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Saturday, December 24

Australia Trip!

The below was mostly written on the bus from time to time during the trip itself, I'll use different colour to indicate the change of day, things that are in bracket are thoughts i have right now... here goes..

Written on bus, at 18/12/05, 12.30pm
Day 1, 17/12/05 : Was at Changi airport, the place i was two days before. My containable excitment seemed to catch the attention of my other family members as i was like taking pictures of them till they got irritated. Whats the fun of going on a trip without taking pictures?

We soon boarded the plane and the catch phrase for the entire journey was "red wine". Mother was saying that the wine on plane is not only good but also free or should i say 'paid for already', so we should take as much as we can along the journey. She was making a big commotion about it. It was like every time a air stewardess walked pass, she will ask for 4 glasses of red wine. One for every single one of us who were all siting at the same row. Keeping eye on our glass, she will 'help' us refill by calling the 'waitress' everytime she felt its empty.

There were movie screening on the plane, I've watched 'Sky High' which is super lame but still ok, half of '40yr old' something which i couldn't stand the stupidity that i decided to switch channel (wonder why yc was commenting it to be funny.... ) and 'Wallace and Gombit, the curse of the were rabbit", this show is super funny and cute and simple and , once again, funny. (It is no wonder it is #1 in usa, uk and australia, according to the newspaper i read today)... ...

Day 2, 17/12/05 morning
Rushed to the reptile park, our first destination upon arrival. Wondered why it is called the reptile park when half of the species there are birds, koala, Kangaroos, spiders..etc The kangaroos were hopping around freely in the large enclosed area. They were so loveable, i've played with their tails and they licked my hand. Yes, very gross but its much better then with dogs. I don't mind keeping a kanaroo as a pet. The koala bears were a disappointment, they were super lazy, all sleeping on the trees, no movement time for them. If not for the rangers, i would have climbed up the tree and put one in my bag to bring home. just my luck... ... Most of us spent most our time spotting and jumping over golds we found one the floor, how cute can a kangaroo be?

Written at Landmark Hotel, 17/12/05 10pm
Day 2, 17/12/05 afternoon
After the long ride to hunter valley, we had our buffet lunch. For once pizza doesn't appeal me. Wondered if all pizza in australia are so, if that is the case, it would be very sad for them.

Walked round hunter garden for sight seeing. Apparantly, the scenary is supposed to be so beautiful that it is a tourist attraction. Honestly, i would prefer to be doing something then to see flowers that is similar to what we have in our botanic garden. It doesn't sounds right to be spending to come here just to see flowers, dont you think? Anyway, there was a spot that supposed to contain all types of roses, the thing was i couldn't find my black rose, perhaps australian thinks its inauspicious thats why it wasn't there...

Wine tasting was next. Yah, we travelled all the way just to have a tast on the wine. For once, i got the gist of why there are people who spend their entire life tasting and making good wine. not only, their colour and taste that play an important role of a good wine, but also the after taste, smell and texture too. We drank and drank, just like the day before. Bought 4 bottles back.

The landmark hotel is unlike anyother hotel. It is small and cosy. The living room and kitchen are joined. The becolny was facing the sea. It is something like a dream house, very nice very beautiful.

Written on bus, Day 3 19/12/05 12pm
Day 3,19/12/05
1200pm I'll skip the activity we just did this morning as whatever happening now is far more worth writing and interesting then my previous enties.Guess what happened? We were about to leave for our next destination after our last activity when our bus driver found a sercurity guard ,with luggages lying around, along the road.

We stopped to find out what happened. The next thing we knew was that our tour guide told us to go down to check on our luggages that were supposedly inside the bus luggage booth. It turned out among the 4 families we had in the tour, 3 of the families had their luggages stolen from the booth. The stolen luggages were broke opened and were ransacked for valuables. Those that couldn't be opened or had been ransacked were thrown by the side of the road into the bushes.

My two luggages were the last few at the back, it seemed that the thieves had limited number of hands that they forsaked the jackpot which is the my two luggages, they contained top quality wine, 4 bottles in fact. I was told they were drug addicts, unlucky ones too, for the luggages they stolen contained merely children clothings, biscuits etc (we have yet to do our shopping then), so useless to them that they dumped the items as they flee. In a way, nothing is lost other then the damaged luggages of the other 3 families. Perhaps they were lucky in a way as they will be able to claim insurance.

Written at Novotel 19/12/05 10pm
Day 3, 19/12/05 morning
Writing back on the activity we did this morning.
We visited the sand dune and did sand sliding. The place is a desert and the sand was super fine. so fine that we are willing to pay to go there to 'play sand'. The scence was amazing, exactly like those vast desert i watched in movie but the air was super cooling. The place was ideal for filming movie, i think. The desert is just beside the sea and i took a very cool picture of desert, sea and sky together...

The four wheel drive was just like a roller coaster ride, especially when i was sitting directly above the rear wheels.
We drive to the highest point of the sand dune and sat on a skateboard like boats and slide down the sand. I tried 4 times, each time even dangerously then before to the extend i flew and rolled on the soft sand. If the sand has medical property to smoothen or moisterize the skin, everyone there would be most happy as every single one of us were coated with a layer of sand all around us.

Afternoon.
Went on a cruise for dolphine watching at port stephen. It was super windy. Was flying with the dolphine .

Written in mind, lazy to write along the way, no time to write anyway.
As mentioned, there are 3 other families along with us. Two of which is a standard family of 4, both of them have a set of parents and a pair of children, coincidentally both are elder sister and a younger brother. The third family is the one i'm interested in sharing. They were PR from indonesia. We first learnt about them when we registered for our trip as they have 7 people.
Initially, i thought they were related in terms of uncles and aunties, but it turned out to be a set of parents with 5 children. To make things interesting, all the children are male and their age ranged from 13 to 16. Oh did i forget to say? the ones aged 14 are twins. Isn't that scary? If i were expecting to have a 3rd child and it turned out to be a twin, i'll be -_- but no, they were like popping 1 more... I myself is already having problems dividing my attention among my two neopets that i've given up on them and they have 5.... They can form a bball team already and even confused the opponent with the twins effect..

Day 4 20/12/05
Sightseeing at the habour, sydney aquarium and sydney tower...

Day 4 evening.
Went to china town to recee the place for next day's shopping! One family only. We went into a chinese store and were looking around. An australian woman came in after us and asked the shopkeeper if they got some funny brush then the shopkeeper said 'no', shoooing the woman away with his 'no'.
The woman went out and said to her friends (if any that were closedby as i saw none around) that the shopkeeper doesn't want to sell her the funny brush.

I was thinking, 1)if the woman knew there was such brush why is she asking the stall keeper. 2) The stall keeper just said he doesn't has such item, y is she so certain that he doesn't want to sell to her.

It was only 5 mins later when she was long gone that the shopkeeper told us that the lady was actually a pickpocket. She came in in the name to find things to see where we kept our money and would strike us with her friends when we get out the shop. If not for the shopkeeper who shooo the woman away, we could be pickpocketed and wouldn't have money to buy anything the next day! Second happenings during the span of 2 days!

Day 5 21/12/05
Shopping Day~!
We bought the monorail day pass for the family. It cost only $22 for the whole day ride and we can get on and off anytime anywhere. The thing is my family consist of mother, sister, brother and me. While family package is 2 adult, 2 children. Where children mean less than 16 yrs. Those who know what i'm trying to say will know something not right... Will not elaborate else australian people may come hunting...



I'll end the entry here as it will tend to be rather sad for me to write the ending for the trip... I think it will be rather boring to read how we shop wouldn't it?

|[ zofz | 10:28 PM ]|