Tribute to my fellow travellers

wonder who still reads this... but well, this is the most important entry i'm gonna make!!

Liling...
an adventurous and fun-loving girl who made the whole trip as interesting as possible for all of us with her nonsense and quirks! she really takes good care of people around her, sometimes even at the expense of her ownself. totally selfless and helpful in everyway! she helped me carry my luggage before she carried hers. she lent me her conditioner without hesitation when my hair was in a mess. she made sure everyone else had enough food to eat before she worried about her own plate.

she's my fellow cook for our delicious home-cooked dinner every weekday. she's our fellow gambler in taitee and gin rummy. she made our lives interesting with her sudden thunderstorms and bright sunshine days! she's my travel buddy on our sydney trip where we had nobody else but each other to depend on.

Kenneth...
he's our big bro! totally dependable and reliable source of support. when everyone was sleeping in the car, he made sure he slept light to jagar for us. he offers his jacket whenever we're too cold coz he has natural insulation. heh... he's our dedicated navigator... made sure we get to places and not get lost. he paid all the attention he could on the road so that we won't get into any accidents or trouble. he listened and tolerated all our rubbish without much complaints.

he totally hates travelling but he actually tahanned everything n went to mountains, waterfalls, n caves. he washes the dishes dutifully without any complaints. he offers his help without fail whenever we're doing the cooking.

Fengyi...
our wonderful driver and army commander! a highly-disciplined traveller. no complaints even though he's tired and wanna sleep... he just keeps on driving so that he gets us to many many sites and gets us home safely. he wakes us up early in the morning, so we won't miss our flight to tasmania and wonderful experiences like rainstorm on mt wellington... haha!

he is opinionated and made our dinner and long drives full of political and highly-educational debates. he amuses us with his multiple quirks and weirdo behaviour (like wearing scrubs for pyjamas). he's our photographer with his huge high-tech camera with 10X zoom!

thank you all 3 of u fantastic ppl! it's been such a pleasure n enriching experience. without any of u, it wouldn't haf been complete and so fulfilling! every single one of u had a part to play in forming these wonderful memories for me. these wonderful memories have made me become a better person and i'll remember them always! looking at all our photos make me smile and laugh all the time, no matter how many times i've gone thru them!

i'll not trade u fellow travellers and this entire trip for anything in the world!

P.S. my photos can be found in http://www.imagestation.com/members/s0urs0p !

People we met...

the tour wouldn't be half as fun if the people weren't there!! 15 of us... travelling through thick n thin... sharing our fun n laughter... getting to know each other's culture n country!

all of us minus peter our tourguide

peter who took good care of us throughout e trip

my holiday fling... ash from england... ooohh... so handsome right?

2 singaporeans... robin n lijuan... a real gentleman n nice lady

2 more singaporeans... ck n madeline... 2 mad women who made e trip so fun!

sarah from UK... strong girl travelling alone in australia for 1 year!

julie n sarah from US... on graduation trip! really intellectual n fun-loving girls...

takeshi-san... a 61-year old but 21-year old at heart!

plai from thailand... quiet interior designer student...

n of course... *drum roll...*

my travelling buddy who tahanned me for the whole 7 weeks!!

Blue mountains

e last 2 days of our tour were spent exploring blue mountains national park... the name blue mountains came about because apparently, due to some chemical reaction between the eucalyptus and gum vapour emitted by the trees there, the mountains appear to have a layer of blue mist over it.

well, personally i didn't really see this so-called blue mist when i was there but strangely, the pictures of the mountains turned out kinda blue. haha!


can see the bluish tinge at the back? use some imagination... haha!

the national park was alright... i think throughout e past weeks, i saw so many beautiful mountains, rock formations that i keep expecting better and wanting more. blue mountains fall short of my expectations i suppose... although other people on the trip actually found it very scenic.

over there, we took a very steep but slow railway down a cliff and then took a cable car up. i thought the train ride was too short and instead of enjoying the view, liling n i were too busy pretending to be scared n scream! haha!! before we knew it, it was over n we were at the bottom of the mountain. after tt, we took a cable car up to where our bus was parked. the cable car ride was slower so we managed to enjoy a bit of the breeze n scenary.


steep-looking huh?

part of the national park includes the Three Sisters...

we stayed over night at blue mountains YHA hostel at Katoomba. e place was really nice!! well-maintained backpackers' hostel with a HUGE kitchen, nice bunk beds, clean toilets, a pool table and tv lounge area.

tt's our lil area in a 5-people dormitory!

last few bits of our trip

we officially finished our electives on 20/5 friday... so e last week was mainly travelling for liling n me! ken n soh went home first on 23/5.

liling n i took a 3 n half day tour on a coach from melbourne to sydney. along e way, we get to go sightseeing at snowy mountains, canberra and blue mountains. the tour started early on monday and we'll reach sydney on thurs afternoon!

Snowy mountains
nope... it was only autumn, so it wasn't snowing yet! it's actually a huge ski resort with lots of skiing sites around the snowy mountains town-like place. we arrived at snowy mountains on monday nite, so din get to see much on the first day. we were mainly trying to cover the distance on our coach, so lotsa driving n sleeping... stopped over at a Ned Kelly museum which was nothing much...

oh! must talk abt the accommodation at snowy mountains!! it was a very cheap motel at Khancoban (a small town) which was furnished more like a hotel actually! we paid only 24 bucks each... and look wat we got!!

nice beds wif bed linen... and the most impressive thing was the bed heater pad under the linen! i was fascinated with it man!!! discovered it when i was turning in bed n hit my arm on a plastic-like thingy... we removed part of the linen n saw e heating pad!! WOW! hahaha... sorry la... so sua ku but it was my first time seeing a bed heater...

and there was an attached bathroom, tv, free coffee n tea and refrigerator in the twin bedroom! it's gotto be the best accommodation we've had throughout these 7 weeks! haha! almost din feel like leaving e place e next morning...

the next morning, the weather was pretty bad and everywhere was misty, so there was not much point in trekking up one of the mountains, so we took a river trail along Thredbo river. along this river, we enjoyed scenic views of the snowy mountains and got some nice morning workout! although it wasn't snowing yet, the mountains were still beautiful coz there's this layer of fluffy clouds/mist at the mountain caps! haha!

Canberra
this is the capital of australia but it's a ghost town... haha! very very quiet town, so unlike melbourne and definitely far from sydney! in canberra, we saw the old n new parliament house, war memorial, all the embassies of different countries n the national museum of australia.

the highlight of e 2nd day would have to be the bbq at night!



this is our tourguide cooking our meat for us!

we bought e groceries n meat from a supermarket, went back to our accommodation to bbq! it was so enjoyable, coz we sat around, eat n talk crap! plus we had wine n beer to go with our food! some of e guys got pretty drunk i think... n started sprouting nonsense n singing very loudly!

Leaving one by one

we're really lonely in e students' quarters now... e hongkongers finished their elective n left last week to go to new zealand... steve n britta went back to germany yesterday... all 6 of them were like e comedians of the hostel! bringing us lots of fun n laughter... so sad to see them leave...

now in e hostel, there're only 4 of us, preeti and chihiro... bernedetta n ingor r leaving on e 28... but they were never around anyway... they went to cairns for e week i think... things r pretty quiet in e hostel already. too quiet i think...

after this week, ken n fengyi'll be leaving for home... liling n i'll be going to sydney... even quieter liao...

i can't wait to go home... back to my sanctuary... back to reality... back to my dear family n frens...

More Victoria...

spent 3 days seeing more of Victoria... n i conclude Victoria's a really wonderful place to visit! lots of pretty sights n fun things to do! we spent 1 day each at Ballarat, Wilson's Promontory and Mornington Peninsula! they're all a drive away from melbourne!

Ballarat
Ballarat is a town with a strong history of gold mining and it attracted millions of immigrants in hope of finding gold nuggets and striking it rich!

We visited Sovereign Hill... a heritage town kinda place where e shophouses, dusty roads and mines were built and preserved to look like those of the 1850's. it was also like an educational theme park for us to learn about their mining culture n experience their life in e 1850's. Over there, the people were dressed in the costumes of e olden days and they go about doing their daily activities... like kids will be playing with their toys on e streets or ladies will be selling stuff in e shophouses.

e most funny thing was e shophouses were actually functional!! like this sweet shop we went into... it is like those traditional sweet shop we see in e movies with big jars of lollies n sweets in there and old yellow paper stuck onto the jar stating e price. we went in to take a photo and to our surprise, some kids streamed in and bought some sweets from girls wearing bonnets n pretty lace dresses behind e counter! only then we realized, it's a real shop! haha!! so cool right?

then there were e educational tours... we learnt how they made e wheel of a horse carriage from a section of a log! right from scratch... wif huge scary machines with pulley systems! haha! and we went into the mining tunnels n learnt how e miners worked in the past. sweet-making, candle-making, candle-dipping n brass bells-making... saw all of these in action...

the whole place was like a self-sufficient heritage town which was opened for visitors to join in their life n fun! n we absolutely loved it! even fengyi, e self-professed nature lover, named Sovereign Hill as one of his favourite places of interest!

Wilson's Promontory
this place was a disappointment.... partly cos a huge part of the national park was burnt down by a huge fire and had to be closed for reforestation... n also partly cos it was SOOOO far from melbourne, we drove almost 3 hours to get there n din haf enough time to spend there.

we first stopped at Agnes Falls... (everytime i hear e name Agnes, i think of e movie Agnes and HIS brothers... hahaha!) we all thought this would be a really good thing to see, so we made a detour to get to it... coz it's e TALLEST waterfall in Australia, stretching 60m tall altogether! but sigh... it was so pathetic looking tt fengyi calls it the Disappointing Falls. e lookout area only allowed us to see e upper 1/4 of the fall n most of the other parts were blocked by vegetation, rocks, etc... grrr... wasted our time travelling there...

After that, we made our way further into the national park n went for a trek. also another waste of time... we were supposed to be able to see lots of koalas but in e end, we could smell lots of eucalyptus trees but no koalas at all!

luckily Squeaky Beach was fun! otherwise we would've been totally unsatisfied for e day! Squeaky Beach is so named coz it squeaks whenever we walk on it! hahaha! i'm serious... it's coz e sand's damp unlike e silky smooth sand on other beaches. at first we kept wondering why it's called squeaky beach... then when we walked further, we started to realize it. haha! this beach has lots of large n small rocks everywhere n they formed lotsa nice platforms for photo taking . n we tried jumping from one rock to another, climbing up e higher ones and squeezing in between some of the rocks! it was really fun. we saw some lil kids playing hide n seek... perfect place for hide n seek man... albeit kinda freaky esp if ur frens get too well-hidden... n u start feeling maybe u're lost...

Whiskey Bay was another place wif nice rocks n a beach to take photos...

Mornington Peninsula
this place boasts of its 3 fantastic maze gardens... unfortunately we only had time for one. We went to Arthur Seat Maze... it was a beautiful place... like all those enchanted gardens u read about in fairy tales! they had 3 big mazes, some theme gardens (like conifer garden, fragrant garden, christmas garden, etc.), 3 minute mazes (which means u complete e maze in 1 minute), 2 sculpture gardens showing aboriginal sculptures and a baby animal farm!

e first maze we went to was e biggest and e most fun! we were given a task to find 3 buddha statues, 2 small rock gardens and 1 large japanese garden in this maze... so we just walk n walk n walk to find all these things! i think we would've looked really funny if someone takes a video from e bird's eye view. haha!! we split up into 2 teams... me, ken n liling vs fengyi n chihiro... it's really funny coz as we walked, we could hear fengyi n chihiro talking but we dunno how e heck to get to them! n we can walk n walk n keep ending up at the same buddha statue... grr... u can imagine our frustration! now i know how those poor mice feel... anyway, we finally managed to find everything... took photos to prove it too! haha!

e baby animal farm was also super fun!!! e animals there were super tame and suitable for patting n even carrying! i patted a young cow, goat and sheep. e young cow just kept moo-ing at me... and e goat kept chewing n chewing at something... n e sheep just wished i'll bugger off so it can sleep. haha! tt was e closest i've ever gotten to a cow, goat n sheep... so u can imagine how i was squealing with excitement there! there were chicken, duck n goose too... but no way am i touching them... scared i'll be pecked!

After e maze, we went to take a Chairlift which allows a panoramic view over looking Port Phillip n the ocean! it was a suspended CHAIR over e canopies and down from a mountain... like a cable car except we were sitting with our legs dangling and with only a rod across our waist as a safety measure (how safe...). it was pretty cool... not a good activity for e weak-hearted. but i've got no acrophobia, so i was alright... half e time, i was worried tt my shoe'll fall off actually...

Lastly, we went to the Mornington Peninsula National Park which was actually this strip of land jutting out towards e big ocean and this place used to be a fortress against coastal attacks in e World Wars called Fort Nepean! coz it's just a strip of land jutting out, u can imagine when we walked on e path, we haf e ocean on both sides!! it was really beautiful!! e coastal scenery is just fantastic... plus e water's so clear u can see e coral reefs in it!!

n e fortress was very well-preserved, so we could tour e soldier barracks, gun emplacement sites, tunnels, battery observatory posts and engine house! Some parts of the park's actually closed up wif barb wire to prevent visitors from entering, coz apparently it contained unexploded bombs n ammunition. scary huh... dun wanna step on anything funny man...

too bad we spent too lil time there, coz by e time we got there it was already 3... n e park closes at 4.45pm!! (grr... almost everything in australia closes by 5pm... irritating!) but we're still glad we went there... wouldn't miss it for anything! u can't say u've been to mornington peninsula if u din visit Fort Nepean!

Impending Doom

okai... e title's quite an exaggeration... but boohoo... i think i'm getting sick. i can feel it coming... u know e feeling u get when u feel tt ur nose n pharynx are slowly thickening up with mucus n ur head's getting a bit heavier, eyes feeling drowsy, ur throat too dry n sore? argh... they're all signs of impending full-blown sore throat, cough n flu.. for me at least.

darn! serves me right for indulging in tt HUGE box of chips yesterday, not drinking enough water, showering in single-digit temps n not getting enough sleep! boohoo... i want my mommy... (she's always e first person i think of whenever i'm sick. just know tt some home remedy would do e trick, or rather it's more coz of the care n concern from her.)

think i'm gonna hafta pop some anti-histamines n panadol soon... dun want anything to ruin my travelling this weekend man!

P.S. we finally played bridge last nite (this explains e insufficient sleep)... coz Daniel (one of e hongkongers) played wif us!! super fun!!

Tappers

spent e WHOLE morning doing ascitic taps... there were 8 patients to tap altogether... i managed to do 2 successful ones with Mutlu supervising me... n assisted him in e other 6... plus another 2 who needed theirs revised coz they stopped draining fluid halfway (nope! not those tt i tapped! i was good k...haha!).

i think after a while, i was kinda bored with assisting coz everything was very routine. pour iodine into e container, help hold e lignocaine bottle so he can fill his syringe wif it, connect the draining tube to a bag... n it goes on e on for e whole morning. think after a while, u just do n do without even thinking anymore. oh dear... think tt's how things're gonna be like when i'm a HO... hai...

sometimes i get confused with my niche... i always thought i'm a more internal medicine physician as compared to a surgeon... but i think doing procedures n operations is easier than having to think a lot... but after doing e procedure too many times, i get bored wif it... so how huh? i think i better start some serious thinking abt my future... n what i really wanna specialize in... dunno why a sudden urge to actually...

Adam, Scott n Mutlu

Adam, Scott n Mutlu... e 3 guys in my working life right now... (coz my supervisor's away liao!) a pity all of them married... haha! (there goes my eurasian babies plan... haha! kidding...)

Adam, another gastro reg, taught me how to insert a PEG tube at the gastroscopy room on friday! n again, i had some interpretation to do coz e patient was from China. n tt's good, coz i think Adam felt like he was indepted to me n hence he taught me the entire procedure step by step, right to e amt of Marcaine to give, how many cms to nick on e skin... without me even asking!

Scott's (my reg) super nice to me again... as usual. i was standing around e nurses' station reading a patient's file this morning... waiting for ward rounds to start. i was too engrossed n i din even realize Scott n Mutlu left e ward to start ward rounds in e next door ward. then when i was still reading e case notes, Scott came back to where i was, n said "Geraldine... sorry we lost u! u're joining us for ward rounds, r u?" i was stunned speechless... and must've looked tt way too... coz he immediately said "or r u joining julian n michelle (e liver transplant unit team)?" haha... i quickly recovered n said "no no... i'll go with u guys!" cultural shock again...

n i noticed tt e working relationship between a reg n resident medical officer is so unlike tt at home. over here, i sense more of a partnership rather than a superior-subordinate relationship! think there was this patient tt Scott saw during e weekend but Mutlu wasn't on duty... n during ward rounds, Scott updated e history of the patient to Mutlu!! a reg presenting a history to a medical officer!! think in singapore, it's usually e other way round huh? no matter wat, e medical officer is EXPECTED to know ALL e cases in e ward, n not wait for e Reg to present e history to them right? (correct me if i'm wrong, coz this is e impression i get of the system in S'pore)

Footies n Shopaholics!!!

haha... no exciting outdoor adventures this weekend, coz everyone's busy with reports, presentation, etc... (except ME!! yippee!) n we decided to postpone e adelaide trip till e last week! so was in melbourne the whole weekend! but i still enjoyed it all e same!

Australian Football League
went to an AFL match with liling on friday night! it's Australian Rules Football, Melbourne vs Adelaide! SOOOOO FUN!!!! we were totally immersed into e Australian sport culture, screaming n yelling ourselves hoarse for the Melbourne Demons...

okie... maybe i explain some rules of the game first... in Australian Rules Football, there r 11 ppl in a team... 4 poles at each end of a circular field marking out 1 goal post n 2 side posts... they score 6 points if e ball goes into e goal post n only 1 point if it goes into e 2 side posts. They pass the ball either by punching e ball into e air with a fist or by kicking. If e ball is caught in mid-air, e opponents can't tackle the player with e ball n he has a few seconds to aim n kick to someone or e goal. but if e ball touches e ground n someone catches it, he can be tackled so e best is do a quick pass to someone else. If he gets tackled n kena pinned onto e ground, the referee will do a free bounce into e air n both sides can fight for possession.

i find this game much less violent compared to rugby or american football coz there r actually times when they can't be tackled. but then when they do tackle, it's scary, coz they can like grab any part of the body n basically whack e person down. haha!

but oh man! i must say this is really THE national sport in Australia!! the Melbourne Cricket Ground was PACKED!!! with the old, young, males, females... even e lao ah pehs n ah mas were energetic enough to roar with cheers n jeers! amazing! n some of them... e WHOLE family was there to watch... n among e family, they'll be half rooting for melbourne n half rooting for adelaide... n they wear e teams' scarves n beanies which were in e teams' colours... so fun! haha!

haha! liling n i, being our first time there, made some blunders during tt evening! firstly, we waited at the wrong side for e ticketing office to open... it was supposed to open at 5.30 n when it din, we went to ask someone n found tt we can get tickets from e other side!! DIAO... haha! then e next blunder was not knowing wat e game was abt, so we asked this guy next to us how to read e score n many other details abt e game... haha! the biggest blunder tt got e guys around us laffing was asking if the game was over after e 2nd quarter! hahaha!!! can't blame us wat... everyone was like standing up (to go to e loo or get food apparently)...

anyway, when melbourne won (they lost to adelaide last yr n was 2 ranking lower than adelaide), liling n i stood up wif e rest to cheer like mad... haha!!! i haven't cheered like this in a long while... like maybe since R n F 2 yrs ago when we won e presentation... wow!! pretty fun to revive this spirit in me!!

Shopping
I was a mad shopaholic this weekend... just bought n bought n bought... dunno why i haf so many things to buy also... but i was really happeee coz i was buying things for ppl at home, myself! e rest din really buy much souveniers n there i was, hauling all e sweets, nougats, clothes into my huge backpack... i call them my spoils of war... haha! n boy do i haf a BIG bag full every shopping trip!

we basically checked out e Queen Victoria Market one more time, a Camberwell Sunday Market which sells lil knick knacks to raise funds for some rotary club and a stretch of factory outlet stores along Bridge Road!

i also had a chance to get out n haf a lone walk along melbourne city, coz e rest were too tired n wanted to stone in e hostel. so being garang n all set for more adventure, i took e train on my own n walked around e big shopping malls in melbourne city all by myself!! i realized there're so many interesting stuff u can do even when u're alone! in fact, more!!! coz usu when u're with ppl, u'll be busy talking to them n u dun notice stuff around u... so when i was alone, i finally had time to peer out of e window n observe during e train ride... i started spotting weird characters around e streets... stopped to watch this busker play his PIANO in front of a shopping mall (No... i din name my instrument wrongly... it was a wooden, cranky-looking piano in e middle of a walkway with graffiti on it n a smoking old man playing on it!)! interesting huh... din buy anything though so was mainly window shopping!