Monday, January 29, 2018

Great Ocean Road - #VanLife

So, one of my pipe dreams is to get a van and do it up. Something like this


Then I can become a hippy and my family can properly denounce me. Though I know they won't because they love me too much.

Anyhow, I thought before I commit to a $40k van + do up cost, I should try to live in a van for at least couple of days to see whether I'm actually cut out for it. So, I went to https://www.shareacamper.com -  it's like an AirBnB for campervans. And we decided to hire this van to explore the Great Ocean Road over Australia Day weekend.

The van comes with a portable gas stove, but being me I was worried that we wouldn't be able to eat 'proper' food. So I prep'd as many sauces as I could - since we would be on the road for FOUR DAYS! I know right.

Here are all the foods that I prep'd for my brief #vanlife
  • spicy peanut soba noodle salad - just the sauce, so we would only need to boil the soba and mix in the salad
  • Fabs' famous bolognese sauce
  • Breakfast burritos 
  • Boiled eggs for eggs sandwich 
I also packed tuna cans, sandwich materials (cucumber, mayo, bread etc), crisps and chocolates. Fabs tried to convince me over and over that we were going to a 'touristy drive' and not a remote mountain so there was NO NEED to pack SO MUCH food. You know nothing Fabs Snow. I might turn into a hangry monster when hunger strikes! Better be prepared than sorry.

Day 1 - Torquay

The start of our #vanlife 
We got to Torquay around 9.00 p.m. On the way we passed a lot of surfing shops. Famished, we went to Seรฑor and had a good feed and a few drinks. Full and tired, we headed to Point Danger car park and went to bed.

Day 2 - Park Rangers, Waterfall, the Apostles and Port Campbell


At 6.30 a.m. we heard a knock on the door with the greetings "Park rangers, wake up!". Barely awake, we were just staring at the ceiling of our van, palpitating, eyes wide open with our brains trying to send a "ping!" for our limbs to react. And then we heard the knock again.. So I pushed Fabs out of the bed to speak with the so called rangers. They slapped us with a $125 fine for sleeping in the car! So, state wide it is NOT illegal to sleep in your car. It is encouraged even, in case of fatigue/tiredness. Which we were. So, we are going to appeal it!

Anyhow, we left Torquay shortly after,  and my head was still pounding due to lack of sleep. We went for breakfast at 4 Kings Coffee & Food at Anglesea. Completely forgot that today was a public holiday, so 20% surcharge applied when we ordered our breakfast. It was delicious, albeit expensive!! I was still jaded, so I had another coffee when we got to Point Roadknight Beach and went back to bed whilst Fabs went for a surf. He was glad that he went, and I was glad that I had a kip. Everyone was happy.

Afterwards, we checked out the Erskine Falls - a quick walk up and down the ramp.

Quite pretty

Then we continued on along the Great Ocean Road - and it was indeed GREAT. We stopped at one of the lookouts (after we tried to go to Wye River Road Camping Area, but it was closed) and had bolognese pasta overlooking the ocean.

Our lunch spot

We passed through a sign saying 'Cape Otway Lighthouse', after (not so) much of a discussion, we decided to check it out. After driving inland for about 10 km, we found that one has to pay $19.50 to check out the self proclaimed 'Australia's most significant lighthouse'. The pain of the fine and 20% surcharge still lingered, so in unison we said "no thanks", and drove 10 km back to the main road.

Continued on to the main gig, the 12 Apostles.



And Loch Ard Gorge.



They are beautiful and magnificent. Nature is amazing.

Traumatised by the park rangers, I was determined to find a camping site. And also I wanted to be able to freely cooked my stuff. We went to Port Campbell Holiday Park but there was no vacancy. The lady recommended us to check out the Rec Park up the road. For $10 pp, we got a spot. And for $10 pp we got what we paid for. There's kitchen facilities, laundry, toilet (ran out of tissues in the morning) and bathroom.

We had a very healthy nutritious dinner (cheese and crackers with a side of wine)

It was noisy all around, all day and all night. Though, since we were so tired, we fell asleep anyway.

Day 3 Beach & Port Fairy


After breakfast (the burritos, they were the BOMB ๐Ÿ’ฃ!) we broke camp and drove to the Port Campbell beach. It was gorgeous.

I want this life 24/7 please

We went for the Port Campbell Discovery Walk and discovered that youths nowadays smoke weed at 10 a.m! We couldn't even ask for some since it was a bit too early, no?! All hot and sweaty, we jumped into the water and it was the best feeling.

On a high (from life, not weed) and feeling ravenous, we went to Warrnambool and had the Kermond's Hamburgers. Nothing much to see here, so we went to Port Fairy. Hailed as the 'most livable community' in the WORLD ๐ŸŒ in 2012, it was a beautiful spot with massive beach and very friendly locals.

We stayed at the Gardens By East Beach Caravan Park - I was shocked that we had to pay $46, but then I realised why. It was walking distance from the beach, full of families and older people. Facilities are clean, spacious and it was nice and quiet!

So relaxing


Day 4 Beach and Home


Forecasted to be 42℃, Victoria's summer delivered. By 9.00 a.m. it was 30++℃, hot and oppressive. We had a quick dip on the beach where the water was still quite cool & very refreshing. Port Fairy beach is really gorgeous.

Blue see-through water, soft fine sands, gentle waves, it is the perfect family beach.

Unfortunately the surf was dead that day

After breakfast, we tidied up the van, packed everything up and all ready to drive back to Melbourne. I thoroughly enjoyed staying in the van. I will definitely do it again in the future, hopefully with our own van!!

Friday, June 16, 2017

China - Beijing

Our last stop, Beijing.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
We caught the high speed train (equivalent to Japanese shinkansen) from PingYao after 3 days frolicking there. As previously mentioned, we got the first class tickets, and to be honest I couldn’t really tell the difference between second and first class, neither did my mum or Fabs.

Accommodation


We stayed in 3 accommodations in Beijing. One hotel and 2 Air BnBs.

Hotel: Prime Hotel Beijing

We took a taxi from train station to our accommodation. By now accustomed to spacious accommodations in Xi’An and PingYao, I was aghast when we got in and saw only 2 single beds. After much going back and fro they installed another single bed in the packed room. I was not happy; and made a big deal out of it, which now in hindsight it was my fault for not checking the photos of the hotel’s “family room”, instead booked it solely based on recommendation. And the staff actually tried to accommodate us, which now made feel bad.

Air BnB No. 1

Located in Dongcheng, it was close to Beijing’s highlights and walking distance to the subway. Residential areas in Beijing are located in a space called ‘community’, which are rows and rows of apartment towers. Many looked impoverished from the outside but the interior itself actually quite decent. This was the case with our 2-bedroom apartment. I took the area to be middle class based on the many BMWs loitered around the block.

Close to park where a lot of ladies practiced their skills

Why bother seeing a show for $$$ when you can see them for free in the park?!

Air BnB No. 2

We had to book this accommodation last minute, because our Chinese travel agent messed up our train tickets. We were to leave on the K3 train to Mongolia, but we were told that it has sold out. As there are only 3 trains leaving Beijing to Mongolia every week, this meant we would need to spend additional 3 nights in Beijing. HOWEVER, we met a guy in our accommodation in Ulaanbaatar which was in that train and said it wasn’t the case, since there were many empty carriages!

After we dropped off my mum at the airport, we moved to this one-bedroom apartment located near the Olympic Park. I loved it on the first sight; the living area was well decorated to make it feel really homey. But good God, the kitchen was disgusting (which we actually cooked in). It was close to the shopping centre with a MASSIVE supermarket, which was handy as we needed supplies for our 27 hours’ train ride to Ulaanbaatar. We stayed ‘home’ the whole 3 days lazing around, much needed rest after our China’s whirlwind adventure.

Sights


Lama temple


Lama as in Dalai Lama, this Tibetan Buddhist temple felt like a labyrinth of many temples within its complex. Just when we thought we made it to the end of the temple, we saw openings to another temple. Until we reached this larger than life Buddha statue.


Upon entering the temple, there’s a kiosk handing out incense, making this temple full of smoke stinging the eyes.

Confucius temple


As the name suggests, this temple/museum dedicated to the famous Confucius. It housed his ashes and his ancestors’ as well detailing his life journey from a mere human to one’s worth worshiping.

Mumfucius
After Confucius, my mum were done with temples. She told me she would be keen to go if she could actually touch the Gods (in a temple) and furniture (in a museum), else we shouldn't bother. My sentiment exactly.

Dadong Peking Duck


I was looking for “Taste of Dadong” which is located in another shopping mall, but instead Google map directed me to “Dadong – taste of Yunan” which turned out to have the best Peking duck in the whole of China if not the world.

There are heaps of other Dadongs branded Peking Duck

Fancy as peking duck 

Our own chef

Unbelievably so gooooooooooddddd
To support my verdict, there were many awards plastered all over the wall of the restaurant.

Looks legit

Needless to say, we left the restaurant happy and fulfilled!

Another day another duck feast - this was actually taken in another restaurant.

Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden Palace


How ironic is it, the square where countless waves of revolutions ignited is located directly in front of a (former) harem?

The square

Teemed with tourists, fortunately the area are so vast it didn’t feel too jammed pack
To preserve the inside appearance of the palace, the pavilions are gated. I couldn’t bring myself to squeeze among the plethora of tourists so I could glimpse of how the kings and queens used to live and rule the whole of China from these rooms.

How they looked like
My mum though, still has it in her; she fought her way through by elbowing the other crazed tourists to reach the front of the gate. After all that, she declared that historical must meant ‘dusty’ since all the rooms needed a good thorough clean.

Temple of Heaven


As heaven should be larger than the earth, this temple turned museum covered a greater area than the Forbidden Palace. Which equates to enormous.

Different looking temple
It has beautiful rose garden which delighted my mum and gave Fabs plenty of opportunities to photobombed her photos.

One of many photobombed photos
One feature that amazed me, was this circular stone located in the middle of the (used to be) sacrificial altar. When standing upon it, I could hear my voice amplified and echoed as if I was using a microphone – but it was only heard that way by me!

We all found it as extraordinary and an architectural marvel! 

Shopping Street Wangfujing


This night market was really busy selling all sort of food and souvenirs clearly targeted for tourists.

Smell quite strong of stinky tofu

As we strolled further down the lane, I realised for the same type of food, they were cheaper the further in the market we walked!

A (whole) leg of lamb - nom!

Summer Palace


Located an hour away from the city centre, this Summer Palace last housed Mao’s political friends and the famous dowager queen Cixi.

Can you spot Fabs!?
There’s a manmade lake inside the palace where we caught a 5 minutes ferry across before we got too exhausted to explore further as it seems the Chinese loved their palaces to be as huge as possible; deemed it impossible to walk the entire complex in one day.

Tianjin – Great Wall 


We timed our Beijing trip to coincide with the Great Wall Marathon. When I researched China’s main event in May, the race came up and Fabs straight away wanted to participate. I calmed him down and succeeded in convincing him to do the half marathon instead of the full marathon and managed to sign him up as a local so he didn’t have to join the tour required for foreign participants.

It was a good call; since on the day of the race it was a hot 35°C (it was 40°C the day before!), muggy and weather app said Air Quality wasn’t the greatest.
Looks pretty tough!

We left the bulk of our luggage back in Beijing and journeyed for 1.5 hours to Marriott Hotel Jixian where the designated bus would pick us up on the race day. Again, it only had 2 beds in one room albeit both were queen sized beds. When we checked in, contingents of ‘athletes’ arrived by bus loads – the foreign participants, mainly from New Zealand and Australia.

Almost 100% foreigners
I thought I had prepaid the hotel in full, but turned out I hadn’t. I also didn’t have my passport, having previously left it in Mongolian embassy to get my visa back in Beijing (for how to get Mongolian visa in Beijing, click here). Amidst the confusion with the payment, passport and hustle and bustle, I forgot my hat with my beloved (prescript) sunglasses inside it at the reception.

I only noticed they were missing the next day and went to retrieve it. As shown in the video below, this chick came to the reception 5 minutes before me (!) and took my sunglasses, claimed it to be her own. When she was offered my hat as well, she shook her head and bolted.



Sayonara sunglasses, least I got my hat back. On the brighter side, Fabs completed his race with me and mum cheered on the sideline beamed with pride.

Fabs' sunnies doesn't look as good as mine...

Note


Beijing is a vast city. Don’t be fooled by the map, places might look nearby but they’re not! We had many failed attempts hailing a taxi, unknown why to us. We flailed and flailed but none stop. And when they did, once they realised we couldn’t convey our destination in Mandarin, told us to get out (using body language) and drove off.

On our last days in Beijing, I managed to use “Didi”: the Chinese version of Uber, but on steroids. It has taxi, cars, car sharing, and car rental! Actually, it bought Uber China to eliminate its competition. I previously downloaded it in Jiuzhaigou but it was all in Mandarin, so I uninstalled it. But the idea of walking around in the subway with our massive bags wasn't that appealing to me. So 3 days before we left Beijing, I tried it again and the app has been updated! The updated version enabled users to switch language to English.

I said ‘see yous’ to my mum in the airport, crying my eyes out.

Regular occurrence
It had been a great trip, and China will forever have a special place in my heart. It has taught and shown me many great things: its amazing landscape, the people, the food, the glamorous cities and to top of it all, I had the best time with my mum.

Time to fulfill another dream: travelling through Mongolia and Russia via the infamous Trans-Siberian!


Tuesday, June 6, 2017

China - PingYao

Our train from Xi'an took 3 hours where my mum gazed across the train window analysing every trees and plants out there.

She looked so cute
We purchased our train tickets to Beijing as soon as we arrived at the train station in PingYao - lucky we did as the train leaving at our preferred time was already sold out, with only first class tickets available for the next train! FYI, in Chinese bullet trains, first class = business class, whilst business class = first class i.e. the most luxurious ticket out there.

Accommodation


We stayed in a family room in this very cosy courtyard hotel inside the walled city of PingYao. It was actually 2 separate rooms!

We loved sitting on the courtyard enjoying the sun/breakfast/playing with the puppies. The shops, restaurants are all within walking distance - but we found the hotel food was really good, reasonably priced and the portions was really generous. Henceforth, we ate most our meals in the hotel! The staff speak good English (a luxury after our past experiences communicating with Google translate & body language), were very helpful and accommodating.

Ridiculous portion for 3 person breakfast

Sights


South Street


Full of restaurants and shops, we went for a wander here where my mum showed her proficient bargaining skills - she bargained down a trinket from ¥200 to ¥60 ๐Ÿ˜….

The city reminded us of Chinese martial art (kungfu) movies where they could jump from roof to roof
(Robot) hand-cut noodle 


The wall itself


We went on the top of the wall and walked around for a bit before exiting in a random quiet street that totally looked like a movie set. To enter the top of the wall, we needed to purchase a ticket that was valid for 2 days and it covered PingYao's other 'attractions' as well, which are mainly old houses/government buildings with ancient furniture. But, we only checked one of such houses, since my mum already over seeing Chinese furniture she couldn't touch.

Many statues and their lookalike on the top of the wall
As it was very hot - up to 35℃ some days, we found it very common though odd not to mention off-putting, for men to walk around flaunting their belly!

As demonstrated by this kind volunteer

My superstar

This was all only for show - my mum was TERRIFIED of traffic here. I couldn't imagine her horror if she rode a bicycle on the street

Wang Family Compound


About an hour away from PingYao, this family compound is almost a tiny town by itself used to be occupied by many generations of cousins, uncles, aunties, of a very rich merchant family: the Wang family.

It even had its own school! Understandable since there's one Wang that had 20 kids in his lifetime

With its many alleys linking all the different houses

Complete with beautiful gardens all over the compound

Sprawling mansion!
To be honest, I thought most China would look like PingYao; obviously, I watched way too many kungfu movies. It was lovely to actually experience the 'ancient' China vibe, and this city definitely delivered that. Off to the capital: Beijing, to stuff our tummy with countless ducks!


Saturday, June 3, 2017

China - Xi'an

Yup, we were still (!) in China. People often asked me, why?! Why do you spend SO MUCH time in China?? My response: come and visit China and you will understand. It is such a humongous country, there are still many places I would love to see that I didn't get to see this time around!

I was so excited on our flight to Xi'an from Jiuzhaigou because I was going to see my mumsy!! When I was about 10 years old, I told her I want to travel around the world and I will take her with me. So, this trip was almost like me fulfilling my childhood promise.

She was also as excited as me. Here, she joined the bakery's employees' exercise routine whilst I run away on the background


Accommodation


We stayed in Grand Soluxe International Hotel in the family room and it was actually 2 separate rooms with 1 king bed and 2 very comfortable double beds. The location was excellent and walking distance to the Xi'An railway station, subway, as well as many shops and restaurants. However, we did need to catch taxis to most of the city's main attractions.

Sights


Drum and Bell Tower


Built in 1384, the Bell Tower is an imposing ancient looking building in a middle of a roundabout. To reach it, we needed to go underground, purchased the tickets and climbed up to this now museum. It is regarded as one of the grandest of its kind in China.  Its cousin the Drum Tower erected earlier in 1380 is just across the street, marked the entrance  to the Muslim Quarter. Whilst the bell in Bell Tower was stricken at dawn, drum was beat at sunset to indicate the end of the day back in the ancient days.

View from the bell tower

Drum tower at night - we didn't actually get in to this museum as we're not drums enthusiast (nor we're bells enthusiast but we checked that one out because it has beautiful flower garden my mum wanted to take picture of)

Muslim Quarter


Just as its name implies, it is the hub of the Muslim community inhabited by over 20,000 Muslims. It fills with restaurants and souvenirs stores.

Entrance to the quarter from the Drum Tower

Ladies selling all sort of snack

Massive yummy lamb satay 

Cleaned up properly
Mahjong playing square at the end of the quarter!

Terracotta Warriors


Regarded as the most significant archaeological excavation of the 20th century, it is truly impressive. In 1974, some locals uncovered potteries while digging for a well nearby; the rest is history (mind the pun). Archaeologists determined that it is a burial site for the first Emperor of all China; built back in 211 BC, it took 11 years to finish with many buried treasures and sacrificial objects. Excavation work is still ongoing at this site.

The largest pit: No.1 Pit, contained over a thousand warriors and 90 chariots of wood arranged in battle formations
Terracotta Cavalry Warrior - every single warrior has different hairdo/clothes/face expression to differentiate their status/rank. It was remarkable. 

We took bus No.5 (306) from the east square of Xian Railway Station (pretty obvious which bus to take, there were arrows pointing to the bus everywhere). It took about one hour and the fare is ¥7/8 pp. We were hassled by guides when we arrived offering their service (it should costs around ¥100 to hire a guide). We didn't get one because we didn't want to be ushered and followed by incessant chatters about facts we probably forgot after 3 hours (give or take). Anyhow, the exhibits are well explained in both Chinese and English.

For ¥100, we had pictures taken in this setup - with a massive canvas at the back!
Tip from China Travel Guide website: The museum has many group visitors in the morning. Independent travelers may visit in the early afternoon to avoid the crowd. In this case, please note that the last bus running from the museum to downtown Xian departs at 19:00.

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda


As my mum hadn't seen many Buddhist temples just yet, she was very cutely eager and excited to see this pagoda and the arrays of temples around it. It is a very famous pagoda holding the sutras translated from India, brought by the Chinese monk. It took him 17 years overland journey to get the sutras! That, my friends, is a dedication worth building a pagoda for.

If only we weren't yet templed out, we would probably find it fascinating as well! By now we probably had visited more than 20 temples across Asia.

Tang Dynasty Show



Clearly a rip off show for tourists, it cost us a bomb for merely a 1 hour show in a restaurant. There was the option to have all-you-can-eat dumplings beforehand (again, quite dear) that we didn't take. Ladies dancing around in costumes, some singing, flutes playing, etc. Personally, I don't think it's worth it - totally different than the face-changing-mask-show we saw in Chengdu (that one was good).

One can see ladies twirling ribbons in park for free - seriously

Another attraction people mentioned to do is to cycle on the wall bordering the city. But since it was way too hot, we didn't end up doing it. In total, we spent 3 days in Xi'an. On our first day we went to the Railway Station near our hotel to buy our onward high speed train ticket to PingYao. High speed trains do not depart from Xi'an Railway, but the Xi'an North Railway station (though you can purchase it in any Railway Station).

The train station looks like the airport! Another impressive display of the massive infrastructure build China has gone through
Next, to another fortified city - PingYao!