Australia: round II

Gong xi fa cai - which means two days extra leave in my world. Thank you lunar new year for allowing me to go on another holiday!

First impressions of Perth - clean, friendly, chilled. We stayed in North Bridge, at a place called Alex Hotel. It was decked out with scandi style furnishings, had a lovely roof garden breakfast/chill out area.

We spent the first day ambling around the city and did well out of Perth's various clothes shops (which are so much better than Singapore). It was warm, but not sticky like Singapore. Made a change walking around without the familiar feeling of sweat dripping!

I'd heard there's not much to do in Perth usually, but lucky for us the Fringe festival was running while as were there, showcasing musicians, dancers, comedians and a sorts of other acts. We bought tickets to see two acts later that evening - a hypnotist and some kind of bizarre cabaret.

There's a great little restaurant opposite Alex Hotel called Bivouac. Good cocktails. Great food. Especially if you find yourself in newfound vegetarian land like me..

After dinner it was Matt Hale the hypnotist who was incredible. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be hypnotised (not through lack of trying) but it was LOL hilarity watching the others all dance or speak whale to one another on stage. Highly recommend!

Straight after it was El Bizzaro - a bit of burlesque, a bit of nudity and a bit of self-mutilation. I thought it was pretty out there when a guy pushed needles through his cheeks and arms, but then a woman put a sword down her throat and another attached stirrups to rings on a man's back skin and rode him like a horse! Some other things involving his balls + a tube happened which will be engrained on my retinas forever and is just too gross to write here.

To try and forget what we had just witnessed, we found a bar with some live music and proceeded to drink and dance the night away. I can't remember where we went, but aussies sure know how to have a good time!

Despite a raging hangover, we managed to get up and have a look around Fremantle the next day. It's a pretty little town which boasts the 'roundhouse' - apparently the oldest building in Western Australia. 

Something I noticed about Aus, is that almost all women have colourful tattoos on their arms. It looks awesome. Kinda makes me want one... Although the whole 'what do I get that I won't hate in 10 years?' question always holds me back.

We drove down south along the coast towards Margaret River. Along the way we found ourselves in Bussleton. Now Bussleton is world renowned for its pier, which is the longest in the southern hemisphere and the second longest in the world. Pretty amazing eh. 

No I didn't think so either.. but it's brilliant that Bussleton have managed to make a whole tourist attraction from a pier. But we had a good time, catching the little train there and back and spotting some dolphins out at sea along the way.

Something which surprised me was that as soon as the sun goes down, it gets cold. I didn't expect that at all, but I guess I makes sense as the air is so dry, so there's no moisture to retain any heat.

We had booked an air BnB in Prevally, owned by a gorgeous Aussie/English couple, Rob and Sue, who were super friendly. It was difficult not to be over-familiar with Rob, who was the spit of Phil's Dad. Their home was lovely too with a large deck overlooking the ocean. Something I love about air BnB in general is the personal touch. Rob and Sue were able to recommend lots of places for us to go and made us feel so welcome. 

Rob also told us about the history of Prevally which was rather interesting.... An Aussie chap was fighting in Crete in WWII and sought safety at an old monastery in a town called Prevally. The Nazis left them alone as they didn't want to attack the monks which meant our Aussie friend got out safely, picked up by an English submarine. When he returned to Australia, he built the town of Prevally in honour of the Greek monks and sent the monastery money over the years.

Although I'm not sure Prevally can be classed as a town as it has just one shop and one cafe, both of which close by 8pm. Although this was kind of perfect for me who'd been dreaming of sleep all day.

We booked an all-day wine tour with Margaret River Wine Tours the following day and were picked up by Matt, the most Aussie person I've ever met. We were the only people on the tour for the morning so had a personal experience and tasted all sorts of wine from cellar doors in the area.

I would recommend the tour company, but wouldn't advise on an all-day tour - I couldn't hack more wine after lunch so the afternoon was a little wasted on me. 

We were back in time to watch the sunset at Surfers Point, watching the windsurfers doing crazy jumps and bracing ourselves against the wind. With a cloudless sky, the sunset was all sorts of gold and made everything around look beautiful. 

Saturday and our last full day on holiday. We booked a little coasteering experience with a guy called Cam on air BnB experiences. A little tamer than I had hoped, but still good fun climbing over rocks and taking leaps of faith into the foamy ocean below. Cam used to be involved in air rescue and told us a few stories about the shark attacks in the area. He also chose to tell us about the deadly blue ringed octopus that are found in the water where we swimming, just as we jumped in.

Once we finished, Cam recommended we drive over to Hamelin Bay to see sting rays, and being my favourite animal, I didn't need telling twice. We headed straight there and OH MY... Jaw dropping scenes.

There are lots of caves to explore in Margaret River, all along  the aptly named Caves Road. We chose to check out Mammoth Cave as it's self-guided, whereas some of the others you have to wait until a tour group is ready. Mammoth was interesting and bloody enormous (hence the name). The part I found most interesting was the fossils they had found of animals from millions of years ago, which were wiped out when the first humans arrived - we really are shit sometimes.

We had dinner on Margaret River high street, mainly to suss out the area. Dinner was delicious, but there really isn't much down that way. I would suggest doing what we did and staying somewhere near the ocean rather than in the centre. If you hire a car it's easy enough to get everywhere.

Initially we had planned to get up at sunrise and drive back to Fremantle, catch a ferry to Rottnest Island, meet some friendly quokers, and be back in time for our flight. Thankfully, our air BnB host warned us against this as we hadn't thought about how long it would take.  Recommendation to others - give yourself a full day/ overnight at Rottnest as the ferry is a couple of hours each way.

Instead of Rottnest, we rented a kayak and SUP from River Mouth and headed up the Margaret River. I've never seen anything quite like it - the river one one side and the ocean on the other. I'm so glad we got there, it was bloody beautiful.

Before driving back to the airport we took a little detour to Eagle Bay. Lunch at Wise Wine was delicious and the view overlooking the vineyard and the ocean wasn't too shabby either.

Before this trip I thought nothing could beat Victoria or Sydney. I have to say, Western Australia has blown me away! It's not too far from Singapore, so hopefully we'll be back again soon.

A Filipino Christmas

For the first time in our lives, Phil and I chose to spend Christmas away rather than at home with our families. It was not an easy decision for me as I love the opportunity Christmas brings to have everyone together; not to mention all the delicious food, drink and cheer. However, having been home twice already this year we thought it a good time to try something different.

A few friends had recommended Tao - a boat tour from El Nido to Coron in the Philippines. We booked the 5 night trip over Christmas followed by a few nights in the Coron area to do some diving. It was hands down one of the best things we've ever done and I can see why it comes so highly recommended.

Like most of the less touristy idyllic places, our little area of the Philippines was a bit of a mission to get to. We caught our first red-eye flight to Cebu, then a second to Puerto Princessa, then finally a 5 hour drive to El Nido.

El Nido had lovely chilled beach bars and hundreds of horny stray dogs (who woke me up very early with their noisy antics). We stayed at a cheap hotel called Ambience Place but were there less than 24 hours as the next morning we set sail on our Tao boat.

On registering for Tao you have to write a little bit about yourself and why you want to join the trip. The website makes it clear that the trip isn't for everyone and tries to arrange the groups so that 'like-minded' people are together. We were lucky in that the other 22 people were lovely and there's definitely a good bunch to keep in touch with.

Tao doesn't follow a specific itinerary or route. The boat stops at different islands throughout the day so you can snorkel, lie on the beach, play volleyball, cuddle the adorable puppy Moana, read a book, or wax lyrical with new pals.

This was our little route...

Along the way we caught some tuna from the back of the boat which was killed, prepared and eaten in all of 30 minutes. The freshest sashimi ever.

On Christmas eve we sat around a fire and sang carols. A few of us also walked around the island and shared a few songs with some local islanders which was pretty cute.

We woke up on Christmas morning like any other day of the trip. Even though I tried my hardest, it really didn't feel like Christmas at all. Not that I'm complaining, as we were in the middle of absolute paradise. 

We ended our tour in Coron and stayed at a great hotel called Coron Bay Area. The first thing I did was have a massage in my room (priorities), then headed out for drinks and dinner with the Tao crew. 

We were only in Coron town for one day and were told a typhoon was coming which would stop all tours and boats to other islands. Luckily we managed to organise a private tour to a couple of places recommended online: Twin Lagoon and Kayangan Lake. 

The Twin Lagoon was very beautiful and peaceful, but Kayangan Lake was definitely our favourite of the two.

Kayangan Lake was slightly marred by the large number of tourists there when we arrived. We began a climb up rocky steps until we reached the end of a long queue of Asian tourists. Confused why there would be a queue for a lake, I went ahead to check and it transpired that the queue was in fact for a viewing point photo opp. Crazy, but good for us as it meant we could manoeuvre around and see the lake.

The lake is well worth a swim but you need to bring a mask and snorkel with you to get the best of it. The water is crystal clear and the underwater rocks are stunning. There's also a little cave along the side which is pretty cool. 

We stayed in the lake long enough for the large numbers of tourists to disperse on their group tours. It's definitely worth doing the private option as we did as it means you can go at a less busier time and go at your own pace, and it only costs a fraction more.

We ate a lunch of fresh fish and veggies on our little boat then headed back to Coron. With a whole afternoon at our disposal, we donned our trainers and sports gear and began the 742 steps to Mount Tapyas. I was prepared for a challenge after reading another blog post about the walk, but it was fairly painless and we were at the large CORON letter in no time at all, meeting some of our fellow Tao crew at the top by chance. 

After a leisurely walk back down, we caught a 30 minute tricycle to the Maquinit Springs just in time for sunset. The Springs were wonderfully warm and the perfect place to chill out with friends as the sun went down. An hour was probably enough for us all before we turned into prunes and overheated.

There was still rumour of a fast approaching typhoon the next morning so we were slightly concerned about getting our transfer over to Sangat Island. We waited a short while in anticipation and were thrilled when we were collected and taken to the most beautiful little island resorts I've ever seen. It turned out that many of our friends weren't able to arrange any transportation off the island so we were very lucky!

I recommend alot of places, but I really cannot recommend Sangat Dive Resort enough. Even if you aren't a diver you'll have an amazing stay there, trust me. Be warned that it is a little on the pricey side, but in my opinion, very worth it.

As we arrived on the island we were greeted by some the friendliest staff I've come across, and taken up to our villa on top of the hill. It was surrounded by jungle and warned to keep our belongings inside to avoid the thieving monkeys!

We had long enough to get changed into our dive gear and we off out to dive the Morozan Maru - an English passenger liner which was captured by the imperial Japanese navy and used as an auxiliary cargo vessel during work war 2. It was sunk, along with several others in 1944. 

The next couple of days we dived the Olympia, Okiawa and Irako. All fantastic in their own right, but nothing compared to the Morozan. We dived the Morozan once more on the last day. Ducking under and over debry, squeezing ourselves into tiny gaps, swimming up in to an air pocket, and losing our dive master...

Certainly the most interesting diving I've ever done. Thanks to the typhoon stopping other travellers, we had each dive site to ourselves. I'm not sure we would have quite the same positive experience had their been other divers 20m down disturbing the haunting quiet of the wreck.

The last night of our stay was new year's eve and Sangat had arranged a huge buffet dinner, decorated the area with fairy lights, blasted the music, and arranged games for us all. It became clear that alot of the guests fancied a chilled night, but Phil and I got carried away with shots, more shots, skinny dipping and more skinny dipping.

I'm now writing this at the end of our trip and I can hands down say that this has been one of the best holidays we've had. But at the same time, it hasn't really felt like Christmas at all.

A Solo Retreat

In my 27 years I have never been on holiday alone, so I utilised some extra lieu days and booked in a three night trip to Ubud in Bali.

Friday

I arrived at Villa Ubud in the afternoon and squeezed in a Yin yoga session before dinner. It was a bit strange eating alone but it appeared that nobody else was staying at the villa. Eager to make the most of my time there I signed up for a hike up Mount Batur, leaving at 2am the next morning. Unfortunately I drank a full pot of green tea after dinner - a huge mistake as before I knew it I was up for the hike without any sleep. Who knew it contained caffeine?

Saturday

I was picked up and driven over to the base for a quick breakfast and to meet the tour group, before beginning the hike up Mount Batur. Two hours of uphill scrabbling, weaving and climbing; getting wet from the clouds and fog and not knowing how far we were from the top. It was a lot more difficult than I thought! My group summited around 5am where we had our second breakfast and quietly froze against the icy wind (top tip: bring a scarf and jacket and not make the same mistake I did).

We kept getting glimpses of the sunrise until the clouds eventually lifted and we were able to see the sun creep up out from behind. IN the end, it was worth the aching legs and cold!

The downhill trek was easier and I was back at Villa Ubud for my third breakfast in no time at all. I've never achieved so much before 9am! I had a massage followed by a second yoga session. It was all I could do to stay up for dinner then fell asleep with my book. Bliss.

Sunday

I had a different yoga instructor who really pushed me. I already feel more flexible. There's something to be said for daily yoga. I might try and get up an hour earlier each morning and fit in a session back in Singapore (I wonder how long that will last..)

After breakfast I headed into Ubud town centre and shopped, had a pedicure, drank a fresh coconut and wandered aimlessly for a couple of hours. I love the little clothes shops in Bali - such a treat compared to Singapore, and cheap too. It would have been wrong of me not to buy anything ;)

After another yoga sesh I stumbled across an awesome bar called No Mas. It didn't look like much from the front but head through a mini garden path and suddenly there's a pool with beds, deck chairs and little booths all around with vibey music and great cocktails. As Ubud is a fairly quiet town, I'd recommend going there to anyone visiting who fancies a bit of night life.

Monday

My last day and my first yoga session with other humans! Five others in fact. After yoga it was sunbathing, breakfast and off to the airport.  

I feel healthier, bendier and more relaxed after the trip... however, I was disappointed that there weren't other yogis to interact with during my stay. It's definitely the kind of retreat for those who are happy with their own company, but for others (like me), I'd recommend a different style of retreat or perhaps bring a pal along for some bants.

Malaccacacaca

A group of us booked a very impromptu weekend away in Malacca; an old Straits Settlement just 3 hours up the west coast of Malaysia. 

I had no expectations, but was rather just keen for a cheap weekend away with friends. Perhaps having no expectations was a good thing, as I was pleasantly surprised by how pretty and interesting it was.

We made a bit of a mistake by travelling up at peak hour on a Friday night. What should have been a 3 hour trip, became a 7 hour trip due to the tailback at immigration. We hired a private car for general ease, but I think getting a public bus over the border is quicker as they skip the normal queues. I would definitely recommend doing a bit of research beforehand, as holding your bladder for several hours in stationary traffic is not the one!

We arrived in the early hours to a cracking little one-floor, Air BnB house right next to Jonker Street - the city's main street.

We spent all of Saturday exploring and eating. I can't recall the names of the restaurants we went to, but Malacca is famed for it's good food, so I'm sure most places would be pretty decent. 

There were a few street vendors selling coconuts, but instead of chopping the tip off and sticking a straw in, thy somehow managed to spoon out the whole inner flesh/juice and proceeded to juggle with them. Never seen anything like it.

We had a cheeky margarita (or two) at Sid's Pub, ate along the river side and checked out all the amazing street art. It reminded me a lot of Penang, but in my opinion, better.

We came across a little shop owned my an artist, selling all kinds of paintings, sculptures and sketches. Phil and I bought a beautiful little hand painted peranakan house which is now on our wall at home:

There was an old church called 'St Paul's' which was built in 1521, making it the oldest church in Southeast Asia! Inside the dilapidated ruins was a husky voiced busker and we could have stayed there for hours listening to him and letting the the sun shine through the trees and gaps in the building.

As the sun was setting, we hopped on a boat for a tour of the city. We were all a little crammed in, but we were able to see the city at dusk and the street art from a slightly different perspective. 

As Malacca is so small, I wasn't expected a wild night. We had some street food on Jonker street and sat in Geographer Bar listening to  live music. Before we knew it we were all dragged onto the dance floor and doing shots of tequila...

Later on we found Mixx Club which was huge, and as some of the only westerners there, were treated like little celebrities by other girls in the club. A bit strange, but hilarious. 

Hungover and hungry, we could just about muster brunch and a massage the next day (it's a hard life), before heading back to Singapore.

Getting away for a weekend is great as it feels like a holiday, even if it's just a few hours drive. I'd recommend anyone in Singapore to head over the boarder for a weekend - it's cheap, refreshingly different and beautiful.