Get Arty Bug

My recent trip to Australia was an ultimately refreshing experience, the best vacation I ever had, truly. Despite being only two weeks I covered three of the major cities on the mainland during the first week of my trip with my best bud, Faz. Sydney was our first stop and we stayed there for 2D3N followed by Gold Coast (which is my absolute FAVOURITE PLACE of the whole trip) for 3D3N and the last location I went to with Faz was Melbourne in which we stayed for 2D2N and then we went our separate ways whereby she headed home and I headed over to TASMANIA for a week! In total i took 6 flights within a span of 2 weeks which is pretty crazy! It went like: Singapore - Sydney - Gold Coast - Melbourne - Hobart - Sydney - Singapore. The only time I really loathe flying was when I was returning back to Singapore alone in a 9 hour plus journey, not including a 3 hour transit waiting time at Sydney airport. Other than that I feel that it's just like another public transport, just more protocols to it.

Packing For Winter
It was winter time while I was in Australia from 28 July to 13 August which I like since it's something really different from always being in the sweltering heat back at home. Knowing that temperatures could go down to a chilly 4 degrees Celsius, i wasn't taking any chances and brought along lots of long sleeve tops, knee-high boots, thick jackets, thick shawl, extra-thick leggings and long johns, and also a pack of self-heating packets that just began to slowly heats itself up upon opening of its wrapper. Such a curious little thing but they helped me to stop myself from shivering simply by grabbing onto it-a comforting warm object. All these things took up a lot of space and I went there with an almost full luggage weighing close to 19kg. Kinda paranoid? Yes. Turns out I could do without some of the things like my long johns i bought from Winter Time and they were expensive! My long sleeve top from Uniqlo could do just fine for sleeping in. And the $2 Daiso gloves I bought were useful on a few occasions though when the breeze would just make my exposed hands go numb, though observing the residents there, they would just stick their hands in the front pockets of their jackets to keep them warm and hardly anyone there wears gloves. My Daiso snowcap/beanie turns out to be utterly useless as well. After all, I did some shopping there and certain outlets will have great deals for jackets, some offered luxurious looking or pretty ones. So traveling light is always a good idea- just to make the extra space for purchases made there and to make it easier to carry around the luggage since not all transfer services offer good services like carrying the bags for us while boarding and alighting. I particularly enjoyed the winter there because of the fact that I hardly ever felt sweaty despite walking around so much and it's also less tiring and it makes me motivated to keep on exploring around.

Sydney
We stayed at Wake Up! Backpackers in a 6-bed female dorm. There was no one in the room when we came in but some of the beds appeared to be occupied by belongings and there were bags n luggage on the floor. I felt like an intruder but i guess staying in a backpackers place requires trust that others won't mess about with your stuff. There were also a couple of small lockers in the room for each occupant with a latch to attach your own lock. So you basically pick whatever bed or locker that is not occupied and we were told that upon checking out, we were supposed to bring down the pillowcase we used. My initial thought about bringing down the pillowcase was that the receptionist was trying to pull our legs into doing something embarrassing but he was like "Why are you laughing?" in a really confused manner. We've never experienced or needed to do such things before in other hotels so it sounded pretty odd at that moment. I then realized that this was to help them determine which bed we had occupied for the cleaning up of the bed sheets after we checked out.

Blue Mountains!
Faz managed to source for a great deal for a day of guided tour of the Blue Mountains at $55 per pax. We went trekking through the rainforest starting from the top of the Blue Mountain and worked our way down the rainforest to a Skytrain ($11) point that would take us up back to where we began. Along the route down, we passed by several scenic waterfalls, echo points, well known cliffs such as the three sisters and also an abandoned coal mine. I even caught sight of beautiful wild cockatoos in the trees and also a couple of them flying around. Pretty amazing to see them in their natural habitat and I could spot them even from far away because their whiteness really stands out amongst the greenery and also the distinctive silhouette of their crown. The tour guide we had, Jim, was really informative, sharing his knowledge about the plants such as the yellow bottlebrush whose seeds could only be dispersed after the onset of a forest fire. He said that Australia such such a unique ecosystem in which fire is part of it and that it plays an important role in the sustenance of the yellow bottlebrush. He also showed us some spiky looking leaves of the eucalyptus plant which existed since prehistoric, dinosaur times and how it's form allowed it to survive in harsh conditions til today. Sandwich shop at the top. bought for lunch.

Aroma Festival @ The Rocks!
The next day, via a $2 bus ride, we headed down to this amazing Aroma Festival. Several roads were closed down to make way for stalls mainly selling freshly brewed coffee, and others that offers organic products such as flavored teas, cooking condiments like the peri peri marinating sauce and weirder stuff like chilli raspberry sauce meant for cooking. Anyway it was here that I had the best ever cup of mocha cappuccino- which had a really nice chocolate taste. Danes was recommended by one of the tea sellers to have really good coffee and we bought some from them in which they freshly ground the coffee beans upon request. The place was pretty crowded and lively and amidst the hustle and bustle, but we found a little gem of a shop amongst the rows of shophouses alongside the booths. And it was...

TEA COSY!
It was kind of by chance that we were tired and hungry that we just decided to crash the nearest teahouse that we saw and it turns out to be a nice little hidden haven. Its interior ambience was warm and friendly, decorated with authentic looking vintage/country decor, and had outdoor seating in its quaint backyard which had this fall season kind of ambience with its cool fresh air, brown wooden fence and barrel-color scheme. Even their teapots were covered by cute knitted teapot warmers with faces and character like appearances. We had generous-sized scones with delicious peach jelly, apple jelly and cream which were simply heavenly. Totally love this place! Apparently it is pretty popular as seen by a newspaper article that they had been featured. They had put up on their wall in the backyard. Their staff said that usually they were not so busy on normal days and that it was the Aroma Festival that had brought in so much crowd. As said by Faz, a scone fanatic, it's definitely much better than TWG!

Sydney Opera House
Nearby was the iconic Sydney Opera House which we visited pretty late so there weren't any plays showing that night anymore. But we did drop by its ladies room which turned out to be pretty interesting! It had LOTS of mirrors and each one of them were surrounded by bulbs, like the ones classic vanity mirrors had for actresses in the bygone era. Outside the Sydney Opera House were a few eateries facing the sea. We had some really good food like truffle fries and grilled fish complimented by hot tea. The eatery had a nice outdoor chill out ambience at night with soft cushioned seats by the waterfront (a little like the outside of SG's Esplanade but with cold fresh air, cushioned seats and more laid back pace and peaceful calm atmosphere), dim lighting, lamp fire warmers and a live band playing nearby. The seats are backed by the waterfront's wall which was sloped so you could just lean back on it and stargaze into the night sky. A pretty romantic spot actually.

SES outlets
We then headed back to our hotel's area and stumbled upon a reasonably priced fashion outlet called SES. Although it could be found quite commonly in the other cities I've been to, the outlet in Sydney had the most variety. On average dresses range from $20+ and luxurious looking jackets and trench coats that appeared to cost hundreds of dollars costs about $30+. Apparently the clothes are all made in China and the workers across all the outlets are Korean- just an observation I made.

Paddy's Market
Paddy's Market is somewhat like Bugis Village but it's 'indoors' as in fully sheltered, has more spacious walkway and less crowded. The best deals you could get at Paddy's Market are probably jewelry, accessories and LUGGAGES! Cheap huge luggages are about $30 and considering it could carry around Faz's stuff of 23kg without any problem, I suppose it's of good quality. There were lots of UGG- Australian made shoes as well but I wouldn't be so sure if they were the originals despite still being expensive there. As for apparels, it can't beat Bugis Village in terms of variety and price as seen from the quality of clothes they sell.

Gold Coast
I LOVE GOLD COAST! My first impression of the place while I was in the transfer bus on the way to the hotel was just excitement looking at the endless stretch of beaches with white sands and beautiful blue waters and the bright and sunny weather! It looks like how Miami appears on TV. The weather was not as cold as Sydney and I could afford to walk around wearing fewer layers though the cold breeze would catch me off guard with the sudden chill. Still, it was warm enough in mid afternoon with women sunbathing in their bikinis, people swimming and jogging in their trunks. Though temperatures will start to dip quickly from 4pm onwards as they have an earlier sunset. The best part about Gold Coast was...

Shore Apartments!
I a bit skeptical when our friendly transfer bus driver told us that Shore Apartments was really good but got excited when the receptionist gave us the top floor room on the 14th floor. The moment we stepped in, we just went berserk because the place was simply THAT gorgeous with sunlight streaming in through the large windows of the living room, bedroom and open air balcony, brightening up the entire place naturally. Best of all, was the beautiful vast sea view visible from every window of the apartment and it stretches all the way as far as the eyes can see, putting my mind at ease. It was also a spacious apartment that is well equipped just like a real home. It would really be a dream home of mine to live in such a place as it really feels complete and it's the perfect location at Ocean Avenue, where it is less than a 5 min walk from the beach. It's kitchen provides an electric stove, utensils, pots and pans, dishes, whisking utensils, basically, everything you'd need and sufficient enough to host a house party. It's interior is modern and sleek with a blue colored theme perhaps to complement the colors of the sea and sky with framed stylized paintings of a beach scene on the walls and seashells and sand in a glass vase placed on the sink of it's bathroom. As for the bedroom, it has full length mirrored cupboard doors which is also a plus for us girls. Every morning, warm reddish-orange sunrise would stream into our bedroom and it's a lovely and ethereal sight to wake up to, looking at the sun slowly appearing and rising from behind the sea majestically, in which time just appeared to stand still at that moment. They also provided a fan heater with came in as a need for me as night time proved to be extremely cold that I'd place the heater on my bedside table directed towards my face. After a few hours it will effectively warm up the bedroom such that the moment you open the bedroom door, you could feel the chilly air from outside seeping in. It's really the opposite experience from Singapore whereby you'd stay indoors in a cold air-conditioned room to escape the heat outdoors. It is pretty much a safe and well secured place whereby we were issued with a key to operate the lift and the main entrance door at night. Overall it is a steal to get a room at Shore Apartments at $200+ for 3 nights. From our apartment we walked to Surfer's Paradise to do groceries shopping at Coles and tried their gelatos. Passionfruit flavour was pretty interesting whereby there are crunchy bits of passionfruit seeds.

We purchased a package for entrances to Whitewater World, Dreamworld and SkyPoint. The good thing about going to these places in Winter is that there are not much queus to rides and the weather is still cool and comfortable.

WhiteWater World
The scariest, most thrilling and memorable ride in WhiteWater World has to be the Wedgie. You'd enter a capsule alone and brace yourself in standing position while the ride operator with speak through a microphone to let you hear him counting down as though a rocket is about to be launched. A latch door at the bottom of your feet will then suddenly be released and you'd free fall into a long yellow slide at ridiculous speed, choking on water for a few seconds when you screamed during the suicidal drop, and at the end of the slide, there is a lifeguard watching as you and you can't escape the embarassment of trying to remove your wedgie while exiting the ride. It's just crazy and it's the only time I'd ever experience free falling for the longest time while half naked, without any safety attachments whatsoever. After this ride though, everything else seems less scary.

Dreamworld
It's here that i got to carry a baby koala bear! Once the keeper placed it on my chest it just hung on naturally with my arm supporting its bum like a baby. Soooo terribly cute! Soooo furry! If it weren't for some movements of its claws on my shoulder and arm that clenches and relaxes every once in awhile, it's just like carrying a soft toy. Simply precious, so in love with it! It's part of the theme park's Wildlife Experience and we also got to feed and pet friendly kangaroos and joeys that were just chillin' around all over the place. I was reluctant to touch them at first having the idea in mind that kangaroos could just punch you in the face like pro boxers but they were nothing like that. They were really domesticated, harmless and will just eat food from the palm of your hands. It was a heartwarming to end the day at Dreamworld after the heart-pumping rides like The Claw which swung us around in 360 degrees at high speeds, The Tower of Terror and free-falling 39 storeys (how crazy is that?!) down the Giant Drop whereby we were strapped on seats that fell so fast that limbs would just flail upwards while we were falling down. Being at the very top where it was pitch silent except for the nervous giggling of others, I was filled with a mixed feeling of calm and serenity looking at the scenery of the entire theme park and more at bird's eye view and also with fear of the impending drop. Makes me wonder if this is this how you feel when you know that you're about to die? It's just like surrendering yourself helplessly to whatever that comes. Ultimately it's the best theme park ride ever!

Melbourne
The moment we reached this city, I could feel its busy, hectic atmosphere with lots of traffic and presence of international people. Though it has its own unique appeal with many magnificent historical buildings, beautiful architecture, for one, The Sebel, where we stayed in. It's those genuinely extravagant, glamorous kind of buildings with high ceilings, huge crystal chandeliers and Victorian-styled everything from furniture to wallpapers to carpeting.

Dinner and Desert
Faz had a friend in Melbourne who kindly drove and treated us to dinner and dessert. He brought us to a restaurant in the only mall which opened til late- the one with the Casino in it. This was where I was lucky to have the best oysters in the world as my first ever oyster experience. Usually I'm turned off by raw meat but i decided to give it a try since they mostly look kinda white, clean and harmless. I didn't expect it to taste really refreshing with little aftertaste especially with lemon juice. Prior to this I thought that oysters would taste like cockles, which i truly hate by the way, but to my surprise these oysters were totally not disgusting and pretty nice though having two would be enough for me. Thankfully they were really good and fresh oysters otherwise I'd avoid oysters for the rest of my life. As for desert we went to Koko Chocolates wich is a lovely place where I had soy hot chocolate and Faz ordered a desert with poached pears and ice cream.

Melbourne International Film Festival- "The Woman"
We booked tickets to watch The Women. It's darkly humorous and pretty much disturbing, raw and it's images lingers in the mind. After the screening there was an informal speech and interview with the director and lead actress who had a challenging role acting as a wild, uncivilized, cannibalistic woman who was captured from the forest and attempted to be tamed by a man who had his family involved in the process. It's an art film that just sticks in your memory and never dies, unfortunately.

Brunetti's
We headed this Italian pastry/bakery/coffee place specifically from an in-flight magazine's feature and recommendation. It had an impressive range, with long rows of choices of pastries, cakes and sweet delights. It's more of a visual treat being there though palate-wise, I expected the pastries to taste better. Or it could just be that we didn't choose the best pastries out of the large variety since we only had 3 different kinds.

The Block Arcade
This is a heritage building with authentic old-charm appeal that was bulit in the 1800s following a Victorian Mannerist style (thank you Wikipedia!). This is where we visited yet another elegant and posh cafe called Hopetoun Tea Rooms for breakfast on our last day in Melbourne. We had scones and tea but were still tempted after looking at their window displays of pretty cakes. Haigh's Chocolates was within the Block Arcade as well which was like a chocolate wonderland with chocolate bunnies, licorice sticks, sauce, gifts, and anything chocolate you'd need and want.. Their staffs were all professionally dressed in white aprons and hats. The cashier who served us was really nice in offering to wrap our purchases in bubble wraps and nice layers of beautiful packaging.

National Gallery of Victoria
Despite the rain and drizzle and few hours remaining before our flights, we managed to brave through the gloomy weather to walk to one of Melbourne's art museum to see the exhibition on Vienna's Art & Design with works by artists such as Klimt, Shiele, Hoffman and Loos. It's a great opportunity that I didn't want to miss to look at the masterpieces up close and see every detail, stroke, texture and the gleam of mediums used that shines differently from every angle. I love the intricate drawings, impressive paintings, even furniture, ornaments and accessories. It is amazing that art could relate so much to a place's changing history and offer so much richness of knowledge and understanding of it's culture. I really wanted to read up more into the works and bought the exhibition's thick and heavy catalogue with colored photographs and write-ups, unfortunately it got left behind in Tasmania and I'll probably only be able to get it back in November. Felt like a part of my heart is left there and I'm anticipating it's return to me so that I could relive and remember my experience of gazing into the works especially since photographs were not allowed to be taken in the exhibition.

Tasmania
When i first exited Hobart's airport clearance and was focused in looking for the conveyor belt that would have my luggage, a tall figure stood in my way directly in front of me. So tall that his face was out of my sight and after being in Australia for awhile, I was used to all the Caucasians towering over me. I didn't realize that it was my boyfriend! So he totally caught me off guard and for awhile I was standing there a bit confused while looking up at him for a few seconds until he hugged me. His hair was longer and he lost a lot of weight and it's also because I didn't expect to see him so soon as I didn't know that the luggage collection area was open to the public, unlike other airports where the luggage were only accessible by passengers, so I expected to only see him only after getting out of there. Nevertheless, it felt like we hadn't been apart at all. It's really ironic... it's not the ultimately euphoric moment I had pictured it to be especially after being apart for so long and considering how I had embarrassingly bawled my eyes out at the airport when he left (yes in front of everyone including his relatives). It was a deeper joy and gladness that he was there and we picked up from where we left off that it felt familiar and complete like I was meant to be there despite me being in a totally foreign place. Probably surreal would be a good way to describe it.

It was drizzling and cold outside while we walked to the airport's carpark and while he was driving, the glass fogged up on the inside. I remembered looking at the intermittent scenery of oceans, hilly terrain and forest we passed by and it was captivating. Tasmania has it's own natural appeal unlike any of the cities I've visited.

When we reached his apartment, one of the first things i noticed was the entirely carpeted flooring, it's fluffy texture and softness like sheep's fur. Something which was really needed for the cold weather. The best thing about his place must be the view, as it's directly facing a sea dock and Yacht Club where all the boats were parked. It's basically just across the road, a distance less than a hundred steps to the dock and I was just thinking that he's so lucky to live there. His living room which has large, wide windows from end to end is a perfect place to paint a scenery of the bay. Even the Casino, the tallest building in Tasmania (though it isn't exactly that tall) could be seen from his living room. It's just a spectacular view. His place is just about 15-20min walk to the Casino and we went there on two nights to get some complimentary hot chocolate drinks, teas and coffee dispensed by a vending machine.

The first night I was there was on Saturday, the 6th of August, 3 days shy of Singapore's actual national day. Singapore Night was celebrated by his school on that Saturday itself, at Grand Chancellor Hotel, by Singaporean and Malaysian students. He was one of the two emcees for the event and he did a really great job despite only being briefed about the sequence of events less than a few hours before starting. I was accompanied by some of his closest friends during the event and also throughout my stay in Tasmania. They were great hosts in showing me around Tasmania, making me feel at home and getting to know the real experience of living and surviving there. I was really well taken care of over in Tasmania because of them as well and is highly appreciative of that. Wanted to leave them some thank you notes before leaving but it was such a rush during the last day but they made it memorable for me as well.

Village cinema
My boyfriend and I watched Captain America in 3D at a Village Cinema. The cinemas there are free seating and you'd have to buy your own 3D glasses at $1. The ticket prices were really expensive so it was probably no surprise that other than us, there was only another group of people watching the movie in the same cinema, so I guess that's why seating arrangements were not required.

Shiploads
My trip in Tasmania were mostly going about daily activities like buying groceries and looking for Halal poultry and meat. While driving around we did discover places with great deals such as a warehouse called 'Shiploads' that sells chocolates ,snacks,home stuff like furniture and cosmetics at great prices. They do not even pack your purchases in plastic bags but reuse cardboard boxes instead to put your products in, should you need one, which is really environmentally friendly. Something which Singapore could probably learn from. I was really attracted to a pink, crocodile-leather textured luggage about 50cm in height and costs about AUD30+. It was very cute but I just had to let it go thinking that I can't handle dragging two luggage home on my own. I won't have any space for it at home anyway.

Iftar at University of Tasmania
I was there during the fasting month of Ramadhan and had the opportunity to experience this event of breaking fast together for Muslims and non-Muslims to join in as well. Funnily enough though, the school was having an official beer festival at the podium and it was such a stark contrast of environments after having to walk through these crowds of people partying and drinking in order to reach the stairs that would lead us to the main hall where the religious Iftar event was held. Food such as delicious Briyani was prepared and served by international students and a section of the hall was dedicated to the men for praying with prayer mats laid out. On every table were plates of dates, fruits and bread as well. Bookmarks and small, pocket-sized Qurans with English translations were also given away complimentarily. I'm happy to see that Islam is practiced there in a manner that is open and welcoming, even to non-muslims, so that people could actually see how it is actually practiced and reduce the kind of misconceptions about Islam brought about by the media, which usually choose to portray it negatively.

MONA
MONA is the Museum of New and Old Art and it's still relatively new, having only opened earlier this year. Entrance to the entire museum is free however they would start charging something this coming October as their operations costs millions to maintain. It had an incredible architecture with underground levels that still retain the naturalness with its walls being the actual rock it had been excavated from. We we given iPods with headphones to accompany us during the journey there whereby it will provide information on the artworks by automatically detecting which artworks are nearest to our position. We could also 'save' our journey whereby it'll detect which artworks we'd already seen and it could then be retrieved form it's website. The iPod also allows you to rate whether you like the artwork or otherwise and would give you a result of how many others liked it as well by relating it quirkily and suggestively in phrases such as "41251 others wanked to this artwork". I guess it's also in line with one of it's popular resident works called "Cunts... and other conversations" by Greg Taylor and friends which are basically rows of 150 porcelain sculptures of actual women's...parts, from real women of diverse backgrounds. Despite having a controversial and vulgar surface, the work deal with deeper social issues such as awareness of women's diversity in sexuality and bodies. Quoted from the MONA website, "All of them want one thing: for young women to be free of growing up with fear, ignorance and loathing of their bodies and sexuality". The iPod also syncs with video installations that require audio to experience and would play it concurrently through the headphones. There are several impressive and fun interactive works such as a vertical human scanner called Touchme by Kousemaker and Olden whereby you could leave an imprint by pressing a button on the large touchscreen. It'll look like someone has squashed themselves against a glass wonder from the other side and it would project humorous images of the scans of others. Other interactive work which I liked was "Shadow 3" by Shilpa Gupta and also "Life Writer" by Mignonneau and Sommerer. There was a queue to enter a particular mysterious place where only 2 people were allowed to enter each time to get the full experience of the artwork. I won't spoil it for you by saying what it is though just in case you're going to visit it.

Salamanca Place
There are several cafes, pubs and eateries here such as Banjo's that had a really rich and sinful Chocolate mudpie and raisin scones that come in a cheap price of AUD6 for half a dozen. Their coffee was good too. Another cafe I tried was Bakehouse which was opened 24hrs and I tried their version of the Chocolate Mudpie. The lady working there was kind enough to reheat my cake when he overheard me saying that I'd prefer it to be warmer which really made it nicer.

We had Cargo's home made ice-cream during one of the cold nights. You might think it's crazy to have ice cream when the weather is freezing but it's good because they give it generously on a cone since it won't melt and cause the discomfort of dripping onto your hands. After finishing the ice cream, the weather doesn't feel as cold anymore as well. However if you just had a warm meal indoors, the moment you step out, you'll shiver. For example I had some really nice and hot Fish and ships indoors at Chipper's and the moment I step out, the cold just overwhelms me and I can't stop shivering. So basically if you wanna acclimatize, don't try to fight it!

Domino's pizza
For supper during my last night there, I treated them to some Domino's takeaway pizza which they love. After ordering it over the phone, we drove over to its outlet to collect it. Apparently it's quite good over there.

Salamanca Market
I visited this market with my boyfriend and his friends just hours before my flight as it is a open air flea market that only opens on Saturdays. They have unique handmade goods, fruits/veggies, second-hand books,ice creams, jewelry and buskers. Managed to grab a couple of small items but the rest were kinda expensive and I didn't have much time to look around. We basically had to rush to the airport fearing that I'd miss the luggage check in. Thankfully the flight was slightly delayed and this was the second time that I had actually benefitted from flight delays. It gave us some time to relax at the airport for awhile.

Goodbyes are never easy but I tried hard not to look back while walking towards the plane.

I'm holding on to these memories tightly by writing from what I could recall from my trip and hopefully, from time to time, i could read it over again and realize that this unbelievable trip actually happened and that I really did have an amazing experience. Lastly, my heartfelt thank you to all those who had been through this trip with me. May we have more wonderful experience together in future. Love you lots.

As for Halim, I'll see you soon again, my dear.