t_towel

Last night in Tokyo

2010-05-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

As the headline states, I'm sad to say that my holidays are coming to an end. I'm sad because Tokyo had so much to do but I've been too sick to really appreciate everything. I always came home early because I'm just too tired to go on with the rest. My biggest regret was not being able to see a sumo wrestling match, wear a proper kimono and take photos and check out their museums.

Other than that, I've done quite a lot (considering my cirumstances) and I've also bought quite a bit of things. I love shopping. Unfortuantely it is one of my biggest vices that I try to control.. but it just never owrks out. I gues that might beone of the reasons why I didn't like Tokyo as much as Osaka. Though the girls in Tokyo are more normal looking than the ones in Osaka. As pretty as the girls in Osaka are, they're just too made up. I've never seen so much clones in my life. Not even on Star Wars!! They were everywhere, and they all had the same brown, perfectly manicured hair, fake eyelashes, pink cheeks, white complexion (that sometimes didn't match the rest of the body) and the same subtle eyelid color things. There wasn't anything individual about them. The ones that stood out though were mocked by the clones. I was at the train station adn there were two girls standing there on our side of the platform and I just thought they looked.. cool. They were different from the others and stood out. It's hard to put my finger on but they rocked their looks. Kinda colorful goth. And these two clones on the other side of the platform were just pointing and laughing at them. Outright pointing and laughing. It was the rudest thing I'd ever seen. I thought they were laughing at Tina coz she was the biggest fashion tragic that day. Completely uncoordinated in every way possible. I asked Choco and he told me to relax because they're not laughing at Tina. If they were laughing at Tina I probably would've gone over there and decked them for beign rude. Maybe ruffle their sprayed on hair or rubbed their make-up out of place.

I'm going to miss this place. I'm seirously considering coming back and just teaching english for a few months and see how that goes. But we'll have to see if I can get Japan outof my head. If not, I might just do it.

Well thats pretty much it. Holidays over. Back to reality. booooooooooooooo I hate reality!! ='(

DISNEYLAND!!

2010-05-25T04:33:00.000-07:00

On the second night spent at Tokyo, I came to the conclusion that I was feeling a lot better (I lied to myself convincingly) and since lo and behold it wasn't pissing down rain, we decided to go Disneyland.. YAY!! I've always wanted to go Disneyland and now we have.. and what can I say? Maybe I was delusional with all the phlegm and coughing that Imust've had a really good time!! Nah, I had a great time at Disneyland. Again, it took me a while to get ready (but not as long) and I wasn't as dizzy as I was the day before.

By the time we reached DIsneyland it was almost 2pm and I was worried we were going to miss out on alot of the attractions. But it wasn't too bad. Everything had REALLY long lines and so we decided to go check out Tom Sawyer land and his treehouse, climb along the suspended bridge, jumped up and down on the bridge made of barrel (scaring everyone else in the process). I love being a douschebag lol =) After I had my fun at Tom Sawyer's island, we headed back to the mainland and waited in line to canoe along the river like the indians in Peter Pan.. it was soooo cool!! We saw native Indians, crocodiles, a burning house adn everything!! And whilst we were looking, we were being rowed by these two little Asian dudes with impressive arm muscles. Tehy looked small and scrawny but they managed to keep the canoes afloat! I was watching them from Tom's island and I couldn't help but laugh.. it was the funniest site ever!! The leader of the boat was busy teaching the crew (us) how to row, and they had one of their own at the back making sure we were moving continuously, and drifting down the river. I laughed so hard (and coughed and sputtered like a sickly child) it was the funniest thing I7d ever seen!! The guy at the back looked like he was putting in a lot of effort to keep the boat moving and everyone else (all 17 people were oblivious!!)

When we got back on the mainland we wondered over to where the canoeist were and proceeded to line up. The wait for the canoe wasn't actually that long (40mins) and it passed by quite quickly. When we got on the canoe, Tina and I were on the end of the canoe with the main rower and Train was in front of me. Throughout the whole trip, Train made an effort to wet me -even though I was really sick! And so whenever we had to bring our paddles in, I'd make an effort to rub my canoe on the back of her skirt. By the tiem we got back onto the shore, she looked like she had managed to wet herself =) Serves her right for trying to splash water all over me! Whilst we were rowing however, we bumped into Garry and Choco who went over to Tom's island and they took photos of us pretending to row.

After our little trip on the canoe, we decided that it was time.. we had to take the plunge. We'd all put it off for over an hour since being at Disneyland, but we had to do it.. we were gonna start waiting in line for the rides!! The first ride we lined up for was Splashmountain. The wait said 80 mins so we were ready. WE could do it!! Time passes rather quickly when you're waiting iwht five other loud people though. Conversations were flowing, the line kept moving.. it was great! I can sorta understand now why they say the wait is 80mins instead of writing it as 1hr 20mins because if you write it like that it just seems.. forever. I guess it's all in your head, because it took me a while to comprehend that 80 mins was actually 1hr20mins. It doesnt sound as long!
After the wait, we finally got on the ride and it was acgtually pretty cool. We spent the whole time just splashing each other.. I felt kinda sorry for the two Japanese girls who were stuck on the ride iwth us,because hwen we got off, everyone was completely soaked - including the two girls we didn't know. How funny.

We went on a few more rides after that, saw the Disney parade.. which was really cool!! If you go Disneyland twice in one visit. As soon as everyone disappears from the line to check out the parade, I highly recommend run to the rides you wanna go on.. seriously! Everyone just left their position in the line to check out the parade!! Fortunately for us, by the time we finished with Splashmountain, went on the ferry and ate a bit, the parade started. We caught a glimpse of it passing us at the halfway mark adn so we quickly walked to the other side to catch the beginning of the parade.. somehow we lost Garry and Tina in the stampede. The parade was soooooo cool!! I got to see all the childhood Disney characters I love. I saw Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella (I swear she waved at me!!) Pinocchio, Gepetto.. EVERYONE!! I was a little snap happy. After we saw the whole parade, we quickly went on a ride before everyone else came back. Train ran to get some popcorn and I waited in line to go on the teacups. The whole ride on the teacup, we justkept spinning aroundand around and around.. and I just couldn't stop laughing. I was getting really dizzy though but we kept at it. When we got off the ride, I nearly tripped and landed on a fellow teacup spinner. But I managed to regain my balance. Phew. I could've squashed someone!

After that, we were gonna go on the carousel but the line was really long =( i love carousel rides. They're my absolute favourite. I don't know why, but I just love it.

We eventually located the two losties and I demanded we go on the Wild West Train ride, the line wasn'T that long.. or so I thought. It said 50 mins but the line was moving pretty quick. We started waiting in line nad Tina nad Garry still hadn't shown up yet.. They came just in hte nick of time though because there was a part in the line where you can't actually cut through using the fast track. Anyways, the wait for that ride was rather amusing. They'd set out the waiting line to look like we were cattle being moved from one location to another. Literally! It was rather funny.. or so I thought. You have to see it really to understand. Either that, or I'm easily amused. The train ride wasn't very scarey.. except the part on the train ride where it was just pitch balck when you go under a tunnel. That's when my screams of fun turned to screams of terror. Choco just laughed when he got off, because he knew exactly hwen my scream turned to me being scared. But my screams were overshadowed my Garry's. HE's such a pussy. lol he didn't want to go on any ride at all and just rode holding onto Tina for dear life. IT was getting rather late when we hopped off, but we managed to go on a jungle safari cruise and the Pirates of the Caribbean one.. which had the Johnny Depp character looking verylifelike! The animals in the jungle safari one was interesting too. The girl talked us through the hwole thing, but unfortunately it was all in Jap so we didn't understand when everyone was laughing. But I joined in with the laughing anyways. It only seemed appropriate. The animals at night had a more lifelike feel to them as well. Definitely cooler to go on the ride at night as well. I think most of the people went home after the parade, because the lines weren't as long after that..

Anyways, after that we went tothe souvenir shops and just bought a few things. We headed home after that and I just crashed out. I was sooo tired andjust so cold. I hate being cold. Passed out after my shower and just slept uncomfortably coz I was hurting everywhere.

Tokyo please!

2010-05-23T04:02:00.000-07:00

Well well well.. look who's finally up to date with her blogging? Yup!! I'm finally up to date since I'm up to the last leg of my blogging. =)

On our first night in Tokyo, we decided to just rest up and prepare for tomorrow to explore. Choco was meant to go to dinner iwth Suliana and Kenji and the rest of us were just going to lounge around and have free time. Unfortunately.. Choco went into my room and literally begged me to come with him to dinner wtih Suliana and Kenji.. I don't even know why.. I didn't even know them! After about 10 minutes I felt bad and gave in and decided to go dinner with Choco.. and you know what? Tina said since I was going.. she's coming too. *rolls eyes*

Had a bit of a break to get ready adn decided to dress warmly. So I wore jeans, sneakers, t-shirt, hoodie and jacket. And you know what? I was still cold! Choco tricked me and said that since I looked really sick, I didn't have to go. I said ok and turned around tohead back to my bed and he grabbed me by my hoodie and dragged me out the door =(

We went to Shinjuku to eat, and even though we booked a certain restaurant, we ended up going to eat okanimiyo (Jap pancake) somewhere else lol. And it's soooo cool!! They just put your ingredients in a bowl and you mix it up yourself and cook it yourself too! Everyone's table has a hotplate on it so you just have to mix and cook yourself. It's rather fun. you also get to put as much of the sauce nad mayo as you like. It's good coz I love the Jap mayo on my pancakes. After we had pancakes and sho-chu we went and had yakitori (BBQ'd skewered meats) and omg I ate waaaaaay too much. MY jeans were a struggle to breathe in! And the food they served looked sooooooooo yummy!! By that stage, all my senses had gone number and I couldn't taste, or smell aynthing. I was hitting dilerium with my sickness. My throat was absolutely killing me and my throat just hurt so bad.

When we got home, I had a shower, dried my hair completely and smothered my neck and chest with vapor rub. God I love that shit. After I smothered my neck with vapor rubs, I used one of the face towels from the hotel and wrapped my neck up to retain the heat. I woke up periodically after that. Every two hours I'd wake up because I needed to re-apply. And you know what? The next morning I couldn't move. At all. My muscles had gone completely stiff and I felt like a complete invalid. My first official day in Tokyo was spent in my hotel room, on my bed, drifting in adn out of consciousness, with a killer sore throat and a snot-filled nose. This was not how I pictured my first day in Tokyo.

Fast forward to day two and I could just drag myself out of bed. It took me.. no shit. Just over two hours to get ready. So in two hours, I had showered, put on some mascara and eyeliner, dried my hair, straightened it, picked out clean clothes and was finally ready to leave. That my dear, had to be the longest tiem ever for me to get ready. Ever. By the time I finished getting ready it was already 1230 and I was pooped.

Anyways, we decided to take it easy and just go shopping. and explore. I thought I was going to pass out.

Ok, I'm over writing for now.. writing in bulk isn't as fun so I'll wait til a little later to write some more. I'm getting hungry.. it's 830pm and all I've had today was 6 chicken nuggets and some chips for brekky, adn a banana/choc crepe. Hungry..

Just the six of us..

2010-05-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

Continuing on from last night..

The train ride to Mt Fuji was.. long and arduous. It took roughly 6-7 hours of travel from when we left Osaka. And all the sandwhiches and snacks we bought for the trip was gone in the first 30 minutes of travel lol. We ate alot on the train ride there. The train ride took roughly 2 hours and the rest was finding the right train to catch. We got lost a few times, wondered around aimlessly with our luggage.

After we got of at Kawagouchiko station (our very last stop) we didn't konw how to get to our hotel. The only instructions (if you can call it that) was that it was an eight minute walk from the station.. and that was it. However, after 15 minutes, we discovered that there was actual a driver waiting for us at the station.. we also happened to be almost 6 hours past my estimated check-in time.. I didn't realise that it took so long to get to Mt Fuji.. So I'm hoping thedriver hadn't been waiting since 2pm.. because that would be bad.

When we finally made it to the hotel, they had our dinner all ready for us, and we were to eat it in our room. The lady came in to set up the dinner for us and there was just somuch! The portions were small but they were so cute! And rather filling!! I guess it forces you to try everything once because everyone got bits of everything to themselves.. I guess sharing isn't something you really do in Japan. We had to eat Japanese style on the flooor and Choco had difficulties sticking his legs under the lowered table because he's such a big guy. I think Choco was a little shitty with me because when I booked the room I didn't realise that we'd all be sleeping together in the one room.. And he didn't look too happy about that。But I guess he got over it and we were alright. Although it was a little troublesome for Garry. He'S allergic to seafood which didn't help the matter, since most Japanese food was seafood based. After our meal we just left it there for a bit, and the lady came back to clear the table. Then there were two guys who wandered in and made our beds for us. It was great! After that, we went to the onsen and Train tried to go for grabs. She reached over to see how big my boobs were and I had to smack her hand away. I swear, sometimes I think there's something seriously wrong wiht my sister.

After a wonderful night at the onsen, I went back to the room and completely passed out. It was great!!

When I woke up the next morning.. I was ready! We were off to Fuji-Q, which is an amusement park boasting to have one of the worlds scariest roller coaster. I was rather excited because I love roller coaster rides. Adn you know what? They weren't lying. It was by far, one of the scariest roller coasters I've ever been on.. usually hwen I scream on a rollercoaster ride it's because it's just fun to join in with everyone's terrified scream. But this ride, I thought I was going to wet myself. It was fantastic!! I've never been so scared in my life on a roller coaster and it was over in 30 seconds. When I got off the ride my voice was completely hoarse. Sugoi!!

I hope I used that word in the right context.. The other rides at the theme park was also exciting. We waited in line to go on the Fujiwara for an hour.. and when we sat on the ride they said soemting in Japanese and we all had to leave. They gave us these slips of paper with Japanese writing but no one could tell us exactly what was written on the paper. I guess it was just telling us that we could go on the ride another time.. which was pointless considering we're ignorant foreigners. We ended up goign on a few other rides, bought some sticker photos (which Train got really annoyed at because she thought she looked horrible in thephoto and wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the time there) and we just checked the whole place out.

By the time we finished it was around 5pm so we decided to head back to our ryoken at Kawagouchiko, which was just one train stop ride to our house. I had decided to go on one more ride by myself, and it was a splashy one.. after the ride, I understood why everyone wore rain coats.. I was completely drenched after the ride.. and to make matters worse, I was wearing a loose white, off-the-shoulder top and a black bra.. so the bra showed through after I got drenched. Good thing I had a scarf to cover up! As we were waiting for our train, I called my mum and told her how Train was pissed off with me and Simon for buying a photo in which she looked ugly in.. and my mum just laughed and told me to tell her to stop being a sook. We all know Train only prints photos she looks good in, regardless of how terrible anyone else looks. I thought it was funny. She looked so scared in that photo.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to head down to the cable cars to take a ride up hte actual mountain where everyone goes to take happy snaps of Mt Fuji. I got to where the cable cars started, only to be informed that it was already closed.. and it was sposed to close at 5.20pm.. I got there at 5!!! But she still wouldn't let me on the thing. So not fair. So I ended going aorund the lake for a bit with Choco, climbing rocks, poking dead fish, looking at ducks, trying to talk to the locals about their fishing and just pretty much clambered around until 730pm. Because at 730pm they were serving us dinner. YAY! They put so much effort in presentation and the quality of the food was amazing. It was all very tastey and I'm glad I picked that ryoken.. and turns out Choco doesn't really mind it either. Or so he says.. *dum dum duuuuuuuuuum..*

After dinner I went to the onsen agani for another soak.. and this time I soaked for way too long because I rinsed my hair to cool me down a bit.. whcih I think led to my demise.. I left the onsen feeling great mind you, because I was all warm inside and it was just so comfortable. However, I was too lazy to dry my hair and slept wiht wet hair.. Before I slept I knew I was going to get sick, because I was really really light headed.. not that that taught me anything.. coz I didn't bother to go down and dry my hair. I just slept on it.

The next morning I woke up and felt like absolute hell. My nose was blocked, I couldn't smell anything and I knew if I wasn't careful this could be worse. And what did I do? I went back up the mountain on the cable cars, went exploring by myself and just hiked around until some elderly Japanese lady told me I was heading inthe wrong direction to the shrine.. and that in actual fact that small shrine on top of themountain was it. I felt rather ripped off coz it was a little bit of a hike to get up there too! And do you know what was worse? The Japanese lady was about.. a foot shorter than me, half my size nad probably 65-70.. and she sped along the mountain path!! She literally disappeared after showing me where to go on the same path as her and I just stood back and ate her dust. She was a fast little old lady. Overtaken. How embarassment! But so helpful. I liked her. I wanted to buy her a drink but she was goners. When I trekked back to my original position where the shrine was, I saw three Japanese girls and they just looked at me.. I was breathing heavily from the walk/oncoming cold, my hair was dishevelled and I was covered in dust. My boots I wore were balck before I started the trek and were a lovely dirt brown by the time I reached Simon at the starting point. He had opted to not go with me in fear of getting lost or soemthing. I'm not sure. But these girls were in skirts and dresses (I can't talk, I was in a dress.. for convenience and ease) but they were wearing heels.. HEELS to go hiking. Those crazy Japanese. But mind you, their heels were nothing compared to the other Jap girl I saw with her bf. That one was wearing short shorts and white stilettos. I was shocked! She could so easily twist her ankles. But then again, she was holdingonto her bf who prettymuch just dragged her up. They didn't go to the shrine part. Just the easier part. But it's such a waste.. why do things half assed because you want to look good. That's another thing I'll bitch.. I mean blog about another time..

The actual view of Mt Fuji was really really really... disappointing ='( it was cloudy over and you couldn't even see it!! It was such a waste!! The only thing this means is that I'll have to come backagain to Mt Fuji! =D

After that, Simon and I headed back down the mountain, and by that stage I was beginning to feel really ill. I was all light-headed, drowsy, dizzy and just spaced out.. more so than usual! By the time Tina nad Train reached us from their shopping. I was really shitty and just wanted to go. And I'm not very good at hiding my emotions so they all knew I was pretty pissed off.But it was ok. I get over things pretty quickly. I was over it in 5 minutes. not even. I need to learn to hold grudges for longer.

But we thought the trip back to Tokyo would take just as long.. Fortunately however, it only took us probably.. 3 hours. Which was great! We got to the hotel and got to rest. It's awesome not sharing one bathroom with five other people!! How I missed that.

dum dum duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum MT FUJI!!!!

2010-05-22T10:50:00.001-07:00

After Kyoto.. we headed to MT Fuji.. which was the only destination in which I truely wanted to see.. adn you know what? I'm glad I went. I'm glad I went against my friends.. who were sooking about not wanting to see a mountain (CHOCO PALU) and then enjoying the wholetime there that they're coming back!!

Ok, Glad I got that off my shoulder. Lol, seriously.Choco gave me so much shit about Mt Fuji and how he didn't want to go because it's not cool, there's no hot Jap chicks, blah blah blah..

However, when we go thtere and he spent some time.. he wanted to stay longer.. I was going to punch him out.

But anyways, I was so excited about finally going MT Fuji (it's on my to-do list, which I can tick off now.. now all I have to do is climb it and another tick is added!) Unfortunately, climbing seasons starts in August. So we just stayed at Lake Kawagouchiko, which is where most of the famous photos of Mt Fuji are taken..

Where we stayed.. we had to share a room.. so the six of us ended up sleeping on tatami mats next to each other.. however! They fed us brekky and dinner and made our beds for us each day! We also had a 24hr onsen (public baths) which were freaking awesome!! Everything was lovely, and the staff were absolutely wonderful. We all ended up showering up at the onsen anyways after dipping in the hot spring water.. I lived up there after dinner. It was so nice nad hot.

Ok, sleep time.. but slowly gettingup to date.. so yay!!

night night cyberworld.

xx

The cripple won the race!!

2010-05-22T06:46:00.000-07:00

This is some serious backtracking, but on the day we went to Kyoto, it was roughly mid-day - which is actually pretty early for us! We all dragged our sorry arses out of bed and headed for Shin-Osaka for the train to Kyoto.. which was only 15 minutes from the Shin-Osaka line. IT was great!

When we got to Kyoto, we headed straight for the famous Inari Fushimi shrine, which is the fox temple and it's in the movie Memoirs of a Geisha.. and that movie was wrong in so many ways!! But that's for another time. Anyways, the temple was.. dare I say? AWESOME!! That had to be my favourite temple, by far!! And I've seen quite a few temples. It's just so.. I dunno.. I was left speechless.. and then breathless after the climb. We were under the impression that it wasn't that big a deal to climb since one of my friends had been there before (Tina) and she assured us it wasn't that big a deal. I believed her because she's about as fit as my sister (and Train gets tired after going up a flight of stairs)

Anyways, before all that happened, I knew I was in for a bad one because the back of my leg was hurting badly. I couldn't even bend it! My right ankle had swollen up and it looked like I had cankles =\ so pretty much when I walked, I had to walk with a limp because I couldn't physically bend my leg properly. It killed.

Oh wells. When we got there we looked around, took some photos, tried random dried fruits and bought a bag of dried mangos. (That's what the group did, I limped ahead to try and avoid the sun here) After a little rest, we headed up the mountain... and it took us a little over an hour to get up the damn thing. It was tough. We had a couple of breaks along the way.. but I've come to the realisation, that of the whole group, I am the fittest (which says quite alot about the people I hang out with.. we're unfit, game freaks lol)

When Tina went to climb Fushima last time.. turns out she went a quarter, or a third of the way up.. so the actual climb took a lot longer than we thought. Which was fine by me I was actually having fun. The temple was quite a site. The whole place was dotted with smaller shrines, where a few had cobwebs and strange things growing/hanging on it.. just off the main path, which I wandered down to, and it was quite a site!! I think they were actual head stones.. but don't quote me on that!! I just thought it was great. At one part, I was just wandering around and I heard a noise just to my left. I nearly had heart failure because I'm shit scared of ghosts.. there's few things in the world that scare the crap out of me, and the two scariest thing for me are spiders and ghosts. But not to fret, it was just a kitty stretching out and making a contented kinda noise. Although it did take a while for my heart to settle.. only to have my sister hounding me and telling me to get bakc on the main part of the shrine.. she hates it when I wander off by myself.. but it was alright for me, I often wander around aimlessly by myself. I prefer my own company in such places. Because I tend to wander off the straight and narrow path, I'm often the last one to reach a certain destination.. but it worked out well, because I ended up overtaking everyone and reached the top first.. gimp leg and all!!

When we reached the top, we were rather excited. I even took photos with two enthusiastic thumbs up! But unfortuantely my celebration was a little premature because we had another.. few rounds of stairs to go up. Seriously, the group just lost all hope.. you know that feeling of just tiredness from climing up,　and just wondering if you'd ever reach the end? And when you reach what you thought was the end, and it's not only to realise you got mroe to go.. it's just crushing. Eventually when we got to the real real top, we were too tired to celebrate and just headed downhill.. it took us.. I think.. almost one and a half hours to get up that damn shrine (oops! don't mind those damning words.. I don't really mean it.. honest!) But on the way down.. we got to truely appreciate the shrine. On the back of those red.. shinto shrine. I had to look it up, otherwise I'd have to keep describing it as those red things. But on the back of the shinto shrine as you go down, there are words inscribed on each seperate shrine.. I don't know what they say, but apparently, they're words of motivation/enlightenment/positive inscriptions to keep you going. We even got to see the whole of Osaka! Which was really cool.. it just didn't look like a city.. not like Melbourne.. but more.. Asian styles.. I can't explain.

By the time we made it back to the bottom of the shrine.. it was too late for us to attend the festival at another temple/shrine in Kyoto.. and besides, we were pooped!! Although, on the way down, Garry and I raced down the temple.. it was sooo funny. Everyone we passed who was going up were huffing nad puffing and resting on the side of the pillars or holding their stomach.. and here was two Asians racing down the shrine and laughing hysterically (OK, only I was laughing hysterically) and probably cursing us. I heard an American guy say to his American girlfriend in his American accent that it probably can't be that much further (he looked really really really unfit. And his face was red) And it was so funny I laughed harder.. only coz the poor sucker was half-way and the part he trekked so far was easy! But I didn't want to burst his bubble.. I wanted to win! Which I did.. coz I led Garry down the wrong way.. then ran for it in the opposite direction laughing my evil laugh.

We went home after and just.. passed out I guess.

That was prtetty much it for Kyoto.. apart from the place being hella expensive!! I guess considering it's a tourist hotspot.. but to live there would be pricey as well..
Oh wells. So that boys and girls.. ends my trip at Kyoto.

And it took me... 5 hours to write!! It's hard to write when you're here, the TV is on in Japanese, so you have ot watch the show just to see wat it's on about.. and hten you realise you've only written a paragraph.. yeh.

seeya!! xx

2010-05-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

I lied. Nagoya wasn't very interesting. I found the place rather boring. We didn't actually arrive at Nagoya until 5pm. And when we got there, everything was closed. booooooo....

So, all we did was wander around aimlessly and look from the outside. We did however, see Oasis 21. Which is pretty much a park, and upstairs they've got this.. water feature that's suspended on top of it. It looks like.. a spaceship. The whole thing was rather..futuristic. I'll have to post the photos of it when I get back to Australia.. It's funky though.

I wanted to go on the ferris wheel when we were there, but unfortunately, both Tina and Garry are afraid of heights. And Choco flat out refused my offer. So I had a sook and continued walking along the park with them. Japan has this thing about building parks between a major street in the city (usually a really swanky one) and putting up random pieces of art, fountains and patches of grass around. It was nice to walk there at night though - save the few homeless people that stayed out.

The main reason we were walking along the park was because we wanted to go see the antique market that Nagoya had.. unfortunately it was closed by the time we navigated our way there! We found a temple though.. and I was wandering around randomly by myself and when I returned to the temple.. my friends were gone. So I thought I'd do some more wandering. got a phonecall adn realised I was going in the opposite direction from them. Found a really cool second hand clothes shop.. though the prices rivalled that of a normal store. I have this weird phobia about second hand clothes and stuffs. See, it's not because I7m a snob or anyhting. I'm scared I'll be haunted. What if I'm wearing a dead persons clothes, t hey find out and come to haunt me>? The very thought freaks me out. So I usually try not to buy anything from those stores..

I've gone on a tangent and don't konw what I was talking about again..

But yeh, not much to Nagoya. Though I'm sure had I gone during the day it would've been a different story. Went home from Nagoya and just.. hung out. We had mos burger though at 1230pm. How bad is that? Don't usually eat late, but that was the second night in a row I've eaten past 12. Bad habits.

Unforutnately, because we stayed up so late, none of us got up at our appointed time of 9am to make it to the Kyoto festival. We got there at 1230-1pm-ish and when we got htere, they were making a mini pilgrimmage from one shrine to the next. So we decided to join in. We were following the masses, and somehow, Tina and Gary decided to turn right, away from the actual pilgrimage and kept walking.. Choco and I decided to defy Tina (we saw her and Gary argue about which way to go.. Tina won) and decided to rebel against her wishes of us following her. So we continued with the rest of the pilgrims and walked straight. Tina didn't look happy. But we thought we'd do it for Gary. lol we were just being shit heads.

Fortunately, we chose the right way to go, because we ended up seeing the whole procession and walking along the parade. We also ended up making it there before the other two! By the time we got there we were pretty famished and decided to eat without them.. Good idea because they didn't arrive until some 30mins later. By that stage, Choco and I had pretty much tried all the food from all the different stalls and Tina was not happy! lol she thought we'd wait for her but they took ages. Garry didn't look happy either but I think it was most likely Tina was sooking about starvation and what not. lol

But good thing we ate first, because as soon as Tina nad Garry came in.. about 1000 other people decided to join! So there were crazy lines everywhere!!

Ok. Had a 10 minutes interval. I was helping a Taiwanese man figure out the weather for the Kanazawa area. He seemed absolutely lovely. Poor fellow, his english wasn't that great but he seemed really happy I was able to help him. He's on holidays too!

Better wrap it up. But we pretty much just joined in witht he festivities and ate. we crossed the river again, and ran across some stepping stones that were placed across the river to pass along the water. Took photos, went looking for a toilet for Tina and found a ￥100 store! IT was awesome!! I bought heaps of cool thigns in there and had fun walking around and just lokoing at crazy Japanese inventions and tiem savers. Was pretty cool.. left with some cookie cutters, chopsticks, socks and erasers.

We headed home after that, and Train made us spag bol for dinner.. yum!! And now we're waiting for our laundry and going sleep. We want an early start!! hopefully anyways, but we never do. Punctuality is not our strong point. and we're all dawdlers.. Except Tina. But she's stuck with 3 dawdlers.. so we win lol

ok. Well, we're off again to kyoto tomorrow.. YAY!!

ok times running out. seeya!

Feeling philosophic.. almost.. but not really..

2010-05-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hiroshima.. I found the place utterly fascinating. You could feel the history of the place and the overwhelming sense of impending doom.. for lack of better word as you approach the place. I spent most of the time at the memorial place holding back tears and trying to 'man up' but it was hard. So the last part of the peace museum, I blitzed right through it and waited for my friends outside in the cafe. i sat next t o some school girls and just ate ice creams and wrote postcards to my family. I really couldn't take it. There was so much sadness around. Though the Japanese kids running around the museum cheered me up. It reminded me that though there is terrible sadness in their history, life goes on. wow. I sound almost philosophic when I was sitting here dwelling on life!!

But you know what I mean. After that, we took the tram out to the bottom part of Hiroshima, we thought the tram would be a better way of seeing the whole of Hiroshima. And I7m glad we did. I got to see alot of houses, parks and just.. Hiroshima as a whole. I thought it was beautiful out here. Kinda like.. almost new world - meets old traditions? It's just a mix. Lets leave it at that. We were going there because we all wanted to see the Itsukushima shrine. IT's that world heritage listed shrine in the middle of the ocean. IT'S quite nice and peaceful out there.
Turns out you can see it in mainland Hiroshima. It's only when you get close up do you actually get to see the beauty of the actual building. We got there just in time to see the sunset on it and it was absolutely stunning. The island next to Hiroshima actually has wild deer wandering around eating the fauna, and I was temporarily replaced as Tina's best friend, because a deer followed her for a bit.. then Choco stepped in and the deer followed him. So she came crawling back to me.. *rolls eyes at the thought of it*

After that, we took the train back to Hiroshima station because it would be alot faster than the tram. And we wanted to see other things in Hiroshima before we had to head back to Osaka. But by the time we got back to Hiroshima station, we only had an hour before we had to catch the train home. Choco and Gary decided to take an earlier train home and so Tina nad I decided to find the Japanese pancake hall on the map and the markets... unfortunately both were closed so we ended up eating at the train staiton. Which wasn't a bad idea, because the place we chose turned out to be really yum!
I had eel wiht some thinly sliced scrambled eggs on rice, whilst Tina opted for katsudon (fried pork fillet) with some egg thing and rice.

After that, we went home and Tina passed out on train before I could. So, I had to be responsible and make sure we arrived at our station and got off.

After such an exciting day.. I had a midnight snack. lol. I had a cheese hamburger, and a ham, cheese tortilla wrap thing. Was yum!

Anyways。Today we headed to Nagoya and it was.. itneresting to say the least. Not exactly what I expected of the palce. But then again, we decided to wing it. So we didnt accomplish much there. That, and the fact we didn't get there til 5pm!!

I7ll have to fill that out tomorrow or soemthing.. my time's running out and I'm out of money for the computer! This thing is eating up all my money!! But I'm addicted to the internet, that and the fact I need to fill in this blog!

Until next time.. We're sleeping early because we're heading to Kyoto tomorrow morning for a festival! YAY!!

xx

what's that smell? train dropped a hiroshima in the toilet..

2010-05-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

OMG.. severe tummy problems two days in a row!! I've been having really bad food poisoning the last two nights.. not that I learn really, because I end up doing the same thing and eating random food I find in different carts and stalls.. it's all so good!!

I think it was the ramen because the day before yesterday, I had ramen with Tina for brekky and I think that's what has set off the problems. It didn't help that I ended up eating izakaiya (Japanese bbq) for dinner last night either! But oh wells, sacrifices needed to be made.. I think it was almost worth it.. almost.

Went to the zoo today.. we actually all made an effort to wake up super early (11am) to make it to the zoo by 1pm-ish. And we did it! I got up at 1045am and was just barely conscious, considering I was up half the night with terrible tummy problems. The Tennoji zoo turned out not to be too far from where we were staying and it was really fun! The animals werent really caged, and most of the animals were segregated by.. sticks with fishing line.. So I guess if the giraffe and zebra's were to rebel, it wouldn't take much. We saw some of the caged animals, and they looked really.. forlorn and lost. But I guess you would too if you were meant to be wild and free. They had so many animals here, though Gary was a little crushed. He wanted to go to the zoo to check out the panda's.. unfortunately there was no panda at the Tennoji zoo.. Choco got to see the polar bear though.. and that polar bear was such a show-off! Kept running around and being hyper-active. Though it was, as the Japanese girls next to me were saying, very 'kawai!!'

Their reptile house was impressive too! We got to see so many different turtles, even the ones considered pests back home in aus. (red slider turtles) It was all very spacious in there too! And the Japanese seem to be fond of birds, because there was so many caged birds in that palce.

After that, we ended up wandering around the area and just cehcking the locals sites. I ate this takoyaki (octopus balls) at the place, which it was well known for and it was actually pretty good! I was rather surprised but they had alot of photos of people, who I can only think would be famous Japanese people posing on the wall out the front.

After the zoo, I was sposed to go home and get my bathers to go Spaworld, but I was just too tired. I think it's all the food I've been consuming.. nah. Can't be. Food too good. Anyways, just ended up eating at the local curry shop from where we stayed for a good￥630 and it was tastey! Flavoursome and rather yum.

And now, here I am on the internet filling in the blog, checking emails and what not, going sleep soon I guess.. have to wake up early to go Hiroshima.. decided to just base ourselves in Osaka so we don't have to lug everything we own around JApan all the time.. though we are still staying in MT FUJI so yay!

farewell me and you.
Thao.
xx

oh yeh, I also ate vegemite today.. couldn't take it. needed the goodness of aussie food. and wat better way to do that than to eat vegemite right?

miss u

Cosplaying at Mos Burger

2010-05-10T04:38:00.000-07:00

Bought a few costumes yesterday.. and a few more today! They're soooo cool!! I can't wait to wear them when we hit Harajuku and Shinjuku. It's gonna be fun!

But other than that, we've found a reall cool shopping strip between the Namba and Shinsaibashi station lines, and it's actually no tthat expensive.. if you're willing to look around that is. I found these cool red/black hightop sneakers for ￥180０　and they're nice and comfy too! Haven't really bought much clothes besides the costumes really because it doesnt look like it'd fit us.. turns out I'm a 3-4L there which is REALLY DEPRESSING. I feel really fat here! But I guess it doesn't really help that I'm eating so much of their local foods. I'm making an effort to try everything within the vicinity of our house.. and turns out, behind every nook and cranny there's a food outlet, a family mart, a 7/11 or a restaurant. Which is really awesome! We live next door (literally) to a okanimya (Japanese pancake) resturant and it's really yum too!

Oh yeh! We also went to the castle just around the corner of our house the other night.. after a few drinks, and shots of tequila we decided to venture out and walk down there. The walk wasn't far and we ended up visitng a temple that was next door to the castle. I can't think of the word right now, but when I first saw the castle I was just taken aback by its enormity and.. grandeur. (I think that's how you spell it.. can someone tell me?)

Anyways not much else really. Just eating up a storm and trying all the local delicacies. Sleeping too much. Drinking too often. And walking around great lengths to explore. Tonight, it looks like we might be hitting SpaWorld.. or just trying on the costumes and playing with the make-up Train and Tina bought.. I can't justify spending money on make-up like that. But when it comes to costumes and food.. that's something different!

Farewell for now, cyberworld. Until next time..
Thao

xx

king of cups!!

2010-05-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Or King's cup. I dunno. We've been drinking. Sweet drinks. Yummm...

Ok. concentrating waaaaaaaay too hard. I'll have to write this another time. BUT!! I bought cool costumes, visited a castle at night, and found an awesome bar in which I am currently a regaule.r Nopt tonihgt though because they close. so we're forced to buy our own drinks =(

until.. tomorrow!

*muahz* TB styles./

my noodles are wet!! cries

2010-05-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

It seems that we are doing everything later and later, and as the day progresses, not much has been done. Garry made me brekky this morning and it was yum-o. Tina and Train went to find some place that we could change currency, and unfortunately, we weren't getting much bang for our buck. We traded our currency for roughly ￥71.50 for every dollar.. which was the biggest rip ever. But we really didn't have much choice, seeing as to we weren't that familiar with the place to find somewhere to get a better deal.

When Tina came back, I had her noodles ready.. and unfortunately, neither Garry nor I realised that you weren't meant to add water and it was supposed to be eaten dry.. well lets just say nothing was dry from then on. Tina started crying hysterically because she was sooo hungry and all I could do was laugh because she was being the biggest dramaqueen ever. She just kept crying and crying and I, being the awesome friend that I am, just kept laughing and laughing. I just found it so funny that someone could cry over noodles that were made wrong. Talk about irrational. So Garry made it a second time.. and he pretty much did the same thing I did.. he made her wet noodles as well! Good thing I came over to check, and taht we actually bought four packets last night when we went for a walk. We made it again a third time and fed her. OMG she:s such a sook. I can't believe I'm friends with that girl sometimes.

After Tina was well fed, we up and left for the aquarium. OMG the aquarium was just soooooooo cool! It was a multi-level one with all these cool different angles of the aquarium so you get to experience all the animals. MY favourite would have to be the humangeous sea turtle, the porpoises, and weird looking, fluffy brown penguin. It was so funny, they always look like their about to jump into the water for a swim.. and then they turn around and let out a shit.

After we went to the aquarium, we ended up back home, with Train speed-walking because she needed to go to the bathroom, and the toilets at the station were squatties.

We ended up all going back to the house for a toilet break and then decided to go eat at the restaurant just a block from us. It was marked on the map we had at the house as a very good Japanese restaurant. And it was actually pretty nice. Im not too sure what I had, but it was crumbed pork with some sauce, an egg, potato's, miso soup and rice. It was yum!

Anywas, Tina decided at that moment to bring up our sleeping situation since Simmo was coming tomorrow. Train said that she didn't nmind the situation as it is now, but Tina didn't want to share a room with a couple. And I didn't want to sleep next to the cupboard. It looks creepy.

But I decided to be the bigger person and just move there tomrrow. I could tell the others didn't qwant WW3 breaking out again. I hate being a push-over.

Anywyas, Tina and choco went for a walk. I didn't feel like going anymore. so I went home and tried on Loc's ninja costume and proceeded to jump around in the house and do ninja stuffs. Train and Garry told me to grow up, but I was having waaaaaaaay too much fun. After that, I got bored because neither wanted to join in on the fun.. I think they were just jealous they didn't have their own ninja costume.. I'd be!

But that's pretty much it for now. I:m chatting to my friend whose been living in Tokyo at the moment and I think I may be driving him mad lol.. oh wells!

Until next time in this blogosphere.. laters!

xx

i heart osaka！

2010-05-06T04:33:00.000-07:00

ok.

so I'm finally in Osaka and it's soooooooooooooo cool!! All the guys look like the Japanese anime/manga shows and the girls.. well some are really funky, hip hop styles, some are really girly and some are just normal looking. I don't know why but I was actually expecting them to all look kinda.. pretty. Like on the TV series I've been watching. And super girly.

But anyways, when we got up on our last day in HK we got up extra early so thqat we could go one last time to the dumpling place, grab some green tea buns with red bean and cream inside and off to the airport.Unfortunately we went to bed at 3am.. and woke up at 630 still. But boy, were we buggered!!

However, not everything went according to our epicurean (is that a word?) plan. The dumpling house wasn't opened when we came down at 8am.. and the bakery didn7t have any of the green tea buns. Crushed. But we bought a heap of different breads anywyas, and Train and I went upstairs to have brekky at the hotel. I had some vegemite toast (I remembered to bring my own vegemite this time!) and Train sampled the other things they had for brekky.

After that, we all met downstairs at the lobby and told Tina to wait for us outside (she was illegally smuggled into our room) and headed off for the airport. When we got there, we waited around for our flight to Shanghai, China and

**phew! i thought I lost my post.. the thing logged me off!

but anyways...

we were stranded because our flight was delayed.. we ended up sitting at the airport for around 3 hours or so just sleeping and playing 13 again. It was a looooooooong wait!!

Our flight to Japan wasn't too bad. The eel tasted rather nice.. and I've sent someone a photo of my plane food.. =)

when we finally reached Osaka it was around 1030pm and we were POOPED. I was just soo tired from being in transit the whole day and just wanted to get home. But we decided to save some money and catch the train home to the Osaka Weekly Mansion

After almost an hour of being stuck at the airport (getting our JRail passes activated, and bickering about which station, coz NOONE would save us!!)
We finally made it on the train. We had to stop at another part and catch another train from there.. but was informed by staff that the train finished for the night. So, after another episode like that of Guangzhou, China where no one would take us.. we made it to Osaka Mansion.. after doing a couple of laps because we couldn't actually find the house!!

As soon as we stepped in.. Tina and I had a fight. We always fight.. but this time it was over a bed. I didn't want to sleep next to the cupboard, and neither did Tina. So, of course WW3 broke out and everyone was just uncomfortable but I couldn't care less. I was adament I wasn't sleeping next to the cupboard.. IT was scarey as hell. I ended up on the other bed in the adjoining room. Phew. Tina went to Family Mart with Choco to buy shit and I went to shower and sleep. I was BUGGERED.

Woke up today at around 930am-ish and everything was back to normal. I somehow ended up with breakfast duty adn feeding everyone. So, with what Tina and Choco bought, I ended up making an omelette iwth cheese, sausage and bacon.. we didn't have a toaster so I ended up just frying the bread in the pan Garry and I used to make the omelette.

After brekky, we set off for an expedition to find a supermarket to stock up on snacks and brekky stuff. Turns out we didn't live too far from one and proceeded to go up and down the aisles over and over again, marvelling at the different Japanese packaging.. they were so cool!! Everything was just colorful and pretty and most had animated characters on the wrappers promoting their wares!

After that, we headed home. I had another power nap and when I woke up, I took a train ride down to.. C10 which was Cosmo..something. It was right out the front of the OSaka Maritime Museum and was by a pier. It was quite lovely out there. Nice, warm and windy. Just walked up and down the pier, saw some dead shrimps on the footpath and admired traffic behind barbed wire.

After a bit, I headed home because it was almost dinner time and we hadn't yet decided where we were going to eat. I wanted to eat at some ltitle restaurant outside our hotel and the others wanted Maccas. So we went Maccas and I had a teriyaki burger, shaka shaka chicken and a potato and bacon pie. The only thing I finished was my shaka shaka chicken and chips. Everything else was rather questionable. After that, we headed home and played a few more card games to see who was doing what chore.

And now, here I am filling out my blog and getting ready to go back upstairs...

Sayonara all..Thao

And so, it's time to bid HK adieu.. =(

2010-05-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

As the title states, I'm pretty sad to be leaving HK tomorrow morning =( of all the places I've been, I feel most at home in HK.. despite the fact I am usually just blatantly ripped off w ithout even realising it!

It's been a fun last few d ays actually, save a few hiccups we've encountered. Yesterday was rather tiring and fun-filled.. but when I'm trying to recall exactly what it is we got up to.. my mind is sitting on blank..

5 minutes later..

Ok, if memory serves me correctly, which it hasn't (I think I might be suffering from a mild bout of alzheimers) I'll have to remmeber this starting from the night. I had to sleep on the floor last night, because finally, it was my turn. We've been rotating nad taking turns sleeping on the floor since we've hit HK because
a.) the hotel we booked does not allow three people to share one room
b.) we were too cheap to actually pay for a third person.
so Tina's been using the face towels as a real towel and was on the floor for 3 nights. Mostly because when we booked the hotel we weren't 100% sure if she was able to make it since her mum didn't let her go. Funny as it sounds, at 26, Tina must still listen to her folks. I can't talk either because if my mum forbad me on anything I'd probably have to listen as well. But unfortunately for mother, I just do what I want regardles.. I try not to though and to be the good daughter. But it's hard when I've grown up in a different culture to them. I'll explain another time. But for the time being, I've managed to go on a tangent from my original train of thought.

So anyways, last night was spent on the inflated mattress wedged between Train and Tina's bed. We were playing 13 last night and I managed to win myself a free breakfast from Choco, so YAY!! Free brekky!! But unfortunately I haven't been able to claim my prize because this morning Choco woke up wiht.. I guess cramps. Bad food poisoning - or it could be over eating. I'm not too sure. He just was not feeling well at all.

Before dinner, I was at Causeway Bay with Tina nad Train, and managed to lose them in the throngs of the crowd. Not very hard considering it was PACKED. So I ended up in one of the shopping arcades called Island Beverly and just started browsing the shops by myself. I love time alone. It was fun just to look around and check things out, do things my own pace and not worry about anything. Didn't buy anything of use except a pair of black kitty earrings I found for 10 bucks. I thought it was really cheap and cute and soemthing Train would like. I guess that's all I did yesterday.. shop.

same as today. We woke up at 1145am because Garry woke us up early in the morning to say that his girlfriend was ill and he wasn't sure how to take care of him.
When we finally left our hotel, we wandered down two or three shops from where we were staying adn ate at this dumpling house. It was rather yummy! We ordered korean-style dumplings, house dumplings and beef dumplings. Yum! Although, unfortunately for yours truely, I was able to eat as fast as Tina or Train and ended up eating.. 5-6 dumplings. Oh wells, I like to savour and enjoy. It was good!

After that, we went to exchange money and proceeded down to Causeway Bay again. I love that place! it's just soooooo cool!! There's shopping everywhere for cheap nad the fashion sense of the girls is really retro and just different. Service is a little undesirable since most just talking on the phone or chatting with friends. Which I don't mind too much because I just prefer to browse at my own accord undisturbed. Bought a few handbags, shoes and accessories and now I am dirt BROKE. So worth it though because I am currently wearing the earrings that I have just purchased. YAY!

We stopped by the ladies market one last time before we went home and I bought myself a really cool printed carry-on bag. It's got pictures of cartoon emo boys on the front nad it's just funny. We headed home and I stopped by Ireland Potato one last time to have hot chips with real melted cheese on top, and fried Mac and cheese.. mMmm...

When we got home, Tina realised that the bag she bought was actually made from two different forms of leather.. or soemthing like that so she hopped onto a taxi back to Causeway Bay to get another one.. but she's just msg'd me nad said that she got a refund and is now going to go get a cheaper one. Train and I sent Garry and Choco out to get us two PS3 controllers coz we don't know what's real or not. And now we're both in front of our respective computers at 9.53pm waiting for Tina to come home so we can go eat dinner.

That, my friends conclude my trip to HK. Tomorrow, we leave the hotel at 8am and hopefully, we'll be able to swing by the bakery near our hotel, grab heaps of sustenance for the plane ride to China, and then Osaka, Japan. YAY!! We also plan to go one last time to the dumpling house we went to this morning. Staff we're absolutely lovely, despite the fact that we changed our order at least 5 times!

Goodbye for now.. from HK and me.

xxx

Sounds of ARt

2010-05-02T05:46:00.000-07:00

Went to the space museum today, and the Hong Kong museum of Art. If you happened to be in HK, then I'd highly recommend you check out either. And the HK museum of history. I went there the last time i visited and it was just so freaking awesome.

In the space museum, they've got these really awesome simulated rides that are modelled to how it would feel if you were in space. I went on the space walk one nad just pretty much jumped up and down on the thing.. it was really cool - except for the wedgie it was giving me. But it was still worth it to jump up and down and pretend to be an atronaut. I had a blast. You learn alot too. Whilst there, they also had a few shows on that were 34Hk to see. I went and saw the sea animal ones.. i think they called in sea monsters or soemthing. Taht was pretty cool. It documented on the fossils that are found all over the world of this creature called a ... dolphi? It looks like a dolphin, but iwth legs like a seal.
After that show, I wandered around a bit, bought a sandwhich from starbucks and went back to see the second show I paid for. It was about the solar system, the different star constellations and where they're situated in the sky. I now know what the rest of Orion looks like, because usually I can only see his belt. But now I know where to look for his bow and legs. Cool huh? I thought so..

Anyways, after that I just wandered around Nathan Rd for a bit, and decided to walk the distance home.. that way, I get to walk up to Temple st to check out the stalls, go through the ladies market and exchange currency en route to the hotel. However, Tina rang and said she and the boys wanted to meet up for lunch, so ended up just being a quick browse through Temple St stalls (good thing there wasn't anything that caught my interest) and took the underground train walkway down to the ladies market. It was an easier shortcut. But we ended up having KFC for dinner. Lol nad i can still feel it churning inside my tummy. *note to sellf - no more KFC ever!

After KFC I just ended up wodnering around by myself whilst Tina and the boys went off to the Jade markets near Temple st and after an hour or two i decided to go home.. and i picked up my laundry too! yay! it smelt so nice and clean, im gonna bring everything down tomorrow to be laundered.. yay!!

Well. That's pretty much everything that I did today. ANd i thoroughly enjoyed my own company.
Signing off until next time

Thao thao. x

Lost

2010-05-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Today was a take-it-easy day down in HK for us - seeing as to the last few days were spent power walking around the whole of HK. We started with brekky at 1pm down the street from where we were staying and the food was sooooooooo good!! And we only spent 80HK each, with roughly equates to a little over 7AUD. Tina, Train and I decided to go fob styles and ordered the tripe and tendon dish as an entree as well as our rice dishes and it was tastey as hell! The tripe and tendons had obviously been left to cook in the broth for a while because it was flavoursome, tender and just so damn good. I had a baked rice dish with chicken fillets, and it was pretty much rice topped iwht an almost napoli sauce with bits of brocolli, some chicken fillets and baked lightly. It was sooo good! the rice was obviously fried in a little oil first making it moist.. great idea! I ate Train's hainese chicken and it was sooooo good. The ginger sauce had a good hit of ginger and complimented the soy chicken rather nicely. Again, the rice was cooked in a little oil making the dish moist and easy to eat. Choco's fried rice was awesome too, and Tina's dish was drenched in soy sauce (her own doing) and so I didn't really get to eat it as I'm not really a fan of soy sauce.

Anyways, when we got there, Choco and Garry were 15 minutes late. On top of the 30 mins from when we initially saw them and they said they were on their way.. I swear. For two guys, they're really high maintenance! Choco didn't bring white socks to match his New Balance shoes, but didn't want to wear his black sneakers wiht his black socks already on his feet. I was going to shoot him.

Just a little rant. After we ate our brekky, we walked down to the ladies market again and did some shopping. Some lady tried to sell me Yoshi slippers for 89Hk but I managed to bargain it down to 40Hk each. And then proceeded to buy 8 pairs. I've learnt the h ard way that most tend to just double the price automatically when you ask how much a certain item is. Therefore, you need to at least halve it. If they want to sell it to you at the price, then theyre still making a profit. If you walk away and they let you, it's most likely theyre not making enough profit to sell. Lesson learnt.

Anyways, I split from the main group and said I'd meet them at the hotel, only to realise that I had no idea where I was going and somehow ended up at the backstreets of HK where the locals were. Looked at different fresh produce whilst munching on a waffle cake filled wiht custard and continued on my merry path of lostness. I had no idea where I was. Somehow, by pure luck and chance, I managed to recognise the shoe seller at th e street corner a few blocks from my house and got home an hour later. Since no one was back yet, I went to the swimming pool and had a dip.. by myself for about an hour. That was, until four German's came and started talking loudly in ze duetsch.. quickly followed by four rather noisy Kiwi's discussing some random topic. I took it as my cue to leave. Just as I did, Tina nad Train rocked u p. Turns out they got home 40 minutes ago and were looking for me. oops.

Anywyas, showered and went for dinner at.. *dum dum duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!* pizza hut! I love pizza hut overseas!! The variety here is amazing and they're stuffed crust is freaking awesome. I usually eat a slice or two of pizza nad Tina's stuffed crust because she doesn't want to fill up with crust.. Uh oh.. concierge caught me using the internet without paying.. lol

But we pretty much just went tot he fish market after, bought some cool toothpaste-shaped pencil cases and walked back to the hotel. I'm not sure why, but even though it's a 20 mminute walk to the hotel, I always enjoy it. I find it's a good way to relax and unwind and prepare myself for bed time. I guess it's because I know that once I get home, I get to shower and just chill in my room. Except Train wanted to watch some horror movie so unfortunately I had to make myself scarce after the shower.. which leads me once again to th e internet for some solace. lol such a chicken shit. Did I mention I love HK?

I heart Hong Kong!

2010-04-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

OMG! I didn't realise it until I landed after a REALLY long and shit flight, just how much I miss HK. Had a few hiccups on the way.. like Tina leaving her handbag in a taxi, our taxi driver not knowing any english, our hotel serving really shit food at over-inflated prices and Tina falling flat on her arse in my shorts. Now THAT was funny..

Anyways, HK is TIRING. We've been walking around exploring and eating ourselves stoopid. I think I've put on weight coz my gut is hanging over my pants and my face is rounder than usual.. other than that.. it's great! Tonight, after 3 nights in HK so far, we finally made it to the peking duck restaurant that we went to two years ago.. and it was still so delicious. Tina and I managed to convert the other three and now, no place we go to have peking duck will ever be the same. The journey there however, was something also to be remembered. But not in a good way.. we got lost.. several times. And Tina nad Train wore uber high heels and after 500m's were struggling just to walk. I, on the other hand, opted to wear my super comfy (but rather flat) boots. I had blisters from the last time I wore heels nad learnt my lesson. It took us.. roughly 45 minutes to find the restuarant. . and realised we actually did a massive square and landed back just a block from where we initially started. That was fun. I now know, the place is not called Peking Duck Place, Peking One or Peking place.. but Peking House. And what's even more deceiving is that it's actually on Canton Rd.. NOT Peking Rd.. We wondered up and down that bloody street god knows how many time to find it.. only to spot it on a perpendicular road.. by yours truely. So worth it though.. the duck just melted in your mouth.. it was cooked to perfection and those ducks looked like they were on steroids. They were as big as two ducks back here in Melbourne. We decided to order two ducks (last time I tried to eat half a duck I nearly threw up from over-eating) fried rice, some braised tofu, greens, dumpling and spring rolls. We ate like pigs.. and everyone just stared at us.. we ate EVERYTHING.

But anywyas, after peking duck tonight, Choco really really REALLY wanted to go see Iron Man 2, and in gold class no less. We weren't sure if HK cinema's offered gold class but we went and asked one of the girls working behind the counter, but she didn't seem to understand us.. after a while Tina nad Train left for our hotel rooms becuase their heels were taking a toll on their legs. So Choco, Garry and I were left to our own devices wandering around aimlessly trying to find a gold class cinema. After half an hour of fruitless wondering, we decided to call it a day and head home. On the way home, the two boys couldn't decide if they wanted pizza hut for dinner or maccas. so they decided to get Pizza Hut delivered (after we stood at the Macca's counter for a good minute or two before walking out) we were going to get the front desk staff to order our pizza for us to be delivered but were shattered when they said that deliveries had finished for the night. I just wanted one stuffed crust crust, but Garry and Choco were still hungry and wanted a whole pizza. Oh wells, they went to bed not yet satisfied.

Omgoodness, the printer made a weird noise and completely freaked me out. going to call it a night.. but we've done HEAPS of s hopping. checked out a temple nad found Honeymoon desserts.. yum!

until next time.. T

In Hong Kong, missing Macau.

2010-04-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so.. it took me.. 15 minutes to figure out how to convert the chinese characters into english so that i can understand. Not happy.. considering I now only have another 15 minutes to go to fill out what has happened since my last post!!

Anyways, the flight to Malaysia Sunday night was.. terrible. Long. And testing. I couldn't sleep, and the only time I managed to catch some shut eye was when I stretched my legs out completely across all three seats on the plane.. which amusingly enough is roughly the same length as me! The only downfall to that plan was that it meant I had to put my legs on Choco's lap to rest.. oops. But other than that, we just raced each other on Mario Kart on our DS' to kill time until we landed in KL.

When we did eventually reach Malaysia for our eight hour stopover.. lets just say it was a VERY trying eight hours. Everywhere we went, people were ripping us off left, right and centre. We actually couldn't wait to leave. Everyone just looked at us oddly, I guess none of us were dressed in a concealing manner. Mind you, we did keep in mind we were going to a strict country whose culture frowns upon scantily dressed ladies. But I guess t-shirts and singlets weren't a good idea, judging by the looks everyone gave us..
But other than that, we thought we'd be tightwads and save some cash by catching a bus to the Pavillion shopping centre in KL... bad idea. When asked, the girls at the counter told us that yes, the bus took us directly to the shopping complex - but when it came to it, they took us to some bus depot and told us to hop into a taxi 'free of charge'. And it only cost us 20 ringetts!! So much for a free taxi ride hey?
By the time we got to the shopping complex (well over an hour later!) we were pretty shitty with one another. An eight hour flight, coupled with the sticky humidity of KL and dishonest salesmen was not a great way to start the holiday.
However, I must admit, I found the retail therapy thoroughly relaxing and after having spent a bit of money at Topshop and tasting the local cuisines, I was ready to hop on my flight to Macau.

What can I say about Macau? I LOVE THE GAMBLING CAPITAL OF CHINA!! It was freaking AWESOME!! Wait. Awesome isn't a strong enough adjective. But you get the point.
Anyways, we decided to splurge on the first leg of our trip and stay at the Venetian.. BEST. IDEA. EVER. Full stop. The rooms were beautiful. We had two king sized beds that were beautifully decorated, a seperate 'living' area. A humangeous bathroom with a seperate toilet and so much space! When we arrived at the rooms, we were EXHAUSTED. We all showered and met up for dinner. HAHAHAH the girls all dressed nicely ready for some relaxing drinks and a nice dinner.. Then we discovered just around the corner for the South side suites (where we stayed) was Fatburger. So.. we did the only thing possible. We went and got Fatburger to take away adn ate it in Garry and Choco's room. O.M.G the food was everything bad for you. But why does the good tastey food be so bad? Wickedly so. After we stuffed ourselves on greasy burgers, chips and onion rings, Tina and I decided to go explore a little bit of the Venetian before settling in to sleep. Train retired to our room adn the boys went to go sleep. As Tina and I were wondering around the Venetian taking photos (it was 1am) the lights started to turn off =(
So, we decided to head back to our suite and go sleep. Just as we did, Choco nad Garry decided that it was their time to go and check out the sites, unfortunately, we were waaaaaaaay too tired to go with them and decided to go sleep. And so ends the first night of our trip..

Second day at the Venetian we decided to give one of those International buffets a go and went for FrogoSama.. or something along the lines of that! And lets just say.. we overindulged a little. Just a little mind you.. They kept walking around with fresh bbq'd meats and dropping it on our plates which was alreayd full from our other breakfast goodies. yum! I struck up a conversation with the guy cooking my omelette.. and then when I headed back to the table, CHoco, Tina nad Garry decided they wanted eggs as well.. (Train wanted to stay back in the room to have brekky in bed) and somehow managed to get the guys to let us go behind the counter to take photos of us 'cooking'. It was so much fun! People in the hotel were lovely, friendly and helpful.
After we stuffed ourselves, we decided to go explore the real Macau outside of the Venetian (reluctantly so mind you) and discovered that it was like a miniature Hong Kong (well that's what I thought anyways!) Had a bit of deja vu when we hopped off the bus from The Venetians to the Sands casino because none of the taxi's there would let us on!! So by luck we managed to find a policemen who was able to help us get two taxi's so take us to.. crap. i forgot. oh yeh! The St ____ ruins! It was pretty fun and we ended up walking the length of Macau to see the back streets, and the markets as well. Ate too much street food nad then proceeded back to the hotel for dinner lol. And after a little bit of relaxing, we ended up at the restaurant right next to FrogoSama because I thought the place looked good. And I was right.. the food was sooooooooooo yum!! Had the spaghetti cooked with seafood in a vodka cream sauce.. It was very rich.. a little too rich for me but soooo tastey! I love food.. *sigh

After a filling dinner, I managed to convince my comrads into ordering a few desserts to try.. and the tiramisu took my breath away.. and everyone else's!! It was a lot better than the tiramisu I make, which Tina nad Choco kindly reminded me a few times. Continuously. lol nad they were right. It was some good stuff they served. I couldn't fault them for anything.. Except forgetting to bring out Choco's meal. lol they forgot about his order. Funny stuff.

After dinner, some more wandering and gambling, Tina and I decided to go for a swim. We were under teh impression that the hotel swimming pool closes at 10pm as indicated. But when we got there the sign read the pools closed at 6pm. And something about swimming at your own risk.. which we took to mean.. you can go pass the roped off areas.. but at your own risk.
Great idea because the pool was freaking awesome!! A few people saw us, but didn't say anything. And I think we ruined the scenery/moment for a couple who though they had the area to themselves to make out.. but with two girls splashing around in the water. Fun.

Ok, Tired and buggered. In Hong Kong and standing whilst writing this blog. Will fill out the rest tomorrow night or whenever I have time. Love love LOVE Macau.. Macao.. however you spell it. Night night blogosphere!

Resurrecting a forgotten blogspot..

2010-04-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hi.. me.

So, after two years of silence I am back.. with a vengeance! And what may be the beginning of a cold.. :S

I will be once again travelling..tomorrow to be precise! And once again, I will visit HK and MAcau. But this time, for a twist.. I'm going Japan.. YAY!! Actually, today. My flight leaves at 12.45am.
It's also 4am and I can't sleep!

Will re-try after I send this..

Goodnight me*!

*me being me, since I'm the only one that reads this :D

and TanyaPo

I'm tired adn stopped making sense.. goodnight!

Birthday Girl

2008-10-17T02:14:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

Just wanted to say quickly that today is my birthday and I turn the big quarter century - which I'm quite excited about!! Anyways, gotta get ready so we can go0o0o0ooo.~~~

Seeya!!

Ps. I will be posting again shortly.. I swear!! Just been a bit hectic (alright, just lazy) but I will start again

Love, Thao
.x0x.

In transit, in Phuket

2008-08-31T01:14:00.000-07:00

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

STILL on Phi Phi Island...

2008-08-29T05:16:00.001-07:00

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.

sunburnt on phi phi island

2008-08-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Stranded in Hong Kong

2008-08-22T01:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Last night in Shanghai

2008-08-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Shanghai'd in Shanghai

2008-08-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

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.

In Transit

2008-08-12T02:26:00.001-07:00

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.

In Bangkok!!

2008-08-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Farewell Australia~~

2008-08-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Dinner @ Brunetti's

2008-08-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Lunch @ Laurent

2008-08-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

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!