Adelaide Fringe

Bonjour...Hey guys, I'm back to report on my latest adventure. The Adelaide Fringe is back again. This is the first time I attended the Fringe. The opening ceremony was on the 18th. As luck would have it, it was raining heavily on that day. Nonstop pouring since the morning. But Mona (my housemate) and I went anyway. 

The opening ceremony parade was cancelled, sadly, in fear of the safety of the street performers. Thankfully by the time we reached Rymill Park the rain had stopped. We managed to catch a Aboriginal band perform. They were pretty good I have to say. Too bad there weren't many people to give their support. Again, because of the bloody rain. 

The next day we went again. This time it was packed, since the weather was lovely and not a cloud in the sky. We heard many local acts. One of which was Jess Beck. She is a local girl who is living in Sydney. She sounds amazing. Can't seem to find any of her songs though. Blast! 

The Fringe is on for about 3 weeks or so. Hope I get to catch other acts. I'll keep you guys posted. Au Revoir~

Jess Beck 

The Aboriginal rock band...

Barossa Valley...

Since we were just sitting around doing nothing, they suggested we go wine tasting in Barossa Valley. Barossa Valley is about 2hrs drive from Adelaide. The scenery en route to Barossa Valley was amazing. But since it’s summer now, a lot of the greenery are all dried up. I reckon it would look breathtaking during Spring.

We stopped by one of the vineyards for wine tasting. This was my first wine tasting. I think I wasn’t doing it right. Since no one else was there, so who cares? I just did my thing.  I love one of the white wines, but I can’t remember the name. Damn! If you wanna get drunk  for free, just go to all of the vineyards for wine tasting. Lol.

We only went to one vineyards. After that we just went sightseeing in the little towns in Barossa Valley. It was like something out of a movie. It was really quite and the buildings were really old. We dropped by a second hand shop/museum. We saw a lot of cool weird vintage things. I even saw the dresses they wore in the 1940s. It looked amazing with the sequins and embroidery. 

After all that sightseeing, we went to a local tavern for lunch. The portions were huge, and the amazing thing is those were just entre. You can only imagine how big the large would be.

That’s pretty much what I did in a week. There will be more to come. I’m gonna be living in Australia for 2yrs. ;) Next, Adelaide Fringe maybe? Yeah..I would so love that…

Adelaide Museum...

Today we went to the museum. Everything is just conveniently located in the city. We can just hop on a train or tram and go from one place to another. Easy peasy. So anyway, we went to the Adelaide Museum. We checked out the mammal exhibit, the Aboriginal exhibit, the deep-sea exhibit and there were other exhibits but just didn’t have enough time. The museum closes at 5pm.

After that we went over to Rundle Mall. It was so tempting. Everything was so darn cheap. But sadly, I walked away with nothing. Didn’t have a single AUD with me. Mom and dad’s elaborate plan to stop me from shopping maybe? I don’t know…All I know is I’m so going back there. And this time, I will come prepared. Again, we didn’t spend much time there because everything closes at 5pm. Bummer!

We hopped on a train back to uncle’s place. There was one junkie on the train, and honestly, I feared for my life. Well, maybe that’s a little bit exaggerated. But still, it was pretty scary. He looked like some messed up psychotic Russian dude high on something. He kept giving me those weird blank stares. Scary~

We are both leos... :)

Aboriginal Art...Lovely 

Artificially deformed heads (don't ask me why)...

Creepy looking masks...

Don't know what this is but it makes me laugh...

Freakin huge fish/shark...

Aussie BBQ...

The one thing Aussies love is having BBQ. I didn’t quite get that at first, but I soon got to realise why they love having BBQs so much. We had a BBQ at my uncle’s place. My aunt prepared some delicious food. She is an awesome cook!

We got to meet my aunt’s siblings and their children. They each brought some food they had prepared. There were booze, food, and music. Oh yeah, and lotsa mosquitoes.

 They are such lovely people. Crazy, but freakin hilarious. They are like a bunch of kids. Teasing and insulting each other. We got to hear a lot of funny stories about their work, experiences and pretty much every hilarious moment they had experienced. And ofcourse drama, lots and lots of drama. I guess it’s expected when you have a huge family.

The food was amazing. I swear I put on 1 kg after staying in Aus for a week. Once my parents leave, I’m gonna lose a lot of weight, may as well enjoy the food while it lasts. :D

Trip to the beach...

We were staying moments away from the beach, so bro and I decided to take a walk there. It was a lonely and isolated walk, but we enjoyed the scenery and not to mention the scorching Aussie sun *rolls eyes*. On the path to the beach we saw some crows. Even their bloody crows look better than ours. It has a bloody Mohawk and all.

We took some silly pictures and bro was testing out his water resistant camera. He threw it into the water and took a video. You don’t see a single plastic bag or water bottles on the beach. That’s how clean it is. On the way back, a guy who was walking his dog said hi to us.

I know you guys are saying “So?”. I’m gonna make it a point to emphasise on their friendliness as people often have the misconception that Aussies are racists. Back in Malaysia if some random guy on the street says “Hi” to you, you would call him a siao lang. Come on, admit it! But here, it’s completely normal for people to say “Hi’ to strangers.  We could sure take a page out of their book.

After dinner, aunt and uncle took us to Semaphore for ice cream. With the chilly wind blowing and the ice cream in my hand, I was shivering my ass off. The bright side is (no pun intended) we got to see the lovely colonial buildings and the old light house.

We took a drive to the city after our ice cream. Everything closes at 9pm, except for some diner and cafes in the city. LMAO! Stay tuned for the BBQ, Aussie style…Ciao~

The Marina near uncle's place...

The road less taken (well, maybe not...it's heading to the beach)

Semaphore...

The lighthouse...

En Route to Australia

Hey guys, bet you were wondering why I was AWOL. Well, as some of you might already know, I went to Australia to pursue my studies. My family tagged along, so it was a holiday for them and I alike. This is gonna be a long post, so I’ll just separate it into parts.

We left for KL on the morning of Chinese New Year day. Due to that, my friends and family couldn’t send us off. But no worries, we said our goodbyes. Not an emotional one I gotta say. Honestly, I wasn’t excited or anxious about coming to Australia. Don’t know why. Hmm…There was a massive jam heading away from KL. Luckily we weren’t affected, or else we would have surely missed our flight.

Our journey to Australia took about 23 hours. No shit! We had to transit in Gold Coast, that’s why it took so long. It was a tiring and frustrating journey and knowing my family, there definitely was some drama. Our flight from Gold Coast to Adelaide was delayed by half an hour. While waiting for the flight, we witnessed some drama. A Lebanese lady and her 3 sons missed their flight to Melbourne. Her major melt down served as an entertainment for us. 

The journey to Adelaide went pretty smoothly. The weather was amazing! We picked the right time to travel. When we arrived, it was 22 degrees, but the week before it went up to 42 degrees! And the people here are so friendly. It’s amazing! Even the ticket booth people and the people in the restaurants who go around pushing the trolley and collecting dirty dishes (don’t know what they are called) are friendly. You can’t find that kinda friendliness in Malaysia. Seriously!

In my upcoming posts I will talk about my trip to the beach, Aussie BBQ, trip to the museum, and wine tasting and sightseeing in Barossa Valley. Stay tuned guys. Au Revoir~

From Gold Coast to Adelaide...

At Coolangatta Airport...