Joel | Joel's World Travel Blog

Photogenic Chinatown

February 2, 2013 Joel

Decided to head for Chinatown for a bit of a revisit around one of my favorite, most interesting and colorful places to photograph. It is a very cool part of town full of old colonial-style buildings from the early 20th century that have hints of high water to them with very high curbs and sidewalks that run indented from the street protected under the second floor of the buildings. It is a very photogenic area that I can spend hours snooping around. It could be claimed to be a touristy part of town, but if it is, 99.9% of those tourists are Chinese, anyway, so it doesn’t feel all that touristy to me. Chinatown was getting all spruced up for the upcoming Chinese New Year with lots of hanging lanterns and special items for sale in the markets. Some shops also had ungodly long lines of Chinese consumers waiting their turn to purchase special pork dishes for the occasion.

Some of my work colleagues who travel to southeast Asia regularly can be quick to dismiss Singapore for its lack of grittiness compared to places like Kuala Lumpur, but it does have quite a few things going for it. Singapore is one of the safest places to visit that I can think of, which is great for pulling out expensive cameras and lenses. We have had female Singaporean students tell us how they feel perfectly safe catching subways home at 2am all by themselves here. Singapore is also very friendly to and used to tourists (in most cases). Nobody really seems to mind you shooting pictures on their streets or in their markets. One Buddhist temple usher even came out to insist I come inside to photograph the service they had running. There is also bare minimal targeting/harassing of tourists for sales gimmicks, unlike a lot of other Asian countries.

Singapore is also known for its great food. I’ve managed to already have 2 great Korean feeds and one nice Japanese feed at various markets and hawker huts. Singapore is mostly Chinese, but there are also substantial populations of Indians, Indonesians, Malaysians, and many other cultures (including a fair few expat Westerners) giving it a nice multicultural flavor. There are quite a few trendy bars and cafes these days. I even managed to find a hip little coffee place upstairs in Chinatown called “Group Therapy” this morning that even knew how to make a proper flat white (which I haven’t been able to find anywhere else in Singapore).

Singapore is a small place. A city-state that actually has a national park service (including one with wild monkeys), a wide range of sporting activities and facilities, and a proud tradition of volunteerism and community involvement – but probably a bit too much emphasis on shopping. There are endless shopping centers everywhere and there seems to be no lack of interest in them by Singaporeans because they always seem packed.

The subways are great and probably among the best in the world. I believe there are a few new lines here since the last time I visited. They are very clean, very safe, very frequent, run all over the island, and very easy to navigate with high-tech signage onboard that shows you your precise location relative to the rest of the rail network (an idea that they stole from Hong Kong’s subway, I think).

Singapore

Meanwhile, back in the tropics…

February 1, 2013February 2, 2013 Joel

Arrived in Singapore bright and early Friday morning after catching a 2am flight out of Perth. Thought I would catch the train to my hotel, only to realize half way there that I should have probably just taken a cab. Negotiating the subway transfers with full travel luggage during rush hour in busy Singapore was probably a bit much. Fortunately the hotel, across from nice little district of colonial-style architecture shops, agreed to take my baggage straight away even though I wasn’t supposed to be checking in to my room until 3pm.

I used to travel to Singapore about 3 times a year a decade ago for business, but I have not been back in years. Traipsing through my old haunts in my very jet-lagged state, I snooped around the Bugis and Orchard Road shopping districts trying to stay awake. Fortunately, I checked back with the hotel by noon and they had a room available for me. I went straight to bed for a 3 hour nap and then headed out for dinner in the evening. Probably the nicest hotel I’ve stayed in on my own dime.

Looks like Singapore is getting ramped up for the next two big events: Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. There were large piles of fireworks for sale in many of the Chinese markets which I don’t think airlines would want me leaving the country with. Valentines Day would normally not be worth mentioning except for the fact that they had installed big over-the-top purple light displays for it up and down walkways along Orchard Road.

A Final Bit of Body Surfing at Lucky Bay

January 28, 2013January 30, 2013 Joel

For my final day of driving in Australia, before I hop on the plane for the rest of my adventures, I decided to continue driving down the 4wd Balladonia Track towards Esperance for a quick visit to Cape Le Grande National Park and my favorite beaches in Australia. I wasn’t expecting the 4wd track to continue for as long as it did, but it was quite an exciting drive and passed through one of the largest forests of its kind in the world. I never saw a soul along the way, but I did come to one very old homestead built in 1890 with hearth out front that was being lovingly restored and pretty cool to check out.

While the Balladonia Track was a more direct way to Esperance from where I had camped, it certainly was much slower going for a while. As I continued down the track the road continually improved and even became sealed/paved well before I intersected with Fisheries Road just outside of Esperance. I eventually made it down to Lucky Bay, where you will find the whitest sand in all of Australia, and partook of a bit of body surfing. I think Lucky Bay also has some of the best body surfing in Australia as well. Afterwards I decided to try out a new exit from the park, driving the 22kms up Cape Le Grande Beach next door. I got advice from a park ranger who warned me what to look out for, but the trip was successful and I made it to the end without any problems. I did witness someone in a 2 wheel drive low rider car with a girlfriend who appeared as though may have not made the best choice in trying to drive on the beach (which normally has pretty hard sand), but he did have other people fishing nearby to help him out if he needed it. Not sure I would do the drive again because you never get to really appreciate the gorgeous beach you’re driving on when you are constantly obsessed with soft sandy bits that might bog your car.

Balladonia 4wd Track to Home

Afterwards I popped into Esperance for a coffee and a rejig, and then hopped on the long road straight back to Perth. When I got to Raventhorpe I met up with a big police sting operation tracking car speeds and breathalyzing drivers. I was quick to point out that in the eastern states we were no longer required to blow in a straw – only count to ten – which probably came across as being a bit cheeky. Usually one of my favorite drives back to Perth, it did seem a little dried out and less beautiful than usual.

When I finally got to the outskirts of Perth, I met up with a few friends who were out on a mountain biking adventure over the weekend for some dinner in Armadale. Took the opportunity to scrub down my car while I was there.

Australia, South Australia, Western Australia

The Big Crossing

January 27, 2013January 31, 2013 Joel

Sometimes I think the Nullarbor, as much as people complain about crossing it, is one of the last undiscovered frontiers of Australia. There seem to be endless roads shooting off north and south of the Erye Highway to interesting places. There are spectacular cliffs along the southern edge of the continent and huge caves underneath. There are a number of bird and whale watching sanctuaries along the way as well. Other roads in the area lead to historical paths that once carried many more people. I found the road to Cook and followed it up to the Old Erye Highway, which runs parallel to the current Eyre Highway but chose not to follow it due to its roughness and remoteness.

Once you cross out of South Australia and into Western Australia, you find yourself descending down off of the plateau you’ve been driving on top of so you continue your journey along the coastal flats that are rimmed by cliffs to the north. Eventually you drive back up to the top of the plateau again to see spectacular views out across the coastal plane. Soon afterwards you reach the ninety mile straight, which is just what it sounds like – ninety straight miles of perfectly straight road. Not my favorite part of the drive, I must admit, because it can be quite trance inducing.

During the drive in Western Australia you come across a few signs about a mysterious timezone known as Central Western Time that nobody seems to recognize. The last time I drove across the Nullarbor I dismissed it as some relic from another era, but this time, as I crossed into W.A, I had my GPS watch contact the satellites to adjust it to Perth time. Lo’ and behold, the GPS system actually recognized that Central Western Time as legitimate and adjusted my watch accordingly! It is an odd time, 45 minutes earlier than Perth. When I drove past the signs and had my watch connect with the satellites again, it changed the time again to Perth time. Very odd since this time doesn’t seem to be recognized by anyone else. Most organizations just recognize one timezone for Western Australia. On the train there was “train time”, but that was an hour off from Perth time.

Nullarbor Crossing

By the time I got to Balladonia Roadhouse I knew it was time for me to get off the highway for a night’s rest. Some friends had recommended traveling south down a 4wd track across the street, so I hopped on it and starting looking for possible campsites far enough south of the Eyre Highway to not be within earshot. I did manage to find quite a few places, but chose a nice quiet one to settle in for a night of bush camping.

Australia, South Australia

Australia Day

January 26, 2013January 30, 2013 Joel

Australia Day, and what a better way to celebrate it than hitting the Nullarbor. That was always my plan, anyway. I figured it would probably be a bit quieter over a holiday weekend, but as I drove up north from Adelaide to Port Augusta, the traffic sure looked heavier to me. Perhaps it wasn’t an original idea? Fortunately, by the time I got turned in the right direction and out on the start of the Eyre Highway, the crowds seemed to completely dissipate. I think I only passed about three cars and had three others pass me over the entire day, which did seem awfully light.

It is a little frustrating driving from either Adelaide or Alice Springs to Perth because the road networks force you to drive for hundreds of kilometers/miles in the wrong direction before you can get on the main southern highway and drive in the right direction. Occasionally you see a 4wd track that looks like it might be a little more direct, but you never know how rough it might be. In the case of driving from Adelaide to Perth you have this obstacle called the ocean sitting in the way. There is a ferry crossing that can help you make the journey more direct, but it is very expensive and only crossed once a day.

Adelaide to Point Sinclair

So after driving a few hours northeast from Adelaide, even though Perth is dead west, I stopped by the last major town for a coffee before heading westward. The whole town of Port Augusta seemed boarded up on Australia day, but I did manage to find a bakery open with mediocre coffee and, oddly enough, a hair stylist open a few doors down. I’d been looking for a place to get a cheap buzz-cut for weeks now since I had not been able to shear myself while on the road. Lo’ and behold the hair stylist had a sign in the window “Haircuts $10, enquire within”. That’s about half the cheapest price I found anywhere else. Turns out they had a apprentice who would cut hair and then get it reviewed by her supervisor. Worked for me! Can’t go too wrong with a buzz-cut, so I finally had my trim.

After a long day of driving through forests that were getting shorter and shorter, I started looking for a place to camp that was not along the highway. Most camping along the Nullarbor is a bit too close to the highway for my liking. With roadtrains barreling down the highway with 3-4 trailers in tow, you would think a plane was about to land on your tent from all the noise they generate. Fortunately, I pulled out my trusty camping book and found a recommended site about a 1/2 hours drive south of the highway and next to an amazing beach with huge surf (and a fair few surfer) surrounded by monster sand dunes and saltwater lakes. It was called Point Sinclair and it was really special place I would have liked to have spent more time in, but couldn’t. The swimming was a bit disappointing to to all the sharp and holy limestone rock just under the shallows of the ocean, but I did manage to find a spot for a few dunks, anyway. The place was run by some old aging surfer/hippie who seemed to take great pride in making the place a comfortable and clean as he could.

Australia, South Australia, Victoria

Most embarrassing moments (so far)

January 25, 2013 Joel

1) Towards the very end of the Perth to Adelaide Indian Pacific trip, at 4am, I was sitting in my seat awake and wondering where we were. I decided to pull up a GPS app on my iPhone that I hadn’t used for a while. Unfortunately, the last time I had used it to guide me out of a confusing neighborhood in Perth I switched it off instead of actually canceling the navigation – so when it started up and found my location, it immediately started blurting out turn-by-turn directions to everyone in my train car still trying to sleep. Fortunately, many people laughed, but it still took me a while to finally shut it off.

2) When I was forced to sleep at the roadside rest stop in Victoria on my way to Wilsons Promontory there were already about a dozen camper-vans and caravans settling in for the night. I had to get the stuff in my car reorganized to make room for myself to lie down. In order to make room, I had to stuff a bunch of things on the drivers seat of my car. As soon as I shut the door some things fell over and pressed against my car horn which blared until I could remove them – waking anyone up who had fallen asleep.

Australia, South Australia, Victoria

Return to Adelaide

January 24, 2013January 31, 2013 Joel

On my last real day of sightseeing before heading out onto the Nullarbor for the three day nonstop drive back to Perth, I decided to check out a few parts of southern South Australia on my way to Adelaide from The Grampians. The regions I have been traveling through in Victoria and South Australia seem very similar to Perth, so things look quite familiar to me: lots of wheat fields that are a bit dried out and hot this time of year. There are some refreshing differences, however, in the architecture. Both Victoria and South Australia have done a very good job of preserving their heritage buildings and keeping their small country towns bustling. Western Australia seems quick to destroy old buildings in favor of building new ones which is unfortunate. Many country towns in Western Australia also seem about half closed for some reason.

The first place I headed to, at the recommendation of some friends who had the change to explore the area when they lived in Adelaide, was a coastal town called Robe. Robe had beautiful turquoise waters and a well preserved historic main street. After spending about 4 hours in the car to get there, I had to test the waters and have a swim for a little while.

Of all the places I’ve swum over the past week, including Wilsons Promontory, Robe, and Apollo Bay, the water has been refreshingly cool but definitely tolerable – except for Apollo Bay on The Great Ocean Road, which was so cold I thought I was going to start losing some limbs!

After Robe I took the coastal road straight up along Coorong National Park to McClaren Vale in South Australia’s famous wine growing region where I took a quick spin around some vineyards and stopped in long enough for a cup of coffee (as one does while they’re driving). Afterwards I also made a quick visit to a German themed town named Hahndorf before finishing my drive up into Adelaide.

Australia, Victoria

Great Ocean Road to The Grampians

January 24, 2013January 31, 2013 Joel

The Great Ocean Road drive along the coast was very beautiful and had some beautiful rock formations to see along the way including Victoria’s 12 Apostles (less, actually. One or two just collapsed a few years ago) and the London Bridge natural bridge. It is a road that hugs the southern coast, sort of like California’s Big Sur drive but with a lot more development including several nice little beachside communities full of cafes and shops. Had a very cold swim at Apollo Bay along the way.

Afterwards I headed up into The Grampians mountain range where I camped for the night. It’s always pretty amazing to drive up to a mountain range from the flats. A beautiful area that reminded me of Western Australia’s Stirling Ranges when I drove up to it through the surrounding flat wheatbelt countryside. Oddly, while returning to my 4wd campsite about 20 minutes before sunset, I came across my first wild deer running around when I’m usually used to just seeing kangaroos! Must have escaped from a local deer farm.

Australia, Victoria

Zoo Camping

January 22, 2013January 31, 2013 Joel

One of the last major places to visit on my list was at the very southern tip of the state of Victoria: Wilsons Promontory National Park. It has been highly recommended by many people I know. When I tried to make reservations for camping there on the phone they wanted to know whether I was a resident of the state or not. It seems all Victorian residents need to reserve spots in advance and all others must arrive in person to see whether any sites are available. It is a little nerve wracking to have to drive for a long distance just to see if there is space or not. Fortunately for me there was, but I can’t say I was too impressed with the campground.

The camping fee was $30, which is a bit steep for a national park. They do have hot showers and clean facilities, but I’m happier to pay less and get less. Perhaps they are catering to the wrong crowd – one that seems more interested in recreation than conservation. They seemed to have two separate campsites available, one for Victorians and the other for interstate and international tourists. They had some 375 odd campsites available for multiple people in each spot, resulting in probably over 1000 people there, and they all seemed to be full by the end of the day. The place was a real zoo with children whizzing around on bikes everywhere and most families focusing on spending the day on the local beach. I can’t say I was too impressed. The place looked like a tent slum and the mostly European people staying there didn’t seem to respect each others limited personal space – instead they wouldn’t think twice about just cutting through your site between your car and tent to get to their friends a few blocks over. Interestingly, the campsite originated as an army training ground in WWII and the street names have stayed the same ever since (1st Ave on up).

As for the rest of Wilsons Promontory, it was The quite beautiful, but not anything I haven’t seen or experienced in Western Australia in either Esperance or Fitzgerald River National Park. It would probably have been a more valuable experience there if I had the time to actually do some overnight hiking to more remote areas of the park or possibly do some sea kayaking around the place. Some beaches looked much friendlier to land on that others. I did manage to get a few short hikes in. One followed the coast south of the camp to visit a few more beaches without the hoards of people. The other hike was up to the very top of the highest point for a view down below on the entire National Park.

After my morning peak hike, I had to get on the road to loop around Port Phillip Bay through Melbourne and down to the Great Ocean Road for my coastal journey back through Adelaide and on to Perth. It was interesting to drive through some of the old neighborhoods I used to visit when I lived there back in the early nineties. I got as far as Lorne before I decided to duck off the very busy coastal road and head up into the Otway National Park for some free camping.

It is one of the very busiest weeks for vacationers at the moment because most kids finish their summer vacations this weekend and are due back in school next week. It is funny to think that in just over a week all these places will largely be empty until Easter.

Australia, New South Wales, Victoria

My Disaster Day

January 21, 2013January 31, 2013 Joel

Well, after three great straight days I knew that at some point I would be back to encountering average days – but I was expecting to hit my worst day of the trip so far. Charged up from my previous day of mountain biking, my plan was to tackle another interesting sounding ride over a few hours in the morning and then get on the road to visit Wilsons Promontory by the end of the day. My park pass was scheduled to expire at noon, so I had an early pancake breakfast (which worked well the previous day) and got out to Perisher Valley to try out one of the mountain bike tracks they had listed in detail in a brochure. The trail wasn’t marked, but the turn-by-turn directions were written out in the brochure with a map.

Well, I headed off to pursue the route expecting to be back within a few hours. To make a long story short, I lost the trail about 2/3rds of the way into it and tried to follow some other hiking trails and other hints of civilization to get back. The terrain was extremely hilly and I wasn’t keen to back-track, which in hindsight would have been the best idea. Instead, I followed a hiking trail that brought me into a valley with a horse and a house. I thought both the horse and the house would have to be connected to a road or driveway that would get me back out to the main road I started on. Unfortunately, the trail dead-ended at the house which was really just an emergency shelter for lost cross country skiers in winter. The horse just seemed to be out there on its own, possibly wild – it was really out in the middle of nowhere. Other roads or trails I spotted couldn’t be found or were simply not really what I thought they were when I got to them.

I took stock of the situation by the time I reached the end of the hiking trail at the emergency shelter and knew that I had full phone coverage if I needed it, access to very clean river water that was probably suitable for drinking, my topographic GPS to guide me, and a stack of muesli bars to keep me fueled up. The route I was taking kept getting harder and harder but I never wanted to go back through the hard part I just came out of. The only ways back to the main road seemed to be by crossing over a sizable mountain or by navigation along a stream that led to the road.

The stream route required about 6kms of prickly bush wacking with many hidden holes lurking underneath to get my feet caught in. Meadows were far easier to travel through but were few and far between. I kept pursuing the route because I kept thinking I was seeing a hiking path or a road 100m away, but they were always false leads. Throughout the ordeal I had to carry my bike because the terrain was too rough to push it. I was also under constant attack by very aggressive March flies (horse flies) and was getting my legs cut open by the prickly bushes.

I always knew that I could have called for an emergency pickup, but I wasn’t prepared to give up until I really couldn’t hack it anymore. Such a call could have costed me a bundle and they may not have wanted to rescue my bike. It was extremely agonizing and ended up taking me a full 5 hours to finally get back to my car. I had hoped the road would be all downhill when I finally got there because it was closer to the biggest mountains, but instead it was mostly uphill. To add insult to injury, when I got back to my car I found a ticket on my windshield for being in the park after my pass had expired. I tried to argue it with the office, but they acted like I would have to fight it in court if I wasn’t happy about it.

Aftermath of trekking through 6kms of scratchy bush and hungry march flies

The best part of the ordeal, if there was one, was taking refuge underwater in a few great swimming holes along the was. Because the march flies would attack the most when I stopped, I had to constantly keep moving – which became very exhausting. The only place I could get away from them and get a relaxing break was by swimming in these crystal clear beautiful swimming holes.

Fed up with the experience afterwards, I had a replenishment burger in town and decided to see how far I could make it to Wilsons Promontory before nightfall. The road I took south was very beautiful as it dropped down into the lower valley part of the park and then up into Alpine National Park when I crossed the state line into Victoria – but was far more remote than I was expecting. There were few service stations along the way, and those that I came across were closed, so I very nearly ran out of fuel towards the end. There were also no campgrounds available without prior reservations once I left the parks.

Suddenly, after driving 100’s of kms, I finally came into a town with just a liter or two of fuel left and lots of open service stations and restaurants to save me. In the end I was forced to sleep in my car at a restop, however, because all the caravan parks had closed for the night. Sleeping inside my car actually turned out pretty well and much like I had thought it would before my trip when I was planning for it back in Perth. There were lots of others doing the same because it was listed in a campsite book everyone recommends. In order to pull it off I just had to reorganize things a bit in the back by stacking my tubs of gear on one side of the car so I had room to lie down next to them. I did manage to get a good night’s sleep in, which wasn’t too hard considering all the dramas I encountered earlier in the day.

Author: Joel