Purchases

I forgot to say, I went to the PC show and got a very good deal! Bought a Samsung 40" Full HD LCD TV at $1,699, and it comes with a Home Theatre system worth $400 and a $100 Robinsons voucher! I intended to get a HD-ready one cos reviews had said that TVs below 46", u can't really tell the difference. But it was really cheap for a full HD TV, so i went for it. Of cos, the TV goes to the living room where my whole family can enjoy it. My parents like it cos its much clearer and bigger =)

Yea! Better graphics when i play wii. Just on saturday, Ah C's family bought a Samsung 40" Full HD TV too, a different model but its a good deal too. And then he is going to get a PS3 because it will serve as a blu-ray player too. And he will buy blu-ray discs from the US. I wanted to subscribe to the Starhub HD channels, but after looking at the programmes, i decided not to, cos they dun even show HD movies.

And then yesterday we went shopping and I bought a dress from Topshop and he got a shirt from River Island. Both are for the wedding dinners this saturday(his cousin's) and sunday(his air force colleague's). Normally I wouldn't pay for things at Topshop because they are way over-priced and sometimes the material is not very good. But i must admit that clothes from higher-end boutiques do have better cutting and material usually. Anyway, Ah C paid for it =P

Ya, today is slacking day... cos i am on AT (available time).

Royal Caribbean Cruise (next May)

I didn't travel much when i was a child (23-year old adult now, though i know i am still a kid in my parents' eyes.) because my family is not very well-off and couldn't really afford to spend on family holidays abroad. But I have no complaints because i know my parents worked hard to provide me, my bros and sis with the education we need and always try their best to give us what we want.

The on-going overseas trips began after i met Ah C and when i went into uni. Due to the flexible time-table, I was able to give tuition and work during the holidays to earn extra money. After Ah C signed on with the air force and achieved financial independence, he was also able to save more money. This, with our common interest of seeing the world, we went on numerous trips from 2005 onwards. Looking back, we are both rather amazed on how much we love travelling that we can put most of our money aside to do so, and also how we planned all those long trips on our own. Especially the trip to Japan, when we can't even converse in Japanese and booked a nightbus from Tokyo to Osaka, just cos its cheaper and also saves us a night's accomodation, when others woould have gone for the safer, faster and more expensive choice of taking the train. We even wanted to visit this ulu place called Shirakawago where they had these World Heritage-listed houses but was stopped by the snow storm that disrupted the train system.

I have enjoyed all my trips very much so far. I do think the company is very important and i am glad that Ah C and I have the common views about travelling. First, we don't really shop alot (except when are in US hahaha) but we do buy a lot of souveniors, which can cost hundreds of dollars. And we are happy doing that. To us, the experience and memories are already valuable returns from the money spent and buying things for our loved ones back home (esp. our families) is a way of telling them that they are not forgotten when we ourselves are having fun.

Second, we would love different kinds of experience each time we travel. So far, each trip has been rather different...
Tioman: Beach holiday, snorkelling
Taiwan: Cheap and good food, visiting the Taroko Gorge
Japan: Themeparks, temples and castles
Hong Kong: Shopping and eating
US (Colorado): Mountains, outlet shopping (yet to try white-water rafting and snowboarding!)
Bintan: Spa holiday at Angsana
Australia (Perth and southwest): Geographe i.e. natural attractions, wineries

Next year, (if leave and time permits) we will be going on the Royal Caribbean Cruise in the US! I always thought cruises are boring (having gone once when i was much younger) and never thought of going again. Until Ah C went to the US and learn about the Royal Caribbean Cruise (a luxury cruiseline). There are so many activities on board, including yoga lessons, jogging on the running track on the cruiseship, theme nights at the ballroom and clubs, diving, rock wall climbing, theatres and shows etc etc. These, together with the various stopovers, i think it will be difficult to be bored. For more information and pictures, refer to the website below!
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experiencetypes/home.do;jsessionid=0000HCeiBOVegxs3355wdpJT-XF:12hdhu87a?cS=NAVBAR

Some pictures I found on one of the cruiselines (Enchantment of the Seas):

Possible itineries:


Day 1 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Depart 5:00 PM
Day 2 Key West, Florida Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 2:00 PM
Day 3 Cozumel, Mexico Arrive 10:00 Depart AM 6:00 PM

Day 4 Belize City, Belize Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 4:00 PM
Day 5 Cruising
Day 6 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Arrive 7:00 AM

Day 1 Port Canaveral, Florida Depart 4:30 PM
Day 2 Cruising
Day 3 Labadee, Haiti Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM
Day 4 Ocho Rios, Jamaica Arrive 9:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM
Day 5 George Town, Grand Cayman Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 4:00 PM
Day 6 Cozumel, Mexico Arrive 10:00 AM Depart 7:00 PM
Day 7 Cruising
Day 8 Port Canaveral, Florida Arrive 7:00 AM

I can only hope the trip materialise, cos i am still unsure of my work schedule for the following year =[

There are so many things to see in the world!

Perth and the Southwest!

I am back!

Yea, was back on Sunday night and took leave on Monday to recover from the trip. Went back to work yesterday and it felt so weird! Haha today is my last day of the week becos I am on leave on Thu and Fri again! =P

The whole trip to Perth and the south west region of Western Australia was like a practical for Geography lesson. Remember things we used to study for geog? Like caves, stalagmites and stalactites, river formation, geysers, beach formatiom, waves, farming, deforestation etc etc (forgot many of the technical terms already)... ya, and it was a really interesting trip to both of us!

The trip began with a 4.5hour drive to Albany from Perth on the 2nd day, and we stayed two nights in Albany.

The driver and the navigator.. Ah C says I am getting better at reading maps!

I love Starburst gummies! I am not a big fan of sweets but i was quite addicted to it during the trip. They sell this in Singapore's Candy Empire for about S$12, but costs only about AUD$3 in Australia!

Our accomodation in Albany.. which was the best during the entire trip. Its like a small house, with a bedroom, living room and cooking area:

The main attractions in Albany were found at Frenchman Bay, including the Gap, Natural Bridge and the Blowhole (mainly coastal rock formations). Unfortunately, the blowhole didn't blow when we were there. Also, the Windmill Farm was majestic. The windmills were huge (much bigger than i thought they are) and the sound of the mills processing the wind was loud and kind of scary. Talk about forces of nature!

Frenchman Bay

The Gap

Natural Bridge

A

lbany Wind Farm

Emu Point/Beach

On the 4th day, we continued on to Denmark, Walpole and Pemberton. It was a pity we didn't get to go on the treetop walk at the Valley of the Giants because it was closed due to hazardous weather and we also missed the tour time to the D'Entrecasteaux National Park for the 4W Drive and to see the Yeagarup Dunes!

Things we missed:

In Pemberton, we took this tram into the Karri Forests and visited the 61m tall Gloucester tree, which was a fire lookout in the past. We could actually climb up the tree on on the ladder, but it was freaking scary and dangerous so we gave it a miss. Its 61m way up with no safety ropes leh! We spent the night at a farm stay and got to play with the animals (including a kangaroo, sheeps, horses, cows, guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens and a dog) on the farm.

Pemberton Tram

Gloucester Tree

Pemberton Farm Chalet

The fifth day we went to some wineries and the Lavender and Berry Farm for a pancake breakfast ( I prefer the pancakes in the US, which is less thick and more fluffy!) before heading to Augusta and Margaret River.

The main attraction at Augusta was the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse (the second tallest in mainland Australia). We were hoping to catch some views of the migrating whales, but with little luck. The view from the top of the lighthouse was super nice though! It is also where we could see the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean converge, with waves hitting each other along an imaginary line.

Margaret river is of course the place for food and wine. We decided to splurge a little and had lunch at this award-winning restaurant called Xanadu, which is also a winery rather famous for its wines. A 10-min drive from Margaret River is a beach called Surfer's point where u can catch surfers in action. I didn't really think pple surf in winter but there quite a number of surfers there waiting to ride the waves! Also, a 20min drive south from Margaret River brought us to Lake Cave, which was really beautiful.. how these things form naturally!

Xanadu winery and restaurant

Surfer's Point

Lake Cave

The sixth day we began our drive back to Perth, a little drama along the way as we almost got a speeding ticket from the police! Luckily the policeman only gave us a verbal warning. *Phew*.

The last 3 nights in Perth, I adventurously booked a hostel. And I was shocked to find out that there was no heater in our room when we arrived. Haha, thats when i started to miss the warmth in Singapore. Anyway, when we sleep we just had to cover ourselves with the thick blankets and hug each other to keep warm lo..

I was actually quite surprised to see so many asians (esp. Koreans and Japanese) and foreigners (esp. Turkish) in Perth. Probably due to this, there were many asian eateries and kebab shops around. Local food are mainly fast food including Hungry Jack (Burger King), Red Rooster, Macs and KFC, and we only ate once when we were there. We found a Japanese eatery which was cheap and good, and we ate that consecutively for three days! Korean food was good too but about twice the price of the Jap food. Their kebabs were not bad too! And we ate this super nice apple strudel from this Corica Pastry Shop, we finished the whole strudel in 2 days =P

On the seventh day, we drove 25mins down to Fremantle, where we visited the Fremantle market, took the night torchnight tour at the Fremantle Prison and ate the famous Fish & Chips (which was not that nice and rather disappointing, as its supposed to be Western Australia's best). I did visit the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco (which was much bigger and occupies an island on its own) last year but the torchlight tour at the Fremantle Prison was a whole new experience as it was conducted at night. Spooky spooky with some past sightings of ghosts in photos taken by tourists, but we din see any la!

Fremantle Market

Fremantle Prison

Australia's best Fish & Chips?

The second last day we went to Caversham Wildlife Park and i simply love the Koalas! They are really really cute... Ah C loves them too! In fact, I think he loves them more than me. Haha! We also saw other interesting animals like the Wallabies (which looks like kangaroos) and the Wombat. There were also farm shows where there were demonstrations of the dog rounding the sheep back into this fences, shaving the wool of a sheep and cow milking. The whole wildlife park was quite small and we thought we will finish touring the place very soon, but we ended up staying there for 4 hours!

A new-born goat!

Day 9 marked the day we are returning to our home sweet home. We went to King's Park (a beautiful park where u can get a bird's eye view of the swan river area, did some last minute shopping of souvenoirs and headed to the airport.

On the flight home, Qantas crew forgot to load one trolley of the economy class meals to the plane. As we were seated at the last few rows, we got our meals upgraded to the business class ones! We had hot soup, fresh green salad and baked fish with vegetables, mashed pumpkins and beans.

And we love our shades! =P

Didn't do much shopping there as the things were expensive and not very nice, and nice things are way too expensive. Its always the case for us when we go overeas leh, always cannot find things to buy one. Of cos, with the exception of US! hahahaha. I can't wait for my trip there next May, where i will be doing alot of shopping and going on the Royal Carribean Cruise to the Carribean area!

And I already roughly know my itinery for my next trip to Perth.. which should take place in 2010/2011 when Ah C goes there for his BWC training! =)