Lei Duo Duo (GoodBye) Yunnan

Just came back from a 16-day backpack trip to Yunnan with Yongo Travel. Initially I wanted to go to Beijing this year, but had to cancel it due to some reasons. Actually I have never thought of going to Yunnan before this, as I die die must go for a trip to breakaway from work, I signed up for this trip alone. But with good companies and breathtaking scenaries, there is no regret. Although a bit tiring, the trip was really enjoyable.



















Transit at the latest Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport

I was learning my new Nikon D40x along the way, luckily there were some 'sifu' around. Most photos taken are actually quite disappointing (only notice that after downloading to PC). I have to blame my skill although some was due to cloudy weather most of the time.


















Omega Bend of JinSha River （金沙江）


























Great view on the way to ZhongDian aka Shangri-la



















White Water Terrace　（白水台）, one of the three in the world



















































松赞林寺@Shangri-la



















Snowing at 飞来寺



















MingYong Glacier


























Playing snow at 白马雪山白马丫口,　4292m above sea level



















Trekking at Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡）


























Want to jump, anyone?


























View from my my room at Tea Horse Guest House



















万古楼@丽江

I think the worst tourist experience in China would be its public toilet. Dirty and stinky. The standard design doesn't come with any door (may be the locals don't need it as some don't even bother to close the door when doing big business), 2 compartments sharing the same drain with a little wall separating in between. You may be able to tell what the guy next to you was eating by looking into the drain.


























Despite the greatest toilet view, I just couldn't do it, can you?

My Life in Sydney - Final Part

Some of you who have been reading my blog might feel a bit tired of my Sydney series already. This is going to be the last, just let me finish what I want to say, ok?

Australia is truly a multi-national country. You can see so many people from different countries. Just in the project I was involved, I had worked with Australian, Malaysian, Indian, Vietnamese, New Zealander, Singaporean, Irish, South African, Russian, Thai and Greek etc.

Many said if you migrate to Australia, you will be treated like a 2nd-class citizen. I actually asked a few of my colleagues who migrated there. They didn’t really answer me whether they feel like 2nd class citizen but they all think that Australia is a lovely country, much better than the country they came from. I guess it really doesn’t matter to them whether they are being treated equally as long as life is better in Australia.

So, after reading My Life in Sydney series sure you think I must be enjoying my time there. Well, not entirely…

Like other tourists, it was really fun for the first 2-3 weeks. When I first got there, I wanted to go here go there, do this do that. But after 2-3 weeks, I started to feel bored. Don’t forget I was there for work…

It was winter, and I really didn’t like it. The sky became dark at 5pm, it was cold and it rained very often. With the stress of work, no one to talk to, sometimes it was quite depressing.

The 2 biggest sports in Australia are Rugby and Cricket. They say Rugby is a men sport and Cricket is a gentlemen sport. Too bad I don’t like both, although I consider myself a sport lover. There are 5 free TV channels in Australia but sometimes there could be 2 channels showing 2 Rugby games at the same time. : (
F1 was only shown delay in the midnight. Luckily there was World Cup to make my day.

Anyway I still think Sydney is a nice city but I hope I can travel to more places in Australia next time.

My Life in Sydney - Part V

I always wanted to visit other cities in Australia but didn't have much chance due to my work. In one weekend my colleague got a car from her sister and we decided to go to Canberra. Australia is really a big continent. It looks so near in the map but actually takes more than 3 hours drive from Sydney to Canberra.


It was a rainy day and Canberra was colder than Sydney. We visited the new and old Parliament House, and the War Memorial Museum. I took a picture at the House of Representatives but unfortunately my memory card spoiled and I lost all the pictures. The pictures you see here are from my colleague's camera.

House of Representatives of New Parliament House

The War Memorial Museum is a nice museum but too bad I don't know much about the history of WWI. The only hall that I could make a connection was the invasion of Malaya by the Japanese during WWII.

War Memorial Museum

We stayed in a motel that night. That was the first time I stayed in a motel. After a heavy breakfast in the next morning, we went to Old Bus Depot Market.

Old Bus Depot Market

Before we left Canberra, we stopped by Lake Burley Griffin to take some photos.

New and Old Parliament house, seen from the northeast across Lake Burley Griffin

On our way back, we went into a small town called Goulburn and then the third largest city in New South Wales, Wollongong.

Goulburn town

A lighthouse at Wollongong

Many people said Canberra is just like our Putrajaya, nothing much to see except the government buildings. Well, I have to agree... May be because it was winter and raining, we didn't enjoy much. Anyway, at least I have been to Canberra, Goulburn and Wollongong. :)

My Life In Sydney - Part IV

The Hunter Valley is one of Australia's most famous wine growing regions, known for both its red and white wine varieties.

Like the Blue Mountain trip, my colleague and I joined a day tour. The day tour costs about AUD85 including lunch. Actually if you want to save money, it is much cheaper to rent a car and drive there, wine tasting is free anyway. However, you may not be able to enjoy the wine if you drove there.

We expected the tour to be in a group of 14 people. When the coach came then only we found out that we only had 6 people that day. We first stopped by the river side to have some biscuit and coffee together. The weather looked nice but it was really chilly there.






























A duck couple

The journey from Sydney to Hunter Valley took about 2 hours. Before we headed to the wineries, we first went for some cheese tasting at a shop called Smelly Cheese.

















Inside Smelly Cheese

The first winery we visited was De Bortoli Wines. Established in 1928, De Bortoli Wines is still family owned and proudly Australian. We tasted some white and red wine, including semillon, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, merlot etc. I acted like a wine connoisseur although I didn’t really know how to tell between a good and bad wine.















There is no grape because of winter

We then went to the next winery – Peterson House. Peterson House is a maker of Premium Sparkling Wines, by the traditional methode champenoise process. There, again we tasted some white, red, sparkling and dessert wine. I started to feel drunk.





























Lunch at Peterson House

We had lunch at Peterson House and had a chat with each other before going to another winery.

Tempus Two is a winery famous for its attention to detail, including exclusive imported bottles, pewter labels, hand plunging of reds etc. But I was more impressed with the contemporary design of the winery itself. This time I did not enjoy the wine tasting much but paying more attention to the building and its interior.















Can you believe that this is actually a winery?











































Our last stop was at the Iron Gate estate. This winery has a much traditional building. Again, we tasted some wines and were given a quick behind the scene tour.
















Iron Gate Estate




















Grapes going through fermentation process in these stainless steel tanks

After 4 rounds of wine tasting, we had almost 30 glasses (1/3 of a glass) of wine. It was quite surprising that I was still standing. Normally I only drink 1 or 2 types of wine at one time and had no chance to compare one to another. This tour didn’t make me a wine connoisseur but at least I know what is a Semillon, a Chardonnay and a Shiraz. It’s really a good experience.

















I prefer white wine to red wine. What about you?

My Life In Sydney - Part III

The Blue Mountains is a popular tourist attraction in New South Wales, situated approximately 100 kilometres west of Sydney.

To go there, my collegue and I joined a day tour. It costs about AUD80 including lunch and a ticket to a wildlife zoo. The coach picked us up in the city at about 8am and then we headed to our first destination, Sydney 2000 Olympics Park.
















The Telstra Stadium















the Games Memories Poles - a forest of interactive poles inscribed with the name of every volunteer of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.


There was nothing much to see and we only stopped for 20 minutes.

We then travelled for more than an hour before we reached Katoomba, the most visited town in the Blue Mountains. At the Katoomba Scenic World, we took Scenic Railway, the steepest railway incline in the world into the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area rainforest.
















Photo taken from the Scenic Railway, of course this bald guy is not me.

From there, you can see the Aussie Grand Canyon.
















Aussie Grand Canyon

We had a short boardwalk through the rainforest before going back to the Scenic World by Scenic Skyway.

After lunch at Katoomba, we continued the tour to Echo Point and on the way we stopped by to take a closer look at the cliffs. Echo Point offers a spectacular view of the Three Sisters.















The Three Sisters

From the nearby Echo Point, we took the bushwalking trail which leads to the Three Sisters and down to the valley floor via a set of well-maintained steel steps.















At one of the 3 sisters

After visiting the Blue Mountains we then went to our last destination of the day - the Feather Dale Wildlife Park. At the park, you can find almost all the Australian wildlifes, including kangaroo, koala and wombat etc. Btw, Wombat is a marsupial, so it has a pouch just like kangaroo and koala.















A sleepy koala

The tour ended with a ferry trip back to Sydney. During the tour we got to know two friendly french girls Daphine and Nedege who were travelling around the world. They had left France 10 months ago and visited India, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore before they came to Australia. They were going to continue their journey to New Zealand and South America. According to their blog, they should be in Panama now.

Nedege, Partha and me

My Life in Sydney - Part II

During my stay in Sydney, I visited quite a number of places.

No tourist should miss the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.














Opera House















Sydney Harbour Bridge















Sydney City View

Had a stroll under the sails at Sydney's premier weekend market at the Rocks for homewares, jewellery, arts & crafts. The 'Pancakes on the Rocks' restaurant, apparently famous for its pancakes, is very popular, you can always see people queuing up to be seated.





















The Rocks Market















Darling Harbour

















Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour. Actually I have not been to Aquaria in KLCC, so can't compare which one is better.















Dumb shark, bite me if you can...
















A better view of Opera House taken from the ferry on my way to Manly.
















Manly Beach, big wave and misty...

Bondi Beach - this is one of the most famous beach in Sydney. There is a 'papaya farm' near the swimming pool but normally only available in Spring or Summer.















Nice beach, can't imagine during summer...

Nice pool

Paddington Market - Sydney's oldest community market for people to sell their arts and handcrafts.

This is China Town. It was surprising to know that the Golden Boronia nougat that a lot of us like to buy as a souvenir is only available in China Town, or at the airport. According to the locals, aussie don't eat this type of nougat.

Hyde Park - A large park in the heart of Sydney.

St Mary's Cathedral

Locals playing chess at Hyde Park

Sydney Tower - a direction pointer when you are lost in the city...

More pictures from Blue Mountain and Hunter Valley coming up. Stay tuned...

Quiz: If you dropped your wallet, kick it all the way out of this place before you pick it up. Guess a street in Sydney...