2012 Holiday To London-NYC-Niagara - Day Sixteen

Sleep in today. Decided to do the cruise from our City Pass. Discovered that it left at 11:30am about 100m from our apartment - cool. Next door was the USS Intrepid.

We arrived 30 mins before the departure time and only just manged to obtain an upper deck seat. Apparently there were 500 people on board. Great view of the skyline and expert commentary. Right at the commencement of the two hour cruise we were told not to stand anywhere except the bow and not sit on the silver boxes containing the life vests - so guess what the passengers did?

Statue of Liberty

Difficult to get a photo for the first hour but once we turned around on the East River almost no-one took photos and it was so much easier. Great day for it too.

Brooklyn Bridge

That afternoon we caught an M11 bus to Chelsea, 14th St 9th Ave, and visited the markets. Quite a few nice little shops set up in an old biscuit factory. Bought a brownie, a 2lb live lobster for US$36 that they cooked right there and then - very messy old probably not worth it. Lobsters were US$14.95/lb plus tax.

Lobsters from The Lobster Place in Chelsea Markets

Bought some fruit and veg and they tried to rip me off by pretending not to be able to count. I even told them the change I was expecting and the girl tried to tell me that's what she was telling me! The missus has had a lot of trouble with people adding tax and not giving her correct change - now it was my turn. Not happy.

Walked around Chelsea for a bit - some interesting buildings in the area. The Boy was feeling quite sick and didn't finish his dinner. Had some medicine later.

Weird Chelsea buildings

After the run-in with the desk clerk/porter the other night an interesting thing happened today. We passed him to go through the service entrance but as we entered the lift area he popped his head in and dropped some groceries off for one of the residents - didn't say a word to us.

Checked the Net for how to get to La Guardia airport - no subway connection. Have to get to 125th St and catch an M60 bus. The Website said it took about 40 mins from midtown and a little longer from the western side of the city.

Photo Album Vol I
Photo Album Vol II
Photo Album Vol III
Photo Album Vol IV (Final)

Melbourne-Tassie Holiday 2011 - Day 14

Early start to the day as the cruise on the Gordon River started at 8:30 am and we had to be ready before then. Brekky and check out to take care of before finding parking all day for $2.

Boarded the Lady Jane Franklin II amongst the 89 passengers and we had a seat in the middle of the lower deck. But we were free to wander around on all decks. The captain, Rob, took us through Hell's Gates, at the entrance to Macquarie Harbour, and the entrance was only 65ft wide. Our ship was 9.5m wide, a smidgen over 31ft, so there wasn't much room for error. Met up with the Davies couple, from yesterdays train ride, and said hello.

The cruise through Macquarie Harbour, at a cracking pace, took us past some salmon/trout farms. With no natural predators the fish do quite well. As we approached the Gordon River the pace slowed considerably. This was to protect the river bank.

I wondered about the lack of birdlife on the river and it turns out that the river is too deep for normal waterbirds near the bank. All of the big Huon pines have been harvested from the area by convict labour in the 1820s and 30s, and by the piners in later years, so there wasn't a lot of big trees to see.

We stopped at Heritage Landing and The Boy was given the job of counting chimneys created by burrowing crayfish, of which we didn't spot one (probably because they are nocturnal). He reached 1,031 in the 30 minutes that we were there.

The ship turned around and lunch was served. Luckily I noticed that the pasta had pesto as The Boy had quite a bit on his plate and with his allergy that could have been very serious. New plate required. Lots of tasty salmon to eat.

Cruised back to Sarah Island which was settled by convicts in 1822. A total of 131 ships were built in 12 years (96 in the five years that Captain David Hoy was in charge). We were given a tour by Jane Flanagan, from The Round Earth Company, and that was very informative. After the play last night I wanted her to be our guide.

Once back on dry land I did some searching for decent souvenirs and went to the sawmill. There is a huge fine for cutting down the protected Huon pines so only driftwood, which doesn't rot, can be used. Therefore the wood is quite expensive. Bought a mixing bowl and spoon for the missus.

Back in the car and The Boy remembered where the road to Zeehan was. Some dumb woman stopped in front of us, in the middle of the road halfway down the highway, with no indication, just so that she could take a photo. And it was in a spot where overtaking was not allowed! Some people should just not be allowed to drive vehicles. Full stop.

Much to my disgust, and against of the guarantees I had been given, it wasn't raining when we reached Zeehan. Strahan has only 40 days a year when it doesn't rain and we enjoyed two of them consecutively. I planned to visit Montezuma Falls nearby but with a three hour return journey on foot I thought "bugger that".

Drove into Cradle Mt - Lake St Clair National Park and had another person stop in front of me in a no overtaking zone - on a bloody steep hill this time! Stupid tourists should be barred entry into Tasmania. It would seem that idiot drivers flock to Tassie.

Cradle Mountain itself was experiencing clear skies and great views. Called into the YHA to book a room and they upgraded us to a 4-bunk room at no extra charge. In fact, we had the 6-room bungalow to ourselves. Bought some very expensive groceries also.

Across the road to the Visitor Centre to buy a Parks Pass but as it was already ten past five they had shut for the day. Was fortunate enough to see an employee and asked about the pass and she showed me the after hours pass, of which there were only two left to buy, and told me how to fill it in. I put $24.75 in coins into the envelope only to discover that I couldn't put it into the box.

Drove into the park which has some 40 one lane sections until you reach Dove Lake near the mountain. Had to fill in a booklet detailing our planned walk - to Dove Lake boat shed and Glacier Rock at Dove Lake. Certainly came in a bit colder and the clouds finally came in. Beautiful walk and fantastic scenery. A terrific place to visit.

The drive back to our accommodation was about 18 minutes without traffic so we certainly picked a good time to visit. Tea time and then off to our room. The tiniest bit of rain fell at 8pm.

Family shot at Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake

Melbourne-Tassie Trip 2011 Photo Album No.3 - See photos 41-104.

Melbourne-Tassie Holiday 2011 Day 9

After going to bed at 11 last night we had to be up by 8 o'clock for breakfast. I'd ordered a continental breakfast for 8:20am but then I went to check on it, as we had to leave at 9am for a 9:15 tour, and it hadn't been made but was soon delivered. Had to cook the toast myself though (unlike yesterday's breakfast).

Arrived at Tasman Island Adventure Cruises on time and were issued with gore-tex suits to keep out the wet and cold. A coach picked us up and we were driven to the boats at Eaglehawk Bay. Our pilot, Mike, and deckhand, Damo (former pearl diver in the Kimberley), were hilarious and very knowledgable. Saw a great deal of the coastline and entered caves and passages. During the, at times, freezing and wet conditions, we spotted albatrosses, dusky dolphins (NZ), petrels and humpback whales. The tour was fantastic and turned around at Tasman Island which was adjacent to the 1,000 ft cliffs of the mainland. There were an enormous amount of shearwaters about and they looked like mosquitoes on the horizon.

Gosh, that whale was difficult to spot and once we decided to search for it on the way back and had taken off, and Damo commented that this would be the time that it would be spotted, we spotted it. In fact, it came up very close to the boat. Damo had smelt the whale beforehand, and told us so, and coupled with the oil on the surface, he knew where to look. On the way back we were swooped by three or four giant petrels which was very unusual.

The Boy sat in the forwardmost adventurer's seat for the whole trip. It was, apparently, the wettest tour day they'd had. And was he glad to get back to the hotel for a hot shower or what? We watched a bit of the Bathurst 1000 before heading to the cafe for hot chocolates and to give The Boy a chance to go on the (free) computer for a while. At 4pm we headed back to the Port Arthur Historic Site for another look including the audio tour. Had just missed the harbour cruise and so took the last walking tour of the day with tour guide Mark. It started raining fairly soon afterwards. Half an hour later we were left to our own devices and spent another 60 mins doing the audio tour. A fabulous and well recommende tour - you need to do all three - ghost tour, walking tour and audio tour.

Watched Shrek 2 that night.

Melbourne-Tassie Holiday 2011 Photo Album No.2 - Photos 61-106.

Christmas Party 2009 - Trip to Rottnest Island

We had our usual Christmas party last Friday which included a cruise to Rottnest Island. There was some confusion as to where the meeting point should be, as it was different this year, because the map that everyone was provided with included an erroneous address. Luckily, and I think I was the only one, I looked at the map and went to the meeting point instead of the address given. That was lucky. One person missed the trip altogether because of this and we had to wait for a few others to make it.

The trip to Rottnest took about 40 mins and was reasonably smooth. Once we'd arrived it was time for the sunscreen and don the snorkelling gear. The temperature was supposed to climb to 37C in Perth but only reached 34.5C although it was a little cooler on Rotto. A number of people went snorkelling at the nearby reef. I saw a groper that was about two and a half feet long and on the way back to the boat two fish that were some four feet long swam in front of me. That sent a shiver up my spine as I've never seen fish that large before.

The water was about three metres deep but boy was it cold when you first got in. After a couple of minutes you forgot about the cold. One of my colleagues lent me a set of fins and I found it amazing how much faster I could swim. Mind you, the calf muscles didn't enjoy the additional strain.

The menu for lunch included steak, sausages and some chicken with salads as side dishes. Nice to have a BBQ in summer on the back of a boat. Then we took the inflatable to the mainland so that the annual beach cricket could take place. There were some very funny moments where people went to take catches and ended up falling over into the water. Just wish I'd gotten that on camera.

The trip back to Fremantle is usually eventful and it was no different this day. Normally somebody throws up but that wasn't the case. One lady decided that she would dance her way to the toilet. Then the boat lurched to one side. If she had been half a metre closer to the toilets she would have been over the side. No kidding. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she crashed into the seating and already had a huge, nasty bruise by the time we landed some 15-20 minutes later. She was lucky.

Christmas Party '09 on Rottnest Photo Album on Facebook.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 11 - October 14th 2008

Last morning overseas today. Chinatown was our destination before returning home. Quite warm. Quite a bit to see too. One or two shop owners in Chinatown got upset when asked for a discount. One Indian man told us that the price was S$6 for one item but that we shouldn't pay attention to that as he would discount it. It was only S$3 a few doors down and it was quite difficult to tell the shops apart once you'd finally made up your mind what you wanted to buy.

Singapore - old meets new.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Inside Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Another shot inside Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Chinatown markets.

The Boy got a seat on the MRT. Premium item this.


I bumped into the t-shirt seller from Bugis Junction market who recognised me from a few days ago. Miky found a Chinese antique dealer just outside of the markets and haggled seriously with him for a jewelry box. He discounted below his normal price because it was our last day of shopping and looked in great pain to sell. Further down South Bridge Road we came across the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. [Editor's note - I had to search through my credit card statement to find the jewelry shop name, locate the street, use Google Maps to find the temple so that I could work out what the name was.]

We headed over to Food Republic (where else?) for lunch, and I had delicious Thai food - pad thai, after I called my friend Vanessa who couldn't make it. It was a bit much expecting her to be able to meet us at such short notice.

We decided to buy some luggage and Miky boasted about how well her bag had served her for 10 years. As a freebie we received a pearl for purchasing the bags. Back at the hotel we repacked our luggage and the concierge said that he would dispose of our old bag. They were so helpful at the Concorde.

I got in a little bit of trouble at the airport when my bag was x-rayed and I was told that there was a bottle of water inside. Well, I knew damn well that there wasn't and said so. After looking through my bag the lady official didn't find it and so she rechecked. Right down the bottom at the back was a bottle of water, and a magazine, that had been weighing me down the whole time we'd been walking around Singapore. I rather sheepishly apologised but it was an honest mistake. I had no idea that the bottle was there or had any intention of smuggling it onto the plane.

On the flight we were split up again and I said that I'd swap seats with Miky to play games against Yu-Jin. Following the meal I went to change seats and when I told her that I was sitting next to a fat, smelly older bloke for some strange reason she was happy in her seat and refused to change. Dammit. Watched Indiana Jones and read The Financial Times. The plane, being code-shared between Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, was pretty well packed and the cabin crew offered great service. As we came into land one of the overhead compartments opened, which is something you don't see too often, and it was a bit shaky. We didn't have any problems with immigration/customs bringing in our wooden jewelry box, coral collected in Thailand and chocolate.

Weight gain for the holiday was 1.5kg. Once we returned home Miky's old luggage pretty much disintegrated. Perfect timing.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 10 - October 13th 2008

A friend from uni, Asher, dropped in to see me at the hotel around breakfast time. It was great to see him but he was only able to hang around for 30 mins or so because he was supposed to be working. No rest for the wicked in Singapore. He mentioned that Arab Street was good for fabrics. Our plan was also to visit Little India.

Wet in these parts.

"Hairy" tree.

Singapore tropical downpour.


By the time we arrived in the vicinity there was a tropical downpour. I thought that it might pass relatively soon so we waited a few minutes before deciding to buy an umbrella. We wandered around Little India for some time and the goods throughout certainly weren't cheap. So much was on sale in the markets but it was cheaper when Miky went alone.

Little India - Deepavali Festival time.

Stop your umbrella wetting the floor. These Singaporeans are so consciencious.

Buildings in Little India.

Marketplace in Little India.

Madras Street in Little India.

Rundown buildings in Little India.

Masjid Abdul Gafoor (Temple).

Rochor Centre apartments. Something groovy in Singapore.


We happened across a China shop and bought some dishes. I asked the lady if there were any fabric shops on Arab Street and she said, "No fabric on Arab Street." Undetered we ventured on and one block away found quite a few fabric shops. Miky bought some nice silk.

Sultan Mosque.

Ali Baba fabric shop.

Aladdin's fabric shop.


Journeyed to Food Republic at Wisma Atria again. Lovely food once again. This time I ate some India food. Lunch was at 3:30pm - too busy shopping to eat. Miky kept shopping whilst Yu-Jin and I returned to the hotel to shower before having a dip in the pool.

Taxi driver pranged a Mercedes. That's gonna hurt.

Singlish sign that made me laugh.


Rang an ex-pat friend's sister and she invited us out later to Newton Circus if we weren't too late from the Night Safari that we planned to take later in the evening. We caught a shuttle bus out the back of the hotel and they offered us a $1 discount to the Night Safari if we purchaed the ticket from them. I didn't have enough cash to buy the ticket but he ended up not charging me for Yu-Jin's bus ticket so we saved the $2 anyway.

We should have caught the earlier bus as we just missed out on viewing The Creatures of the Night show. Somebody wanting a blasted cup of coffee wouldn't be the cause, would they?

The tram ride for the Night Safari was very informative and almost all of the animals were on display. Disappointed at the park that we were unable to see anything other than the tram ride - the place needs to be open for another hour or so. All the food was S$13-17 a serve - nothing like you could buy in the city. We arrived back at the hotel around 11pm and The Boy slept whilst we ate something for tea. Asher had left a message if it wasn't too late to ring him and he could take us for a drive. Damn, too late.

Night Safari (rampant commercialisation) - couldn't photograph any of the animals.

Doctor Fish nibbling dead skin off feet.

Tired boy.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day9 - October 12th 2008

We arrived safely in Singapore. After a late night the 8am deadline to vacate the room was a bit difficult. Didn't have as much breakfast as usual. Perhaps the cruise was just long enough. Disembarkation was done by deck numbers and started at deck 7. We were on deck 3 therefore the second last group to depart. We were separated at the escalator leading to immigration. Our bags were already waiting for us so there was no time wasted.

The Boy with the crew saying goodbye.


We caught a taxi and the driver was quite funny but when he informed us that the Australian dollar had dropped from S$1.13 last week to S$0.98 the laughing was over. He referred to the Singapore PM, an Indian, as a "nigger" which I thought was a bit much, especially as he didn't know us.

The Le Meridien Hotel had had a name change to Concorde so there was some confusion when we arrived. Flight Centre failed to inform us of this little fact. The driver asked me to stop them from unloading the bags just in case it was the wrong hotel. Apparently it is a common theme for Singaporean hotels to change their names and confuse taxi drivers and tourists alike.

Once that was sorted out there was no authorisation for our included breakfasts even though I had a voucher for it. They couldn't find the booking for us either! One of the girls who served us had the name Fence! We took a king-size room on the smoking level. The room wasn't as comfortable as the Holiday Inn Park View however. After a brief rest to freshen up our mission was shopping.

Took the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) from Somerset to Orchard. There are quite a few department stores in the area. First stop was Food Republic at Wisma Atria Shopping Centre where we had Taiwanese food. Then we hit the shops before Miky blew a gasket. She couldn't find exactly what she liked and with the dollar being so low the purchases hurt a bit more. Saw a money exchanger offering S$0.96 to the dollar.

Temple in Singapore.

Closeup of Temple in Singapore.

Another closeup of Temple in Singapore.

Inside Temple in Singapore.

It's busy in Bugis.


We split up with Yu-Jin coming with me to Bugis where there are some markets. An India money exchanger offered S$0.95 and wouldn't go to S$0.96. Over at the Sim Lim Square Building an exchanger had an advertised rate of S$0.975 but he gave me dollar for dollar. I shook his hand afterwards I was so happy. The Boy and I purchased matching t-shirts. The first shop we saw them in wanted S$25 but we got them for S$20. Caught the MRT back to the hotel, showered and had a swim. Miky rang twice while we were swimming. She rang again just after and wanted to meet us at Food Republic but we only wanted to go to the street stalls next to the hotel. She said she'd meet us there.

We waited for quite some time, talked to another family that was on the Superstar Gemini who also had problems with Flight Centre, and went to the supermarket for water before returning to the hotel. Miky showed up half an hour late as she had gotten lost - headed the wrong way on Orchard Road. Went back to the supermarket at 10pm, on a Sunday, and found it was still open. I like this place but it is so crowded. Can't imagine what it is like during the sales Singapore is famous for.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day8 - October 11th 2008

Ship-bound.

Slept in this morning as there was no port of call for tours. Had a workout on the bike when Yu-Jin went to child care. After meeting Mr Ng and Mr Tan as they disembarked, and we had decided to have a lead pencil drawing done, had lunch followed by a disembarkation information session with a funny English slideshow, which came before a chocolate banquet. Gee, they know how to make you fat on board the cruise ships. Not long after that was the mini Olympics where Yu-Jin took part in quoits and volleyball. I was a participant in quoits with Brad and scored zero after he opened with scoring zero leaving me a score of 30 to beat. We were called for sit-down volleyball which our team won and so I picked up a gold medal.

Dude on ship's CCTV.

Gold medallist sit down volleyball.


Yu-Jin had a swim whilst I had a sauna. After tea we stayed out on deck and Yu-Jin ate six slices of lemon meringue pie! We spoke with Rod and Maz from the Gold Coast whom we’d met in Penang. Took a short walk on deck where we played shuffleboard. You can’t go on a cruise and not play shuffleboard. Back to our room afterwards. I had to collect our passports and pay our bill and then wait for the artists to finish our picture. This didn’t happen until about 11:45pm. Not bad for something they started at lunchtime. I must say the boys worked really hard to get it finished in time. All of our luggage had to be ready for collection at 6:30am so there was much packing to be done.

Ladies night out.

Artist Suriyan Namwong sketching our family.

The two artists who worked on our portrait.

Frugal Bastard's Cruise 2008 - Day 7 - October 10th 2008

We had breakfast in the Ocean Palace Restaurant this morning. It felt a little strange to wear a collared shirt at breakfast. The staff treat you so well that you're not even allowed to carry your own drinks. Yu-Jin had a Danish pastry which must have had nuts in it. We wandered about on shore around the Porto Malai Resort before returning to prepare for our tour to the Langkawi cable car.

Fatso on deck chair at Porto Malai Resort.

Picturesque Porto Malai Resort.

Langkawi Eagle.


Rosalina Ismail was our teacher, er guide, on the bus trip to the Langkawi Cable Car. She was very funny with her, "Aaaah!", and, "Eh?" comments all the time. Taking a tour bus on Langkawi you don't expect the guide to ask you if the anaconda is a reptile or a mammal and then explain to you why your answer is incorrect. She even had maps to teach us from. She was good value though.

The Langkawi Cable Car took us up to 710m above sea level where the view was fantastic. We even saw the clouds rising above us and subsequently dropping a few spots of rain. It was a real pity that the bridge through some of the mountains was undergoing repair as I'd have loved to have walked it. We shared a gondola on the way up with a South African couple.


Langkawi Cable Car.

Mountains on Langkawi.
Walkway on Langkawi at lookout.

View atop Langkawi.

More silly finger gestures.

Liz (who won everything aboard the ship).

Going down on the Langkawi Cable Car.


There was a bit of shopping at the base station where I was told off for spending too much money. Down the bottom we went to collect our water that wasn't allowed in the gondola and were disappointed to discover that somebody had taken our water. Only later when we caught up with Rosalina did we find out that she had taken it back to the bus.

Next stop was Underwater World in the town but we weren't interested in it as we have one back home. Shopping was on the menu and Miky had her sights on the duty free shops. She bought clothes, shoes and cosmetics. We had lunch at a Korean restaurant we stumbled upon after waiting to be served in a grotty Chinese restaurant which we left after being appalled at the way they cleaned the table with a cloth soaked from a bucket of dirty water. We certainly weren't having any of that.

Toilet sign on Langkawi.

Shop doesn't open for long.


Miky met our Malaysian friends, Mr Ng and Mr Tan, in the duty free shop. They had a rental car so we didn't need to worry about paying for a taxi to return to the ship and could shop for a bit longer. After arriving at the ship I wanted to take a few more photos. The crew called Miky to make sure that I was ok as I hadn't boarded with them. Mr Ng lost his duty free cigarettes on the wharf after unloading them from the rental car.

Long way from home.

Fishing village and resort in background.

Superstar Gemini in port.


We all met for dinner at the Mariners' Buffet and it was Asian night where all the crew dressed up in asian dress. Great seafood, cha cha beef and Malaysian Kueh (cake). The mango sticky rice (sago) was great.

Just had time after talking to get to the Galaxy of the Stars for the Broadway musicals. Spoke with Matt James, who was part of a party of 11, about the trip so far. The musical was great and included Cats, Hair, Chicago, Cabaret among others. Later I collected Yu-Jin from child care for the 9pm pool and pizza party on deck. It rained which dampened the spirits somewhat.