Now currently flying a few thousand miles high in mid air blogging this post. The complimentary wifi available in Delta Airlines over this holiday period is like a god-send. But the 3 hours of sleep so far makes me kinda tired to enjoy any of the entertainment onboard the flight.
Sipping my Sprite with the feeling of a bad stomach.
Just these 4 months, I have been to alot of places. Too many places within North America that I find it astounding. Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Whitehorse, Vancouver, Seattle and the last stop pending is New York. I am writing this in Seattle Airport while waiting for my flight the next morning to NYC.
Add these places with the activities I have done so far. Watching classical music, picking apples, going theme park, riding up sky-high towers, watching IMAX films, skiing, aurora-gazing, museums-going, road-tripping, nature hiking etc. What else? There are more, but until I am more fresh and awake, I knew I cannot list anymore.
The world is so huge. Everywhere I go no matter how used I am to travelling, either alone or with groups, I still feel surreal that I am in another part of the world separated from my family. Some of the places I have visited resembled the places in Singapore. A small dark alley, a piece of cutlery, the doorway, the signage. Anything. I am just being reminded. But I am too being reminded that I am all alone. Alone that I could not reach home within a few days. Home as being defined as my real home in Singapore.
Sometimes I thought I will definitely and always become a better person from seeing more from what the world can offer me. But I also know I am not always right. Perhaps I am really away for too long from my closer ones that I did not realise I have become kinda what the society expects me to become. A long time guilt reoccurred to me suddenly that I am not practising what I should be doing. That is to cherish before people or things get lost.
The last leg of the trip to NY will last 5 days. I do not like to forecase what might happen, but it just happens and I seemed to know what will happen. Pushing myself to do what I should be doing is gonna be a challenge. But maybe that just will wrap up this long trip to be a memorable one.
For better or worse? I often take the positives. I still have so much to see from the world. Let this be a challenge for me to see more of it. Now, I need a recuperation.
Let this be the beginning of my travelogue since I arrived in Toronto almost 3 months back.
I decided against blogging the tours to nearby Ontario places like Montreal, Quebec and niagara falls because strangely I did not feel like travelling in those days. Weird. Probably we rented car? Probably the group size? I had no idea.
Anyway, 10pm on 12th November megabus promptly left Toronto coach terminal for Philadelphia. It is gonna en route to Washington DC. Junfeng and Clement were already in Philadelphia a night earlier. DC interest me more. So in this leg of the tour I am alone. Perhaps that is why I can write this now inside the bus.
Travelling towards Pennsylvania now in the darkest highway roads I could never have imagine, although Canada’s highways are no less brighter, it is so conducive to sleep, IF NOT for the bright lights this leg of the driver chose to on!
That explains why I can stay up at 5am local time blogging this. For goodness sake, not only will the darkness allows me at least to sleep, despite the other passengers are snoring, I can also look at the wide canvas night sky of stars if I choose to.
Could not really see the milky way. Far less exciting than southern hemisphere one which I saw in Perth. Surprising.
Small leg room and lagged wifi. Perhaps megabus will still be considerably better than greyhound which I will take in a long course of travel at end of semester. Let’s look forward to it!
I will use my scarf to cover my eyes meanwhile for a nap till 8.15am arrival time.
I felt like I have been here in Toronto for so long. Except for some minor cultural differences that still grip me, I am localizing like a local.
But I am only here for only slightly more than 2 weeks.
My camera has always been mounted on my tripod at a corner beside my messy table of workstation. A canon 7D only used for taking snap shots of dinner I have cooked. What joke!
Gotta admit I am lazy slugging that workhorse around me whenever I go. iPhone camera works as good as I expected, or rather as close to my current expectations are. I am still not in travelling mood. Am still not.
My railway documentary is almost completing. Silly of me to bring so much pressure upon myself to do the editing even when I am so far away. But this work of mine is only so little of what I promised myself during the long holidays I had months ago. It is definitely more than a small step to soothe my personal ego to finish a documentary, more importantly I do not wish to disappoint whoever giving me the support and encouragement all along.
My luggage was overweight on one of the pair I brought here to Toronto. I had to repack them 3 times to evenly distribute the weight between the two. No doubt I brought alot of stuffs here. Most of them were actually meant to be thrown away while I stuffed new things in to bring home.
I told my exchange mates the reason why this trip is more than just a 5 month sting, which could be so stressful, so busy etc, is because I will be going through something my peers would not be able to go through. What I am going to bring home is priceless. Thus the space I will be reserving in my luggage, my spiritual luggage.
My camera will soon see the light in Toronto. A wife is more than just being a housewife eh? Both of them deserved more than that surely.
4 days (or 3?) settling into Toronto city. I totally have no mood of thinking I am travelling or exchange. The mere thought of thinking I have to settle down here for another 4 months and a further month in this far end of the continent got me really shivering.
How difficult it is to adapt? Perhaps I am too good at adapting that I have no feelings to my surroundings here. Shoved off the map; how difficult it is to get lost if we are to ply the routes for the next 4 months?
I have no intention to start any travel blog on my trip here. Maybe except until I got to the final month of true exploring this North America with no educational botherings hanging in my mind.
5 months away will be the longest I will be away so far. To say I miss those people I care for so much is already an understatement. “Missing” is just a word. The emotion could never ever be described in any language of civilisation. The 12 hours of time difference really just made the feelings even harder to acknowledge.
The idea of connections start from the simplest of things or smells or thoughts or conversations or sights that allowed me to even fail to not think of you.
I just wanna settle down at a permanent residential housing ASAP. This entrapment of 4 walls inside a hostel, albeit clean and fabulous, is killing me from all rational thinkings. Phone lines to settle, school courses to settle, transportation to settle etc etc etc….
How to tell you I miss you?
The frightening day we had the day before brought some chilly story to tell from my mum. She told us someone was knocking on the hotel room door in the middle of night for a period of time. And she kept seeing the photographs at S21 in her mind. Well, again, like we always do, we have to brush all that aside with excuses of fatigue and imaginations.
Final day of the tour. We were suppose to have free time for the whole day till we report to the airport. However, what was supposed to have 2 shopping trips in local markets the day before was being postponed to this final day as the guide told us visiting them in the morning is more bearable when comes to the rising temperatures.
No transport for us except to the airport, so we crammed inside the Toot toot and went to Russian Market. Russian Market is like our old style wet market, but more cramped and sells more varieties of souvenirs and apparels. The purse I was looking for as souvenir for someone since Siem Reap was no longer in sight. I should have bought it in Siem reap. But I bought 2 t-shirts for my buddies as well as 1 for myself.
Next we depart for Central Market, newly renovated. It is spacious and roughly sells the same things. The crowds were considerably lesser though. It was more of a sight seeing trip for me while my sisters and mother did the majority of the shopping. No surprise!
I was quite looking forward to the lunch as it was not planned for us. With the tour guide recommending the local favourites, he brought us to a small eatery and tried our taste buds with wild boar meat (still rather familiar as we used to eating in relatives’ house in Malaysia) and rabbit meat cooked in green spicy and sour soup (or green tom yam). I have had rabbit meat before in my visit to Beijing ages back and to Vietnam 3 years back. I thought they were delicious and taste like chicken. But that huge pot of soup were only half a rabbit worth of meat inside, we were told.
Not long, we were due for the airport check in. Some last few glances of the surroundings before the facades of airport appear before me. The feelings sucks. I had that in Perth, I had it again in Phnom Penh. And to think I have to used what I once told someone to look forward to the next holiday in dismissing such shitty feelings to myself. Boo.
More of the photos can be viewed at my facebook album.
Slept at 12+ past midnight (local time), woke up at 5+am. The day began very early, as we need to catch a coach taking us across the country to Phnom Penh. With everything readied and packed the night before, checking out the hotel was a breeze.
The 6 hours of coach ride was unfelt. Majority of the duration I had my earphones plugged in. Neither the sceneries of crops and agriculture outside the window nor the hilarious DVD the coach was showing interest me. My neck was stiffed, my mind was clear. Semi-conscious state again, yet I can see you so clearly in my mind.
Having just a stopover between a 6-hour ride was an ordeal especially when my bladder was filling up. Sharing a coffee with my dad midway at the break did more harm than keeping me awake. I rather snoozed deeply.
Phnom Penh is a crowded city. Traffic is packed and the air was more polluted than Siem Reap’s. Paces of life are a tad more upbeat than Siem Reap’s counterparts as well. Of course, what is indifferent was the delicacies Phnom Penh too could offer. Despite the lunch being one of the most unmemorable, it was still good nonetheless. So it was new City, new environment, and not to forget, new mini van and driver, as well as new tour guide for the rest of the days!
First stop of visit at Phnom Penh was the National Museum. All the triads and sculptures and statues I so used to seeing in my Asian Art Textbook just came alive in front of me. Although they were not exactly (still Buddhas though) what I was studying for the past semester, they are still similar in their appearances and functions which was not hard for me to draw references. I was also able to make comparisons. No longer am I restricted to small black and white photographs of the monuments with italic captions. What was described as 3m tall, you just gotta see it for yourself!
The next stop was the trip further down the district to the Royal Palace. Palaces, libraries (huge), offices (huge), temples (huge) etc, all are for the current aristocracy family. Gloriously built, the compound no doubt is gigantic, thus the reason and capability catering for tourism. Not much to describe my visit there as it concerns the royalty. The locals, the tour guide included, are at more suitable position to really give an insight details. *~gasps~* *~gasps~* Reactions of amazement were some of my reactions. Anyway, the King was there at that period while we were there, as the flag raised gave the signal. We just did not manage to catch sight of him. I cannot imagine if everyday throngs of strangers from everywhere the world would walk around my block. How great it is to be a King?
Final destination of the day was to the Casino! Naga Casino is an entertainment centre in the city district of Phnom Penh. Own time own target, we were “slotted” 1.5 hours there by our tour guide. After my first visit to Genting Casinos, I kinda feel it is a must to play a simple game of jackpots whenever there is a chance to enter a casino. Until Singapore Integrated Resorts are completed, which I do not think I might step in, the feelings of having some possibilities of cash returns in a holiday trip just tickles the euphoric senses, yeah?
I selected a machine based on my satisfactory level on the graphics. A visual person, yeah I know. Then my sister and I were procrastinating over the need to covert 5 USD1 to 1 USD5! Goodness. When I was back from asking the staff on our query, my dad and mum, who were wandering around as a pair reappeared. Conveniently, my dad sat on the machine I chosen. After our queries were solved as I explained to them what I was told, my dad began the game. If he was only going to get 3 tries, he still won it. USD150 windfall poured on him on the 3rd spin of the jackpot machine! A capital of USD5 won him USD150! And the conclusion? IT COULD HAVE BE ME! But, well, that is gamble. 50-50. Win-lose. Yes-no. Simple.
My small bet of USD5 won me nothing, despite tries on 2 different machines. But it was still fun at the casino, except the crowd was not as spectacular as Genting. So a high-tea at the cafeteria outside the casino was on the treat by my dad. Nice cake, nice mousse, and an awesome Singapore Sling for me!
The high tea did not allow much space for our dinner. However delicious the dishes were, we tried our best. Guilt again.
The night was an early retirement to the bed, but another late eventual sleep. I was missing someone then.
2nd day in Phnom Penh brought us to another highlight of the trip. A tragic event of recent Cambodian History, we would be visiting sites related to the Khmer Rouge era.
For those who knew the history behind this (what I would say is a forgotten history, similar to Korea war), Khmer Rouge was the period of 3 years regime during the last 3 years of the 1970s which brought terrible terrible terrible terrible and endless terrible sufferings to the locals as well as a portion of Vietnamese. A socialist state government headed by the notorious Pol Pot, this heinous devil in a human skin ruler practically masterminded the massacre of roughly 3 millions plus people, all within that period of 3 years. To cut long story short, without him, 3 millions plus innocents lives would not be lost. Why he did that? Probably Hitler who were similarly psychotic could answer that.
So tourism spots related to Khmer Rogue were no doubt about deaths, unfortunately. The first stop for us was the Killing Fields. An approximately 30 minutes drive away from our hotel brought us to this cold (not that the blazing sun was not hot), barren parchy land enclosed with fences and walls. Inside the compound we saw a few more excursions buses. A short walk up from the main entrance stood a notice, first of the handful around, telling us what could have happened 30 years back when the innocents were truck-loaded there. But the tower ahead of us caught most people eyes as the central column could be viewed from the outside with the glass windows. Inside the columns were all bones and skulls and remains of the dead and tortured. We bought a flower and some incense, a mandatory rite in my own opinion but not compulsory, and pay our respect to the deceased. It was just so silent.
Walking around the tower we could have a closer look at the remains. Visible fractures, holes, missing fragments could be seen on skulls. A cabinet of the clothes they once used to wear was kept inside as well. More information notices were placed around the tower for the visitors. If the piling skulls and bones were overwhelming, wait till we walked around the complex with our guide.
He brought us around certain paths and areas where more signboards were erected. Those were the prominent spots where the executors carried out their torturings. NC16 content follows. Basic tools like mallets, spades, hammers etc were the executing tools. They scraped, knocked, stabbed and whatever hideous methods they could think of to the prisoners. No guns and bullets. Genders and age groups were separated. Babies were grabbed by their feet and smashed the whole body against the hard tree trunk. There is a type of tree growing in large numbers in Cambodia that has razor sharp and saw-like leaves. Such strong and hard leaves were used to saw the throat of the prisoners as well to drip the blood dry.
Pit holes are commonly seen in the Killing Fields. They were dug for the remains we saw inside the tower. I suspect everywhere we were stepping on there were human remains a few feet below. The guide told us the government has already stopped digging. 3 millions plus of lives. And this is just one of the Killing Fields.
Our faces were all stone-etched from the visit. Basically it was just unimaginable such inhumane acts could be committed. Guess what, the age of those executors then were only 13-15 years old! Oh my god!!
Anyway, a visit to a temple and lunch was sandwiched in between this trip and another Khmer Rouge site. It was not too far away from our hotel either (jeeze). We were brought to the S21, a secondary school-turned torturing site for the young bastards before they finished them at various Killing Fields.
The place was cold, again, if you get what I mean. Eerie, terribly eerie. This would really be a true gut-test for people comes at night, not that it is opened at night.
A block of the school had individual classrooms locked for single prisoner. Inside each and every room was a bed frame without mattress, a crowbar and a shackle. Plus, on the wall was a framed photograph of what we might expect to see for a tortured inmate. A brief idea on what was done to them, NC16 content follows. Prisoners were first beaten, battered and chained-locked to the bed with chains on their wrists. Shackles were locked to their feet. Terrible thing was, the shackles were one size fits all. So if the ankle was too small to fit, they would be whacked by bars until they were swollen and too big to slide out. If they were too huge to fit through, they would be sliced by knives till the size fits in. Torturing continues with whatever tools the executors were happy with. Scalding, whipping, tearing, I could not bear to think of more action words to describe. One photograph on the wall, take a deep breath, showed a man helplessly strapped with the skin of his face totally torn off, revealing the skull-like features, with him still alive. Oh my oh my. Sigh.
Blood stains were everywhere within the building. The ceilings stains were especially obvious. Stairways up to the higher storeys showed the path of blood once dripped. The whole place still reeks of pungent blood smells if you are sensitive enough to pick up, especially on such hot and humid day we visited, no joke.
Other blocks have barb wire erected on the front of the whole building, so as to prevent prisoners from committing suicide and ending a fast death. Other rooms were partitioned with bricks to create toilet cubicles-like spaces, only wide enough to stand 3 adults I reckon, for holding prisoners. Photographs of the victims, before and after (considerably lesser) were shown on big panels. Even the young executors brained washed to carrying out these crimes were shown. Totally appalled.
Illustrations were put up too to give visitors a better idea on what nasty things were done. Fingers (not nails) were snipped off, nipples of women were snipped off, centipedes were sent to crawl on these open wounds etc.
Such visual attacks of these gruesome acts were guilty enough, and more so with me describing. The actual performances by the adolescents seemingly in all too common fashion without any sense of human compassion is just sheer bewildering.
The last activity of the day was spent on a boat cruising down Tonle Sap River (different from Tonle Sap Lake in Siem Reap), and entering Mekong River. We were told the different colour of the respective rivers would not mixed upon meeting. I did not notice. I did not even know when we had reached Mekong or Tonle Sap. Overall, not much of a difference to the experience we had in Siem Reap, but it was an additional activity not inside the original itinerary. Probably that was needed to draft us away from the solemn day we had from the Khmer Rogue sites we had visited.
More of the photos can be viewed at my facebook album.
Cambodia is 1 hour behind us. But my watch was not synchronised throughout the trip. The feeling of clawing back an additional hour for a holiday trip just seemed so worthwhile, if only the plane did not stop by Danang, Vietnam! So I actually travelled to 2 countries to be exact! 
Siem Reap Airport was rather barren. Other than the confusing queues to immigration and transit, the procedures through the customs were swift. We met our tour guide after a short walk out. For the ease of my parents, we had requested for a Mandarin-speaking guide, whom, in the end, spoke majority in Cantonese!
To our delight, we were the only people for that group. So it turned out to be a private tour for the rest of the trip! No waiting for others, no sharing of food with others. From transportation to food to explanations, we would be the only personnels catered! Glee!
A lunch buffet greeted us immediately after departure from airport. I should not have taken that much from the SilkAir meal if I had known! My worse regret was not having the ice-cream, nowhere available in the subsequent buffets we gonna have. Yes, there were more buffets in the coming days! We were brought back to our hotel by the mini van after our lunch for some rest before embarking on our first stop, a boat ride through Tonle Sap Lake. 
A rough ride to Tonle Sap Lake exposed us to both the rich and the poor. Huge mansions could stand tall on one side of the road, while rough compromises they called "roof" with poor sanitations could exist by the shore of canals and streams on the other side. Harsh reality it might seem. But it is no wonder there is always a tinge of envy, no matter how minute, for city dwellers like us, on the carefree life they lead.
Prior to boarding the boat, and as we would soon find out in subsequent arrival or departure of certain tourism spots, hordes of dishevelled locals, nevermind the age, would cluster around us for donations. Part of the reason my Dad was so eager to change his USD into the local currency was to give out donations he sees prompt along the way. The problem, we knew long ago, was that such actions only invited more begging.
The boat ride was rather monotonous. What were interesting are the settlements peppered around the lake. They are literally living on a river without much proper sanitations and accomodational structures. The kids could not care less. Naked and bare-footed, they roll, they swim, they chase within the mud and in the water. Could one’s wealth buy that? They are not worse than any of us in fact, for they are kicking and alive, YET happy. Who is the winner?
Skiing along the lake brought us to a "kelong-stop", which frankly speaking I am totally clueless about the existence of that stop and the reason for it. Alligators (or crocodiles, I could not tell the difference) are bred there, maybe as a source of food. But what I know was that the snack we had during the stop over was rather unforgettable! Steamed (presumbly) mini-prawns, or shrimps! Simply delicious! Fresh and sweet. The aromatic juice of the invertebrates sucked together with the special dressing of sort seemingly unique to Cambodia made our day. The dressing’s sharp zing of saltiness and soury bit was sealing perfectly with the seafood flavour of the shrimps.
Nothing special on the way back to boarding of our mini van, except the local kids brought to us shocks of our day. Every individual one of us had our face captured, in the most candid manner, and imprinted onto ceramic saucer plates, with decorative motifs around the photo. Served as a momento, it cost USD3 each. Only my Dad bought his. Brilliance of candids, they are definitely masters in their own rights. I am kinda shell-shocked.
Dinner was too early for the day, so we were brought to a local night market for some light shopping. Understandably, there is always a reason why it was called "night market". People normally would not schedule a night market shopping on a time they already deemed is too early for dinner. Instead of experiencing the bustle of such markets, we had a rather quiet moment to our own. So unique.
Dinner was great. All meals were fantastic throughout the trip. My family thought they were quite oily. I am fine with it. Gigantic servings, we could not finish, we were guilty.
First day was so relax and free. I could not help but compare it to the hectic schedule I had to follow on my Western Australia trip. However, this pace should be suiting my parents quite well. And so the tour guide suggested to us to have some massaging to while away the early night, as well as to prepare our body for the next day taxing timetables of visit to the Ang Kor Wat. I am more tense to hear his suggestion. My slip-disc had given me some of the worse experience and pain I could hardly forget up till my current living meter. The thought of such untimely relapse due to possible "unprofessional" (assumptions) pressings and knucklings on my back was just so unimaginable. Suddenly, family pressure, instead of peer pressure, was something I felt for the first time. As I did not wish to strip away the enjoyment for my family, I agreed to it, ONLY to have it done to my feet.
The parlour (I hope that’s the correct/healthy word) is one of the biggest and "cleanest" in Siem Reap, at least that was what the tour guide told us. They greeted us like VVIPs upon entering and led us to a dim, but huge room, with each individual sections divided with curtains. Males and females are separated only by the curtains. It was a requirement to change into a bathing suit of sort which I did not follow for my feet were the only massagable areas.
In summary, the feeling was good, albeit some postures and massaging techniques were interesting appalling.
Breakfast for 2nd day was simple but good. We had a well-rested night throughout, probably due to the massage, as we start the day fresh visiting a wonder of the world. One of the highlights of the trip, Ang Kor Wat was much eagerly anticipated by all of us.
Ang Kor Wat is astonishingly considered more of an archaelogical site than monument, as we were told, because up till now this wonderful ancient kingdom of temples and cities are still deep in the forest or someway in the ground to be discovered. With that in mind, imagine the extensiveness of the full complete structure if the current, surfaced relics are considered humongous, understandably with visiting pass of up to a week (or a month) for sale.
Sculptures, carvings, statues. All made of stones. Extreme engineering, exemplarary feat, extraordinary architecture… Although I did not bring my photographic sense of sight to this trip (just wanna enjoy holidays with family), the pictures, however mediocre some may be, should still be enough to illustrate the grandeur than sometimes meaningless adjectives.
The whole of 2nd day was nothing but Ang Kor Wat. Maybe to my 2 sisters it might have a little extra. They bought a hat each, to their delight, at one stop-over break at some local roadside stalls. The itinerary ended with a view of the sunset in Siem Reap. What was initially thought to be an excuisite orange yolk setting behind the backdrop of the the famous Ang Kor "skyline" was nothing more than a normal sunset over a generic bird’s eye view of Siem Reap plains. But to count our blessings, the weather had been fantastic for the whole day. Still, the hardwork of trekking up the hill and climbing some steep elevated stone steps to catch something Changi Beach could offer was not comforting, especially for my parents.
Dinner was another buffet! Delicious. Period. The bitter part before the meal was when I realised the ISO setting I was shooting for my Fuji Velvia 100 slides was 1600! Terribly sunken. I specially bought Velvia to test out the rich colour saturation, especially so applicable on days like that when the sky was deep hue of blue with awesome landscapes. And I made this schoolboy (not that I am not a schoolboy) noobish mistake. I was switching between Fuji Neopan 1600 B&W and Velvia 100 as and when the situations called. The ISO setting was totally overlooked because of this! 4 stops of difference! All shots taken at Ang Kor Wat with Velvia were underexposed by 4 crazy stops!! And it was not as if I could always spend the time to reshoot again as and when I could. ARGH!!
There were performances of traditional Cambodian dances during dinner. Graceful.
To cap the night off, Spurs lost 1-0 to Wolves. Unbelievable. I did not have a good night sleep. Too much things on my mind. The need to wake up so early the next day for the trip down to Phnom Penh did not help.
More of the photos can be viewed at my facebook album.
So soon another travel when Western Australia road trip was still etched fresh in my mind. Somehow everythings seemed untimely. Unless I keep this blog private, no point for me to divulge why it was untimely, then no point I would blog in the first place.
Flight timing was damn early, at 7.55am! Check-in timing would mean 5.55am! Choatic waking-up of my family members (yeah, forgot to mention this was a family trip) would thus be 4+am! My mum was the real deal, 3+am alarm clock sounded, when I was just only about to sleep! ZzzZZzzzzZ But no regrets. If you are reading this, I owed you this, “thanks”.
Long check-in queues were no surprise at Terminal 2. My mood and handphone were just as unsettling as the luggages being channelled along the conveyor. No pain no gain, no wait no faith. (No link, so don’t bother)
Wanton mee for breakfast at Terminal 3 seemed to be our ritual when we depart early for holidays in flights. The feelings of going with family members and with friends in travelling are just so different. But I had to be happier for I am together with my dearest people in my life. So shut that particular vacancy in my mind for some days and enjoy the closest companionship my life just got another chance to have, I fxxkingly told myself. I tried.
So preoccupied was I nothing special happened for me to take note of. After some snapping of pictures within the airport, 7.55am sharp SilkAir took off. M1 registered my last SMS 10 minutes prior and boom, airplane mode. Period.
Took no photos at all with my DSLR. All these were courtesy of my sisters’ cameras. Just a wee bit more photos for intro here in my facebook album.
Day 7 was early. I was shivering in bed on the upper deck. I did not bother to check the time. Neither did I bother to find out why the heater below was so poor in keeping me warm, when I thought this last night should be the best I would be spending in Western Australia.
It could not be help I guess. Margaret River was surprisingly cold. The night before while I was out to take stars exposures, I had to don my gloves on, the first occasion in the entire trip for me to do so. It was no doubt warmer in the morning. But our car parked outside the gate returning the key for our early check out said it all. It was like a metal meat brought out of the freezer thawing.
Budgeting done the night before showed us we had quite a substantial amount to spend for this last day before we departed for Singapore at 11.15pm. Good food would be our best bet. Our dinner got to be spent with Lester and Baoqi as well. About a 3-hour journey from Margaret River to Perth with more destinations to reach in between spell out the itinerary in between.
Urban Bean was our breakfast place. Directed again by Lonely Planet, it was an affordable meal, if not a filling meal, in Margaret River. Why I said that was because comparing to Keyuan’s order, Vincent’s and mine looked appetising and fulfilling. Streets were clear, so was the sky. Enjoying the breakfast in the cool sunny morning was heavenly. Talking about blending in with the locals, we seemed to do it at this very last day!
We headed back to the route taking us to Augusta. Although kinda inflexible, our budget allowed us to visit Jewel Cave, which cost AD$19.50 per entry! And Vincent and Keyuan were rather keen to visit. Having visited some caves in China Beijing and Vietnam Halong Bay, I somehow concluded all caves in the world are rather similar. Jewel Caves did not prove my hypothesis wrong either.
Jewel Cave was interesting only because the guide managed to create some interactivity with us by playing with the light switches. Maybe it scored in the area of injecting adventure as well since their walkway constructions were not too easy to navigate. But I was hoping the lightings could be more colourful with variations. It would result in more beautiful photographic shots for the tourists. And this brought me to another issue which disallowed me to use tripod while inside the cave. For what reasons I could not fathom.
Drove back up north again, this time we went to Chocolate Factory. Slowly we began to see more cars gathered. At least we were looking like really visiting some tourism spots. A short tour had to be done. Too much time was spent on Jewel Cave and upon reaching Chocolate Factory it was around 12.35pm. Anyway, it was just like a routine shopping stop with chocolates being the only products found to be purchased. But still, the adults would not mind, much less the kids!
Margaret River region is famous for their wineries. Practically it seemed impossible to gauge which one would be the best to visit with cellars and vineyards scattering so densely around the region. Clairault was what Keyuan chose in the end. Like our visit to the Chocolate Factory, free samples were given. Most will know I am more interested in this than chocolates! Cocktails are my field of interest. For wine, I still have a long way to go to fully understand the appreciation. After 3 samplings of Shiraz, Port and Riesling each, I guessed the owner could tell what a newbie we were.
Packed my Riesling into the car, we wrapped up our journey of Margaret River and continued heading North to Busselton. We looked well on time as it was 1+pm as we left for Busselton. But to reach Perth city around evening at 6+pm, we got to leave where ever we are at 3pm, the latest, and begin travelling back which can take 3+ hours.
The weather had been at its best all day. There was no clouds at all. Absolutely no clouds! Our visit to Busselton Jetty was only spoilt by the ongoing constructions midway through the jetty. If only we could go all the way to the end of the Jetty which was 1.8+km in length, we would be able to proclaim another ‘feat’ of landing ourselves on the ‘Longest Jetty in the Southern Hemisphere’!
There had the most crowd in a place of interest we had seen in our entire travel. As I mentioned earlier, blending in with the crowds was crucial, and especially in travels, you might more often be able to find good stuffs you otherwise might miss in places devoid of humans. So the gems we unearthed was actually ice cream! Held in hand by most people in and out of the jetty, ice cream had become our lunch.
Time was well clocked. Estimated time of arrival showed 6.15pm. We knew we had reached the end of our Southern Curl. Looking at the sceneries passing us as we travelled the final phase of this adventure was a reality strike. The heavenly feel of travel inevitably ends prematurely, always, with a hit of stressful realisation that routines will soon resume. As vistas and lawns of countryside sped past us, I seemed to think the past 7 days had only begun yesterday. You never feel the time until the end of a time frame.
We chased sunset once more on our way back to Perth. I was in 2 minds on where and when to stop along the highway. Either the rays were still harsh on my lens, or the foreground was not as good as the last we past by. I was in contemplation. I mentioned before missing a sunset was not the end of the world. But missing it the last time in Western Australia with time in my control would be a slap in the face. Vincent pulled ahead immediately at my request. After running straight to the fence, shutters were clicking non-stop. I felt I lost a minute or two. A sun setting does so real quick. Half of the ‘yolk’ had already been buried below the horizon. The silhouettes of the trees I loved to include in the frame could only make up that much.
So be it. I knew I cannot expect to be rewarded with such wishy-washiness. For I needed 3 days to fill my 8GB memory card, it took me less than half an hour snapping away a 2GB card inside the car out of the window, with the hope of salvaging some sunset frames. Fat hope.
Arriving at Perth was exciting for the first day. Arriving there again was terrible for the last day. After picking up Lester and Baoqi from their apartment, we cruised to their recommendation site for our dinner. 3 huge pizzas were shared amongst us 1 hour later.
Time was short. Immediately after our dinner, we proceeded to their campus for a shot of group photo in front of the main tower (or hall). It seemed to be a tourist attraction anyway, so why not? Last stop of our tour got to be a finale glimpse of the city we landed. Atop the hills at Kings Park was where everybody jumped about. The excitement was only secondary. Main reason was to fight the chilling wind!
Soon after snapping the night panoramic view of Perth city skyline below, both on my camera and on my mind, another group photo in front of the cityscape was the last frame my camera was exposed for this trip.
All was too familiar back at the airport. Returning the car was so swift we kinda regretted not renting it right from the first day of the tour. Got my liqueur. Checked. No souvenirs to be bought at the airport. Checked. Stomach filled. Not bothering me. The timing of the flight was just nice for me to pay back the sleep debt I was already in at Margaret River.
Day 8 at Changi Airport was cold. Place was cold. People were cold. Probably too early. Still, a quick wash up was done and we proceeded straight for a local breakfast (wanton mee!) after our DFS shopping was done.
My parents were expected to show up, despite my constant persuasion to them that the time could be well spent sleeping at home. I did not like the idea still, as I would be kinda stressful eating my breakfast while they were waiting. Fetching home from holidays at airport seemed like a ritual to them. But you cannot deny the fact of how relieve you will be, seeing your kin at the airport after so long away from home.
To cap this entire tour with a sour note, I lost my ice wine worth S$69! With things happening so fast, I only realised my ice wine was not in the cab after a mile away from the arrival hall. The cab driver was “kind” enough to bring me back, allowing me to ask the uncles handling the trolleys if I missed it there. What I remembered was the driver was very helpful in loading my luggage up the trunk of the cab and he actually gave the trolley a hard push away. I am quite sure the ice wine was not left there after giving it a second look before I left. I did not doubt the integrity of the staffs at the airport as well. That could only bring the suspect to one person.
I swear the ice wine was in my trolley before I board the cab….
Anyway, last few photos for the final Day 7 & 8 of the trip are here in my Facebook album.