Around Tasmania Pt 2

Day 5
Breakfast was at this shop by the river overlooking yachts sailing and seaplanes landing. The dryer was broken the previous night so we had to do laundry the old school way. After some shopping at the local supermarket, we headed up north to cradle mountain stopping by at the sand dunes. That night I had what was I think the most expansive self-funded meal to date.


It was night by the time we reach Strahan the previous day.



YHA backpackers, Can't go wrong if you choose them.



Of Beaches and Mountains



The Dunes


Blue sky & Blue lake



Most Expansive meal to date.


Day 6
We woke up at 5am just so we could start hiking Cradle Mountain early. So you think Tabur was hard and dangerous? Try hiking up Cradle Mt when strong wind threatens to blow you off and clouds swirling around limiting your vision. Needles to say it was epic. It took us approximately 3 hours to get to the peak which I thought was pretty fast. Until we met a couple who got up there in 1 and half hours. The trip down the mountain was insanely long (I decided to follow another route back), It torturous hiking under the hot hot sun.


The sun at 6am in the morning.



Half way up through the hike



SNOW!!!



Ah OOooooommmm~



Day 7
We were supposed to leave early until I accidentally lock us out of the room. We had to wait for the office to open at 8 before finally heading out for our next long hike. I find it kind of cool how they name all their hikes and mountains with all these cool names. For example, the hike we did on this day is called “The Walls of Jerusalem”. We walk in with 15kg worth of camping stuff hiking 6km to an altitude of approximately 1200 meters. After 4 and a half hours we made it to the campsite feeling exhausted and releif. We set up camp and proceeded with the rest of the journey without 15kg on our back. That night, we camp on high ground

First Pit stop, I was already pushing it.



Almost at the campsite.... almost.



That cliff there is known as Solomon's Throne.



View from "The Temple"



Working in the midst of nature.



Flower or Orchid?



Hiking back to the Campsite



The camp.

Around Tasmania Pt 1

The following few post are more of for my own record and less of reading material for others. Nonetheless, feel free to read if you are interested on my Tasmanian trip.

After all, this trip broke several of my personal records and how could I not write something to remind myself about it. Most expansive holiday to date, Best sceneries to date, Most expansive meal to date, most epic hikes to date. Now most in debt to date.

The plan started slightly over a month ago when Shawn send around emails asking which of the S8 were free for a trip down to Tasmania. There were up to 4 positive replies however due to time constrain and financial issues, it was only 2 of us on the trip.

Day 1
I landed in Hobart one day ahead of Shawn as I could not synchronize with his flight date. Arrived sometime in the afternoon and took one of those 10 bucks bus to the Pickled frog backpackers. Spend my night wandering around Hobart a bit and realize that it was actually a rather small town. It reminded me of Ipoh. I decided to have dinner at some random shop and ended up in a Indian café.






Day 2
I waited at the Pickled Frog till noon for Shawn to arrive. In the mean time, I had absolutely nothing to do so I started gaming a bit on my laptop. Soon enough, he touched down and was hungry. So we headed down to the docks for fish n chips. That nights dinner was Indian again. Little did I know that the meal would be one of the few proper meals I would be having throughout the trip.


Day3
We got our car at the car rental company and paid a whooping 800 dollars for it. Before we knew it, we were driving down the highway towards Maydena. That was the first time we were driving around Tasmania and the mountains and lakes look pretty epic at that point.

Upon reaching Maydena, it became apparent that the owner of our accommodation was not in, so we left a message letting him know that we will be back later on and proceeded to South West National park. That was also the first time we driven on gravel roads in Tasmania or “unsealed roads” as they call it. Only later on did I notice that driving on unsealed road is a must if you want to get into those places with epic sceneries.

That was where we first saw the awesome sceneries Tasmania had to offer. It was decided that we would hike up Mt Anne until we saw the sign that says that the track to Mt Anne is a two day return track which take us pass Mt. Eliza. So we agreed to hike as high as time will allow us and turn back before the sun sets. Two hours later we were close to the peak of Mt. Eliza but unfortunately it was time to turn back else we would risk hiking in the dark.







Day 4
As suggested by our last night’s host, we decided to visit the Tarn Shelf at Mt. Field national park. That afternoon we survived on Branch Bars. It was about 4p.m when we got down and started our long drive to Strahan. By the time we arrived at Queen’s town it was already dark. We had our first real food of the day, pizza before switching drivers and driving all the way to Strahan.

SLeepless nights at NOrth streEt

Its been 3 month since I last move into the place at NOrth Street. One of the great things about this place is that we are rather united in things we do. And this includes sleeping.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a matter of choice. Take last night for example, I was dead to the world by 2am and at 3am I heard my housemates suddenly coming in the room turning on the lights and shouting, "EH IVAN YOU'RE TRYING TO SLEEP AH??"

I remember this goes waaaay back to the first month. As I recall I was on the verge of falling asleep when my housemate suddenly called out, "Eh Ivan!! Chor Dai Di lo!!" I ended up playing a wierd game which combines Chor dai di with dices.

So this bring us back to tonight, I was stressing with my assingmetns when I heard my housemates coming upstairs to sleep. Its time to pay a visit to their room.......

Royal Adelaide Show

Since the house is quiet for now, I shall take the opportunity to update on the Royal Adelaide show.

We took a train deep into the heart of Australia to a town where all promising travellers gather and gear up for their epic journey to the mythical grounds known as “The Adelaide Show grounds".



Blacksmith and goods vendors were readily available in town to repair equipments or to resupply them with food for their journey.


And of course being so close to the desert of Shar’k Anun, they had the perimeter heavily guarded by state of the art military equipment.


According to the scroll we bought from a beggar for 10 dollars, it was said that one must travel a week through the Desert of Shar’k Anun, cross the “Mountains of Despair” and finally pass the “Valley of the Goddess.”

So with a team of 7 which consist of DPS, tank and healer we headed out on towards our epic journey. After weeks of hardship we were on the verge of a major breakdown mentally and physically. Our water supply had all but ran out. We were conserving water by just drinking a mouthful a day. Finally we saw it, the colours which was thought to be mythical, the colours of the royal Adelaide show.


I am sure by now you would have figure out that the above story is 99% fabricated. Notice the 1% is true. Which is we did went to the Royal Adelaide show via train. The black smiths and farm equipments were all real too. All build behind a solid fence. And you’ll be surprise what kind of insane rides these aussies come up with.

The rest of the post will just be pictures.

Life in Adelaide Thus far

I am sure most of the readers who still visits my blog are curious on my life in Adelaide. Well, to be honest, it has been pretty interesting. Ok maybe interesting is a rather mild word. Try Roller coaster ride or bungee jumping or maybe a ride to space.

Between assignments, events to attend, daily house guest to entertain and of course not forgetting WoW there is hardly anytime to do anything at all. This is one of the really rare times that the house is actually quiet.

Not that I am complaining really, life is fantastic. So that is it for now, I update this blog the next time there is a quiet moment in my life.

Melbourne Pt 6 - Last few days

I’ve heard of it, those small little solid rain. But I have never really seen it before, except of course on television. So I was a tiny winy excited when we were going snowboarding on Wednesday.

This time, I woke up to the sound of Shawn cursing at us to get up. “S***, Get UP!! F***, UP Now!!” So it appears that we were running a little late behind schedule, it was 5.58am. We are supposed to get to the city by 6am.

Thus, with record breaking speed, we somehow got our self ready within 2 minutes, while Shawn called a cab. By 6.10 we were at the city, we rushed out of the cab telling him to “keep the change”. Another first in my life.

The journey to the mountain took 4 long tedious boring hours which most of it was spend sleeping and watching the sun light slowly flooding the pastures around us. At about 10am we finally reached the top of Mt. Buller.

As I step out of the bus and onto the snowy land the first thing my body did was shiver. Compared to the warmth of the bus, the outside temperature was below zero and it was FREEZING, literally. It took a while before my body manage to get accustom to the temperature and stop shivering.


After settling our paper work and gathering our equipments it was time to go SNOWBOARDING!!! Snowboarding was awesome. Speeding down the hill with total control of the board is a exhilarating experience. I for one had the speeding down the hill part mastered, all I need now is to figure out the “total control” part. I crash head first, numerous times.


The fun ended all too early as the bus was to leave at 4pm. Nothing much happen on the 4 hours journey back accept maybe Shawn’s epic bladder story but that is up to him to share.

Nothing much happen after Mt Buller, the last few days in Melbourne was spend recovering from all those early mornings. We spend our time playing settlers the board game and other meaningless stuff.


On the last night I was somehow talked into buying desert for everyone. But that’s another story, too long to be told here.


Before I knew it, it was time for me to board my plane where a new chapter of my life is supposed to begin.

Melbourne Pt 5

Some of you might be asking. “What the hell are you writing so many post on Melbourne? I want to know what is happening to you NOW!!”

The reason is simply because that once I’ve finish writing on Melbourne, there won’t be much left for me to write about. So that’s that.

It was all already plan. The morning right after the great ocean road trip I would sleep the morning away. Sleep was becoming really rare.

However, there was the problem of returning the car at 7am the next day. But then again, that is not my problem as I wasn’t the driver. YET, the driver, in this case, Shawn dared to open his mouth and requested that I accompanied him down to town the next day to return the car.

Well, knowing me being the good loyal friend that I am, I answered with a simple NOooooo. I needed to sleep, period. Unfortunately, he was rather persistent. Therefore, after some negotiating it was decided that I would get his pillow AND the electronic bed warmer and he will get company waking up at 6am the next day.

And thus, we awoke early without much sleep to return the car. We met up with Brian later on and had a breakfast, Australian style which is basically an American breakfast.


Kim Chew met up with me and Shawn later on the day and brought us up to his cool high rise suite located right in the heart of Melbourne city. Even though small, this cosy two-bedroom apartment provides a breathtaking view of Melbourne city.



That night we went to bed knowing that the next morning we would yet again be waking up with insufficient sleep. We needed to be into the city by 6.am for the snow boarding trip. Yes, SNOW!!!