A Long Trip (Part III - Australia)

Monday, March 3, 2025 - Arrived in Sydney!

We set our alarms at 6am today but we were both awake before that. We went down to the BLU (which opened at 6:30 today) and had our usual breakfast. We were out of our room around 7:30 and exited the ship around 8. Quite smooth - had to really admire these cruise lines who are so well organized and got all the 3k+ people all disembarked so smoothly! We were led to the 3rd floor of the terminal where we got our taxi who took us to our hotel the Amora Hotel Sydney Jamison. The hotel was unbelievably close - if we did not have all the luggage we could have easily walked ourselves.

We were in the hotel before 8:30. Of course our room was not ready. So we left all the 6 pieces of luggage (including my camera bag) at the hotel and started out to explore the tourists' spots.

I was shocked to see our ship was SO CLOSE to both the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House!! And it is so close to our hotel which is in the city center - a nice hotel! It's not the Four Seasons (which is very close by), but it is very nice!

We walked the Harbor bridge from this end to the other then turned around to walk back. Then we walked to the Opera House, where we wanted to do an inside tour. Unfortunately all the English tours today and tomorrow have been sold out! Sigh .... We walked to the edge of the Botanical garden(s), but it looked more like a nice place with lush lawn and trees than the flower gardens I expected. By that time my right foot started to hurt, so we walked back. It was shortly before noon time.

Our room was not ready yet, so we decided to do the hop on/off bus (instead of sitting in the hotel lobby) and get a view of the various places of the city. The closest bus top was across from the Four Seasons hotel, very close. So we got on the bus which was pretty packed. It was not cheap - around $160 for the two of us, for 24 hours. We did not get off anywhere, just rode a full round, about 2 hours. Got a glimpse of the city but honest could not remember much. I do like this city! Parts of it reminded me of Boston, the good parts of Boston. And it feels younger than Boston, and cleaner. And very different from the bigger cities of NZ ....

I've been in touch with Lin's cousin Zhenzhen who is coming to take us out for dinner etc. Feel bad that she has to do this because she is working and quite busy. And she has to get into the city to meet us ....

We met Bridget (Zhenzhen, Lin's cousin) - she came to the hotel and we all rushed out to the bar she made the reservation for. It was the roof bar at the Intercontinental hotel - she got a Didi car to get us all there. We had a couple of finger foods and enjoyed the scene at the top of the roof - good view of the Harbor bridge and the Opera House from above! Unfortunately it was cloudy so there was no sunset ....

Then we went to the restaurant near the Darling Harbor where she made the reservation. It was a Chinese restaurant but totally Australianized. Food was nice! We ate and chatted. Then we came back to the hotel - she and I sat in the lobby and chatted while Bob went back to the room. We talked about the plan for the next day. She left around 10 - she had to take the train back to somewhere near her office, then pick up her car to drive home. She did not get home until 11-ish. I feel so bad! ....

Tuesday, March 4, 2025 - Visited the Sydney Wildlife Zoo then Had a Good Time with Bridget's Family

Our original plan for today was to visit the Toranga Zoo which is a big zoo and need to take a ferry to get there. It is supposed to be a famous good zoo with all sorts of animals. But my main interest is to see the one specific to Australia, and we need to go visit Bridget's parents in the afternoon so our time is limited. So we decided to visit the small Sydney Wildlife Zoo which has only Australian specific animals such as Koala, Kangaroo, Wombat, etc. And it is very close - within walking distance, right by the Darling Harbor.

We were up before 8, had breakfast and walked towards the zoo. I booked the tickets online and we got there around 10. It was a building enclosure with transparent plastic roof for part of it. We had a good time seeing all the animals, and we paid to have photos with one koala. I'm not too pleased with the photos taken - I saw another couple's photos which were so much better!! Oh well ....

We walked back to the hotel after the zoo visit, mailed the tax letter which Bob forgot to mail. And grabbed a couple of Vietnamese fresh rolls in the food court next to the hotel and took a brief rest. Bob got a phone call from Audley's agent in Australia - they had to change our hotel in Eden to another one because the hotel is under construction.

Bridget's house with her parents is in the town called Hurtsville. It is quite far away. We asked the hotel concierge to get a taxi for us, he said it would be quite expensive, but he helped us to negotiate a set price of $85. The driver told us that Hurtsville is a very large Chinese community, just like what Bridget told us.

Their house was quite nice, very spacious! Their samoyed dog Chloe was super adorable!!! Much more obedient than any of the samoyeds we had! The whole family absolutely loves her! And she is treated like a queen!! I really LOVE that dog!! I saw the dinner Bridget's dad prepared for Chloe - half a can of sardine, some carrots, sweet potato, and cucumber, SO GOOD!! She wolfed it down!! A real sweet heart!!

Bridget's parents treated us to a fancy Chinese dinner! Australia lobster! Everything was super delicious!! We did not get back to their house until 9pm! It was so nice to chat with family even though I met Bridget's mom once 50+ years ago and I never met her dad before. But it felt like family!

Bridget got a didi car to send us back and she paid for it. And they gave me presents to bring home. I feel bad ....

We're back in the hotel before 10.

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 - Tour of the Blue Mountains

We set our alarm for 6am and jumped out of bed promptly. After breakfast, just as we were about to leave the room, the phone rang - the front desk called to tell us our tour guide was waiting.

The van was waiting for us - we were the last two to get in and sat in the back, 2 single seats. There were about 12 or 14 people in the group. I did not know what to expect for this all-day tour, and I was a little concerned about how much hiking we would be doing, but my worries were soon alleviated! All the people in the group were older people (we might be the oldest), when the guide asked if there were any hikers, noone answered! Phew!!

Our first stop was at a farm with all sorts of Australian animals - much better than the zoo we visited yesterday!! We saw the kangaroos!! And the wombats, including a baby! And I was able to touch the sleeping koala and the baby wombat!!!!! I was in heaven!! Besides these special animals, there were peacocks, sheep and goats, chickens, ducks, camels, etc etc.

Learned the sad story that the wombat: her mom was killed on the road and thankfully people checked the mother's pouch and found her. She had bone fractures and one eye was damaged, but she survived. Her eyes do not see well, and she has dust allergy. We learned that the baby can survive in the mother's pouch for 3 days after the mom is diseased, so it is very important to check the pouch!!

After the farm visit, we stopped at various lookout points to view the scenery. It was very foggy in the morning, so at the lookout for the "three sisters" we could not see anything but the clouds. After lunch, our guide asked us to vote for either proceeding to see the botanical gardens or turning back to see the scenery - we all voted turning back. The weather was really cooperating with us - no rain, not too hot, not cold. Just perfect!

We had lunch at a restaurant - quite good! Overall, a very pleasant day! The rush hour traffic coming back was bad, and we got back to our hotel after 5:30.

People on the tour were talking about the good restaurants in Sydney which reminded us that I had not been googling or yelping for good restaurants for a while, and I was determined to find a good Chinese restaurant nearby! And we did!

The restaurant "Mr. Wong" got good reviews and was only 5 minutes away from our hotel!! So we went - it took us a while to find it, because the googlemap instructions were not that great and this restaurant is in a side street, with no sign!! But we found it!! And the food was quite good, despite the fact that 95% of the patrons were caucasian! The food was very tasty and fresh, even though not as authentic as the ones in Chinatown. We enjoyed it!!

Back in the hotel and caught up with my diary. Tomorrow we'll be up around 7 and start our journey. Probably will avoid the rush hour and leave around 10.

Thursday, March 6, 2025 - Left Sydney, Spent the Night at Batesmans Bay - a Stressful Day

We were up around 7 and finished breakfast shortly after 8. I finished packing then we went to Avis car rental which was at the Marriott Hotel not far from us. Getting to the Avis place was smooth and getting our car did not take long - we were lucky the rental car (a Toyota Corolla) has a GPS!!

As I feared, driving back to the hotel was surely NOT easy!! Sydney is much much worse than Boston - the similarity is that the streets are all scrambled, but what's worse of Sydney was there were constructions EVERYWHERE and many streets were blocked and the GPS does not know!! A 5-minutes walk from our hotel to Avis turned into a half hour drive plus a very stressful time for both of us! Just as I feared!!

We checked out of the hotel before 10 and started on the road. OMG!! It was the rush hour, and the GPS instructions were always a couple of seconds behind which made getting on the right street very difficult. We plugged in Jervis Bay as the first destination, but we missed a couple of turns so the GPS sent us onto the highway that led us in the direction of Canberra. We drove on the highway for a long time and felt more and more wrong. We took an exit by mistake and drove into a residential place, totally lost. Had nobody to ask, no commercial establishments of any kind ..... I was yelling at Bob and he was yelling back. I wanted to jump out of the car and go home! Absolutely painful!!....

It was noon time already. We decided to give up the idea of going to Jervis Bay as Audley's book for us had instructed, and plugged "Lincoln Downs Resort at Batemans Bay" on the GPS. Then things seemed to be going better.

We drove near Nowra then got on Princess Highway. We were both much calmer by then. All of a sudden, a car was honking at us, and the driver drove by us and pointed it frantically at our front right wheel .... I was puzzled, Bob said he hoped we did not have a flat tire. Then the man's gesture made sense. Bob pulled to the side of the highway - the vehicles were driving by us so fast! I could not let Bob get out of the car so I got out, but I could not even step over to see the right tire because the vehicles were driving by SO FAST. I finally got a glimpse - yup! Flat tire!!

Now what?? We did not know where we were, and we don't have a way to make calls in Australia. We have a Avis card that has the roadside assistance call number. I tried using my phone - it does not work. Then Bob tried his and we dialed the country code 61, then the 1-800 Australia number, and it worked!!!!!! At this time, Bob did not care how much Verizon would charge us for the call! We could not be stranded there.

The Avis road side assistance number really worked!! The lady handling the case was very very kind! Hearing her calm voice saying we would sort all this out not to worry made us feel so much better!!!! After asking us a lot of questions based on my googlemap, she finally knew where we were and would send a tow truck over to take us to a safer place than find a tire shop to deal wth the tire.

Less than 10 minutes later, a man knocked on our window - he did not have a tow truck, but he immediately changed our tire - there was a spare temporary tire in the trunk, he quickly put it on, then told us to drive back into the town Nowra and go to a tire shop to get the tire repaired - there was a screw in the tire. ugh!!!!! He typed into my google map the name of a tire place and we drove there. The temp tire could only drive for a short time, slowly.

So we drove back into the Nowra town to the tire place - the people there were also very nice! $35AUD for the tire repair. I called Avis back as we were told to, and they told us when we return the car, we would give them the invoice and get reimbursed.

We were back on the road after the tire was repaired. Less than 2 hours later we got to the hotel Lincoln Downs Resort Batemans Bay. It was just a motel. I had to use their phone to talk to James who called and emailed us about the hotel change. I asked specifically not to give us a room that we had to drag the luggage up the staircase, but here they gave us a room on the 2nd floor. Also breakfast was not included which was different from the original arrangement. I spoke with James, then they changed our room to the first floor, but only with a queen bed; and added breakfast.

The room is basically a motel room, but slightly bigger than the "Regent Boutique" in Rotorua. Just one night, oh well ....

Friday, March 7, 2025 - To Bairnsdale and East Gippsland Region

5:30pm now and we're in The Riverleigh hotel in Airnsdale, after 8 hours drive. The drive was long but smooth. We drove by lush fields, vast farms with mainly cows (not so much sheep or goats ....), and forests. All this green made the drive easier on the eyes than plain old highway. Funny thing was my googlemap and the GPS on the car pretty much gave the same route, but with different arrival/travel time - the difference was about an hour. We feel fortunate that we got here before 5.

We do not have access to the restaurant which is right next door. Someone is cooking inside and it smells SO GOOD! But we had no idea how to get in ..... Very strange .... It turned out this hotel is quite large - on the other side of the restaurant there was another wing, with better rooms facing the street. We walked out trying to find some human who can tell us about the restaurant. Then we met a couple who also just got in. They are staying in one of the downstairs rooms in the other wing. They also could not figure out if the restaurant is open. But we all know we will be having breakfast there tomorrow.

Bob googled and found out there were quite a number of Asian restaurants in this little town. So we walked down the street to find out. This little town has two main streets so it was easy to explore. We first went into an Asian restaurant called "Two Spoons". It got good reviews but definitely is a fusion one. I wanted to first see the Vietnamese restaurant. An old man who was in Two Spoons actually took us to the Vietnamese restaurant "Maison Sen" which appeared to be a newly opened one. We went in and had dinner there. We ordered one beef on hot plate with pepper sauce, one Singapore noodles, and one stir fried vegetables, plus a couple of fresh rolls. All were good, even though I did not think too much of the beef - too saucy and buttery, and did not sizzle.....

The restaurant was filled with Caucasians - I feel Australia is a lot more diversified than the US, including people's acceptance of different foods. This little town has quite a number of Asian restaurants: Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. plus Asian grocery stores. Not sure what the history of this town is. It does not look like a posh affluent town, but I like it. Unfortunately by the time we got here all the stores were closed. And they won't be open when we leave tomorrow ....

Tomorrow's plan: we will be up around 7:30. Breakfast is 8-10 and we will have it before 9. Then we will pack and drive to Paynesville to take the ferry to Raymond Island to walk the Koala trail - the only place we can see wild Koala!! The only issue is, we have to go to the supermarket to get some ice so we can keep my Rapatha cold as we must checkout this hotel by 10am....

8:30 now. Will do some prep for tomorrow's walk then go to bed.

Saturday, March 8, 2025 - To Phillip Island, After Visiting Raymond Island, Paynesville, for the Koalas

Today's drive was not as long as the previous 2 days, but because there was not much scenery per se, it did not feel that short - it was about 5 hours even though the map says 3+ hours.

It was an interesting experience at the Riversleigh hotel, the unmanned hotel. But there was a lady managing the breakfast (included, continental). It was Saturday, a weekend day, so breakfast started at 8am instead of 7. The entrance to the breakfast room (part of the restaurant) was in the back. By 8am at least 10 people were ready to go in. The lady working inside gestured us to say that please wait another 5 minutes.

We went in to have what would be expected for a continental breakfast - I would say it was slightly better than what we would have in a Courtyard hotel. Of course no individually prepared eggs etc. But not surprised. Coffee, bread/pastry, cereal, some cold cuts/cheese, etc.

We quickly finished our breakfast before 9. Then Bob drove to the grocery store to buy some ice and containers so we can keep my Repatha in frig temperature as we were planning to visit the Raymond island. He came back with a bag of ice and a cooler bag which would do. We packed the meds between ice in plastic bags. Later we went to the store again so I could put the meds inside a plastic box and won't get all set when the ice melts.

Checkout time at the hotel was strictly by 10am and we were out way before that. Checking out was easy, just leave the door ajar. Our first stop was the ferry at Paynesville that was about 15 minutes drive away. We parked on the street by the ferry and walked onto the ferry which was free for the pedestrians. It was indeed the world's shortest ferry! Anybody who can swim would easily swim over, as far as there's no crocodile in the water!

The Koala trail on Raymond Island was right by the ferry. It was kind of the loop and you could start from either direction. We started from the left. There were marks for the trail but not at all the places they should be unfortunately so we ended up walking only a small part of it.

A few steps into the trail, we saw the people ahead of us standing there looking up the tree. Ah! A koala right up there! Sleeping!! Unfortunately it's face was in the shade with its back towards the sun (and so with the next few koalas!!). I was ecstatic!! Shot with my phone and with my camera - neither came out as well as I had hoped :-( But my eyes and heart feasted on all the koalas we saw! And we saw 5 or 6 of them! And they were all up the trees by the houses of people who live there! How I envy those residents!!!! We also saw some nice birds but we did not specifically look for them, or the kangaroos.

We were back on the ferry around 11:30 and got on the road again. Our destination for the day was the Phillip Island Apartments on Phillip Island. We got there before 5pm. The drive was uneventful and not particularly pretty. We did get a sense of the farming countryside.

The Phillip Island Apartments is an oldish apartments. Apparently we were the last two guests to have arrived today and they had been texting me - unfortunately texting for me does not work reliably with this esim, not sure why ..... Very annoying. But we arrived in time before the receptionists got off work!! We have room #23 on the first floor, a 2-bedroom apartments with handicap access (so we got a parking spot right outside our window). The apartment was rather spacious - the most spacious room of this trip - and the washer and dryer are right in the unit!! Nothing fancy or luxurious but we're glad for all this space. The receptionist were very friendly and helpful! They told us that Monday would be their holiday so nobody would be on site when we checkout, we could just drop the key in the drop box. No problem there.

I started doing some laundry right away (they even provided laundry detergent so we did not have to buy a large amount at the store which I really appreciate). The washer looked like it needed some cleaning, but what the heck ....

With the first load of laundry on the way, we went out towards the Penguin Parade meeting spot. We were supposed to meet at 7pm at the Phillip Island Nature Park, 154/156 Thompson Ave. It took us 2 rounds to get there (plus stopping to ask some local people). We got there before 6:30 and grabbed some truck food to eat right on the street as we had no time for anything else. We waited and waited - the office was closed and nobody showed up. We waited till 7:10, then followed the road sign to the Penguin Parade place 10km away - just to checkout what it is all about.

Wow it was a sold-out night today! SO MANY cars were parked outside the building and so many people!!! Bob parked at a temporary place and I got out to find out what's going on. I walked to the entrance of the building and spoke with the people there, told them what happened and showed them the instructions we have which had our booking information. They were able to find our names and told us our group had just left, but told me not to worry, just park our car and they would get us in. I rushed back and Bob parked the car. We were able to get in and they took us to a room with a group (8 people) who were just about to start. We had a guide ranger who was obviously very knowledgeable, Sharon, who actually grew up right around there! We were each given a binoculars, an earphone with a transmission device so we could listen to the guide. Apparently there were many guided small groups, plus visitors with tickets but without guides.

I had no idea what this penguin parade was about and I learned:

Australia only has 1 kind of penguin, the little penguins, whose colonies have dwindled quite a bit. This colony at Phillip Island where the little penguins build their burrows and they raise their young and endure their annual molting and come back home to after spending the day at sea every day. There are tiered stadium seating along the coast where we could watch, in the dark, when the penguins come back to shore in the waves and waddle towards their home .... Absolutely cute!! We saw chicks waiting on the land for their parents to come back to feed them (one chick had been waiting for 3 nights an begging for food from each returning penguin but was ignored ....not sure what happened to its parent .... The guide said it might not survive which really broke my heart ..... Some penguins were so chubby as they were preparing for their molting time when they could not go into the ocean for a couple of weeks!! They were so chubby that they really labored to waddle .... Unfortunately photography were forbidden so I could not take any photos ....

By the time we were done and came back to the hotel, it was almost 10pm - thankfully we had some street food otherwise we would have been very starved ....

Started another load of laundry before we went to bed after midnight.

Sunday, March 9, 2025 - A Full Day at Phillip Island

I was up before 7. Not sure if I slept well - the washing machine was making funny noises so I was in a strange half sleep half not sleep situation most of the night.

We had no plan to cook for ourselves - not worth the effort. So we went out for breakfast. A few steps from the apartments there was a cafe and served the breakfast we wanted so we ate there. Had our regular egg and coffee, no complaints.

So this is a long weekend for the locals. This is a seaside town which is very popular among local and outside tourists. Not exactly the kind of town we would like but we're making the best of it.

We visited all the three local grocery stores: the Aldi, the Coles, and the Woolworth. Got a few necessities and came back to the hotel. It would be a relaxing day for us. We will venture out hoping to see Koala Conservation Reserve and the Nobbies Center, if we can get the tickets and if they're not too crowded.

We drove to the Nobbies Center which was just on the other side of the penguin parade place. It was indeed a beautiful place - gorgeous coast line and with some wild life as well. But it was SO HOT today! The weather forecast indicated extreme heat which was not joking. Even though the temperature showed only 79 to 81 degrees, but it felt like 110! Walking under the sun my skin felt burning, worse than when I was in Africa!! All the ice cream (Ben and Jerry's) at the center was sold out except the chocolate ones which looked like mud and nobody seemed to want it, even for chocolate lovers like Bob. Quite unbelieveable! I quickly took a few photos using my phone and we did not walk the entire nice boardwalk before we got in the car and left.

After the Nobbies Center, we drove to the Koala Conservation Reserve. We bought the tickets and walked on the two board walk enclosures so we stood closer to where they sleep. We saw 8 or 9 koalas altogether. I was in heaven - short of being able to hold them. A couple of visitors had their private tour with a guiding ranger (which would cost $60/pp vs $16/pp as we paid). The guide was not too interested seeing we were also excited in seeing the koala as they did. Oh well ....

We came back to the hotel after the koala visit. Shortly after 5pm, we walked in town to have dinner at the only Chinese restaurant we found - Wing Ho (顶好). It is open for dinner only. The hostess, a Chinese, was not too friendly. We ordered three dishes: a scallop hotpot with vegetable in garlic and oyster sauce which was quite good; a kungpao chicken which was definitely NOT kongpao chicken but tasted ok to Bob, and a roast pork with chilli and vegetable dish which was so so. I also had a hot and sour soup. Food was edible but glad we would never be here again so would never eat at this place again.

Tomorrow is a holiday here - Australian Labor Day - and many places are closed. We may have a hard time finding a breakfast place, and if we can't we would hope to find a McDonald. ....

I need to pack again tonight.

Monday, March 10, 2025 - To Port Campbell - Saw the Twelve Apostles!!

It's been one of the greatest days in Australia, so far!

We were up by 7 and walked into town to see if there would be breakfast place open. Luckily there was! It was a cafe not far from the cafe we ate at yesterday (which was closed today). We had a good normal breakfast. Then went back to the apartment, packed the car and got on the road. It was barely 9:30am.

We took the highway, as opposed to the scenic way along the coast, skirting Melbourne, and got to Port Campbell around 2:30. We did not drive by Cape Otway or the 12 Apostles, as we wanted to get to the hotel and check in, then go visit things even if we had to retrace our steps a bit. Today is the Australia Labor Day holiday - I was afraid the people at the hotel might be off early.

We got to the "hotel" - Anchors at Port Campbell. On Audley's binder, this place is rated first class. I did not dare to hold too much hope, but today I was very pleasantly surprised!! Not sure how to describe it - it has three individual "houses" of which ours is #1. It is like a luxury one bedroom "studio", with a king bed, then down a couple of steps it is the living room facing a wall of two large windows, looking at at the farm fields and Port Campbell town visible in the distance. There is a kitchen and a bathroom which has a large tub and a small shower. Everything is very clean and neat. The TV has netflix etc. all available. The lady in charge was very friendly and helpful and explained to us about everything including the nearby scenery spots.

We were both quite excited. Despite having driven 5 hours, Bob got in the car soon after we settled in. We first drove to the town of Port Campbell, just wanted to scout out what kind of dining venues there were, and grocery store. The lady at our place has ample breakfast stuff - coffee, milk cereal, etc. But we really wanted eggs - we need to take off very early Wednesday morning to get to Melbourne airport for Tasmania so I need to boil some eggs. There are no restaurant or anything by where we are staying unless we drive into town.

It is a small town. We first went into the Information center which was open, surprisingly. The guy gave us useful information. We found out the one place we could have dinner would not open until 5:30. There were a number of other places open but mostly bar type. It was only 4:30, so we drove to the nearby "town" Timboon, where we heard there is a good Thai restaurant. It was about 15km away and we drove to the restaurant which was closed on Monday. It was an interesting place. It's called "Berry World PYO Strawberries and Berry Good Thai Restaurant" - Boy! A mouthful!! We will go tomorrow.

We drove back to Port Campbell. By that time the restaurant we're thinking for dinner was open. We each had a burger and shared a salad, then got our eggs, then back to the hotel. Then we drove out again to the 12 Apostles - it was a 25-minute drive and I knew we would miss the sunset. That's ok - we could at least scout out the route and parking, etc.

We got there! And we rushed to the lookout points. Oh WOW!!! Even though we missed the sunset but the light was still magical! I could not contain my excitement - it was SO SO PRETTY!!!! It was the most beautiful scenery we've seen on this trip in Australia so far!! WOW!!! Later Bridget told me that she and her mom saw the 12 Apostles in 2001 - at that time these rock formations were still pretty big. But now they are a lot smaller. They will one day all disappear, eroded by the ocean water .....

We will go tomorrow at sunrise to see them again!! I will try to use my real camera.

It is 10pm now - raining outside and there was thunder a few minutes ago. This place has been too dry - the fields were all yellow so it could really use the rain. And it was very hot during the day!! Bob figured out how to use the coffee machine after spilling water all over the counter. We will be up early - sunrise is at 7:21. We will be up around 6 and go there before eating anything.

Tuesday, March 11, 2025 - Too Much to See around Port Campbell!

We were up at 6 when my phone alarm went off. Reluctantly we got up - I had only 5 hours sleep at most but Bob did a bit more as he went to bed shortly after 10 - I was worried his cold was coming back and had him taking 2 Panadol pills.

I had boiled eggs last night and Bob learned how to make his espresso. We left the house around 7:10 which was 15 minutes too late!! I hate myself for that!! We missed the sunrise at the Apostles and the magic light .... Sigh .... I took some pictures, not that special, but the scenery was breath-taking any way! After the 12 Apostles, we visited the Loch Ard Gorge which was great! Then we visited the London Bridge and the Grottos, after getting lost a few times and drove at least 5km on the gravel farm roads - the GPS really got things wrong and I had to ask the people walking on the road a few times!! For the Grottos, we only walked the short path so we did not really see the best site. Oh well. It was after 10 already and getting quite hot.

We came back to the cottage. Really really love this place!! It is a place we really enjoy coming back to and I wish we could stay here a few more days!!!!! Need to write a good review for it and recommend to friends! Love it!! It's so clean and even has packs of sanitizing wipes!! First place ever I saw this!

After resting a bit, the plan is: drive to the Thai restaurant in Timboon for lunch, go to the wild life park for the dingo encounter, then back to pack. I want to repack and store one piece of luggage at Melbourne airport before going to Tasmania. Then we will go to the 12 Apostles again at sunset this evening. Then call it a day to prepare for tomorrow's eary morning drive.

 The "Berry Good Thai" restaurant in Timboon was open for lunch, phew!! And it was a great lunch - the food was delicious! We ordered a shrimp roll appetizer and minced port salad both were good, but the main dishes - chilly basil chicken and pahtai were as good as expected! And I saw the chef went to the garden in the back to get the scallions and basil from the garden.

We chatted with the lady who was one of the owners of the restaurant. She said she and her friend opened this restaurant and her friend is the main chef and is from Thailand. They also hired the relative couple from Thailand. They have the strawberry field in the back - quite unique, for a Thai restaurant! The lady was a dog lover and her 3-legged small dog was in the restaurant - he lost one hind leg in a traffic accident :-( and it was 15 years old already. The lady said one day she will sell the restaurant and travel all over Australia with the dog in a trailer. We had a good chat!!

Back to the hotel after lunch and I did my re-packing. We will be leaving in half an hour, at 3, to do our dingo encounter at the wild life park at 4, then do the sunset 12 Apostles.

Went to the 12 Apostles before 7 but did not expect to see a good sunset - too much cloud. But it was still pretty and the place looked great even in not so great weather. We did not stay long and came back to the hotel before 8. None of us was hungry - I had way too much at lunch. So Bob had some cereal and I snacked on chips.

We will get up at 6 again and aim to leave at 7.

Wednesday, March 12, 2025 - Drive to Melbourne Tullamarine Airport, then Fly to Hobart, Tasmania

We were up at 6 again when the alarm woke us, and we got on the road a couple of minutes before 7:30. It was definitely the right decision, as we were the only car on the winding roads for the first 50km. Even after we got on the highway, it was not bad until we got into Melbourne close to the airport. It took us about 3 hours, not bad at all!

The most challenging part was getting to the rental car return place at the airport - there was NO sign on the road for the rental car return!!!!! I could not believe it! We were driving around blindly and suddenly saw all the rental car company names! And there was Avis! Bob almost drove on the wrong direction! Then I got out of the car to ask the driver who was driving out of the place - he looked like a uniformed worker there. He told me normally people return the car at the airport and I said we were trying to do just that!! So he was kind enough to say he would take us there and let us follow him! That's how we got to the Avis car return! I was quite pissed off - what kind of an archaic airport was this??? .... Returning the car was no issue, but we had to go to the office to handle the tire issue. Oh boy! The Avis car rental place had such a long line, with all the people there picking up their rental cars. There were only two workers who were really swamped and looked very impatient. Finally the lady took care of us - Bob had to fill out the form. She said we would get the reimbursement from the insurance company in a week to 10 days.

Our flight to Tasmania (Hobart) was at 2:55. They would not be open to check in the luggage until 12:55. So we had to spend 1.5 hour waiting - we each had some coffee and pastry.

The airline was actually pretty punctual and opened the luggage checkin at 12:55 sharp! Oh, before we headed to terminal 4 which is the domestic terminal, we put one piece of luggage into the storage facility - for 5 days, $100. Not cheap. I'm afraid when we store luggage in Japan it will be much worse ....

After checking in the luggage we were able to relax and wait - our flight did not get assigned a gate until 2:25!! It was quite a long walk and we rushed to the gate and got in line - we were the early ones - the line got quite long later.

The plane was delayed - could not understand the muffled voice over the loud speaker why it was delayed. We did not board until almost 4. This Jetstar airline is a budget airline and we had to walk to the plane and climb the stairs ..... The flight was only 1 hour and 20 minutes. They did not even serve free drinks - even water cost $4 a bottle. We did not feel like having anything. But we were surprised that the flight attendant told us we have 2 $10 vouchers, so we each had a bottle of water and a pack of cheese and crackers - somehow whenever we're on the plane, everything tastes "good" :-)

We got to Hobart around 5. Then we got the rental car. While Bob went to get the rental car, I got the luggage. After we went into the car, we found out the GPS required some subscription, so we went back to ask the Avis guy who told us we need to use Apple phone "carplay" to navigate. I did not try to figure out how it works, so we just used googlemap on my phone.

Hobart turned out to be much bigger and much more city than I expected!! It was not that straightforward to get to our hotel - the Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, which turned out to be a very nice apartment hotel! We got a "spa" room which has a large tub that we would never use. But it has washer and dryer in our room - I am washing a load now!!

There was no parking space at the hotel today, so we parked our car in a garage 5 minutes walk away. But we will have the parking space starting tomorrow!

We had dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Bob had steak, I had some Thai noodle salad with fried squid which was ok. The best part was talking with Alex the waiter who gave us a lot of tips about what to do and see in Tasmania. Tomorrow we will drive to Port Arthur!

Thursday, March 13, 2025 - To Port Arthur, HighLight: Visiting Unzoo

We were up around 8 and had breakfast in the hotel - one of the very so so meals, just slightly better than the ones at Courtyard Marriott ....

We had to walk to the parking garage to move our car back to the hotel's parking lot. By the time we started driving towards Port Arthur, it was around 10.

The drive to Port Arthur was about 1.5 hours. We were told the scenery would be good along the drive, but there was really nothing too special. Once out of the city, there were vast farmlands. Because of the dry weather, there was a lot of yellow colors. We got glimpses of the ocean - it was really blue! Very pretty! The mountains around seemed quite low ....

The highlight today was the "Unzoo". It was on the other side of the highway, about 30km out of Port Arthur. We almost passed it and had to U-turn and drove back but it was well worth it!!! The entry fee was $55/pp, which included visiting the Tasmanian devils at their feeding time and spending close time with the kangaroos.

All was amazing!!! There were 4 devils. Because it was the feeding time, they were quite active even though they are nocturnal animals. They were in a fenced in area and there were several dens built for them. Some were inside the dens. They were fed kibbles and raw dead wallabies which scared me .... We watched them crunch down the meat ..... and they were fighting with each other, making horrible noises. But the guy who fed them told us they really could not see things and they were not really biting each other.... maybe there were just playing? I took as many pictures as I could, but I did not use my real camera. There were about 10 people there. These devils are carnivores. The feeder told us they were able to jump as high as the fence to grab the food if you're not careful!

Then we went to feed the bird Rosetta (?). Very pretty birds! We each grabbed a handful of seeds and stretched our arm out, hoping they would land on our hands. But they only landed on two ladies' hands. Very pretty birds!

Then we went to pet and feed the kangaroos. We would cradle our hands with food and present it to the kangaroo's mouth. If they're interested, they would eat, most did. To pet them, you need to pet their chest because they're not able to do that themselves - you would never try to touch their head between their ears, and never touch their back or tails! Those kangaroos were very kind. It was around 1pm and it was very sunny and warm/hot. They mainly lay on the ground. I would have loved to kneel down longer and feed more of them, but my legs were not cooperating :-(

After the feeding and petting, we could have walked around the zoo more, as the other animals were all wandering loose. But it was almost 2pm and we had to get to port Arthur, so we left.

This is the best "unzoo" (basically a unique wild life sanctuary) we've seen. Animals looked healthy and the place was well kept!! We're very willing to pay the fee!

The main thing about Port Arthur is its history of being a penal colony. The place was basically built by the prisoners who were sent there from England in the 1770s to 1860s. We debated whether or not to take the tour at the history center and decided to not do it. We can read more about it online. We mainly wanted to see the scenery and wild life. So we decided to drive to Fortescue Bay and Cape Hauy. We ended up driving 15km on the bumpy packed dirt road, and only saw the camp ground in the national park. And that was the Fortescue Bay. Cape Hauy was not reachable by car. A lot of the gorgeous coastal rocky scenery spots probably could only be reached via hiking..... Oh well ....

I honestly did not know what to expect before coming to Tasmania - kind of hoping to see wild scenery and wild life, maybe even more remote and more pretty than NZ .... After coming here, in Hobart, I felt it's been much more developed than I thought. It is different but I cannot quantify how different ....

We came back to the hotel around 6. Then we searched for Asian restaurants online and decided to walk to a place called Sawak Cafe which was 15 minutes walk from the hotel. So we started walking towards it. On the way we saw the Chinese restaurant called "Potstickers" and the menu looked ok. Since I love dumplings so we went in. It was a small place but we got an empty table. We ordered pan fried dumplings, pepper beef and string beans. I was apprehensive but was pleasantly surprised! Food was quite good!

On our way walking back to the hotel, we discovered there was a street very close to our hotel that had MANY Asian eateries!! Vietnamese Bahmi, Chinese LanZhou beef noodles (I watched the guy pulling the dough into noodles!!), Korean food, etc. etc. We would have no problem tomorrow finding some good eats!!

Tomorrow our plan is to just walk around Hobart and relax. Now we have confirmed our plan to go to China for 8 nights, accepted the disappointing result that we have to fly economy all the way back to the US, I need to start getting the Japan plan details arranged ....

After 10:30 now, time for bed!

Friday, March 14, 2025 - Enjoyed Touring of Hobart

We slept until we woke up naturally and did not go down for breakfast until almost 9:30 (breakfast is until 10). After breakfast, we went out to start our exploration of Hobart.

The weather looked very overcast. Bob looked at the radar and said there might be rain so we both wore our raincoats (but it turned out later to be a rather sunny day, and warm, until the evening when the wind started).

We walked towards the wharf which was about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. Interesting place with fish markets, restaurants, and other shops. It was not particularly scenic. We went into a fish market and admired the various kinds of seafood - wish I lived here so I would probably come here everyday to shop for fresh seafood! Then we went to the Salamanca area - got a little stuff from the small gourmet supermarket, then some artsy cards from another store, etc. I wanted to go into the bookstore to get some Tasmania maps but forgot.

While walking around there, we noticed the hop on hop off double decker bus and decided to do it. We boarded the 12:10pm city tour bus (should have also done the Wellington mountain tour but ran out of time - the way to get tickets was very confusing. We waited for half an hour for the bus hoping to get the tickets on the bus. We wanted to combined tickets for city and mountain but he sent us back to the office in the building while there was only 5 minutes before the bus left. We rushed into the building but were directed to go to another window to get the mountain tour bus, so we gave up and ran to the bus to do the city tour only ..... Very confusing....

The city tour restored my love for Hobart! We drove through some very nice (and rich/expensive) neighborhoods and historical areas. Quite pretty! But I was not able to take photos behind the highly reflective window and on the moving bus ..... The bus ride was 1.5 hour. We would have stayed on for another round, but had to wait for another half hour. It was past 1:30 already, and we still would like to explore the city center on foot, so we got off the bus.

We wandered around Collins St, Elizabeth St., poked into some of the stores. Bob got quite tired, so we walked towards the hotel. I went into the Town Hall to see some flower show while he went back to the hotel first.

The flower show was free - it turned out to be sponsored by local horticulture society and had the display of all the award winning flowers of some recent flower competition. Very pretty!! I took some photos. And it turned out that even though it's free admission, they had a donation jar there and most people put in coins. I had no Australian $ on me so I did not donate - don't think the ladies at the door were happy ..... Oh well!

Back to the hotel around 4. We had scouted out earlier today that we would go to the Malaysian restaurant Sawak Cafe for dinner - that was the place we planned to go last night but go side tracked into that potsticker restaurant. Sawak opened at 5 and we got there a few minutes after 5, and got a table luckily (as it filled up quite fast).

Food was authentic and quite tasty. We enjoyed it. And it was rather inexpensive. There was only one chef who appeared to be the owner. There were a number of waiting staff. We actually ran into the 2 couples who were at the Unzoo yesterday!! The two ladies were the ones whose hands the pretty birds landed on!! Small world!

After dinner we walked towards our hotel via the wharf. I was hoping we would be able to find some Tasmania maps, but all the stores were closed except restaurants! Sigh .... We stopped to get some icecream. Bob noticed an ice cream place right by the water - it seemed to be a boat house. There was line outside the door because the line inside was already to the door. We waited and it was worth the wait! Very good ice cream!! I had pistachio and smoked honey and fig, Bob had whiskey and smoked honey and fig. So good! Glad I'm not wearing the Stelo patch!:-)

Back to the hotel and started packing - tomorrow we will have at least three hours drive towards the Freycinet Resort in the Freycinet National Park. We're supposed to be able to see some beautiful scenery there!! Unfortunately we have only one full day there, so we hope to be there early afternoon and have some time to explore tomorrow.

9:10pm now - will head to bed soon!

Saturday, March 15, 2025 - To Freycinet National Park

We were on the road by 9:30am. And we got to Freycinet Resort (our "hotel") around 12:30pm. I got really worried as we turned onto the "driveway" of this resort. The entire road was dirt road and with constructions along the way. It was a couple of kilometers long and there was no sign of anybody else .... I was thinking maybe this place is closed or under construction, and the travel agent did not know ..... Finally after many turns (and googlemap was not working because there was no signal), we saw the small sign "reception", then a building appeared.

A man walked out - I asked him if this place was closed, he said no. He told us the room was not ready until 2pm, which I knew. But this place really was in the middle of NOWHERE. The reception is a tiny room next to the rather large and nice dining room. And it has a restaurant. But nobody told us we had to reserve dinner and tonight they were fully booked, so we had to go somewhere else to eat. And the closet place was about 10km away .... I wanted to call the agent and ask him to find another place for us, but I was not able to make the phone call, plus it is Saturday today .... I felt absolutely miserable!! I saw our "room" - there were 8 individual "cottages" and ours was #8. We did not get to see the inside.

The receptionist was David who came from Argentina. But he will be off later today and for the weekend. Another lady will be here. He gave us some recommendations on where to eat, etc.

So we drove out again. We first drove to the nearby town Coles Bay. We inquired the 4-hour cruise tomorrow which might be a good way to see the place. But the cruise was cancelled for tomorrow, because of the windy weather. Then we drove to the Freycinet National Park Information center, bought a pass for the vehicle for $45, so we could drive in to the Wineglass Lookout plus a couple of others.

The scene at the Wineglass Lookout was indeed very pretty! And not just the ocean and the mountains and the beach, the big bolder rocks on the mountain were very unique and very beautiful in my eyes! We did the climb and saw this amazing place, this trip was not in vain, I guess.

It was hard to climb up and it was even harder to get down. The loose gravels and the steps without railing at most of the places were challenging for both of us. We were very cautious! By the time we came back to the parking lot, it was around 4:30. Then we saw a small kangaroo (we were told it was not a kangaroo nor a wallabey but I could not remember the name) She was very friendly with the people. I rushed back to the car and opened the car door about to get some of my unopened rice crackers. She hopped from the other end of the parking lot to be in front of me! I did not dear to touch her but put down a cracker for her. She started eating enthusiastically! Then a lady told me I should not feed her because it was not good for their tummy. I felt bad .... she was so disappointed.... We stayed for a while. I think she had a joey in her pouch! She was licking at her pouch at one point, but I did not see clearly. Her tummy did look quite full. A really really endearing little thing!!

We then drove to the Freycinet Lodge, as David recommended. It has a restaurant there in addition to a casual bistro. We ate at the restaurant which was mainly a seafood restaurant. I had a grilled octopus and a lamb, Bob had a salad and fish. Then we shared a pena cota. All was just okay - definitely not worth the $, but we had no choice ....

Back to the hotel, checked in, got the key. I could not believe Audley rated this place as first class!! A joke! The cottage is very very small, but was designed efficiently - perhaps by a Japanese architect ..... Oh well, two nights we can endure!

Tomorrow we will not be able to do anything, so we will stay in and do the Japan and China planning. Bob needs to get SS' tax thing done - the letter did not get to the US ..... almost two weeks now.

Sunday, March 16, 2025 - A Do-Nothing Day

Well, it is not really do nothing, but it's nothing we should have been doing in such a national park where there are few things we would have and could have done, but the weather did not cooperate with us.

I was up before 7 and we were both up before 8 and then went to breakfast. I had my congee with chicken - yummmmm! And I added two fried eggs. Bob had his usual eggs, etc.

The weather looked very nice - blue sky with white beautiful clouds, and did not look like there would be rain at all. There was a rather cool breeze though - at night I heard the wind howling outside.

I looked at the various brochures - what really interested me was the helicopter rides! There was even one that would take the door off so you can photograph!! And it was not that much more expensive!!! I really wanted to do it, just the wineglass bay would work which was the least expensive.

There was a lovely wallabey outside, eating the vegetation happily. I went out and tried to take some photos but did not catch a good angle.

Soon after we came back to our cabin, the weather changed - heavy shower plus wind! The sky turned dark, all the nice white clouds went away with the blue sky. And it was like this the entire day, with short periods of time when the rain stopped but the wind never did. By 5 pm or so, the rain stopped and the sun peeked out!! But it was so cold that I closed all the windows and turned on the heat!! Unbelievable!! Yesterday I was looking for the AC which the room does not have and I was wondering what would happen during the summer .... The roof of the cabin was simple thin metal .....

We went to the dining room/main hall around 6, thinking we would play some pool - we noticed there was a pool table there. It turned out the table was much smaller than the ones I've seen/used elsewhere and it was somewhat broken. The cue sticks were also different. I was not good to start with and was even worse now.

The shabu shabu dinner was really really delicious!! I vow to make it myself next winter! The waitress was Japanese and I got the ingredients for the soup base from her. The manager tonight changed - she is probably a Japanese American. Because we need to take off before 7:30 so she packed breakfast for us.

Even though we did not do anything taking advantage of the National Park, we accomplished quite a bit: Bob got the PA tax thing done and mailed the PDF file to Shanyn to mail to PA authority (the letter we sent out in the post office on 3/4 still has not reached Linda - must be lost ....). I nailed down the hotel dates in Japan and booked a GetYourGuide tour to the monkey park on 3/26 - such a simple thing took hours of research ..... Sigh! Hope the one I picked turns out good! Also settled with Kathy - she will help to book the Fairmont in BJ and Rulin will foot the bill and reimburse her. And I booked the Tokyo Haneda Royal park hotel for 4/7 and 4/16. Good to have those done!! Now I need to work on the day to day plan in Japan.

Oh btw I started to like this resort more and more! Once we're settled and used to the small room, I started to enjoy a lot of its charms: the nicely decorated dining room/common space, the tranquil environment and the wildlife, the scenery on our little back deck, etc. etc. so maybe there is some justification for Audley (or its partners) to rate this as first class ....

Monday, March 17, 2025 - Back to Melbourne

We’re in Melbourne now - almost 9pm now and the WiFi in our room is not working. The hotel internet guy came to our room trying to fix it, but he was not able to. He admitted the internet here is quite bad and he is trying to get me a cable …. Any way, I will write in Pages while waiting for him.

Today has been a travel day. We left the Freycinet Resort around 7:45am after having had some of the food they gave us last night. The drive to Hobart Airport took us 3 hours or so and we got there around noon (our flight was at 2:10). At the luggage checkin, the lady wanted to weigh all our carryons. Of course my camera bag weighed more than the allowed. I said our two checkins were 30lbs less than allowed, but she said it is the rule and fined us $60!! I guess this country is really short of $ and especially this budget airline!!! This flight today was like night and day from the one we took from Melbourne to Tasmania - they did not weigh the carryons at all and the people were much much more friendly.

Again the flight was delayed - we did not take off until close to 3pm. The flight attendants were not nice or cheerful at all, and we did not get the $10/each voucher - not sure if the attendants did not care of the travel agent did not do it …. Oh well! Also the man sitting behind me kept moving his leg against my seat the entire way …. Ugh!!

We touched down in Melbourne around 4. After getting our checkin luggage we retrieved the bag we stored at the airport. Then we took a taxi to our hotel - the Adina apartment hotel. On the drive from the airport to the hotel, we got a glimpse of the city and its beautiful modern skyline - those tall buildings of various different shapes looked really impressive!!

I could not find the address of the place in the binder so I googled it. Unfortunately there were 3 Adina hotels and I picked the wrong one. Almost $80 for the taxi which took us to the Adina on the south bank. Then the hotel staff could not find us and we looked into the binder again - the address was in the summary section: we got to the wrong one! Ours should be the one in CBD! So another taxi ride got us here. It is a much much older building but it is indeed in the city center.

On the drive from the airport to the hotel, we got a glimpse of the city and its beautiful modern skyline - those tall buildings of various different shapes looked really impressive!!

How should I describe this room? The first thing is: its carpet is really disgustingly dirty!!! But it is rather spacious, and has a washer and a dryer. Two narrow single beds which was ok. Absolutely no place to put our suitcases except on the floor …. Oh well! Only 3 nights!

The worst thing: Wi-Fi does not work!! Bob had a hard time connecting but he got connected. My phone would not connect, so I went to the lobby. Guess what, as soon as I reached the lobby, it connected!! The same happened to my laptop - it says it’s connected but nothing worked. Then I went to the lobby, it connected!! They tried to fix, but could not. “Lobby” the receptionist also came to our room trying to help, but he also gave up. He will be off at 11 today. He does not work for this hotel and just came over to help today because they’re short of staff. He said the connection would work only for 2 hours. I’ve never encountered something this weird this entire trip!!! What kind of a archaic place is this??!!! I will be sure to write a bad review!! Ridiculous!! Lobby said he will leave a note for the people tomorrow to fix the internet in our room first thing, if cannot be fixed, change us to another room. We will see …. Sigh!

The location is this hotel is very good! We’re actually quite close to the Melbourne Chinatown! We were going to walk there this evening for dinner, but on the way there we saw a Chinese dumpling place. I spoke to the lady there in Chinese. She told me that there are a few other openings of this restaurant - one is in Chinatown. But theirs is the original one but they specialize in the soup dumplings and all sorts of other dumplings, the other restaurants have much more other dishes. We decided to eat there and not walk further - it’s been too many hours since we ate food.

We ordered soup dumplings which were almost as good as those in Tasty Dumplings. And we ordered a stir fried vegetable, a gluten appetizer, a beef noodles and a kongpao chicken with rice. Plus 2 beers. The dishes all tasted good, but the bill came to $90 plus tip - we paid $100 per their suggestion. Based on the portion of the dishes, it is more expensive than I expected. Oh well.

Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - First Full Day in Melbourne

Did our laundry last night so did not go to bed until midnight. I was awake before 7 and we were up before 9. Went across the street to a breakfast place where you could sit down and order breakfast. The food was good, but the service was random. Apparently the place was newly bought out by the owner - it was also a restaurant before. The new owner was totally swamped - it was breakfast time I guess. It did not seem that busy, but he was lost .... He said someone will come to our table to take our order but the "someone" was busy taking orders from a line of 10 people how would she have the time to take our order from the table?? I got to her and did our order, later she brought our food. I asked her if this place was new, she said yes. She also told me she worked here before but not now, just came to help .... Later the owner (or mgr) man brought our coffee but to the wrong table/people and I had to call out to him ..... He did not even apologize, totally lost his head ....

Oh, we went to the hotel front desk to ask about the internet issue - apparently nobody read the notes "Lobby" left last night until I reminded them. When we came back from breakfast, they said they would send the maintenance guy up. Then we got a call, telling us they would move us to another room as the internet cannot be repaired .... So I had to pack up everything. This room, 1822, was on the top floor therefore it does not have other tall buildings blocking its light. They moved us to floor 11 - 1163. It's a similar room, but much darker because it's low and the light was blocked by the other buildings. But the wifi worked! I did not make other comments .... Only two more nights left .... Sigh. Not happy! This is one of the old buildings around. Thanks to its good location, otherwise who wants to stay here?!!

Any way, after we moved our room, we went out to explore. From the front desk we found out the hop on hop off bus no longer exists/operates in Melbourne!! I'm extremely disappointed and could not comprehend why - in all the other countries we went to, we really enjoyed that bus! Even Hobart had it! What happened to Melbourne where there are SO MANY tourists?!!! Another point down for this place!

So, instead of having a hop on hop off bus, they have a free city circle tram, tram #35 which goes around the CBD. We asked and finally found where we could get on the tram and got on one. It was quite crowded - mainly tourists but also locals since it's free. Quite unpleasant! So we got off after 5 or 6 stops and started walking. The place we stepped off I thought was the south bank, but it was actually not! So we looked at the map and started walking towards the Victoria Harbor Promenade which was only 15 minutes walk. I lost interest when we got there - too many people on the streets and aside from the modern tall buildings that are good to look at, I found nothing that appealing. So we walked back to the hotel. Plan for later today is: we will walk to Chinatown which is only 9 minutes away (says googlemap). Tomorrow we will pay to go on that sky deck, then go to the shopping street if/when we find one - not that I want to buy anything but it would be interesting to window shop.

We just came back from dinner in Chinatown. After googling for shopping in Melbourne, we found out that one of the shopping centers is very close to us and to Chinatown - the Burke Street Mall. So we walked there - I bought a light vest in Uniqlo - like it very much and it's very useful! Looked at a few pairs of oversized sunglasses at the Sunglass Hut, liked them but none of them was polarized, so no go. But they sold me a pair of stick-ons for the nose piece of my own sunglasses which helped tremendously!!

Then we went to Chinatown - the Chinatown here is a lot better than the one in Boston! Cleaner and less messy. We saw a Hunan restaurant and the menu looked good, so we decided to eat there. It was a good choice because the food was quite good! As usual my eyes were bigger than our stomach, so we took a bunch of left-over back. Hope to eat them tomorrow some time ....

Almost 7:30pm now. We will just relax and I will watch some soap, to make up for what I did not do last night.

Wednesday, March 19, 2025 - the SkyDeck

We were up before 8 and went to the same breakfast across the street which was not as crowded as yesterday so the service was better.

After breakfast we decided to go the Sky Deck, so we ordered 2 general admission tickets online, then we started walking there. It was only a less than 20 minutes walk. By now even I had some idea about what streets are where. We walked to Splinder street, then walked through the pedestrian tunnel, then across the bridge on the river that divides Melbourne into south and north banks. The Sky Deck building was on the south bank. We got there shortly before 11am and found out it's open 12pm - 10pm. Our tickets were only good for one entry. We thought it would be better to go during sunset, so we remained on the south bank and walked around. We found out that the first Adina we went to mistakenly was just around the corner! That is the newest Adina and looked so much better!

We walked by the Victoria Botanical Gardens and another botanical garden, but did not find them that interesting. We walked along the Promenade by the river and I took some pictures. Then we started walking back to the hotel. We walked by Chinatown because we thought Bob left his black cap at the restaurant we ate at last night but it was not there (later we found it in the back pack....). We got back to the hotel around 2:30. And we stayed in the hotel, resting and had the left-over from last night for dinner until 6pm, then we went out again towards the Sky Deck.

Sunset tonight was not until 7:33pm, we got to the Sky Deck before 6:30. We circled the entire viewing deck and sat at one side sipping the Lechee Martini (which was not that great) until the sunset time. Unfortunately it was a very normal sunset, no beautiful clouds or colors, and the window reflections made taking photograph impossible. We watched the sun go down the horizon and left. Glad we went and looked at Melbourne from the highest point possible.

Back to the hotel around 8:30pm. I just did the last load of laundry (only two shirts and Bob's socks). We will be up at 7am tomorrow and leave the hotel at 8. Flight to Uluru is 11:50 - as usual we would rather be early. Will have breakfast at the airport. It was quite warm here today in Melbourne - 86 degrees! It will be very hot tomorrow at Uluru - 91 tomorrow 95 the day after .... I am mentally prepared for the worst - our hotel is supposed to be "basic" and I'm a bit scared ....

Thursday, March 20, 2025 - To Uluru/Ayers Rock

5pm local Uluru time - we are at the Desert Gardens Hotel at the Ayers Rock Resort. Feeling very excited!!

We left the Adina hotel in Melbourne a few minutes past 8am and the taxi took us to the airport. All was well except we were charged $120 for the 3rd piece of checkin luggage. We were not really understanding what Jillian was telling us and were confused about how many checkin luggage were allowed with each flight. So she ended up only adding an additional luggage on the JetStar flight from Uluru to Sydney. We were very very pissed, especially since our other checkin pieces were under weight .... Sigh .... It almost spoiled the entire thing.

Then the flight - all the people waiting at the gate were groups of older and invalid people .... The flight turned out to be 3 hours because Uluru is 1 hour behind Melbourne (the closest Town that has the same time is Darwin and I had to reset my phone NOT using automatic .... We got to Uluru around 2pm local time which would be 3pm Melbourne time. There were multiple Ayers Rock Resort shuttle buses at the airport to pick up all the people from the flight. People sitting on the left side of the plane were lucky as they saw the rock before the plane landed and could take pictures! I only got a glimpse but that was enough to get me excited.

In Melbourne, it was 80 high. Here at Uluru, it was 97!!!!! As we landed, I saw red dirt and beautiful clouds on blue sky - unbelievably beautiful!!!! But I did not get the chance to take any decent photos. We got our luggage, then got on the bus. less than 10 minutes later we got to the resort.

Our hotel is the Desert Gardens Hotel, which is one of the number of hotels in the resort. Our room was 381. It is on the 2nd floor, without elevator. But the porter helped us. I was very worried about the room, not knowing how simple it would be .... But I was so pleasantly surprised and happy when we stepped into the room!!! We have a room with the rock view. The room is clean, simple, and spacious enough. I was SO HAPPY!! SO relieved!!!

After we settled in the room, we went out to explore. We took the shuttle bus first to the Town Square, which is this resort community's center. There were a small numbers of stores there but they are better than the usual souvenir stores. I almost bought a dress but decided against it - too much to bring. One store had the higher end linen clothing - could not find my size. There was a grocery store, a couple of restaurants, etc. On the way back, on the shuttle bus, we saw another smaller community center that had a few stores.

We went to the information center - I really would like to do the sunset helicopter ride! Not cheap - almost $500/pp. But you get to get a really good view and shot of the rock!! But they're all sold out until Saturday - the day we are leaving .... Nothing is available now .... There is supposed to be a camel ride thing but the people were not there - I was told we'd have to call .... ummm

Then I found out the details of what Audley/Jillian had arranged for us to tomorrow's sunrise small group tour. I saw a small group tour desk and ask them to check if our tour agent had booked us with them. And they found us!! She emailed me the paper pdf file and told us to wait at the reception desk tomorrow at 5:30am. Now I have two concerns: 1. tomorrow's sunrise is iffy - the weather forecast predicts an overcast day all day and rain starts in the evening; 2. I'm worried about my bathroom ritual .... Based on tonight's Sound of Silence dinner other people's bathroom experience, I don't think I could do it. So still debating .... I DO really want to get closer shots of the Uluru/Rock ...... So we may get up early then decide.

The Sound of Silence dinner tonight was not what I expected - actually I did not know what to expect. It turned out to be a large group of people - more than filling 2 big buses! We were first driven to an area which was kind of a mount, where we were served drinks and finger foods. It was a great place to view the Rock - closer than from our hotel and without too much things blocking it from the view. I took as many shots as I could.

After the happy hour, we walked maybe 300 meters to the dinner spot which turned out to be in the open and it was a buffet dinner. It was quite hot and the bugs!!!! I sprayed myself and Bob all over and had to continuously whipping with my hat. When we sat down at dinner, however, the mosquitos seemed to have disappeared! Maybe because it was all dark? .... They randomly mixed people at the tables - there were more than 10 tables, each seating 10 or more people. Our table had 10 people. Two ladies from Korea, a couple from Liverpool England, another couple from Sydney with 2 of their friends/relatives, plus Bob and me. A nice group of people!

Food was fine - my favorite was the barbecued lamb chops. Unfortunately I did not take more than 1 and I did not eat much - not fun to eat in the dark and heat. Even though there was a breeze, but it was hot breeze.

After the main course after the dishes were cleared away, they turned off all the lights for star gazing. A knowledgeable guy gave us a brief introduction. Unfortunately tonight it was a cloudy sky so the stars were not easily seen. After the star gazing, they turned the lights back on and served desserts. All was well arranged and well done! Except I really could not enjoy everything in that kind of environment. Oh well! An interesting experience!!

In the bus on the way back, the driver who was a lady from Sri Lanka and was a tour guide here for 4 years told us that there were not too many wild animals here, because there is no water source. She has seen some wild camels the other day. I will inquire about the camel ride tomorrow, also the kind of tour that could let us see the rock closer.

Almost 11pm now. Need to go to bed. Have to be up at 4.

Friday, March 21, 2025 - Raiy Day at Uluru

My iPhone alarm woke us up at 4:30 - really really reluctant to get up, but I did and let Bob slept for another 30 minutes.

We went to the receptionist a few minutes before 5:30 and found our bus. What shocked me was that our tour was NOT to the Uluru, but to the Kata Tjuga which we learned later is another group of rocks like Uluru. I was not happy but there was nothing we could do - we can either abandon the tour or go, so we went. By that time we were wide awake, the only concern was the bathroom issue. Confirmed with the guide that I'll need to wait for an hour for the bathroom stop, I was quite stressed....

Our first stop was a lookout platform to watch the sunrise. We got there when everything was dark. There were clouds so there was no gorgeous sunrise, but there were some color. The Uluru was way far in the distance where the sun was rising. We were there until the sun rose and the morning "had broken". Then we had the toilet stop - we and all the other buses. There were two bathrooms but one was being cleaned, so the line was quite long outside. A very basic porter potty type of bathroom, but it did not smell! And there were no flies there (whereas we had flies all over us elsewhere, later we learned that flies hate AC and the bathroom was cool). I solved the basic problem so rest of the trip I was ok.

After the toilet stop, the next was a hike - round trip 3 kms. We did not go the entire way because the path was rocky with incline so coming back would be deline. We did not want to risk any injury so we stayed before the road turned hard.

After the hike, it was our picnic breakfast. The guide brought everything from a gas toaster for bread and English muffin, Fresh press coffee, hot water and tea, muesli cereal, fruit bowl, etc. Not bad for a tour like this.

After breakfast, we returned to our hotel. Our guide was a Japanese girl named Mia. Very nice girl, but her English was hard to understand at times. She is from the part of Japan towards the north but before Hokaido. She advised me to go talk to the Seit tour office to see if I could book another Uluru trip to see the Rock more closely. And she dropped us off at the Town Square. That was around 11am.

We talked to various offices at the information center. All the tours at SEIT group were sold out for today. We could take the hop on hop off bus for sunset - my main goal is to take photos of the rock at a closer angle and we don't really care about the water fall or the walk around the rock. But the weather looked more and more gloom, so the girl at the hop on/off desk advised us to wait till after to decide. We also talked with the national park info center. The kind lady told us in details what hikes we can do ......

By that time, it started drizzling .... We decided to go to the theater and checkout the various free activities. There was nothing at that time, so we went to the Desert Gardens Hotel restaurant and had lunch - Bob had a burger and I had grilled lamb chops which was good but very little. We came back to the hotel room after lunch.

It was quite depressing - the rain was pretty hard. When we came into the room, we could not even see the remote image of the Rock!!!! What a difference between today and yesterday!!! Now it's 1:30, still raining, but the Rock started to appear and I can see its shape shrouded in clouds through the back window. The rain is likely to be here the rest of the day, so there's not much hope to take better photos of the rock .....Our once in a life time, and the ONLY chance to be at this place, will be just like this ..... Very disappointed!....

This place does need the rain very badly! Maybe this would make us feel better? .... Not really ....

Luckily the rain stopped around 4! Even though it did not look like the rain was completely gone we decided to take the 4:55pm Sunset hop on hop off bus to get to the sunset Uluru spot. It definitely was the right thing to do!! For around $100 we got to the spot (which had all the organized sunset Uluru tour groups and then some) and got a close look of the Rock and took some decent pictures, even though we did not get a gorgeous sunset. We're happy!! IF there is a next time, we would not do the sound of silence dinner, would not take the sunrise tour, but we will do the sunrise and sunset Uluru via the hop on hop off bus! And we will do the sunset helicopter tour!

We're back to the hotel around 7:30 and decided to eat at the same restaurant we ate at lunch. But it was quite crowded - I heard it was because a lot of tours were cancelled (due to the weather). We waited for half an hour and came back to the room around 9. Our flight is 1:20 tomorrow. The shuttle bus will do the airport run at 11:15. Less time than I would have liked but everyone will be on that bus - the plane would not leave until that bus gets thee :-) I was told.

Will pack tonight and finish packing tomorrow morning. No more 4am wake up - I am very tired.

Saturday, March 22, 2025 - Back to Sydney, Our Last Stop in Australia

It's been a traveling day.

We boarded the hotel bus from the Ayers Rock Resort at 11:15. The bus stopped at 2 other spots inside the resort to pick up other travelers. We got to the airport before 12pm.

It is a small airport, with only 3 gates. Ours was #2. We boarded the flight around 12:30 for the 1:20 departure, which was pretty good! And the flight took off quite punctually. This is the Jetstar airline which allowed checkin luggage to have a combined weight limit regardless of how many bags we have, so actually we bought the extra 25lbs (Audley did for us) was unnecessary as the 3 bags do NOT exceed the 4kg limit. Oh well! I bought the extra weight for my carryon because of the camera gear - interestingly the carryons do not do combined weight .... Go figure!!

There is a 1.5 hour time difference between Uluru and Sydney and we arrived before 5:30pm Sydney time. The taxi got us the the Amora hotel before 7pm. Because this is the weekend, they did not have rooms at the higher floors so they gave us room #805 which turned out to be a room for the handicaped, which had some strange arrangements. The bathroom seemed larger but without a tub which was fine with us. But there was absolutely no room in the shower and next to the sink for any storage ..... And the water pressure was quite miserable ..... Oh well, disappointing but just for 2 nights .... We retrieve our stored big luggage and they kept the shampoo mailed to me. Happy about that! The concierge staff seemed to be totally different from what we met last time. All nice people but did not seem to be as experienced. Because of the fact that the small room frig does not have a freezer, so I asked if I could store my freezer packs in the hotel's freezer. This was a no-issue in the US, but they had to consult the manager which took quite a while. But the result was good - they stored it for me.

We asked them if there is a nearby Asian restaurant. Mr. Wong was out of the question - fully booked. Obviously it is a very popular place. One guy mentioned a Thai place by the Circular Quay which would take 15 minutes walk. We decided to try but found another restaurant closer - Soul Dining, which was only a 5-minute walk. It was supposed to be a Korean restaurant. So we went. It turned out to be so close - we can actually see it from our room.

It got good reviews. But after we sat down and looked at the menu, I realized it was totally a fusion restaurant - having had Korean food all the time back in the US, I was surprised to find that I could not recognize 90% of the dishes ..... Oh well. We did not feel right to walk out as they were kind enough to seat us without a reservation. So we ordered some sticky Korean cake (with butter) which turned out to be good. It was similar to Chinese steamed rice cake. We also ordered an appetizer of seared scallops ($12 per scallop), which turned out to be not what I would call seared, but it was fine, very fresh scallop - I would not order it again though. We also ordered Wagu beef tartar - rather expensive, but very good! Especially with the toasted seaweed! We would definitely order it again. For the main course, we ordered a chicken which was just so so - not a repeat dish; and a risotto with abalone which was good. We would like a little dessert but the only one both us might enjoy was the water melon sorbet which was refreshing but nothing too special. The service was good. Most people eating there seemed to be Asian or part Asian. It seems to be a rather trendy place. The bill came to $230, quite expensive.

Back to the hotel I started taking the luggages apart and repacking, also looking for my Chinese phone. I almost went crazy when I could not find it - all my Chinese financial information was on that phone. I was being so careful about it!!! In desperation I even emailed Fairmont hotel in Singapore. But right after that, I found it!!! It was in the big backpack which I searched 2 times quite thoroughly and did not find it! What happened???? I quickly re-emailed Singapore Fairmont hotel to apologize.

After that drama, it was past midnight. We washed and went to bed. Somehow neither of us slept well - I did not fall asleep until after 5am.

Sunday, March 23, 2025 - A Lazy Day in Sydney

We got up shortly before 9. After breakfast, I finished packing the big suitecase which will be meant for leaving behind in Tokyo - Hopefully we can find a cheap storage place ..... I packed it so that we don't need it until we go back to the US. It is 50 pounds ....

I did as much packing as possible (rest will be done tomorrow morning before leaving) and it was around noon time when I was done. Then we decided to take the ferry over to visit the Taronga zoo. We booked the ferry+zoo deal online, and walked to the Circular Quay to board the ferry. All was smooth. On the ferry and from the zoo ground, I was able to capture photos of the beautiful Sydney harbor - really pretty!! There was a big cruise ship there today - it was one of the Carnival ships.

The zoo was quite nice! The most valuable one for me was the koala! There was a big chubby good looking koala sleeping on the tree! When I first spotted it, I thought it was a big stuffed animal there, but it was REAL!! He/she was sleeping soundly and comfortably on the tree branch junction, with its arm covering part of its face. Occasionally, it moved its arm a little bit. I sat on the ground behind the railing and watched for a long time, taking many almost identical pictures :-) It's got to be the most healthy looking beautiful koala we've seen this trip!! Wish so much I could hold it!!!.....

We then visited the guarillas, the giraffe, the lions and the elephants. We did not walk around the entire zoo. We probably should have, but we did not push it. It's a cloudy day, threatening to rain but only drizzled - perhaps buying the umbrella drove the rain away !? We got to the zoo around 1:30 and left around 3:30. After we got off the ferry, it was shortly after 4. The Thai restaurant the concierge mentioned to us yesterday was right at the Circular Quay. We found it and ate there. It is a good Thai restaurant and serves a lot of Thai dishes that we don't have back in the US. We ordered more than we could eat and enjoyed the meal. Not cheap - around $160AUD, that's about $100.

Back to the hotel and hope to go to bed early tonight. Need to be up at 6 or earlier.

Monday, March 24, 2025 - Leaving Australia, Heading to Japan

Another day of traveling. We left the Amora hotel at 8:15am - the taxi was very punctual. And there was no traffic so we got to the airport before 9. The ANA counter did not open until 9:20 so we had to stand in line and waited. We were the first in the economy class line.

Luggage checkin was smooth - none was over weight. After security, we went to the AmEx lounge and rested for more than 1 hour. Then we headed to the gate. Our gate was 26e which was at the part of the Sydney airport that was being renovated. The already renovated part of the airport was really quite nice, of course not so for the part our gate was at. The gate did not have "bridged" path to the aircraft, so we had to first get into a bus, then walked on to the aircraft by the big ladder. The entire boarding was really quite well orgnized - as someone said, "organized chaos". They first boarded the business class people and the priority boarding people. The gate was at the lower floor so we had to go down a flight of stairs. They checked everyone's tickets and let people with seats more to the back to go down first (the sitting area by the gate was not able to accommodate all the people at once). Our seats were 24A and 24C which were kind of right in the middle. Later we changed our window seat with the Japanese old man sitting in the middle.

The 10 hour flight in econ class was much less painful than I expected. We were fed a simple lunch, and a sandwich "dinner"/snack 2 hours before landing. We slept a little and watched some movies, then we got to Tokyo.

Japan seemed to have very special rules about anything related to meat. I have a number of bags of Australian "Biltong" beef jerkeys that we declared, which turned out to be not allowed, so they were all thrown away.

After going through the custom's, the next task was to find a storage place to store our 1 large soft bag. We were at Haneda airport terminal 2 (not the terminal 3 I am somewhat familiar with). After inquiring various airport personnel, we finally found the storage place on the 3rd floor. I had googled about airport storage and was told the maximum days would be 14 days. But we were able to store our piece for 24 days! It cost us about $125 USD. Not cheap, but a lot better than I thought.

Then we got a taxi to take us to the hotel KoKo. Again it was expensive, but there was no way we could have dragged 4+ bags to board any public transportation! And it turned out the fare was about $55 - not cheap for that short a distance, but there was no other choice - the problem was I packed too much ....

By the time we checked into the KoKo Hotel Ginza 1Chome, it was after 11pm. My heart sank when I stepped into the hotel....It was a 3-star hotel alright. There was a receptionist deck, and the entrance was a sitting/dining area where we saw some people sitting there eating .... When I asked the receptionist some questions, he really did not know anything and could not tell us anything about the train, etc.

We got room 822. It has 2 small and low single beds, a disk, and chair, a sofa, and a small frig which does not seem to get cold. The towels were so thin that they had no absorption left in them. And there was a set of room cleaning rules - we need to let the front desk know if we want daily fresh towels. Need to turn on a red light if we want our room to be cleaned, etc. Weird .... My heart kept sinking lower.

Originally we hope to go to Mt Fuji today because there are only two sunny days according to the weather forecast - today and tomorrow. I googled and googled and could not figure out how and what trains to take .... We gave up around 1am. I was so disheartened that I did not care to see Mt Fuji any more.

What added salt to the injury was that the new esim card for Japan I just bought from Saily did NOT work! I tried everything to no avail ....I bought it because the experience in NZ and Australia was good, so I did not want to risk another vendor. But ....

Finally we washed after 1am.... Not happy about the start of this trip to Japan....