River Safari Singapore - Panda Kai Kai and Jia Jia

Time to visit the River Safari after it opens for like a year or so. Sis has been saying that the two pandas are cute, super cute. Thus, decided to head down to the safari with parents on our birthday as it is free entry for the birthday one! All thanks to Singapore wildlife reserve group!

I guess pictures will tell more than the words could for the cuteness of the pandas. But well, let's talk about the food first at the safari. We visited the Mama Panda Kitchen which is located right after Kai Kai and Jia Jia's forest. So, we headed there for some snacks as Kai Kai was sleeping when we visited and Jia Jia was hiding away. 

Well, we ordered the panda pau (with red bean paste), gyoza, and spring roll. For birthday purchase, there is a 10% discount on food. Good deal! Did I mention, there is also free ice-cream for the special one! Okay, to be honest, the food was not really that fantastic given the price we paid. But well, we were at a tourist attraction. The panda pau was really normal, but it was cute to look at.  *Photo time* For the dim-sum item, it was average, nothing fanciful!

River Safari, Mama Pandan Kitchen and the food!

And time for the cute pandas...

As what others mentioned, Kai Kai seems more 'lazy'. Fancy to lay back to eat its food!

Kai Kai

Jia Jia is really cute. I love the photos I took with her in the picture! Totally awesome!

Jia Jia

Perth 2013 - Day 4 - Dolphin, Penguin & Sea Lion Adventure Cruise,

Today was another splendid day spent with or rather around the animals. But first of all, let's talk about the breakfast we had. Finally, we managed to visit Miss Maud Pastry House. It was not a far walk from Ibis Hotel. Just cross 2 junctions along Murray Street where you will pass by the shopping area. It is located next to the Miss Maud's restaurant and hotel. Thus, look out for it. 

There are many choices to look for in this place, ranging from sandwiches to cakes and pastry. I tried the sweet potato and pumpkin roll which I have yet to see this combination before in a roll! Woooah... it tasted great. It was unlike those meat filling roll where it was mixed with some cream kind, this sweet potato and pumpkin roll was more to the dry side but you could really taste the ingredients. NICE!

Miss Maud Pastry House; Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Roll

Next up for the eventful day today. We were going for the Dolphin, Penguin & Sea Lion Adventure Cruise. You can check out their website for more programs they offer. We booked this cruise through Red Balloon instead of directly from the website as there was a offer back then. Do look out for hot deals to save more!

From Perth City, we took the train on the Mandurah Line and get off at Rockingham station. It was a pretty long journey, taking around 45-60 minutes. From the station, we took  Bus 551 to reach Penguin Road. Walk west along Penguin Rd towards the Rockingham Wild Encounters Shop on the beach. Well, there was not much direction in that area despite Penguin Island being a tourist attractions. We just followed the crowd and headed towards the "SEA" area and managed to find the place. Remember to get the family ticket if you are taking the public transport!

Our cruise is at 10:15 and thus, we have to reached half an hour earlier for the registration. It was quite chaotic and well, though they mentioned the cruise will start at 10:15, it did not. We were told to wait under the sun at the dock for the cruise boat to arrive. No one was there to guide us or tell us what to do. We just waited and waited. But the good thing is, the sea, the sky and the sand was a beautiful combination. Here's the dock and the nearby!

While waiting for the cruise boat!

Here comes the highlight after we boarded the boat. The commentator was mentioning that we will definitely get to see the dolphins and true enough, within 10 minutes into the cruise, we started to seeing them jumping in and out of the water. Okay, not quite the way I saw on the television, they did not jump as high nor as fast but it was really cool. Everyone was busy snapping away, hoping to get one or two shots of them flying out of the water! Here's my shot of the dolphins as well as the sea lions. Totally enjoyed myself for the 90 minutes!

Dolphins & Sea Lions

Next up, the cruise boat sent us straight to Penguin Island. Do note that there is no shop at Penguin island and thus, you can bring your own food for a picnic over at the island or grab some food at the Pengos cafe before boarding the cruise. If not, it will be like us, had our lunch after the cruise and the visit to the Penguin Island. 

I have been to watch the penguins swimming and walking back to land in Melbourne at the Philips Island. This time round at Penguin Island, I managed to catch them at a closer range. Seeing them being fed by the trainer and seeing how they swam at the man-made pool. They are a bunch of cute animals!

Penguins 

More relaxing scenery found at the Penguin Island -

Penguin Island views

Finally was lunch at the Pengos Cafe. We ordered the salmon panini - you have it toasted or just eat it fresh. I had it toasted, not bad after all. We also had the chicken tikka wrap and the beer battered fries. My take, the beer battered fries wasn't that great after all. But overall, it was not a bad lunch by the sea. 

Pengos Cafe - Salmon Panini, Chicken Tikka Wrap, Beer battered fries

It was almost in the late afternoon that we reached back Perth City. Then we headed to Harbourtown for outlet shopping. But well, we did not managed to buy anything, purely I guessed we were too tired to shop and some of the shops were closed. We went back to Murray Street and found dinner at Streeton's cafe. We weren't really hungry and thus, we ordered the Risotto to share - not bad and guess we found our breakfast venue for the next day before we headed to Swan Valley for a 'staycation' over the Christmas holidays! 

Risotto / Perth train! 

Address:
Miss Maud Pastry House

97 Murray Street, Perth (CBD)
Streeton's Cafe
237 Murray St, Perth WA 6000, Australia

Perth 2013 - Day 2 - Caversham Wildlife Park, Lobster Shack, Pinnacles dessert, Sand dunes of Lancelin

Day 2 marks the actual start of our trip in Perth. We booked a tour day via this website for a Full Day Pinnacles, Koalas and Sand Boarding 4WD Adventure before we departed. This tour costs AUD215 and top up another AUD15 and you will get a lobster lunch (plus a can of coke). Trust me, unless you are allergy to lobster or seafood, you should just upgrade to the lobster lunch. Most of our travel mates ended up paying AUD30 for the lobster lunch and that was on top of the normal lunch (I think is chicken or beef with salad). 

Okay, back to the morning. We woke up pretty early as the pick up timing for the trip was at 7.20am. Having researched for cafe that opens in the early morning, we had intended to visit Miss Maud Apple Straduel which is located two junctions away from our hotel. But at the first junction, I was happy to see a familiar shop - PIE FACE. I tried this in Melbourne some years back and I remembered them serving delicious pies at affordable price. Without further ado, we went to the shop to see if it is open. I'm glad we did!

I ordered the chicken & mushroom pie -  served piping hot and they are generous in their fillings. The crust was fluffy. Overall, PIE FACE has yet to let me down so far!

Pie Face

After the pick up at 7.20am, we were brought to the retail shop of the company. There, we were directed to another bus for our tour. It was quite a wait that we left for the tour at about 8.30am. What a waste of time - if only, we could have find our way there instead of being picked up at 7.20am. 

The first stop was to the Caversham Wildlife Park in the Swan Valley to view koalas and hand feed kangaroos. Some years back in Melbourne was my first encounter with Kangaroos. I thought they were really cute and were not afraid of humans. This time round at Caversham Wildlife Park, they are allowed to roam freely in their enclosed area. With us around, I guess they know they are up for treats. Following us and eating from our hands, they are simply lovely bunch of animals. They do not hop like what we see on TV, but they are still adorable. 

Koalas, on the other hand, totally ignored us. Sleeping is a super huge part of their life and well I guessed we were in luck when we saw the eyes of Koalas. We could not go near them but we were allowed to feel them with our back hand. Cool! Nice way to interact with animals! 

Caversham Wildlife Park in the Swan Valley

Well, I did not really like this segment of the trip - the Lobster Shack - but I enjoyed the food though. One of the best food I had in Perth. We had a tour of the live lobster processing plant which we put on the audio guide. Nothing fanciful, nothing that I remembered clearly except the big lobsters reared in the plant. But the lobster was great - remember to top up AUD15 when you purchase the item. 

Come the lobster meal consists of half a lobster. 3 lobster cakes, hot chips, salad and a drink. They were prepared right in front of you and of course, served piping hot. The lobster meat was clearly fresh and tender. The lobster cakes, though fried, you can still feel the freshness. The salad was a good way to reduce the sinful hot chips! I enjoyed the meal totally! Did I mentioned, a can of coke cost AUD3 and thus, we got the coke to go with the meal.

Lobster Shack

Covering 17,491 hectares, the Nambung National Park is home to Western Australia's renowned Pinnacles Desert. It is really a natural phenomenon with thousands of huge limestone pillars rise out of a stark landscape of yellow sand. Totally amused by the scenery, totally impressed that the dessert is still well-maintained though I think the limstone will slowly evolved further in future -  what we saw back then will totally be different if we were to see it all over again!

Pinnacles Desert at Nambung National Park

Another highlight of the trip would definitely be the Sand dunes of Lancelin - massive white sand dunes, the biggest in Western Australia. It was the first time I tried sandboarding. It was really cool but remember to bring your shades along! You could barely open your eyes without shades. But you need to walk up the sand slope first - Minutes to walk up, seconds to come down. Totally love the experience. Before the sandboarding, we were 'treated' to a 'roller-coaster' ride in the 4WD coach. Super! But the downside was - you were be filled with sands for the journey back!

Sand dunes of Lancelin

After the bus trip back to Perth City, it was already around 7pm. Time to dinner hunt. After walking down Murray Street, we decided to walk into Breve Cafe & Bar - it is the few shops that are open and serve FOOD. Looking at the long list of items they serve, we decided to order the Avocado Quesadilla with waffle as desserts. We did not really want to over order for dinner as we deemed servings in Australia to be quite big a portion for us. Furthermore, we love to snack!

Alright - I have to say, it is the first time I tried Quesadilla. It was quite nice with the meat filling and the avocado spread completed the taste experience. The waffle with ice-cream was a pleasant way to end the tiring day. 

Breve Cafe & Bar

Address:
Pie Face -
110 William St, Perth WA 6000
Breve Cafe & Bar -
158 Murray St, Perth WA 6000

Taiwan 2013 - Day 7 - Cingjing Farm

Start of day 7 was spent on travelling again. From Zuoying Station, we travelled to Taichung Station (高鐵台中站) to take a Nantou bus to Cingjing Farm (清境農場). Like I mentioned before, we pre-ordered our train tickets online and collected them via the machine at the station - it is really a fast and convenient way for tourist.  

When you reached Taichung Station, get to the basement and look for a ‘Nantou Bus’ counter inside the station, just beside the exit 5. There, you would be able to buy the bus tickets to Cingjing Farm. We bought the return tickets that came with some perks and well, it was cheaper in that sense. There are actually timings for the buses and some buses only brings you to Puli Station. Do opt for the direct bus to Cingjing farm though it will also stop at Puli Station to pick up other passengers. Do be clear and check out this website for more information. We took the 10:20 bus and managed to reach Cinjing Farm area at 12 plus. Do check with your mingsu on the location to be dropped off. There are quite a number of stops in which the bus will drop off the passengers. 

As we stayed at  Misty Villa (雲濛仙境), we were advised to alight at "Guo Min house stay/國民賓館". Thereafter, it was a 5 mins walk (up slope) along "Rong Guang New Village/榮光新村". Misty villa is located on the right. A very nice villa with very nice host. It was not the time to check in and thus, we left our luggage at the counter. The coutner lady, Ms Chen recommended some of the attractions and showed us a map. She was very attentive and was able to give good advice, introducing us to places according to our liking. There, we booked the sunrise trip to Hehuanshan (合歡山) from her. That cost NT400 per pax. 

Then, off we went to the Green Green Grassland (青青草原). There is shuttle bus services that brings us from the Cingjing Carpark to the Grassland on Weekends only. If not, I reckon the walk to be half an hour. There was not much direction and we decided to take the bus. As there was still time, we went to 7-11 to grab a bite - there, I had the instant noodle, with a tea leaf egg and a drink. It was not an expensive meal but the hot noodle brought warmth to us. The temperature at Cingjing was drastically different from that at Kaoshiung. It was cooler and was around 15 degrees. Travel time for the shuttle bus to reach Grassland is about 10 minutes and the fare is NT$20. However, this was included in the return tickets package that we bought earlier on. It was only a one-way ticket but that was fine as we were able to walk back to our minsu from the Grassland.

It was great to spend the afternoon at Green Green Grassland. A very relaxing day with sheeps to keep you company. After the entertaining sheep shearing show, some of the sheeps were left free to roam around the grass patch. It was time to take some memorable photos with them. While strolling back to Misty Villa, we encountered beautiful sunset -  something we did not expect. Nice calming view.

Green Green Grassland

As we reached back Misty Villa, we did the check in and rested for a while. Next up in the itinerary was DINNER. We were also advised by Ms Chen to visit the Small Swiss Garden (小瑞士花園) after 7pm. In this way, we would be able to see the nightview of the garden tonight and the morning view of it tomorrow morning. Wasn't that helpful of her, ensuring that we see both views of the garden. Thumbs up.

After the musical water show at Small Swiss Garden, we proceeded next door to Carton King Creativity Park ( 紙箱王創意園區). It is a creative park where almost everything is made of corrugated cardboard - from the ceilings, the floor, the furniture to everything! We had our dinner at the restaurant where we sat on cardboard, dined on cardboard!. Lucky us, we heard that there were shortage of water after we ordered our food and the restaurant had to deny entry for other customers. Phew!

We ordered the pork rib set and a seafood hotpot -  nice hotpot for the cool weather. We even drank our drink from a carton box. Well, there was a cup inside but I guessed they wanted to showcase their cardboard legacy. The good thing about ordering drink was that, you can bring back the cardboard (asked the waiter to dismantle') and it could be a good souvenir to bring home - it can be converted to a piggy bank!

Alright, back to the food, I quite liked them. I guessed the set was pretty well-thought - Each set comes with a cup of olive rice, soup, vegetables and dessert. They are priced pretty reasonably between NT$200 to NT$360 and I think there was a minimum purchase. Do check this out again if you plan to eat there. 

Carton King Creativity Park 紙箱王創意園區

Okay, time for a good rest after the dinner as we had to wake up super early for the sunrise tour that starts at 3am!

Address:
Misty Villa (雲濛仙境)

南投縣仁愛鄉大同村榮光巷9號