Tags
Australia, Bowral, Ethos Restaurant, Links House, New South Wales, Southern Highlands, travelling with friends, Vegan wine
A lovely overnight trip out of Canberra
Finally…we can travel…well domestically anyway. My friend and I decided to drive about two hours out of Canberra to a beautiful area of New South Wales called the Southern Highlands which is also considered a wine region. My lovely friend Sharon booked us a couple of rooms at Links House in Bowral. Bowral is the largest town in the Southern Highlands and is known for its antique shops, cafes, house & garden stores and expensive homes similar to other areas in the Southern Highlands.
We had a nice drive; I drove and we chatted about anything and everything and before we knew it, we had arrived at our hotel. Links House has a lovely frontage. It was built in 1928 as a country guesthouse and still has all the charm of that era and style. 
We drove up the side lane and parked the car and walked into the hotel. We were greeted by the owner who offered us a small glass of locally made port. Sharon indulged but because I don’t like red wine I declined. We were shown our rooms which were lovely with a country style; heated, clean and most importantly; a comfortable bed!
We spent the next hour or so with a friend and his family in their beautiful home; an old schoolhouse – and so beautifully decorated. No photos unfortunately as didn’t think it appropriate to be snapping at the home of people I have only just met!!! Then Sharon, David and I went out to lunch at Centennial Vineyards, a local winery, located in the same suburb as our hotel (but more on that in an upcoming post).
That evening Sharon and I decided to eat at our hotel at Ethos restaurant as it was rather cold outside and we had a busy day driving/eating/chatting and meeting new friends. 
We met in the lounge area of our hotel which had a lovely fire and comfortable chairs.
source: courtesy of the internet
I arrived early to the lounge area so ordered a glass of wine. As most of you will know I am vegan (over two years now) but something you might not know is it’s only been the last two months that I have decided to only drink vegan wine. This means that any wine that has used egg white/fish or gelatine as a finishing agent (stops the clouding of the wine) I won’t drink.
source: courtesy of the internet
I asked whether there were any vegan wines available and was told there was only one which was a rosé. I am not a red wine or rosé drinker but the owner said this wine was very light and offered me a taste. I took a small sip and it certainly was very light so ordered a glass. By this time Sharon had arrived and after a few minutes we moved into the restaurant. I ordered a mushroom risotto which the chef made vegan and Sharon ordered the pumpkin soup with truffle oil and home made grain bread. Both very good dishes with lovely fresh local produce.
By this time we were feeling a little tired so moved back into the lounge area near the fire for a chat before heading off to our rooms where I promptly fell straight asleep.
The next morning, I woke up early to see the sun rising and hopped out of bed to take a walk around the local area to check out the expensive homes.
My walk took about an hour and whilst it was hard to see many of the homes from the street (I am definitely one of those people who loves to peer into other people’s homes!!), I could see driveways and parts of homes along from the footpath.
The gardens were beautifully maintained also and one even had little ducks walking along the grass; very country I must say.
Bowral has always been a place I would love to live but unfortunately now it’s way out of my price range…ah well it’s a lovely place to visit overnight or even for a few days.
We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at our hotel and then it was time to check out and head back to Canberra. On our way home we stopped at another country town called Mittagong to look at the shops – I love the stores selling all things fabulous like facial creams/soaps and candles – a little bit expensive but gorgeous. Sharon and I ended up buying a few things in one particular shop and I bought a present for my friends Ray and Nat who helped look after my dogs whilst I was away. I bought them a jigger – now I had no idea it was called this but you might, it’s the stainless steel measuring cup used to measure alcoholic spirits…so I learnt something (mindless) whilst away. 
We also went into a fabulous bread shop. I must say I love good bread but whilst I didn’t buy any bread I did buy an Indian vegan pie to take home which I have since eaten and it was very good; great pastry!
So as you can see we had a lovely time away and as it’s so close to Canberra it’s an easy place to visit regularly. I must return soon!
Whilst in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh earlier this year, my friend Tracey and I travelled to Siem Reap to take a look around and of course to see Angkor Wat and other temples. We stayed at a lovely hotel called J7 which is ideally placed in the centre of the city and a short Tuk Tuk ride to the bars and restaurants. Our whole trip was arranged by our friend Naomi who lives in Phnom Penh but unfortunately at the last minute she was unable to come along.
After checking into our rooms we took a Tuk Tuk to Pub Street which is very popular with backpackers with local bars serving very cheap beers. Not being a beer drinker, we decided to venture a little away to find other bars and restaurants.
We found great little paved/tiled alleyways off Pub Street that housed the lovely bars and restaurants we were looking for. We ate regularly at these alleyways and I always enjoyed the food. I always found the chef was willing to amend a particular dish to make it vegan so was never going to starve!
I enjoyed a great bowl of pasta at a gorgeous Italian restaurant, avocado and tomato on sourdough toast at a health cafe, delicious sandwiches and many other great meals. 
The next morning we were up before 5am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We were picked up by a driver and taken to the temple area where there were already hundreds and hundreds of visitors waiting to see the same thing as us but our guide managed to find us a great viewing point where we saw the magnificent colours of the sun rising over the temple. By this stage it was 5.30am and already thirty-five degrees!!
We walked through the temple and its grounds and both of us were even blessed by a local monk; for a small fee of course.
The next temple we visited was Angkor Thom…this is probably my favourite with its amazing intricate carved faces.
We decided after visiting Angkor Thom to take a break as both Tracey and I were so incredibly hot; the temperature had reached over forty degrees, so at 8am we drove back to our hotel.
Wow…what a find…it was sophisticated, dark and very glamorous! Deep red walls, silk lanterns hanging from the ceilings and dark wooden furniture. 
Even the bathroom was glamorous…
Miss Wong is named after a painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff of a beautiful Asian woman. I remember when we lived in Wales that my mum had bought the print and it was framed hanging in our lounge room. What a lovely memory for me to see it again.
This was not the only print in the bar, there were many; all different but in the 1930s Shanghai style. 
We ordered a glass of wine each and a few dishes including steamed shrimp har gow, dry fried mushroom pot stickers (dumplings to me) and vegetarian spring rolls (not a great photo I am afraid as it was dark and my mobile phone doesn’t take good photos without light).
During my visit to Phnom Penh earlier this year, my friend Tracey and I took a Tuk Tuk to the Royal Palace as it was our last day in the country and we wanted to take a look around. The palace opens at 8am but we arrived around 9am and even by this stage it was about forty degrees celsius; with humidity. Yuck!!
All visitors must conform to dress standards; shoulders and knees covered which meant a top with sleeves and a mid-length skirt or three quarter pants as long as your knees are covered.
We particularly wanted to see the Royal Stupas and The Silver Pagoda so checked out our trusty map to find both. From outside the walls of the Royal Palace, it looks like the palace compound and The Silver Pagoda are located in the same area, however they are two distinct compounds, separated by an alleyway and gates but your entry ticket gets you into both areas.
The Silver Pagoda (Wat Preah Keo) is a Buddhist temple and contains an emerald Buddha. It’s known as The Silver Pagoda because of the 5000 silver tiles that cover the floor. Unfortunately, these are hard to see, as the floor is covered up by carpet that protects the tiles from being damaged by foot traffic but there is a particular area that is off limits where you can see them – absolutely stunning!
The Royal Palace is still the royal residence for the King of Cambodia and while parts of the palace with its golden roofs are closed to the public others like the Throne Hall can be visited. Topped by a 59m-high tower that was inspired by the Bayon in Siem Reap’s Angkor Thom, the Throne Hall is used for coronations and other ceremonies.
I think we had walked around for about an hour and a half and at this stage I was sure the sun was burning further into my skin, so we decided to leave. We took a Tuk Tuk and returned to our friend Naomi’s home. It was then time to finish packing and take a car to the airport…a fabulous trip away!
I travelled by plane to Brisbane with a short stop-over in Sydney and took the two hour shuttle to Noosa. Initially my friends and I were going to meet at Brisbane Airport and hire two cars to drive to Noosa. But…my friends were unfortunately stuck in Canberra Airport for seven hours due to an issue with their plane. They didn’t arrive in Noosa until just after midnight so luckily there was a shuttle to drop me off right outside my accomodation!!
I decided to go for a walk to familiarise myself with the area and walked to the main shopping street which took about thirty-minutes. It was lovely how lush and green the vegetation was along the way. When I returned to the resort, my friend Mandy and her partner came over for a glass of wine before I retired to my room for an early night.
Early the next morning I did the same walk down to the beach and then met up with Mandy for breakfast at a cafe overlooking the beach called Bistro C. 
Lots of people out and about swimming or surfing or just relaxing like us enjoying breakfast.
It turned out that this was not the only time I was to eat at Bistro C. One of the girls who had arrived late from Canberra messaged me to say that a birthday lunch had been organised that day for Mandy and it was at Bistro C!!
I decided to take the shuttle bus back to the resort as I was a bit weary after my walks…and a couple of hours later, it was time to return to Bistro C for lunch. One of the girls and I chose the roasted beetroot, feta and legume salad with fig, spiced pumpkin, radish, pomegranate and pea hummus. I opted for no cheese and mayonnaise and it really was absolutely delicious. Coupled with a glass of champagne it was a great way to spend a couple of hours!!
Now I know there are many wonderful restaurants in Noosa but I had seen something else delicious on the menu. The next day I walked back into town and stopped off for lunch at Bistro C...the dish I wanted to try was the fried shiitake mushroom, water chestnut and spinach dumplings with Sichuan eggplant, sesame broccoli, snow peas, green onion and ginger broth. Unfortunately I was very disappointed with this dish. The dumplings tasted like they had been sitting around for a while and there was no Sichuan eggplant or ginger broth on the dish.
At the time of our visit the Noosa Food and Wine Festival was on so we had tickets for a four course dinner at Peppers Resort with a few guest Aussie chefs. Matt Moran whose restaurant is Aria overlooking Sydney Harbour and Matt Preston from Australian Masterchef were two I saw and had photos with. Nice to spend time with the girls but the vegan food was incredibly disappointing; so much I didn’t even stay for dessert!
Whilst visiting Sichuan Province our friend Peter took Jon and I to a famous alleyway called Kuanzhai Xiangzi which consists of a wide alley (Kuan Xiangzi) and a narrow alley (Zhai Xiangzi). There are actually three parallel ancient city alleyways and forty-five courtyards along them and I am sure most Sichuanese were out on the same day as us [it was a Sunday so it is lovely to see everyone out and about]. But boy oh boy; so many people!!
There was plenty to see along the way including lovely entry ways to courtyards and shops and beautiful large wooden doors with brass knockers…
And of course ‘interesting’ figures. But I feel this one made some sense [much more than others I have seen] as the province of Sichuan is known for its spicy chilli dishes and the figure was outside a shop grinding fresh chillies…
One thing that the alley has is plenty of food stores selling all sorts of wonderful hot and cold dishes to eat like beautifully displayed tofu with lots of chilli, sweet fried balls and bread along with cold rice and noodle dishes.
The history of the alley way is dated back to the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911 AD). At that time, the area was a city called Mancheng City or Shaocheng City where its residents were troops. As with most places left unrestored, the city decayed but in 2003 renovations began and the alley way opened in 2008. It has small restaurants/souvenir shops created to look like those from the Qing Dynasty and of course tea rooms selling delicious Chinese tea.
I really enjoyed seeing the local drinks and desserts as they are very different to what we enjoy here in Australia. Pretty drinks with what looked like hot ice coming out of the top of a very large plastic cup.
And all flavours and colours of ice cream (some more interesting than others), ice blocks, small rice cups, cups full of cream and fruit and of course watermelon.
We walked one length of the alley on the right hand side and then turned around and walked up the other way to make sure we saw all the shops…a lovely afternoon out even though most of Chengdu was with us!!
After a relaxing evening, early the next morning Jon and I were picked up by our tour guide and driver and taken to Jinyue Lake Forest National Park. The park covers an area of 200 square kilometres, with over 4.3 square kilometres water surface and 80 square kilometres planted forest. We told our guide we wanted to walk quite a distance within the park so our driver dropped us off at the main entrance. Firstly to see as much as we could and secondly to ensure we reached our 12,000+ steps for the day.
The park also had some cartoon character statues – no idea why they were there but I have come to enjoy seeing these statues in many places around China!! Pepa Pig and family were first to greet us followed by some other characters I didn’t know and then Mr Fox and Ms Rabbit…
Although after about four hours, we were a little tired and rather hungry so we cheated a little and had our driver pick us up from another entry/exit point to/from the park. A great day out to enjoy China’s surprisingly beautiful bright blue sky.
The next day we visited Museum of the Imperial Palace of Manchukuo. 
The palace was the official residence created by the Imperial Japanese Army for China’s last emperor of the Qing dynasty, Puyi. It was where Puyi lived as part of his role as Emperor of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. The Chinese refer to the museum as the Puppet Emperor’s Palace & Exhibition Hall and are not particularly complimentary about Puyi with his ‘defection’ to Japan.
HISTORY – [source: Wikepedia] In 1931, the Japanese took control of the Northeast of China, the area of modern-day Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, which were historically known as Manchuria. The Japanese created an officially independent state in Manchuria which they named Manchukuo which was in reality a puppet state of Japan. In an attempt to lend legitimacy to Manchukuo, the Japanese installed Puyi as Emperor of Manchukuo.
Finally, in 1945, the Second World War was brought to an end and the Japanese surrendered to China. At the same time, the Manchukuo ceased to exist and Puyi returned to the status of an ordinary citizen.
But back to the palace – it was designed as a miniature version of the Forbidden City in Beijing and is divided into an inner court and outer court. The outer or front court was used for administrative purposes and the inner or rear court as the royal residence. Both the front and rear court were maintained beautifully and the furniture was stunning. You can imagine an emperor living there…
The palace grounds cover an area of 43,000 square meters. We spent most of our time in the royal residence but also took a short stroll around the grounds.
But visiting all the fabulous places in China is definitely worth the effort and the Stone Forest was worth it. So what is the Stone Forest, well it’s a set of limestone formations located in an area about 500 km2 – we certainly did not walk this distance and after about two and a half hours of walking in the heat and pushing past/being pushed by hundreds of people we were well and truly over it but did get to see some beautiful formations.
When we first arrived, our tour guide walked us over a little bridge to enter the forest…I always love reflections of a bridge on the water!
I also love the reflections of the stones on the water…
And I am not sure if these men were sitting in their boat for us tourists to take photos; they were gone after about twenty minutes…but it was a great photo opportunity anyway.
During our walk, our guide who told us he had visited this site tens and tens of times was able to show us natural stones in the shapes of animals…this one is very easy to identify…
We also saw minority people along the way; some sewing, some singing and dancing as well as playing musical instruments while others were selling their wares which of course we bought.
Another place ticked off my ‘things to do in China’ list.
In September this year my friend Jon and I travelled from Sichuan Province to Yunnan Province by bullet train and intended traveling around the province for about seven days. Jon had never been to Yunnan so I wanted to show him around but decided not to re-visit places I had been to. We didn’t want to stay very long in the capital so I arranged a tour guide and driver to take us to Dongchuan Redland which is about a four hour drive northeast of Kunming and has an altitude of around 1800 – 2600 metres. 
When we reached Dongchuan we stopped many times at Luoxiagou [Falling Cloud Ditch] to take photos of the beautiful landscape. Luoxiagou is surrounded by mountains and is adorned with traditional local villages and colourful fields – absolutely stunning!
We arrived later in the afternoon which is said to be the best time for photography.
It was then time to drive to our hotel which was chosen by our tour guide. This meant I had no idea what was in store apart from our guide was told we wanted four or five star! But in China this could mean ‘China 4 star hard bed’ and not ‘Western 4 star comfy bed’…
We were the only guests at the hotel along with our driver and guide and the staff asked us to select our fresh vegetables and meat [for Jon] from a large selection in the kitchen. Of course eggplant was selected for me and a local meat and vegetable dish for Jon. I enjoyed a lovely pot of Chinese tea whilst Jon tasted the local beer. Then it was time for bed. My room was lovely with a nice ensuite…bed pretty comfy…yay!!
The next morning, we enjoyed a pot of tea in the dining room after which we departed for Dongchuan Redland. The Redland has high temperatures and abundant rainfall which makes the iron in the earth oxidised and together with different crops and unpredictable light it brings about fabulous coloured [and spectacular] scenery. 
Autumn in China (September to November) is a great time to visit and photograph the red fields or red earth. Whilst I could see the red earth, our guide told us that it was a little late in the season to see the bright red colour. He did say that the farmers turn over the fields for new crops including highland barley and wheat which add more colour to the landscape.
We stopped off at a lovely local restaurant for lunch. Great views from here also and there was a walkway really high up across part of the river; there was no way [ever] I was walking on it…Jon did!
Then it was time to drive four hours back to Kunming for an overnight stay before we departed for another road trip to see the Yuanyang Terraces but more on that later!
In 2008 I worked in Hong Kong and had a lovely boss who I have remained friends with albeit long distance. So prior to arriving in HK, I contacted my friend Evelyn who said she would pick up Naomi and I up from our hotel and take us to a monastery I had not been to. So off we went in her beautiful Mercedes Benz…what a car..she took us up to Tai Po District which is about a thirty-minute drive from HK Island.
Our elderly guide met us and we commenced our tour. As soon as you arrive at the monastery, the first thing you see is an outdoor bronze statue (Guanyin) which is seventy-six metres high and said to the second highest in the world. Guanyin is the six armed goddess of mercy and we were told has miraculous powers to assist all those who pray to her. 
So because of those miraculous powers, we joined other visitors and walked up to Guanyin to make a water offering in the Thousand Wishes Pond where each of us made a wish.
I do remember a few things though. One is that the monastery is a sanctuary for the purpose of spiritual purification. Secondly it is open to the public who can attend various activities where compassion and wisdom are the main themes. I think this would be a lovely thing to do.
Our dear guide was told we only had a short time but because he wanted to ensure we were told everything about the history, Evelyn had to remind him of our time restraints – but that didn’t matter he kept on talking. Very sweet man but boy could he talk!!
And the reason we had to leave is we were driving back to Kowloon [as this was our last evening in HK], to see the sun set from Ritz Carlton Ozone rooftop bar which is located in the International Commerce Centre, HK’s tallest building. We definitely didn’t want to miss that…but more on that in another post.
On a hot Saturday in Hong Kong, my friend Naomi and I took the free shuttle from our hotel to Central to meet another friend, Raegan who was coming in from Guangzhou on the train. We found a nice little bar to grab a drink and get out of the heat which allowed us all to catch up especially with Raegan as I had not seen her for some time.
We then decided to take a walk along Hollywood Road checking out some of the antiques (overpriced) and also some of the street art along the way.
Hong Kong has such lovely old streets and bars and we walked past one in particular with Chinese umbrellas hanging from the ceiling and waiters wearing traditional Chinese costumes.
I was able to get a good shot of one of the waiters taking his break…
We found a lovely little tapas restaurant for lunch where the food was really good. Lots of vegetarian options and both friends were happy to eat mostly vegetable dishes but I forgot to take photos. After a fabulous afternoon we went back to Central to the shops before Raegan had to take the MTR over to Kowloon for the train back to Guangzhou.
Some shiny and new…
Some very old…
And one particular building reminding me of the Flatiron building in New York.
I will always love the busy streets of Hong Kong; stores open until late with Chinese signs selling everything from household goods to fresh vegetables and meat and dried seafood.
And whilst not a building, there is also the Hong Kong Eye…smaller than some others and although we did not take a ride, I can imagine the views are spectacular.
Another great day in Hong Kong.