Hong Kong and Macau, May 6 - 16, 2011.

5/6/2011.  Woke up at around 9 am this morning because of late concert last night.  Spent most of the morning packing, mostly stuff to bring to others in Hong Kong.  Since I have some clothes left at Taipo, I didn’t need too much personal stuff.

Got notified by Continental that flight was delayed for an hour, which meant getting in quite late, but okay.  After I got to the airport, the departure time improved from 4:15 pm to 3:50 pm.  Boarding began at 3 pm or so, but was halted in few minutes because there was an engine problem that needed a mechanic’s attention.  Soon those who boarded came back out, and the revised departure time became 5:30 pm.  The cowlings of the starboard engine were open, with quite a few people hanging around at a distance (I guess they were taking proper precautions in case engine was started accidentally).  Turned out it wasn’t much of a problem, and we managed to take off at about 5 pm.  Pilot said the flight was going to be relatively short at 14:30, so we should get in at 7:40 pm or so.

We are now one hour before landing, the seat next to me is empty, so this would qualify as a good flight.  However, didn’t manage to get much sleep, watched two movies, and spent most of the time listening to music on my iPod.

Plane landed at 7:45 pm or so, by the time I got my luggage, Tim, Ruth and Wally were already close by.  Trip to Taipo was short (30 minutes?) and there was not much traffic.  Ate some “leftover” food.

Why this trip?  Well, Ruth was going to get some medical attention from Tim for her knees, and I said I would meet up with her.  Anne decided not to come because of various commitments (class, CCHC, Sunday School), so I am by myself.

5/8/2011.  Didn’t sleep that well last night, Anne’s call at 9 am woke me up; the computer crashed on her so we were discussing how best to proceed and debating if things would be different if the data had been backed up.  Tim came by around noon to pick us up.  Today is the maiden voyage of his new boat.  In addition to Ling & Wally, Ruth & Stephen, Alyson, Tim, and me, Cameron & Wayne McC were there also.  Lamma Island for lunch and then drove around a little bit.  At the price he is paying for it, the boat had better be good.

Had a “French Toast” before heading to Grand Century Plaza to have dinner with David.  We ended up eating at Simply Thai, reasonably good food, not expensive.  Left at around 10 pm.

5/9/2011.  Went back to Grand Century Plaza to have late breakfast with David at about 10 am at Café de Coral.  Took bus to Tuen Mun to visit David’s mother whom I got to know quite well during my year stay in the Los Angeles area.  She looked good but had some issues after her recent stay at the hospital.  Stayed until a bit after 1 pm, David then treated me to lunch at a local restaurant.  Took bus to Macau Ferry Terminal, caught the 3:45 pm ferry to catch up with Ling, Ruth & their spouses.  Got to the Grand Hyatt at about 6 pm, and then we had a quick dinner at a City of Dreams casino noodle shop before catching the 8 pm “House of Dancing Water” show.  The 90-minute show is basically an acrobat show above a large water tank with failed ambitions at being artistic or dramatic (in terms a story line).  Not bad entertainment, though.  Hotel rooms are very nice but already showing signs of being abused by guests.  Smoking indoors evidently isn’t frowned on as much.  I don’t have a huge problem with that philosophically (these are grown ups we are talking about here) but have problems with the ever-present lingering smell of cigarettes.

5/10/2011.  Leisurely buffet breakfast at the hotel, then we took the shuttle to the Taipa Ferry Terminal and caught the 11:30 am boat back to Hong Kong.  Had a simple lunch at Kong Hing Restaurant in Tai Wai before returning to the Taipo house.  Went on the treadmill for a while before dinner at Chiu Chow Garden at the MTR Station.

5/11/2011.  Afternoon tea with Larry.  Dinner cooked by Ling.

5/12/2011.  Morning exercise on elliptical.  Went to Shatin with Ling & Wally for lunch; they thought highly of the food, I thought it was okay but not spectacular.  Went to Wanchai to meet up with On Ching for a short chat at Starbucks.  Dinner was at restaurant in Sham Shui Po (New So Kee) recommended by Ling and Wally.  Again I thought it was just so-so.  I guess I am not that into food.

Today was supposed to be the last of the warm days for this spell, but it turned out to be the hottest so far this year at 35C, with the issuance of a heat alert.  I hope tomorrow will turn out better.

5/13/2011.  It poured last night, with thunder and lightning; it also rained on and off today, but we lucked out and didn’t get rained on.  Ruth and I stopped by Tim’s office to have a couple of problems looked into, then we went to have lunch at “Home-Cooked Food” at the Lee Theater.  Very inexpensive dishes (cost HK$198 for the four of us.)  Came back to Tai Po via Bus 307, and got on the treadmill to work off all the excess calories consumed the last few days.

Left at 5:45 pm or so to get to Sai Kung: taxi, MTR, No. 299 bus.  Dinner at Tung Kee with the Laus.  Tim claims the food will cost in excess of HK$6000; supposedly the restaurant people know the Laus quite well and offer them great discounts .  We counted about 20 different dishes for 11 guests.  Let me try to reconstruct the list: chicken in peanut sauce, steamed chicken, roasted goose; sashimi – which itself is made up of a variety of seafood, snails, abalones, large shrimp fried whole, mantis shrimp, shrimp and celery; lobster and e-fu noodles, seafood fried rice; steamed grouper pieces, stir-fried grouper pieces; choy sum, small bok choy,; mango pudding, fruit.  And they brought pig’s feet, eggs and ginger cooked in vinegar.

Tim took us home after dinner, trip didn’t take long at all.

5/14/2011.  Ling cooked at Taipo House: leg of lamb.  Went to Cultural Center for a concert by myself afterwards.  It was about 11 pm when I got back to Taipo.

5/15/2011.  We left early so Tim could help get the boat ready.  Ruth, Stephen and I had breakfast at ABC while Tim did his work.  They came by to pick us up at about 11 am and we moored the boat at Repulse Bay.  Tim and I got into the dinghy to go back to the marina to fill up the gas tank.  The RIB was a bit on the deflated side so the trip in 2-foot waves turned out to be quite exciting.  Picked up Alyson, Wally & Ling, and Paul & Esther Chan at around noon.  Weather was unpleasant so we moored at Repulse Bay, next to the McCrae’s, had lunch, and spent the afternoon chatting inside the boats.

Dinner at Tao Yuen.  A bit on the expensive side because of shark fin soup (evidently still okay in Hong Kong) and abalone.  Returned to Taipo at around 8 pm.  Then it was packing for the return trip.

5/16/2011.  Woke up relatively early (6:30 am) to get ready; picked up by hired car at 8 am, got to airport at around 8:45 am despite some traffic around Shatin.  Check in and customs were relatively simple.  Breakfast at Café de Coral.  Even though flight status shows middle seat as occupied, it was probably just blocked as the seat is empty.  The flight has been in the air for about 4 hours as I type this, another 11 to go.

Washington, DC and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 3/31/2011-4/5/2011.

3/31/2011 Thursday.  Anne is in China this week, instead of going over to Asia I decided to hit Washington DC since David and Ruby were going to visit.  So happens Johnny will be in town also, and I will get to meet up with him as well.  Later this week I will fly up to Toronto to meet up with Anne, and we will spending a few days there.  One thing we didn’t quite count on was the weather, a couple of fronts are coming through and I will be spend a few gloomy spring days out of town.

It was drizzling this morning, so called South Amboy Taxi for a ride to the train station.  The fare itself was $4.50.  Since I got there a bit early, I walked over to Dunkin Donuts to have breakfast.  Layover at Newark was going to be 40 plus minutes, and I couldn’t resist and bought a small burrito.  Amtrak cars were surprisingly full, no seats with an empty one next to it available.  Otherwise uneventful.  Waited a bit after I got off the train for David to pick me up in his rental car.  Checked into the Sheraton Washington North hotel and got a room on the executive floor.  This isn’t the nicest Sheraton I have seen: more along the lines of Four Points, perhaps.  By being called Sheraton, they can charge for everything, including internet.  After settling in, David and I went back to BWI to pick up Ruby’s sister Julie and her friend Flora, who is visiting from Hong Kong.  Dinner at Legal Seafood, which is next to Chinatown, with Johnny and his colleague Ken.  Food was okay, not great.  We then drove around to try to catch glimpses of the Mall and the Tidal Basin.  We noticed the cherry blossoms are white in color.  Wonder what color we will see in the morning.

4/1/2011 Friday.  After a simple breakfast (bagels and cheese for me) at the Club Lounge we drove to the tidal basin area to catch a free tour bus which took us around to see cherry trees.  We in this case are myself, David & Ruby, Julie and Flora.  Most of the flowers are white, for a small number you can make a case that the petals are a bit pinkish, and some (especially the weeping cherries) are definitely in shades of pink and red.  We were very puzzled, and few believed a ranger’s explanations that the flowers would start white and turn pink when they are ready to fall.  This is not the first time we have encountered cherry blossoms.  Anne also mentioned that she saw on CNN that the bloom is mostly white, no explanation given either.

View of Tidal Basin from Jefferson Memorial.  Cherries are mostly white this year.

 We then went to the Museum of the American Indian for lunch.  A recent issue of Budget Travel mentioned this as a great place to eat.  It certainly was quite crowded, but when I got to the counter I saw that the salmon I wanted looked very dry.  I opted for the salmon (grounded up) burger instead.  That and a coffee cost about $15.  The burger was quite good, I have to say.  We then marched off to the National Art Gallery to see the Gauguin exhibit.  There were quite a few paintings, but at the end the exhibit proved to be a disappointment.  There was a docent who was explaining some of the paintings Gauguin made, and talking about aspects of Gauguin’s life.  My issue is the curator seems more concerned with appealing to experts (perhaps trying to outdo other fellow curators) than the masses.  A great exhibit will let the audience gain some additional knowledge and appreciation of an artist, regardless of whether the tourist is doing a whirlwind tour (like us) or is an expert already.  After visiting Gauguin, I also did a quick walk-through of the Venice Exhibit.  There are many paintings from the 1700s on display.  I am very impressed with how finely done some of the paintings are.  One might be misled into thinking they are high definition photographs standing just a short distance away (well, a bit of exaggeration on my part.)  I walked back to the American Indian Museum to do another quick walk through.  It is a poorly curated museum not worthy of a second tier city.  You come away not gaining any additional understanding of the people at all.  I think the chief curator just ask several groups of people to put together something for display, without any overall picture in his/her head.  The displays remind me of those I saw at EXPO in Shanghai last years.  And those in the “Oceania” section, at that.  When I visit a Native American historic site, I come away having a better understanding and a greater respect of them.  Here you read the right words and phrases here or there, but the overall message is still "we were taken advantage, and we need help."

David and I met up, toured the Air & Space Museum a bit, and sat down to chat over cups of coffee while the ladies were at another Museum.  We ate some of the freeze-dried astronaut food which I found quite forgettable.   I forgot my camera but luckily found it when I returned to the McDonald’s inside the Museum.

We then went to the Thai Place restaurant which lost our reservation.  But they were able to accommodate us .  Johnny and Ken joined us, a little late.  We then took the shuttle to JFK Center to listen to a concert.  Johnny’s other colleague Grace joined us together with her 11-year old daughter.  It was close to 11 pm when we got back to the hotel.

4/2/2011 Saturday.  David & Ruby managed to get free buffet breakfasts for all of us, so we ate that meal there.  I didn’t eat as much as I could, but more than I should.  We then drove to Mt. Vernon, VA, home of George Washington.  The view certainly was nice, being on the shores of the Potomac.  Even though a lot of people say this is a must see, I didn’t find it that interesting a place to visit.  The threat of, and then light, rain didn’t help.  We had a quick bite at the Food Court.  Ruby then suggested we might as well go to the Crab Cakes place, we all agreed.  Unfortunately, for some reason Magellan decided to take us through the heart of the Cherry Blossom Festival, and I was a bit pressed for time.  So I asked David to drop me off at the Reagan National Airport.  They then proceeded to go to the restaurant and discovered it was closed: it was just written up in the latest issue of Budget Travel.  My flight was delayed for about 45 minutes.  Everything was smooth until I came to the customs line, which looked very long.  It took only 20 minutes to clear, and Anne, coming in from Beijing, came out of customs a few minutes after I did.

Mt. Vernon.  The view from the house is great.  I didn't find the tour that informative, though.

We checked out a rental car – a blue Hyundai Accent – and got to the hotel (Four Points) without too much trouble.  Then we got some Canadian dollars, ate at Pizza Pizza, and bought some groceries for the rest of the trip.  And it is now 11 pm.

4/3/2011 Sunday.  Woke up late this morning, and didn’t leave until about 10:30 am.  First went to St. Lawrence Market, thinking that there would be an antique market there.  It was closed.  Lunch at Spring Rolls which serves fusion dim sum.  Overall only mediocre quality – we still ate quite a bit, though.  Then drove to University of Toronto region.  I went to the Royal Conservatory of Music to see if I could buy tickets to that afternoon’s concert, and was told rush tickets would be on sale in a couple of minutes (1:30 pm for 3:00 pm concert).  Naturally we waited for that and got two tickets for $10 each.  Walked around UT a bit.  After the concert, we drove by the CN Tower, it looked closed.  We found out it closes on Sunday.  We then drove to Chinatown.  Dinner at E Pan (First Grade):  lobster and grouper dishes.  Most of the Chinese we heard in the restaurant was Mandarin.  Later we found out there is a “New Chinatown” on the eastern part of the city. 

The Royal Conservatory of Music.  New Building is where we heard the Fleishers.

4/4/2011 Monday.  It snowed last night.  Spring on the calendar doesn’t necessary translate to an actual one.  Visited the Royal Ontario Museum, with the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal which had to be a new addition that appears to be consuming the old traditional building.  I admire how an architect or designer can put together something like this, but usually don’t find the results particularly aesthetically pleasing.   There was a special “water” exhibit that was just so-so, long on message (green, of course) but short on actual displays.  Did learn a couple of things about the silting effect of dams and how artesian wells are affected by other wells.  They do have an interesting collection of dinosaurs.  There is a display of a Chinese tomb from the Ming dynasty that is also quite interesting.  In general, however, I find the displays reflect a rather narrow world view.  The curator should go out more (she/he should thank me for suggesting boondoggles.)  Also, I find the videos explaining the iconic displays mostly uninformative.

 View from inside and outside the Royal Ontario Museum.

 "The Blue Lady", one of the so-called Iconic Treasures.

A tomb from the Ming Dynasty.

We did stop by the “New Chinatown” as indicated on a tourist map.  And it is even smaller than the “old” one.  We had Vietnamese there.

4/5/2011.  David told us we should try Richmond Hill or Markham for Chinese food, so we drove the 40 or so kilometers there.  Sure enough there were a lot of nice Chinese restaurants.  We just picked one at random and had quite a bit of dim sum.

The Art Gallery of Ontario, like the ROM, is very Canadian-centric.  Again you have a new design wrapping around an older building.  In this case the architect is Frank Gehry, an Ontario native son.  The outside is quite puzzling, bordering on ugly.  Inside, however, is much more interesting, especially the use of layered wood.  We are impressed with this particular artist (Giuseppe Penone) who carved out a tree from a railroad tie or the trunk of a railroad tie.

One of the many works of Giuseppe Penone.

I don’t know how much Canadians travel and if they visit museums in other countries.  They certainly can’t expect to learn a lot about the outside world by visiting the museums and galleries in their own country.  A pity.

It had been a while since I flew out of Canada, so I was surprised how the whole process had changed – and there were no special lines for US citizens.  The immigration, customs, and security processes took about 20 minutes.  I continue to wonder why immigration and customs are in Canada.  Due to weather conditions in Newark, our flight was delayed.  We managed to take an earlier (also delayed) flight and got back at the original expected time.  Train and then taxi to get home.

Charleston, SC. 2/26/2011-3/1/2011.

2/26/2011 Saturday.   I couldn’t pass up on the $160 roundtrip airfare offer, and I had always wanted to see Charleston and her antebellum architecture; so, here we are.

Ellie and Kuau came by a little after noon to take us to Newark.  Flight 3118 was quite full, no doubt due to cancellation’s of prior day’s flights to Charleston due to weather.  But we got in just a few minutes late.  Rental car is a Hyundai Electra from Budget, so far so good; it seems the quality of Korean cars has improved a lot.  Visited the wrong Visitor Center (where people were more interested in selling time shares), then drove to the Waterfront Park and walked around for 45 or so minutes.  Many large and old houses (antebellum, no doubt) along East Bay Street.  There is something to this Southern charm.  Traffic on the harbor is quite busy, we saw three large container ships go by the Cooper River.  Restaurants were doing good business (it’s Saturday, after all) and had 30 to 45 minute waits.  We ate at Noisy Oyster which turned out to be pretty good.  Oyster Samplers to share, Anne had the Shrimp and Grits, I had Shrimp Okra Gumbo.  Only blemish was this couple who refused to have the window closed even though it was a bit cold.  I couldn’t help remarking to them when we left that I hoped they enjoyed the breeze while others were freezing.

 Water Fountain by the Waterfront.

 Charleston has many churches.  It is nicknamed "The Holy City."  Horse-drawn carriage is a popular way to see the city.

With old churches come old cemeteries.  One graveyard is the resting place of several Constitution signers. 

There are many alleys in the city.  They are mostly well-maintained.

Hotel via Hotwire turned out to be Best Western.  We could have booked through Hotels.com for a few dollars more.   The hotel is just so-so, and I am not sure the towels are clean.  Hotwire has proven to be disappointments when it comes to hotel bookings.

2/27/2011 Sunday.  Stopped by Dixie Supply Company and bought a piece of tomato pie and chess pie.  The chess pie is written up in a recent issue of National Geographic Traveler as the best in America.  It’s okay, but not great.  Magnolia Plantation was next on our itinerary.   This place is now run by the 13^th generation of the original owner.  We visited the main house, took a nature ride on a tram, and walked around the gardens with many magnolias and camellias.  On our way out we stopped by for more than an hour at the Audubon Swamp.  There we saw an alligator in the process of killing an otter (the otter still appeared to be alive when we left), many egrets, turtles and alligators.  Quite an interesting place; we spent about 6 hours there.  Dinner at Hyman’s Seafood.  I had the grouper stuffed with crabcake special, Anne had the crabcakes on fried grits, and we shared buffalo oysters and fried green tomatoes as appetizers.  The fish was a bit overdone.

Dixie Supply Bakery & Cafe.  The "Best Chess Pie" is just okay.

Drive to the Magnolia Plantation.

 The surprising modest main house of the Magnolia Plantation.

Live Oaks covered with Spanish Mosses. 

Slave cabins on the Plantation. 

Anne taking a picture of a crocodile enjoying the afternoon sun. 

 An oft-photographed picture on the Plantation.  Our obligatory shot.

Crocodile trying to kill an otter (so we are told.)  The crocodile would thrash around every now and then, otter managed to stay alive when we last saw it. 

Cormorants. 

 Blue Herons.

Snowy Egrets that just had a romantic encounter.

Crab cakes on Fried Grits served at Hyman's.  One can gain a lot of weight on southern food.

2/28/2011 Monday.  Took the 11 am boat tour to Fort Sumter.  This was the place where the first shot of the civil war was fired.  We could see the damage the thousands of cannon balls, totaling about 7 million pounds, did to the place.  About 100 people were killed during the 22 month bombardment.  Lunch at Fleet Landing, pretty good fare.  We had soup (She Crab for me, Shrimp Gumbo for Anne), crab dip (Anne) and shrimp and grits (me).  Drove around in the afternoon: Sullivan Island, Isle of Palm, Fort Moultrie, and Patriot Point (didn’t go on the Yorktown, though.)  Dinner at Arby’s; we both felt we have eaten way too much on this trip.

 Big cargo ship on the Ashley (or is it the Cooper?).  The dot in front is a dolphin.

Seagull following our ferry to Fort Sumter.  Nothing special about the bird, just it took me many tries to get this one. 

 Damage to the Fort.

 In front of the Ferry.

Fort Moultrie as seen from Ferry.

3/1/2011 Tuesday.  Our flight wasn’t until 4:30 pm, so we thought we could do a few things before we leave.  Didn’t leave the hotel until about 10 am though.  Our first stop was town again, walked around a bit, visited the four corners (church, city hall, court house, and post office).  The church cemetery is where two (at least) U.S. Constitution signatories were buried (Rutledge and Pickney).  Interestingly, it is St. Michael’s Lutheran (I expected Quaker or Puritan).  Lunch at Charleston Crab House, Anne had the She Crab soup and salad, I had fried oysters.  After lunch we drove to Kiawah Island and found out visitors probably needed to announce themselves, so we didn’t go on it.  We then drove to Caw Caw Nature Reserve but it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  So we gave up and went to the airport and found out our flight was delayed for an hour.  Flight was 60 to 70% full, and uneventful.  Ellie picked us up.

 Black skimmers.

Four corners (from left: Church, Post Office, Courthouse and City Hall.)

To our great dismay, eating Southern food for three days gained both Anne and I several pounds.  Now we need to work to get (at least some of) it off.  Did learn a few things about U.S. history, though.

Australia, 1/27/2011 - 2/14/2011

1/27/2011 Thursday.  We had a rather severe storm that came through yesterday (lasted until early today) and I was wondering if we could make the trip.  There was about a foot of snow on the driveway so I dug out a small path to the street – didn’t take long, but I still worked up a sweat.  All flights were canceled last night and this morning.  Ellie came by at 1 pm to pick us up, the streets were quite well ploughed and there wasn’t a lot of traffic.

The airport wasn’t chaotic (e.g., no one was sitting on the floor) but the lines were very long.  Because our itinerary is international, we couldn’t check in on line or at a kiosk.  There were only a couple of agents and every passenger seemed to need help (understandable).  After a few minutes we decided to elicit the help of a Sky Cap even though we didn’t have any luggage to check in.  The guy found an agent on break and she managed to check us in.  The tip ($40) should be generous enough.

Security line was short (everyone was at check in).  Our flight was quite full but we left EWR only a little late and got in LAX on time.  We had dinner at Jody Maroni (sausage subs) and then went to the United lounge.  Turns out there was another UA flight that left at 9 pm; we couldn’t get on it.  The agent explained to us we couldn’t hop on international flights just like that; and the other flight was also quite full in any case.

UA839 is quite full.  My center row is full  Anne started with only one neighbor (two empty seats) but someone decided to take one of the center seats (probably a Premier member.)  Then someone else just decided to take the other empty seat.  He eventually left, though.  We are about 10 hours into the flight as I type this, only nodded off every now and then – listening to Mozart is not helping a lot.  I hope I can get a couple of hours after I wrap up this report.

One other note.  CO website flight status has a “where is aircraft coming from” feature.  I kept checking it and was worrying about aircraft availability for our flight. For instance, at one point our aircraft EWR-LAX was to go Newark to Ireland to Newark before heading out to LAX.  Its departure for Ireland kept getting delayed at Newark.  At some point they scheduled another plane that was already at Newark.  Later, however, our plane was to come from Orlando and it was delayed somewhat.  That was the plane we actually took, and things turned out okay.  Ellie remarked that kind of monitoring causes unnecessary agitation, and that Kuau does the same thing.

1/29/2011 Saturday.  Plane landed about one hour early and the immigration and customs process took less than 15 minutes.  Called Ruth while we were having coffee.  Also activated phone card: process is on the complicated side.  Went to Chinatown for lunch, then to Market City so Anne could pick up some decorations for Rose Mountain and Ruth could do some grocery shopping.  Followed by visit to East Garden to pick up a couple of travel brochures.  Slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon – didn’t get much sleep on the plane.  Chinatown again for dinner, with Susanna, Chris and their two kids.

1/30/2011 Sunday.  Went to church in the morning.  Stopped by Maroubra main street to buy fish & chips and pizzas (Dominos) to bring back to Jennings Street for lunch.  Wilson and Susanna and their families joined.  I also bought several pies from House of Pie.  Ruth drove us to the airport to catch the Virgin Blue 4:10 pm flight to Gold Coast.  Short flight was packed.  Rented a small Toyota at the airport.  Drive to Surfers Paradise took about 30 minutes.  Room at Mantra Legends is reasonably nice with partial view of the ocean and its wave upon wave of surfs hitting the shore.  Walked around a bit and went to dinner at this Tandoori Indian Restaurant around the corner from the hotel.  Food was okay but not worth the wait of 40 or so minutes.

Skyline of Gold Coast (viewed from Marina district.)

Expensive Condos seen from our hotel room.  It was right after a drizzle and we could see this rainbow in the distance.

1/31/2011 Monday.  Woke up quite early at about 6 am, tried but couldn’t go back to sleep.  We first drove to the Sea World and Marina area to take a look.  Quite a few marinas, reasonable amount of activity for Monday.  Drove to the Tamborine National Park area and saw Gallery Walk, Glow Worm Cave and Skywalk.  Gallery Walk is a collection of artist shops, restaurants and other shops concentrated along Long Street.  Didn’t visit any, quite quiet when we visited (but more tourists when we drove through again in the afternoon.)  Most tourists are Asian.  We then drove to Glow Worm Caves and took a short guided tour. This is a man-made cave with (supposedly) real glow worms.  Reasonably interesting and informative.  Skywalk – an elevated walkway over a valley populated by rain forest vegetation – was next.  We learned a few interesting things.  This tree called Strangler Fig would grow around and eventually smother a gum tree.  We saw quite a few examples of the end result – nothing in progress, though.  The Flood Gum eventually evolved so it would shed its bark – and the fig – every year.  Quite sinister, and quite interesting.  There are many lizards along the way, and butterflies.  We heard loud noises attributed to the cicada but didn’t see any.  Also had a quick lunch of pie and coffee at the Skywalk Café.  We then went to Curtis Falls which was a short walk from the parking lot.  However, the visit was just so-so.  We still had a lot of time so we drove to The Natural Bridge.  It isn’t nearly as spectacular as I expected.  Anne pointed out the glow worm strands hanging from the ceiling – we did learn something from the earlier tour.  Dinner was KFC take-out, I was quite tired from all the driving.

Life Cycle of a Glow Worm display at Skywalk.

Entrance to the Glow Worm Cave.

We saw a few of these pheasants.

Entrance to Skywalk.

Parasitic Plants are found on many trees.

Skywalk view.

Strangler Fig.  Can't tell if it has a victim inside or not.

Twisted vine.

 

Canopy view from Skywalk.

No Strangler Fig around this Flood Gum.

One of many "insects" (in this case a spider) along the Skywalk.

Many of these Australian Brush-turkeys hanging around.  Grotesque, yet somewhat beautiful.

Curtis Falls.  Not a lot of water flowing today.  I have seen photos that show a more impressive water flow.

Natural Bridge.

Look carefully, you can see the strands sent down by glow worms to ensnare their prey.

2/1/2011 Tuesday.  We followed the route of a tour bus for the day.  First to Tweed Heads, then along the Pacific Coast and drove by many different towns, including a huge development called Salt – perhaps a real estate bubble in the making.  We reached Brunswick Heads early in the afternoon.  It was then to Cape Byron Lighthouse, the most easterly point of Australia.  All the beaches begin to look alike after a while.  We wanted to visit the Crystal Castle (a Buddhist retreat) but it was closing time by the time we got there.  Got back to the hotel at about 6 pm.  Lunch was at a Thai place in Coolangatta.  Many of the towns we drove by were quite a bit bigger than we expected.  There seem to be more Australians than one would think …  Dinner was takeout from Chinese Restaurant next to the hotel.

Tweed Valley.  We got a bit lost.  Luckily there were so few roads that we eventually found our bearings.

One of the many beaches we drove by.  After seeing a few they begin to look alike.

Cape Byron Lighthouse.

Proof that we are at the Eastermost Point of Australia.

2/2/2011 Wednesday.  Morning jog.  Broadwater Cruise for about 2 hours.  Saw lots of expensive houses, somewhat like Fort Lauderdale but smaller and, yes, quite a bit less expensive (most house here are for less than $10M!).  Lunch at restaurant next to Marina Cove.  I had the Fish & Chips, and Anne had the Tandoori Chicken in Turkish Bread.  Stopped by the Q1 building (which claims to be the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere) and walked around the observation deck on the 77^th floor.  Got to the airport at about 3 pm, found out our plane has changed its schedule and will leave 30 minutes later than expected.  Surprised at how non-chalant people are about these things.  By the way, there is a threat of a Cat 5 Cyclone (Yuzi) hitting northern Queensland at 10 pm tonight.  Things will be bad, so the forecasters say.

Multi-million dollar boat at a multi-million dollar house.  Both get used a few weeks a year.

View of Gold Coast from Q1.

Another View.

2/3/2011 Thursday.  Slept in while Ruth and Stephen went to pick up Tim and Alyson.  Lunch at Fish Market, crowds were not nearly as huge as they were used to be; economy and the strong Australian dollar making things relatively expensive.  Checked into Meriton Pitt in the afternoon: a 3-bedroom apartment on the 49^th floor with reasonable views.  Air conditioning system a bit weak though.  Dinner in the apartment with take-out food and a couple of dishes cooked by Ruth.

2/4/2011 Friday.  Bought Transport Day Passes and used it to first go to Manly Beach.  Lunch at Bluewater Café along the beachfront.  I had the “Tempura battered lightly fried monkfish with handcut potatoes” which was basically wording to justify the charge of AUD24 for fish and chips.  Took ferry back to Circular Quay and then onto the one for Darling Harbour.  Got off but decided not to go to any of the attractions.  Missed the return ferry by a couple of minutes, so had to wait a while for the next one.  Tim and Alyson decided to head back to the hotel to sleep, but Anne and I wanted to go to Bondi Beach so we took the bus (#333) to get there.  Anne lost her pass so we bought a ticket for her.  It was after six when we got back to the apartment.  Lamb chops and spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner.

Coming into Circular Quay on a Ferry.  A familiar sight.

2/5/2011 Saturday.  Tim’s friends were staying at their friend’s house in Kangaroo Valley (exact village is Barrengarry), 150 or so km away.  We woke up early to check out a rental car (about a 10 minute walk from our hotel).  The drive was quite uneventful (Tim did the driving).  Roads here generally are quite okay.  What a house.  It’s on 200 acres (or 150, but who is counting).  The main house has huge “functional areas” such as kitchen, sitting room, library, and various gathering rooms, and two wings (owners and guests) with approximately 9 en-suite bedrooms, with most overlooking the Kangaroo Valley which touts itself as the most beautiful valley in Australia.  (We passed by Australia’s Best Pies on the way there, so hyperbole is evidently quite common.)  Everyone decided to go visit a Wildlife Park (which we gave up because we drove past it for a while before realizing it) and a beach (Hyams Beach in Port Jervis) which is only ordinary as far as Australian beaches go.  I drove back to the city and we met up with Ruth and Stephen and had dinner in Maroubra.

Living area overlooking Kangaroo Valley.

Kitchen and dining area.

 2/6/2011 Sunday.  Tim and I again woke up early so we could return the car.  I was a bit apprehensive since I parked it on the street overnight.  I did notice a long key mark on the side although I’m not sure it happened under my watch.  In any case the Hertz person decided to let it go.  Anne and I took the bus to Matraville to attend church and returned to the City right afterwards.  Lunch at Taste of Shanghai in World Square.  Slept in the afternoon. Dinner at No. 8 (Market City) to celebrate Stephen’s upcoming 80^th birthday.  Today is Chinese New Year Parade Day so many of the streets were blocked off.  We did see some parade going on when we left the restaurant at 9:15 pm or so, and saw reflections of fireworks from our apartment.

2/7/2011 Monday.  Anne and I took the train to Bondi Junction.  The shopping mall is large and modern, but the surrounding area is not that great.  Lunch at the Food Court in Westfield Mall: Indian and Turkish dishes.  Took train to Penshurst to meet up with others to visit mother at Fairlea.  Dinner with Stephen’s friend William.  Rather fancy dishes such as egg white and lobster meat, abalone in soup, and custards in the shape of pumpkins.

2/8/2011 Tuesday.  Woke up a bit late (9 am).  Stopped by Hertz office but they didn’t have my Garmin GPS, too bad.  Walked over to The Art Gallery to look at the First Emperor of China exhibit.  It was basically the same as the British Museum one we saw a few year back, with only 8 or so terra cotta warriors.  Somehow I managed to learn something I didn’t know (or have forgotten) and I thus find the exhibit well-curated.  They could use a bit more Chinese in their descriptions though.  Lunch at Food Court in Market City: Anne and I shared a couple of dishes.  Picked up some brochures at the Darling Harbour Visitor Bureau in preparation for our drive up to Port Stephens later this week.  Light dinner brought in by Tim in the apartment.  Jogged a couple of miles afterwards.

2/9/2011 Wednesday.  Went with Anne to Bondi Junction so she could go to Curves.  Headed back to CBD and had lunch with Ling – she came back to Australia to have her teeth fixed by Alfred.  Anne and I then went to Bondi Beach and walked for a short bit.  It was a nice day but we unfortunately didn’t have much time.  Dinner at Tetsuya’s with Tim’s friends (that would be their whole extended family).  11 adults and 2 children (the children had rice and noodles).  The tasting menu is certainly quite expensive at $210 per person, additional $95 for wine pairings, and yet additional for raw oysters.  Tetsuya’s is considered one of Australia’s best restaurants which has lost some of its luster.  I just found it so-so, and become more appreciate of my sentiment “a disappointing expensive meal is worse than a disappointing expensive concert,” which I coined last year after eating at Quay.  And the dinner lasted 5 hours.  Amazingly the two kids (about 5) were very well-behaved.  We sat next to the elder Mr. Chan and her daughter and had rather interesting conversations.  Even then we had slightly awkward moments of silence.

2/10/2011 Thursday.  Checked out of Meriton this morning.  The location is nice, and the apartment is generally quite pleasant (at their price it better be).  However, there are some aspects (such as sewer gas smell in the laundry room) that are unexcusable.  Went to Ruth’s house so Anne could do her class conference call.  We had pies that Tim and Alyson bought.  After dropping Tim and Alyson off at the airport, we started our journey to Nelson Bay/Soldiers Point.  The trip took about 3 hours; we stopped along the way for a quick bite at McDonald’s.  It was early enough that Anne and I drove to the Stockton Sand Dunes and lingered there for a bit.  Dinner was takeout Chinese supplemented by home-cooked rice, Chinese sausages and salted eggs.  The unit we rented isn’t nearly as nice as we thought it would be.  It is right next to the bay but the view is blocked by many tall trees.  There are 32 steps from the living area to our bedroom.

Stockton Sand Dunes.

Oyster Farm.  These structures are under water when the tide comes in.

Oysters being processed for shipment.  We enjoyed what we bought.

2/11/2011 Friday.  Dolphin watch cruise at 10:30 am.  Boat carried about 80 or so tourists, many were Korean.  We did spot quite a few, but the enthusiasm of the crowd wasn’t all that high.  A boom net was then lowered so people could dip in the water, and there was a tube people could slide in: that was a hit.  Still a pleasant 90 minute ride.  We wanted to eat at Hog’s Breath, but it was closed for lunch for kitchen renovations, so we had pizza instead, they were quite good.  Anne and I then went on a series of excursions: walk from Nelson Bay to Dutchman’s Bay where I stayed last August; drove to the tip of Soldier Point and saw several large pelicans lazing away the summer day; stopped by the Nelson Head Lighthouse (and not understanding why it is called a lighthouse); climbed up Tomaree Head, not high at 161 meters, but nonetheless quite a walk including 300+ steps; and walked on Fingal Bay till we reached the spit, the waves from Port Stephens and Tasman Sea were crashing into one another.  We stopped by Jumbo Palace to pick up some food and went back to the house to have dinner with Stephen and Ruth; together with the oysters we bought earlier at Holbert Oyster Farm, it was quite a meal.

Ruth and Stephen on the cruise boat.

The passengers are having more fun with the water slide and net than seeing the dolphins.

A Kookaburra.

This area is teeming with spiders, you have to watch where you are going to not run into their webs.

We were surprised to see so many sailboats out at the same time.

These are huge pelicans.  Their toy-like eyes look artificial.

Nelson Head Lighthouse.  Not sure why they call it a lighthouse.

 

Waves from Port Stephens and the Tasman Sea crashing into one another from opposite directions.  Creates a strange effect.

2/12/2011 Saturday.  Checked out of the unit at 9:45 am.  Overall I was quite disappointed at the place: it was dated; inside could be cleaner; master bathroom missing important features like toilet paper holder and soap holder; inadequate air conditioning; no use of garage (although we were given a garage door opener); view of bay restricted by grove of trees.  I would give it 2 stars (out of 5).  Drove around a bit before having lunch (mostly fish and chips) at Aussie Bob’s at Shoal Bay.  Per Ruth, Chris (Ngo) loved this place; I found the food just so-so.  We then visited Gan-Gan lookout before driving back to Sydney, stopping at McDonald’s for a short break.  After staying at Susanna’s place for a short while, it was dinner where Ling, Alfred, and Toby joined us.

2/13/2011 Sunday.  Took bus and train to Chatswood and had lunch with Uncle Richard and Auntie Fannie at the Toraya Japanese Restaurant in the Mandarin Center.  They looked fine, all things considered.  We actually found out when they were born: the secret is safe with us.  The public transportation fare structure is such that it costs more than $16 for the roundtrip, and $20 will give you unlimited ride on the system for a day.  Dinner at an Indonesian Restaurant (Ratu Sari) in Kingsford where Chris, Susanna, and Alfred joined us.

2/14/2011 Monday.  It’s been a long trip, and we are ready to go home.  Packed up, and then went to lunch in Chinatown.  Ruth and Stephen dropped us off.  I am in UA840 as I type this, a bit crowded (Anne and I are sitting in seats FG, with seat E empty).  We brought two pies along, and are glad we did (they have been consumed already, we are about 10 hours into the 13 hour flight.)  Trip LAX to EWR was on time.  Ellie picked us up – she was a bit late since she thought we would go through customs at EWR.