Jirrahlinga Park

Upon recommendation, we went to the Jirrahlinga Animal Sanctuary at Barwon Heads near Geelong. This is where many of Australia's native animals can be seen in a very natural surrounding. Eryn got to touch a koala, baby wombat and see wallabies up close. There were not many people there on the day we went.

Off to Melbourne again

We are off to Melbourne again to see the Grant family. This time, we are meeting my friend Brian who is on a wedding photoshoot in Melbourne. Upon arrival at Melbourne airport, we hired a car from Budget. I also rented a GPS unit for the duration of the rental. We brought our own car seat for Eryn as we didn't want to pay for the rental of the car seat. The car seat was easy to fit, after we got the GPS unit going, we were on our way to Geelong.

Activities

I asked the concierge for malls with toys sections. There is a toy section at Canal City, Fukuoka which is right next door. They also suggested Hawks Town Mall, where there is a Toys R Us outlet. This mall is just next to the Yahoo!Japan Dome baseball stadium. We took a bus from outside Tenjin bus station to the Mall. The bus fare for adults is 220yen, kids below elementary school age ride free. The Mall is huge with lots of facilities for kids/family. The Toys R Us is huge with a lot of display toys which the kids can play and try out. Store staff were also quite happy to allow the kids to play with the merchandise.
In the Mall, there is also a kids gym-type of playground in a store. The entrance fee was 400yen/hour which I thought was reasonable. The whole place was padded, with many articles that kids can climb, ride, swing and jump about. The lady operator was also very kind and helpful when any kids gets a bang or falls down. She even brought an ice-pack to a kid who knocked his head! Now that's service! I observed that many mother's brought their kids here, so I guess this is a very kid/family-orientated mall.

March in Fukuoka

We arrived in Fukuoka with a morning temperature of 6 degrees Celsius. Boy, was I unprepared for the chill! Passing through immigration was ok because the immigration service counters only open at 8am. An officer was kind enough to let us go ahead of the queue because we were pushing our 2yr old daughter in a stroller. Most parents with kids were let through as well. We managed to get into a cab to the hotel. Our hotel was only like 5 kms from the airport but the taxi fare still came to about 2500yen! I was expecting that rate from what I read on the Net.

Visiting Japan

As this is our first trip to Japan on holiday, we had to do our Japanese visas for the trip. Malaysians require a visa for visits not longer than 15days. There is no charge for the visa except that you have to submit your application to the embassy on your own and they need to retain your passport for 3 days. We checked on the application process online.

Save some rupiah for the departure

Remember to put aside 150,000 rupiah per person to be used when you leave Indonesia. This is the equivalent of the "Passenger Service Tax" of air travel but collected at the departure hall. I kept aside 75,000 rupiah thinking it was still the same the last time I came to Indonesia for a holiday (2000). Luckily, I still had some rupiah left!

Activities

There are many activities available in Bali but we decided for this trip, we were just going to chill out at the hotel, get some massages, eat great food and some shopping. However, if you planning for some water activities, I do suggest going to an offshore island called Lembongan. It's about 40mins away by boat on the eastern side of Bali & has great looking, clear waters. Rates start from US$50 onwards but do check out the many brochures available before making your decision. I saw this island while the plane was doing its approach to land.

Massage in Bali

There are many spas available in Bali to suit any budget. I know of one called Rose Garden spa. It's just 5 mins by car from our hotel and the spa even provides a pick-up and drop-off service. The spa offers various spa treatments & we chose a 2-hr, 'diamond sand' massage. There were 2 lady masseuse for each person & they are really good at what they do. It was like heaven for the whole 2 hours! The spa offers even 2/3 day 'package' offers where the discounts are quite attractive. For our massage, we paid about US$20 per person for the 2hr session. We gave some tips to the masseuse individually.

Hotel pool

The hotel pool is great for kids. There is a large adults pool, about 2m deep with an adjoining kids wading pool. There is even an island bar so you can sip your cold drink while sitting in the pool! There is also a giant slide about 2 storeys tall. Great for kids & adults too. There is constant supervision on the slides and the lifeguards are very friendly. The slide pool also has a tarpaulin-shaded area for those who doesn't like the bright sunshine. A lot of pool games & activities are planned every day for kids & adults as well. Eryn really enjoyed her time swimming or taking the slide.

To Bali without a stroller

We're going on a short holiday in Bali and it was only after checking-in that we realized that we didn't bring the stroller for our daughter. The flight was uneventful but the immigration queue was so long. As we were waiting in line, our daughter started to make a fuss and started crying. Lucky for us, a kind immigration officer motioned us over and proceeded to process our immigration formalities. We were done in 5 mins! Having a kid does have its privileges! Hahaha! We checked into our hotel, Bali Dynasty on Kuta beach. We chose this hotel because of its child-friendly policies and kids swimming pools. We booked a family room that had a King-sized bed and 2 other single beds. The family room allocated to us was on the ground floor, just near the swimming pool. At first, we were worried about the noise level but as it turned out, it wasn't that bad.

Bangkok

We find that Bangkok's public transport system isn't very stroller-friendly. We took the BTS trains a few times and the stations that we boarded & alighted didn't have any elevators or ramps for strollers. We had to carry it up/down the stairs. But they do have a special 'gate' for strollers at the entry/exit gates! Go figure. The streets of Bangkok are also crowded with people & peddlers selling all sorts of stuff on the sidewalks, so it can be a task to navigate your way through this traffic. Fortunately, the Thais are very considerate people who will give way to you when they see a stroller coming!

Seafood for dinner

We wanted to have a good seafood dinner so we asked Mr Udon where is the best place to find cheap & good seafood. He suggested a place called KoSaweng. It's a 40min drive from the hotel to the outskirts near the coast. After exiting the highway, we entered a dirt road for about 15mins before arriving at the restaurant. There are a few other restaurants along this road too. There were only 2-3 cars there and the restaurant was virtually deserted. I was told that during the weekends, the place is filled to the maximum. If the tables numbers are an indication of how many tables available, we sat at table #428! We ordered a steamed fish, vegetables, crabs, prawn & of course the Tom Yam Khung. The food arrived in 10mins and in healthy servings. Everything was so fresh & delicious. It was a great meal and the bill came to about US$45 for everything. If only my stomach had more room for more bbq-ed prawns!

Long-tailed boat ride

Bangkok is famous for the Chao Phraya river that meanders in and out of the city area. Many canals continue to be used for transport to this day. We decided that we should take a boat ride on these canals & see it for ourselves. Mr Udon took us to a pier that was next to the Rama 8 bridge to board the long-tailed boat. The price was 1500Bht for the whole boat for 1hr. The route took us on the main Chao Phraya river, into smaller canals where many Thai people continue to live their lives next to the rivers. We saw many houses built on stilts next to the canals.


There was an area where our daughter could feed some catfish too. The boatman stopped here for about 15mins and we bought bread to feed the fish. There are so many of them, well fed too I might add. The water in the smaller canals were calm whereas on the main river, it was a bit choppy. It was a good experience to see a different part of Bangkok that is rarely thought of when visiting a cosmopolitan city like Bangkok.

Siam Ocean World

Another activity we did was to visit the Siam Ocean World aquarium. It's located at Siam Paragon shopping center basement. The entry fee was 750Bht/adult but I can't remember how much was for kids. Anyway, they were giving away freebies like free drinks, glass-bottomed boat ride & merchandise for every ticket bought. The aquarium is pretty impressive with many different types of fish. The feeding sessions are a highlight, especially the shark feeding, giant grouper feeding and arapaima feeding times. The staff there are helpful in explaining the fishes' diet & habitat but their English is not that great. There is also a touch pool where starfishes, hermit crabs & other sea life are placed so that you can have a feel of them. A padded playground with obstacle course, slides, ball pit & play area is available just after the penguin exhibit. Too bad there is no place where kids can feed some fish.

Bangkok Again!

We decided to go to Bangkok again because we needed our fix of good food, shopping & massages! This time we arrived at the new Suvarnabhumi airport. This airport is big & there's a lot of walking to be done before you reach Immigration. Luckily for us, we asked an officer if we could go to a counter with a shorter queue. He was kind enough to direct us to one that was free. We got our usual cab driver, Mr Udon to pick us up at the airport. The drive to our hotel, Amari Watergate took about 40mins in usual traffic conditions. We chose Amari Watergate because I had a special deal on the rooms as well as we're familiar with the area.

Driving in Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne & got our rental car from the airport. We are staying with a friend in Geelong for a few days. The drive to Geelong takes about 1hr from the airport. The highway/freeway signs are pretty clear, just follow the signs to Geelong(most likely via the Princes Freeway). Speed limits are 100km/h but almost everyone goes slightly faster than that. Becareful if you decide to go above the limit as you never know where there might be a camera/device to record if you're speeding.

Mt Wellington

Overshadowing the city of Hobart is the towering Mt Wellington. It's an easy 20min drive from the city all the way up to the summit. The roads are a bit winding but manageable. This time, we could drive all the way to the summit because we were told that if it snows, the roads will be closed 3/4 way up the summit. It's very windy up there so remember to pack a jacket. There's an observation deck with information of places as look out to the horizon. There are many trails that lead to the top of Mt Wellington but these are all for seasoned hikers and trekkers.

Horseshoe Falls

Unique in every way.

Russell Falls

Wall-to-wall waterfall. That's amazing!

Waterfalls at the East of Tasmania

Tasmania is famous for its many beautiful waterfalls. On the eastern part of Tasmania alone, there were so many to choose from. We drove around to several of these waterfalls and were amazed at their beauty. We went to St. Columba Falls, Ralphs Falls, O'Gradys Falls, Russell Falls and Horseshoe Falls. In my opinion, Russell and Horseshoe Falls are a must see. You would be amazed at the sheer size of Russell Falls and marvel at the uniqueness of Horseshoe Falls. You'll need to walk quite a fair bit on trails to reach the waterfalls but the walk is worth it. Most trails are well-marked and even stroller-friendly. There are so many more waterfalls that we couldn't see because of time constraints.