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Category Archives: Weekenders

Weekend Camping at Glenworth Valley

16 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Chanda in Travel, Weekenders

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Tags

birds, camping, glenworthvalley, pegs, tent

To celebrate the start of spring, we went to Glenworth Valley to camp for a night.

We initially planned to go the weekend after the Hobart trip, but weather sucked that weekend. I was very hopeful that it would just be cloudy, however, it was pissing that Saturday morning. We were already packed and was about to turn left to Parramatta road when Andrew asked me to call Glenworth Valley and ask if I can move my reservation. They were happy to convert my booking as a credit for that instance (by company rule, rebooking should be 48 hours notice). But I wasn’t happy, I even cried. Haha! Nothing makes me more upset than rain ruining my plans. I’ve calmed down after few hours and accepted that it was right not to push through as the ground would be wet from the rain and it’ll be difficult inside the small tent.

And it was indeed a good decision (to postpone) because the weather was more than beautiful the weekend after.

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DSC_1674

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Second Time in Tasmania

14 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Chanda in Holidays, Photos, Travel, Weekenders

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Tags

Tasmania, Travel

DSC_0934

Our first time in Tasmania was Easter 2012, I’ve summarized that trip in this post. Despite getting into an accident on the trip (you can read about it here), we still fell in love with Tasmania and knew that we’ll come back. Probably it’s because of the food, or the people (and the lack of), but mainly for me it’s because of its natural features. The mountains, all the possible trails, the coast and the animals. I’ve always said that I won’t mind moving to Hobart for a year. Yep, just a year. I’ve thought about it and it will be more difficult to get out of Australia if I live in Hobart. But a year will not be bad, and of course, frequent visits.

So last weekend, for our end of winter getaway, we flew to Hobart. We were I was initially thinking to go to Snowy Mountains, but I assessed that it will be more expensive and we’ll just be more tired because of the long land travel. Jetstar always have specials and we got our return flight for $150 per person, flying out Friday night and flying in Monday morning. We’ve visited most of the island from our last trip so we wanted to go to somewhere we haven’t been to, and Bruny Island was the number one candidate.

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Andrew planned our itinerary, can you imagine!? His plan was to fly in Friday night, Saturday morning visit Salamanca, afternoon drive to Bruny Island and stay the night there. Sunday afternoon drive back to Hobart and fly back to Sydnay Monday morning. I can’t believe he can pull off such schedule. Haha!

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Blogging enroute to Alice Springs

24 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Chanda in Travel, Uncategorized, Weekenders

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I’m on the plane to Alice Springs and I’m not prepared for a 3hour flight. I knew it’ll be 3 hours but I thought I’ll sleep it off. But not today.

I don’t have my kindle, I don’t have a book, this plane has no magazine, my friends are on the opposite end of the plane and I don’t have games on my phone! I’ve read the food menu 5 times already even though I know I can’t order anything. Well I can have coffee but I want to sleep.

Thank goodness I have earphones. I’m going through my songs and playing those I haven’t listened for a long time. And then now I’m blogging. With my phone’s keypad. It’s actually not too bad. Maybe because I really don’t have a story to say, I’m doing something so to not lose my mind.

What’s up with me?

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Audley Boat Shed

12 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Chanda in Travel, Weekenders

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Paddling at Hacking River

I bought a voucher for a kayak/canoe/rowboat whole day hire at Audley Boat Shed for just $20. And as a typical voucher buyer, I only remembered to use it on the last week of it’s validity. Good thing they never ran out of boats, and good thing, I have friends who are always available on the weekends.

Sunny winter day

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How to gain 5 lbs in 5 days in Melbourne

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Chanda in Travel, Weekenders

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Acland, Cakes, Coffee, FoodMenu, Melbourne, Sweets

I was only in Melbourne for 5 days (Wed morning to Sunday afternoon) and I did manage to gain 5 lbs!

How did I do it?

1. Chinatown

On my first night, I walked 2km from my hotel to Melbourne’s Chinatown. I was thinking of cheap and “light” meal but this was what I ended up having:

Congee + peking duck wraps

Everything for $20 and I’m sure it’s enough for 2 persons as long as Andrew is not one of them LOL. I ate the 2 pecking duck wraps nad probably half of the congee. I almost didn’t touch the youtiao (fried bread) because it was really oily. The one I had in one of the restaurants in Sydey Chinatown was better.

2. Cheap Japanese Food at Swanston

Second night, I initially intended to go to Cookie along Swanston but it was so packed when I got there and I thought it was not a good place to dine alone. I walked along Swanston and searched though Urbanspoon on my phone. I was reading about DonDon and when I looked up, I was right in front of it. Destiny.

Sukiyaki Beef bowl

It’s only $6! Having a university around the area allowed these small restaurants to sell cheap food. When I was there, most people did take-away and others finished their food on small tables in less than 5 minutes. You really don’t want to stay long inside as it’s small and packed.

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Melbourne

03 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by Chanda in Travel, Weekenders

≈ 2 Comments

Melbourne is the second most populous city in Australia (next to Sydney). I’ve been to Melbourne twice in less than 3 months. First was last May after my Great Ocean Road Half Marathon (see post about Great Ocean Road here), and second was for a product training on my new job. The May visit, I tried to see most of Melbourne in 2 nights and 1 day. And on the recent visit, I spent 5 days and gained 5 lbs after the trip because we (Andrew followed Friday evening) basically just ate on the whole weekend.

Royal Exhibition Building

What can I say about Melbourne? I love it, but I’m not in love with it.

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Wollondilly Camp Ground

01 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Chanda in Travel, Weekenders

≈ 1 Comment

Wollindilly

It was one weekend of April, when weather still allows me to stay outdoors at night, when we went for a weekend camping. As usual, I was in-charge of all planning and preparation and my partner-in-crime ‘s obligation was just to drive the both of us to our destination. LOL. I initially planned to go to Bouddhi National Park, a 2-hour drive from our place, but the camping ground was fully booked when I called on the Thursday before our target weekend. Yes, you have to book camping grounds here (you even have to book some walks! Read my Overland Track attempt here). Thanks to almighty Google, I found good results to “best camping grounds near Sydney”.

Wollondilly River Station pride itself as one of the Top 5 campsites in NSW. I can’t argue with this, I’ve been camping around here in NSW and in Tasmania and still, I can say that Wollondilly is the best (campsite) so far.

Why?

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Victoria – Great Ocean Road

22 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by Chanda in Travel, Weekenders

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

12 Apostles, Australia, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Victoria

Shoot me, I have so many backlogs to post about. I even told myself before that I’ll be posting at least once a day. Who was I kidding? Anyway, my flight back to Sydney is delayed and I’m bored here at the lounge and boyfriend’s snoring beside me, might as well update here. Tasmania series is not yet finished but I don’t have the photos here on my laptop so I’ll be sharing the Great Ocean Road trip I had last May (2012).

Image from http://www.koonara.com

The trip was for the Great Ocean Road marathon that me and other friends participated into. Me and Vanessa registered for the 23km run and Annie and Dom went for the 14km. Great Ocean Road is a famous destination in Victoria (another state of Australia) and it’s a 243-km stretch of road along the the south eastern coast. The full marathon + extra 2 km (44km total) started from Lorne and ends in Apollo Bay. The half marathon started between those 2 points (makes sense). And the 14km had a loop around Apollo Bay. The tracks were known for great views which really adds up to the experience of running.

We flew in to Avalon Airport on Friday night and drove for 2 hours to Apollo Bay where we booked YHA accommodation for 2 nights (It was the best backpacker accommodation I’ve ever been!). I never get dizzy on a trip but that drive was an exemption. It was like the drive up to Baguio but times ten more “swerve-y”. Everyone, except the driver got dizzy. I even stopped talking to them because I had to concentrate not to puke. You wouldn’t expect anything else to happen that night after we arrived at the hostel aside from sleeping.

The next day, we decided to see the 12 Apostles in the morning since the 14km un will not start until 1:30 PM. 12 Apostles is a collection of limestone rocks off the shore by the Great Ocean Road. I’ve seen lots of photos of the place but I was still overwhelmed upon seeing it in front of me. No camera can do justice to it’s beauty.

The famous 12 Apostles are no longer 12

The other 4 Apostles – Dom, Chanda, Annie and Vanesa

Beautiful lookout points

Aside from the famous lookout point at Port Campbell National Park, we also went to these steps to see the Apostles from below. I was wondering if ever it gets warm there on winter. I can imagine it will be majestic to swim with all the giants around you.

From below

We didn’t have the luxury to stare at the Apostles long because Annie and Dom had to be back to Apollo Bay for their race. We left area of 12 Apostles around 11:30, giving 1 and a half hour allowance before the start time. And just for additional travel experience for all of us, one front tire decided to burst! 4 girls, 1 flat tire, kilometers away from main towns and a race to catch – perfect. We all know how to drive but only Annie had an idea on how to change tires. We were working on it slowly when a good samaritan stopped and finished it off quickly. We were so thankful because we sill made it on time for the 14km race. I’ll probably have a separate post on how to change a tire.

Oops!

Go Annie!

Plenty of time before the start

Then on Sunday, after me and Vanesa’s 23km run, we just quickly freshened up and ate lunch and we headed to this road which is known for the koalas.

The 23km finishers

And it was the best experience with koalas ever! I never really liked seeing animals in the zoo, so watching dozen of koalas hanging on a tree was just awesome.

Up a eucalyptus tree

They’re awake!

We even saw a cute baby koala on the road and we stopped to watch him as he tried to climb a small tree and later on disappeared in the bush.

Baby koala on the road

Baby koala climbing a small tree

There’s a lot more to see in the Great Ocean Road, I saw the maps and it seems that there were lookouts after every few kilometers. It will be nice to spend an entire weekend or more, just on that road. But I will have to request that no driving to be done at night, I don’t want to get that dizzy again.

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