Well I'm in Phuket now sitting at a shopping centre waiting for my next flight out of here to go Koh Samui. I'm surrounded by little ones playing some kinda game that looks like the Sims and WOW.
I went snorkelling yesterday near PP and it was AWESOME!! An underwater aquarium right out the front of our hotel... literally!! Tina and I rented a boat out for about AU$22 each and we went and snorkelled at an island around half an hour away from our hotel. It was so beautiful. It was like the Melbourne Aquarium, but you were actually in the water with the fishies. I was a bit apprehensive at first because the only fishes I really like are the ones steamed adn served with soy sauce and ginger. And here I was swimming around in an ocean with live fishes at the tip of my fingers. It was a lovely experience - until they all started surrounding me which really freaked me out. When I think back about it, I don't quite know why I was so freaked out. Oh yeah, Jaws might come and eat me.
We were snorkelling at the second location that Chess, our boat driver took us to and it really was awesome. There were all types of fishes, the coral was colorful too and
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
STILL on Phi Phi Island...
Ok, so now that we're 'relaxing' on this leg of the trip, I find I have a lot more time to hop on the internet once more.
Today, I woke up later than the rest so I missed out on my complimentary brekky... and the snorkelling trip that the other three went on. I just didn't want to hang out today I guess. I needed some 'alone' time. I've been around poeples company non-stop for the past 3 weeks and it's doing my head in. I mean, I love them all, but sometimes I just need to be by myself with my own thoughts.
SO! After I woke up and dragged myself out of bed, I went for a stroll by myself around Phi Phi Island and my gosh, is this place scenic!! It's so0o0o... beautiful guys. Everything looked like out of those movies you watch about tropical islands. Except for all the litter around, that really spoils the scenery if anything - which is a shame coz this place is absolutely breathtaking. Everyone here is really friendly too! And I ate some corn thing with shredded coconut and covered in sugar.. yum!
It's very westernised too. Almost all the places sell Thai food with Italian pasta and pizza, which I thought was a bit weird, but I guess not everyone wants to eat Thai food everyday right?
Sorry, I'm a little all over the place with this blog (even though no one reads it!!) but I think I might be suffering from sunstroke or something. I'm seirously rather badly burnt at the mo, especially my back. I got a red patch on my back!! It looks like someone beat me at the same spot over and over again and now it's all red..
But on the bright side, I'll have a nice tan for a few months.. it might even stretch out to make me look tanned on my birthday!!
Well, that's it for now I guess. I just wondered round the island by myself, checked out the local scenery. Met up with them again and went for lunch. Went to the beach and caughts a single clawed crab and some hermit crabs (or were they sea snails?). Got drenched in the rain. Got lost finding my way home. Bought a DVD. Showered. And now here I am. Getting hungry though I think. I dunno. My sunburn hurts. oh oh, and my scalp is burnt. I'm gonna look like I have dandruff now. What a bummer!!
What else is there to say? oh yeh! When I was in Macau.. I won!! I won... I think, $HK600 which was pretty cool!! coz all I played was casino wars. I had good 'chi' at one of the tables.
*sigh*
There's such a nice breeze blowing now. It's not warm, not cold, not hot. Just a breeze passing by. I should've worn insect repellent!!
Signing off for tonight at 7.39pm local time...
Thao
.x0x.
Today, I woke up later than the rest so I missed out on my complimentary brekky... and the snorkelling trip that the other three went on. I just didn't want to hang out today I guess. I needed some 'alone' time. I've been around poeples company non-stop for the past 3 weeks and it's doing my head in. I mean, I love them all, but sometimes I just need to be by myself with my own thoughts.
SO! After I woke up and dragged myself out of bed, I went for a stroll by myself around Phi Phi Island and my gosh, is this place scenic!! It's so0o0o... beautiful guys. Everything looked like out of those movies you watch about tropical islands. Except for all the litter around, that really spoils the scenery if anything - which is a shame coz this place is absolutely breathtaking. Everyone here is really friendly too! And I ate some corn thing with shredded coconut and covered in sugar.. yum!
It's very westernised too. Almost all the places sell Thai food with Italian pasta and pizza, which I thought was a bit weird, but I guess not everyone wants to eat Thai food everyday right?
Sorry, I'm a little all over the place with this blog (even though no one reads it!!) but I think I might be suffering from sunstroke or something. I'm seirously rather badly burnt at the mo, especially my back. I got a red patch on my back!! It looks like someone beat me at the same spot over and over again and now it's all red..
But on the bright side, I'll have a nice tan for a few months.. it might even stretch out to make me look tanned on my birthday!!
Well, that's it for now I guess. I just wondered round the island by myself, checked out the local scenery. Met up with them again and went for lunch. Went to the beach and caughts a single clawed crab and some hermit crabs (or were they sea snails?). Got drenched in the rain. Got lost finding my way home. Bought a DVD. Showered. And now here I am. Getting hungry though I think. I dunno. My sunburn hurts. oh oh, and my scalp is burnt. I'm gonna look like I have dandruff now. What a bummer!!
What else is there to say? oh yeh! When I was in Macau.. I won!! I won... I think, $HK600 which was pretty cool!! coz all I played was casino wars. I had good 'chi' at one of the tables.
*sigh*
There's such a nice breeze blowing now. It's not warm, not cold, not hot. Just a breeze passing by. I should've worn insect repellent!!
Signing off for tonight at 7.39pm local time...
Thao
.x0x.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
sunburnt on phi phi island
hey guys,
Just keeping this one short and sweet. I'm at Phi Phi Island at the mo and it's pretty nice. Weather's a bit blah but it's still warm as. I'm sitting here at 7.41pm typing and I'm working up a sweat. Since my last post about the typhoon, I've dropped by Macau for a day to visit Yong's family and gambled at The Venetian.
After our overnight stay at Macau we flew to Phuket and stayed there a few night. Phuket was... interesting. There were a lot of lady-boys around and some of them look more feminine than me! They even know how to put make up on!! Jealous.
Other than that we just lounged around honestly. Didn't do much. Got teased though. The others thought that the concierge dude liked me :S
But it must be because I'm so likeable =] right? ... right?? .... SAY IT!!
lol
I guess that's pretty much it for now. We took the ferry over to PP Island and somehow during the couse of the night I managed to lose Tina, Yong and Sally. So the smart thing for me to do was wonder back to our hotel and hop on the internet. (I couldn't find the swimming pool)
anyways, gotta go tina's found me
lol
signing off now, thao
.x0x.
Just keeping this one short and sweet. I'm at Phi Phi Island at the mo and it's pretty nice. Weather's a bit blah but it's still warm as. I'm sitting here at 7.41pm typing and I'm working up a sweat. Since my last post about the typhoon, I've dropped by Macau for a day to visit Yong's family and gambled at The Venetian.
After our overnight stay at Macau we flew to Phuket and stayed there a few night. Phuket was... interesting. There were a lot of lady-boys around and some of them look more feminine than me! They even know how to put make up on!! Jealous.
Other than that we just lounged around honestly. Didn't do much. Got teased though. The others thought that the concierge dude liked me :S
But it must be because I'm so likeable =] right? ... right?? .... SAY IT!!
lol
I guess that's pretty much it for now. We took the ferry over to PP Island and somehow during the couse of the night I managed to lose Tina, Yong and Sally. So the smart thing for me to do was wonder back to our hotel and hop on the internet. (I couldn't find the swimming pool)
anyways, gotta go tina's found me
lol
signing off now, thao
.x0x.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Stranded in Hong Kong
Well,
This is the absolute longest I've actually stayed in a country. We were sposed to leave today for Macau, but unfortunately, Typhoon Nuri had other plans. So here I am, still in HK updating my blog because we've been recommended to stay indoors. And I'm so BORED.
Anyways, as a recap of what I did whilst in HK, all I can say is that I literally shopped til I dropped. Seriously though, there is so much fake things wondering around, you find them in practically all stalls. The first night we went to the ladies market (which is a popular night market) Tina and I were ripped off hardcore. Bought this bag, and apparently we got good prices for it. We paid 250 roughly for it, but later found out that it was NOT a bargain. Lol. But you learn from your mistakes. And after 5 consecutive days of scouring market stalls, I'm pretty happy to admit that I am now a veteran bargainer. Yup, I'm getting preeeeetty good at keeping low prices. They sure know how to rip off tourists though. Tina and I have got this thing where when they lady tells us the price, we register a look of shock on our face at the disbelief that a 'good fake' could cost so much. And then the lady offers us a price that we would like to pay and we decide the maximum then got for something lower. It's great fun I have to admit. Except the one lady that Tina was bartering with on my behalf when we first got there. She went for a pretty low price, and I go to Tina the absolute last price I'd pay was going to be $HK110 (I didn't really want it all that much) and Tina goes to the lady $HK90.
Then she cursed us. Lol. Pretty funny when I think about it now though.
Anyways, apart from that, we asked the concierge where we could get peking duck from. The absolute BEST peking duck though. And this guy recommended Star Restaurant just off the Tsim Sha Tsui station. And you know what? It was indeed THE BEST peking duck I've ever had. It was so0o0o0o yum. It practically melted in your mouth. The taste was exquisite. And for the price we paid. I thought it was an absolute gem. So0o0o0o good!~! I'm salivating at the thoughyt of it as I type this. I would like some more now come to think of it!~ When we got there, we weren't too sure how big the duck would be, so we decided that we should have half a duck each - because back in Australia, when we order peking and get one duck, you usually on get 3-4 wraps each if youre lucky. So we decided on half a duck each, and to have the rest of the duck minced up and eaten with lettuce and rice. Well, when the plates came out, there was SO MUCH duck. Seriuosly, they must've pretty much just left the bone back on the duck coz there was a lot of meat on each plate (we had a plate each of the duck meat). But, on the bright side, we didn't really waste any and each ate pretty much all of it. When we finished, none of us could move. Literally. And we sat inside the restaurant for over half an hour to let the food digest coz we just kept on stuffing. Only Tina finished her plate though, Yong and I were close second and Sally finished 3/4 of her plate. Pretty awesome job huh? Considering the ducks were relatively huge (we were under the assumption that Asian ducks were underfed and had nothign on them. We were wrong).
Lets see, what else can I say? Well, I went to the museum of history by myself on Wednesday and I had an awesome time exploring the place. It was really big and quite descriptive - and the whole thing was free. Which I guess explained the super duper long line outside the other museums that I was going to go to. Back to the history museum... I didn't know that HK was so rich in its history to be honest. But then again, I don't really know much about Asia as a whole, as bad as that is to admit. I was pretty blown away by the whole experience and thoroughly enjoyed myself. There's just something about museums that interest me - I think it's the fact that everything can be summed up in a few paragraphs to explain anyhitng. That, and graphic depictions and tales from afar, peoples point of view and the studying of the past is quite fascinating to me. (When I was young I wanted to be an archaeologist when mum told me I wouldn't get far as a dishwasher). But really, if you ever go HK, I'd definately recommend their museums.
When I finished with the natural history, I made my way over to the science museum ( I was most looking forward to this part and the space museum!!) but when I saw the line that snaked all the way around for a good few hundred meters, I actually debated whether I should line up to see the science museum. But when I was told the wait would be roughly 2-4 hours, and that I should come back at around 5.30pm (it was roughly 1.30pm when I asked) I was pretty crushed. I decided to give the science museum a miss and made my way down to the space and the other history museum. The line there wasn't much better either! It was equally as long as the science museum and I was really disappointed iwth my day. I had everything planned out - the order in which I'd see the museums and how long I had in each. AND I ONLY GOT TO VISIT ONE!! So sad. :~(
I'm never going to visit the museum on free days anymore. NEVER!! Well, I'll try not to.
I had lunch by myself at some little place and had a smoked salmon bagel which was actually pretty yummy. I had a craving for bread though mind you.
Anyways, I wondered around by myself and stumbled across this awesome bracelet by Mont Blanc. It's based on this movie I rather liked, and when I saw it, I knew I had to have it. So I went in and the blast of cold air was rather refreshing. I tried on the bracelet and fell in love. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money on me, so I asked for the closest HSBC bank. The lady directed me soemthing that I didn't know and I got lost. So I decided I should cool off and come back the next day to decide whether I still wanted it.
Met up with Tina after a bit, and we waited for 7.30pm to come so we could go for a ride on one of the traditional junk boats. I wasn't sure how Tina would handle the open sea, seeing as to she is prone to motion sickness. I warned her against it, but she insisted that she had been on a dinghey/inflatable boat before and that she had been fine. (this was for her bday years ago on a river with no currents or waves mind you). 15 minutes into the ride she was ready to chuck. Omg. I was ready to stab her. She was so0o0o annoying and seiruos stab motions were going to be ensued.
Anyways, throughout the whole trip she was passed out and concentrating on not chucking and totally ruining the ambience of the junk boat ride. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed myself! It was quite an experience riding around on a traditional boat.
After Tina was dragged off the boat by four of the crewmen (lol) we dragged ourselves back to the hotel. We were absolutely buggered.
The next day, we just continued exploring HK nad getting lost amongst the streets. We did a fair bit of shopping and as predicted, I went back for the star bracelet by Mont Blanc. Then I bought my aunt and my sis aweome blue handbags and just wondered idly around the shops. I saw everything I wanted to see of HK already, so now it was just back to shopping. I think I bought too much, but Train kept encouraging me to spend more :S which I did.
Oh yeh, we asked for directions back to our hotel, and this dude got us going the wrong way. Not that we knew any different because all the shops and places looked the same. We wondered down the main road til we got to what we thought was our curvey bit that led us home. Only to see random street signs saying to go to HK.. that's when we knew we were absolutely lost. We asked a couple of strangers if they knew where we were. And they pointed to the bottom of the map and we're like 'no0o0o0o....!!' They said the walk would only take 10 minutes, but if you saw it on the map, it was on the other side - and we don't speed walk. They recommended that we get a taxi then from the other side, down the straight road to take us back. But we couldn't be bothered walking across the road and just took a taxi heading away from our hotel. Big mistake. He took us down some weird side street, down little roads, and we were totally lost and disorientated. We were quite suspicious that he took us the long way home. But we just couldn't communicate nor say anything on the off-chance he decided to take us somewhere and cut us open for our organs and no one would know.
It cost us $HK30 roughly, to go zig zagging down little streets, but we were thankful we didn't have to walk the whole way home - we were too tired nad yucky to do so.
Anyways, that's pretty much it that I need to say honestly, since all we did whilst here was go shopping, shopping nad shopping. We did check out a temple though - which really bothered me. Not the whole, going temple part. More of the commercialism of the temple I guess - since temples are meant to be tranquil quiet places of worship. Not someplace to sightsee. I was scared I'd go hell here see. Anyways, the temple was absolutely beautiful, equipped with a waterfall and a pond full of turtles, and another for koy fishes. It was so0o0o0o... nice. I had a good time there just walking around and I guess it was a nice place to collect my thoughts and be at one with my religion. But still, it bothered me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I understand why a few temples are open to the public. It's good to let people see how our religion and everything. But yeh, still. It's unsettling.
Tina got her fortune read though. She did the stick thingy where you ask a question, and shake a box of sticks until one falls out and that is your answer. When we got the stick, we wondered around and found a fortune teller that would be able to tell her about her future and everything. He even told her to get rid of a mole on her face because it was bad luck. I thought that was funny - handing out beauty tips and everything. Still, Tina believes in those things, but I kinda believe that your future is what you want. I mean, if you hear it and you got a bad telling, you'd try and fix it so that it wouldn't happen wouldn't you? Fight your destiny I'd say.
That's it for now really. I'm not sure what else to type. Or that I can be bothered. I'm on my last $HK100 dollars here and I'm wasting it on the internet as per usual (it's costing me $HK20 per half an hour and i've been on for close to two. I won't have any money to eat at my rate!)
So, signing off til next time
Thao
.x0x.
This is the absolute longest I've actually stayed in a country. We were sposed to leave today for Macau, but unfortunately, Typhoon Nuri had other plans. So here I am, still in HK updating my blog because we've been recommended to stay indoors. And I'm so BORED.
Anyways, as a recap of what I did whilst in HK, all I can say is that I literally shopped til I dropped. Seriously though, there is so much fake things wondering around, you find them in practically all stalls. The first night we went to the ladies market (which is a popular night market) Tina and I were ripped off hardcore. Bought this bag, and apparently we got good prices for it. We paid 250 roughly for it, but later found out that it was NOT a bargain. Lol. But you learn from your mistakes. And after 5 consecutive days of scouring market stalls, I'm pretty happy to admit that I am now a veteran bargainer. Yup, I'm getting preeeeetty good at keeping low prices. They sure know how to rip off tourists though. Tina and I have got this thing where when they lady tells us the price, we register a look of shock on our face at the disbelief that a 'good fake' could cost so much. And then the lady offers us a price that we would like to pay and we decide the maximum then got for something lower. It's great fun I have to admit. Except the one lady that Tina was bartering with on my behalf when we first got there. She went for a pretty low price, and I go to Tina the absolute last price I'd pay was going to be $HK110 (I didn't really want it all that much) and Tina goes to the lady $HK90.
Then she cursed us. Lol. Pretty funny when I think about it now though.
Anyways, apart from that, we asked the concierge where we could get peking duck from. The absolute BEST peking duck though. And this guy recommended Star Restaurant just off the Tsim Sha Tsui station. And you know what? It was indeed THE BEST peking duck I've ever had. It was so0o0o0o yum. It practically melted in your mouth. The taste was exquisite. And for the price we paid. I thought it was an absolute gem. So0o0o0o good!~! I'm salivating at the thoughyt of it as I type this. I would like some more now come to think of it!~ When we got there, we weren't too sure how big the duck would be, so we decided that we should have half a duck each - because back in Australia, when we order peking and get one duck, you usually on get 3-4 wraps each if youre lucky. So we decided on half a duck each, and to have the rest of the duck minced up and eaten with lettuce and rice. Well, when the plates came out, there was SO MUCH duck. Seriuosly, they must've pretty much just left the bone back on the duck coz there was a lot of meat on each plate (we had a plate each of the duck meat). But, on the bright side, we didn't really waste any and each ate pretty much all of it. When we finished, none of us could move. Literally. And we sat inside the restaurant for over half an hour to let the food digest coz we just kept on stuffing. Only Tina finished her plate though, Yong and I were close second and Sally finished 3/4 of her plate. Pretty awesome job huh? Considering the ducks were relatively huge (we were under the assumption that Asian ducks were underfed and had nothign on them. We were wrong).
Lets see, what else can I say? Well, I went to the museum of history by myself on Wednesday and I had an awesome time exploring the place. It was really big and quite descriptive - and the whole thing was free. Which I guess explained the super duper long line outside the other museums that I was going to go to. Back to the history museum... I didn't know that HK was so rich in its history to be honest. But then again, I don't really know much about Asia as a whole, as bad as that is to admit. I was pretty blown away by the whole experience and thoroughly enjoyed myself. There's just something about museums that interest me - I think it's the fact that everything can be summed up in a few paragraphs to explain anyhitng. That, and graphic depictions and tales from afar, peoples point of view and the studying of the past is quite fascinating to me. (When I was young I wanted to be an archaeologist when mum told me I wouldn't get far as a dishwasher). But really, if you ever go HK, I'd definately recommend their museums.
When I finished with the natural history, I made my way over to the science museum ( I was most looking forward to this part and the space museum!!) but when I saw the line that snaked all the way around for a good few hundred meters, I actually debated whether I should line up to see the science museum. But when I was told the wait would be roughly 2-4 hours, and that I should come back at around 5.30pm (it was roughly 1.30pm when I asked) I was pretty crushed. I decided to give the science museum a miss and made my way down to the space and the other history museum. The line there wasn't much better either! It was equally as long as the science museum and I was really disappointed iwth my day. I had everything planned out - the order in which I'd see the museums and how long I had in each. AND I ONLY GOT TO VISIT ONE!! So sad. :~(
I'm never going to visit the museum on free days anymore. NEVER!! Well, I'll try not to.
I had lunch by myself at some little place and had a smoked salmon bagel which was actually pretty yummy. I had a craving for bread though mind you.
Anyways, I wondered around by myself and stumbled across this awesome bracelet by Mont Blanc. It's based on this movie I rather liked, and when I saw it, I knew I had to have it. So I went in and the blast of cold air was rather refreshing. I tried on the bracelet and fell in love. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money on me, so I asked for the closest HSBC bank. The lady directed me soemthing that I didn't know and I got lost. So I decided I should cool off and come back the next day to decide whether I still wanted it.
Met up with Tina after a bit, and we waited for 7.30pm to come so we could go for a ride on one of the traditional junk boats. I wasn't sure how Tina would handle the open sea, seeing as to she is prone to motion sickness. I warned her against it, but she insisted that she had been on a dinghey/inflatable boat before and that she had been fine. (this was for her bday years ago on a river with no currents or waves mind you). 15 minutes into the ride she was ready to chuck. Omg. I was ready to stab her. She was so0o0o annoying and seiruos stab motions were going to be ensued.
Anyways, throughout the whole trip she was passed out and concentrating on not chucking and totally ruining the ambience of the junk boat ride. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed myself! It was quite an experience riding around on a traditional boat.
After Tina was dragged off the boat by four of the crewmen (lol) we dragged ourselves back to the hotel. We were absolutely buggered.
The next day, we just continued exploring HK nad getting lost amongst the streets. We did a fair bit of shopping and as predicted, I went back for the star bracelet by Mont Blanc. Then I bought my aunt and my sis aweome blue handbags and just wondered idly around the shops. I saw everything I wanted to see of HK already, so now it was just back to shopping. I think I bought too much, but Train kept encouraging me to spend more :S which I did.
Oh yeh, we asked for directions back to our hotel, and this dude got us going the wrong way. Not that we knew any different because all the shops and places looked the same. We wondered down the main road til we got to what we thought was our curvey bit that led us home. Only to see random street signs saying to go to HK.. that's when we knew we were absolutely lost. We asked a couple of strangers if they knew where we were. And they pointed to the bottom of the map and we're like 'no0o0o0o....!!' They said the walk would only take 10 minutes, but if you saw it on the map, it was on the other side - and we don't speed walk. They recommended that we get a taxi then from the other side, down the straight road to take us back. But we couldn't be bothered walking across the road and just took a taxi heading away from our hotel. Big mistake. He took us down some weird side street, down little roads, and we were totally lost and disorientated. We were quite suspicious that he took us the long way home. But we just couldn't communicate nor say anything on the off-chance he decided to take us somewhere and cut us open for our organs and no one would know.
It cost us $HK30 roughly, to go zig zagging down little streets, but we were thankful we didn't have to walk the whole way home - we were too tired nad yucky to do so.
Anyways, that's pretty much it that I need to say honestly, since all we did whilst here was go shopping, shopping nad shopping. We did check out a temple though - which really bothered me. Not the whole, going temple part. More of the commercialism of the temple I guess - since temples are meant to be tranquil quiet places of worship. Not someplace to sightsee. I was scared I'd go hell here see. Anyways, the temple was absolutely beautiful, equipped with a waterfall and a pond full of turtles, and another for koy fishes. It was so0o0o0o... nice. I had a good time there just walking around and I guess it was a nice place to collect my thoughts and be at one with my religion. But still, it bothered me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I understand why a few temples are open to the public. It's good to let people see how our religion and everything. But yeh, still. It's unsettling.
Tina got her fortune read though. She did the stick thingy where you ask a question, and shake a box of sticks until one falls out and that is your answer. When we got the stick, we wondered around and found a fortune teller that would be able to tell her about her future and everything. He even told her to get rid of a mole on her face because it was bad luck. I thought that was funny - handing out beauty tips and everything. Still, Tina believes in those things, but I kinda believe that your future is what you want. I mean, if you hear it and you got a bad telling, you'd try and fix it so that it wouldn't happen wouldn't you? Fight your destiny I'd say.
That's it for now really. I'm not sure what else to type. Or that I can be bothered. I'm on my last $HK100 dollars here and I'm wasting it on the internet as per usual (it's costing me $HK20 per half an hour and i've been on for close to two. I won't have any money to eat at my rate!)
So, signing off til next time
Thao
.x0x.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Last night in Shanghai
Round two of the ranting...
SO!! Where was I?
YEH! So we stayed at this place called Lakeside Hotel or soemthing and it was off some main road. We were situated near a construction site that looked like they gave up repairing because we never saw any workmen around. After that night (we were all pretty narky by then). We were all pretty adament about finding a new place to stay that would at least have a few basic necessities (ie. fridge, internet, FLUSHING TOILET).
Other than that, I had a GREAT time walking around the whole of Shanghai for five hours. lol. I had an awesome time just exploring the whole CBD area. Well actually, we started off at 1pm to look for an internet cafe to find soemhwere else to book a room because we didn't really like where we were staying. We walked around for absolute ages, and because of the language barrier we couldn't really figure out exactly where the internet cafe was. The phrase book pointed out that it was called 'wangba' so I went around saying wangba. But I don't think I said it properly because no one understood and were able to help - so we opted to pull out the phrase book and point out exactly where we wanted to go. After much pointing (and walking past the internet cafe around 6 times) we realised that it was just around the corner from where we were. When we finally made it in, they wouldn't let us use a computer. We didn't have a proper Chinese ID card and they couldn't scan our passports so they didn't allow us to use the internet. We were pissed!! We were wondering around the city for well over two hours to look for an internet cafe adn there was none. You'd think a budding developing country who boasts great usage of internet and mobile phones would have internet cafes by the dozen - but alas that is not true (either that or the locals didn't know where they were).
As we were wondering away from the internet cafe that denied us access, we trudged back the way we came when it started to rain. The air became hot and sticky, but the rain was much appreciated. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk in the rain! It's one of my favourite things to do, but since it doesn't rain a lot back home I had to savour these opportunities. So I had an awesome time walking back whilst it rained - though I'm not too sure if I can say the same thing for Yong and Sally. (We left Tina back at the hotel since she passed out from motion sickness - the taxi driver drove a little too erractically for her liking).
After trudging round the rain (which was a pretty heavy downpour) we entered one of the shopping centres and everyone just looked at us coz we were soaking wet and leaving wet footprints all over their nice pristine floor. That was funny. We wondered around for a fair bit more, took a train (for 3 yuan!) back to the Peoples Place (Shanghai station) and proceeded to their main building to buy our overnight train tickets from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
OMG. What can I say about trying to book tickets at the station when there was such a big language barrier?
To put it nicely, it was one of the worse experiences whilst in China. Ever. It beat the time we were in Xian and no one would let us in the taxi coz they couldn't read alphanumerics. There was so much pushing and shoving and the concept of a single file seemed as foreign as we were. We lined up at the English speaking one, but no one was helping, so I went to the booth next to us and she just pointed there again and said wait. So we continued waiting in the hopes that someone who knows english could come help us organise our tickets. After what seemed like an eternity, I gave up and lined up somewhere else. When I made it to the front of the line, I was competing against 4 other poeples for the lady's attention. Of course I didn't get served coz I wasn't waving money around. I was pretty pissed off by this stage - especially with a lady pressing me against the window and pushing in waving money around and trying to get the ladys attention. I guess that was when I blew my fuse coz I stuck my hands out both ways to prevent her from taking anyones money and said 'english, english. I want to book tickets in english!!' and that was when she finally noticed me and told me it was at booth one. So I got out of line and we moved off to booth one. We lined up there and there wasn't a lot of pushing or shoving. Except by the locals who pushed in to get served.
When we were about third in line, the girl at the booth said soemthing in Chinese, got up, and left. And the three of us were standing there like 'wat the hell?' That's when we noticed that everyone had gone over to where we were originally standing half an hour ago to get served. So it turns out the girl was announcing that she was no longer serving and to move to the other booth. That made our blood boil. We gave up waiting in line for train tickets and headed back out to the main road. We were pretty shitty. But due to my optimism (and funny jokes) the mood was lightened and we continued wondering around aimlessly in the city with our moist clothing. So, after a while, we were all pretty tired and it was almost time for dinner that we decided to find our way back to our hotel to get Tina and go for dinner.
We paid this taxi driver 50yuans to get us from the city to our hotel, but she dropped us off on the other side of the bridge coz the road was closed and she couldn't get through. When we got out and said our thanks, we realised that there was a way to the other side of the taxi and she had ripped us off hardcore coz the ride shouldn't have cost more than 10yuans. But on the bright side, through that short trip, Mr Yong learnt a few extra words in both Mandarin and Cantonese. So I guess there was some good about paying 50yuans for a 10 minute ride. A further 35 minute walk finally saw us back to our hotel where we had a shower, cooled down a bit and went for dinner.
Before going dinner though, Tina and I decided to go to this convenience store I passed on the way home, (which was actually pretty scarey coz there was not a lot of street lights) we quickly got there adn bought a few items coz we thought we might not be going dinner coz Yong and Sally were in a pretty shitty mood (which was understandable). As we were heading back to our hotel, it began to rain again - but this time it was a heavy torrential downpour. It just kept on raining. We passed by this hotel we were staying near and the porters and bell boys were just staring at us coz we were absolutely soaked through and strolling in the rain (I had heaps of fun!!). We went dinner after all.
We ended up wondering back to the city strip and then couldn't decide between Pizza Hut and some Japanese place that was next door. So I went with Yong for Japanese and Tina and Sally opted for Pizza Hut. Where we ate was the equivalent to a Maccas or Hungry Jacks in terms that the food came out as soon as we ordered and there were meal deals. It was pretty good though the food we had. We thought that there must've been a mix up with the menu coz the menu said teriyaki pork, but the meat looked like chicken. We assumed that there was a mix up with the translation and that it really was chicken. But hwen the food came out, it turned out to be pork after all! So Mr Yong was stuck with teriyaki pork and I had a mixed dish of soemhting or other. Was pretty nice though and only cost us 50yuan for both our meals! It was bargain basement cheap! After we finished our meals we went up to Pizza Hut where Tina and Sally were STILL waiting for their pizza.
When everyone had finally finished eating, we went out to go to the other internet cafe we passed, but by that time, it was already closed. So we trudged back to our hotel where it began to drizzle. Which wasn't such a good hting because I was on my last pair of shoes (I only bought three pairs of shoes and the other two were already soaked through).
Anyways, in the morning Yong and Sally went off in search for another place and we ended up at the Magnificent Hotel. Which is actually a really nice place and the poeple were actually friendly and helpful - albeit a little slow. After we dropped our stuff off, we asked the concierge to recommend a place that did yum cha and he showed us to this other hotel. We wondered around for almost an hour til we found it coz the dude goes 'it's three blocks down'. And I don't know how big a block is to him but it was waaaaay more than three blocks!! He probably meant three suburbs. Anyways, we got to this rather posh place, and because we were so exhausted, we decided to just stay there and eat. It was soo0o0o0oo... nice up there!! Definately worth the 880 yuan meal we had. It opted for the a la carte menu and had all these tiny dishes brought out to us, and by the time the food came out, I had chugged down one and a half bottles of water and a glass of watermelon juice. I was parched!~
The meal we had there was exceptional and I thought it was well worth the money spent.
After that, we wondered a bit more around Shanghai and couldn't figure out how to cross the river, so we took a 'scenic route' which was this underground ride/train thing that took you across but with special lights and stuffs. The ride broke down halfway through though so we were stuck in there for around 5-10 minutes before it started moving again. When we finally made it across, we checked out some of the local plaza which were all so huge. We considered going to the revolving restaurant too, but decided it would be a bit too much to eat two expensive meals in a row. At this stage I had a horrible nose bleed~ It went on for over 10 minutes too!
Anyways, after our shopping we were pretty knackered and headed back to our hotel for an early night.
Woke up today at 945am ish and decided that we should take advantage of their free buffet brekky before going back and sleeping again. So we went down at roughly 10am and started chowing down on a typical Western brekky of bacon and eggs on toast. There was also Asian stuffs like the salted eggs wiht congee amongst the baked beans and fried rice.
Tina and I headed back up to our hotel room after that and settled back into bed to watch The Sandlot Kid 2. Sally swung by after a bit to borrow some detegent to wash their clothes too. Oh yeh, I forgot to mention that Tina decided to wash all our clothes in our bathtub seeing as to we ran out of clean clothes to wear. She charged me 10 yuan per item, but somehow I ended up helping a little bit by wringing out water from a few of my clothes. Back to the story - We decided to head back to th is market place we passed by last night to check out their bargains nad Tina nad I had an awesome time wondering around the different stalls and bartering. They were trying to rip us off so much!! The sellers were raising the price up to almost triple at times what they'd normally sell for, but Tina nad I had figured out awesome sound effects to make it sound like they were ripping us off and it always seemed to work. They'd call us abck and we'd start bartering down to a price that we felt was reasonable and also a good bargain for us. I bought a few tops, and knick knacks for poeple back home too~!
After that we went to this mall called Raffles City and checked out all the shops. We didn't really buy anything, but it was fun walking around. We found this massage place and paid 200 yuan a piece for an hour massage called hot stones where they rub stones on your back. It. Was. So. Relaxing. Except for when Sally called Tina and ruined the whole ambience for abit :S
We met up with Yong and Sally after that and headed out to where the locals shopped and had dinner while we were there as well. We chose this place that had a hotpot, and didn't realise they sold mainly seafood til we sat down and made ourselves comfortable.
It was so funny because they didn't have an english menu we could read from, or pictures on the menu to choose our food, so Tina and Yong went walking around wiht one of the waiters to point out at poeples meals what we would like to eat as well. Yong told me Tina even shoved her hand near some dudes food to point out that she would also like that on her meal as well. lol. so funny.
We got everything we ordered for, except the fish that Tina and Yong picked out from the tank. We waited for ages, but decided that they probably accidentally served our fish to another table so after a long time of sign language, they finally understood that we didn't want the fish anymore and just wanted to pay for what we've already eaten. By that stage it was 930 pm and unfortunately all the shops had closed down. There was one more shop opened so we wondered in there for a bit and a i bought a tshirt and this short suit thing. It was pretty cute too.
We headed back to the hotel and so this is where I am now.
It's time for me to sign off and sneak out of the room because the hotels internet place closes at 10pm and it is now almost 1am..
So til next time for anyone who actually reads this...
love you long time~~
Thao
.x0x.
SO!! Where was I?
YEH! So we stayed at this place called Lakeside Hotel or soemthing and it was off some main road. We were situated near a construction site that looked like they gave up repairing because we never saw any workmen around. After that night (we were all pretty narky by then). We were all pretty adament about finding a new place to stay that would at least have a few basic necessities (ie. fridge, internet, FLUSHING TOILET).
Other than that, I had a GREAT time walking around the whole of Shanghai for five hours. lol. I had an awesome time just exploring the whole CBD area. Well actually, we started off at 1pm to look for an internet cafe to find soemhwere else to book a room because we didn't really like where we were staying. We walked around for absolute ages, and because of the language barrier we couldn't really figure out exactly where the internet cafe was. The phrase book pointed out that it was called 'wangba' so I went around saying wangba. But I don't think I said it properly because no one understood and were able to help - so we opted to pull out the phrase book and point out exactly where we wanted to go. After much pointing (and walking past the internet cafe around 6 times) we realised that it was just around the corner from where we were. When we finally made it in, they wouldn't let us use a computer. We didn't have a proper Chinese ID card and they couldn't scan our passports so they didn't allow us to use the internet. We were pissed!! We were wondering around the city for well over two hours to look for an internet cafe adn there was none. You'd think a budding developing country who boasts great usage of internet and mobile phones would have internet cafes by the dozen - but alas that is not true (either that or the locals didn't know where they were).
As we were wondering away from the internet cafe that denied us access, we trudged back the way we came when it started to rain. The air became hot and sticky, but the rain was much appreciated. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk in the rain! It's one of my favourite things to do, but since it doesn't rain a lot back home I had to savour these opportunities. So I had an awesome time walking back whilst it rained - though I'm not too sure if I can say the same thing for Yong and Sally. (We left Tina back at the hotel since she passed out from motion sickness - the taxi driver drove a little too erractically for her liking).
After trudging round the rain (which was a pretty heavy downpour) we entered one of the shopping centres and everyone just looked at us coz we were soaking wet and leaving wet footprints all over their nice pristine floor. That was funny. We wondered around for a fair bit more, took a train (for 3 yuan!) back to the Peoples Place (Shanghai station) and proceeded to their main building to buy our overnight train tickets from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
OMG. What can I say about trying to book tickets at the station when there was such a big language barrier?
To put it nicely, it was one of the worse experiences whilst in China. Ever. It beat the time we were in Xian and no one would let us in the taxi coz they couldn't read alphanumerics. There was so much pushing and shoving and the concept of a single file seemed as foreign as we were. We lined up at the English speaking one, but no one was helping, so I went to the booth next to us and she just pointed there again and said wait. So we continued waiting in the hopes that someone who knows english could come help us organise our tickets. After what seemed like an eternity, I gave up and lined up somewhere else. When I made it to the front of the line, I was competing against 4 other poeples for the lady's attention. Of course I didn't get served coz I wasn't waving money around. I was pretty pissed off by this stage - especially with a lady pressing me against the window and pushing in waving money around and trying to get the ladys attention. I guess that was when I blew my fuse coz I stuck my hands out both ways to prevent her from taking anyones money and said 'english, english. I want to book tickets in english!!' and that was when she finally noticed me and told me it was at booth one. So I got out of line and we moved off to booth one. We lined up there and there wasn't a lot of pushing or shoving. Except by the locals who pushed in to get served.
When we were about third in line, the girl at the booth said soemthing in Chinese, got up, and left. And the three of us were standing there like 'wat the hell?' That's when we noticed that everyone had gone over to where we were originally standing half an hour ago to get served. So it turns out the girl was announcing that she was no longer serving and to move to the other booth. That made our blood boil. We gave up waiting in line for train tickets and headed back out to the main road. We were pretty shitty. But due to my optimism (and funny jokes) the mood was lightened and we continued wondering around aimlessly in the city with our moist clothing. So, after a while, we were all pretty tired and it was almost time for dinner that we decided to find our way back to our hotel to get Tina and go for dinner.
We paid this taxi driver 50yuans to get us from the city to our hotel, but she dropped us off on the other side of the bridge coz the road was closed and she couldn't get through. When we got out and said our thanks, we realised that there was a way to the other side of the taxi and she had ripped us off hardcore coz the ride shouldn't have cost more than 10yuans. But on the bright side, through that short trip, Mr Yong learnt a few extra words in both Mandarin and Cantonese. So I guess there was some good about paying 50yuans for a 10 minute ride. A further 35 minute walk finally saw us back to our hotel where we had a shower, cooled down a bit and went for dinner.
Before going dinner though, Tina and I decided to go to this convenience store I passed on the way home, (which was actually pretty scarey coz there was not a lot of street lights) we quickly got there adn bought a few items coz we thought we might not be going dinner coz Yong and Sally were in a pretty shitty mood (which was understandable). As we were heading back to our hotel, it began to rain again - but this time it was a heavy torrential downpour. It just kept on raining. We passed by this hotel we were staying near and the porters and bell boys were just staring at us coz we were absolutely soaked through and strolling in the rain (I had heaps of fun!!). We went dinner after all.
We ended up wondering back to the city strip and then couldn't decide between Pizza Hut and some Japanese place that was next door. So I went with Yong for Japanese and Tina and Sally opted for Pizza Hut. Where we ate was the equivalent to a Maccas or Hungry Jacks in terms that the food came out as soon as we ordered and there were meal deals. It was pretty good though the food we had. We thought that there must've been a mix up with the menu coz the menu said teriyaki pork, but the meat looked like chicken. We assumed that there was a mix up with the translation and that it really was chicken. But hwen the food came out, it turned out to be pork after all! So Mr Yong was stuck with teriyaki pork and I had a mixed dish of soemhting or other. Was pretty nice though and only cost us 50yuan for both our meals! It was bargain basement cheap! After we finished our meals we went up to Pizza Hut where Tina and Sally were STILL waiting for their pizza.
When everyone had finally finished eating, we went out to go to the other internet cafe we passed, but by that time, it was already closed. So we trudged back to our hotel where it began to drizzle. Which wasn't such a good hting because I was on my last pair of shoes (I only bought three pairs of shoes and the other two were already soaked through).
Anyways, in the morning Yong and Sally went off in search for another place and we ended up at the Magnificent Hotel. Which is actually a really nice place and the poeple were actually friendly and helpful - albeit a little slow. After we dropped our stuff off, we asked the concierge to recommend a place that did yum cha and he showed us to this other hotel. We wondered around for almost an hour til we found it coz the dude goes 'it's three blocks down'. And I don't know how big a block is to him but it was waaaaay more than three blocks!! He probably meant three suburbs. Anyways, we got to this rather posh place, and because we were so exhausted, we decided to just stay there and eat. It was soo0o0o0oo... nice up there!! Definately worth the 880 yuan meal we had. It opted for the a la carte menu and had all these tiny dishes brought out to us, and by the time the food came out, I had chugged down one and a half bottles of water and a glass of watermelon juice. I was parched!~
The meal we had there was exceptional and I thought it was well worth the money spent.
After that, we wondered a bit more around Shanghai and couldn't figure out how to cross the river, so we took a 'scenic route' which was this underground ride/train thing that took you across but with special lights and stuffs. The ride broke down halfway through though so we were stuck in there for around 5-10 minutes before it started moving again. When we finally made it across, we checked out some of the local plaza which were all so huge. We considered going to the revolving restaurant too, but decided it would be a bit too much to eat two expensive meals in a row. At this stage I had a horrible nose bleed~ It went on for over 10 minutes too!
Anyways, after our shopping we were pretty knackered and headed back to our hotel for an early night.
Woke up today at 945am ish and decided that we should take advantage of their free buffet brekky before going back and sleeping again. So we went down at roughly 10am and started chowing down on a typical Western brekky of bacon and eggs on toast. There was also Asian stuffs like the salted eggs wiht congee amongst the baked beans and fried rice.
Tina and I headed back up to our hotel room after that and settled back into bed to watch The Sandlot Kid 2. Sally swung by after a bit to borrow some detegent to wash their clothes too. Oh yeh, I forgot to mention that Tina decided to wash all our clothes in our bathtub seeing as to we ran out of clean clothes to wear. She charged me 10 yuan per item, but somehow I ended up helping a little bit by wringing out water from a few of my clothes. Back to the story - We decided to head back to th is market place we passed by last night to check out their bargains nad Tina nad I had an awesome time wondering around the different stalls and bartering. They were trying to rip us off so much!! The sellers were raising the price up to almost triple at times what they'd normally sell for, but Tina nad I had figured out awesome sound effects to make it sound like they were ripping us off and it always seemed to work. They'd call us abck and we'd start bartering down to a price that we felt was reasonable and also a good bargain for us. I bought a few tops, and knick knacks for poeple back home too~!
After that we went to this mall called Raffles City and checked out all the shops. We didn't really buy anything, but it was fun walking around. We found this massage place and paid 200 yuan a piece for an hour massage called hot stones where they rub stones on your back. It. Was. So. Relaxing. Except for when Sally called Tina and ruined the whole ambience for abit :S
We met up with Yong and Sally after that and headed out to where the locals shopped and had dinner while we were there as well. We chose this place that had a hotpot, and didn't realise they sold mainly seafood til we sat down and made ourselves comfortable.
It was so funny because they didn't have an english menu we could read from, or pictures on the menu to choose our food, so Tina and Yong went walking around wiht one of the waiters to point out at poeples meals what we would like to eat as well. Yong told me Tina even shoved her hand near some dudes food to point out that she would also like that on her meal as well. lol. so funny.
We got everything we ordered for, except the fish that Tina and Yong picked out from the tank. We waited for ages, but decided that they probably accidentally served our fish to another table so after a long time of sign language, they finally understood that we didn't want the fish anymore and just wanted to pay for what we've already eaten. By that stage it was 930 pm and unfortunately all the shops had closed down. There was one more shop opened so we wondered in there for a bit and a i bought a tshirt and this short suit thing. It was pretty cute too.
We headed back to the hotel and so this is where I am now.
It's time for me to sign off and sneak out of the room because the hotels internet place closes at 10pm and it is now almost 1am..
So til next time for anyone who actually reads this...
love you long time~~
Thao
.x0x.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Shanghai'd in Shanghai
Ok guys,
I've FINALLY found a place with the internet. Seriously, for a country priding itself for growing technology, I'm stuck on a dial up LAN connection in my hotel room (because I don't have a laptop to plug into the wireless in my room).
Anyways, alot has happened since I last blogged that I was in Thailand.
So here goes...
Well, we left China for Shenzhen, and when we got there, we couldn't find a taxi that would take us to where we were staying. Mostly because they couldn't understand alphanumerics - which really sucked coz when we hailed a taxi and showed him, he just waved his hand and moved up to let someone else in. After that, at the whole taxi bay, no one would take us on. After that incident, we trudged back to the inside of the airport, and asked one of the security guard people type with white shirts and a red arm scarf to write it out in Chinese so that we could go home. We were absolutely buggered due to lack of sleep. It took a while for soemone to fill out the blanks for us, and when we FINALLY found soemone to take us to our hotel, we were pretty shitty with China.
We arrived at our hotel at probably a bit past 1am (forgot the name), and just passed out. We caught up on a few precious hours of sleep and woke up and left the hotel again at 6ish to catch a flight to Xian.
In Xian, we learnt our lesson and got the place we were staying at translated into the Chinese characters and were sucked into a tour thing. The tour we took was actually pretty good. First we went to see the terracotta soldiers which was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! We had a tour guide with us, which was also a brilliant idea coz she gave us an indepth description of everything that happened, the surroundings, what the Chinese government is doing now, and what they're fixing/restoring. AWESOME. I love this part of Xian very much. The lady that drove us (named Rose) was a really scarey looking lady, but as it turns out, looks can be deceiving because she was actually a really nice person. She told us what we should look out for, how we shouldn't pay more than a certain amount for soemthing, and told us when we got ripped off. Man, those places rip tourists off like no tomorrow. So not fair. Although I did buy some rather nice black jade bracelets to give to family. We even saw a sphinx and an Egyptian pyramid whilst in China~! Anyways, after the great trip to the terracotta soldies, we went to see one of the emporers burial/memorial site and climbed up what felt like a billion stairs. When we got up top though, the view was absolutely magnificent. The scenes of country China was actually breathtaking behind the backdrop of the mountains. The third place we went to was ... (20 mins later) some bath house that an emporer built for one of his beloved concubines. It took so long to figure out the last one. I'm really tired. Well anyways, by that stage I was pretty exhausted so I didn't want to go with a tour guide. I just wanted to go abck to the hotel we were at, shower and crawl into bed. Which we did do when we got back.
After that night, we left again for Shanghai and by that stage, lack of sleeping was making us all edgey/moody. We got to Shanghai, and as we were looking at our maps, some dude calls out to us and we thought we'd ask for help. When we got there, he somehow managed to con us into staying at another hotel called Lakeside hotel or soemthing, which costs roughly the same amount as the one we had originally booked. When we got there, it was nothing like the brochure he showed us. The place was HORRIBLE. It stank, and worse, our toilet didn't flush!!
Ok ok.
round two of this will be posted tomorrow after my shopping spree. It's 1233am and I am absolutely buggered from today.
Signing off til further notice, Thao
.x0x.
I've FINALLY found a place with the internet. Seriously, for a country priding itself for growing technology, I'm stuck on a dial up LAN connection in my hotel room (because I don't have a laptop to plug into the wireless in my room).
Anyways, alot has happened since I last blogged that I was in Thailand.
So here goes...
Well, we left China for Shenzhen, and when we got there, we couldn't find a taxi that would take us to where we were staying. Mostly because they couldn't understand alphanumerics - which really sucked coz when we hailed a taxi and showed him, he just waved his hand and moved up to let someone else in. After that, at the whole taxi bay, no one would take us on. After that incident, we trudged back to the inside of the airport, and asked one of the security guard people type with white shirts and a red arm scarf to write it out in Chinese so that we could go home. We were absolutely buggered due to lack of sleep. It took a while for soemone to fill out the blanks for us, and when we FINALLY found soemone to take us to our hotel, we were pretty shitty with China.
We arrived at our hotel at probably a bit past 1am (forgot the name), and just passed out. We caught up on a few precious hours of sleep and woke up and left the hotel again at 6ish to catch a flight to Xian.
In Xian, we learnt our lesson and got the place we were staying at translated into the Chinese characters and were sucked into a tour thing. The tour we took was actually pretty good. First we went to see the terracotta soldiers which was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! We had a tour guide with us, which was also a brilliant idea coz she gave us an indepth description of everything that happened, the surroundings, what the Chinese government is doing now, and what they're fixing/restoring. AWESOME. I love this part of Xian very much. The lady that drove us (named Rose) was a really scarey looking lady, but as it turns out, looks can be deceiving because she was actually a really nice person. She told us what we should look out for, how we shouldn't pay more than a certain amount for soemthing, and told us when we got ripped off. Man, those places rip tourists off like no tomorrow. So not fair. Although I did buy some rather nice black jade bracelets to give to family. We even saw a sphinx and an Egyptian pyramid whilst in China~! Anyways, after the great trip to the terracotta soldies, we went to see one of the emporers burial/memorial site and climbed up what felt like a billion stairs. When we got up top though, the view was absolutely magnificent. The scenes of country China was actually breathtaking behind the backdrop of the mountains. The third place we went to was ... (20 mins later) some bath house that an emporer built for one of his beloved concubines. It took so long to figure out the last one. I'm really tired. Well anyways, by that stage I was pretty exhausted so I didn't want to go with a tour guide. I just wanted to go abck to the hotel we were at, shower and crawl into bed. Which we did do when we got back.
After that night, we left again for Shanghai and by that stage, lack of sleeping was making us all edgey/moody. We got to Shanghai, and as we were looking at our maps, some dude calls out to us and we thought we'd ask for help. When we got there, he somehow managed to con us into staying at another hotel called Lakeside hotel or soemthing, which costs roughly the same amount as the one we had originally booked. When we got there, it was nothing like the brochure he showed us. The place was HORRIBLE. It stank, and worse, our toilet didn't flush!!
Ok ok.
round two of this will be posted tomorrow after my shopping spree. It's 1233am and I am absolutely buggered from today.
Signing off til further notice, Thao
.x0x.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
In Transit
Currently, I'm still in Thailand with a good three hours to kill before we can board. All four of us are sitting at an Internet Cafe furiously sending emails and typing in our blogs because this is now a race against time!! We've all only paid for twenty minutes, and it's taken me a good 10 minutes to figure out how the hell to use this stoopid internet program thingy.
Anyways, today we woke up really early (0630 roughly) to get ready to go to the floating markets. But first we had a little difficulty trying to find transport there because one of the taxi driver offered to take us there and back for 3000 baht. Which, we (and the staff of BAlly) felt it was a total rip off. So we waited around for roughly 15 minutes for a better offer to come. Which it did! This really cool guy named AJ offered to take us there and back for 2000 baht. It was such a bargain and he turned out to be a really nice easy going guy. The ride took roughly an hour and he made us feel really comfortable... thanks AJ!
Well, our first stop was the floating markets - and what can I say? It was definately an interesting experience because by the riverside there were quite a few dilapidated houses. The houses were quite interesting to look at though. Our guide was some dude that took us around, I guess, to quite possibly his friends riverside shops so that we could buy their wares. There were a lot of different shops floating around, but he didn't really stop to all, just a few (what felt like) selected stalls. We only had an hour and a half I guess, so it didn't allow alot of browsing (which was quite a shame really) and there were places that boats could let you get off to experience the markets on land. But unfortunately our guide didn't stop at any of these riverside markets and just drove by. :~((
OMG. The boat ride. How can I explain this? I rode shotgun on the boat (which was exciting) but when there was a boat congestion, I got the full impact of the boat in front/to the side/going the opposite ways fumes full in the face!! It was so toxic and I think I might've even developed a smokers cough!! (dramaqueening it) We were breathing in so many fumes from so many different boats close to us. The width of the river was probably no more than 3m wide and there were boats EVERYWHERE. It would've been fine, but the boats kept stopping and starting their engine. Whenever they re-started their engines, their little exhaust gave out so much gas (it's like driving behind one of those old buses where the exhaust was still on the bottom and your car got a full face of the fumes). THATS HOW I FELT.
I guess I was a little disappointed with the whole floating markets trip because it wasn't anything like how I thought it would be in my head.
After that, we went to the elephant village which was quite... sad. Tina and I saw this little elephant chained up and shaking it's head back and forth over and over again. I felt so sorry for the little thing.. It's quite hard to explain really. The animal was kinda programmed into doing things automatically and its poor eyes just looked so vacant. However, I did end up going on an elephant ride which was quite scarey. Scarey and different. Our guide, at one stage even hopped off the elephant and just began to trot a few meters ahead of us as if to enjoy the view from a persons perspective, rather than an elephants. With that being said, he did take a few photos for us of us on top of the elephant (which I have nicknamed Stampy as homage to Bart Simpson). I felt a little uncomfortable riding the elephant (refer to top of paragraph), but I did it anyways. And I still don't know why.
On a lighter note, today was actually quite enjoyable considering we got off the beaten path and did the whole tourist thing by going to these places. I might not do either of these things again, but in a way, I'm kinda glad I did. Thailand is konwn for these places and it never hurt to do things once.
Signing off now (before the stoopid net thingy disconnects me again! grrr..)
Thao
.x0x.
ps. you only live once. so go and experience these. even if it were to say you did it. so nerrrr.. i did.
Anyways, today we woke up really early (0630 roughly) to get ready to go to the floating markets. But first we had a little difficulty trying to find transport there because one of the taxi driver offered to take us there and back for 3000 baht. Which, we (and the staff of BAlly) felt it was a total rip off. So we waited around for roughly 15 minutes for a better offer to come. Which it did! This really cool guy named AJ offered to take us there and back for 2000 baht. It was such a bargain and he turned out to be a really nice easy going guy. The ride took roughly an hour and he made us feel really comfortable... thanks AJ!
Well, our first stop was the floating markets - and what can I say? It was definately an interesting experience because by the riverside there were quite a few dilapidated houses. The houses were quite interesting to look at though. Our guide was some dude that took us around, I guess, to quite possibly his friends riverside shops so that we could buy their wares. There were a lot of different shops floating around, but he didn't really stop to all, just a few (what felt like) selected stalls. We only had an hour and a half I guess, so it didn't allow alot of browsing (which was quite a shame really) and there were places that boats could let you get off to experience the markets on land. But unfortunately our guide didn't stop at any of these riverside markets and just drove by. :~((
OMG. The boat ride. How can I explain this? I rode shotgun on the boat (which was exciting) but when there was a boat congestion, I got the full impact of the boat in front/to the side/going the opposite ways fumes full in the face!! It was so toxic and I think I might've even developed a smokers cough!! (dramaqueening it) We were breathing in so many fumes from so many different boats close to us. The width of the river was probably no more than 3m wide and there were boats EVERYWHERE. It would've been fine, but the boats kept stopping and starting their engine. Whenever they re-started their engines, their little exhaust gave out so much gas (it's like driving behind one of those old buses where the exhaust was still on the bottom and your car got a full face of the fumes). THATS HOW I FELT.
I guess I was a little disappointed with the whole floating markets trip because it wasn't anything like how I thought it would be in my head.
After that, we went to the elephant village which was quite... sad. Tina and I saw this little elephant chained up and shaking it's head back and forth over and over again. I felt so sorry for the little thing.. It's quite hard to explain really. The animal was kinda programmed into doing things automatically and its poor eyes just looked so vacant. However, I did end up going on an elephant ride which was quite scarey. Scarey and different. Our guide, at one stage even hopped off the elephant and just began to trot a few meters ahead of us as if to enjoy the view from a persons perspective, rather than an elephants. With that being said, he did take a few photos for us of us on top of the elephant (which I have nicknamed Stampy as homage to Bart Simpson). I felt a little uncomfortable riding the elephant (refer to top of paragraph), but I did it anyways. And I still don't know why.
On a lighter note, today was actually quite enjoyable considering we got off the beaten path and did the whole tourist thing by going to these places. I might not do either of these things again, but in a way, I'm kinda glad I did. Thailand is konwn for these places and it never hurt to do things once.
Signing off now (before the stoopid net thingy disconnects me again! grrr..)
Thao
.x0x.
ps. you only live once. so go and experience these. even if it were to say you did it. so nerrrr.. i did.
Monday, August 11, 2008
In Bangkok!!
Ok guys, the reason I'm online is because I got locked out of my room and my roommate is showering. Plus my other friends were busy so I didn't want to bother them. Thank goodness where I'm staying has internet usage!!
Anyways, just to let you all know, we arrived safe and sound yesterday at roughly 11pm Melbourne time and we were all pretty woozey. I had a massive headache and Tina was green and ready to chuck. Mr. Yong wasn't much better, and the only person who still seemed relative chirpy was Sally. Go Sally.
Anyways, after we landed, we went to our respective rooms and got ready to go out for dinner because Mr. Yong was pretty famished (he didn't eat on the plane, on the off chance it all came back out in those curtesy chuck bags). So, what do foreigners do when they arrive at a foreign place and is totally disorientated and famished? Why! They head to Maccas of course~!!
So off we trekked, the four of us to Maccas (Maccas being the closest thing we could find in walking distance that we knew). When we got there, I decided to be brave and try soemthing that the Aussie menu didn't have, so I settled for a bbq ribbed pork burger or soemthing. Didn't taste too bad I have to admit. It was strangely really sweet, and different from what you get at Maccas. I mean, Thai Maccas even has a four pattie Big Mac. FOUR PATTIE!! They even had fish and chips, and chicken wings would looked suspiciously like the ones that KFC has back home..
Anyways, after that we went home and slept and prepared ourselves for today. And oh boy, was there a lot of walking today!! We're staying at some place called Bally's, which is just off the main road, so we tuk tukked our way out of the inner roads and walked to the train stations. The train stations here are so immaculate!! I mean, they had air con that worked so well in those trains, I was so impressed. I was even more impressed with those little signs on the floor to indicate where you can stand to get on the train. There's arrows on the floor that show you where to stand, and how to get on the train without the constant jostling which I found to be a brilliant idea (though if this were to be adopted in Oz I doubt it'll work coz everyone would be pushing and shoving and not obeying the lines).
Tina and I went our seperate ways from Yong and Sally coz the latter were going to a tailor to get some custom made suits and Tina and I opted to check out the big shopping malls. We went to Centralworld first, and when we got there, we had to wait ten minutes coz the guard didn't wanna let us til it was exactly 10am. When they finally let us in we did a fair bit of shopping and bought a few things, nibbled on a few different morsels and generally wondered around aimlessly.
Oh! LOL
THE funniest thing happened whilst we were there too. Because everything is so immaculately clean in there (in every shop there's an employee with a cloth wiping down clean benches and shelves) Tina walked into a window and there was this really loud BANG. It was THE funniest thing ever!! All the Thai people standing around were trying really hard not to giggle, and I couldn't help myself.I burst out laughing whilst trying to help Tina. Oh man, she left this smudge on their clean window and now she's got a bruise above her head! FUNNY.
Anyways, apart from that episode, we decided to try another shopping mall and settled for Siam Paragon because that was where the train dropped us off. We went in there and omg. everything costs the same as it would in Aussie terms, so we didnt really buy much. Sally and Yong came back by then and then we ended up splitting for lunch coz Yong and Sally wanted Japanese and Tina and I had other things on our minds. In the end, we had Japanese as well. We were sposed to go for these things called Mos burgers, but we turned around and saw a bunch of people crowding around a restaurant. We were wondering what all the fuss was about and saw that it was Japanese as well. And because it looked busy, and there was a line out the front, we decided to go with the flow and got a table. It's called Fuji, and was actually pretty nice in there. The ambience was lovely (albeit was a little busy). But still, the service was lovely and the food was so yum and cheap~! We spent roughly $AU20 in there and had a pretty decent feed. I had a sashimi bento with miso soup and some weird jelly thing that was a lunch special, and Tina had this egg dish and beef dish as well. They have this blended watermelon drink which was actually really nice and refreshing!
Anwyays, after that, we went and searched for Yong and Sally and we decided to hve some dessert (alright I lied, I wanted dessert and dragged the other three with me). We ended up at a place called Swensen (recommended by Tanya) and shared this waffle thing with ice cream, cream, fudge, nuts and sprinkles. It was a meal for one, but we were pretty stuffed from lunch and didnt finish it.
After that, we trekked around the shopping centre for a bit and started wondering around. We ended up going to another place called MBK (another recommendation by Tanya) and we practiced our bargain prowress. Which, might I add, I sucked at it and let Tina take over. We pretty much made a mental note of all the things that we would like, so that when we headed back to Bangkok in a months time we'd konw where to get it. Whilst we were shopping, we came across this store that sold mobile phone accessories and I had this uncomfortable feeling that all the ladies were in the shop staring at me (which they were) and they were talking to Thai amongst themselves which made it even more uncomfortable for me. When they noticed that I didn't look too happy about it, they told me in english that I had similar features to a famous Thai person (must be my pale complexion). After that, it was all sweet sailing.
After our trek to MBK we went back to the tailor to finalise some measurements. After that, on the way back home, we saw some street stalls and decided to check it out. It was pretty cool nad had a fair few things that they were selling. They were more open to a bit of bargaining (even though we didn't buy anyhting).
We trekked back to the city and were absolutely famished. We wanted some authentic Thai food and began searching for some place that would sell Thai. I didn't realise it would be so hard to find Thai food in Thailand, but we did eventually find one. We ate at some place called Tanymna... Royal Thai food. Was really nice and REALLY spicey. Was a decent feed that only costs us roughly $AU45 for four people, and we were pretty full after too!
We headed home after that, and decided to be adventurous and trekked it back home. It took us, what felt like an hour. Was sooooo tired!!
And now here I am, quickly filling out my blog before I can now commence banging on my hotel room and demanding to be let in.
Signing off from Bangkok,
Thao
.x0x.
Anyways, just to let you all know, we arrived safe and sound yesterday at roughly 11pm Melbourne time and we were all pretty woozey. I had a massive headache and Tina was green and ready to chuck. Mr. Yong wasn't much better, and the only person who still seemed relative chirpy was Sally. Go Sally.
Anyways, after we landed, we went to our respective rooms and got ready to go out for dinner because Mr. Yong was pretty famished (he didn't eat on the plane, on the off chance it all came back out in those curtesy chuck bags). So, what do foreigners do when they arrive at a foreign place and is totally disorientated and famished? Why! They head to Maccas of course~!!
So off we trekked, the four of us to Maccas (Maccas being the closest thing we could find in walking distance that we knew). When we got there, I decided to be brave and try soemthing that the Aussie menu didn't have, so I settled for a bbq ribbed pork burger or soemthing. Didn't taste too bad I have to admit. It was strangely really sweet, and different from what you get at Maccas. I mean, Thai Maccas even has a four pattie Big Mac. FOUR PATTIE!! They even had fish and chips, and chicken wings would looked suspiciously like the ones that KFC has back home..
Anyways, after that we went home and slept and prepared ourselves for today. And oh boy, was there a lot of walking today!! We're staying at some place called Bally's, which is just off the main road, so we tuk tukked our way out of the inner roads and walked to the train stations. The train stations here are so immaculate!! I mean, they had air con that worked so well in those trains, I was so impressed. I was even more impressed with those little signs on the floor to indicate where you can stand to get on the train. There's arrows on the floor that show you where to stand, and how to get on the train without the constant jostling which I found to be a brilliant idea (though if this were to be adopted in Oz I doubt it'll work coz everyone would be pushing and shoving and not obeying the lines).
Tina and I went our seperate ways from Yong and Sally coz the latter were going to a tailor to get some custom made suits and Tina and I opted to check out the big shopping malls. We went to Centralworld first, and when we got there, we had to wait ten minutes coz the guard didn't wanna let us til it was exactly 10am. When they finally let us in we did a fair bit of shopping and bought a few things, nibbled on a few different morsels and generally wondered around aimlessly.
Oh! LOL
THE funniest thing happened whilst we were there too. Because everything is so immaculately clean in there (in every shop there's an employee with a cloth wiping down clean benches and shelves) Tina walked into a window and there was this really loud BANG. It was THE funniest thing ever!! All the Thai people standing around were trying really hard not to giggle, and I couldn't help myself.I burst out laughing whilst trying to help Tina. Oh man, she left this smudge on their clean window and now she's got a bruise above her head! FUNNY.
Anyways, apart from that episode, we decided to try another shopping mall and settled for Siam Paragon because that was where the train dropped us off. We went in there and omg. everything costs the same as it would in Aussie terms, so we didnt really buy much. Sally and Yong came back by then and then we ended up splitting for lunch coz Yong and Sally wanted Japanese and Tina and I had other things on our minds. In the end, we had Japanese as well. We were sposed to go for these things called Mos burgers, but we turned around and saw a bunch of people crowding around a restaurant. We were wondering what all the fuss was about and saw that it was Japanese as well. And because it looked busy, and there was a line out the front, we decided to go with the flow and got a table. It's called Fuji, and was actually pretty nice in there. The ambience was lovely (albeit was a little busy). But still, the service was lovely and the food was so yum and cheap~! We spent roughly $AU20 in there and had a pretty decent feed. I had a sashimi bento with miso soup and some weird jelly thing that was a lunch special, and Tina had this egg dish and beef dish as well. They have this blended watermelon drink which was actually really nice and refreshing!
Anwyays, after that, we went and searched for Yong and Sally and we decided to hve some dessert (alright I lied, I wanted dessert and dragged the other three with me). We ended up at a place called Swensen (recommended by Tanya) and shared this waffle thing with ice cream, cream, fudge, nuts and sprinkles. It was a meal for one, but we were pretty stuffed from lunch and didnt finish it.
After that, we trekked around the shopping centre for a bit and started wondering around. We ended up going to another place called MBK (another recommendation by Tanya) and we practiced our bargain prowress. Which, might I add, I sucked at it and let Tina take over. We pretty much made a mental note of all the things that we would like, so that when we headed back to Bangkok in a months time we'd konw where to get it. Whilst we were shopping, we came across this store that sold mobile phone accessories and I had this uncomfortable feeling that all the ladies were in the shop staring at me (which they were) and they were talking to Thai amongst themselves which made it even more uncomfortable for me. When they noticed that I didn't look too happy about it, they told me in english that I had similar features to a famous Thai person (must be my pale complexion). After that, it was all sweet sailing.
After our trek to MBK we went back to the tailor to finalise some measurements. After that, on the way back home, we saw some street stalls and decided to check it out. It was pretty cool nad had a fair few things that they were selling. They were more open to a bit of bargaining (even though we didn't buy anyhting).
We trekked back to the city and were absolutely famished. We wanted some authentic Thai food and began searching for some place that would sell Thai. I didn't realise it would be so hard to find Thai food in Thailand, but we did eventually find one. We ate at some place called Tanymna... Royal Thai food. Was really nice and REALLY spicey. Was a decent feed that only costs us roughly $AU45 for four people, and we were pretty full after too!
We headed home after that, and decided to be adventurous and trekked it back home. It took us, what felt like an hour. Was sooooo tired!!
And now here I am, quickly filling out my blog before I can now commence banging on my hotel room and demanding to be let in.
Signing off from Bangkok,
Thao
.x0x.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Farewell Australia~~
Well as my title states, I AM leaving Aus - but it's ok. I'm only going for around a month to see Thailand, Malaysia and China (minus attending the Olympics).
I'm rather excited about it too! Though I can't seem to find the motivation to pack.. (It's almost 10pm and my flight is tomorrow morning :S)
I have this itching feeling I'm going to forget soemthing. I'll probably realise it halfway through my flight.
Although I am going to try and keep this blog up to date whilst overseas and try to share my travel experiences wiht everyone. IF my hotel has internet access, and IF I'm not too tired.
Well, I really don't know what else to write at the moment, I'm just killing time and avoiding packing my bags really. I'm a true procrastinator at heart.
OK. Round 4 of packing starting now~~
20 minute lapse...
OK. I've added... cotton buds. And realised I forgot to buy adapters for my things. Great huh?
An hour later...
I've started to fill out my travel journal...
It's now midnight and I feel like going for a drive down to 24 hour k-mart to buy an adaptor for tomorrow lol.
okies. i'll see everyone soonish!!
lub you long time~~
thao
.x0x.
I'm rather excited about it too! Though I can't seem to find the motivation to pack.. (It's almost 10pm and my flight is tomorrow morning :S)
I have this itching feeling I'm going to forget soemthing. I'll probably realise it halfway through my flight.
Although I am going to try and keep this blog up to date whilst overseas and try to share my travel experiences wiht everyone. IF my hotel has internet access, and IF I'm not too tired.
Well, I really don't know what else to write at the moment, I'm just killing time and avoiding packing my bags really. I'm a true procrastinator at heart.
OK. Round 4 of packing starting now~~
20 minute lapse...
OK. I've added... cotton buds. And realised I forgot to buy adapters for my things. Great huh?
An hour later...
I've started to fill out my travel journal...
It's now midnight and I feel like going for a drive down to 24 hour k-mart to buy an adaptor for tomorrow lol.
okies. i'll see everyone soonish!!
lub you long time~~
thao
.x0x.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Dinner @ Brunetti's
I was wondering around Lygon St last week looking for somewhere to eat with my friend, because I'd arrived half an hour earlier than our scheduled meeting time (I'm either really early or really late). And so I began wondering aimlessly around and found myself standing outside the front of Brunetti's peering into their glass with my face literally pressed against the window trying to read their specials board.
And lo and behold, they had a roast duck risotto!! Which is one of my favourite things to try. So I had to call my friend and tell them to eat at Brunetti's.
Eating at Brunetti's turned out to be an awesome idea after all because the food and service was impeccable, the roast duck risotto on their specials board was so flavoursome!! It's not like other risotto's I've had that are bland and in desperate need of seasoning. This one didn't need any seasoning at all, just a little cracked pepper from the waiter, otherwise, the flavour was intense and thoroughly enjoyable!! One of THE best risotto's I've had.
Roast duck risotto
My friend opted for a chicken dish called Chicken Alla something or other. Which wasn't bad I guess, the roasted eggplants on the meal were so soft and tender though. I enjoyed that. Her meal, I think if the chicken was cooked in butter would've made the dish more delicious (not that it wasn't) The vegies were cooked in stock and everything on her dish complimented each other quite nicely and the napoli sauce wasn't overly strong with tomato paste. All in all, quite appetising. (But not as appetising as my duck risotto!)
Chicken in an eggplant/napoli sauce
After our meals, I asked the waiter what he thought of the creme caramel dish on their specials board, and whether it was like the ones they sold in their display cabinets. He told me frankly that the creme caramel the chefs made for the restaurant were alot better than the ones they sold at their cafe because he thought the ones at the cafe weren't that great (and to which I wholeheartedly agree). I've also tried the creme caramel from Brunetti's cafe on Lygon and was left rather disappointed. It tasted like a custard tart with fancy chocolate shavings on it. Nothing like a creme caramel should.
And he was right. The creme caramel that they served us at the restaurant was absolutely delectable. Everything a creme caramel should taste like. It was rich, creamy, and just melted in your mouth and teased the tastebuds with all its sweetness. I absolutely adored the dessert.
Creme caramel
All in all, I have to say, Brunetti's did not, in any way, disappoint me. The waiter who served us was attentive and quite enjoyable to talk to, and made a great recommendation with the dessert (I hate it when you ask someone if they'd recommend it and they just say yes to it so they can get back to what they're doing). Does anyone understand what I'm blabbing about?
Anyways, another two enthusiastic thumbs up for the Brunetti's dining experience.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Lunch @ Laurent
Had a craving for Laurent's a few weeks ago, so I managed to rope a friend of mine to accompany me for lunch there the other day - and as usual, we couldn't pry ourselves away from the chicken focaccia (highly recommended!).
But we also decided to mix things up a little and tried one of their toasted sandwhiches with the bechamel sauce (we chose ham and cheese) the first few bites were pretty awesome to start off with, but after a while it did become a little too rich for our tastes. But nevertheless, we persisted and polished that off too!
Chicken focaccia
Ham and cheese toast with bechamel sauce.
After our sandwhiches and focaccias, we decided to try a dessert as well, and settled for the 'Christine'. It was a delectable chocolate mousse cake with a biscuit at the bottom. Not at all nauseatingly sweet - rather, it was enjoyable right to the last bite! I personally haven't had a lot of desserts where I don't feel sick after a few bites, but this was awesome from the beginning right to the end. You just couldn't put your spoon down until there was nothing left! I highly recommend their desserts though. They're small, petite, and just enough for the one (or to share if you just want a sweet taste in your mouth).
Christine
THAT was what was left of the dessert. It was THAT good. I dont often find a dessert I particularly like, but when I do, I tend to rave about it a fair bit. But honestly, who doesn't like desserts?? This dessert is something I would really recommend. Two enthusiastic thumbs up~~
All in all, I don't know why, but everytime I go Laurent there's this air of... arrogance? I'm not quite sure, but they really could work on their service (or maybe I was dressed too casually in jeans and a jacket?) but it took me quite a few minutes for someone to give me a strainer for my tea - which, might I add, kind of ruined the experience for me. I asked one of the girls if I could get a strainer, and she handballed it to another person who was busy making drinks (mind you, she was just standing there not doing much) I mean, would it hurt her to help out a customer who's been waiting for someone to serve her? This would be my only complaint. I'm not a fan of bad service, so I do like it when people put in some effort - especially if they are trying for the upper class market they should work on customer service.
But on a good note... try the Christine!
Beginning
Ok. So I've never actually done anything like this before so I guess it might be a little bit scattered until I get a hang of all this. I'm really excited about starting this blog because i'll be overseas soon in less than a week! And I haven't been overseas since I was a kid, so I'm pretty stoked.
Since I'm also bed-ridden with a cold and conjunctivitis, now is a better time than never to get started on a blog. I'll pretty much be documenting on my activities/adventures whilst overseas and the food I've been eating in Melbourne and in other countries.
So I hope you enjoy this blog, because I'm really excited about starting one!
Since I'm also bed-ridden with a cold and conjunctivitis, now is a better time than never to get started on a blog. I'll pretty much be documenting on my activities/adventures whilst overseas and the food I've been eating in Melbourne and in other countries.
So I hope you enjoy this blog, because I'm really excited about starting one!
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