Tag: australia

Touring Asia & Australia at the Shanghai World Expo

May 30, 2010 • Blog • no comments

After visiting the various country pavillions in the European and American zones of the Shanghai World Expo, we focused our attention on the regions closer to home. Due to the shortage of time, we could only enter the Singapore pavillion as the queues to most of the Asian pavillions were rather formidable. However, I did manage to take some quick external shots of the various Asian pavillions which captured my interest.

Here’s a brief photographic journey of some of the pavillions which we saw.

Indonesia’s pavillion looked pretty impressive in terms of size, albeit a little like a typical conference building with the flags and pillars and all.

Snowy Sensations

October 12, 2007 • Blog • 8 comments

One of the reasons why we were so thickly dressed in Melbourne was because my son Ethan wanted to see snow. And see snow we did (well some snow since Spring plus global warming made quick work of alpine icicles). Waking up at the ungodly hour of about 4.45 am, we took a day trip to Mount Buller, a famous ski resort about 3 hours drive from Melbourne City and spent a day in a white winter wonderland. Having been to Hokkaido in December, I must add that Mount Buller isn’t in quite the same league. Nonetheless, it was great to see Ethan’s face light up as he pelted us with snowballs .

A view of the alpine “village” with ski resort hotels atop Mount Buller. As you can guess from the photo, it wasn’t as cold as we imagined it to be.

Cuddly Koalas, Sassy Seagulls and Perky Penguins

October 4, 2007 • Blog • 6 comments

One of the day trips which we took recently at Melbourne brought us to Philip Island, which is one of Australia’s most well known penguin lookout. En route to the nursing grounds of those cute tuxedo-ed birds, we stopped by a koala conservatory and had a glance at an island full of seals (supposedly). While the service standards of that particular trip wasn’t great, it did bring us to a few interesting spots – including Warrook Cattle Farm which my son loved.

A map of the Koala Conservatory which includes boardwalks to homes of the furries.

Farming Fun at Warrook

September 25, 2007 • Blog • 7 comments

Regular readers of this blog would probably know by now that my kid Ethan loves the rural life. This was why we had to make a farm stop during our recent Melbourne trip, at the widely acclaimed Warrook Cattle Farm. A charming 100 year old homestead located South East from Melbourne City, the rural attraction conducts regular tours for “city tortoises” like us. The sprawling estate boasted of many different farmyard residents and is a real life working farm yielding animal products like milk, meat and wool.

A metal crafted signboard at the cattle yards. Reminds me of Charlotte’s Web somehow.

Healsville Sanctuary – a Natural Respite

September 13, 2007 • Blog • 6 comments

One of our first stops recently en route to Melbourne was Healesville Sanctuary, an open concept reserve for Australia’s indigenous wildlife located just off the picturesque Yarra Valley area. While it wasn’t quite as fabulous as our own Singapore Zoo and the prices of the tickets were rather steep at A$23 per adult (good thing Ethan gets in free as he is under 4!), we still did enjoy ourselves somewhat. I suppose the weather (yeah I missed it!) helps tremendously plus of course those cute marsupial furries…

Part zoo and part wildlife conservation facility, Healesville Sanctuary is a sprawling reserve of native Australian marsupials, monotremes and others.

Off to Melbourne!

August 31, 2007 • • 13 comments

Am taking a break in the beautiful state of Melbourne in Australia for the next week or so with my wife and kid. Our itinerary is likely to have lots of koalas, kangaroos, wombats, penguins and all things child friendly. Have a great week all!