Category Archives: Australia

My life in Australia

Chinese garden of Friendship

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 9 comments

Last weekend, we went to visit a hidden treasure of Sydney, in the middle of the city in Darling Harbour.

Initiated by the local Chinese community to share their rich cultural heritage and celebrate Australia’s 1988 Bicentenary, the Chinese Garden is the result of a close bond of friendship and cooperation between the sister cities of Sydney and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, China. The Chinese Garden of Friendship was designed by Sydney’s Chinese sister city, Guangzhou.

Even though I have been living in Australia for so long I have never been inside the Chinese garden. I have walked past the garden numerous times but for some reason never thought to go inside. Last weekend the weather was so good that I and my husband decided that we must go out and enjoy the sunny day. So we took a train to the city and walked to Darling Harbour from Town Hall train station.

We were in the garden by 11am and there were only 3 people on the queue to get tickets to go inside. We got the ticket and it cost us just $6.00. We started our tour from the right hand side door of the garden.

The whole garden cannot be seen from any one point within the garden. It has a number of features including the Dragon Wall symbolizing the bond between New South Wales and Guangzhou, the Water Pavilion of Lotus Fragrance, the Twin Pavilion and The Tea House that offers traditional Chinese tea and other refreshments. The garden is a popular venue for weddings, providing many beautiful backgrounds for photographs.

We were there to enjoy the day so we just walked around the garden and enjoyed the sun taking photos from time to time. There was a big pond in the middle of the garden and it had big colourful fishes. I actually forgot that we were in the middle of the city once we were inside. As spring has started here, there were so my beautiful flowers in the garden. I just loved everything in it: the trees, well-trimmed plants, beautiful spring flowers, calm lotus pond and the magnificent temple.

It was peaceful, serene, beautiful and calming. There is a waterfall which gives the feeling that you are in some national park. There are some alcoves to rest and overlook the whole garden to just soak in its natural beauty. We took so many photos as wherever I turned there was a beautiful view. The garden isn’t large but there are plenty of places to sit and take in the views. It took us about an hour to meander through the garden.

We saw a beautiful bridal carriage which is the imperial bridal carriage was used by Chinese Emperors in ancient times with extremely ornamental decorations. The jade carriage is typical of the historical carriages of past dynasties. It is believed 100 skilful artists were engaged in the laborious and intricate carving work. Over 300 tons of raw jade were used, the finished weight approx. 2 tons.

The carriage has a canopy decorated with entwining dragon motif with two lanterns in front. The main body of the carriage is carved into elaborate openwork of dragon, phoenix and fairies which are the symbol of Luck, Prestige and Authority. The two front shafts are cut as two lively charging dragons, guiding the carriage. Behind the carriage are two ornamental fans, which symbolise Royal Dignity.

The age and the cost of the carriage are unknown, however it is believed the carriage came from the Chinese Province of Guangdong and it is said to be the only carriage known to be outside China.

As we were walking around we saw a few people wearing traditional Chinese costumes and taking photos so we decided to find out more about it.

We found a place in one corner of garden where you can hire a costume for $10 and pretend to be a Princess/Queen/Emperor/Empress. They let you roam the garden with the costumes as long as you like and parade around the gardens and take as many photos as you like.

So me and AS decided to dress up as well and become Chinese for a while. I choose a red dress and the lady in the shop helped me to do my hair. AS choose a dark blue one and even got a long white beard to try with his costume. This was one of my favourite photos of the day.

Once we were dressed, the lady from the shop took a few of our photos. From there we walked the whole garden taking photos in different locations. We felt like we were in some movie walking around in the costumes and taking photos. Lots of people stopped to look at us and a few even asked us to pose so they could take a photo of us :). It was a really interesting experience to feel like we were in China.

I saw two girls wearing the costumes so we took photos with them as well. It was so much fun. I really loved it.

If you feel hungry there is a teahouse. You can also hire a 45-minute audio tour in English and Mandarin, if you like.

For the price, we had an amazing day, relaxing and wonderful.

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Posted in Australia, NSW - Australia

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Traffic chaos around the world

Posted on September 7, 2012 | 16 comments

When I think about traffic, I think there is no way the traffic can be as bad anywhere else as in Asia like in Kathmandu, Bangkok, India, Vietnam , Hong Kong, etc. but in the past few months I have been surprised that in Europe, the traffic is worse than in Nepal.

I know Kathmandu has more cars on the road than the road can handle. To cross the bridge from Kupondole to Thapathali, it can take you an hour but believe me that is not as bad as what I saw while touring around the world.

While I was in India, I asked the driver why his car’s side mirrors were closed. He said, it will get scratched (by other cars) if it is opened so he left it closed. Imagine my horror to be in that car for weeks knowing he doesn’t even have side mirrors in use. I was definitely scared about my and my parents’ safety. But after a few hours on the road, I realised that not only the car we were on that had its side mirror closed but every vehicle on the road was using the same trick.

Then I got to experience tuk tuk in Bangkok and I will tell you it is not a great experience that I will cherish. There are so many cars and tuk tuks in Bangkok along with motor cycles and bicycles that you wish you were not sitting in an open vehicle in the summer heat stuck in traffic.

It was the same story in Vietnam with the traffic but in Vietnam we had booked air conditioned car which made our journey bearable. I couldn’t imagine being on a non AC car for 4-5 hours in the summer heat.

But there is one thing common in all these places I have mentioned above. They all have narrow roads with too many vehicles on the road and traffic chaos along with very slow traffic like 40km/hr.

In US, the traffic seems to fine expect in New York. In New York, cars were not even stopping for pedestrians on the pedestrian crossing even when the crossings are so big that you could see it easily from 100 meters away. In other parts of US, they have very wide roads and I really loved their freeway with their exit numbers. Even in peak hours most of the roads seem to cope a lot better than in Asian countries.

My perspective of traffics changed when I landed in Europe for my last holiday. I took a bus tour around Europe but in England we did our own driving.  I drove a very small car for a couple of days and was shocked to see narrow roads everywhere. The good thing was that at least everyone was following the traffic rules so things were under control. While in Germany, we were on a no limit highway where there is no speed limit for cars and we could see that cars were zooming away in front of us. Funnily enough these types of highways are the one that have the least accidents.

Anyway travelling around Europe, everyone told us that wait till you get to Italy and you will realise what crazy traffic is. In my mind I was thinking, I am sure I have seen crazier traffic in Asia.

But the day we reached Italy, Italian drivers proved me wrong. OMG Italian traffic is a real example of chaos. Especially in Rome, there is no room for error. People were driver cars as if they were walking so there were no signals and they were driving the car wherever they can fit it into. And the worst thing is the roads are very small. On top of it, vehicles are parked on both sides of the road. In one occasion, our tourist bus had to reverse almost 500 meters in a tiny road because the place we were supposed to turn right at had a car parked on the corner making it impossible for bus to turn into the road. There was no other option but to return in reverse. I really believe that Italians are really good drivers after driving on those roads for years.

When we left Italy, I thought I had seen the worst traffic in my life but oho boy, how wrong was I. As soon as we entered Paris, I saw more extreme traffic chaos. The freeway we entered in Paris was so busy that we were crawling. The guide was telling us that our hotel was only 15 minutes away but it took us almost an hour to get there. I saw a bike colliding with a car just in front of us as well. Also one of the days we were there, I noticed the main city roads had no white marking so we didn’t know how many lanes it had. To top all this, motor bikes and scooters were everywhere squeezing in wherever they can.

I am sure I still haven’t been to any places like China and Mexico to see more chaos that traffic causes but I am glad I went around at least to these places because it made me realise that we definitely are in a better place in Australia. Next time when I am stuck in traffic, I won’t get frustrated as I have seen worse. I really appreciate the roads and rules we follow in Sydney. I guess all the people who whinge about Sydney’s roads and traffic need to have a round trip to Asia as well as Europe to appreciate how good we are compared to there. I know there are better roads in the world but definitely we don’t have one of the worst ones.

Safe driving everyone!!! Remember no life is worth reaching 5 minutes quicker to any places.

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Posted in Australia

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Welcoming Spring with Cherry blossom festival

Posted on September 4, 2012 | 9 comments

Last weekend we went to a Cherry blossom festival to welcome spring.

I always wanted to attend the Cherry blossom festival in Japan and imagine my surprise and excitement when I found out that one of the councils (Auburn) in Sydney has organised a Cherry blossom festival in their botanical garden.

Japanese Sakura, Cherry Blossoms, bloom once a year for about two weeks, providing a beautiful spectacle. Cherry blossom viewing parties (Hanamis) are very significant events in Japan and having a picnic lunch under a blossoming cherry tree is a popular Japanese tradition.

It was nice and sunny afternoon and we got there after driving for more than 40 minutes. There was a guy at a roundabout who instructed us toward a mostly empty parking lot. We parked our car and walked toward the entrance of the garden. We had to pay $4 to enter. As soon as we entered, I could see so many people already there, next to the Japanese garden where there were rows of cherry blossom trees. The path looked really beautiful but we had to wait for a while to take our photos as there were so many people already.

Once we took our photos there we entered the Japanese garden via the moon gate.   We waked around the Japanese garden and got to see more cherry blossom trees. It has a big beautiful lake in the middle with ducks and swans playing in the water. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t gone to such a beautiful place before.  Also at one corner, there were two Japanese musicians playing beautiful music. Inside the garden there was also the Tea House Garden, the five traditional mountains, the main waterfall, the central island, the bridges, the Ryoan-ji style Garden, the pines and the Azaleas.

From there we went and visit Scented Garden and sunken Rose garden. As it was too early in Spring, there were no roses but still there were other flowers that made the garden look really lovely.

After a while we got hungry. I regretted that we hadn’t packed a picnic as I saw so many people were enjoying their lunch in the garden. There was a cart selling coffee and cakes and another one was a Japanese cart at the entrance to the gardens selling Takoyaki, a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion. We waited in a long line for more than 40 minutes and bought mixed large pack. They weren’t the best and we regretted again that we didn’t bring anything from home. Normally I love them but that day we couldn’t finish 16 balls between the two of us.

After lunch we continued our trip toward Australian Native and Rainforest Garden. The rainforest area of the Garden sits between the billabong and the adjacent Duck River. There is a thick canopy of foliage over the area with a large amount of vegetation which produces a moist, deep leaf littered, mouldy floor.

From there we made our way to Fauna Reserve and Aviary. We saw Swamp Wallabies, Red Necked Wallabies, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Emus, Rufous Bettong and the Common Wombat as well as beautiful peacocks.

The best part of the trip was, it was a perfect sunny day to walk in the garden and enjoy natural beauty and the worst part of the trip was the garden had only one toilet for women so there was a really long queue. To make it worse, the toilet had no lock and there was no toilet paper or soap either. Please Auburn council, you could make everyone’s trip there nicer with proper toilets.

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Posted in Australia

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Snowy Mountains: Australia

Posted on August 21, 2012 | 8 comments

I guess lots of people living in US and Canada will call us crazy but we do drive 7 hours to play with snow. There is no snowfall in Sydney so we have to jump into a car and drive almost half a day to reach Perisher or Thredbo to play with snow during winter. And last weekend that is what we decided to do, take a visit to a winter wonderland :). We were 8 people altogether which included my hubby, my cousin K didi, her husband and her son and 3 of their friends.

Perisher valley

So we left Sydney after work on Friday to be get to the mountain early morning Saturday. The drive down there was not much fun as it was cold and dark. We stopped at one shop for coffee and cookie and to hire some gear.

We hired snow trousers, jackets and walking boots. We all decided to hire toboggans instead of ski or snow board because it is much easier. I fell so many times while trying to learn how to ski in the past that it was not fun at all. Generally a normal skier would spend the majority of their time skiing and a fraction of their time falling so I knew already that I don’t have ski genes within me. And ohoo how can I forget all the pain and body aches the next day. I really wanted to avoid that this time as my body is still in recovery mode from last weekend’s City2Surf run.

Perisher valley

Perisher valleyAnyway, from there our next stop was the Perisher valley. Perisher Valley (elevation 1720m) is a ski resort village in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy River Shire. It is located within the Kosciuszko National Park between beautiful Jindabyne and Charlotte Pass on the Kosciuszko Road.

Perisher valley

Perisher valleyPerisher valleyThe place looked really beautiful with snow everywhere. We got lucky as it snowed the day before so there was 27cm of fresh snow to play with. The lift to the mountains was not opened then so there were not that many people around. I have to admit it was really cold so we decide to have breakfast before we stared to play in the snow.

Perisher valley

Perisher valleyAfter breakfast we took our toboggans and made our way uphill. First we stared on a small hill to get the hang of the toboggan and later went to the big hill. My nephew who is nearly five was enjoying his ride as well. He would come down and immediately walk his way up the hill. It was a really exciting experience. After may be 10 rides, it started getting hot but AS didn’t let me take my jacket off as he said I might get sick later. I know he does look after me  🙂

Perisher valley

Perisher valleyWe also had some fun with snow war. As we were talking photos, I went and stood behind AS. So while he was posing, I took a heap of snow and started the fight. I knew he was not going to leave me alone after that. It was so much fun. Later everyone joined the fight including my nephew who was having the time of his life.

Perisher valley

Perisher valley

Perisher valley

How could a snow trip be successful without a snowman? Someone started the snowman on the top of the mountain which we continued and he looked beautiful with my gloves and muffler :). We all posed to take our photo with the snowman.

Perisher valley

Perisher valley

By midday we all were starving so we decided to have a break and went for lunch. We had brought some dry home cooked lunch and it tasted the best after so much energy was lost. On the way to the eating area it started snowing as well.

Perisher valleyAfter the break, we took our toboggans again and continued the ride for rest of the day.

Perisher valleyPerisher valleyOn the higher hills, I could see people skiing and snowboarding. I do want to learn how to do that well without falling of course but I really enjoyed what we did.  It was really fun. Planning for next trip to snow already for the next year  🙂

Please click here for more photos.

Perisher valley

Perisher valley

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Posted in Australia, NSW - Australia

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City2Surf 2012

Posted on August 16, 2012 | 9 comments

I want to think of myself as being health conscious but I have to admit that I have never reached the point where I was completely satisfied with my body. I always have something to complain about. Anyway since I got married, AS has been a great support and workout partner. He has so much knowledge in health and fitness and always keeps suggesting to me to do various exercises to improve my fitness. Since last year to motivate ourselves we decided to run the 14km City2surf.

city2surf 2012

City2Surf is the largest timed running race in the world and it has been held as an annual event since the first run on 5 September 1971. It is a charity run and this year they raised 3.9 million dollars. The best thing about this run is that anyone can participate. You just need to pay the entry fee and off you go. There are singles, couples, seniors, kids, mothers/fathers with prams and family coming together to run and have some fun along with the exercise.

city2surf 2012

The run starts from city centre and passes through the suburbs of East Sydney, Kings Cross, Rushcutters Bay, Double Bay, Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Dover Heights and ends at Bondi Beach. The most difficult part of the course is “Heartbreak Hill” at the halfway mark, a 2 km long steep ascent from Rose Bay to Vaucluse along New South Head Road.

city2surf 2012

I was a bit scared this year because since the birth of my nephew a month ago, our exercise routine has gone out of the window. The weather prediction for the day was also mostly rainy and windy. So it didn’t look like it was going to be a fun run this time.

city2surf 2012

But we still managed to be in the city by 9am for our run to start along with 85,000 other runners. Just before the run started, most people were throwing their jumpers and hoodies to the side of the street for charities.

city2surf 2012

As we run it gets so hot so it was normal for people to throw away the old jumpers that they come with. We did that last year but we became wiser this year and decided to tie them around our hips to use after the race. Last year after the race we were chilled to the bones and we had to go to the mall to buy a new jumper.

In the crowd there were so many people with masks like gorillas, Batman, Super girl, the Smurfs, and a man in a sumo suit. I think one of the highlights must me the group of guys dressed as Usman Bolt, the history making Olympic athletic from Jamica.

When the gun when off to start me and AS along with everyone else took our pace. I think the first 5 km was ok as it was just the start. We ran and walked alternately.

There were lots of people cheering along the way as well as many water and Gatorade station. There were lots of live bands and mascots as well. I did manage to take some photos. I knew that the clock was ticking but it was fun to stop for a few second for photos.

city2surf 2012

When we reached 7km, I couldn’t believe that we were only half way through. I was really tired and I was asking AS to slow down. By then we were also climbing uphill which didn’t help at all. I have to thank AS who kept me going even though my toes were hurting really bad in my left foot.

city2surf 2012

We did this last year also but I didn’t remember it being too so hard so I kept pushing myself to the end. When we were on the last 4 km I was really happy and on the last 2km, I was glad it was going to be over soon. When we crossed the finish line we knew that we did good as we finished in under 2 hour (1 hour, 50 minutes). We did about the same last year as well so both of us were very happy. We got the medal for finishing it.  🙂

city2surf 2012

We caught up with a friend of ours who ran as well and were just happy to catch a bus to go have something to eat. It was 12.30 by then and both of us hadn’t eaten anything.

city2surf 2012

city2surf 2012While practising for the run, I tried to research on how to make a quick recover after the run and I found the following in the website.

1. Within 5 minutes of finishing, drink some water or a natural electrolyte drink like coconut water.

2. Within 15-20 minutes of finishing, consume a recovery drink that contains high quality protein and carbohydrates – stash some protein powder (organic/vegan brown rice protein, or a good quality whey protein is best in our books but use whatever works for you) in your run pouch and mix it with cold water at the end of your race and you’re good to go!

3. Within 60-90 minutes of finishing, consume some whole grains with fish (your best option!), lean meat, egg, nuts, or another good quality solid protein source and plenty of salad or green veggies.

4. Antioxidant rich foods are your friend, so anything green or red in colour, or even a good old-fashioned apple, is on the menu!

5. Avoid anything inflammatory post-race, like processed carbs, sugar and caffeine. Alcohol is definitely in this family too but we know avoiding a beer after the race might be a little too much of a big ask, so if a few bevvies are on the menu, make sure you do a few things to counteract the effect, like these…

6. Before you start swigging from your beer mug, swallow a little milk thistle, drink some beetroot juice, or gulp down some fish oil supplements. Snack on anti-inflammatory foods like cherries, berries, walnuts, flaxseeds and kale… make ‘em into a juice if you need to and then, if you still feel like it that beer is all yours! Just remember to drink plenty of water alongside it!

7. Oh… and remember to STRETCH after your race.

Note to self for next year

Don’t wait until less than weeks to go till the City to Surf before bothering to look at the recommended training program.

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Posted in Australia, Health

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