I wasn't expecting to, but I truly, madly, deeply fall in love with Sydney.

The entire CBD is built around water and absolutely breathtaking. I literally gasped when I saw the Sydney Opera House. Photos don't do it any justice, because you just have to be there to experience it for yourself.

Locky joked that I might discover that I have been living in the wrong city all this while, and I must admit harbouring very adulterous thoughts during my 4-day getaway. 

But Melbourne is my home, at least for now. ;) And I am more than happy to be back, because I have an exciting new beginning to look forward to. But more on that later!

I really need a holiday somewhere.

The Grampians is made up of stunning sandstone mountain ranges and located about 235 km west of Melbourne. Declared a National Park in 1984, it is a popular getaway for couples, friends, families and visitors to Melbourne.

We arrived on Easter Sunday afternoon without any bookings and were once again very lucky to secure a camping site via the Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre. We only had to register with the staff and paid $15 (if I remember correctly) admin fee for a permit to camp at any of their 11 sites.

I wanted somewhere with shower facilities, so we drove about 30 minutes northwards to the Smith Mill camping ground near Lake Wartook. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the "bush shower" mentioned in the map referred to a bucket on a string. Thank God we were only staying for the night so I  decided to rough it out and skipped my shower.

We visited Lake Wartook and The Balconies and made it to the top of Mount William, the highest peak in the Grampians. We also played Good Samaritan to a young couple who was stranded along the way when their car broke down and I found out in the car that the girl was actually German and had lived in Singapore for 7 years! Talk about random coincidences.

Because I couldn't take a shower and had unwisely packed only knits (assuming that it would be freezing cold), I looked really daggy wearing E's tee shirts that were two sizes too big on me and gross unwashed hair. Charming, I know, and I have the pictures to prove it.


Still, I can't wait to go camping again!

You can view the slideshow of all our photos from The Grampians here!

On our way to the Grampians from Ballarat, we had to drive through the rural town of Ararat and we decided to make a pit-stop at the infamous J-Ward gaol.

J-Ward gaol (an obselete spelling for "jail" used in Australia) started out as a goldfields prison in the 1850s, as a response to the influx of immigrants to the area during the Gold Rush. When the gold ran out, its was converted to temporary housing for the criminally insane in Victoria, before becoming an extension of the Aradale Lunatic Asylum. It was in operation right up to 1991 and is now a museum to preserve the lives and stories of the criminals who were imprisoned there.

We were given a one-hour tour by a volunteer who explained to us the history of the compounds, The fascinating stories of the criminals and their experiences in the goal.

He even threw in a ghost story for good measure. In the governor's bathroom, he alleged, lives the restless spirit of the governor who had died of a heart attack on the second step from the floor of the old kitchen.

Before the tour, E and I had wandered the grounds on our own and had taken pictures in the very same room. I am relieved to report that the photos came out normal. ;)


My mum might say "Aiyoh, bad luck!"

You can view more photos from the J-Ward gaol here!

Before I came to Australia, I imagined it as the Great Outback, with kangaroos aplenty hopping into the sunset. And surfers at the beach going "So where the bloody hell are ya?" or people greeting you "G'day mate!" as you walk past them on the street. 

Of course as I slowly adapt to the Aussie way of life (I feel flattered when people assume that I've been here longer than my 10 months), I've found a lot of the stereotypes to be untrue. I haven't heard anyone use the word "bloody" but I've heard and uttered many "Hey how's it going?"s.

But what really struck me the most is just how massive Australia is- it's about the size of China (or half the size of Russia) and I remember one weekend when E and I drove about 1000 km down the Great Ocean Road to Warrnambool and back, feeling like we've gone to the end of the world but realizing that we've barely moved on the map at all!

Because of the geography and history of the continent, it is also a megadiverse country, containing the majority of the world's species. This is a far cry from the concrete jungle I grew up in, and I love walking down the streets here and admiring the diversity of trees and foliage around me.

I am also endlessly fascinated by the native animals here, some of whom I have never ever heard of until I stepped foot in Australia! We all know the kookaburra, the kangaroo, the platypus, the koala and the wombat, but do you know about the echidna, the lyrebird, the quokka or the dingo?

Our first stop in Ballarat had to to be the Ballarat Wildlife Sanctuary Park because I saw pictures of visitors interacting with the kangaroos on the website and I decided that I had to play tourist at last once.

E and I needed to get away, just the two of us.

Over the long Easter weekend, we decided to pack our bags to go camping. It was so last minute that we didn't plan where we were going to stay or how long we were going to be gone for. I suggested Ballarat for Sovereign Hill and the Wildlife Sanctuary Park, and he wanted to go further to the Grampians.

So we got in the car and onto the Western freeway and drove for about an hour and a half before we got to our first stop.

There is something very liberating about leaving behind the city and driving through the country, where all you can see are fields of green and wide open skies, towering wind generators in the distant hills and the occasional house along the road.

It felt like we could drive on forever.

We were blessed with gorgeous weather and friendly folks and most importantly, each other's company.

In 4 days we must have driven at least 750 km. We fell in love with the kangaroos and echidnas at the Wildlife Sanctuary Park, caught "The Blind Side", spent a whole day at Sovereign Hill, checked out a newly-opened live jazz bar, ate a lot of meat pies, visited the J-Ward Gaol (for the criminally insane) in Ararat, visited the Grampians National Park and climbed to the top of Mount William.

And there is nothing like setting up our tiny tent under the night skies, snuggled together in our sleeping bag.

I was very reluctant to return to reality and face my assignment deadlines, and I think I speak for us both.

Last January, in the dead of winter, E and I spent one week in Hokkaido. It was a sort-of farewell trip before we left Japan for good.

It was about -20 degrees everyday and the entire city was blanketed in snow. Too cold to look fashionable, E convinced me to pack my track shoes (I would never wear them otherwise!) instead of my knee-high heeled leather boots. For some reason beyond me now, I also forgot to pack my contact lens solution and decided to go without make-up, so I spent the entire trip feeling like a frump. How the girls there can walk about in mini-skirts sans leggings I would never understand!

I took over a hundred photos but left them sitting in my memory card for ages and finally decided to look at them yesterday.

Three years ago today, I was training some clients in the Bloomberg office when we were struck by the aftershocks of the Indonesian earthquake. It was my first experience of tremors, but certainly not my last. When I moved to Japan, earthquakes (and typhoons) became a common occurrence in my life.

Two years ago today, I was living in Tokyo and dating an unfortunate character by the name of R. I needed a rebound guy after P and I broke up. The relationship lasted all of 2 months before it fizzled out, but I am glad it happened because it brought E and I closer. I remember all the exasperated phone calls and smses to E when R went MIA, and when I did meet up with R he tried to convince me that E and I were obviously into each other and that I should date E instead. Go figure.

One year ago today, E and I were in Singapore, just after our week-long trip to India. E was heading back to Melbourne for a month to visit his ailing grandmother, and I decided to buy a ticket to be with him for 10 days. Little did I know that he would inform me that he had decided to move back for good when he arrived home, which came as a complete surprise to me because he had bought a return ticket. To cut a long story short, that was the beginning of about 6 months of drama where we were on and off (and on and off, you get the drift) and I ended up moving to Melbourne to do my postgraduate studies.

I am a believer of fate. I know that all the events that have happened in life have led me to where I am today. Just 8 weeks shy of completing my teaching diploma, it is time to figure out what my next step is going to be.

And where are you headed, my friends?

We had the most amazing weekend ever.

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect, the little town we stayed in was quaint and self-contained, the people we met were friendly and hospitable. We had great conversations in the car and over our meals, and we got to cover everything I wanted to see for the trip and more!

And the landscape, oh the landscape! It was breathtakingly beautiful, as if we had somehow stumbled into paradise on earth. We drove through vast farmlands, mountain ranges, a National Park (one of the world's first protected rainforest), coastlines and ports.

In the Tarra-Bulga National Park in Tarra Valley, Victoria

I am absolutely in love with Gippsland. It surely is Victoria's best kept secret!

The only downer was that we had forgotten our DSLR in our haste and could only take photos with E's iPhone, but we plan to go back again in the winter and recapture everything we saw. :)

Over the weekend, E and I decided to go camping.

We clocked over 1000 km in 2 days- going from Melbourne to Colac to Otway to Apollo Bay back to Otway to Colac to Port Campbell to Warrnambool to Geelong and eventually back to Melbourne.

Besides doing a lot of sightseeing from the car and eating too much junk, we visited the Otway Treetop Walk, the Gibson Steps, not-quite Twelve Apostles and the Loch Ard Gorge. Not too bad for an unplanned trip!

We booked an unpowered site in a caravan park in the middle of nowhere, and pitched our tiny tent under the stars. It rained up a storm that night, but we managed to stay nice and dry. It wasn't the most comfortable arrangement but I definitely enjoyed our little "outdoor" experience!

I haven't uploaded all the pictures, but here are some of my favourites-

E and I are pretty adventurous when it comes to food- we'll eat almost anything except hairy tarantulas (they were black and hairy the size of my fist, no thanks!).

Some of the more exotic dishes we've had are raw horse meat, frog legs, fried worms and crickets, stir-fried river snakes, pork tripe and yellow eels.

As much as possible, we try to eat as the locals do when we travel- which means no touristy places or fancy restaurants, and better still if the menu is only available in their native language. :P

However, on my birthday I was craving for good old Chinese cuisine, so he booked us a place at Gold Leaf restaurant in Burwood and we stuffed ourselves with dim sums. We love our chicken feet- I pretty much asked every waiter that pushed their cart by us if they were serving them! :P