Manly

During my last three days in Sydney, I spent one afternoon taking a beautiful walk along Manly beach. Manly is a short ferry ride away from Sydney; the ride goes through the harbour and gives stunning views thereof and of the Opera House as well as the Harbour Bridge.

Manly itself is a quaint little place, as far as I could tell, and has a nice walk along the beach, which we enjoyed in the sunshine.

Melbourne and Around

I took the night train from Sydney directly to Melbourne and arrived early in the morning. I quickly found my hostel and then went to meet Naf for lunch!

Melbourne is a very easy city to navigate, being built in a very square manner. Also, public transport is easy and the city is tourist friendly with many maps all over for easy orientation.  Of course I have to love Melbourne, considering that everything carries my name, albeit with an extra ‘r’ – Yarra River, Yarra Trams etc.; this is due to the fact that Melbourne is in/near the Yarra Valley. I had a great time there seeing some friends and experiencing the city. The food in Melbourne is amazing, there is so much variety and it’s all really good!

In Melbourne there is a free city circle tram that takes you around the city and gives some commentary on the sights. I took this tram on a rainy day and used it as a free hop-on hop-off service. Some of the architecture around Melbourne is stunning and here too the old and the new work together well.

The aquarium was also a nice experience – we of course got stuck by the penguins for ages – but they are actually quite interesting creatures. The aquarium also had some HUGE crabs and many varieties of fish, sharks, eels, sea dragons and sea snakes. I always find the jelly fish mesmerising. The large tank – which really was huge – had some giant flat sharks – rays I think they are called. The initial one or two hour aquarium trip ended up being about four hours long and we really had a nice time.

Williamstown

One day I took the train to the suburbs of Melbourne and decided to go to Williamstown, on the other side of the bay from Melbourne. It is about 30 minutes by train and you get out in a totally different atmosphere. Williamstown is a sleepy, seaside town, with some nice walks along the beach and a cute little harbour with views of Melbourne’s skyline.

Philip Island

On the weekend Naf and I took a road trip and drove through the country side to Philip Island, home to a Koala Sanctuary and where the famous Penguin Parade occurs every day.

The country side in this area was very green and there was a lot of farmland. The land is relatively flat (not like in Holland of course), with some rolling hills. It really was gorgeous. For the last stretch of the drive we had the fields and hills on one side, and the ocean on the other with some stunning views.

Once we arrived at Philip Island we headed towards the Koala Sanctuary, where we saw many koalas – mostly sleeping, though some were eating – in their eucalyptus trees. They looked so cute and cuddly! Koalas sleep for 20 hours of the day – how cool is that!

I didn’t see a kangaroo, but we did see a wallaby – which for all intents and purposes is the same thing; it looks like a kangaroo and jumps like a kangaroo, but apparently it’s smaller than a kangaroo.

 

When we left the Koala Sanctuary we decided to get an early dinner before heading for the Penguin Parade which occurs just after sunset. The only place we found was a kitsch tex mex restaurant, where the food wasn’t too bad I must say, but the place looked like it could have easily been featured in Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares!

After eating and warming ourselves up, we prepared for a cold few hours on the beach watching the penguins arriving from their day, or maybe days, of hunting. Just after sunset, the penguins start arriving in little groups and get washed up on the shore, where they regroup and then run across the beach to the relative safety of cover and where their nests are. It is the mating season at the moment, so you can see penguins mate and others happily reuniting with their partners, who were waiting at home watching over the eggs. These penguins are the smallest in the world and are approximately 20 or 25 cms tall; really cute things. When they run across the beach or up the hill to their nests it always looks like they may be trying to go to fast for their little legs and that they might topple over at any time. Unfortunately no photography was permitted, because the penguins are very sensitive to light, it would have been great to be able to get a photograph. Totally frozen and after a great day, we then made our way back to Melbourne, where bed was calling!

After a very nice week in Melbourne, eating great food courtesy of friends who know where to eat and how to cook, I took the train back to Sydney. This train journey was quite interesting:

Across the aisle was a woman who has an imaginary friend and spent the first few hours talking to herself; she emptied her one bag and pulled out lots of random bits of food – which stank; I felt really sorry for the guy who had the joy of sitting next to her.

Another man got caught without a ticket and got kicked off the train. He had strategically put his luggage throughout the length of the train, so they had to go and get all his things before they could kick him off at the next station. It was quite funny.

Then of course, to top it off, the train was delayed by a few hours and it was hot, with the mandatory baby crying added of course. So yea, that was another successful train journey! It could have been worse of course.

Bondi Beach

We spent a beautiful Sunday at Bondi Beach, where many were surfing and some crazy people decided to go swimming in the freezing water! The beach was very clean and surprisingly less crowded than I expected it to be, considering that it’s quite a popular beach close to Sydney.

We took the metro out of Sydney and then a bus to the beach where we just chilled out for a few hours in the wonderful Australian sun.

Sydney

Arriving in the western world was both pleasurable and a bit of a shock after spending so much time in Southeast Asia. Sydney is a very developed western city (obviously). The traffic is regulated, the roads are fine and everything functions like anywhere else in the western world. It’s a weird feeling to be back amongst all that. Inevitably prices are back to European levels too, which is also something to get used to again.

On my first day in Sydney I walked to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, the weather was quite miserable, but the walk was pretty. I walked through the centre of Sydney, passing some old buildings and many new ones. The mixture of old and new does work and I find it looks quite nice and everything is so well kept and clean! The lifestyle reminds me very much of that in London, maybe a bit quieter.

When I saw the Opera House I was impressed by the architecture from far, but from up close, I must say that it was a bit boring/plain. The best part really is being able to see it from far and enjoy how all the separate parts come together to make one complete picture.

The Harbour Bridge, very near to the Opera House, is a very impressive structure and super high!

My second day in Sydney was beautiful and sunny and we walked around the city for 6 hours, through Darling Harbour, along the coast, to the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and through some smaller streets to the eastern part of the city until we then got back to the hostel totally exhausted.

Hellooo Philippines!

Intramuros

On my first day in the Philippines we went to see Intramuros, the old walled city in central Manila that was built by the Spanish. It contains, amongst others, the Manila Cathedral and the fort which was where Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines was incarcerated prior to his execution.

The Cathedral is an impressive old building that was burnt down/destroyed multiple times during the various wars and struggles suffered in the Philippines. Some of the side rooms are used as a mini museum of the cathedral, showing pictures of what it used to look like and recount the various reasons for the destruction. The current version of the church was inaugurated by the previous Pope, a huge event here in Manila and the Philippines I'm assuming, where the people are very religious.

The fort, located on the Pasig river, was used by the Japanese as a prisoner of war camp during WWII. It used to be made of wood, but the Spanish replaced this with stone in the 16th century. The stone structure still stands now - at least what remains of it after the bombings during WWII. The fort also houses a museum in honour of Jose Rizal, which contains the original of his last poem - Mi Ultimo Adios.

We also went to the Jose Rizal park where standing brass statues recreate the execution of Jose Rizal.

Tagaytay

One afternoon we decided to take a road trip to Tagaytay, come of the Taal volcano and lake. The volcano is still active now and will erupt every once in a while, spewing ash into its surrounding areas. The volcano is actually composed of a volcano in a lake, and another volcano inside that in a lake - I found that quite cool. We found a place with a great view and definitely enjoyed that a lot.

Typhoon Pedring

A visit to the Philippines would not be complete without experiencing a typhoon. This is something I can definitely check off my list. Typhoon Pedring hit the Philippines and within a day caused a significant amount of damage and took quite a few lives. The rains and winds were amongst the strongest I have ever experienced and when leaving the house the next day the dirt, uprooted trees and fallen branches could be seen everywhere. The river close to the house flooded completely and when we went out during the night - yes we went out during the tyhpoon, life goes on - it was really high. The next morning the waterline had receded by a lot! It really surprised me how quickly that happens. A typhoon is such a normal thing here that once it's over, the people clean up and daily life resumes extremely quickly, at least from what I have seen.

Taytay Falls

Initially we wanted to head to the Pangsanjan falls yesterday, but once we arrived there we were told that the boats would not take us to the waterfall, so we decided to head to the Taytay falls instead. Driving through the hills and the countryside provides wonderful views and just highlights the tropical splendour of the Philippines. There is such a great variety of greenery and it's all so luscious!

We had to walk for a while to get to the waterfall, which is set amongst rocks covered  in green and just comes crashing down into a pool of clear, clean and ice cold water. The fall itself is smaller than I expected it to be, but it was absolutely beautiful! Of course we climbed down the rocks and into the pool - it was truly wonderful and getting soaked was nice and refreshing.

On the way home, the car decided to play up, so getting home was an adventure in itself and was questionable. We did make it eventually, driving the car at around 40kmh on the motorway and getting a massage from its constant vibrations.