Hello Sydneysiders (part III)

Coming back from Blue Mountains, we spent a night at Sherry's place in Maroubra. Thanks to Sherry again for such great hospitality and the delicious beef curry for dinner. Feels at home while being thousands kilometres away from my own home, that makes our journey this time so memorable. yeah the delicious beef shank will be remembered forever, too bad i did not put it on Instagram.

The next morning we checked into Malaysia Hall Sydney for some hostel like experience and the proximity of the place to CBD is good enough to do bus hopping.Since dotter never see kanggaroo in real life form,Feathersdale Wildlife Centre should be great plus the petting thingy allows us to roam free.

We took train from Central Station to Blue Mountains Line Intercity, stopped at Blacktown and  took a cab to the zoo since it was pretty late to hop on the bus. the bus station from Blacktown was a little bit confusing, if you bother to read the sign and wait, just go on. Otherwise, cab will be more helpful.

Many tour buses frequent the place as it is one of the attractions in Blue Mountains Day Trip

The entrance....

Some interesting facts about this park;

Established on 7 acres of land originally purchased by Charles and Marjorie Wigg in 1953, Featherdale has evolved from a poultry farm into one of the best privately own wildlife parks in Australia.

The Wigg’s son-in-law, Bruce Kubbere studied Australian fauna from early childhood and with his vision and encouragement, Featherdale opened to the public as a wildlife park in 1972.

In the early years Bruce, and his wife Margaret, operated a plant nursery on conjunction with the Wildlife Park. Beautiful Australian native trees and plants now line the walkways and landscape the enclosures as a legacy of the park’s history.

Featherdale’s future was threatened in 1975 with plans to use the property for a housing commission development. The then Premier, Sir Robert Askin was presented with thousands of signed petitions, most of which were signed behalf of local residents who stressed “the importance of Featherdale Wildlife Park” to district school children. Fortunately the government rescinded its original decision and the park was saved.

In December 1996, Featherdale was purchased by Amalgamated Holdings Limited and is now an integral part of Amalgamated Pty Ltd. In 1998 Featherdale carried out a number of upgrades including new entrance, amenities with disabled facilities and displays that closely depict the animals natural habitats to heighten the sense of arrival to one of Greater Western Side’s major tourist attractions.

(taken from the official website)

The napping Koala.

Lovely, aren't they?

Ghost bats..never see this in my life.

I recommend for those who want to do Featherdale, do it early morning since they have animal shows from morning to evening plus the journey via train takes almost an hour. Of course the highlight for this attraction for me is the feeding time of the koalas. They are pretty active when it comes to jumping from a branch to another, a stark contrast when most koalas seen in the zoo would nap most of the time.

Kangaroo and Visitor....

Can't figure the creature's  name, but to me, it is like a short stump of pencil with pair of legs moving here and there, cute!

The Little Penguin, the bluish fur is so interesting, as if it is dipped into Nila Baju, dont u think?

So after wildlife park, we proceed to CBD for Sydney Tower in the evening (central to suburban line of Saint James station). That was when the trouble started.

The peak time, people rushing to their home after a long day at work

The view from Sydney Tower....

Sydney Harbour Bridge from Sydney Tower

What has happened in the tower leave an ugly experience to me. My wallet has been stolen while i was having fun observing the city night life using the telescope. Compared to Namsan,  towering in Seoul give better experience than the latter,  in term of excitement, facilities, ambience, gift shops and the attitude of its people. what i mean is, out of many not so crowded places, sydney tower is the most unlikely venue for people to pick pocket or be the victims. I was truly pissed off when the trip teacher who took a bunch of students visiting did not want to conduct a physical search into their student bags or something as any of them was the primary suspect. That moment strike accord in mind that the system may allow young people to makes bigger mistakes later in their life by putting pride first before tackling the issue ( the students were paired to their buddies, and began to ask each other, "ko ada amik tak?" kinda lame) while any asians would just adapt to real life practicalities. If you are the culprit, we know it, just suck it up and be a better person. 

We left the tower dissatisfied, while those Aussies perhaps have their first experience seeing a VERY angry asian mother lecturing her kid on responsibilities and the importance of being part of it.

Hello Sydneysiders (Part II)

You may read my first post about this trip.

After we redeemed the I-Venture Card, it was time to find Central Station for  train to Katoomba, entry point to Blue Mountains.

Little did we know that Central Station was quite a distance from Darling Harbour which the cab fare was AUD12.50, but we had no choice as time was running fast. It was almost 3 p.m and by 5 p.m,  it was already dark.

After we reached the station, I managed to top up another AUD7.40 for my fare (The multipass thingy only allows me to reach Seven Hills Station only). Yeah the train ticket people was very helpful. 

It was about time when the train would leave the station. Before that let me explain, the system for this train thingy in Sydney.

For my Katoomba (Blue Mountains Lines, going to Lithgow) , it is considered as Intercity Lines . Beside Intercity, they have Countrylink Train and Suburban Lines.. Countrylink works if you are travelling, for example from Melbourne to Sydney or vice versa. Intercity works if you wanna go beyond certain out of Sydney Suburb but within  New South Wales like Litgow and Newcastle, and Suburban Train is for when you wanna travel from one place to one place within suburb of Sydney city (as the name suggest). Besides that, do not forget they also have Monorail and Light Rail. Later i found that that Light Rail is another name for Tram service, which cover places in the city.  Eventhough you may found these lines kind of complex, if you have experience Seoul Subway, I think there will be no problem to master the system, as long as you know which station you intend to stop, that matters.

The train may have similar feature like our KTM Commuter, kan?

Upon reaching Blacktown, famous for Asian settlers, yeah we encoutered the masjid... terasa begitu sayu gitu!

Dotter, thinking about what to do next.....

Blaxland Station, one of the stations before reaching Seven Hills....

Ok enough of Central Station. As we made it to Katoomba, it was already dark and I decided to use cab again for safety reason. The backpacker place that we intend to overnight was actually a walking distance, deng.... cab fare? AUD5.70... erks, kinda expensive but i had no choice. As we reached the place, paid only for a night, got our double room and settled down. I forgot to take my tooth brush from another bag before leaving to Blue Mountains. Guess what?

Yeah, I had to walk couples of blocks, about 1.5 km in distance , at night in cold 3 degrees just to get a toothbrush from Coles. Yeah what an experience.

Out of many interesting thing in Katoomba was the time when it was third Syawal night and the kebab store owner generously offered me unlimited salad topping for my kebab, with his wish of Eidul Fitr. Terasa betul macam beraya di perantauan, serious, tak tipu. Rindu pada Malaysia pun ada. I think he has this sense knowing that we were like running away from this raya celebration, but of course being Muslims, the feelings to make other people feel welcomed and happy, especially in this festive mood, comes first. Janji layan, muahahhahah

So the next day was even more interesting, we needed to find Blue Mountain Explorer Bus, the first attraction to redeem for I-Venture Card.

As we got into the red double deck bus, we bumped into a Malaysian Malayalese couple, who hail  all the way from Jalan Gasing, PJ. Instantly we clicked well and the journey became so pleasant (dotter tagged along very well too).

Let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Katoomba Station, during daylight

 Our hostel during daylight...

Explorer Bus Shop is just at Katoomba Station, very convenient...

Before we headed to Katoomba Station, we bought some fruit ration, just in case for hunger management, ehehhehehheh

The bus we boarded, double deck.... I love the fact the driver cum tourist guide is a witty type, rasa terhibur..... 

The first place to go is Scenic World, a must! First ride is Skyway!

The view is so majestic!

Superb Rainfall... gila dalam!

The famous Three Sisters... notice yang tiga di sebelah kanan itu....

Then we boarded to Cascading Train... serious, this is even better than Battlestar Gallactica in Universal Studios Singapore, ehehhehehheheh

These people long time ago already had the way to go down, wuhuu, even before Penang Hill thingy

Scenic World lead us to the place where the coalminers resided in the area...tabik la diorang ni boleh survive.......

As we go "bushwalking" the easiest way ahhahah, we stumbled upon this coal miner's place... serious, i feel like this walking trip is like being in FRIM forest (the fact that this wood is sub tropicale type with fern plants all around,rasa macam kat Fraser pun ada!)

After we finished Scenic World, we stopped at Echo Point... feeling lazy coz we needed to get another bus... amik jer gambar!

Katoomba Town from Leura....the hilly area makes the view breathtaking! Leura and Katoomba  are like Genting and Cameron escape from KL 's hot weather.

Silia, our Malaysian friend that we tagged along so well, memang best dia ni!

The little cute houses along the road in Katoomba, haish, you can enjoy the cherry blossom trees planted along the street, how nice... last time we had them in Incheon and now it was getting spring in Down Under.... 

So after stopping by at Leura town, and a round of sightseeing, we decided to go back to Sydney before it gets dark.. .already promised with Sherry to meet him at his workplace in Market Street sharp at 5.00 pm (punyala fobia bila gelap_).. We could not make it to Jenolan Cave this time (one hour from Katoomba) due to logistic problem, perhaps in the future, we might come here again, tapi tak tahu bila, just keep it in mind.... so if you guys wanna give Blue Mountains a shot, just spend two days exploring ... for me, it is like naik Fraser or Genting (short day trip, naik kejap cukupla), not to say it does not have many attractions but more to be like an escape from summer's heat, and we went there during winter (day time is 10 deg and night is around 2-3 deg) so u get the picture?

Till then......

Hello Sydneysiders! (Hari Pertama)

Siaran langsung mak jemah yang kini kesejukan di Blue Mountains. Terketar ketar mengupdate blog. Camner la aku nak pegi Nepal kalau suhu Blue Mountains pun dah fail. Alkisah pengalaman menarik aku ari banyak. Yang aku kena belajar pun banyak....

Beginilah kisahnya... 

Setibanya aku di airport (sila google nama kalau perlu), ada orang nak datang menjemput. Yeay, perst time tu aku pegi overseas berjemput di airport. Terharu mak. En.Syariman yang aku manja memanggil Sherry (jangan ingat bukan-bukan  yer) sudi mencemar duli membawa sebijik volvo berplat diplomat datang mencari aku walau aku pun tengah mencari dia selepas pemeriksaan kastam. Mak terharu.

Yang paling best adalah tema hari raya kerana menjadi satu cabaran la nak membawa sekotak juadah ringan yang menjadi igauan ngeri passengers dengan Custom Australia tu kan? Cuak aku sebab dah kecoh dalam facebook barang yang nak diangkut, harap lepas la... dan alhamdulillah, semua lepas.

Terbukti Sherry telah menurunkan beberapa petua yang sangat bermanfaat ya adik adik.

Pelajaran Pertama

1. Jika anda ingin membawa barang-barang yang terlarang dan mungkin dirampas, declare siap-siap. Sila baca laman imigresen apa yang boleh dan apa yang tak boleh.

2. Kalau yakin serba boleh, sila la membuat label. Bagi kes aku, nama pun kuih raya. Sebagai contoh, Label pada balang kuih raya kandungan makanan. Kalau tart hasina member aku kepada sherry, letak jer "Flour + Pineapple Jam". Toksahlah sejujurnya nak letak semua. Yang penting janganla letak "Egg". walau process food, tapi bab bab telur ni agak sensitip la jugak ahahahhahah (salah satu bahan yang dilarang, katanya).

3. Apabila tiba di custom mereka akan periksa apa yang anda declare pada Incoming Passenger Card tu. Macam biasa, buatlah muka ceria walau kena serah tengkuk dan nada  frust tengok barang tu dibuang begitu sahaja.

4. Custom Osotalia tak bukak semua beg dan kotak. Ada jugak buat secara random. Alhamdulillah, masa turn aku, disuruh beratur dan datanglah sekor anjing dengan muka kesian menghidu-hidu. Mana aku tak cuak aku declare bawak medicine (painkillers) dan cookies. Apabila anjing tu (sebijik macam Amber dalam Episod Perth) tidak menunjukkan riak curiga, maka dengan itu terlepas la segala kerisauan. Macik Kastam tu suruh kitaorang cepat cepat belah ke pintu exit. So dapatlah kawan aku dan keluarganya merasa kuih siput, rempeyek, almond london, murukku, tart nenas dan sarang semut dengan jayanya. Alhamdulillah. Lepas satu ujian!

Gambar-gambar yang ditangkap pada hari pertama. Mabeles kan? Thanks a lot to Sherry for bringing us there and we got a great picture to keep for memories. Lokasi? Marouba Beach, tempat di mana keluarganya tinggal dan sangat canteks tempat ini. Sempatlah nampak sorang dua surfer dudes kat pantai walau tak nampak sangat... 

Anyhow selepas Sherry menghantar aku ke Darling Habour untuk mengaktifkan I Venture Card, mak cepat cepat-cepat cari Central Station utk board train ke Blue Mountains. Tak tertahan godaan melihat sales yang begitu menakjubkan kat Shopping Complex Darling Harbour nih! (Sweater Aussie AUD15, Cotton On shirt adalah AUD5-15, dan banyak lagi!). Oh selamatkan lah mak dari semua godaan ini... akhirnya terbeli jugak sehelai Tshirt Hard Rock Cafe (t shirt penang dah lusuh ehehehe). 

Will keep you guys entertained with my latest posting. ---> internet pree dan laju yer....

Update Ramadhan 2012

As usual, Ramadhan is a month to reflex myself through the act of fasting and soul purification, which I think  help to define the next course of my life.

As I am writing this, I was offered for a transfer to a new department,  but the chances of the new place may hinder  me to travel extensively.  It's all policy making stuff, pure deskjob and of course it will be a boring kind which does not suit me as well, but who knows, every cloud has its silver lining. It may look boring at first but the chances to further studies or attending international conferences or lectures will help to broaden the network. It sounds quite good enough to me.

At this time,  I have three major trips in row  for this year. Imagine if I were in the new place, I might have to cancel my Mabul, Nepal and Hong Kong plans as it may needed to do urgent stuff. Pity to my fellow travelmates, they have bought the tickets without me, the Travel Planner. Prior to that, I have to resend my application for overseas trip again to the highest management people.  As a government servant, it is compulsory to declare or else we would receive disciplinary actions which I do not want that to happen.  In the end of the discussion, it was agreed  that I need some time end until of this year to settle those pending task (and to myself, to complete all the coming trip :).

Yeah,  I will be leaving this place happy with all work done, with memorable holiday trips (would score 4 countries this year, that is quite an achievement to me ) and a brand new year to kickstart my career path.

Postcard from St. Petersburg. Thanks to Mala.....

 Just take the opportunity, Jazmin. Do not be afraid to dream and make plans, though it may not turn out well as what you have expected. Perhaps the new place offer some perspective of furthering studies somewhere you may not know and you have concrete valid reasons to do so!

See Sydney Card

After making some consideration, we have decided to venture the city by See Sydney Card.  

I guess it will be easier to swipe the card every where we go (almost 40 top attractions they over including the OZ Jet Boat trip). Some more, it does come with unlimited transportation pass for the whole 7 days. No need to worry on coins and notes. The only way to worry now is to get the card from Circular Quay, which of course straight from the airport!

In reality, this venture card programme also being offered to some other countries including Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong apart from OZ cities... yeah pretty neat, isn't it? 

So how much does it cost? For 7 days unlimited including transportation, the price is about AUD339.00 for adult and AUD220.00 for a kid, so total cost for me is around RM1874.00 (1 adult and one kid). I think it is pretty cool scheme having all places covered and of course, it wont be so Amazing Race, the least i can expect for this tour ahahhahahah. Yeah, it does come with tours to Blue Mountains and Jenolan Cave. We will be doing some country road trip before getting ourselves urbanized with the city vibes!

So Hari Raya this year wont be so meriah, I guess.

Kuih raya tetap order... baju raya tetap beli.... it was just this instinct to go away somewhere to avoid all  typical Malay fare on Aidilfitri celebration? Ahahahaha

Dari Kathmandu ke Pokhara

Akhirnya. :) AA sekali lagi menyediakan ruang untuk orang seperti aku mengembara dengan cara jimat tak hengat. Tima kacih pacik Tony!


Setelah dibebel oleh bapakku, akhirnya dia memberikan restu. Mana taknya, aku pakai kad dia nak swipe, haruslah dia tahu ke mana aku pegi :P


Bebel punya bebel, aku tahu dia takut kalau aku tersangkut dengan Nepal kat sana. Yerla, kalau si Bahadur, rakan sekerja lama kat pizza outlet aku keje part time  adalah macam Raja Azri laki si Ellie Suriati look a like (sejibik tu), apatah lagi yang masih ada kat sana? muahahahahahaha


Trip kali ini ditemani seorang rakan USM. Semoga kami selamat sampai dan selamat balik. Harap dapat tengok Everest dari jarak dekat---> berangan!

Ihsan Lonely Planet....

Boleh kah kami melayan Annapurna Poon Hill Circuit? Tengoklah macam mana.

All well that ended well - Kulim, Alor Setar

A few of days ago, I was in northern area, covering some events which are of course, work related. Oh my, many interesting encounter when you met people, see places. I have been to Kulim once, so finding a new spot won't be a problem when travelling 100 percent dependent on your reliance - skills, gut n zest help that very much. The highlight of this journey is seeing my new born nephew and sharing a colleague's experience doing China (Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong) which value add my knowledge instantly, LOL. Of course,some pics for remembrance. This is my first truly longing to go back home as i travelled without dotter. 

I JUST REALISED TRAVELLING ALONE IS NO FUN when sharing bits of funny incident means i have to tell it later to her. Anyhow, do enjoy your weekend, people. I am going to do some kayaking in Malacca Strait later ( compulsory motivational course in Banting) and some dinner with ex No.1 boss somewhere glitzy and posh down town. Have fun!

Mode of travelling - AirAsia ex KL - Penang : one way from RM68, car rental (sue& issac - Penang International Airport pick up : http://keretasewapenang.blogspot.com (wira 1.5 auto from RM90/day)

Place to stay : Tune Hotel Kulim (one night twin room from 80++ (with comfort package) : recommended for great location - banks, mcd drive thru and GIAnT supermarket within walking distance)

Alor Setar - Starcity HOTEL (RM170++/night)- walking distance to Alor Setar Tower but quite a run down place with friendly staff, better option within price range - Sentosa Regency, Holiday Villa (walking distance to famous Pekan Rabu).

Alor Setar Tower adult tix is RM10. visit time from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.

The cupcakes...yummy!

tak sempat nak bawak balik.....

My loyal companion.....

The press conference.. .kecoh kejap!

the staff.. with backhoe machine :0