide brought a few lanterns with him and they were dispersed between all of us with mostly kids who were asked to hold the lanterns (because kids would like to be given a sense of responsibility. This is basic child psychology in order to keep them interested). It was still extremely dark because there were so many of us and the lanterns didn't lit beyond certain range.

These 2 photos were taken with my Samsung Note 4 as I chose not to use flash with my proper camera. No one in our group took any photo at all so I was a bit embarrassed to showcase my semi DSLR camera taking photos with flash. Then!!!! I saw the other group filled with paparazzi popping flashes everywhere they went. I wished I was in that group :(

To sum up my experience with the ghost tour, it was definitely better than the Sydney's ghost tour I attended a few years ago with my sister purely because of the setting which made a massive difference. In Sydney, the ghost tour was held in the city and the surrounding areas. The tour guide would be telling ghost stories next to a bar although we were standing in some abandoned buildings but you could hear the music pumping next door. Not a very ghostly atmosphere. In comparison, the atmosphere was perfect in Port Arthur. Although the stories were pretty ordinary ghost stories with occasional scare made by the tour guide by suddenly stomping his feet onto the floorboard and frightened everybody but being in each site really did take me back to the events happened in there hundreds of years ago. For those with weak hearts and do believe in ghosts and are scared of ghosts, maybe just brace yourself if you still want to go. Those with brave hearts should definitely give it a try just for the experience and for those who make fun of ghost stories and who are just going to troll around, then don't waste your time and money. Maybe just visit the site during the day and that would be enough.

This was taken from the accommodation where we stayed for 1 night before the ghost tour. There was a fence separating the motel and the site and this view was pretty much what I could take from where I stood and there is more than what's in the picture. This is only 5 percent of what constitutes Port Arthur Historic Site. We stayed at Port Arthur Motor Inn which wasn't the greatest place to stay but it offers all the basic features you need, a queen comfy bed and a single bed so perfect for the three of us and any additional adult and bed, you just have to pay $25 per adult. There were complimentary tea, coffee and two water bottles. There was a split system heater/cooler, towels, bathroom amenities etc. Everything was kind of old but the room was clean. It was pretty cheap too and we slept like logs because we needed to get up by 5 am. We were planning to leave for Cradle Mountain by 6, however it was still too dark to drive and driving in the dark in the middle of rural Tasmania isn't the brightest thing to do. So we waited until dawn and we started our longest journey to Cradle Mountain.

Sometimes I am so frustrated how no matter how good your cameras are, there is just no way it can capture perfectly what your eyes see. This photo in real life was a hella more incredible that what it looks here. It was before sunrise as we started making our way to Cradle Mountain. We made a couple of stops along the way because at times, there wasn't any stop for the next 1 to 2 hours of journey. We had to stock up on snack, food, water and empty our bladders.

We stopped by a small town called Brighton to fill up our petrol and fill our stomach at the nearby bakery. We were then advised by one the ladies in the petrol station that Cradle Mountain was still 4 hours away. This was when everything went wrong. First of all, I thought the famous lake St Clair was where Cradle Mountain was because it's called Cradle Mountain - Lake Saint Clair National Park. So we thought they were the same thing!! Little did we know that from Lake St Clair, THE Cradle Mountain was still 3 hours away from Lake St Clair!!!

Second of all, we tried to be smartass about the route we travelled and I (yes, me) suggested to take the shortest route to Cradle Mountain via B11 (PLEASE AVOID THIS ROUTE UNLESS YOU"RE DRIVING A 4-WHEEL DRIVE). That was THE most painful route because it was an unseal road and length of the road was a pretty much 1.5 hours drive so imagine how long that route is plus we were driving slower than a walk of a turtle. We didn't even want to imagine how dirty our car was once we got out of the car. It was the shortest route but there was a reason why the GPS said we should get there in 4 hours instead of 3 hours. After what seemed like a forever road trip moment, we arrived at Lake St Clair National Park which we all thought we had arrived at Cradle Mountain. We were celebrating and proud of our effort in making it there, at least until the lady at the counter shattered everything. We were told that Cradle Mountain was still 3 hours away from Lake St Clair! At that time, I was going to pass out but we held on tight because regardless, our next destination was Launceston, so we had to go pass Cradle Mountain to get to Launceston anyways and we still had time because it was about 11 am when we arrived at Lake St Clair even though we were cutting it just fine. We decided we should take a quick look of Lake St Clair before pulling our second leg of journey to the great Cradle Mountain.

Of course we just had to take our selfie stick to capture those beautiful moments with all of us in it and not having to get people to take a photo for us like what I had to do everytime with my Olympus. A selfie stick is just so convenient! If only someone creates one too for DSLR instead of a tripod :) A tripod is great but not a great selfie tool. I can understand though how people get so worked up when they see people with selfie sticks in public. Well, we only use this when we are travelling not in a crowded place because it can hurt people practically and it looks annoying. Can't blame some of those countries that ban selfie sticks to be used in popular landmarks across the world.

Afterwards, we walked to the nearest cafe still within the national park to grab a take-away sandwich. I ordered a chicken sandwich and it was really good. I could taste that it was made fresh but that was the third mistake we made. We went back to our car and were back on the road on a mission again. We made another stop at Queenstown to fill up tank at the petrol station again and no one was paying attention to the way we should go. We didn't know what happened but almost 45 minutes down the road and an extremely windy road later to the point where my friend next to the driver almost threw up, we entered an unsealed road again. I felt somehow very wrong about it and I asked my friend who was the designated driver to stop. I quickly look at my phone GPS. Now, unless you use Telstra network, any other networks pretty much don't work. HOWEVER, your phone has a satellite system which will tell you where you are and do you know that if most of you own smart phones and have google maps installed, the blue dot that moves when you walk/drive, that blue dot keeps updating even though your phone doesn't have network signal. I guess it works based on satellite positioning and it works like a compass on an offline map. Luckily the maps already loaded the details when we were in some area where the mobile networks worked, so at least I could still view the map in details. We quickly turned back to queenstown back to where the petrol station was but we already wasted almost 2 hours on the road. Thankfully throughout the whole ordeal, I didn't throw up because I don't get motion sickness. it literally takes a lot for me to experience motion sickness. The only time that happened to me was when I was a child travelling from my hometown to a small island off Malaysia called Penang Island via a small ferry and the waves made me a bit sick but I didn't throw up.

When the three of us travel together, each of us has a role. One is a designated driver, one is a spare driver and I am the map reader because no one else in our group could read a map, especially a paper map. I don't know how this happens but I am pretty good at reading maps and I can pretty much direct myself with a manual maps a.k.a Melway. I started reading maps as soon as I got my hands on google maps before iPhone was born. There you go, breaking the stereotype that women can't read maps!

The scenery along the way was incredible. Just to show how natural everything is in Tasmania. It would literally take your breath away and make you forget all the problems in the world.

We arrived at about 4.30 pm because after we found the sign saying Cradle Mountain take a right turn, it was still another half an hour drive to the information centre. We couldn't wait to see what this place has to offer after driving for almost 9 hours in one day.

Lake Dove is the iconic lake in Cradle Mountain and you can do so many types of walk but to get the most out of it, you need to arrive early in the morning to do as many walks as you want because Cradle Mountain is massive. They also organise a night walk for hardcore hikers and it really looks fun. I used to do a lot of night walks in the mountain and jungles when I was a teenager, very much like my dad who loves outdoor adventures too. We could only do a short walk to the nearest lookout which took only 5 minutes walk unlike the infamous 6-day overland track walk. I think it costs about A$3000 ++.

First look at Lake Dove

The lake itself takes about 2 hours to walk around the lake. Just imagine the rest!! I wished we arrived earlier :(

Now you get why our itinerary was a complete fail and why we should've started from Launceston and work our way down to Hobart.

It was only a 5 minutes walk up to that massive rock up there from the mouth of the lake. That was pretty much the only outlook we could check out given the time constraint.

The view from top of the rock. Imagine how beautiful it would look from up the mountain. Still regretting until this date that we didn't have more time to do more walk.

Took this random waterfall (It's called Pencil Pine Waterfall) from another lookout before we started leaving Cradle Mountain at about 6 pm when it starts getting dark. It was another 2.5 hours drive to Launceston city from Cradle Mountain.

Driving at night from Cradle Mountain was not fun at all. It was pitch dark just solely lit by the moonlight and headlights. We had to use high beam feature most of the time because it was way too dark and too many small animals tried to cross the road. There was one time this squirrel was crossing and decided to stop in the middle of the road. My friend had to flash the headlight to shoo the squirrel away. It was an extremely harsh condition to drive and was potentially hazardous for us. The car could slip down and roll off the cliff if we were not careful enough by avoiding animals, I'm not surprised there are so many cases of road kill in Tasmania because drivers' safety always comes first. No offence to animal activists out there.

After arriving at Launceston, we made a quick stop to take away some food to eat at our second accommodation at 96 on Arthur. The food in Tasmania was quite horrible actually. Especially the Asian food which didn't surprise me considering they're the minority and there is not much competition going on.As it was already late at night by the time we arrived in town, the receptionist left the key in a safe box outside our apartment. Yes, there is a safe box attached outside the entrance to the apartment. All you do is to key in the unique code given by the receptionist and you're all good to go. We made the booking under 2 people, so there was only a queen size bed and I intended to sleep in the living room but I ended up squeezing in the middle of the bed between my two other friends. This place is again, an old but clean kind of accommodation. They have a kitchen area, a living room, a TV with DVD player, bathroom with a bathtub and other bathroom amenities. It costed us I think $99 a night per apartment. How cheap is that??

The view from the balcony outside our apartment,

Next day at 10.00 am, we checked out the apartment, left the key back in the safe box and off we went to explore Launceston. First we made a stop at the waterfront to get something to eat. It was Easter Monday, so we were not surprised that most of the restaurants opened at 11.30 am. There was only one that opened early and naturally, people flocked to that restaurant. I would say the food was average so I didn't bother taking any photo and on public holiday especially Easter, most restaurant attracts 15% surcharge!! That applies in other states in Australia too!! How unfair?? We have to use our tax money to pay for people's employees when in fact the bosses should pay with the profits they earned! Anyway, I'm not the only one whinging about it. There were some ladies queuing behind me and I swear all they talked about was how expensive the surcharge was and how unfair it was etc.
Oh and dare I say the portion served was rather small. I am not a big eater and it was pretty small for me. For confidentiality reason, I would not name the restaurant we visited but if you've been to Launceston, you'd probably know which one I'm talking about.

We took a bit of a walk on the boardwalk alongside the water before we made our journey to the infamous Cataract Gorge.

It was probably a 10-minute walk from the waterfront to the entry to Cataract Gorge walking trail/hiking trail. There are two ways to explore Cataract Gorge. One is via the zig zag track which is more challenging (the name of the track is pretty self-explanatory). We did zig-zag track a few years back and because we didn't have time to finish it, we had to go back to head to the airport. This time, we started early so we could explore a bit more. We decided to take the walking trail which is on the opposite side of the zig zag track. These tracks run parallel to to each other separated by the Tamar River.

In this picture, this was taken when we were about 10-15 mins down the walking trail. On the left hand side, it's the walking trail, on the right hand side, it's the zig zag track.

Much further down the trail, we discovered something we didn't get to see the last time we were there. There was this family picnic area with a small cafe and the view was amazing. The area is called The Basin. They even have this Cable Hang Gliding thing for enthusiasts. It looked fun but we didn't try it.

From the basin, you can walk along the bridge shown in the photo across and it will take you to the zig zag track so you can make a whole round back to the entrance. We were running out of time so we decided to make our way back to the town and get ready to drive to the airport. Our flight got delayed by half an hour and we found out it was because the Sydney Airport was shut down for half an hour due to the storm. Hence, our flight got delayed too because delay rarely happens with Jetstar. With Tiger Airways, it happens more. I was terribly sad when I left. I'm not sure why but I felt some sort of attachment with Tasmania. The locals are friendly, I felt calm just breathing the fresh air and looking over to the great mountains. Everywhere you go, you can see mountains far ahead. It was just breathtaking and I always have a soft spot for outdoor adventures. I wish I could just go bush walking every single time and get paid for it. Dream on.... I guess at this stage, I won't be returning anytime soon but Tasmania is definitely one of my favourite places to visit and to find my soul amongst other states I've visited in Australia. If I have another chance, my next trip will be to visit Northern Territory, possibly Kimberley. By the time we were at the airport, we started counting how many hours we spent in the car and we worked it out to be 15.50 hours in total! Don't make the same mistake we did, plan smart!!

Until my next holiday, Adiós!!

La Luna Bistro

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 15:36:00 +1100

Twenty seven!!!!

Just last week, I celebrated my 27th birthday with some friends and Le Boyfriend. For my pre-birthday celebration, Le Boyfriend booked a place (which I will not name for privacy purposes) at Crown Complex. It is a renowned Seafood restaurant and the display at the window showcases some very enticing seafood varieties. Everyone who walks past this restaurant can't help but to peer inside the restaurant to check out what they have to offer and it is always busy whenever I walk past. So when Le Boyfriend asked where I'd like to have dinner to celebrate my birthday, there was not even a doubt in my mind as I firmly said "Let's go to that place". I was very much looking forward to the dinner as I had planned the year before to go there. I dressed up and got myself ready to rock the night.

As it turned out, the dinner was a massive disappointment. We had a seafood platter which costed $105 per person and everything was way too cold to my liking. There was no doubt the seafood varieties were fresh but they were just too cold and the sauces weren't amazing either. I was absolutely not impressed and it kind of ruined my mood for the night because Le Boyfriend paid for the meal and it wasn't a great meal. I've personally had a better seafood platter in Geelong with a bunch of girlfriends and it only costed $45 pp for 3 girls to share. I was so extremely let down by that restaurant and have vowed not to return again. They also offer a 6-course meal which should be what we should've ordered but because the 6-course meal barely has seafood in it and we're in a seafood renowned restaurant, we set on the seafood platter instead. Furthermore, when we walked out, we saw the seafood platters just sat on the ice ready to go so no wonder they were way too cold because they were all ready to go.

Ok, I'll take back my words, I shouldn't say I'm not returning ever again. Afterall, I think to be fair, I should return to the restaurant not in the near future to try other options in their menu. Maybe a fish fillet or something else seafood-related.

Outfit of the Night: Dress from Zara and heels were presents from 5 years ago from Charles & Keith in Korea.

We went to watch Focus starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie after that just to cheer me up after the average meal we had and I loved that movie so we went home in a happy mood at least.

We redeemed ourselves the very next day which was the actual day of my birthday. Two of my friends share the same birthday here in Melbourne and I was a bit sad when one of the girls who is also one of my BFFS in Melbourne was celebrating her birthday in my hometown this year. Yes I have Le Boyfriend with me but it's not the same without sharing it with another person who shares the same birthday as you. So when my other girlfriend's husband organised brunch together, I was super excited. She and her husband initially wanted to organise lunch at La Luna Bistro in Carlton but it was booked out, so we decided to have brunch in Richmond at Top Paddock which is one of my favourite brunch places and the food there is simply amazing along with the coffee but I will save the post about Top Paddock for another time. After brunch, we went for a walk and we discovered.. Well, thanks to my girlfriend, "I" discovered this awesome electronic shop that apparently has existed for 90 years!! It is THE most sophisticated sound system design and quality I've ever seen and heard in my life!! Some of you probably know this brand already. It's a Danish brand called Bang and Olufsen. It definitely caters to the high end niché market. One of the TVS featuring 360 turning point and built-in speaker costs A$37,000 so, go figure! When I have a house one day, I would like to have a home theatre with sound system installed from Bang and Olufsen. Hey we all can dream right? One of their speakers is fairly affordable, about $2990 and the quality is extremely good! You definitely invest your money in the modern design. It is one of the kind..

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Moomba Festival at Alexandra Garden in the city which is held every year mostly for families to hang out when the weather is still warm in March because from hereon, Autumn is just around the corner. There was really nothing much to see except there was also Japanese festival going on in Federation square and so many people turned up in their cosplay attires.

Kawaii ne~~~~ (Means so cute in Japanese)

After that, we had this idea to just walk in to La luna Bistro for dinner because my friends initially misunderstood and thought that Le Boyfriend and I were going to Crown Complex for dinner on the same day but it was actually the night before, so we decided to walk in to La Luna Bistro and try our luck. We were lucky to get seats and we had about 2 and a half hours before the next reservation was up but that was plenty of time for us because we only had 2 hours parking on the street.

I love the ambience at La Luna Bistro, it is a fine dining setting yet it is vintage-ish as well. The wait staff are interesting people and not the usual clean cut sleek hair to the back kind of style. They have more characters in them. It's the kind of place where you don't necessarily have to dress up to go there and be embarrassed when the wait staff talk to you in some foreign language when they mention their special menu for the night and all you can think of is "what the heck is this person talking about" while displaying your best smile and nod your head understandingly *faking it.

When we were there, there were mostly older patrons who dined in there interestingly. We can just assume those people were regulars there. Le Boyfriend and my friend's husband decided to order La Luna Beef Burger, bacon, pickles & cheese, fries A$25.50

I must say I wasn't particularly impressed with the burger. It was nice but I hardly get impressed with burgers in general. There are only a few places so far which have wowed me in terms of their burgers being their main selling dish. The fries though, was a different story. I loooove thinly cut fries compared to the thick style which you find a lot here in Australia. I like the french style. The fries in this place was also thinly cut and it came with a nice sauce to dip it with.

My girlfriend ordered their roast pork, crackling, caponata (eggplant, celery, capers, olives, roast garlic), A$42.50

I would give this dish 10 thumbs up if I had 10 thumbs. Just 2 nights ago, I celebrated my birthday with another friend at a Spanish restaurant in the city and I ordered their slow cooked pork and man.... A few hours later, I had a bad episode of gastro and had to rush to the nearest public toilet!! I had another one when I arrived home afterwards. I knew definitely it was the pork because my stomach reacts to food extremely fast if I ingest anything that's not cooked properly, especially chicken and pork. I wanted to order roast pork as well but because of my gastro episode 2 nights ago before we came to this restaurant, I was still a little bit traumatised. I was glad my friend ordered because at least we could sample her food. Oh boy, the skin was so crispy and the meat was soooooo tender. The crackling was absolutely..... crackling. No other way to describe it. All the garnishing that was served with this dish was a perfect match made in Heaven. My girlfriend is a person who is very hard to please but she loves her choice and that says a lot about how good their roast pork is.

My turn now, I ordered crisp duck leg, peas, asparagus, hazelnuts, pearl barley & herb salad, A$42.50

I think I've mentioned this so many times in the past and I'm still gonna mention it again, I'm not a fan of duck and it is a rare occasion where I would order a duck dish for myself as a main. Le Boyfriend loves duck and usually I sample a little bit from him but I have no idea why I wanted to try their duck when I was there. I guess I was tossing between steak or duck. I think I didn't feel like steak at the time so I chose duck and I was intrigued with the words "crisp duck leg" so I thought the skin must be crispy and yes!!

My first bite to it, I was immediately sent to cloud 9. The skin was super crisp and usually, if duck meat is overcooked, It can get really hard to cut through the meat because it gets a bit tough just like beef and the meat sticks to the bone but this one, you can cut though it so easily and it was so tender to the point that it just melted in your mouth but the meat didn't fall apart, meaning not too tender, it was just the right amount of time when the chef cooked it. Hats off to the chef! I really like this duck dish and everyone knows duck meat has less fat, hence I wasn't very full after I ate the whole thing. Le Boyfriend predicted that I wouldn't be able to finish the meal because I wasn't too hungry when we walked in and usually I don't finish my food unless I really like it. On the contrary, he didn't finish his food!! To be fair, he got greedy and he had some snacks before we went to La Luna and the beef burger was very filling plus it was not a wow dish. Everyone agreed the crisp duck leg was the best out of all 3. It was light and delightful. I would definitely like to go back to try their other dishes. Click here to check out their website and their details are as follows.. That's it until my next food adventure and hello 27!! Hopefully, I will be a tad wiser this year and I can be one more step closer to realise my dreams or alternatively, just keep dreaming!!

Olympus OM-D EM5 Sample Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 00:54:00 +1100

Hello girlfriends ~~~~~ and boyfriends~~~ It's been several months since my last update. It's because (excuses) ahem-- It's because I was busy with house inspections and moving etc. I don't know how else I should re-iterate this but I H-A-T-E M-O-V-I-N-G!!!!! I absolutely hate moving!! The forever packing and forever unpacking and cleaning and buying furnitures making you wallets/purses bleed. I'm not rich so I did everything by myself. I'm my own removalist, my own cleaner and my own handy man. Except for furnitures of course because I can't build stuff right. I ain't no carpenter. Took me months to find the "perfect" place to move but I've finally moved and settled down a little bit. I'm still waiting on a couple pieces of furniture which I've been waiting for almost a month now. So my bedside lamps have been sitting in the lounge room on the floor next to my couch and I still have boxes half opened sitting in the lounge. Anyways, point being of me not updating my blog is because I was absolutely flat out with moving and settling down at the new place.

Since moving, I haven't spent any time inside the house for longer than 8 hours because I really miss city life and I always find any excuse to go to the city and thank Goodness I have to pass through city every time I go home from work. Well, I did spend one Sunday on the couch all day and I absolutely LOVE it!!! I'm such a hyperactive person that I rarely could sit at home doing nothing for a long period of time. I feel useless otherwise.

Back to the point of this entry. Recently, I bought a new awesome camera (gone bankrupt now) and just sold my old Panasonic Lumix GF2 which had been with me for 4 years old. Surprisingly, I was a bit sad when I handed it over to the new owner :( and I'm hoping it would be treated with care. The new owner looks like he knows a lot about photography, more than I do anyways from the look of him tweaking with the setting and swiftly taking a sample shot. So, at least it is going to be used to the fullest potential. I'm such an amateur and I don't know why I would spend so much on a camera but who cares. I'm learning, ok! At least I admitted I know nothing about photography, not like many out there who claim they're experts but they're just wannabes.

I took my new toy, Olympus OM-D EM5 series which is a cheaper version of the newer series OM-D EM1 which costs a lot more expensive than the EM5. I think EM1 costs about $1700+ where as I got a good deal for mine, $999 with 3 interchangeable lenses. One for outdoor, one for indoor and one for portrait. I took my baby out for some test shots in Footscray Park last week and the shots (according to yours truly), were amazing. I absolutely have fallen in love with my new baby. There is still a lot to learn about DSLR camera and thankfully, because I bought my camera from Michaels Camera, I received a complimentary 3-hour photography class for beginner DSLR users and thanks to Olympus, I also received an exclusive one on one coffee and cake session with a qualified Olympus photography advisor who will teach you tricks about your newly purchased camera for 45 minutes!!! I was smittened!!! According to the sales guy from Michaels Camera, Olympus is the only brand that offers personalised service like this. I was going to buy a Canon or Nikon but I was convinced to convert to Olympus instead. I've booked my sessions but they're not until March/April :( In the meantime, I just have to put my super amateur skill on and please bear with me.

I'm not going to discuss specifications regarding this camera because there are a lot of professional camera review websites out there in the web and they will provide more details with full on tech jargons and everyone can play pretend to know what they are talking about. I know nothing about photography anyway so no point of me talking all s***s about things I don't know. No offence towards photography enthusiasts. Me, I only enjoy the end result of it. I enjoy looking and admiring good photos and sometimes I think I take good photos too. I have no photoshop skill whatsoever, so the photos I am showing below have very minimal editing and some don't even have any editing at all. So what you see are the raw potential of this camera.

Here we go... JENG JENG JENG

By the way, the setting is mostly in Auto mode as I am still learning but the ISO has been set at low as 100 in most of the photos as they are all outdoor photos. I know pretty much the basic stuff (i.e. adjusting appropriate ISO level when it is outdoor versus indoor). When you are outdoor, you're supposed to adjust the level of ISO as low as possible to increase the shutter speed. Whereas in low light environment, ISO level should range between 600-3200 depending on camera to decrease shutter speed in order to stabilise photo. Preferably using a tripod to make sure the image is still. The only downside is the photos may turn out grainy.

My test model for the day

I took this photo from a pretty far distance using the 40-150mm zoom lens and I love the result.

I find it extremely hard to shoot a moving animal because for obvious reason, they move all the time, hence it is so hard to capture a perfectly focused object. I wanted this bird to face me but it just refused to do so. It just kept showing its bum to me. Maybe I was too invasive but I made sure I stood at a pretty far range and moved quietly. I find that I actually love shooting animals and scenery because they're quite challenging.

If I could photoshop this photo, I would accentuate the feature of those feathers and make the hues darker to outline those beautiful feathers. The light was a bit bright. I should've used the UV filter to cover the lens. Maybe in my next experiment.

Yours truly. Again, just a bit too bright I guess. The sun was quite strong

Random cyclist along Maribyrnong River. This track is very popular amongst cyclists and heaps of people fish on this river and show off their boats.

View of Melbourne CBD from Maribyrnong River. The photo is not sharp enough.

Went to Vietnamese Lunar New Year festival in Footscray last week organised by one of the biggest Vietnamese community in Melbourne. It was very busy with live music, hundreds of food stalls, local community promoting their networks and other random stalls.

This guy is Japanese and man he can sing like a cowboy! He sings, plays guitar and harmonica at the same time. He usually basks around the city and this time he actually got invited to play on stage at the festival. He can sing country music extremely well and when I first heard him miles away, I thought he was American and boy I was wrong.

I absolutely love this zoom lens as the photo produced is still very crystal clear and it blurs out the rest of the unnecessary background such as this dude who was blocking my view.

His companion on stage.

I didn't want to post this picture because it is out of focus but since this lady was enjoying herself dancing and she was wearing traditional Vietnamese costume. So I thought I should share it with you guys.

That's it for my first experiment and if anyone has any photography tips to share, I'm willing to accept any suggestion with open mind. Please drop any comment down below and stay anonymous if you're more comfortable that way.

Once the Musical at Princess Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Tue, 7 Oct 2014 21:16:00 +1100

I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world right now. Why would I feel otherwise? Just over the weekend, I was invited to see a play that won 8 Tony Awards!! Not 2 or 4, it's freakin 8, including best musical! Let's rewind a little...

So on a Friday afternoon just when I was enjoying my lunch break at work. As per usual, I would check my emails, notifications, messages etc and I came across an email from the peepz at Nuffnang (let me take this opportunity to say I love you and thank youuuuu again for this) with eye bulging email subject "Ticket Offer". When I read the whole subject and content, I had to rub my eyes for a bit and re-read the email 10 times before I could believe it. I was offered an opportunity to see one of the best musicals in the entire world! Best of all, it felt like it was meant to be because I watched the movie just last year so I definitely knew by heart of the storyline. A friend of mine lend me the DVD last year when she was moving to another share house. She had to borrow some space in my room to store her belonging while she went back to her hometown. I was rummaging through her stuff with permission because she told me I could borrow some DVDs to watch in my spare time and she especially told me about this particular DVD called "Once". From the look of it, it doesn't look like anything special but she kept reminding me to watch it. The cover of the DVD showcases how many awards this movie won internationally including best original song that won Oscar in 2007. It says that the soundtrack in the movie became really famous and the movie was only funded with approximately €112,000. So out of curiosity, I watched the movie and indeed, I love the movie so much and I was so absorb into the storyline and even put myself in their shoes. I cried towards the end of the movie, that was how much emotionally involved I was with the story delivered by each of the main character.

As an introduction (well I know I know.. My introduction is way too long before I get to the bottom of it. I don't care. I'm so passionate about this particular post and if you can't be bothered reading line by line just skim through it). So where am I up to?? Ah introduction... So there are lots of things people in general don't know about me, including my close friends. One of them is I enjoy arts in a form of performance. I love orchestra, musical, ballet, anything that has to do with dancing and singing. Those were my childhood dreams. To be a dancer, singer, painter, pianist anything that has to do with arts. I didn't dwelve enough into it but I did learn a little bit of oil painting, black and white sketching, I can sing a little bit and I did perform on stage, danced in weddings etc. My parents never really wanted me to pursue arts but they did allow me to keep them as hobbies. I learned how to play piano a couple of months too then I stopped. They were my dreams and I appreciated those professionals who pursue these as their career and their performances and creations touch me to the deepest of my heart. I have tears running down my cheeks when I watch good performances because the artists convey their emotions through their performances and when it is genuine, audience can truly engage and feel the emotion shared by the artists. It is simply beautiful.

I've always wanted to watch a musical. I've been in Melbourne for 6 years now and before last week, I had never been to a musical in my entire life. Reason?

1. It's hard to find someone who's willing to go with you because a lot of people think that going to a musical is such a pretentious thing to do and only pretentious people who pretend to be of "higher rank" in society would go to a musical.
2. Even if you find someone who is not pretentious who genuinely enjoys a musical, it is quite costly to see one. Usually about $100 ++ which is completely worth it but at the same time, it is not a priority if you're not financially secure and are on a budget. Especially if you have a big family to
feed (not that I have anyone to feed yet but myself).

HOWEVER, after last week, I don't care I'm going to see a musical whenever I think there is a one worth seeing even if I have to go by myself because it is darn worth it. Considering how much dedication those artists pour in delivering the best performance ever. You gotta give some credits for them. If they don't have fans to support them, who else will??

So, back to last week. I was invited to see Once the Musical and yes, I was talking about the adaptation from the Irish movie Once directed by John Carney which was released in 2006. They actually create a musical out of it from producers John Frost, Barbara Broccoli & John N. Hart Jr. When I heard it from Nuffnang that the musical I was invited to see was Once the Musical, I almost fainted in disbelief. I'm exaggerating a little bit but you know what I'm trying to describe. It's like a small kid in a huge fancy toy shop. The rest of my day at work went so quickly because all I thought about was the possibility of watching Once the Musical live performed on stage in one of those fancy theatres with multilevel seatings and huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling just like in 19th century!

I quickly broke the news to La BF about going to the play. La BF is not a musical person, he doesn't watch it but he was open to the idea and he had never been to one before too, so he was happy for me. More like I forced him to be happy for me. I thought for the entire week of what dress to wear, what shoes, what kind of hair I should do etc which was the least important thing to think about compared to the play that I had been dying to see.

I think the musical is only showing until November but to be exact, check out ticketmaster or Melbourne Theatre Company website (MTC).

THE DAY couldn't arrive any quicker. I decided to wear something simple yet elegant for the night. I still have so many new dresses I haven't worn out, so perfect excuse and occasion to finally showcase them!

The dress was bought by La BF from Malaysia and the heels are from Joanne Mercer. Bag is a Christmas present from my colleague.

Selfie is a must! I'm seriously contemplating to get one of those selfie sticks but it just makes you look extremely silly!

Went to collect my envelope with tickets in it from the box office counter at Princes Theatre.

*Drum Rolls*

*Red carpet rolls*

I love musical theatres because they always have this glamorous classy feel to them where people dress up in their best dresses and suits and polished dress shoes with neatly folded handkerchief tucked in their front suit pocket. Suits just make men look so handsome regardless of age and gowns make the ladies look poise and elegant. The entire theme just matches the glamorous lights lit on the entire building of a theatre. Ok, enough credit on the theatre itself. Let's move on.

The printed glossy envelope with my precious tickets in it.

Ta - dah !!!

You can also purchase some merchandise from the musical such as t-shirts, CDs, booklets etc. Some staff member walk around with CDs and booklets held up in the air for sale. I believe the CD contains the original soundtracks from the musical. I already have those songs in my iTunes from the movie I watched last year so it was a bit of a bummer. Otherwise I would've bought it as a memorabilia.

While waiting for La BF to arrive, I helped myself with a bit of bubble. I don't drink and I did mention this in my posts but every now and then I'd like a sip or two and literally just a sip or 2 and I'd leave the rest on the bench. I'd like to be a bit pretentious sometimes walking around with a glass of champagne.

Minus the lipstick mark. That's not so classy.

There were I believe, lots of famous and influential local public figures who attended this musical that night because there was a red carpet rolled out with securities watching over the crowd gathered outside the theatre and there were professional photographer with cameraman capturing those Hollywood smiles displayed by public figures whom I have no idea until now who they were. I tried to entertain myself while waiting for La BF to arrive by watching who is who and had a little chat here and there with random people and my conversation always started off with "Can you please take a photo of me (because my partner is not here yet)". I think I could spot some bloggers too because they looked overwhelmed by the experience just like me but it was too awkward to approach them in case it turns out to be they're not a blogger and turn to me with a big frown and when I awkwardly excuse myself I can hear a whisper "What the heck? Who's she?" Ok, none of that happened by the way. La BF arrived in time and we made our way to door 4 which was located on the third floor.

Look at how busy the theatre is! It was full house the night I attended the play.

Admiring the architecture of the building while I was climbing up the stairs and please do not do this at home. For all you know, I could've fallen flat on my face.

For iPhone5 quality, my photos are not bad ok. Well, this one is kind of bad. Bad angle I would say completely doesn't do the beauty of the interior any justice.

I'm glad our seats were located just on the second row from the front. So even though it was located on the third floor, the seating position was still perfect because we could see the stage crystal clear and I felt really close to the stage. Plus no one was sitting in front of us. I was impressed and couldn't wait for the performance to start. There was some entertainment before the performance started but I missed it because I went in pretty much just right before the musical started. No camera is allowed inside the auditorium and I respected that so I didn't sneakily take any photo inside. I was given some photos that I am allowed to post here in my blog but I will say now that the photos do not belong to me and I did get permission to reuse these photos.

I'm not going to reveal the entire storyline because I don't do spoilers and that's when you have to see it yourself to be able to feel what I felt. However, to those of you who have seen the movie, the musical adaptation is extremely close to the movie itself in terms of the storyline, most of the scripts and of course the soundtracks are the same BUT I love the extra humour twist they put in the show. The movie itself already has a really good sense of humour but the musical is even funnier. There is some sarcasm humour in the play and there is also some literal humour in it. The entire auditorium was filled with laughter throughout the play. Oh and of course, there are Irish jokes in it it too. You know what I love about a musical the most? There is no "cut cue", there is no "replay". What you see is the spontaneity and the true skill of an artist. No stunt nothing. What you see is originality unlike when you see a movie in the cinema. Everything is pre-recorded. These artists perform live and if they screw up, they're done or they have to improvise on the spot. Everything on stage is almost like an impromptu experience except they're not impromptu, they did rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and when they go on stage, that's it! You can't screw up in front of thousands of audience. For a new play that won 8 Tony Awards, these artists have truly made it. The emotions each character displays through their scripts and songs were truly convincing. I felt happy when the characters were happy and I felt sad when the characters were sad. It's not like in a movie when I can sometimes zone out or look in my bag to find something. During the entire play, I did not take my eyes off the stage except when there was an intermittent break after an hour or so. At times, it literally felt like my heart stopped beating for a second.

My favourite soundtracks in this play is definitely "Falling Slowly" and "If You Want Me". When Tom Parsons and Madeleine Jones sang these songs, I had tears in my eyes and I got goosebumps!!

It felt different seeing it live on stage. I felt their pain and joy.

I believe this photo is from when they sang "Falling Slowly"

Both Tom Parsons and Madeleine Jones are extremely fantastic as "guy" and "girl" in the musical. The chemistry between them was so real and convincing that I was heartbroken and happy throughout the musical. He is extremely good in putting on his Irish accent despite being British and Madeleine Jones is from Sydney (You should be proud Sydney!!!). She is extremely brilliant with her Czech accent.

Needless to say, I love both of them so much!!

These characters both were stuck in their own world, lost and almost gave up on themselves. They met by fate and gave strength to each other and at the same time caused each other pain. What happened next, you'll have to see it yourself.

Casts: Gerard Carroll, Susan-ann Walker, Ben Brown, Anton Berezin, Keegan Joyce, Colin Dean, Lachlan Neate, Jane Patterson, Amy Lehpamer, Andrew Broadbent, Brent Hill, Greg Stone, Stefanie Jones and Paul Watson.

They were all amazing!!

Colin Dean as Billy is also one of my favourite characters in the musical. He was so funny and his character is meant to be gentle and a loving caring one in the inside but he is portrayed as this short-tempered over protective character on the outside. I love each character because they have such strong personalities and each to its own. They surely clash with each other when they interact but when they're all put together as a band, they play in a perfect harmony. The hilarious bank manager played by Anton Berezin was also amazingly funny and Keegan Joyce who plays Andre was such a melancholic character. If I have to keep going with each character's evaluation, I need to write another blog post for that. A secret gem behind this beautiful musical team is this tiny little girl who plays Ivanka. She is just the cutest little thing and she definitely plays her part well. She'll grow up and hopefully gets a leading role in a musical too!

Anyhow, my point is, you gotta book a ticket with ticketmaster to see Once the Musical before they wrap up in November because this is the kind of musical that will shake your heart, make you stronger and look at life differently. Their music and love story will truly touch your heart and their humour will see you laugh until you gag.

P.S: The musical received a standing ovation from the audience after it ends and until now, whilst I'm typing my experience out, I still can imagine being brought back to my perfect seat in the auditorium placing my palm in my chest and sigh because of how beautiful the story is and I usually forget a lot of movies plot but this one, I will never forget because how many times do you find the right person in your lifetime? The answer is "Once".....

If you do decide to go and see, I hope you will enjoy and share with me what you think of it.

A Day in Geelong and Torquay

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 21:11:00 +1000

It's been awhile everyone.. This is going to be a very short post on what I was up to last weekend. Considering it's been awhile I haven't talked about myself and I AM allowed to talk about myself and be a narcissistic person in my own blog. So there will be pictures of me attempting to be candid model but undoubtedly failed. Inspired by #ootdmagazine, those candid photos look more "natural" than the traditional look-at-the camera photos. Admittedly, I'm a bit obsessed with it at the moment. I have so much to do lately and yet so little time. Hence, couldn't find enough time to update my blog. However, when I read an article about Jack Ma, it was like a slap of reality in the face. He talked about how if you're still poor at the age of 35, you deserve it. Who doesn't know Jack Ma, a multibillionaire who founded and is the chairman of Chinese based Internet giant, Alibaba. Initially I thought, he was mean with that comment but after pondering on his quote, I knew he is right. Nobody will give you any sympathy if you're poor or haven't achieved anything by the time you're 35. You'd have wasted so much of your youth not doing anything meaningful/useful for yourself and/or others.

So, I decided, as a start, let's get back to updating my blog. The initial key thing to success from my perspective is self-discipline and perseverance. Once you start something, you have to maintain it or finish what you started or so they say. So there you go, a bit of Zen moment from me and I hope somebody or you people will find it a bit of a reality check moment. In the meantime, I balance it off with a bit of play time moments such as going to the beach, spending time with your close friends, enjoying good food and breathe in the awesome spring weather and absorbing plentiful of sunshine with the caution of UV light. It was such an Aaaaaaahhh moment just the past weekend because the weather was amazing. After what seems like forever winterland, the sun has finally come to rescue us miserable creatures who've yearned for the warm touch of sunrays on our skin (remember to slap on some sunscreen). It was a lovely day to visit the beach so off we went to Bell Beach in Torquay. It depends on where you're coming from, from Northwest, it took us one and a half hours to drive down to Torquay. Bell beach is popular for surfers during summer preferably because of the strong waves.

Isn't it such a beautiful weather???? The colour of the ocean in Bell beach is extremely blue and clear unlike the beach near metropolitan melbourne where it is grey. I know I know, the colour is the reflection from the sky not from the sea but honestly, st kilda beach is now getting really dirty. I don't enjoy going there anymore except for a run. Geelong and Torquay are heaps better.

Me in my candid model mode. Failed attempt. I know some of you must be like... What the heck was I wearing to the beach. There is a story in that, after I finished work on Friday, I had to straight away pick up my stuff and met my friends at the train station because I was staying over at a girlfriend's place that night. I didn't think I'd be going to the beach the next day so I was wearing the same clothes I wore the day before and it certainly was inappropriate attire considering how hot it was too during the afternoon. We looked like typical Asian tourists. If #ootdmagazine saw me, I would be shamed to death but well, do I seem to care? Not really.

Candid photo #2. Love the beach so muuuuuuuch!!!!! We didn't stay too long because we didn't bring our bathers. It was such a shame but there is always next time eh?

Candid photo #3 with Le BFF. Just in case you're wondering how candid photos are taken, just ask your friend to take lots of photos of you walking down the stairs or forward and you can choose the ones you like later on. I took 27 photos of 1 person and only selected a few nice shots. It does take a bit of an effort and make sure you have plenty of storage in your camera. I just used my old iphone5 to take these shots and not being sarcastic at all, they are not bad at all.

From there, we went to Geelong town centre for lunch and we decided to try Baveras Brasserie even though it looks expensive from the outside but hey, you gotta treat yourself sometimes especially when you have bad days and when you're depressed. Retail therapy, food therapy, travel therapy all in moderation I believe. Baveras Brasserie is located right at the pier and from inside of the restaurant, if you're lucky enough to get a good seat, you may be able to enjoy the view of the ocean.

It feels like you're dining in a cruise, except for a fact that it is stationary. The last time I did dine in a cruise, it almost made me sick when I went on Spirit of Tasmania a couple of years back. I did finish my food in the end but it wasn't easy to be honest. If you wanted to see the post, it is in one of my older posts about my Easter with Spirit of Tasmania.

We decided to share the seafood platter for 2 which comes with a pricey price tag of $130. There were 3 of us so it wasn't that bad. However, we were in the midst of deciding whether we should lock in the decision because we thought that if the seafood platter is for 2, that means there will only be 2 scallops and 2 oysters. The staff did confirm our fear but Le BFFS decided to order it anyways. We also order some bread as well although I must admit the bread was very average. The seafood platter though, was a whole different story. So from my past experience, often than not, seafood platter for 2 is not too big of a serve at all. It usually is enough for 2 but for 3 people, not sure about that. I had a seafood platter in fish market back in Sydney with La BF and although it didn't cost as much as this one, the serving was tiny and the platter was filled with chips. I also had another seafood platter experience in a more upmarket restaurant in Sydney and it was not comparable to this in any case. This one, broke my stereotype attitude on seafood platter and proved me wrong.

When I first saw a man who came out with these trays which initially looked more like high tea trays, I was gobsmacked. Well our jaws literally just dropped to the floor and nobody spoke a word for 2 seconds looking at each other. This is obviously THE champion of seafood platter that beats what's out there at the moment. On the bottom tray, we have chips with 2 dipping sauce, one of the dipping sauces was super duper yum, then we have oysters which they kindly gave 6 instead of 4. Not sure if it is part of the 2 persons deal or they put something extra. We'd like to believe it is something extra because there were 3 of us. We'll stick with that story because it would be disappointing otherwise. There was fish fillet, calamari and a small bowl of garden salad.

The oysters were super yum too and the fish fillet and calamari tasted super fresh. I think everything tastes fresh when you're eating at the pier. On the top tray, there are crab, more fish (fried this time), mussels and plenty of salmon. Again, I was not disappointed. One of my Le BFFS was already full halfway through so Le BFF and I had to finish what we started. They were so generous with the amount of mussels that we were struggling to finish it but we did because we didn't want to waste any of it. The salmon given was so generous too that it felt like it was growing more and more rather and less and less. I must say the crab was okay, wasn't the best out of the bunch. It was lightly seasoned so it retained the fresh ocean flavour. Overall, I super love the whole presentation and every bit of it was worth the money we spent. We did get the value of our money in this wholesome experience. It was definitely one of the biggest seafood platters I've ever seen and eaten in my entire life so far.

Click here to check out their website. In the meantime, I need to get back to my exercise routine because I've gained more weight than ever. Nooooooooooooo!! I need to get ready for my 4th year 5 km run this October, in 2 weeks time! Wish me luck and people, start doing something nice for yourself and/or others, will ya?

A True Thai Experience at Jinda Thai

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 22:57:00 +1000

Thai cuisine is probably one of my top 5 favourite cuisines. I suppose coming from Southeast Asia, it is not a wonder that I love Thai food just because the dishes are flavoursome and they are cooked with so many different spices and majority of the dishes is relatively spicy, so is Indonesian food. Hence, the more reason for me to love it. I am so fond of spicy food because I grew up with it and I must say over the years, my tolerance towards spicy food has decreased simply because I've stayed in Western country for 6 years now and understandably, I don't eat as much spicy food as I used to and the level of spiciness found here is just not the same as back at home. Let's face it, it's just not spicy enough! In addition, there are not that many Indonesian restaurants in Melbourne, so I have to find alternate cuisines to compensate my cravings for my hometown food. I can try to cook of course, but honestly, I love eating out too much. I do moderate my eating out behaviour by trying to eat healthily during the week and I would go crazy during the weekend by going on an eating spree. One important thing to make sure I am keeping a good health, is of course to make sure I do plentiful of exercise during the week. I'm training for my 5 kms run this October and I join group classes during the week/weekend too. So work hard, play hard, eat hard and exercise hard!

In order to compensate my cravings, I try a lot of altenative Asian cuisines leaning towards more of Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Thai. Of late, I have so much craving for Thai food and I've had Thai food for the past 3 weeks! I even got my friends and La Boyfriend into Thai food as well and now they are all infected with Thai food addiction. After my amazing Thai food experience in Sydney, it is only natural to want to find that same adrenaline rush feeling again when I had Thai food in Sydney. I almost gave up looking for close to authentic Thai food in Melbourne until I came across Jinda Thai. No, let me rectify that, I didn't come across it, my colleague showed me some mouth watering Instagram food photos which her friend posted from Jinda Thai. The location of this restaurant is almost impossible for me not to go because it is not that far at all. In fact, the best way to reach this place from the city is via the train from the city which will take less than 5 mins to get there and 1 minute walk from the station, literally. As the location is right at the famous traffic congestion area, you will need an incredible patience to find a parking near the area. So if you don't live in the city, it is quite a mission to get there but for a good food? Why not? At least you know you'll come out of the restaurant with a happy tummy. My only advice if you decide to visit this restaurant is, to make sure you book a table or be ready to wait at least 30 minutes if you walk in as this place is packed almost all the time!

The first time I went there with a friend, we waited for more or less half an hour during lunch time on a Saturday and we didn't make a booking. Lesson learned, so I called to make a booking for dinner on Saturday and they told me they were fully booked. So not giving up, we decide to walk in and alas! We had to wait for half an hour again but we could place our order before we were seated so when the seats were ready, the food would be ready to be served as well (given that the customer doesn't walk out and patiently wait which we did).

I love the set up of the restaurant but I took some really crap photos of the interior, the photos don't do any justice because the real view is 10 times better and because there were so many people, I didn't want to be too obvious trying to take photos and be completely Asian about it. I'll still show you just so you get a tiny bit of idea. It is a combination of Thai vintage and modern set up, it's almost hipster-ish.

Second photo is a complete fail and shame on me but you get a bit of idea how it looks like inside. I promise the food photos are so much better. So many people go there with their family and some people do birthdays there as well and you can see camera flashing as people try to take photos so really, I shouldn't be ashamed of doing a completely Asian thing taking photos of food.

As we already placed our order while waiting to be seated, as soon as we were seated, the food pretty much came within 10 minutes and they came too quickly that there was not enough space to put the dishes in addition to our teeny weeny table. So we tried to eat our entreés as quickly as possible.

First, we had some pork spring rolls $6.90.

Whoever says all spring rolls taste more or less the same, I am totally on a scale of 1-10 (10 being totally disagree), I would rate 11. I don't think all spring rolls taste more or less the same. Anyone who says that pretty much hasn't tasted an extremely bad spring rolls yet such as those served cold during a conference. Spring rolls are such a common finger food served in a conference where the wait staff walk around with trays of finger foods and you always find some spring rolls and no matter how bad they can be, people still grab them and usually they are the first choice of finger food and popular too.

These ones though, are heaps better compared to those well commercialised ones because they are handmade and the ingredients are fresh. Most importantly, they were served still hot not cold like those commercialised ones. The sauce came with it was just sooooo yum! Needless to say, these spring rolls are pretty good. Before the spring rolls even reached down my intestines, the second entreé arrived.

In the menu, this dish is under appetizer page and it is called Gai Tod Nam Pla (in Thai) or Thai style deep-fried chicken wings $9.

I'll say the chicken wings were okay. The spicy mixed sauce tasted better than the chicken wings but they did complement each other. Unless it is compulsory for you to order chicken wings in every restaurant, I don't see it necessary and unless you are a massive fan of chicken wings regardless of the taste of course you are more than welcome to order this particular dish.

Again, before I even downed my last piece of chicken wings and spring rolls, our third appetizer arrived, which was soft shell crab served with pepper and garlic sauce $15.90. Um, in the menu, the dish doesn't come under appetizer. It has its own page dedicated to soft shell crab.

It's probably an exaggeration but this dish takes the cake. You can check with other food bloggers who have been to this place and do more research about this dish on google but the chance of Jinda Thai coming up in google search for having one of the best soft shell crab in Melbourne is pretty high. This soft shell crab is super duper yum. I'm not sure whether it's their method of cooking or the pepper & garlic sauce or combination of both but whatever they put and how they did it, it was magical.
A lot of soft shell crab can be too soft and soggy but this one was really fresh and only soft and tender in the centre (core body) and crispy on the legs. Hence the sauce was concentrated in the middle part only where the core body was.

My colleague visited this restaurant a couple of days after I visited to celebrate her birthday and she ordered the same dish but she chose curry sauce and she said it was really good so it is safe to say whichever sauce you choose shall you decide to give this restaurant a try, you won't regret it! Take the risk!!

Next, we had this yummy Green Curry Chicken $14.90.

My only regret with ordering this dish was that we didn't order any rice! We already ordered noodle to share so we thought we didn't need rice and foolish me who realised much later, how the heck were we gonna eat a curry dish without rice??? Curry with fried noodle?? What an insult to a culinary experience?? I was so disappointed with myself and I kept saying it would be such a waste until my light bulb moment set in. I decided to take away the leftover curry to mix it with rice for my dinner the next day. Although the take away box costed an extra $1, I didn't mind. I could feel La Boyfriend was hesitant and wanted to finish the whole thing by himself without rice but I just don't think that was advisable. The curry was just right, not too rich and a bit spicy but the breast meat was not tender and juicy enough. As we all know, breast meat can be very hard to cook sometimes because they tend not to absorb any sauce very well leaving the surface marinated but the inside of the breast meat still tastes bland. Hence, most people prefer chicken thighs but breast meat cannot go wasted so we still gotta eat it.

On a random note, the sauce that you can see in the photo down below was meant for those spring rolls earlier on.

This is the noodle I was referring to. It is called Pad Ka Na (In Thai). We chose pork as our choice of meat $14.90.

The dish I would say, was very similar to Char Kwey Teow (Chinese/Cantonese stir fried flat noodle) that you normally can find in any Malaysian/Chinese/Vietnamese retaurants. I initially wanted Pad Thai but La Boyfriend didn't want it and I wanted a different dish which was also stir fried noodle but it is apparently spicier than what we ordered. La Boyfriend cannot take too spicy food so that was out of the equation. My verdict is I think this dish is average. It wasn't bad but there was nothing extraordinary about it either. I felt like I could just get normal Char Kwey Teow from somewhere else with cheaper price and it would taste better too. In conclusion, I wasn't too impressed on this one.

To lift my mood, we ordered a very popular dessert this restaurant has to offer. Apparently, they're well known for serving this dessert and many people and bloggers are raving about this dessert. The first time I heard about this restaurant was from my colleague who showed me instagram photos of some cakes and they are no ordinary cakes. The cake is made of layers upon layers of crepes! How cool and crazy that idea sounds?? Well, I suppose people who are unique and try to do something different are always the ones end up succeeding with their life (just thought of throwing in some moral story). So from the look of it, it looks like ordinary cake but if you cut on it, you can see layers and layers of tiny and thin crepes. They come in many flavours and generally served with coconut ice cream and man, the ice cream even has frozen pieces of coconut in it. You have to pay attention in order to taste the bits and pieces of tiny coconut in the ice cream. The flavours of the cake, as far as I know are Thai milk tea, pandan, taro and I think there is one more which I now have a mental blank and cannot remember. I tried the taro one before and it was so good so then I went back to try a pandan one.

Can you see the layers of crepes?? :)

When I had the taro flavour crepes, they were not as generous as this time. Look at how much pandan gravy did they pour onto the top of the cake? I was ecstatic!!! I can't make my choice between which one is better, taro or pandan. Well, why not try both?? Even better, keep going back until you try all the flavours!!!! Their reputation is well deserved afterall. They're well known for their crepes cake and it did live up to the expectation! I walked up with happy tummy :) I can't remember how much the crepes cake was but they're not expensive anyway and if they're this good, what matters?

Note on finding the cake in the menu, the menu doesn't specify crepes cake, it only says "Cake & ice cream" under dessert and you have to ask the staff for choice of flavours.

I can't seem to find the website for this restaurant, so the details of the restaurant will be down below in my urbanspoon widget.

As per usual, feedbacks will be welcome!

Freakinfantastic Fine Dining Experience at Bistro Vue

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Wed, 9 Jul 2014 21:46:00 +1000

Welcome to my another wild dining adventure!! Did I mention in my previous post on how I got so sick from eating out too much? Well, this is one of my continuous eating out adventures for one week. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I was on an eating spree because my friend from my hometown came for a visit. I also mentioned that she had this 2 pages long list of restaurants she would like to visit before heading back home. One of them is this extremely popular, top notch restaurant called Vue de Monde on level 55, Rialto Tower. I had been to the bar located on the same floor called Lui Bar and in the evening, the view from the top floor was spectacular overlooking Yarra River and the entire Crown complex. Needless to say, it was priceless.

Also notice how when you walk along the river in Southbank area, there is a fire bursting out of the exhaust poles every hour (the poles are installed along the Crown complex, not the entire stretch of the river). I remember how I always make a joke with my friends about the fire poles. We said how countless birds and other flying beings (what else apart from birds?? or insects) must have died from being accidentally burnt whilst flying over the top of the poles. Note that this is just a joke, I imagine those poor vertebrates have some sort of sixth sense where they can immediately sense danger and avoid them. That's why birds emmigrate and that's why birds fly low when it's about to rain. Let's not get further into science. In fact, I dislike science.

So my point was, when the fire explodes in the sky, from afar it looks almost like it dances because there is a rhythm to it. From the top floor of Lui Bar, the fire show looks fantabuluous. At the time of my visit, I didn't know Vue de Monde exists. The restaurant is located on the other side of the bar on the same floor. Apparently this is the reaction when you tell people about this five star restaurant... "What????" "Really?" "Wow" or "............. (Just staring at you without blinking, pause whatever they are doing and say nothing" OR! They might not know what you're talking about at all.

Well, for most time, I received the abovementioned reactions. Curious about it, I started googling the reviews online and man, people bring their wives, girlfriends, boyfriends etc to this place for special occasions, such as wedding anniversaries, birthdays, proposals and whatever else I can't think of. As comparison to us, we're just a bunch of girls looking to sample one of the best restaurants Melbourne has to offer. According to the reviews, the bill could easily add up to $500!!! What can I buy with $500?? So many things (clothes, jewellery, give out to charity, pay for more food, pay bills and the list goes on). May not actually be enough to pay for everything I mentioned.

Well, when I had a look at the menu online (after visiting the website of Vue de Monde), the set/degustation menu could cost about $250 per person. Yes, you saw that right, I'll write it again, $250 PER PERSON i.e. PP. No kidding. I'm not sure whether it was a blessing in disguise or not, but on the day we decided to book for a table, I found out that they are not available for dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we wanted to go on a Friday because my friend already had plans from Monday to Thursday, besides who would enjoy fine dining on weekdays?? Maybe some people would but I would like to enjoy spending a great deal of money on food on weekends because I don't have to think about working the next day except if I'm a millionaire overnight.

So we came up with plan B, there is this restaurant which is part of Vue de Monde called Bistro Vue and if you click on the link above or if you just search for Bistro Vue online, it will show that the main website access is via Vue de Monde website. Once the website loads, just navigate your way and click on Bistro Vue. The restaurant is located at the completely different site from Vue De Monde. Bistro Vue is located on 430 Little Collins St, Melbourne. The restaurant interior was very French style with lots of paintings and open wine cellar. I must say the design of the restaurant wasn't too fancy and it was quite cosy. Patrons are generally couples and a group of friends. I didn't take any photos of the interior design because I was acting like a lady instead of patronising paparazzi with flash camera. The light was etremely dim as well so the photos won't do any justice. Even the photos of my food look "meh" compare to what they look like in real life but those will have to do because I was only equipped with my retiring iPhone5.

We were greeted and served professionally by the wait staff whom one of them I recalled was French and he was very good looking. Too bad I have a boyfriend now and I even tried to speak introductory French and he was polite to reply me in French too. He must have thought how stupid I was, Oh well..
Failed attempt.

DISCLAIMER: I cannot remember the name of the food we ate there at all, not even one just because they are all in French and they are not in the menu because it was a set menu decided by the chef on a daily basis. I would look stupid if I asked the wait staff to repeat the name and me pulling out my iphone notepad and write it down one by one. I took all of the food photos we ate but I do not recall the name. Judge me all you want.

Below is how the menu looks like (note that I didn't take a full photo of the menu due to the dim light and that means I have to point the camera further up which will make the photo rather pointless because you won't be able to read it. Not that it makes any difference to what I'm about to show you below).

So after what feels like ages, we finally decided on set meal for $110 per person (L'Humeur Du Chef) which includes 6-course meal. I was thinking of steak before but $110 pp for 6-course meal is more valuable for the money you spend plus you get to sample a variety of food instead of being restricted to one type and one serve of steak already costs about $60. I suppose if you want to go out for a fine dining experience, might as well go all out.
We also ordered something extra to share with everyone. So the first entreé to open our feast was ox tail. When you look at the photo, you won't have the slightest idea that it is ox tail. It looks like a block of..... meat???

The ox tail meat is served with a slice of bread, pickled onion & vegetable along with a sauce to go with the meat. Unlike what it looks like, it tastes sensational. Now, I've eaten ox tail meat before because it is a staple food in Indonesia but man, this one tastes superb! So different from the conventional ox tail meat yet the taste is so familiar that you know you're eating ox tail meat (well, you kinda have to ever eat one to know how it tastes like). The meat was just so tender and I guess the shape comes from lightly smashing the meat to form the block.

Next we had oyster coming up, again served in style on what looks like an expensive "chopping board". I'm kidding, it's not a chopping board. You gotta appreciate their art of presentation. It is just so classy!

The oysters are served in either lemon sauce or vinegar sauce which they also mixed with something else. The result?? One of the yummiest & freshest oysters I've ever tasted! My friends and I were talking about eating fresh oysters and how my friend got tummy bug from eating fresh oysters in Thailand but no, definitely not in Australia and not in a top notch restaurant like this one. The two sauces just go so well with the oysters and they bring the fresh ocean flavour out from the oysters even more. I wanted like 10 more seriously. Well, this is another thing eating in a fine dining restaurant, you do have to compromise the quantity because they do provide you with the best quality ingredients they can find and hey, it all comes to a price. If you want more, be prepared for your wallet to bleed more :)

Next, we have salmon coming up and I swear, the food I show here all have their French name and it is definitely more than just one word.

The salmon was extremely awesome!!! More than any kind of sashimi I've ever had till this day. It was freshest out of the freshest if you can get my description. The flower petals are edible by the way. I didn't eat it but my friends did. Again, I wish there was more!! I didn't get enough of it. The food was so good that for like 30 seconds, nobody spoke a word. Everyone just enjoyed the moment they share with good food. It was like a classic song playing in my head when I had those oysters and this salmon.

Next on the line, we had mushroom risotto!!!! I absolutely looooooooove mushroom risotto.
Not quite French because Risotto is meant to be Italian then again, it doesn't have to be all French dishes right??

There is only one word I can describe this Risotto, nourriture délicieuse~~~~ it was so yum!!! Although the portion is pretty small, however as we all know, Risotto can be pretty rich because of the ingredients involved (i.e. butter & cheese) and the type of rice used just accentuates the richness of this food even more. So I was pretty full after consuming the risotto. The mushroom taste is very dominant which obviously enriches the flavour of the risotto and the cheese & butter are not too overpowering hence the end result is a very well balanced risotto.

After handling a rich meal, we had a chance to wash it down a with a lime sorbet mixed with a bit of muesli nuts combination and a thin slice of dark chocolate.

The sorbet, needless to say is very refreshing and the sorbet also acts as a cleanser for our pallette to get ready for the next meal because after experiencing different taste and texture, it is absolutely necessary for our pallette to be cleansed so that we can fully enjoy a new taste without being overpowered by the previous dishes that leave the aftertaste hanging in the back of our throat. To be honest, for me, a sorbet is just a sorbet, there is nothing too extraordinary about a sorbet and I don't like sorbet in general because they are generally very sour (especially the fruit flavour ones) but I don't actually mind this one. Although it hasn't really raised my standard on sorbets just yet.

Next one is my most raved dish of the night and until today, I'm still raving on how good this next dish is.

Yes, the beef steak is the best dish out of the bunch! I've had steak all over the place (not everywhere yet). I love steak and before I visited this place, I did have number #1 steak in Melbourne in my list but now, the position in my list has just been snatched by this little rocket pocket! The beef steak was out of this world to put it simply. I don't actually know what sauce they used because chef is being very secretive about it. No I'm just joking, I forgot to ask and this was not in the menu or maybe it was. The mash potato was creamy and buttery that I wanted to scream on top of my lungs how good this steak is!! The cut of meat is superb, thick and extremely tender inside out! It is the best cut and the best quality by far! I'm definitely going back again just to try the steak. I was never used to be a fan of steak before but over time, I discovered it is not the steak's fault, it is the cut of meat, the level of rareness and the sauce altogether that add the points. Over time, after trying all different restaurants specialise in steaks, I discover my liking and passion towards steak and I can't even cook but when I taste a good steak, I know the difference. Unlike popular belief, you don't have to be able to cook to know how good a dish is. Enough of the raving! I can go on and on and write a whole different post just on how good this steak is.

The closure to our feast is what I would describe in my own words as caramelised pear. Not the direct translation from the actual name of the dessert in French.

The pear is sweet and crispy on the outside and it almost melts from the inside. It is served with vanilla ice cream. Hot and cold combination. What a fantastic dessert! I'm also not a fan of pear but this dessert just entices me and not everyone can make a good dessert such as this. The pear is very fragranced and because the fruit itself is not very sweet, the way they coat it with what seems like caramel/sugar brings out the sweetness of the pear and it goes so well with the vanilla ice cream. I just love how crispy the skin is. The contrast of the texture is what makes this dessert works. crispy and soft, hot and cold. This dessert has elements of yin and yang in it.

After we were satisfied with our meal, we were offered complimentary dessert where the waiter would bring out a 3-decker trolley containing macaroons, mini cookies and cakes. The whole presentation is so .... FRENCH! If anything, my experience at this restaurant made me feel like I was in one of the restaurants in France! Ah, I want to visit France now!

There were more than what is shown in the photo but we couldn't fit anymore than what we had already fitted. The good looking waiter offered more but we had to politely decline the offer. Although we did fork out a bit of money at the end but we walked out with happy tummies :) Besides, like what my mom always says, you can always earn money but there are things in life that you just have to enjoy and let go. I hope everyone enjoys this post and find it informative. As always, I accept comments and suggestions down below. If there is a restaurant you'd like me to visit, please leave a comment!

CHEFS GALLERY, SYDNEY

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 21:42:00 +1000

I've been so sick in the past 3 weeks and to top it all off, there was more than just 1 type of sickness.

First week I came back from Sydney (AGAIN!!! This is my fifth visit in the past 4 years), I fell sick the next day because of exhaustion. Well, when we went to Sydney, we didn't hire a car so we pretty much relied on our feet power and walked pretty much everywhere. I am used to walking in Melbourne and in Malaysia (when I used to live there). When I was younger, my parents couldn't afford holidays that are too costly and too far so we travelled around Southeast Asia most of the time and my parents, my sister and I would walk everywhere from dawn to sunset and beyond. So in a way, I was trained from a very young age to walk everywhere and wouldn't feel tired. Fast forward, 13 years have gone by and admittedly, my body is not as strong as it used to be (Yes, I am an old lady now that I possibly need a walking stick soon). I still can walk for miles but of course my body takes the toll the next day or the day after or when my body recognises it's time to rest, then it registers that it is overworked. As a result, I fell sick.

Silly me, knowing I wasn't feeling well, I went to the gym anyway and the next day, my body was aching and the flu kicked in. After I recovered from the flu, I had a friend came over from my hometown for a week holiday and I fell sick again from eating too much! There is actually such thing as falling sick from overeating. Imagine this, I went out for dinner every single night with my friends for the entire week. Trust me, you WILL get sick from eating out too much.

Back to the reason why I was so exhausted from my Sydney trip and I'm not sure why I'm telling you this. Although I walk so much in Melbourne, Sydney's CBD is a lot bigger than Melbourne CBD (Central Business Districts). It's almost 3-4 times bigger than Melbourne's city and to help you picture it, Melbourne CBD can be described to look like a square shape whereas Sydney CBD is a rectangular one, so the streets stretch longer and more dense. After 2 days of pure walking and carrying tripod around, my shoulders felt like they were going to fall off from the joints. I was flat out. We probably should've rented a car but parking would be a hassle and expensive although public transportations weren't cheap either in Sydney. We tried to justify by thinking that we would be able to appreciate the scenery more and we would know our way around more than just relying on GPS. There were many instances when we walked into the wrong street and we discovered something else better.

Since I've been to Sydney so many times, my fifth visit concentrated more on hunting for amazing food. After several years of on and off blogging, I realised that whenever I visit a good restaurant, I really want to share it (although I tend to ramble too much). So I've decided to share my food adventure whenever I encounter food that is share-worthy. There is just so much good food to share around and I'm not even getting paid for it! I'm just so passionate about good food.

Now, I know what defines as good food is very subjective and it depends on individual preferences so what I deem as good, you may not agree. So, feel free to disagree and if you do agree, good!!

I went to a number of restaurants whilst I was there but I will only pick one to write a review on. It is this popular Chinese restaurant called Chefs Gallery. The food there is simply amazing. What really impressed me was the fact that they make simple and familiar food taste extraordinary. There is that extra "X" factor and I must say, this restaurant is by far, in my top 3 Chinese food category. A lot of Chinese restaurants in Australia serve very average tasting food that is overpriced and super oily. I rarely come across a Chinese restaurant that makes me feel like "Wahhhhh". With no doubt though, a Chinese restaurant with average tasting food combined with good location always do pretty well (on average) but Chefs Gallery proves that great taste with great location create a phenomenon.

First of all, the queue was unbelievable. Correction, when I was in Sydney, there was a vivid light show festival going on for that particular long weekend (it was during Queen's Birthday). So, the usually jam packed city was even more jam packed and everywhere you go, there was an extremely long queue outside pretty much all the popular restaurants even when you already made a booking! We didn't make any reservation before we walked in Chefs Gallery, it was a serendipity because we planned to have dinner elsewhere but the queue was way too long and we couldn't be bothered. The queue was extremely long in front of Chefs Gallery as well but La Boyfriend wanted to try so we waited for about 15-20 minutes for a seat which wasn't such a bad waiting time at all. Partly because inside the restaurant, it is very spacious so it can fit many patrons at once.

In the beginning, I was a bit cautious because when the wait staff brought out the dishes to the patrons, they all looked really ordinary. For a second, I must admit I doubted my decision for walking into this restaurant because the last thing I wanted was spending my last night in Sydney eating ordinary meal that I can easily get in Melbourne. To my surprise, I was not disappointed at all. The noodles are well known here because they are handmade, each to their own and they are extremely delicate not like many self proclaimed "hand made noodles" which taste horrible and texture wise, are just too rough and thick. I did keep my expectation low when I heard about their hand made noodles.

We ordered shredded peking duck with cucumber, hoisin sauce rolled inside a Chinese roti $16.90.

It wasn't the best I've ever tasted in Australia. If you want to go all the way out, Peking duck with Chinese thin pancake is better than this because for me, it feels like it is half half effort. As in, the roti is a bit too thick and it covers the beautiful taste of the shredded duck and the fresh cucumber. If the roti was thinner, maybe it would taste a lot better. It wasn't too bad and it is amongst the popular entreé in this restaurant when I was browsing urbanspoon. The shredded peking duck was not fragrant enough for me to take notice that I was eating peking duck.

The next dish had me swallowed back my own words..

La Boyfriend ordered spinach handmade thick noodles wok fried with prawns, mussels in shell, baby calamari tubes, Chinese Shitake mushrooms, dusted with seaweed & sesame powder.

The handmade spinach noodles tasted amazing! You could taste dedication and passion poured to this dish and it makes you feel personalised. Makes you feel homey. La Boyfriend loves it and until this day, he is still raving non stop about it to everyone. I love how they topped it off with sesame seed and seaweed "powder". The seafood was fresh and they gave some pretty generous amount of calamari and mussels. The noodles were not flakey when I chewed on it and it didn't taste flourish (I'm trying to describe it at my best, so I do apologise if you're frowning when you're reading it and trying to imagine how they taste like). It was simply flavoursome!!! and of course there is no artificial colouring agent used, just from natural ingredients, mainly green vegetables (i.e. spinach, duh!!!)

As for me, I chose prawn and pork wontons handmade noodles served with mince chicken and chopped lettuce in a Shanghainese style spicy sauce $14.90.

Again, hat's off to the chef for their amazing handmade noodles. These noodles are a bit different from the spinach noodles because the spinach noodles are flat and wide similar to kwey teow noodles whereas the noodles I had were round and skinny. Stupid me forgot to actually take a photo of the noodles to show you guys what I mean. It's similar to spaghetti noodles just to give you a better idea. It's not egg noodles though bear in mind.

This dish is pretty spicy so for anyone who shuns away from spiciness then this is not your cup of tea. It's a bit like eating sizhuan dish (in terms of the spiciness). This dish doesn't have the infamous "sizhuan pepper" though, it is spicy in a different level. I'm a huge fan of spicy dishes because I'm from Indonesia so I love anything that's spicy. The wontons and mince meat just went so well that theu created a symphony in this particular dish. I literally could hear music when I took my first bite. The wontons meat was generous and the skin was not too thick so you could really taste the flavoursome prawn and pork meat and the size of it was pretty humongous too (value for you money)!

I did skull down a couple of glasses of water whilst consuming this dish but I was addicted to the spicy taste despite the burning sensation on my tongue. Overall these 2 dishes deserve my 7.9 ratings out of 10. That's a very weird rating eh? but I'm not ready to give out an 8 out of 10 ratings just yet.

To cool down the spicy aftertaste, we ordered something more soothing and sweet, who wants dessert???

We had black sesame ice cream with red bean paste and pearl dumplings. We actually were dying to order this really popular piggy bun filled with black sesame paste but they sold out!!!! It was one of the most popular desserts in Chefs Gallery. Oh well, what can we do, it's not like the head chef could especially make us one as if we were some important people. Nevermind, I would settle for this ice cream instead and it was also amazing!

First of all, I love black sesame dessert, so I may be biased with my opinion but the entire combination of black sesame ice cream, red bean paste and pearl dumplings (mochi) are just too good!!! It wasn't too sweet at all and it wasn't too filling either so in case if your main fill you up quickly, you can definitely fit in this dessert because it was pretty light and you can share it :) All these 3 combinations are my favourite, so I'm definitely bias!!

Overall, I had an extremely wonderful experience dining in this restaurant and I would love to return to try many more dishes. Maybe next time :) Below are the details of where you can find this restaurant and don't be like us, make a reservation beforehand! Good Luck!

Aangan, A Taste of India

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Wed, 4 Jun 2014 21:40:00 +1000

It's been awhile and I know I mentioned something about writing a post about my trip to Hanging Rock on Anzac Day like almost 2 months ago! I've just been so busy with catching up with friends, watching too many TV shows, like GAME OF THRONES?? OMG, who doesn't watch Game of Thrones?? I believe many people still haven't gotten themselves onto GoT yet but trust me, if you haven't yet, stop reading this and go watch GoT now!! Maybe after you finish reading my post first :) BEWARE!! You may get addicted to watching it that you forget anything else. For me, I'm up to date with the show so I only spare 1 hour every Monday night to watch one episode but I have so many other TV shows to catch up on :( Anyways, life is too short (cliché) so sitting all night long watching TV is a waste of time. For me, seeing my friends and catching up with people I haven't seen for so long and maintaining/building more network of social circle is more important. Not that I'm anywhere as good as those posh socialites. I just love socialising, period. Judge me all you want.

Back to the main content of this post...
Last week, my boyfriend and I were having a first world problem trying to decide between having pizza for dinner or Indian food. After a seemingly long period of time, we locked in on Indian food. Through a friend's recommendation, we checked out this hot spot in West Footscray area where it's known as little Mumbai. There are quite some selections of Indian restaurants and most of them, if not all of them cater to vegans so it's definitely a plus point for all vegans!! It is located on the main street of Barkly street. Click here to find out more details in regards to menu and location.

I must say, they are extremely clever in utilising the space of the restaurant. It's not too cramped and it is quite spacious inside. When you first arrived at the front of the restaurant, you won't be able to find the entrance because the entrances are locked. There is a wait staff who's standing outside all the time to greet customers and guide them to this extremely narrow hallway where you will enter the restaurant from the side door. When you see it, you know what I'm talking about. So look out for a staff when you arrive, don't try to open any door you see because you'll most probably look like an idiot.

The wait staff there are all very well groomed and greet you in a professional manner, which nowadays are very hard to find when you eat in a semi-casual restaurant. People say when you pay peanut, you get monkey which I do have to agree at some stage.. Well, most of the time. Especially when you eat in Chinese restaurant. Service is not their priority because they get customers regardless of their service as long as the food is good and cheap. HOWEVER, wouldn't it be nice to have both??? Win win solution!! I don't think cheap food with great taste comes with amazing service.. That's very rare if it does. I personally probably have encountered less than 5 times in my lifetime of eating out almost everyday and no, I don't always eat somewhere fancy all the time.

I love Indian food (one of my all time favourite food) and there are some really good one in the city but I'm getting sick of them because I live in the city, so I wanted to explore more in the outer suburbs and I tried once in Blackburn but it was extremely disappointing and also very pricey. When you see too many Australians in any Asian restaurant, you probably can guess that the food is not authentic enough. You want something that's close to what you can experience back at home or what you can assume to be like on the other side of the world. Once, I walked into a semi fine dining Chinese restaurant in China Town and when I saw the entire place was filled with Australians and even the manager was Australian, I walked out immediately. That's one of the signs that you shouldn't be paying double the price for less adequate food. I hope nobody takes it the wrong way as I have seen and tasted some amazing fusion food but it has to be fusion food not claiming to be authentic Asian food.

I miss the time when I was in Malaysia where Indian food was widely available and easily accessible plus affordable. My friends would call me up in the middle of the night (at 12 am or sometimes even past 12 am) and we would hang out at "mamak" eateries. Mamak is the word to describe casual eateries with outdoor seatings and you can literally turn up with pyjamas on. It is a casual hangout place with good and cheap food. I miss those here as nothing is open after certain hour and the cafés are different from there. What's lacking is that casual atmosphere. Not that I have anything to complain about over here but don't we all agree there is a lack of diversity in terms of café style. After a while, everything looks pretty much the same, as in they serve pretty much the same thing.

Ok, I have strayed too far away from the main star in this post. Aangan has one of the best Indian food I have ever tried in Melbourne. Hence, I spared some time to do a blog post on this restaurant. The staff was very friendly and he even helped these two helpless souls to order some food based on his recommendations (and of course depending on what you like personally). I rarely eat lamb except when I eat Indian food or Greek because the meat is a lot more flavoursome and it doesn't stink. I don't generally like the smell, only if it is cooked right.

As we sat down on our seats, we were greeted by 1 serve of Papadum (fried flour made of chick peas, lentils, rice/potato and other vegetable ingredients). The serving was for 2 people and it came with 2 types of sauce too (red and green chutneys). The red one tastes a bit sweet and sour combo which I don't quite fancy but I like the green one, just a slight hint of mint). The papadum was so yum and crispy I can literally eat 20 of those. One of my favourite snacks when it comes to Indian food. You usually can get it from Indian take away shops for free (if you buy rice with dish combo that is).

We ordered samosa to start with because that's one of the most popular entreé in most Indian restaurants. The best I had so far (strangely), is at Vegie Bar, which is a FUSION vegan restaurant in Fitzroy. The samosa was very nicely done and went extremely well with their sour cream and mint chutney sauce (widely known as the green sauce) and since my samosa experience there, I can hardly ever find a samosa that can beat the top #1 rank in my food dictionary where Vegie Bar's samosa holds at present.

This samosa is pretty good, better than average as it was very crispy on the outside and it was very flavoursome. The potato inside was not overcooked and too mushy. The texture of diced potato was just right and that's the way I like it. It was for me, a 7 out of 10 for the samosa.

I had some time to kill while waiting for our food so I had a look around. Looked at what other people ordered and the interior of the restaurant. The restaurant has a very nice set up and honestly, most Indian restaurants I've been, have some really nice decoration that says a lot about their rich culture and diversity. It would be very interesting to learn a little bit about their history given they speak so many different dialects and yea, although they may look and sound the same, they come from different parts of India, different dialects, different background, different ancestors but they all want to share a piece of their hometown here in Australia, So stop saying they're all the same, just like all Asians look the same to Westerners but no we're not all the same. Likewise, you won't like it if I think all Westerners look the same because there is a difference and trust me, I wouldn't know this if I was still living under my parents' wings in my comfortable house back at home. Throughout my life here in Australia, I have seen and learned a lot from all sorts of people because you can meet all kinds of people here. It is a melting pot and this mediator enables people to meet people from other parts of the world.

I strayed away again.. Quickly snapped some photos from the inside of the restaurant because almost 85% of the patrons were Indians, I didn't want to be seen like an idiot. Typical Asian (taking a photo of everything I mean).

We also ordered a rose lassi (a type of beverage). Lassi is a blend of yogurt, spices, water and choice of fruit. I really love mango lassi, one of my favourite drinks of all time but that night, we decided to try something different. A rose lassi and trust me, it literally tasted like rose... Well, no I don't know how a rose petal tastes like but it smells like one hence your sense of smell tricks your brain into believing a rose petal would taste like what you smell.

Then comes the main.. We ordered Chicken Madras Curry in mild sauce because La Boyfriend cannot take anything more than mild spiciness. So rather than watching him suffer, we both agreed that we would order mild instead and thank goodness that we ordered mild and not medium because as a chili lover myself, I think it was pretty spicy. I cannot imagine how spicy it would be if we ordered a spicy one!!! Oh man, I've got another story to tell, I went to eat Fukuryu Ramen in China Town with my girlfriend and they have something called "Dragon" ramen and boy, that ramen was a challenge to all chilli lovers out there. If anyone can handle the spiciness without feeling a burn sensation in their stomach, I will kneel and bow to you LOL I'm gonna save it for next time if I ever have the courage to try. I did get free a green tea ice cream in the end because we posted a selfie and hashtagged instagram.

Ordered a couple of garlic naan bread and some saffron rice to go with it. I must say the curry was super yum and the chicken tasted amazing with the curry. The only thing I wished was for the serve to be bigger :D

The garlic naan bread was pretty oily but boy it was filled with yummy goodness!! It was definitely very garlic - ky and the bread was soft to the touch. Me want some right now!!!!!! It was quite oily though so maybe use some clean tissue paper to absorb the excess oil (like who would do that??) I do have friends who press out oil out of McDonald's french fries with tissue paper and I was taken completely by surprise that there are people in the world who would do this while eating french fries????

The saffron rice was very fragranced and it went so well with the curry because the rice was so light unlike normal jasmine rice which would fill your stomach quicker than saffron rice.

My overall experience in Aangan was very impressive considering I didn't have much expectation before I stepped in. Well, it's true what people say I guess.. Always keep your expectation low but if you want to succeed, maintain a high if not, higher expectation. That way you will keep striving for success but when you fail, take it with pride and thrive again.

For all I had there, the total cost for the food was only $33.50 so it wasn't that expensive compared to the Indian restaurant I visited in Blackburn. Costed way more than that and tasted average.

If there is any suggestion on restaurants I must try, please leave a comment down below.

Until the next food venture...
P.S: I'm going to Sydney for more food venture this weekend, yesssssss!!! Although I've been to Sydney so many times, I never blog on the food there so I'll take my chance this time. Wish me luck!!

Easter at Regional Victoria, Daylesford Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:38:00 +1000

Did everyone have amazing long weekends for 2 weeks in a row? I did!

Had amazing time exploring regional Victoria. There are still so many amazing landscapes in Victoria I am yet to explore. I've lived here for close to 6 years now and I haven't visited the entire Victoria yet. Well, not that every citizen here is crazy like me going from places to places whenever I have a chance (only when there is a public holiday).

I am not the kind of person who can stay in one place for long. I love adventures and I love going out exploring what nature has to offer. I don't mean doing adrenaline rush activities. Just simple things like visiting the countryside and breathe in that fresh air is more than enough for me but of course after deciding going all the way there, might as well explore what the town has to offer. Every year during Easter, I always do something. Last year, I had to work because I just started my new job so I couldn't go anywhere. The year before, I was in Launceston, Tasmania. The year before that (2 years ago), I was in Adelaide, South Australia and the year before that, I am pretty sure I was in Sydney.

This year, I almost decided to go to interstate as well but there is another holiday coming up in June, so I will go interstate later on. In the meantime, we were brainstorming for places to visit to spend Easter because I don't have my family here and my partner's family is not Christian. So they don't celebrate Easter. After coming up with some ideas, we decided to go to Daylesford for a night there. Another option was to go to Phillip Island but from some friends' opinion, there is really nothing much to do in Phillip Island, especially during public holidays. After asking some Australian friends for more ideas, Daylesford seems to be a more suitable destination. Not only Daylesford is a popular tourist destination, it doesn't close on Easter holidays so it leaves you plenty of things to do. A lot of people visit Hepburn Springs for their spa treatment/baths but during Easter holidays and weekends, they increase the price and it is extremely expensive. It will cost you a good $150++ for spa treatment/baths. I prefer going to the Mornington Peninsula for their hot springs because it is a lot more affordable ($55++ pp).

Too bad we didn't visit Hepburn Springs because it would be such a relaxing place to be during public holidays. Driving out to Daylesford from western suburb is approximately over an hour, close to an hour and a half. We stayed at a shared house with our own room and en suite bathroom and this shared house costed us approximately $185 per night. 'Other places costed more than $200 per night (again, due to Easter holidays). This house felt really cosy and warm. From the outside, it feels like there's not much space inside the house but from just a guess, I'm pretty sure there are at least 6 rooms in the house. It has such a long hallway and there is a family who lives just at the back of the house who owns the accommodation and runs the business. The lady was very welcoming and warm when we arrived. She explained to us the house rules and showed us around the house and every guest was given a set of key to enter the house and room.

From the outside, the house looks really small, doesn't it?? Don't be fooled!!

Carrington House is the name of the accommodation. From the outside, it looks just like a normal house. They have a lot of accommodations similar to this in Daylesford.

The hallway inside the house. Our room was the first one on the left hand side.

Inside the room. There is a small LCD TV just across the bed and you can bring your own DVDs, USBs or you can borrow some DVDs from the living room in the house. There are also some books you can borrow to read during your stay in the accommodation. It may sound boring but I found it pretty enjoyable to read in your room in Daylesford just because during night time, there isn't much to do there and it is way too cold to walk around at night during Autumn time in Daylesford. When we went there, it was 5 degrees Celsius at night!! Who wants to walk around in the middle of the night in that temperature???? I would rather sit in somewhere warm and quiet and read or talk or watch movies or whatever else.

Standard clean bathroom. The only thing I love about this bathroom is, it has a steam function inside the cubicle!!! What a gem!!!

See the seat inside the cubicle?? You can seat and sweat in there and take a shower afterwards just like in a sauna except you can take a shower afterwards on the spot!! It was so cool! The bathroom also has a heater light bulb so it was really warm during autumn/winter. You can take a shower as long as possible without feeling cold!

There are tea, coffee and biscuits available in the tea room. Guests can serve themselves with unlimited refreshments and listen to music if they want to and read some books like we did. Fresh refrigerated milk is also available in the cabinet. Used cups and tea bags are immediately cleaned by the owner regularly.

Comfortable leather couch for guests to sit down and rewind, especially for us being away from the city. There's newspaper to read too. We had a brief conversation with the friendly owner just in regards to where's the best food in town, places to visit etc. Our accommodation is extremely close to the main town (just about 3 minutes walk to the main street where shops and restaurants are).

When we arrived there, it was a little bit past the afternoon and we were starving. After locking our room and the main door of the house, we darted to the main street to hunt for food. We didn't want to stuff ourselves with too much food just because 3 hours later, it would be dinner time and the locals suggested us to arrive at the restaurant a bit early to avoid waiting time. Daylesford has a few renowned restaurants but we didn't go because 1. They're quite expensive. 2. Easter holidays attract 15% surcharge for everything listed in the menu. The lakehouse restaurant, Kazuki & Mercato are fine dining restaurants and very popular in Daylesford. Apparently according to the locals, some people drive all the way from Melbourne to dine in there. From what I've heard from my colleagues, the Lakehouse restaurant is pretty expensive and my partner told me the accommodation costs $800 per night on Good Friday. It would be a waste of money because I could've used $800 to book a ticket to Bali for a holiday.

We decided to take a walk in the main town for a little bit whilst looking for a place to grab a bite at the same time. There are so many vintage shops around and there is this bookstore that sells literally thousands of books! Some are old collections and second hands so great place to look for antique books. It's called Paradise bookshop.

There is also a vintage market on Easter Saturday but we didn't go because we didn't have time for it so for any antique lover, it is a must visit place!

We came across an Italian restaurant called Koukla which was recommended by one of the owners of Carrington House. Decided to check it out and ordered some pizzas and chill out with a cup of coffee.

#SELFIE!!!

Lovin' my soy cafe latte. There was once when I attended a friend's birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant in the city at +39 Pizzeria, there is this really funny waiter who entertained us for the entire night. He corrected the way we always casually say "Latte" instead of "Caffe Latte" and he did it with a typical Italian tone and he educated us saying that Latte means only milk whereas Caffé Latté means coffee with milk. We probably sounded so dumb for him but hey, if you never embarrass yourself, you never learn new things. So, it's Caffé~~ Laaaaaaaattéé~~ from now on.

I honestly cannot remember which pizza we ordered and when I checked out the menu online, I can't find the menu in the list. You know when you can't remember something but when you look at it it looks familiar? Well, when I look at the menu, nothing looks familiar!!! Sorry :(
Well, I must say I was least impressed with the pizza as it was lacking of ingredients and the whole ingredients weren't in sync. It was just a bit disappointing or maybe we just sucked at choosing the right one at the time.

There's some goat cheese, mushroom and sausages on it. I still can't remember which one that we ordered. See how there's not much ingredient in it? Maybe we have to try something else to have a better judgment.

After that, we decided to check out this bakery which we walked past on the way to Koukla and the bakery was so packed. So we were curious to find out what was so special about this bakery. Due to the day being a Good Friday, many locals went there to buy cross buns for Easter and the bakery also sells pastries such as pies and sausage rolls so I guess not many bakeries are available in town which is why it is packed all the time.

I decided to try their cherry slice and it turned out to be awesome! It was not as rich as vanilla slice and for me, it was just a bit lighter. We shared one among the two of us so that it didn't fill us up easily. We kept checking on our dinner time to make sure we didn't eat too much before that.

After dessert, we went back to our accommodation to rest for awhile. I guess you need it after a seemingly long journey to get there. We made ourselves more cups of tea and watched a bit of TV before heading out again just after 06.30 pm. We decided to go to Daylesford Hotel to have our dinner. They serve more of bar type of food and they do have a bar area and a restaurant area and because we didn't make any reservation (Not that I recall them taking reservation at all), they seated us near the bar area. Although I would of much preferred the restaurant area because they have nice couches to sit on.

They have special menu on display inside and outside of the hotel and yes, they inform you in advance that they're charging 15% extra for the night due to Good Friday as they have to pay their staff double, which is understandable because there are way too many dodgy businesses who don't pay their staff according to the "book" and not many people complain that they don't get paid double. I'm not exactly sure how it works. Maybe bigger and more well established businesses are required to pay their staff double rate during public holidays because they are more likely to get audited and sued? I'm not sure but one thing for sure, if you pay your staff cash in hand, then it's a no brainer that you don't pay your staff double which is even dodgier.

Specials menu for the night... I had salmon - leek pie served with mashed potato, green peas and bisque sauce while my partner had Tarragon Braised chicken leg, black caviar lentils & bacon - mushroom.

Mine was ok, I would say, for me, salmon pie is a bit non-conventional and I'm not used to the texture. When I think of pie, I think of beef pie, steak & mushroom pie etc but salmon pie? Anyways, it was worth the try. I kind of wished the salmon meat was a bit more moist because I found it a bit dry. However, it did go well with the mashed potato because it balances out the lack of moist. The mashed potato was really good!! Well, at least now I know how salmon pie tastes like. Mine to say the least, was good on average. My partner's one was on another level, not in entirely good way. His one was too ordinary. The braised chicken just tasted like any herbal infused chicken leg for me. Maybe except from the black caviar, everything else was fairly ordinary. The price sets you back for $34, you would at least expect a little bit more, unfortunately it was a little disappointing.

We had a look around and it looks like their fish & chips and porterhouse steak were quite popular. We should've ordered those instead and we would probably left feeling happier. Oh well, there is always next time I guess. We decided not to order more dishes or dessert (because we just had one before dinner). It was time for us to walk back to our accommodation and call it a night. The walk was bitterly cold and dark for us but we had to just man it up and darted home quickly.

I took a steam bath and it felt AH-MAZING! Especially after the bitter walk in 5 degrees celsius! The owner also provided a king-sized electric blanket!! I use one at home too because I get cold feet easily so I was uberly excited when I saw that they have an electric blanket!! It does hurt your electricity bill a little bit but for someone like me, I really need it because I can't sleep when I get cold feet :(

I slept so soundly on it and although I did wake up in the middle of the night to turn it off because it got too warm.

Here is the thing, so many people get freaked out with the idea of sleeping on electric blanket. People say all sorts of things like, "I don't want to get electrocuted in my sleep". This one is the most common one that I've heard. Not that it cannot happen (I've never heard of such a case before), but I'm sure if it's not safe to be used, such product will not have succeeded for such a long time. Besides, another way to safely use it is to switch it on a couple of hours before you sleep (put it on level 2 = medium hot) and turn it off just before you go to bed. It will warm up the bed for you before you crawl in and it will guarantee a good night sleep without feeling cold.

Enough on the electric blanket because I can write a whole blog post on electric blanket.

The check out time on the next day is at 10.30 am and we received some advice from one of the owners to get breakfast from this place called Breakfast and Beer. Apparently it is very renowned for their breakfast for tourists and locals. It is also located in the main street of the town. The setting of the restaurant is a bit retro and vintage-ish. Very similar to some cafés in Melbourne metropolitan but there is an extra edge to it.

Oh yes, they have upstairs too.

I ordered Roasted Cumberland Sausage, black pudding & pickled fried egg on sourdough.

It was super yum! Looking at the photo makes me hungry again!! I'm hungry most of the time anyways. The egg was so fresh and perfectly done! Everything was just made from fresh ingredients. I love food in the country. The ingredients are just so fresh because they imported from local farms. The Cumberland sausage was really good too and I love pickled mustard though they kind of stuck in your teeth which make me feel a bit gross and uncomfortable but I am willing to make exception! I'm not much of a fan for black pudding but I do eat it. I know some people find it gross but it is a great source of iron!!

My partner had the crispy pulled pork on ciabatta, sprouts, coleslaw, pickles and sauce dragoncello.
He liked mine better and I agreed too. There's nothing worth criticising about this dish because it is yum in its own way and maybe if you enjoy less meat (minus the sausage) and more greens, you'll like it because it's like a salad dish but my partner is a full on carnivore so he prefers more meat in his dish. Me? I'm not fussed.

After breakfast, we took a walk in town for one last time and we came across this small art gallery. I love visiting art galleries and I am no expert but I just enjoy looking at it and tell myself what kind or artist would I be if I were to be one. It amazes me how a piece of art could set you back a couple of grands and to open your own gallery would also set you back quite some fortune so those artists out there and those who are still trying to prove themselves, let's give them a round of applause.

The art gallery stretches out to display clay art as well.

After walking a bit more and visiting more souvenir shops, we decided to head to Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm not too far from the main town of Daylesford. It is actually not lavender season but we thought after coming all the way out here, why not check out their tourist attractions.

There is an entry fee of $4 per person, not sure about children and overall, there is nothing much to see in there. There's a cafe for refreshment and dessert and there is also a mini farm with chickens and goats living together in harmony. The scenery was very relaxing just like any other countryside.

This is the outdoor seating just outside the café inside the farm. Very family and pet friendly indeed. So many families with their pet just enjoying a breath of fresh air away from polluted air in the city (not that the air in Australia is anywhere close to polluted at all).

I swear this little fellow didn't move away from her territory from the moment we walked in until we left. Her name is Flora, how cuteeeeeeeeee!!!! I wish I could have a dog but due to such a hectic lifestyle, it would be too selfish for me to own a pet and leave it alone for most of the day and week. It's already tough enough to take care of myself and with all my social activities and writing a blog post whenever I have time, there is no time left for raising a pet. You may say how about kids? That's different. When I am ready for it, I will automatically sacrifice certain things in exchange for raising children.

Where the lavender is harvested except you can't see much at the moment.

I sometimes admire my own photos (being sarcastic at the moment). I really admire the beauty of nature and glad that I capture those moments. I guess I have to thank my ex-boyfriend for briefly teaching me how to take a good photo. I'm not great and my camera is pretty ordinary. I'm trying to save up for a better upgrade in the future and I am no expert either. Compared with a lot of amazing professional photographers out there, I'm nothing but you have to agree these photos are beautiful!! :D
and please do leave a comment to advise of things I should improve in my photography skills! Please be nice about it too :) Oh wait, that's a bit contradictory. Ok, just tell me in whichever way just don't be cruel.

Meowwwwww purr purr~~~ I'm not much of a cat person but I enjoying looking at cats and their eyes just portray so much mystery about them. You can never know what a cat is thinking and you can never tell what a cat wants. With dogs, I reckon they are more predictable and they can easily be figured out, especially when you offer them food. Are you a cat or a dog person? Me? I'm a bit of both. I am friendly but cautious at the same time and I enjoy people's company but I can watch movie by myself and yes, I've done it in the past.

The red leaves really assure me that autumn is here. Man it already feels like winter everyday. Forget about autumn. There is no autumn in Melbourne considering how quickly the weather changes from summer to winter. It gets dark just before 6 pm and it gets bright just after 7 am. Way too cold to work out early in the morning and late at night but lots of crazy people at my gym during winter. I would think that people get lazy when winter approaches.

Our next destination was the Chocolate Mill suggested by my colleagues as it is also one of the most popular tourist attractions and they are well known for their hot chocolate drinks.

The Chocolate Mill was not too far from Lavandula farm. If I remembered correctly, just a short 15 mins or less drive to the mill. I've visited quite a few chocolate factories in the countryside and I hardly can tell the difference anymore. Chocolate quality in Australia is overall better than some other countries so that in itself has validated its quality overseas.

As expected, the Chocolate Mill is packed with heaps of tourists. They pretty much sell the standard stuff in all shapes and sizes but that's not why I'm here. I wanted to try the hot chocolate drink. I ordered a regular dark chocolate ($6.50 ish) and it turns out to be quite nice. Not too rich and not too sweet. I don't quite enjoy the hot chocolate from San Churro because for me, it is way too rich and sweet. After a few sips, it starts to get too filling for me. The hot chocolate made from this mill also gave me a sense of individuality, not mass produced by machine. It feels like it is individually processed and crafted and when you sit there and drink it, you feel close to the source of it rather than "Oh yea, I just got this from the shop near my house". Don't get me wrong, it is also a commercialised chocolate but not as much as big brand out there like Lindt, Max Brenner, San Churro etc. We actually had to drive all the way out straight to the mill to get a taste of it. Everything just tastes better in the countryside I suppose.

I know, they gave us a very interesting mug with interesting shape that you don't know which side you should sip it from.

Before it got too dark, we decided to drive back to the main town for lunch before driving back to Melbourne. We decided to have our lunch at Frangos & Frangos Jimmy's Bar near that Koukla restaurant (literally next door and also owned by Frangos & Frangos).

Well, not really lunch to be honest because we only ordered 2 entrées and I swear those ones are not available online because I just checked their menu online (because I can't remember on top of my head what those dishes are called). AGAIN!

This one was standard cured meat (different meat) and the bread was nothing too special either. After sampling that hot chocolate, I can barely fit anything else into my stomach.

This one is a lot better. The special sauce was so delicious and again, I can't remember what sauce was it. It tastes a bit like Indian curry ish but not quite there. Completely fusion style. The mussels just went so well with the sauce and you can't help but to dip those bread into the sauce.

This restaurant has an outdoor seating as well and during autumn time, the red leaves decorating the restaurant looks so romantic and beautiful! Perfect place for private functions.

See what I mean? :)

We arrived back in Melbourne just before 5 pm. Before it gets too dark and I hate sitting in a car in the middle of nowhere at night time because it just feels a bit creepy and unsafe.

I've got another blog post coming up for my countryside trip part II so stay tuned and if you have any suggestion, comment or whatever else, please do not hesitate to leave a comment below because I would like to know what do you think I should do to improve the content of my blog :)

Merci for reading everyone and ciao! Yes, they are two different languages I know :)

Hofbrauhaus, Melbourne

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 23:26:00 +1000

This is kind of a continuous post from my birthday celebrations. I should've broken down my posts into Birthday Celebration part I, II & III. I find that celebrating your birthday separately with different group of friends gives you a touch of personalisation to it. It's more close up and personal. Yes, when you gather everyone together, everyone gets a chance to make new friends and broadens their horizon but chances are, out of say 50 people you invited, don't you agree that only half would show up? I think it's all about the mindset. Put it in a scenario. Let's say you create an event in your Facebook, "Hey guys, I'm holding up a party at so and so, we're gonna start from warming up at dinner then maybe some drinks and we'll spend the rest of the night getting wasted in a club. Wooohooo!!!! Please RSVP by putting down comments below". Sounds familiar???

Here's the thing. First stop, when people look at the notification of the event, everyone gets excited. Yay! There's a party going on, ok maybe some people look at it and scroll up to the event date and think, ah still far away, I'll decide later. They might hit "maybe" button or just ignore it until it gets closer to the date. As they get closer to the date, they realised.. "Bugger! I've double booked myself! I have another party to go" Then they'll start contemplating between going to your party or someone else's party". Another point is, when they see how many people you invite, they feel "less guilty" for not going to your party because they feel that "It's ok" that there are still many people who will go and that even if they don't go, the party must go on. They feel less significant. Don't tell me you've never gone through this scenario before be it you're the inviter or the invitee. How does this different to when you break them down into smaller groups according to mutual friends.

When you break down the groups, you get to spend quality time with your friends, your friends feel more special as you are attending to each one of them and get everyone involved in a conversation. Whereas in a big group, it's not possible to spend time and chat with every single one of your friend. The only advantage is, if your friends are very easy going, they'll make new friends easily but if your friends are very quiet, then they'll feel extremely bored! Also, when you celebrate your birthday in a smaller group, your friends are less likely to cancel on you because they feel more significant as your friend, hence feels "obliged" to come. When I say "obliged", I don't mean to say that you "force" your friends to come. It simply means your friends are taking your invitation more seriously.

I got so sidetracked! Anyhow, a few days before my birthday, a couple of friends made impromptu birthday surprise by getting my friend and fellow birthday girl a cake and we even received free ice cream from the Korean restaurant owner (After requesting for dozen of spare plates for the cake). Feeling bad, my BFF and I decided to tip $5 each for the staff restaurant and even offered them a couple slices of cake. So my BFF and I decided to treat BFF#2 and her boyfriend a nice dinner when BFF#1 comes back from my hometown.

BFF#2 got to decide which restaurant we should treat them to and initially she wanted to go to this Japanese restaurant (TAKUMI) for unlimited BBQ Wagyu Beef but I wasn't very keen on the idea simply because I don't think it's worth the value of $50 per head if you doubt you can stuff yourself with 1 kilo of wagyu beef down your stomach. Ok, 1 kilo is just an example.. You're not gonna receive 1 kilo of wagyu beef straight away. The staff will keep serving you until you die from fullness.

So BFF#2 decided on this German restaurant Hofbrauhaus and little did I know that this German gem is located right in the heart of China Town!! It's located just across one of THE most expensive Chinese restaurants in Victoria, Flower Drum. Apparently the cost to eat there could be from $1000 per table. I'm of Chinese ethnicity and no thank you, I will not go there ever unless someone who is stupid enough to hold a wedding ceremony there and I happen to be one of the guests. As you could probably guess, Flower Drum is a "Chinese version of fine dining". I don't think I am interested because it just doesn't make sense to me when I can pay so much less than that and pretty much get the same food. Western food is different. I am willing to fork out a bit of money to enjoy a bit of fine dining because I'm not a westerner, I am curious and I feel that the skill shown by the chef through their creation of art definitely worth the money.

I've visited a German restaurant during my trip to Sydney a couple of years back (I think 4 years now) and I've visited little German town in Adelaide too. I'm pretty sure the German town in Adelaide is featured in one of my posts. When you see from the outside, they have a bier hall (bar) and a separate dining hall. Well, who goes out on a binge drinking on Mondays anyway?? We were showed to the dining hall next door where the dinner is held. Consistent with how a German restaurant interior and decorations, the restaurant looks really cozy and it really makes you feel like you're in German (I mean, I haven't been there but I suppose it makes me feel that way). Traditional wooden interior with waiting staff wearing traditional outfits. If you want to see a photo of the wait staff with their traditional German frocks, please visit their website by clicking on the link above.

Doesn't it give a warm and welcoming feeling?? It did for me.

The dining hall is actually quite spacious and after about an hour, it quickly fills up with groups of people who seek to have a German feast like us and others who simply enjoy a glass of German Beer.

The menu is also quite extensive and quite affordable if you share it amongst a few of you.

I know the photo of the menu is really blur but unfortunately, my iPhone5 is very limited in taking a crystal clear photo on a very low light support. I had to edit this photo just to make it a bit clearer. I suppose you can't really read the menu item description but then again, you can just visit their website directly to check out food options.

We ordered the HB Feast Platter (bottom right hand side of the photo) for $91 (serving for two) and there were four of us and trust me, for 4 Asians, this feast is more than enough because the platter consists of mostly meat & potato. Yes, you can consider red cabbage and sauerkraut as vegetable but honestly?? It's meat & potato overload!!

VOILA~~~~ I should probably attempt to say it in German but I don't think there's such a word in German to describe voila! Anyways, from the left, some salted pickles, potato dumplings, some sort of bread (top left), a selection of sausages topped with fried onion and served on mash potato, pork knuckle to be served with pork jus (top left next to the bread), just underneath the pork knuckle is sauerkraut, next to the pork knuckle is chicken Schnitzel (top right hand corner in the photo), just below the schnitzel is pork belly and underneath the pork belly is red cabbage and that yellow coloured sauce is mustard sauce.

I must say that the only thing I can say about German food is, it is either salty or sour. Maybe a bit sweet somewhere but mainly sour and salty. I love German sausages but the sausages are quite salty too. I love one of the sausages that have cheese filling in it so when you try to cut through the sausage, a thin stream of heavenly white melted cheese flows like a river. Maybe that's what makes the sausage even saltier but I still love it. However, after repeatedly eat the salty sausages with salty & soury sauerkraut plus red cabbage, my tastebuds started to get numb with salty flavour. The pork belly wasn't very impressive either. Too fatty and too tough to chew on the skin. As for the potato dumplings, they are something I had never tried before. I'm never too much of a fan for potato related stuff be it potato chips or mash potato. I never develop a liking for potato. I eat it just for its nutritional benefits. The chicken schnitzel, however is pretty good. The Germans sure do know how to do their schnitzel. Definitely hands down for the Schnitzel! The chicken meat is not too dry and still preserves the right amount of moist to it and the batter is not too thick so it doesn't make you feel like you just consume 5 cm thick of batter flour.

As for the pork knuckle.............................................................................................................................

It is simply too salty to my liking too. Unfortunately we couldn't manage to stuff our faces with the pork knuckle. We had some but the meat was simply too salty and I'd had too much meat going down my stomach and I tried to fit more. Alas! I couldn't! What a waste and the wait staff offered to give us some takeaway boxes but we had to refuse politely because I don't think any of us wanted more meat for the next day. It would only get saltier each day you store it. If we had the pork knuckle first, it probably wouldn't be too bad but we left it to the last after we cleaned up everything else. That hindered our stomach from accommodating more meat. Also, none of us wanted to crack open the pork knuckle with the knife because it looks like it's gonna take a lot of work and it did. BFF#2's boyfriend cracked it open for us and cut the meat into smaller pieces. So yes, if you go, be sure to distribute all food equally for your stomach so you can enjoy the food rather than forcing it down your throat.

The second dish involves more sausages!!! HB Wurstplatte $29.50. They're actually the same types of sausages presented above but because there are two servings each, it is easier for us four to distribute equally.

How did we know these sausages are the same ones with the photo before? It is possible to know because the colours are exactly the same with the other ones. Before we ate them, we actually paired up the sausages and trust me like what you can see in the photo, all 4 sausages have different colours (possibly due to the seasoning and meat type too). It sounds weird but when you see it, you know I'm right.

Thirsty after all that salty food? Quench your thirst with either their wide selection of bier (German)/ beer. I forgot which beer my friend had (I can't drink any alcohol simply because I am allergic towards alcohol not for religious reason). For those who are like me or just prefer not to drink beer on a Monday night. They also have non-alcohol beverages although the choices are limited.

I didn't quite zoom in this photo. The glass IS quite tall so you do get the value for your money. My friends had to share this glass (Just shows how truly Asians we are).

As for my BFF #1, this is a cola mix drink (non-alcohol). I was still sick that day so I sticked with my cheap tap water :(

Anyone up for dessert? We do!!!!

We had Schokoladen mousse for $13.50. It's German version of Chocolate Mousse cake and apparently that was the first week they launched the new dessert menu. Initially when I looked at it, it looked to me, just another chocolate mousse. The only reason we ordered it was because BFF#2's boyfriend wanted that (we asked him to choose for us) and I was taken completely by surprise because it was supremely good! It wasn't like the normal mousse where when you put it in your mouth, you could almost taste some airy feeling. As if you're eating spa bubble except in a more dense form if you get what I mean. You probably go, what the hell am I talking about. Go buy a mousse cake now and try to absorb what I say while eating it. This chocolate mousse however, is almost like eating a gelato ice cream except smoother and "lighter". Lighter in a sense that it's not low in fat. Honestly, it is still quite fattening but what I meant was the texture is lighter and just melts straight away in your mouth. I love this chocolate mousse!!!!!!! I want one NOW!

and the presentation is just first class!!

The other dessert we ordered was Apfelstrudel $13.50. German's Apple Strudel. Have you had an Apple Strudel before? Well, put it this way, if you like apple pie, you'll like apple strudel. If you HATE apple pie, then just stay away from apple strudel. I'm in between.. I don't mind it but I'm not a huge fan either but BFF#2 is a massive fan so we ordered that. It's like pastry sprinkled with sugar icing stuffed with apple pie and cream served with vanila ice cream & custard sauce. It was pretty good but by the time I got to second dessert, I was extremely full that I couldn't even fit my water in it. BFF#2 finished it for us.

This restaurant definitely provides a very pleasant dining experience and if you're a first timer, definitely must try this little German gem amidst crowded China Town.

P.S: One of the wait staff is quite cute and I swear I think he flirts with patrons (not directly) which makes your dining experience (for girls) even more worthwhile! For the boys, the waitresses are also very attractive! Suits both ladies & gents.

High Tea at Conservatory, Crown

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 22:01:00 +1100

I'm a huge fan of high tea!!!! It just feels so elegant and yes, superficial and who has a problem with that? I believe if you have the money to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, no one should be envy about it just because they can't. I'm not rich either but I still try to afford an enjoyable lifestyle according to my own standard. I don't usually spend a lot of money to afford luxury stuff. Mostly on food and sometimes for travel purposes. A few years ago, I got to try high tea in a 4-star hotel in Launceston, Tasmania. Can't remember the hotel's name on top of my head now but it is in my Spirit of Tasmania post day 1, 2 & 3.

I enjoyed the experience and I have a bit of a sweet tooth. So I love desserts and maybe small snacks like mini sandwiches, pastries etc. I just love the whole idea where a bunch of girls sitting gossiping and enjoying a cup of tea with snacks on the side. Makes you feel like a true blue-blood royal (not that I am anywhere close to that). The "high tea" term has somehow made its way all over the world now. Even in Southeast Asian countries, everyone just casually posts on their social media statuses "High tea with so and so at bla bla bla". Many cafés are also attracted to the idea of serving "high tea" usually between 3 pm to 5 pm as that is the "ideal" time for having an afternoon tea with close friends.

There's only one reason why I rarely go for high tea in Australia. Mainly because the cost is not worth it unless you are an extremely huge fan of gobbling down 10 macaroons, dozens of cakes, pastries etc.

It's not cheap to have a good session of high tea with your friends. At some places, it will cost a handsome $69 per head and I am yet to try that one when I get a chance or when I get to convince my binging buddies to go with me and be fat together.

I am lucky enough to receive a crown gift card from my colleagues as my birthday gift so I decided to use it for high tea in Conservatory, Crown, Southbank. It usually costs $50 per head and if you want to add unlimited champagne, it costs $75 per head. Good news is, it is a buffet style so if you decide to go, try to make use of the value and devour all the sweets as much as you can!!

I love the set up in Conservatory inside out. Everytime I visit Crown, I would go and check this place out because it just looks so elegant and the colour scheme is mainly dominated by white so it feels like you're in a wedding or you would want your wedding set up to look like what Conservatory looks like. I've been telling so many people I wanted to visit this restaurant and voila! I got what I wished for!!

Does it not attract you to be like "Come in~~~ Come in~~~~ "

We were greeted professionally by well groomed staff and one of them escorted us to our seatings. Oh did I forget to mention that you have to book it in advance before you go there and to also advise them of your dietary preferences. (i. e. If you are lactose, gluten, wheat intolerance or whatever else you're allergic to).

Tea or coffee will usually be offered to you as soon as you are all seated and ready to rush to the buffet area.

I was behaving very well as to not act like people who have never visited a buffet restaurant before and take 10 plates at a time. No, that's not the strategy. The strategy is not to overestimate how much you can eat and to sample different types of food in a small amount at a time.

A glimpse of how the interior looks like from where I was seating.

Although these photos were taken using my humble iPhone5, I hope they are not too disappointing for you guys. I think my humble iPhone5 has done a decent job in capturing the colour scheme inside Conservatory. I love the high ceiling design and the colour. How I wish I could have white colour interior for my future house as well but I know I am not an OCD-ly tidy person (Yes, I just let out my biggest shame publicly). So I know I won't be able to maintain the colour in the long run. I can imagine the cost of maintaining interior like this will pretty much bleed my saving so let's save it when I'm a millionaire in a million years (You never know!).

Even the seats are créme-coloured. It made me nervous just sitting down drinking my tea/coffee and eating my cakes just in case if I spilled anything. Luckily I didn't! Imagine as well if you come here with your infants/toddlers. OMG make sure they don't spill anything onto the chair! Not that it will be embarrassing or anything but man, I would feel sad for the chairs. I can imagine the staff there have to make sure the furnitures are cleaned immaculately at all times.

There are a lot of patrons who were there for special occasions such as birthdays, corporate functions, etc. Not many people with very young children, mostly teens, mostly posh looking patrons who just finished shopping at Crown. For those who don't know, Crown houses many luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Bvlgari, Burberry, Versace etc just to name a few. So people who shop there are not your average people. Hence, the hefty cost for having a session of high tea here. In fact, many restaurants here in Crown are top notch fine dining restaurants such as Rockpool bar & grill which I had the opportunity to visit the other week before this post.

The first thing I saw on my left when I started walking to the buffet was a selection of adorable looking cakes!!!!!!!!! OMG, I felt like I was in heaven. Heaven of bad sugar but I simply couldn't care less!!

Just look at those attractive colours!! I felt simply......................... ALIVE!

I sadly didn't try every single one though because I just couldn't find a way to fit everything without having to throw up in the toilet then come back. <----------- didn="" do="" i="" it.="" nbsp="" p="" t="">
I must say though and I have to be honest as I am writing a post on this without being paid for it just because I want to share my experience with others. So, I MUST be honest, the green one which I believe to be pistachio mini cake, disappointed me a little bit simply because it was a tad too dry and the flavour just didn't go well altogether. HOWEVER, maybe because my taste buds were clouded by too much sweetness from the rest of the stuff that trying on pistachio flavour just didn't work out too well. What I'm saying is, other people might find it tastier than me.

The chocolate mousse cake was quite rich so anyone who loves rich cakes must try it. Something that I didn't take a picture of, which was just located next to these selection of cakes was ice cream! They came in two flavours, one was dark chocolate which tasted so amazing for me. Love dark chocolate and definitely can live with dark chocolate everyday. The other one was raspberry flavoured sorbet which was my least favourite. First of all, I think because it is a sorbet, it melts very easily combined with hundreds of people opening and closing the lid, scooping and placing back the scooper in hot water (to rinse the flavour so other people can use the scooper again), all these activities interfere with the ice cream container's ability to preserve the coolness of the sorbet. Therefore when you scoop your sorbet, all you get is a scoop of halfway melting sorbet which is just not a very nice experience when you're in a 5-star-looking restaurant. I do understand that they do this for hygienic purposes but they probably should come up with something else to resolve this issue. Maybe even replacing the sorbet with a gelato style ice cream instead as the dark chocolate one didn't show any sign of melting at all.

This section serves some "pastries" selection. I took this picture because the stack of raisin buns look nice.. no? Anyways, the ones on the top left hand side are duck wraps. They tasted quite nice actually. I didn't expect to see duck wraps whilst having an afternoon tea? It was a pleasant surprise nonetheless.
The dumplings were also quite nice. After overloading my tastebuds with sweetness, I needed some saltiness to balance it out. Anyone else agrees with me?

I didn't try the buns because, ..................... they are just raisin buns. I could expect how they were gonna taste like. If for some reason, somebody tells me they are one of THE best buns available in town, I am willing to fork out another $50 to go back there just to try the buns. Well, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit but you get my point.

They also serve some party pies and again, I didn't try the pies because of the same reason above.
I didn't want to get full easily and fill up my stomach with food I can easily access anywhere else. You may argue the same applicable for cakes. Cakes for me, are resulted from individual crafting and require immaculate skills. Same goes with pies BUT, my belief is, if you are looking for the best pie in town, then this is not the right place for you. You must find a place specifically serves one of the best pies, such as the café I visited in Queenscliff or Pie in the Sky in Dandenong ranges (which both I have covered in my past posts).

On this corner, they serve fruit mixes such as pineapples, oranges & strawberries. There are also grapes on the other corner, picture will come through separately. Look what I also found... Just next to the strawberries are marshmallows!! MARSH - Freaking - MALLOWS~~~~~~ Oh My God, could it get better than that???? And what do we do with the marshmallows? Look next to it, a freaking chocolate fountain flowing life right in front of you! You may choose to dip the fruits with two options, milk chocolate or white chocolate just on the other side of milk chocolate. They were super delicious!

I was so tempted to just stand in front of the fountain and just drink the whole thing but of course I refrained myself from doing so. Save the embarrassment.

There you go, my abovementioned grapes picture. Just why the grapes are on the other corner next to the cheese & crackers platter and not with the rest of the fruits continues to perplex me until today.
Maybe for the sake of food decoration. I'm not the expert in how to display food to attract people so I'm not making any comment on this. Anyhow, it looks pretty sitting next to dried fruits & dried bananas.

Ta - dah~~~~~~~ Cheese platter!!!! Um ok, so there's no name as to which cheese is what cheese. I'm again, not a cheese expert. In fact, I just know cheddar, tasty, goat, blue & mozzarella cheese. I have no idea what those are in the picture. I just tried each one of them and one of them tasted horrendous. It had such a strong odour too and I can't remember which one now but it just put me off straight away and I couldn't get rid of the taste behind my throat even after drinking a gallon of water & tea. It tasted foul.. not the kind where it tasted like rotten cheese just tasted like you have chewed on dusty wood. Ok, maybe not quite. Anyways, it was simply foul tasting.

Back to pleasant looking & tasting cakes. The chocolate mud cake was extremely rich as expected from a chocolate mud cake. I couldn't finish it halfway through. So was the cheesecake. Very rich and creamy too although it tasted amazing but I the repeating rich texture over and over again in my mouth that I felt a bit sick afterwards. There's only so much of sweet stuff you can swallow. I couldn't bring myself to try the carrot cake because I am actually not much of a carrot cake fan. I tried many times in the past but I just never develop a liking to it. For me, I don't mind it but if I was asked to choose, I wouldn't go for it. Ironically, carrot cakes are probably a healthier option compared to the rest of the selection out there.

In the display jars are some macaroons and some selections of marzipan. I didn't try them too because by then I was so full that I had to consider skipping dinner which I did :(

I know I probably didn't take many photos that I should of but sometimes when I was taking photos while people queuing to get access to the food behind me, I felt embarrassed because it was as if I was blocking them and in their mind, I was probably some typical Asian with their food-photo-taking obsession and sometimes I just don't want to be "that girl" (~~Dat girl)~~. I probably should learn not to care too much. I am at times, too sensible.

It was overall, an amazing experience and I would like to thank my kind colleagues who have given me one of the best birthday gifts I received this year and I am very thankful to be surrounded by great people who have shared very positive influence in my life while I'm abroad.

Thanks to Conservatory who has provided an excellent service with their friendly wait staff continuously checking on patrons to ensure everyone was taken care of and enjoyed a relaxing time with their loved ones.

Birthday Week at Rockpool & Queenscliff

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 21:46:00 +1100

This year is probably one of my most exciting years when it comes to celebrating my birthday.
Yes I can proudly say that I am 26 now and yes I am feeling old, although almost everyone frowns at me when I say I feel old. I mean, I don't feel physically old but I just think mentally, I have become more mature in recent years and hopefully in the coming years, I will become even wiser and more mature. I suppose I can't help it.. When you leave your parents at the ripe age of 18, you are somehow forced to become mature quickly and you learn to be fully responsible for your own actions. Through my many rises and falls, I have learned to always rely on myself and never trust anyone too quickly or think that when you treat others nice, they don't always treat you nice in return. They might still shit all over your face (excuse my language). That, of course is not applicable to everyone you cross path with in your life. There are still people who are genuinely nice to you and will always be there to help you without expecting anything in return.

A terrific example is my housemates, they are out of this world. I live with kind hearted husband and wife. They are one of the most generous couple I have ever met in my entire life. I was searching for a place to live after I was kicked out from my rented unit last year as the landlord's son was moving in. That period of time was one of my toughest one. I had to clean and move everything by myself. At that time, I was on the verge of giving up to stay in Australia because I thought to myself, life is too hard without having anyone to rely on or any family member nearby. I was literally all by myself and thanks to one of my best friends who was the only one who helped me. We were the men in the house dismantling furnitures, painting, cleaning etc. As i was searching for places to live, I came across an advertisement saying there is an available room in the city. I quickly contacted the owner and made some time to inspect the room.

It was a tiny room with built in robe, small study table and a small single bed. I thought to myself, how was I gonna move 4 years of my life into this tiny shoe box sized room??? I figured because the monthly rent is really cheap, I just had to compromise and who was I to compromise? I literally had no choice and I needed to live in the city because of the convenience especially when you are single and from overseas. Little did I know that the husband of the owner whom I met and made contact with all along is disabled. I thought that it was odd to have a sliding door for the bathroom instead of the normal doors and I found a wheelchair in the bathroom. The wife informed me before I moved in that her husband had involved in a car accident 10 years ago and is now permanently paralised waist down. I didn't feel uncomfortable and still decided to move in as at that time, I urgently and desperately needed a room.

After getting to know each other more, they are the loveliest couple ever and they have been treating me like their own family. They very often cook and spare some food for me, we buy each other presents for big days like birthdays and Christmas. Through them, I learn the courage to hold on to what I have, never give up in achieving what you want in life and that when the hurricane is over, you'll always see a rainbow illuminating the sky. They love and support each other in times of pain and joy like what most vows say. Whenever I feel like giving up, I think of them and be shameful of myself because they have more courage and strength than me when I am a full able person. His wife works extremely hard and the disability doesn't stop her husband from doing what he loves and he is still able to work and earn money to pay the mortgage together with his wife. What they have is admirable and inspiring for me to always believe that your future is determined by your attitude and action.

I came home from a facial spa treatment on the day of my birthday to find a cake in the fridge for me from the wife.

Well, the "A" is missing from my name but that's not the point. The point is, the genuine intention that's hard to find in a person nowadays. On top of that, she came out to me, hugged me and handed me something that I could pretty much guess straight away what that was and before I even opened it, I couldn't help but to have tears running down my cheeks straight away. I have no family here and the closest people you could share your joy with, are the people you live and encounter with on a very regular basis.

It's a 22-carat gold pendant that was customised for me. I feel blessed to have received such love from my flatmates and couldn't ask for anything more. I've lived with all sorts of people in the past and even had my room ransacked when I was away on a holiday. Therefore, to finally meet the "perfect" flatmates is a blessing. I received many other presents on my birthday but I felt greatly emotional receiving a gift from the heart from my flatmates. As husband and wife, they have faced countless obstacles and more to come in the future, but their strength and courage have proven to beat all the odds.

Let's go back to when I mentioned that I went for my facial spa. That was the first time I had a facial spa done in Australia. Back at home, a facial spa is unbearingly painful. Your entire face is squeezed with no mercy until all the blotted oil, pimple & black heads popped out, then they apply all the good creams and massage your face. You do feel extremely clean afterwards though, however here, it's completely different. I managed to squeeze in a 30-minute quick facial spa as no. 1. I wanted to have it done on my birthday, no. 2. They were unable to squeeze me in any appointment longer than 30 minutes. Oh, by the way, I went to Ella Baché spa treatment centre in Melbourne Central. As it was my first time, I thought I might try something that I know of and not too expensive. The first shop I visited was in Melbourne Central as well but a lot more expensive. $130 for a microdermabrasion and I think it's a 30 minutes treatment. I had the quick Triple Expresso Facial for 30 minutes for $70 in Ella Baché. For a beginner like me, definitely try a 3-in-1 deal as you get to "sample" a bit of everything just to give you an idea of how you're gonna feel. They started with cleansing your face, a bit of massage, exfoliate your skin with their products afterwards, then they leave your face steamed with their advance facial treatment devices (Hey, I am no expert. Hence, I'm not dwelling into the technical terms).

Alas, 30 minutes went too quickly! I felt rejuvenated and my skin felt silky smooth! I was overall very satisfied with the treatment and walked out with my face glowing. I also ended up buying their moisturizer as I was looking for a lighter form of fluid as my moisturizer. I have a combination skin and my current moisturizer is way too creamy and heavy on top of the night serum I use every night, it feels like my skin weights 5 kgs. I have not noticed much result yet except that my skin feels lighter now and less oily. I bought the detox aromatique range for $69 which is quite affordable.

I pretty much went a bit too crazy on my shopping on the day of my birthday but hey, your birthday is only once a year, so treat yourself a little bit! (or maybe a bit too much)

The rest of the afternoon went too quickly and I was so busy doing some shopping that I forgot I was going out with the girls.

Birthday Selfie No.1. I am allowed to take and post as many selfies as I want because I can!!! :D

Birthday Outfit No. 1. Dress is from a random shop on Swanston st. Clutch bag on the side is from Forever New, the heels with bow ties at the front are from Wittners and the plastic bag I was holding is just a present from a friend :) Necklace is from a kiosk I visited in Sydney about 3 years ago.

The girls and I decided to go to Touché Hombre on Lonsdale st. Dinner was not fantastic I must say. Don't get me wrong, the girls ordered blue eye fillets whilst I ordered beef ribs which was quite risky I should've known better. You see, I don't know about you but I like my ribs to be tender and juicy not stone hard. The sauce was spicy and just right to my liking but the meat ruined everything the sauce had to offer. The sauce was made of fried herbs, red peppers & aioli. The ribs were too tough to chew and the texture was like eating beef rendang. For those who don't know what beef rendang is, it is a staple food in Malaysia and Indonesia. An absolute "must try" dish. I wasn't all very impressed with the ribs to say the least but the blue eye fillet was fantastic! Unfortunately, I didn't take the photo of the blue eye fillets, don't be disappointed!! The sauce was the true winner. It was made from spicy salsa roja and bean salad.

DINNER NUMBER 2

The rest of the night went pretty quickly. Before we knew it, we went to crash somebody's birthday party. As a start, we didn't even know there was a birthday party going on as a friend of a friend invited us to catch up altogether and he only mentioned "there would be a few other guys" and when we turned up, there was this small section in the bar reserved for birthday boy's guestlist only. Went there, ordered some free drinks, showed our faces around and moved on to dance the night away. What a great way to end the night (sarcastic thought). Key important thing for me was that I was able to spend the night with a few close friends.

P.S: I don't post many photos of my friends solely for privacy purposes. First of all, none of my friends knows I write a blog and second of all, that's the only reason. I don't publicise my blog enough because I think my blog is not "mature" enough in a way that there is still many works to be done in further future.

Anyways, I was more excited for my second dinner because it was going to be at ROCKPOOL!!!!!

Funny enough, last year also during my birthday, I intended to celebrate with my fellow birthday mate at Rockpool in Sydney. Yes, there is a Rockpool in Sydney as well. One of my best friends shares the same birthday with me so we celebrated together last year by going to Sydney together and we almost went to Rockpool. I for whatever reason, cannot remember why we didn't go there. Instead, last year we celebrated at an Italian restaurant in Southbank, Melbourne instead.

Me preparing for my birthday dinner number 2 outfit.

Selfie number 2....

Outfit number 2... Dress is from Bardot, faux leather jacket is from a random shop in Sydney about 3 years ago, heels are present from Korea (Charles & Keith) and clutch bag that you can't really see is from Forever New (yes, I do have a lot of clutches from Forever New. They're just cheap and chic).

Dinner starts from 06:30 pm at Rockpool so when we arrived, there were dozens others waiting outside the doorstep. When the door opened, we were escorted by professionally dressed waiters and waitresses with men who look like they should be working at luxury retail brands. We were guided to our table efficiently by one of the professional good looking waiters. Their suites definitely look like they came out straight from the laundry service, all pressed & clean. They all look so fine from head to toe and I swear to God the way they talk and serve you are like out of this world. Their service overall is very impressive and second to none.

They even split your meal equally and bring out 2 separate plates if you choose to share your meal!! No more digging your fork and spoon in an ill-mannered way when you're eating at a 5-star restaurant! If it is gonna be your first date, this is definitely the place to be. They pretty much do everything for you and all you have to do is to dress up elegantly and be a lady & gentleman for the night. Your date is definitely gonna end up well that night. Oh and maybe if you're not sure if she/he is quite into you, then this place is a big no no as you may be forging out some fortune dining in there but it's so worth it!!

This good looking waiter with a handsome French accent was our waiter for the night and he came out with a few recommendations. As a start, we ordered a hand cut linguini with spanner crab & spicy prawn oil. The linguini was so perfectly cooked and not too oily. It was definitely very seafood-ish and aromatique. I really took a great joy devouring it.

Pardon my very amateur photo as I didn't take my camera on the day, so I had to live with my humble iPhone5. Way too much noise in the photo due to poor lightning :( Anyways, just live with it. This portion is half of the original portion as we chose to share the linguini so I suppose the chef did all the work saving both of us from halving it ourselves. Looking at the linguini photo now makes me want to go back for more! You can never go wrong with Linguini when you don't know which pasta to choose. Oh wait, maybe you CAN go wrong if you go to the wrong place :)

Second recommendation is free range Aylesbury duck with grilled figs & apple balsamic. Duck is my least favourite type of meat but considering how much my dinner partner likes duck, I was willing to try their duck. To my surprise, their duck is superb and the meat was really tender & juicy. My dinner partner loves the duck.

Second main was Wagyu Rib Eye on the bone 350g 63 days. I love the steak here, you really get what you pay for. I asked for Medium rare and I had my steak with spicy English mustards and bearnaise. I love mustards sauce, weird I know as probably most people go with barbeque or creamy mushroom sauce for steak. You could taste the quality of wagyu which was of premium quality.
Um, yes I don't have a photo of the steak simply because it was divided into 2 separate plates as well and there were only a few pieces in one plate so it wasn't very much of a picture worthy. Besides, I suppose steak looks very generic across various restaurants, it is the taste that separates one from another and brings it to the next level like one in Rockpool.

We also ordered a couple of sides such as roasted pumpkin and sweet potato with garlic yogurt and burnt butter. This one for me, is a winner. I loooooooove it!! The garlic yogurt went super well with the roasted pumpkin. It tastes so creamy and rich! After a couple of slices though, it got a bit too filling because of the rich texture pumpkin and yogurt have to offer. Don't forget the buttery taste added to the richness. If you like rich sauce, this is definitely a "must try". If not, still try maybe 1 slice and share the rest with your company.

The other side dish was onion rings. It was probably one of the biggest onion rings I have even seen and tasted in my entire life. I hate onion and garlic and as long as I can't taste onion in it, I'm happy to take the risk. I stared at the onion rings nervously and cut it in half with my knife. As I peered nervously into the hole, I could see the cooked onion covered by a layer of battered flour. It cringed me to think that I was about to eat onion rings as all of my life, I tried to eat onion rings and I never liked any of it. HOWEVER, I love this one because it doesn't have that strong onion smell. It pretty much tasted like as if I was eating fries except it wasn't too starchy like french fries. I was glad I liked it.

We ended our feast by sharing just one dessert as we could barely fit anything else. We were recommended to try coconut sorbet and shortcrust with strawberries and lime yoghurt. We decided on the sorbet because we were already pretty full and wanted something light instead of something too heavy and rich such as cheesy or chocolaty dessert. It turned out to be just right for us and the sorbet was so light that I could easily fit a second serve!

The dinner was fantastic and the service was exceptional. I was extremely happy with this treat for my birthday this year and although the bill sets you back a little but everyone deserves a little treat on their special day, don't you agree?? Those people who work there truly show that they are extremely passionate in delivering the best dining experience possible for every patron and truly make you feel like a royal family for the night. Well, when the clock hits 12:00 am, I'm back to become a commoner again,

The next day, we decided to drive down to Queenscliff just a little bit past Geelong. I've been to Geelong but not Queenscliff. Queenscliff is a smaller town compared to Geelong city and the residents there I believe, spend most of their weekends engrossed in water sports such as fishing, jet skiing and whatever else people do with their boats. I'm always fascinated with boats and jet skis. I haven't tried many water sports but I have tried jet skiing before. The ocean is vast and is beautiful yet dangerous. I can never answer the question of whether I am a mountain or sea person because I love both!! If you haven't yet read my post on my trip to Tasmania, go and look at some photos I took there, the mountain was breathtakingly beautiful and pure. Pretty much the only reason why I love Tasmania. Other than that, it is dead boring if you're not an outdoor type of person.

Queenscliff is about 1.5 hours drive from Ascot Vale (It varies depending on where you live, eastern, western, southeastern or northern suburbs).

The pier at Queenscliff. It was a bit cloudy and rainy that day, such a sad weather but somehow offers its own beauty. This is where everyone launches their boats, jet skis etc.

Looks like a storm was about to break. I love this picture I took the most (sarcasm). Just a few people standing by the shore with the clear blue sky water sweeping through the sand. Looking at the ocean and listening to the sound of calm waves makes me feel so much in peace. If only I could live by the sea.

After taking in some admirable sceneries, we moved on to fill in our protesting stomachs by checking out the Queenscliff Inn not too far from the beach and pier.

I probably should've taken a closer photo but I simply couldn't be bothered to cross the street again. When I just came out, it started raining so we had to seek a shelter. Anyways, just to give you an idea on how it looks like from the outside. A typical historical Victorian Inn style.

Had a mussel risotto & fish and chips with rocket salad. The food is amazing and fresh from the ocean (literally).

The risotto was really good. Creamy and just right not too rich and paired really well with the mussels.

My fish was really fresh (I wish the fillet was bigger)

There was a tiny bit of drama going on in here that day. This really grumpy and unhappy patron was complaining about the service and how she had to get water by herself and about something else (I didn't manage to eavesdrop the entire conversation). She also complained about the Inn not having enough staff working on the day which I think one of the employees just cooly replied "why don't you get me someone to work tomorrow". It was so awkward when you're sitting in the middle of two people having a small altercation. In any ways, it didn't bother me because it was not my problem and the food was great so I had nothing to complain about and as long as I don't step on anyone's toes, I would expect them to do the same to me. A lot of patrons don't know how to put themselves in wait staff's shoes. They only know how to complain and not the reason as to why was there a problem that caused a complaint in the first place. Anyhow, I felt for the employees as I was once a wait staff too.

We also had one of the best pies in town and apparently won an award last year as serving the best pie in Victoria. Go Figure! We had the chunky beef pie which indeed serves the purpose of the name being Chunky beef! The pie was indeed very beefy and the beef was very tender! I'm not a pie lover, so I'm not going to give my opinion on the pie because I am not someone who appreciates pies so, for me it was just a pie except the beef was exceptionally chunky and the pie had rich ingredients which was amazing compared to those frozen pies you buy from the supermarket that have only 10% of beef quantity and 90% gravy. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the pie eatery. I'm sure if you google best pie in Queenscliff, there is only 1 place that comes up in the search engines.

Overall, I had an excellent birthday weekend and this year I am just going to count my blessings instead of counting my miseries. When you think of how many blessings you are given, the world just seems so much worth of living!

Till next time <3 p="">

New Year's Eve at Balgownie Estate, Yarra Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Thu, 2 Jan 2014 20:45:00 +1100

Happy New Year Y'all~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Technically, this is my first post in 2014!!!!

Hope everyone celebrated magnificently with family, friends, loved ones or with your lonesome self (yet happy). I celebrated mine in a totally isolated and peaceful way this year unlike previous years where I would always drag some friends to watch fireworks with me, waited for what seemed like forever so that we could get the best spot to watch the fireworks. This year, I have someone special to celebrate with. The original plan was to go to Malaysia as well as to visit my family. Sadly the plan had to be cancelled due to some personal issues I had and with budget limitation, we decided to spend New Year's Eve in regional Victoria. The state of Victoria has a lot of awesome relaxing spots and Yarra Valley is one of them. If you recall my previous post on Domain Chandon, I didn't stay the night. We just went there for the day and we left afterwards.

This time, we decided to stay at Balgownie Estate, Mercure Hotel which is located at 1309 Melba Hwy, Yarra Valley. Our original plan was to stay at Chateau Yerring but the rooms were fully booked long before Christmas. As we were quite some last minute people, after doing some research and looking at some photos they have on their website here, I discussed with my partner and we agree this would be our best option. There is a wide range of option when it comes to selecting accommodations in Yarra Valley. For us, the cost came to $293/night and trust me, it is so worth it. In a minute, you'll know why.

We didn't book for the 7-course meal in the evening because it would cost us another $150/pp and breakfast is another $28/pp. TOO MUCH!! We went elsewhere to have dinner although the quest was rather difficult to achieve initially because out there, not many restaurants open after 5 pm and if there's any, you have to drive further out. After doing some research on Urbanspoon, we found a few.

Driving from city to Balgownie Estate wasn't too bad, it probably took us about 1 hour to reach there and the weather was just perfect that day, it was 25-degree celcius maximum.

From the main road.

I just looooooove taking photos on very fine day like this. There's really no skill necessary. Literally just point and shoot with quality lens :)

The driveway to enter Balgownie Estate.

Inside the estate, the balcony view to the gardens.

The lounge room in our privilege Gardner room...

Lounge room take #2

Lounge room take #3.

Kitchenette fully quipped with small fridge, microwave, nespresso machine, nespresso capsules and twinning tea and of course the experience of staying in the winery estate is not complete without a selection of local wines. I think one of them being 2012 pinot noir.

Inside the bathroom with two sinks!!! I told my partner that I want a house like this. Looks very simple but comfortable and I want 2 sinks in the bathroom like this!!! What for?? So it saves time although I'm not sure about the bill a month later but if you have 2 children, they'll all be ready at the same time (kind of)...

This is the most amazing and probably odd for some people. That is, you can see through the living room!! Um, unless you want to see your partner showering in there from the lounge room, I'm not sure why they designed it the way it is but build in Jacuzzi?? Yes, anytime!!! You don't need rocket science knowledge to operate it, pretty straightforward.

Bedroom take #1. I love the wall design, there is a touch of art everywhere and how I wish my wardrobe is that huge! You can't see it in the photo because I couldn't find the right angle to capture the entire space but the mirror wardrobe is HUGE!

Bedroom take #2. Also with garden view so you can wake up to it the next morning. The bed is the most comfortable one I've ever slept in in a long long long long time.

After taking some rest, we went out for a walk whilst the sun is still up. During summer in Victoria, the sky doesn't get dark until 9 pm. Might as well take advantage of it while it lasts!

There is a story behind this photo and there is a reason I look weird in the photo.

I wanted to pretend playing chess with my boyfriend and I intended the photo to look natural, before I could say anything, the timer went off and my boyfriend already smiled at the camera while I was yelling out "Don't look at the camera!" So, this is the end result and I couldn't be bothered to retake another one.

We walked about a little bit more and we rested back in the living room watching some TV until we realised it was about time to make our way to Healesville, about 20 minutes drive from the estate. We made a reservation at Innocent Bystander at 19:30, which is located at 336 Maroondah Hwy, Healesville. We decided on this restaurant after searching for available restaurants after 5 pm in nearby area and this one came up with 87% review and 300+ people voted so we thought it was pretty legit.

The interior seating area was very contemporary Australian with a touch of art to it, indeed feels very original.

We ordered 2 tapas dishes, one being grilled lamb and pinenut adana with tabouleh and the other one is Hervey Bay Scallops.

Hervey Bay Scallops.

My verdict is they are both really yum! The lamb sausage is so smokey that it tastes like they came out straight from the woodfire! The flavour is still locked in and just explodes in your mouth.

cotechino sausage, san manzarno tomato, olive, sage, scamorza bianca cheese and pickled eggplant.
The pizza is so fresh and get this, it is oven baked with genuine traditional wood fire! That's where the smokiness comes from! The bread tastes so fresh like of home-made bread. Overall, this kind of pizza is hard to find, not your everyday Lygon st Italian restaurant standard.

The main is interestingly under the head title of "not-pizza", we thought it is very original. This one is bbq pork shoulder, smoked eggplant with coriander, lemon and cumin. I would honestly say this one is pretty standard just because I haven't had an exceptional experience with eating pork dishes in my history of modern Australian food fine dining.

We also ordered 2 desserts to complete our dining experience, one being a cheesecake and another one was bread and butter pudding. The cheesecake was not bad but the bread and butter pudding was too filling to our liking. If you like banana bread, then maybe you'll enjoy it more than us. I didn't take a photo of it simply because it was too dark and I didn't want to turn on my built-in flash.

I hate that moment when your camera flashes and people stare at you. Not that we'll ever see each other again randomly and the other person being "OMG, those are one of those people (Asians) taking food pictures with flash". Oh well, maybe I just think too much.

All of that for $112 at the end of the night, I reckon it's not bad at all compared to all those New Year's Eve dining package that charge $150-$250 pp. I reckon this one is worth it and unless you can eat some 7-9 course meal person, this one works just fine.

We headed back to our accommodation and rested just after midnight (of course you have to stay awake to wish each other Happy New Year before going to bed) :)

The next morning, we had the same dilemma, where are we going to have breakfast!!!?? It's New Year's Day! No one is working, who would torture themselves and pay 2x pay rates for their employees? I know the company I 'm working at would but in the countryside? No.

We went through urbanspoon again and found one, Zonzo which is not too far away from where we were staying too but it was closed when we drove there :( We had no choice but to go back to innocent bystander because it would take too much time and risk to find different ones. Besides, my boyfriend was raving non-stop and craving for more pizza. So, we went back.

We ordered the Salumi instead of Tapas this time. Based on recommendation from the waitress, we had Italian Cacciatorini. The salami and bread are so fresh! I'm a sucker for bread, I looooooove bread so much that I can eat a whole loaf by myself.

We ordered another pizza, this time, it is Australian Prawn Cutlet, San Marzano tomato, Oregano & Buffalo Mozzarella. Another amazing pizza but I loooooooooooove the truffle frites!!

It was one of the best French Fries I've ever tasted. Well, basically it's just French Fries with cheese (I know, I have to go the gym 3 times a week to lose all the calories) but I swear, the French Fries are so different from the usual ones, fresh, crispy just on the edge and freshly baked potato in the inside. Thinking about it is torturing me :(
This time, the meal costs us $48 in total. Rather than $28 pp breakfast at the estate, I would rather this anytime.

After that, we had to say goodbye to Yarra Valley and the weather was turning all gloomy and shortly after, the rain started falling. We drove out to Christmas Hills because my boyfriend wanted to show me the Sugarloaf Reservoir where his parents used to take him out fishing there but the rain wouldn't stop so I couldn't take any photo.

Rain oh rain, why??? Oh well, maybe another day or another year.. Hmm.
I saw it briefly though, was a HUGE reservoir. There is also a dam where cars could drive on top of it to another lookout location where people could set up picnic and BBQ.

On our way back, we managed to visit Tarra Warra winery estate briefly just to rest a couple of minutes and sipped a cup of coffee while watching the rain.

One more photo before we left for Melbourne.

I hope everyone had a great time celebrating the start of 2014 and I hope this year will bring everyone better luck, wealth, better career/business prospect and most importantly, better health!

Also, to visit Balgownie estate and the Yarra Valley, please click here to find out more.

Until next time~~

Domaine Chandon, Yarra Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 16:13:00 +1100

Finally I get to enjoy a mini trip again with my best friends now that my annual leave has taken place just after Christmas. I am extremely happy to be able to spend some time with the girls outside of Melbourne city away from the hustle and buzzle of Melbourne CBD. We decided on a last minute plan to visit the winery near Yarra Valley, which is about 44 minutes drive from the main city.
There's a wide range of winery around Yarra Valley, so we decided to visit the more popular ones such as Domaine Chandon. This winery owns 50 hectares of the vineyard with Champagne varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier.

Does this bottle of Champagne look familiar to you? I don't know much about Champagne or wine so I will not write any gibberish here. *Image is not from my own, google image searched and found this.

It wasn't too long of a drive and the place was extremely easy to find. It was also a very fine day, so lucky us! Especially when you live in a 4-season-in-one-day country, this kind of day is hard to come by. I was all equipped with my digital camera and a newly bought tripod (so excited to try it out as I was so sick of having to ask random people to take the pictures and they always turn out not the way you wanted them to be, don't you agree???).

Arriving at the main entrance of Domaine Chandon. This winery is one of the most popular tourist attractions, just outside at the car park area, there were a couple of tour buses and a flock of tourists marching to this winery for wine tasting, food exploration and just simply enjoy the beautiful valley. A perfect place to wind down after a long year (for me that is).

Pardon me, lots of selfies in this blog entry. I usually only have photos of me but this time, I didn't take many photos of just myself. Having a tripod is not the most convenient thing to carry around but obviously it was worth it as it took more stable photos and nobody needed to hold it for you. My only concern at that time was that it was super windy at times and I was worried that my tripod was going to fall and break my camera, lucky enough my camera is pretty sturdy so it weights down the tripod just fine.

and more selfie...

The restaurant and the wine tasting bar. It has indoor and outdoor seatings but it was too windy for us so we decided to sit inside instead.

More selfie before going in, typical Asian behaviour.

We ordered 4 dishes to share among 3 of us. First one was fresh oysters and believe me when I say this, they can't get any more fresh than this!! One of the best I've tasted. They also put a touch of fried garlic on top of it!! YUM~~~~

and then we had bruschetta which was also yum but I wouldn't say "Wahhh". The dish on the left is a duck dish and I wouldn't say wahh too as I don't think the duck absorbs the sauce well enough, pretty much like ordinary duck dish same with the hapuka dish on the right. The mash potato and the rest of the hollandaise-like sauce tasted great but the fish itself has not enough flavour and freshness to it.

Overall, it costs us about $35 each which is not too bad to be honest and considering we all shared the dishes. Unfortunately those dishes didn't fill us up so we had to find dessert elsewhere.

This is Dominique Portet winery just about 3 minutes away from Domaine Chandon, a smaller one and they don't have much here. Behind us is the shop selling varieties of wine and selection of patisseries.

More models wannabes.. Can't get enough of the awesome weather at 35 degrees celcius!
Let the nature do the talking!

We decided to move on to the famous chocolate factory just about 15 minutes drive from Domaine Chandon in Healesville.

I couldn't take many photos with the tripod at this location because of the extreme wind condition. I literally had to hold everything with my hands or everything was gonna fly away!

The front entrance of the chocolaterie and ice-creamery.

The shop has a transparent glass window where you can see staff baking chocolate fresh from scratch.
It has a selection of sweets and ice-cream and they also sell them in beautiful and cute packages. They are also very affordable so people should probably stock up for Valentine's Day LOL

Look! Perfect for Christmas gifts but a little too late now. Well, at least you know where to get from next time.

We rested at Lilydale lake afterwards as we were all extremely tired and it was 35 degrees at the time but in 1 minute, I saw a gust of dust moving towards us from the lake direction and Holy Moly I thought we were all gonna die in a sandstorm and I yelled out to my friend to have their back turned to the other side so not to face the lake and the whole park was covered in dust and strong gust of wind that my shoes almost flew away. A lot of people we setting up tents with their families and some families were having BBQs but the wind and sand just ruined everything. People screaming, no one dared to move and kids were crying. It was one of the most horrible things I've ever experienced in my life and in my mind I thought, what about when Tsunami happened?? I am glad that I am still alive. When we drove out, trees branches were everywhere scattered on the road.

MORAL OF THE STORY?? Take a good care of yourself during this festive season and drive safe!!

Till next year.... :)

Noodle Night Markets at Alexandra Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Mon, 2 Dec 2013 21:17:00 +1100

City of Melbourne finally hosts an Asian night markets event!!!! Yayyy~~ About time!

Well, even though to be honest, this night market is alot more posh than the normal night markets you see in Southeast Asia countries. You can tell the difference right away, especially when it comes to the eating cost! Honestly, that night I spent more that what I would usually spend dining in a restaurant.
It was blardy expensive, however bear in mind that most of the food stalls come from popular fusion Asian food. You won't see authentic Asian food there but who cares, it's all about the atmosphere, recreating the sense of "home" for every Asian and for the locals to get the feel of what Asian night markets are all about. At the same time, the setting resembles a spacious beer garden that enables people to mingle around with good glass of beer, there's a DJ to spice up some music and there's food. LOTS OF FOOD!

This Noodle Night Markets is only held for 2 weeks since 18th November 2013 so I was lucky to check it out before it wraps up. Don't expect dirt cheap food because then might as well go to a restaurant but who cares about the price when you can hang out with a couple of friends on a Friday night or weekend and discuss on the queuing strategies, which food stall to visit next and after you get tired of queuing, sit on the lawn (if the tables are all fully occupied already) and enjoy some house tunes? That's more original than say, visiting pubs.

The market opens to public everyday but finishes early during the week. I can't remember exactly what time but on the weekend, it opens from 4-10 pm. Great place to bring family as well. The location is in Alexandra Gardens just after you cross the bridge from Flinders train station or just after Federation square. There's also an invention called Google if you're still lost.

If you still don't know, follow the Asians who are flocking down to visit the night markets.

The entire gardens are so jammed packed with people and lit up with bulbs that it's impossible to miss it :) What I saw as I was making my way down the stairs. They have dim sums in this area. The stall is set up by a restaurant called "let's do Yum Cha". I've never tried it and I didn't try it when I was there too just because yum cha is not the best in Australia and everywhere you go, it's gonna taste more or less the same as opposed to say, Hong Kong/Malaysia.

The entrance to the markets.

These people are queuing btw. The queue for food is pretty long but they're pretty quick as most of them are prepared in advance and just need to add sauce etc. Also, the food choices are not too many as they're meant to be quick and efficient. Hence, even though they represent some really popular fusion restaurants but to decrease the price, it also means the choices are limited and quantity is also compromised.

Such as this food stall, Longrain. This is an "up-class" Thai fusion restaurant in the city and usually costs a bit to dine in. We tried to book once and it was fully booked. The cost of food in Noodle Night Markets ranges from about $10-ish to $14-ish (the ones that I tried) so it's not too bad. I'm pretty sure the cheapest ones were WonderBao (we'll get there shortly).

Yea I know, all the queues for what??? For the experience of course. Why else would people go to night markets and queue for food rather than walk into a restaurant straight away? Also to enable you to sample different restaurants in one space!

This is Grilled chicken, rice noodles, coriander and yellow bean $14. Not cheap eh? Well, considering it's from Longrain, price-wise is justifiable. Quality wise though, hmm.... It's not that bad. It's different and not your usual Chinese broad noodle. Like I said, most of the food here is fusion, so if you don't enjoy fusion food, then there's no point of visiting noodles night markets. Whereas for me, I enjoy different type of food and I love to explore outside my comfort zone BUT if I don't like it, I rarely would ever try it again.

For me, this this is about 7 out of 10.

The grilled chicken is very ordinary, but the sauce is pretty amazing.

While we were savouring our noodle, we queued up the next stall, Wonder Bao. People have been raving about these buns and the rating on urbanspoon is pretty high too. We visited the restaurant the other day but they closed down for renovation :( Well, at least we got to sample it here.

I think the top one is BBQ Pork and the bottom one is Chicken. I prefer the pork one just because it has that smokey BBQ pork flavour and it is really smokey and juicy. I don't mind one right now actually.

The buns are really soft too. I must dine in one day!!!! They taste so good that you need at least two! They are quite a small serve unfortunately. Well, I suppose it's night markets afterall. The whole point of small servings is to enable your stomach to fit for more food, therefore spending more money. Duh... consumer marketing 101.

After gobbling all those up, next stop is to get some mini pancakes because we've seen people walking past and the mini pancakes look all fluffled up with maple syrup and sugar icing.. Slrrrrppp...
We made a mistake by choosing the chocolate one where in fact, sticking to traditional maple syrup would've been a lot better. The first time I tried Dutch mini pancake was when I went to Tesselar Tulip Festival up in Lilydale and God, they were the best mini pancakes I've ever tried.

Looks yum right? Don't be fooled. It's ok, it's not bad. Who doesn't like pancakes anyways? Regardless of how they're gonna taste like, they're pancakes! This costs $10 and I wanted more but by then, I think we've spent about $65 on food already.

We thought that was it until we saw..

Chin Chin is quite a popular fusion restaurant as well. I've dined in there before and the food was great down to the dessert. Unfortunately, again, your choices are very limited here. We ended up trying the Massaman Curry if Braised brisket & peanuts sauce with rice $12.

It might not look very appetising but trust me, it's pretty rich with flavour and if you've ever tried Asian "satay" dish in the past, it's kind of like satay sauce in terms of the peanut sauce on top of the rice. Satay is typically Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean dish. I'm not a fan though I am Indonesian. Probably one of a few who doesn't like peanut sauce on rice. Just find it a bit out of sync.

While I was waiting,

This atmosphere is what I was raving about. The beer garden atmosphere, especially during summer. Music was pumping, sound of laughters, joy, celebration. Picture conveys a thousand words people say. How much do you think is true?

Go and visit the markets while it lasts. I think this is probably the last week of the night markets. The event is I think "sponsored" by The Age. Visit their website here.

Christmas is here everyone, have you done your shopping yet? Get into the festive right now!!

Garnier BB cream

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 20:41:00 +1100

How many of you (girls and boys) spend more than 5 minutes just applying foundation itself? Or even more if you are applying concealer before foundation? In total, applying make up every morning takes approximately 20 minutes of my time and it is rather annoying but honestly, I wasn't born with perfect skin, so let's face it. A lot of us just have to deal with it, but with Garnier's range of BB cream, it actually saves you so much time that you could probably snooze for another 10 minutes and who doesn't agree that sleep is of essence???? and who doesn't agree that sleep actually improves your skin condition and makes it look more subtle the next morning? Well, if you don't agree, fair enough. I respect your belief.

Now back to Garnier..
I have tried some other Korean brand BB cream but I often find the shade doesn't suit me. Koreans have a relatively fair skin and I suppose the shade will suit them often times than not but for me, being from Southeast Asian country, I have a slightly darker feature and my fairness is equivalent to Chinese fairness and when I use Koreans brand BB cream, my face turns really pale and when I take photos at night, I look like a ghost, no kidding! After spending like $50 on a bottle of BB cream and only used it twice, it has been sitting there collecting dust on my desk. Also, it dries my skin out too!
My skin is combination oily and is can be really dry sometimes, hence my skin produces excess oil to hydrate it. I hate seeing dry skin on my face, who doesn't? That white dead skin hanging on you face. Yuck!

Anyways, after reading lots of blogs about Garnier's BB cream, especially from a Singaporean blogger who did a one day challenge using Garnier's BB cream for 12 hours. For those who hasn't been to Singapore, Singapore weather is extremely humid and you sweat all the time. It also means, for people who have combination oily or oily skin, it is a complete nightmare. You can watch her video here.

After seeing that video, I decided to get one for myself too. Garnier's range of BB cream is available in majority drug stores in Australia and overseas. I got mine from Coles/Woolies and they are only $10 each!! Most of the time when I am there, it is always on promotion. I'm not sure how much sales they make from this range of products but this product is what you can describe as AWESOME!!

This is the first one that I got.

This is oil-free BB cream, well to be honest, the texture is more like liquid-ish than cream. It is meant to provide you with a matte finish and trust me, it really did make my skin looks matte. Also, it is meant to control the amount of oil your face produces throughout the day. I wore it for the whole day and it really stayed matte! I was so amazed by it. HOWEVER, then I realised that I bought the wrong shade! It was supposed to be light not medium. I looked orange and looked like fake tan went wrong! Plus I'm Asian. Not a good combination AT ALL!

On top of that, it does provide a matte finish but it also makes my skin dry and when I touch my face, it is not as smooth. It feels like I've got sand on my face. Not literally, just my closest description at the time. So, even though I think it does the job, I don't think it suits me. Although it controls my oil production which was simply amazing and I can't find that in any other products/matte foundations I've tried so far.

So, I went back to Coles and got a different type of Garnier's BB cream, the original one.

This is the original BB cream that Garnier first introduced. This time, I got the correct shade and as you can see, Garnier's BB cream not only acts as a moisturizer to keep your skin hydrated which obviously your foundation can't do, it also evens complexion and boosts a healthy glow. Also, it provides SFP 15 UV sun protection! OMG, why didn't I discover so much earlier on??? For only $10 you get all these?? Are you kidding me??

This is how it looks like. This one has creamy texture unlike the oil-free range and smells really good too! For best result, it is recommended that you apply it twice on your face and neck. It feels so hydrating and for me, it also lasts for the whole day. It provides a dewy finish, hence your skin looks glowy and healthy. HOWEVER, the downside of it is that if your skin is super oily and you don't have bad acnes on your skin, maybe just apply once instead of twice because you don't want to turn into a greaseball after a long day.

This one is eye roll-on BB cream for your under eyes because it is formulated to reduce dark circles and puffiness from crying too much for whatever reasons, lack of sleep and pulling an allnighter. To be frank, I'm not sure how accurate about the claim to smooth fine lines. The thing is, I don't use these products every day because I still use my normal foundation to work but I use these on my day off and weekends because it is fast, easy and hydrating at the same time. I wear it to catch up with friends, enjoy the sun at the park on lazy weekends and they work wonderfully. I guess you have to do a trial over 1 month or 2 to discover its full potential. That is, you have to use it every day consistently.

Inside the package. The texture is similar to the oil-free BB cream, more liquid-ish and you just need to stroke the roll-on gently on your under eyes and on you lids and use your ring fingers to gently dab in a circular way. Apply twice for best result as recommended. It blends well along the facial BB cream and of course remember to pick the right shade as well.

Ta-dah! My face without make up at all, purely BB cream. Please ignore my frizzy hair. It is due for a saloon trip soon. On another important note, if you have relatively bad acnes or acne scars, I doubt these products will be right for you compared to what concealers can do but regardless, you should probably give it a try considering its affordable price!

That's it on my update, will share next time if I find good and cheap products again!

Quick Post on Melbourne Marathon 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 21:16:00 +1100

For the third year, I signed up for 5.7 km run sponsored by Medibank Health Solutions also formally known as Melbourne Marathon Festival. I started my first run back in 2011 and that was before I joined Fitness First. Ever since I started living in Australia, I have become more health conscious. I started worrying about my general well being even though I regularly go for general health check and thank God, my results are fine presently but you can never be too careful. Afterall, with all the money in the world, you can't buy health unless you eat gold caviar every day since the day you were born. I was just bull****ing.

Anyways, I can't remember how did I stumble upon Melbourne Marathon 3 years ago. Well, let's be honest, I'm not THAT good with my running skills so I will not sign up for full marathon sponsored by Medibank Health Solutions anytime soon or even in the remaining life I have. I can't do half marathon sponsored by Flight Centre either mainly because you need extensive training for that and I didn't have much time to train. 10 km which is sponsored by Coffee Club is also too much for me. Geez, 5 km is better than 3 km walk ok! and that's how I decided to sign up for 5 km run in 2011. It was also a test to my fitness level. I started training twice a week for 2 months in order to get my body (legs muscle) to get ready for the hit. I did one in the evening after work and one in the morning along the beach in st kilda. The view when you run along the beach is priceless!

This is what I'm talking about

Ok, this one is abit of a photoshop. I took this during a very gloomy day but it looks like a painting!

Ok, this one is more like it.

I like to run along st kilda beach because it is not only beautiful but very close to the city too hence it is so easily accessible. You see many people bringing their dogs for a walk and running with their babies in prams.

Even with those 2 months training, I completed my first run ever with massive effort and I literally felt like I was out of breath!

Second year I joined in 2012, they increased the course to 5.7 km sponsored by ASICS. They also moved the finishing line inside Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Although the course is longer, however the satisfaction of finishing inside MCG was pretty rewarding as the supporters cheered on you from the seats. I hadn't joined the gym as well when I signed up for 5.7 km run in 2012.
After my second year of running, I started experiencing knee cap issue and I went to see my physiotherapist many times to fix it. He just shook his head from side to side when I told him I joined the 5.7 km. Let's wind back a few years... I had car accident in the past and since then my knee hasn't been the same. I haven't visited a doctor to get a scan done on my knee partly because I don't think it is a big issue yet but I believe it will be in the future (NOT TO BE TRIED OUTSIDE). Trust me, when it comes to your body, you should always visit a physician as soon as you start experiencing some problems.

My physiotherapist said not to do it again as the harsh impact of the ground is bad for my knee and he said I should start doing some exercise to strengthen my core muscles. I agreed and that's when I decided to join Fitness First. It's been almost a year now since I started and I've been doing body attack, body combat and body jam classes. Occasionally I do do body balance as well just to break off the routine. Honestly, since I joined the gym, I have more knee issues, partly due to my incorrect knee bending posture as my knee tends to bend inwards as opposed to outwards. My physio did some tests and he said my hips strength is really weak and I need to work on that to avoid using lower legs muscles too much which could further damage my cartilage. Since then, I've been cutting down from 3 days of exercise to 2 days a week to avoid doing further damage to my knee.

Little did my physio know that I signed up for my third year of 5.7 km run! If he knew, he would probably not see me anymore. Sorry Andrew!

This year, I only trained once a week for a month and a half before the day as I am going to the gym one day a week as well on top of my once a week training. I still need to be careful with my knee to avoid using a wheelchair prematurely! I found that my fitness level has improved a lot compared to 3 years ago even with my bad knee. Strange thing is, my knee doesn't hurt when I walk or run, only when I bend down or walk down the stairs.
For the past 2 years, the weather on the Marathon festival has always been good and mostly sunny. Last year, it drizzled alittle bit in the morning but it settled down before we started running and it became sunny during the course BUT this year a.k.a today, the weather has never been nastier! It was pouring rain in the morning and if it wasn't for my wind breaker, I would be so drenched in the rain!
Unfortunately, due to the flood, part of the route was not accessible and the management decided to cut the course to 3km run instead. It was a mixed response from a lot of participants as it was quite disappointing for people who come very prepared and eager but for some people who doubt themselves, it was a relief. Me, I had mixed feelings of whether I should be overjoyed or disappointed. I should be overjoyed because I get to go harder in a shorter distance or I should be disappointed because this could be my last year running. I need to accept the fact that my knee may continue to trouble me in the future and I need to get it examined soon.

I am proud to say that as an amateur runner, my finishing position was 1812 among 6800++ participants for 3 km course and I finished it in 19 minutes and 32 seconds. The amazing winner of Melbourne full 42 km Marathon finished the run in 2 hours and 10 minutes! Man, that fellow doesn't need a car!

Starting line of the race. All these people were drenched including me!

The finish line. By this time, I was running out of breath already!

After I found my friend who joined the run with me.

Left to right, 2011 5 km run, 2012 5.7 km run and 2013, supposedly 5.7 km cut to 3km course.

Overall, I am very proud of myself to have been a apart of this major event in the past 3 years.
Melbourne marathon is supporting Celebral Palsy Education Centre which provides physical, occupational and speech therapy for their students who suffer from physical disability from a very young age. Every year, Melbourne Marathon Festival supports different charity organisations and when you sign up for the run, there is an option to give extra donation for your preferred charity organisation.
You can sign up in groups as well and represent your companies or non-for-profit organisations or even your own countries if you fly from overseas just to join the festival which I am not surprised, a lot of people do.

For more information for next year's festival, you can click here to find out more.

Gonna end this post with a photo of me (yes, narcist) from a wedding I attended last night

Well, those tissues at the background is very annoying but I was in a rush, couldn't retake the photo :(

P.S: Hope everyone had a great weekend! <3 p="">

Royal Melbourne Show 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 20:37:00 +1000

First time I visited the Royal Melbourne show was in 2009. Now, 4 years later, I revisited again and this is abit funny to me. The first time I visited the Royal Melbourne show was when I was still with my ex-boyfriend. 4 years later, after 3 years of being single and gazillion times of heartbreaks, I have finally found someone and we'll save that story for another time :)

So today, I went to the showground again, with my new company.

The Royal Melbourne Show is held in Melbourne Showground every year around September and usually it goes on for a couple of weeks. This festival is suitable for family, friends who just want to have fun and young couple who want to explore new things. It has everything in it from theme park rides to food exhibitions, body, mind and spirit exhibitions and even livestock exhibitions. It is also renowned for the dog grooming show, dog competitions, dog pageant show and dog merchandise. Of course who can forget showbags for children where a whole massive tent is set up to sell cartoon heroes' merchandise.

The entrance fee is not very cheap either. For adult non-concession, it is $34 pp and there's a family value pack too. Melbourne now lives up to the name for the 4th most expensive city to live in the whole world. No 1 is Tokyo, 2 is Osaka and 3 is Sydney. No surprise at all. Anyways, back to to the topic.

It's a great place to spend your money on your kids and girlfriends. They have several games you can play to win some soft toys for your kids or girlfriends. Remember those arcade games you play where you try to throw 5 basketballs into the ring and if you can get one in, you score a toy? Those sorts of stuff with varieties. It costs $5 each game.

Unfortunately I didn't bring my proper camera so all photos below were taken by my good ol' iPhone 5 with camera application, Camera 360 and I used HDR & Enhance filters interchangeably.

I was so glad that it was such a good weather today on top of 21 degree after days with showers this week. I remember in 2009 when I went there, it was horrible cold weather and showered towards the evening. You can see my old post in 2009 where I wrote about Royal Melbourne Show and Tesselar Tulip festival. How much things have changed in my life but the Royal Melbourne Show remains the same even after 4 years.

This section is sponsored by Advance dog food company where they show many different dog breeders, I think mostly private. They were the cutest bunch ever! So many different dogs in this section but unfortunately I couldn't take as many photos as I wanted as I was only using my iPhone to take photos :( This is my most-craved type of dog apart from German Sheppard and Husky.

These dogs were preparing to join dog pageant competition.

Now, this is new. Well, for me this year. In 2009 when I went there, this Masterchelf Australia set up wasn't here. I've seen it in the TV but I didn't know it was filmed in Melbourne Showground. I thought it was somewhere really far. This is pretty cool as we got to see the set up for MasterChef Australia and one of the current contestants was there to take some photos with his fans. If I remember correctly, I think it was Lynton Tapp. I don't follow the show, so I didn't ask to take a photo.

Tadahhh, the kitchen where the masterchef contestants produce their masterpiece! It was just like what I saw in the TV. Pretty cool setting they have here.

I suppose this is the area where the judges taste on the food which contestants produce and deliberate the results.

Real herbs.. How cool is that? You can just pick some and throw it in the frying pan for the show.

We've seen this in the TV where they filmed from the top. Symbol of MasterChef Australia. Unfortunately, I am not tall enough to get a full view of it. Looks really nice from the top.

Enough of Master Chef. Let's move on to the theme rides. The rides cater for children and both adults. Some are only for children and some are only for adults or above 12yo I believe.

I am always fascinated by Ferris wheel for some reasons. I find it so.. Calming and it makes you happy when you are high above. I always feel sad though when the carrier reaches the ground and the time is up.

One of the food exhibitions and the awesome part is, it is THE best time to sample food! From chips, sausages, coffee, olive oil & dressings, jams, beef, wine, yum! All sorts of food and they also have a huge food court which suits every taste buds! In 2009, it was so packed that people started sitting on the floor to enjoy their food because it was raining and everyone wanted to stay indoor. Great for the business I suppose.

Sampling on a gourmet sausages. The sausage was so yum and it has that smokey aftertaste that I can never forget.

I know, this is so disorganised. Anyways, more rides! I don't think I can ever do one of those again. Every year, as I get older, I feel like I'm more prone to heart attack if I ride on one of those. I won't deny the thrill though.

Well, let me take back my words, maybe if I have to, I'd rather do one of those rather than this one. I'm gonna step down with green face or throw up mid air. Hmm, not gonna be very glamorous I can guarantee.

There's so much more to do there but I don't want to be a spoiler. You have to experience it yourself if you haven't already been there. It's quite a fun place to spend on your weekend with your loved ones or friends. Royal Melbourne Show is accessible via train to Showgrounds or tram route 57 to west Maribyrnong which you can take from Melbourne city on Elizabeth st.

Finally, ending my post with my gigantic camwhore selfie!

Hope you guys had a great weekend like I did :) I think it is important to get ready for the dreading week again! Have a great week y'all~~~~

Hello Friday, Outfit of the Night

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 18:36:00 +1000

I hope everyone is having a great weekend ahead!

Jacket: from my hometown

Mermaid body hugging dress from MNG

Belt from Temt

Accessories: Diva

Sydney Trip 2013 day 2 (Madame Tussauds & Hurricane's Grill)

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Mon, 9 Sep 2013 20:18:00 +1000

I have just done it again... I can't believe I let a 6-month gap to update my Sydney trip day 2 and bear in mind this trip was 6 months ago!! Zzzzz

Oh well, I have a valid excuse! A very cliche one too! I've been super busy and depressed with the status of my stay in Australia. So please forgive me if I have abandoned my blog once again. Now that everything is kind of settled (fingers crossed) for now, I started thinking about my poor blog and visited it just then, which I realised I haven't updated my day 2 Sydney trip! Oh yaya~~~

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I still remember what I did that day and also, a gazillian photos later, the memory will come. That's why there's a saying of "A picture could represent a thousand words". Not in my case anyways, how long can I write? God, people may be bored by my words.

Moving on,

we got up in the morning, met up with my highschool alumni friend and started walking to China town to get some brekkie. We decided a bowl of good old congee would sate our cravings. Hence, my friend brought us to this yummy Chinese restaurant in China town and we had some century egg congee with Chinese doughnuts and another bowl of fish congee to share. Honestly the fish congee wasn't great but the century egg congee was ah-mazing! Well, I know a lot of people aren't quite used to the idea of some CENTURIES old eggs but guys, trust me, it's not that bad! It certainly doesn't taste like rotten eggs at all! It certainly doesn't mean it's been preserved for "CENTURIES". It's just a name and how much can a name hurt you? Just close your eyes and swallow it in. It's not like the Philippine's embryo eggs. THAT, I wouldn't try in a million years.

Voila! Yummy congee with Chinese doughnuts at the back. Dining there is really cheap too! Very affordable and I am talking about students' price.

A photo of China town in Sydney.
My travel partner who shares the same birthday with me and also one of my best friends :)

Next, we were taking a walk down to the entertainment centre near darling harbour. I remember on that day, there was a Thai festival going on and my friend who has been living in Sydney since high school told me that every week, there's always a cultural festival around the area and this week happens to be a Thai festival.

There's a small tent set up where you have the option to dress up in traditional Thai costume for free and I couldn't be bothered to try because it was freaking hot and I was sweating (gross).

After refreshing myself with some fresh coconut water (it was a hard work to scrape the coconut meat out in case anyone hasn't tried, but all the hard work paid off because it tasted so yummy!).

We continued down to darling harbour as we planned to visit Madame Tussauds' exhibition in Darling Harbour. The location is literally next to Sydney Aquarium and wild life. My friend works there and apparently he had free entries for us as he had been gathering some points for free entry vouchers and he happened to have 3 of them, PERFECT! Otherwise, it was pretty expensive to get in :(

That's me excitingly smiling when I arrived to the beautiful darling harbour.

FYI, Madame Tussauds exhibition displays life-sized celebrity waxes. They are made as real as possible and the heights are according to the real celebrities' heights. They are not perfect of course, but as far as I concern, they looked pretty real to me. Below will be the celebrities waxes whom I was interested to take pictures with. There are heaps others, but I didn't want to take every single one. My camera would probably run out of battery and memory if I did,

Hmm, I actually have no idea who this is and I have no idea what I was trying to do either. I guess when my friends came up with interesting poses, I went blank and I was trying to create the look of "My Lord, we need to abandon this ship, quick!" I believe I failed miserably.

and here I failed again, tried to create a dictator look.

I suppose I don't need to explain who this is, it's Mahatma Gandhi along with Dalai Lama and Barack Obama at the back. This section represents world leaders.

Now, THE Queen Elizabeth II of England. Well, she looks younger in the wax version.

How gorgeous Kylie Minogue is!! I love the shell she's sitting on. Looks so gracious.

Pardon me but I forgot who they are, I just thought this would be a cool picture lol

and how can we not have the legendary MJ! The hat is part of the props by the way, there's also a white jacket people could put on to take a photo and there's also a professional photographer to take a photo for you and you can buy them at the counter once you exit the exhibition.

Next we have... Keith Urban

That was me with Albert Einstein. Since I am not as smart as him, I have to think trice harder to figure out what's in his head. Let alone to solve the formula behind me on the board.

Well, I personally reckon this is the least resemblance of Oprah Winfrey. I was abit disappointed frankly speaking.

and we've got the legendary beauty Marilyn Monroe. Some perverts were trying to take a photo posing underneath her skirt. Such an act of disgrace.

I frankly have no idea who this is... Maybe most people do know but I don't. Anyway, she is pretty and petite next to me. I feel like a giant. For once.

PPPPPPPoker face PPPoker face... May I present to you Lady Gaga!

"Isn't she lovely... This Hollywood girl.. And she says, she's so lucky, she's a star but she cries cries cries in her lonely nights~~" Britney Spears.

This is also the least resemblance of Rihanna but I didn't expect Rihanna to be this tall.

Our martial art guru after Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan

Nicole Kidman, posing in a different section away from her husband, Keith Urban and behind her is Bruce Willis.

The sexy Johnny Depp but looks like his jacket is a little oversize, don't you think?

This is a funny and awkward photo with people staring at us behind the camera. I suggested the scenario for us to seduce Brangelina couple with my friend trying to kiss Angelina Jolie and me stealing Brad Pitt away. In the end, Angelina Jolie is too tall for my friend to kiss and Brad Pitt wasn't looking at my direction. Epic fail! Oh well, we tried. I guess the brood is keeping them together.

Well, at least in the end, we found our "true love".

With me, who ended up with Andy Lau, Hong Kong singer and actor.

and my friend, with Dannii Minogue. Everyone went home happy lol

The love of my life, Leonardo DiCaprio. Although, he didn't look quite like himself in this wax version of him. At least, this is better than nothing. This is what they put at the front entrance so that the general public knows what Madame Tussauds is all about.

There's many more other celebrities in there but like I said, I couldn't take a photo of every single one because I can't be bothered editing all photos.

We also sneaked in to see the wildlife which is located just next to Madame Tussauds and Sydney Aquarium. Nothing extraordinary in there, just typical reptiles, insects and other kinds of animal which you'll normally see in a zoo.

We decided that we were alittle bit hungry, so we went to Pancake on the Rock to have some, well Pancakes, duh!

Yum yum yum! Looking at it now makes me feel hungry again. I just had my dinner!!! I can't remember the name of this pancake. Something to do with double chocolate. They were chocolate pancakes too. Not the original ones. Very yum and very fattening too! I was halfway through and I felt like the pancakes have reached my throat. Lucky enough we were sharing.

I believe there are 2 sites of Pancake on the Rocks in Sydney CBD. One in Darling Harbour and the other one in the Rock.

http://www.pancakesontherocks.com.au/

There you go, just visit their website for your research purposes if you plan to visit Sydney.

We then walked down to the star, Sydney's casino to visit the infamous celebrity patisserie's bakery called Adriano Zumbo. Apparently the macaroons are very popular so I bought a couple to try on and they were not that bad, however I wouldn't say they were extraordinarily delicious too. However, the macaroons have glitters on them! And yes, the glitters are edible I believe. I am a living proof.

After a few hours later with I believe some pancakes still left lingering in our stomach, we managed to work our way through to make some room for our biggest feast of the night, HURRICANE's GRILL!!
Click on it if you want to visit their website and find out their location too. They are most well known for their ribs. I can tell you now, they do live up to the name.

The window view from our table. The huge ship over there is a restaurant. I always wanted to try every single time I make a trip to Sydney and I never have a chance. Hmph!

I know I know, not the best photo I've taken till date but anyways, you know what it is. If I remember correctly, it is a 500 grams pork ribs served with mushroom sauce I think. Look, it's some 6-month ago already. I can't remember what sauce but I'm fairly sure it's mushroom cream sauce.

Believe it or not ladies and gentleman, I finished it gracefully with a pair of knife and fork lol without creating much mess at all! Yes, I deserve to receive a praise lol Well, honestly, it's best eaten with your bare hands rather than all those effort trying to scrape the meat from the rib cage.

All in all, I had another yet satisfying trip in Sydney. I never get sick of it. Not sure how many times I've been there now and I just never get sick of it. However, I would think for 100 times before I decide to move there permanently as Sydney is much of a bigger city than Melbourne. Life there is always on a fast lane although I believe slower than other developed Asian countries, like China, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong but I am starting to be afraid of changes and uncertainly that may lie ahead of me if I move there.

Well, I will leave it up to the long path that still lies ahead of me, where ever it's gonna lead me to. I will cross the bridge when I get there.

Sydney Trip 2013 Day 1 (Fish Market & Manly Beach)

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:47:00 +1100

I DID NOT REALISE THAT I HAVEN'T UPDATED MY BLOG FOR A YEAR!!!! WTF?? WHERE HAVE I BEEN?? Busy for sure...

Anyway, that was how long I hadn't been travelling because I usually update my blog whenever I go for travelling. This year, to celebrate my birthday which was last week Friday, I decided to go to Sydney for the long weekend because Monday the 11th was the bank holiday in Victoria for labour day. Another best friend of mine happens to share the same birthday (how amazing is that???), so we decided to go together! Triple celebration! (Long weekend + 2 birthdays).

We booked our flights and accommodation one week beforehand and we actually wanted to fly on our birthday, however there was no cheap accommodation available and even normal budget hotels were so bloody expensive! On top of that, it wasn't a long weekend for the residents in New South Wales! What was going on?? We ended up going from the 09th of March and coming back the 11th of March. Both flights were morning ones so we had to get up at 4 am =.=

I knew I would be so exhausted because I celebrated my birthday on the day before the departure date and I went to bed by 12.30 am so I only had a couple hours of sleep :( It was my birthday though, I didn't want to wait one day later to celebrate and 2 other best friends already arranged dinner and some surprises for me, so I had a blast and left home feeling happy even though I couldn't celebrate it with my family as I don't have my family here :(

Waking up feeling like a zombie with my travel buddy, we slept as much as we could during our one and a half hours journey to Sydney. We decided to drop our bags in the bagging area in our backpacker hostel (yep, we resorted to backpacker hostel because logically speaking, we spent the entire day outdoor and literally came back only to take a shower and went to bed, so although hotels would offer more comfortable accommodation but I don't think I could ever pay big bucks just to sleep. Well unless I am a millionaire).

Due to us arriving an hour earlier than scheduled, we had to walk around for a bit before checking into our room because our room was not ready when we arrived. We hung around Market City and did a little bit of window shopping, got our bearings around Sydney streets and headed back to the hotel to check in.

We decided to head down to Fish Market to get some seafood fiesta for our lunch. From George street, we walked down to the tram stop in front of market city/Paddy's market and we dropped off at fish market station. It was just a short 5 minutes walk and don't panic, if you ever get lost, follow the bunch of tourist-alike people who hopped off the tram same time as you and stick to them like baby ducks and you'll get to your destination, voila!

It was such a nice weather as well on top of 27 degrees. I hate seagulls, they are everywhere, lazy and just wait for wasted food being thrown at them.

I visited my favorite seafood joint which unfortunately I can never remember the name. From the main entrance, it is the first one across the first seafood joint with a funny statue standing in front of the shop holding a seafood platter. It is also one of the busiest joint in there serving fried and grilled seafood platter. We ordered one platter to share between the 2 of us.

The photo says it all.

A little bit of narcism and more to come.

This vacant outdoor seating by the way, is a very hard to find as they are usually full and you have to be quick. We met a mannerless couple who was simply lack of etiquette! We stood there first as the guests in front of us were about to leave and this couple just sat there straight away as soon as they left knowing that we were waiting before them. How rude! I unfortunately forgot to snap a photo of them, otherwise I would have uploaded it here.

After finishing our meal, we decided to head to to circular quay where the infamous Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House are located. From Fish Market, we traveled via tram to Central station where we purchased city day pass train ticket for $4.80 and traveled to Circular Quay station. It is not that expensive considering if you only want to travel around the city area, it only costs $4.80 for the entire day.

The view from Circular Quay train station. That ferry will bring you sight seeing to different destinations, such as Sydney Zoo, Manly beach and other popular tourist destinations. The fares vary depending on your destination and packages. We were planning to visit Manly beach as even though this is my 4th time to visit Sydney, I didn't get a chance to go to Manly beach before. I have been to Bondi beach which was a very spectacular beach with large waves, perfect for surfers but I was more interested in Manly beach this time.

We decided to walk around the Rocks area which is the first developed area in Sydney when the first generation of settlement arrived.

Just strolling along the harbour on our way to the Rocks.

We visited a patisserie in the Rocks which was recommended by a friend sometime ago called Baroque. According my friend, they serve some decent cakes and Macaroons. MACAROONS were what I was more interested in :)

What I love about this place is, they have a very cosy seating area outdoor overlooking the harbour and their couches are sooooo comfy!

I felt so exhausted from my 6.40 am flight that literally I could fall asleep on the couch if it wasn't for the waitress kept staring at us. Most probably because we only bought 4 Macaroons and sat like a boss on the big couches.

Salted Caramel Macaroons, by far the best I have ever tried. The cream was a little bit dense and not too creamy which I like and the shells were perfect without a single crack!

They also serve a variety of cakes but we were just too full to try any one of them but if you are planning to visit this restaurant any time soon, please do try them as your choice of dessert!

We then headed back to the wharf to catch a ferry to Manly beach at 2.30 PM. If I am not mistaken, I think the total return fare was $14.40 for a 20 minutes ride so it wasn't as expensive as I thought. The ferry was obviously a double decker so you could climb atop and enjoy the view backwards.

I do have a funny story to tell, whenever I see this particular photo, it will always remind me of the story. There were 2 guys standing in the photo before and I couldn't take a clear photo because of them. Eventually, they saw my good effort trying to this photo and they moved "Thank God". For some reason, this one Iraq guy and one Dutch fellow decided to come and have a chat with us which was completely fine. What happened was the original seat we sat on was exposed from the sun so we decided to move one seat back and left our bags and bottle behind. In the midst of the chat, the ferry shook harder due to crashing against a pool of big wave. As a result, my bottle dropped and rolled on the floor. This Dutch fellow was kind enough to pick it up BUT!!!! He somehow, while making a conversation, casually unscrewed the cap of my bottle and drank the whole water, screwed it back and held it in his hands! WTF??? I somehow casually remained calm, maintained the conversation and my friend didn't even say anything to me. NOBODY SAID ANYTHING??? REALLY?? They made more random conversations and we arrived at our destination. They bid us farewell and left WITH MY BOTTLE!! My friend and I frowned at each other and until now I still regret that I didn't burst his bubbles!

I have tried the jetboat thing in Melbourne and honestly, it is not for a faint of heart but I think the one in Sydney is more fun because the cover is off whereas the one in Melbourne has the cover on.

Many beach is absolutely beautiful! There is just no word to describe how beautiful it is! The front beach is calm and relaxing whereas the back beach is better for surfers.

People doing random things on the front beach. Manly area is one of the high end suburbs where people live and socialise by the beach. There are bars, family-owned restaurants, cafes and hotel apartments. All are situated within a walking distance from the beach.

This is the back beach. Can you notice how different the water behaviour between the 2?

"Professional Model" posing LOL

We just sat there and chill for a bit as the weather was nice and we just enjoyed the cool breeze. It was a heavenly experience. This is another reason why Sydney is one of my favourite interstate destination.

We decided to head back after chilling for some time because I had a dinner appointment at 6 with a friend whom I hadn't met in 2 years. While waiting for the ferry to arrive and drop us back to the city, we decided to chill at a bar and had some cool lemon, lime & bitter and guess what? It is THE cheapest lemon, lime and bitter!! It was like $2.80 each!

With a beautiful girl happened to be standing as a background lol Unfortunately I couldn't finish my drink because the ferry had arrived :( Not even half of it and it tasted so good!!

On our way to Manly beach, we got the view of the harbour bridge, but on our way back we got the view of the Opera House.

I then had to rush to Queen Victoria Building to meet my friend for dinner. QVB is a shopping complex ranging from affordable brands to a more upscale brands such as Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo etc. Located just right on the corner of George & Park st, we took a train from Circular Quay to Town Hall station which is right underneath the QVB shopping complex.

Inside QVB Building.

This is the end of my day 1 trip in Sydney and I don't have more photos in the evening because I hate taking photos in the evening. The quality and clarity are worse than day time photos due to lack of natural lights/sun. So, day 2 trip photos are coming up! Now, it's time for me to get ready and go to the gym to burn some calories I gathered from the trip :) Till then, take care peeps!

Cetaphil (Not an advert)

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:44:00 +1000

Expensive vs inexpensive

I used to think that by using a more expensive product, you will benefit from it in the long run. Think of the branded stuffs compared to cheaper options, in this case, let’s narrow it down to handbags or clothes. One will assume that branded products will last longer and have higher quality compared to their counterparts. I am not saying that’s not the case. I am pretty sure everyone agrees that wool and cashmere-made scarves are warmer compared to polyester, cotton-made scarves. Another example is shoes as well, be it for men or women, comfy shoes (i.e. Hush Puppies, Ara, easy step, etc) are more expensive compared to cheaper shoes. However, admittedly, they are uglier too or less fashionable in another word. A while back, I hurt the sole of my feet and now I can’t walk with flats that have no proper cushion soles because my feel would swell and it did in the past. Hence, when I go to work, I tend to wear comfy shoes and I only wear heels during the weekend for a night out.

In general, I assume people agree that one of the reasons one is willing to fork out that much money to purchase upmarket products is because they hope that they won’t get replaced as often. Of course you will have people who collect branded merchandises for a status statement purpose or they simply just appreciate original designers who put so much effort to make their work-of-art a trademark, hence the origin of “copyright”. Anyways, the focus of my post this time is more on facial/cosmetics products, specifically facial care products.

I remember a very long time ago when I was still a poor student back at home. I didn’t care much about my skin, hair etc. Looking back at the photos, I was petrified. All I used were very basic products, the cheapest ones I could find which would give me the best result. Well, let’s be honest here, it doesn’t exist! Especially, if you were not born with flawless skin. If your face is full of acnes, oily/dry, uneven skin tone etc, using any kind of facial care product will only make it worse. I used to use whatever that is available at the local supermarkets. To be honest, till date, I can’t tell the difference on whether my skin condition has improved. I had a complimentary skin analysis with Shiseido a while back and the consultant told me my skin condition is pretty decent. Well, I guess if you look after it well, it still works. Fast forward, I upgraded from skin care such as Nivea, Biore, Dove etc to L’Occitane, Body Shop and then to Shiseido White Lucent range without the toner because my L’Occitane’s red rice toner is still in use.

After I switched from L’Occitane to Shiseido for a few months now, something horribly went wrong. My skin started to itch, red patches appeared randomly on my skin, it stung when I washed my face, my skin around my nose went extremely dry and started peeling off. I wasn’t sure whether it was my make up or my skin care causing this allergic reaction to my face because I have been using both for a while and it only appeared recently. The burning sensation was just unbearable and I was trying so hard not to scratch my face as well because it would only get worse. In the end, I decided to go to the pharmacy and ask for a soothing cream. The pharmacist suggested me to swap my cleanser and moisturizer with Cetaphil instead. Can you imagine getting rid of $180++ worth of products to less than $20 worth of products????? BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must say, Cetaphil works magic on my skin! Just after 2-3 days of using the cleanser and the moisturizer, the allergic reaction stopped! Well, I had to stop applying make-up on my face for 2 days on top of that just to give my face a break but I was mortified because I had to go to work bare face which I rarely did before, maybe once in the past. I don’t wear thick make-up but even just applying an eye-liner will make my face so much fresher than without anything at all. I don’t feel confident and I look tired all the time without any make-up on. Anyways, back to Cetaphil, you can either wash your face with water or without water. I know some of you feel like your face is still dirty if you don’t rinse it with water but you need to know as well that water will only make your skin drier if you wash it too often. I usually rinse my face with water first after removing all my make-ups, dry it with a towel, apply an even amount of Cetaphil cleanser onto the face avoiding the eyes’ area. Afterwards, use cotton pads to remove the excess, then voila!!!! Your face is instantly brightened up and feels good too!

Moving on to the moisturizer, it is by far THE most amazing moisturizer I have ever used in my entire life!!! You know how a normal moisturizer just absorbs quickly into your skin? This one actually stays on your skin, you can touch it without feeling greasy or heavy. It absorbs in your skin, however it keeps the surface of your skin moisturized at the same time. It even could stay there for hours and trust me, you will not feel disgusted at all! It is definitely a good sign, especially in the middle of a harsh winter in Australia, which dries out your face very quickly when you step out of the house. I am not too sure about people with oily skin as this may aggravate the oil to surface more. Other than that, this is a must have facial care product during winter. Now, I am not too sure what am I going to do with my Shiseido & L’Occitane’s skin care range now L Oh, by the way Cetaphil brand has a lot of ranges in terms of their skin care product and they are available at local pharmacies. Don’t think they are available in the supermarkets, I suppose you can always google it.

P.S: The moisturizer can be applied all over the body area too, not limited to face only. Also, major apology for I don't have the photos of before and after using Cetaphil because I only thought about sharing the goodness of it now :( I guess according to my experience, I won't go back to my other facial care products for a while :)