Ian and Melbourne...

My first week of Melbourne, was spent with Ian and his cousin, Yan. Yup, both names are of the same pronunciation. Yan stays in a bungalow in the suburbs area (outside the city) called Essendon. Houses in the suburbs are usually very big as it is very affordable, which in the case Yan's house, is true as well. He offered to let us stay in his house so we could save on our accomodation. This guy here is the best host I have seen! He totally treated us like Kings, making sure we had everything we need, driving us around to places, and cooking for us.I stayed there for 1 week and I must say, I really enjoyed my stay there.

This is my friend, Ian. The room we stayed in is really big, with 2 single beds inside for us to toss and turn throughout the night.

Ian used to study in Trinity College for 1 year, a Pre-University in melbourne. Therefore, he has a lot of friends in Melbourne. As I have a few friends in Melbourne as well, our 1 week stay in Melbourne turn out to be sightseeing cum visiting session. hahahaa... First person I visited - a very beautiful lady, a friend I met in college, Ying Huey. To of course, deliver a hug specially flown from Singapore!

Anyway, I don't think I have the patience to go into every details in the trip, as we did quite a lot of sightseeing and visited quite a number of people, most of which are his friends. Hahahaha.. I only have a few friends here.

I will post about one particular trip we went together with Brendan and Ying Huey, both of whom are my friends, to a place called Great Ocean Road. This is a very beautiful place, and definitely worth introducing.

Meanwhile, sneak peek of Melbourne...

Next Up - The Great Ocean Road Trip. A one day tour, from dawn to dusk! Ciaoz!

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Sydney Moments : See ya again...

3rd day in Sydney, and also the day which i will be flying over to Melbourne to meet a friend, Ian. As my flight is in the evening, I decide to spend the first half of my day hanging around with Pierre. As he willbe flying back to Paris soon, he need to settle some stuff as he had after all stayed in Sydney for quite a while. After I checked out my dorm in the morning, we proceed to settle all his stuff in town. We then went for a cup of coffee before we finally bid goodbyes to each other.

Some pictures I took before I bid goodbyes to this City.

Pierre and I had our last coffee session in this shopping centre. This building is very interesting. The whole building is actually tilted to one side. Can you tell?

This cafe serves fantastic coffee and pastries. Great Place to chill!

This is my first time travelling alone. I'm actually quite surprised to find out that there are a lot of people who travel alone. Sydney has been a nice experience for me. I wished I had stayed longer, this is a really nice place. Thank you to all the people I met! You guys have been great!! See ya again, Sydney...

After an hour flight on Virgin Blue, it was Hello Melbourne! I will be staying in Melbourne for a couple of weeks. For my coming 1st week in Melbourne, I will be staying with my friend, Ian, in is cousin's House in a suburbs just outside the city. It's called North Essendon, a 20 minutes ride away from City.

Will update more about my stay in Essendon, and with Ian. Anway our first night in Melbourne was a tiring one. We went to City for dinner after we settled down. Dinner was good and we decided to walk back to Essendon. After all, it was just a 20 minutes ride. Yup, it was a bad decision. We got lost and ended up walking for 5 hours. When we finally reached back at Essendon, bth of us KO-ed right away! Hahahaa! Tiring indeed... I bet Ian will never forget this night. I'm laughing now even just by thinking about it...

Time for bed! Good night to all!

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Sydney Moments : New day, New Friend

2nd day in Sydney, 09 June 2008. The Korean friend I have met the day before will be left on an early morning. My only regret was that I never really have a chance to say goodbye to him. I'm glad he had gave me his email address the day before. We will keep in contact. cool!


Yup, with my korean friend gone. Guess I will just have to proceed for my free breakfast alone. Yup, in case didn't mentioned, free breakfast is provided every morning, thus everyone will be in the dining area for breakfast. It is also the best time to get to know one another.

I was very lucky. While having my breakfast, a french guy approached to share the table. His name is Pierre. hahaha.. We chatted for a while and got along quite well.. hahahha... This guy have been in Sydney for 8 months!! He then flew over to Japan and Thailand. Now he's back in Sydney again before he fly back to Paris to mark a conclusion to his trip. I told him it was only my 2nd day in Sydney. He then offered to show me around Sydney. Of course I agreed to him straight away. He taught me to take the train to travel around to places. They call it the city rail. We even took a ferry to a small town called Manly. This small town is very famous for its beach, Manly Beach. The beach is really beautiful. But the best part of going to this town is not to see the beach. It was the ferry ride.

This was what i meant.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Full view for Sydney Skyscrapers

Small island in the middle of a vibrant city, he told me a lot people goes there for diving.

The scenery you get from the ferry ride is truly spectacular. It was a truly worthwhile ride. I'm so glad I have him to bring around, otherwise I would never have thought of getting on the ferry.

Next, we went to Bondi Beach. This guy really loves the beaches a lot. By the way, he's damn good in water sports (surfing, diving, swimming etc). Back to Bondi Beach, there is somethng very special about this place. This place is made up by 1 particularly big beach and several small beaches. They have a walking trail along the coastline which forms up all the beaches together so you can access from one beach to another without any hassle. There is also one thing which I find it interesting about the Austrlians. They can surf during Winter Season. The cold is definitely not an issue to them at all. And they can really go far out into the sea when the surf!! They are really AMAZING!!

This is Bondi Beach. The big one I was talking about. Nice?!

Closeup of the Beach : I wonder who is the crazy one - the guy under 3 layers of clothings (me) or the one half naked surfing in the sea (Australians)

I happen to chance upo this interesting van and went over to took a picture of the driver. hahahaha...

The picture of the interesting van. This guy here is Pierre, my first French friend. Handsome right?!

We then proceeded to the walking trail along the coastline to see all the other beachs. Apologies that there are no more pictures of the other beaches as the sky was getting dark and I couldn't get any nice pictures. But the walk is truly memorable. Anyone who goes to Sydney should definitely come here, Bondi Beach. He said it was memorable for him too as it kinda seems to be a walk that marks the end of his almost 1 year journey out of France.It's like a walk to getting home. I guess it truly is a Walk to Remember.

There is one particular beach which is very nice. It has a natural baby pool at the corner of the beach. It is part of the sea. The only thing is this pool is surrounded by rocks. Therefore, that particular patch / pool of the sea has very shallow waters which make it look like a naturally formed up baby pool. It is really really nice. Too bad i didn't have a chance to take any pictures because of the bad light.

After the walk, we proceeded to have dinner and a few drinks at the pub. That also marked the end of my 2nd day, the last full day in Sydney. 3rd day in Sydney, and also the day I will be flying over to Melbourne in the evening, will be updated.

Real soon! Ciaoz!

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Sydney Moments : Part 2

Greetings, my last post ended with me getting on the Airport Shuttle FINALLY . . . it was just a short ride to the Airport, perhaps around 20 minutes or even less, with lots of things to see on the journey, maybe due to the fact that I just reached a foreign land, so everythin jst look new to me.

The Airport Shuttle is really good. It dropped me right at the doorstep of the hostel. However, my first impression when i saw the hostel was like "Oh Goshh, this is small. . ."

Yup, it looks big in the picture. But trust me, it's not.. hahaha... Anyway, i forgot to take any picture of the hostel. This picture was stolen from their website, but it looks exactly the same in real as compared to the pictures. So, take some time to browse through the website! heex.. By the time I reached the hostel, i think it was already 8 plus in the morning. However, I couldn't check in to my dorm yet as the previous bed owner haven't checked out yet. (Yep, i booked a 10-bed dormitory.) There was nothing I could do but wait as check out timing is 10am, I guessed I reached too early. First, it's rain. Then, it's the Airport Shuttle. And now, it's my dorm. Everything that I had imagined of to a person travelling alone did not happen to me, but all that I didn't did.

Yup, this was my view while i wait for my bed to be ready. Another picture I got from the webby. the only difference is there are a lot of people having breakfast as 7.30am to 9.30am is breakfast time for the hostel. It got a very clean look, isn't it? hahaha.. I particularly love the picture on the top left hand corner at this dining area. It is a cartoon drwing of the location with the hostel in the center. It is very very nice, and cute. Sad that I forgot to take a close-up picture of it. Anyway, I'm so glad I have my ipod with me. Life would be a disaster alone without any music. Thus, I spend my time listening o my ipod, reading some materials I got from the Airport and went on to plan my itinery for my days in Sydney. I checked in around 11, with the help of a beautiful receptionist and proceeded to my bed on the 3rd storey. it iwas a 5 double-decked-beds room. Not very big, but enough room space for everyone to move around and not feel as if the whole room is very packed. In summary. it's good. hahaha.. So, i put down all my stuff, went to take a shower, and proceeded to start my day in Sydney, finally. . .

By this time, I was already very hungry as i did not have my breakfast. I spend that time waiting for my room. hahaha.. So i went around aimlessly, hoping that i could find a nice restaurant to grab a bite or two. After around 15 miutes of walk, I happen to chance upon a stall which sells hotdogs and a lot of different pies. (Lesson Number 1: If you want to buy anything, check the price first) That's what i din't do, maybe because the food just look so tempting. And the place where the stall is, erected alone, with a sea view just behind it. This was of course the ideal place to start my holiday. I bought a hotdog (a very costly one) and got to sit down by the dock to have my lunch. It was a fantastic feeling, the breeze, the seagulls flying around, playing in the waters, walking on the floor. Some people even feed them just to attract the seagulls to them. As for me, i couldn't bear to part my expensive hotdog. I ate all of it! hahahaha...

View from my eating place, I was one step away from the sea. I'm glad no one push me in.

Left side : Some factories i guess?

Right side : Australian Navy, I wonder if they know I'm looking at them. . .

After a feast for both my stomach and my eyes, I went to continue walking again. This time, with an aim, towards Sydney Opera House.

On my way towards Sydney Opera House, I saw this beautiful castle and they happen to have a guided tour in the castle in a few minutes, since I'm alone, Join in of course! Our tour group wasn't big, only 6 people, including me. But everyone is really nice and friendly. The tour was interesting. This is actually a Government House and is only opened to the public during the weekends. I guess my luck is turning. hahaha... Pictures are not in allowed in the Government House, so this pictur was he closet i could get. Anyway, desin in the House is British style but there is a room which I find it especially nice. That is their Ballroom which they use it to host their visitors. There is this super big Grand Piano inside. It is really super big. Glad I joined the tour. After the tour, it was goodbyes to the guide and the fellow people in the group and off to my walk again.

Sydney Harbour Bridge - Behind me is the Sydney Opera House. Because I'm too near to it. I couldn't take nay nice pictures of it. This is where the heart of Sydney is. The life and the vibe. There are so many people here, so many tourists and there are so many things to see!! There are so many places which I can walk to. Yup, I went on to continue walking till i forgot to take any pictures after that. hahahaa...

I went to a place called the Rock Market. It's like a pasar malam in Australia. They sells a lot of stuff which are hand made by the locals. However, there was this particular stall which was really spectacular. It's a artist who is selling all his drawings, and there is actually a crowd who is at his stall. Because of one reason, he does his drawings in front of everybody. It was really FANTASTIC! All he needed was his drawing paper, some newspapers and a few of his spray cans and he could come up with a freaking beautiful drawing. It's what he call - Space Painting. It was really Godly. Initially when he just started, it looked so messed up he just seems as though he is spraying the colours randomly on the paper. However, when the picture slowly forms up, everything that he did initially finally made sense and the picture beacame very beautiful. I was so awed by his skills.

I went on to have lunch at Mc Donalds (Australians call them Mackers - so if you hear any of them saying about eating at Mackers, its jus Mc Donalds). It was suppose to be a lonely dinner at Mackers, but as soon as I got to my seat. I saw the girl I met during my tour at the Government House. She came over to join me for my Maackers meal and we chatted quite a while after that.She's a Malaysian and she is also travelling alone in Sydney, but stupid of me to forgot asking what her name is. I wonder if she she would have thought it was rude of me. hahaha.. I guess not since we continued chatting for so long. She then showed me the way to a beautiful place before she proceeded home.

The only bad thing about Australia is Nightfall comes really early, around 6 plus, the sky would be pitch dark. But, Sydney is just starting to party!! I came to place called the Darling Harbour. Sounds nice?! It is! There is a lot of things going on at the evening of Darling Harbour. Anyone who goes to Sydney should definitely visit this place. They have this floating stage at the centre of the se. When i was there, they happen to have this Blue & Jazz concert on the floating stage. I was also surrendered to the nice music too and stayed there for quite a while, together with a lot of people, many of them taking pictures. I wanted to, but my camera wasn't good enough to take in the dark.

After the concert, I walked back to my hostel, enjoying the ferrari showrooms, the lamborghini showrooms and the ducati showrooms along the way. I reached back at the hostel in a 15 minutes walk. Just as I thought my day would end with me preparing for sleep, a Korean guy came to talk to me while I was slacking at my bed. He is a very nice guy, by the name of Lee Xiang Xie. We chatted for a while and happen to hit along with each other pretty well. We then went on to have a drink at a nice pub which he introduced to me. It was funny talking to him because his english wasn't very good. But it was a nice conversation afterall. hahaa... After the drinks, he really shocked me. He brought me to a Striptese club. He is really good at these. He could tell me which clulb have the nicest girls nad which girls work for which club. It is actually quite a feat as well to know all these. I wonder do all Koreans always visit such places.. hahahaha... Anyway, I soon found out that it was his last day staying in the hostel and he would be checking out the next day. He will be home-staying at a house in another part of Sydney. Hope he enjoys his stay there! He's really cool. . .

That's how i finally ended my first day in Sydney. An eventful one. . .

Sweet Dreams and Goodnight, tomorrow will be a better day. . .

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First Post in Aust: Sydney Moments

Finally! After so many days in Australia, I can now finally find a bit of time to update a bit on my trip for the past few days.I apologise if I have kept any readers waiting, heex.. First of all, today's weather is fantastic! As for today, I will be talking about my stay in Sydney.

I arrived on rainy morning in Sydney. Sounds bad isn't it? But, apparently the rain here is so small i wouldn't evn call it rain.Perhaps more of a drizzle instead, haha.. Still it is a bit demoralising to reach on a rainy day. I feel so unwelcome. But that was not the worst. I got stuck at the customs for around an hour, with them checking all my stuffs and giving me lots of questionsregarding my financial status and why i came Australia for. I guess they are too afraid that that I might not survive in Australia. Luckily, they did made things better as everyone of them are so nice and polite. After all the checks were done, Enjoy your stay in Australia was the only free gift I got before i proceeded out of the airport to start my first day, a rainy day.

Ohh ya, did I mention that I arrived at Sydney 5am in the morning? The sky was still dark and I felt so lost. The only clue I had on hand was a confirmation of my booking to a hostel and the information given for me to get there was "Airport Shuttle - $12" It got me walking around the small airport for hours which apparently can be covered in less than 30 minutes. That's how small the Sydney Airport is. I don't know how true that is, at least it is for the arrival hall. Anyway, I wandered for hours walking around the Airport, each time getting back to the same point, and each time I did not see any sign with the word"Airport Shuttle". I got a bit tired walking around and decided to apply what i learnt in Primary School, ask around. It was very useful. I got to a Airport Shuttle STRAIGHT AWAY!

Yup, this beautiful limousine here is indeed where they guy brought me to. $12 for this! What a catch! Just as I was thinking everything was too good to be true, he called out to a van driver, "King Cross, King Cross" - the street where my hostel is. And, i was led to this. . .

That was clear, Airport Shuttle. . . Maybe they could make it clearer by parking just outside the Airport and not 100m away from it. Yup, I took this to the hostel i booked - Eva's Backpacker's Hostel.

Okay! That's all for Sydney Moment Part 1. Anyway, I stayed in Eva's Backpackers Hostel for my 2 nights in Sydney. The only thing i could say is, the best hostel ever! I will talk more about my stay over there next time.

Meanwhile, Check it out! - http://www.evasbackpackers.com.au/

Ciaoz All . . .

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What a SLACK week . . .

HAHAHA! I totally agree with this title. Finally, the kind of life I've been waiting. No school (no study matters), no NS (no officer to report to), no work ( no more worries and responsibilities). It's been so long. Right after I finished mugging for my 'A' levels, I went straight into NS and into work after. Now, that I finally get to have my one week of no-idea-what-i'm-gonna-do-when-i-wake-up-tomorrow kine of life FINALLY! after so long. Hahaha, I understand such kind of life is really a waste of time, but it's okay to waste it once in a while.

Anyway, my final week in work is really great! Initially, I thought it was going to be a very slow week for me as everyone has started giving all the work to my other colleagues instead of me as I will be leaving after the week. Monday was indeed mundane and I complained like hell. Yup, I seriously do not understand whether it is pure coincidence or perhaps just karma. Because of my big mouth, I ended up with ot on Wednesday to finish up a proposal which will be due for submission. Hahaha! At least, my Wednesday passed real fast. By the time i realise it, the sky was already dark.

Thursday was a fantastic day for me! My boss and lady boss treated me lunch, dim-sum at ONE°15. The food was very nice, but the more important thing is, it was my first time there. The club is like WOW! Totally beautiful and high-class. Knowing it's my first time to the club, my boss decided to bring me around. He is such a funny guy. It is suppose to be my first time to the club, but he does seems to be more anxious than me about going around the place. But i guess that's just him. Hahaha! After lunch, and the tour cum sightseeing of yachts at the marina club, he brought me to Sentosa Cove to look around. I still remember what he said to me - Andy, I bring you go see super rich people. Since we are already there, why not? It is indeed a very nice place. Some units have already been occupied by people, while others are still in the process of building. Then we came to one house, the show house. A show house, just like a show room, is a place to give people an idea of how it will roughly look like. Just that in this case, it is a house. It is not very big, but everything in the house including the furniture will be sold together as there is no longer any use for the show house anymore. It's still on sale, for sgd 7.6 million. Haha, I guess I need to work harder then, or perhaps smarter. Time flies for that day as lunch time with boss and lady boss is not restricted to 2 hours. I guess it was a 4 hours lunchtime. Yup, so by the time i arrived back in the office and suffer a bit of jokes by my jealous colleagues, i could pack up and head home. Ohh, I took a picture of the dock area before i went off. It is a really nice place. Saw a group of students when we were about to go. I guess they were there to do their montage video. It looks really fun! hahahaa... i miss school days..

Then came Friday,ended my work life in Specforce with the usual ot. Hahaha! I guess that's part and parcel of Specforce life. But ultimately, the experience i get in this company is really great! Events life, I'm sure I will miss it a lot. Saturday was normal as i prepare myself for my best day of the week. Sunday!

Last Sunday is really unforgettable. I never regret waking up at 5.30am just to join my first M'sia trail riding organised by our wonderful local dirt riding forum. Even i can't imagine myself waking up so early on a Sunday. BUT, I did. For the sake of riding, and I'm glad I did. Back to the story, I woke up at 5.30am to check all the stuff I needed for my ride, my gears, tools, water, cash, passport etc. After that, I went downstair to get my bike ready and buy breakfast as well. I was getting myself prepared for the ride until 6.30am, just when i was about to leave home, there was a HEAVY downpour. I was like cursing and swearing andmy mum told me not to go since it is already raining. It is going to be dangerous to ride in the rain. There was nothing I could do. I just sat down, frowning, like a kid who didn't get to have his happy meal. Luckily for me, the rain lasted for only 30 minutes, and i flew straight down to my bike as soon as the rain stopped. Even though i ws a bit late, everyone still waited for me at the custom before we proceed in to M'sia together. I was expecting only a small group since there was rain in the morning and the group i met at the custom is only like a handful of riders. However, when we arrived at the meeting point, which is a garage (Ah Guang's garage), there were like 20+ riders!! And there were so many pros!! I told myself, it's gonna be a hard day catching up with them. And it was true. Even the lady riders were good. Hahaha! I'm really impressed.

It started with a 1 hour warm up ride and it totally doesn't feel like warm up at all. The pace was like freaking fast and everyone just speed off like nobody's business. I'm so glad i did a bit of riding locally before i decided to join them. I managed to barely catch up with them for that so called warm-up trail. We ended up riding more than 1 hour before we arrive at a small village, or i would say, a small resting/ fuel-refilling point. That was where we stop to grab a bite and drink a bit of water finally, and to refill the petrol, especially for the ktm riders (including me), the bike drinks petrol like there's no tomorrow. We rested for around 30 minutes before moving on again. This time, the terrain was like hell. River crossing, hill climbs, hill drops, certain parts were life threatening if you happen to fall, but overall it's fun. hahaha! However, this rideis not all smooth without any hiccups. One of the rider got a serious hit on his ankle and couldn't manage to continue. We managed to get him out to the main road after a bit of effort by some of the riders and he proceeded home with some of his friends accompanying him. As for the rest of us, we continued. It was more river crossing and hill climbs and drops which continue till the end of the day. Andy when I'm talking about hill climbs and drops, I'm referring to hmm, perhaps 5 to 7 storey high? This ride is not for the faint-hearted. Hahaha! Which is why i admire the lady riders, they are so daring. yep, the whole ride ended around 6.30pm before we headed for dinner and washing of our bike. after that, it's a 1 hour jam at the custom before i finally reach home. It was a long day, but a totally superb one! Shall upload some pics in the future. someday.

So i guess thats all, need to go enjoy my week further. Ciaoz.

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