Sri Lanka - Safari!

Safari doesn't immediately come to mind when one thinks of Sri Lanka but it is famous for it! Particularly for leopards at Yala National Park and for blue whales off the coast of Mirissa. For this alone, I descended the heavenly Ella and plunged back into the soupy humidity to hunt for leopards with my camera. Yala is a huge park but one that is world famous for the highest concentration of leopards in any given area. The Yala leopards are the top predators within the park and every person I had spoken to who had been there had seen one. I started pre-dawn to try to beat the crowds but as the early hours rolled past, we were soon joined by many other jeeps. It was quite disconcerting to have so many jeeps vie for the attention of the elusive leopard. There were sometimes 6 or more jeeps on the red dirt roads jostling for a glimpse of the leopard at one of its favoured spots. It had been 3 hours and no sight of a leopard, I had resigned myself to not seeing one when, 100m in front of our jeep,crossing the road like he owned it, was a young male leopard. We zoomed towards it as it sauntered into the undergrowth and my trembling hands only caught the last swish of its tail, as if to say, 'now you see me, now you don't'.

From elusive leopards to the biggest creature on the earth, the blue whale. Recently discovered off the coast of Lanka, off the tiny fishing village of Mirissa, is a pod of blue whales.

Years of civil war kept researchers and scientists away and so the discovery of the pod was only 2 years old. These giants are several buses long and are notoriously shy. I joined 6 other tourists on a leaky fishing boat as we traveled out to the Indian Ocean. It was the tail end of the whaling season as the seas were getting rough. About 1.5 hours out to sea, we see blue whales! 4 of them and a humpback. We see alot of humps from its back and many many diving t

ails but didn't get a chance to see one poke its head up - there is a scientific name for this but it looks like the whale sticks its head up and has a nosy around at all the boats. We get close to 50m of some of these whales and we see the arch of its back but never get to see or appreciate it's full size and glory. If I had been here a month earlier, I could have possibly dived or snorkeled with the whales.

Mirissa was my last destination before a whistle stop at Colombo and home. I spent lovely days at the beach, in the sun, eating fresh fish and learning to surf. Sri Lanka is an enchanting place and one that I will always remember fondly for its people, its gorgeous natural wonders and fiery curries!

Sri Lanka - Ella and Ceylon Tea

My trip to Ella had to be the most beautiful and most horrible train trip i've taken. I had not pre-purchased 1st class tickets a month in advance, meaning my chance of getting a seat in the viewing carriage was nil. I purchased a 2nd class ticket which came with a warning that it was the middle of the Singalese new year and my chance of finding a seat was next til nil. Still, I was optimistic. I had caught trains in India, China and Egypt - surely Sri Lanka was not going tobe a problem! The pity I saw in the station master's eyes was starting to worry me...The train rolled up and i was a little surprised to see how much in disrepair the old steam train was in. It was a mad scramble to get on board quickly to grab a seat with my backpack on. Unfortunately, I had climbed into the 3rd class carriage, where the locals were standing in an open carriage. The carriage was so packed that I had no chance to get into 2nd class and was stranded in the dining car with other lost foreigners. However, making the most of a bad situation, I spent the next 7 hours standing up, making new friends of local families heading to the hills for holidays. A few hours into the journey, the train passes through gorgeous hill country, with tea plantations, waterfalls and magnificent scenery. I happily spent half my time hanging out from the side of the train, taking photos and enjoying the fresh mountain air.

Ella is extremely beautiful and staying at the Waterfalls Homestay run by

Aussie expat couple, Martin and Karen, was the perfect balm after the harrowing first couple of days in Sri Lanka. I spend the next few days hiking with a lovely Swiss family and their 3 boys to Ella Rock and Little Adam's Peak, chilling out at the beautiful guesthouse, playing with Martin's many dogs and cats and chatting with Karen. I loved that gorgeous place, which was just so clean and comfortable, i didn't want to leave. Karen and Martin areliving my dream. I still recall the conversation I had with some travellers in Sihanoukville in Cambodia over 10 years ago where we talked about opening a guesthouse. In my dream, the guesthouse looked exactly like Waterfalls Homestay - serendipity!

Sri Lanka - April 2011

Another April, another awesome month of taking advantage of public holidays! With 2 weeks to spare, I scour the globe for somewhere that's not too far and still exotic enough to appease my nomadic spirit. Isettle for Sri Lanka.

My sister's immediate reaction when I tell her is, "Why do you

always want to go to places like that!" It's true, why do I always want to travel like that? By like that, she means, backpacking to foreign destinations where people don't speak English, where I don't know anyone, where the food guarantees giardia, the roads are bad and there's always a threat of civil war looming. I don't know why i'm attracted to places where travel is hard... actually I do, it's because when I arrive at a place where I don't know anyone and I have no plans, it really tests my skills, challenges my senses and makes me feel so free and alive.

I arrive in Sri Lanka in the dead of the night - midnight in an airport that amusingly has more whitegoods being sold in duty free than perfumes. The number of stores selling washing machines and fridges was astounding! My friend later tells me that it's to attract cashed-up workers from the Middle East, on the way home to see family after a few years of slaving in the desert. What better gift to bring back to the wife you haven't seen for years than a washing machine?!

I catch a taxi to Negombo, a beachside town that I hardly see as I roll into town at 2am and leave at 630am the next morning. I'm on my way up north to see the UNESCO famed sites of Sigiriya and Dambulla with a side trip to visit an elephant orphanage. The drive through winding country roads with lush rice fields, framed by gentle rolling hills, is so picturesque that I fall into bucolic bliss.

It's several hours before we reach Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, a place that has gathered a bit of controversy from naturalists who claim the centre is exploiting its elephants for

profit. I see many elephants being herded by mahouts with cruel looking wooden batons with nasty metal hooks. I'm sad to see a huge blind bull elephant with magnificent tusks chained up. What surprises me are how vocal the elephants are, trumpeting loudly and also growling menacingly whenever a tourist got too close to the young babies. The babies were hilarious, so playful and small and ever agile and mischievous. The highlight was bath time for the elephants - loud trumpeting heralded the stampede of around 50 elephants, rushing towards the river to the delight of throngs of tourists. It was very sweet to see the matriarchs keeping a close eye on the babies, one which was swept off his little feet with the currents threatening to sweep him away before a protective trunk picked him up and settled him back to his feet.

After Pinnawala, it was another long drive to get to Sigiriya, a mysterious rock formation with remnants of a palace or temple at the top. I bumped into an Aussie tourist and we climbed up steep and rusty metal stairs precariously tied to the side of the rock. Through the soupy humid air pregnant with the promise of rain, we made our way to view mysterious cave paintings of, depending of whether you believed it to be a temple or palace, sexy half naked court dancers or the goddess Tara. Either way, it's amazing that after 2000 years in this wet air, the paintings were still so well preserved. Still higher up, we pass through giant lion's paws carved into the side of the mountain to reach the top where nothing much was left of the palace/temple that existed there. It was a tad cooler and a welcome breeze was blowing through. How

ever, the breeze also hinted at rain and we rushed back down the rock and I was in the cab for all of 10 mins before the heavens opened up and monsoon rain thundered down.

Checked into the Holiday Inn - nothing like the cheap and cheerful chain hotel but attempting to leverage some of that brand, my guesthouse was fine but had that damp feeling from being in this humidity. I was a little disappointed (ok a lot) by the pathetic shower with pressure so weak that it merely trickled water out. I had a pleasant surprise when I first turned on the tap in the basin and instead of water, out came a little black frog! I thought it was very cute but fortunately no more frogs came out after the first one.

At dinner, I got talking to a lovely family, expats living in Laos and backpacking through India and Sri Lanka with a 3 year old cherub. I was so impressed that a family of 3 were travelling for 5 weeks with only one backpack! And Ethan the cherub, like my own similarly aged nieces and nephews, was soon demanding his iPad!! and out came the iPad which Ethan then proceeded to operate confidently. These babies are so techie!

September 2010 - New York - When in Rome...

People always say, when in New York, you gotta do this and that. Well, I kinda threw that list out the window being my second time in the City and truthfully, I was a little lazy. My first visit 5 years before was filled with activities and sore feet. This time, I just wanted to chill out. My 6 days in the City included:

- visiting the Guggenheim and being amazed at the amount of famous artworks available under one roof;

- walking across the Brooklyn Bridge;

- eating more Mexican than I should've (the restaurant, Mole, in the LES is awesome);

- drinking more pomegranate magaritas than i should (because they do it so well here);

- aiding the economy by shopping like crazy at Woodbury Commons;

- looking cool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where the guys wear skinny jeans, dark beards, curly hair and Wayfarers;

- admiring Brownstones in the Upper East and West Sides;

- eating damn good Cajun ribs at Acme's (with hot sauce!);

- having a 'When Harry Met Sally' met the Reuben sandwich at Katz's Deli orgasmic moment;

- peeking into the many community gardens in the LES;

- spotting Liev Schrieber on 2nd Street;

- buying Apple products at the iconic store on 5th Avenue (this generation's Tiffany's); and

- walking from Midtown to Downtown and back to the LES through Soho, Greenwich, Union Square and the Flatiron district because those NYC blocks didn't seem to look that huge on a tiny map!

Staying in the LES in a non-touristy part of the City is great because I start to feel like i'm part of the neighbourhood and feel like i could really live this crazy city. My favourite moment of this trip was when the local postie greeted me with, "Good morning, Miss Cynthia". At that moment, I almost, almost felt like a true NuYorker.

September 2010 - New York - NuYorkers!

Christine and Joanne are two cool cousins from New York who I met in Pompeii 10 years ago. Since then, I've been to visit them once before in 2005, stayed with Jo in her lovely place in Hoboken (as in Crunch) in Jersey and visited Chris in fashionable Brooklyn and we had pomegranate magaritas and partied it up in some dive bar off Canal St.

I meet up with Chris and Jo, their partners and kids at the Bronx Zoo. We catch a few trains to the Bronx area and my first impression is that there isn't anything sinister about it - although there are a few more projects or housing commission buildings around. It was a record hot day in late September and the zoo was packed with families visiting. The only thing missing was a wading pool and I looked at the polar bears swimming in their icy enclosures with jealousy. It was great to catch up with the NuYorkans - Chris has a lovely little boy called Finn who was fascinated with the tigers and Jo has her little chubby baby, Jackson, who is just so adorable.

Over the next few days, I catch up with both girls for various lunches, dinners and even tea at a twee little place on the Upper West Side called Tea with Alice. We even visited Chris' work, the Sesame Street headquarters, near the Lincoln Centre and get to cuddle up to Grover and hang out with in Oscar's trash can. Pity i didn't get to meet Elmo, who i'm told was off on a busy book signing tour!

After dinner that night with the girls at Rosa Mexicana in the Upper West Side, we stumble on a scene shoot for Gossip Girl! You gotta love New York for celebrity spotting!!

September 2010 - New York - the first 12 hours

New York is easily one of my favourite cities in the world. There's something about this town, some vibe, a pulse, that imbibes it with life and gives it personality. I touched down at JFK and catch a yellow cab into the city. This time, I'm renting a one bedder with Le and Thierry, friends from London, in the trendy Lower East Side of Manhattan, between 1st Avenue and 2nd street., near the famed Katz's Deli.

I love the LES already as my yellow cab drives through the avenues to take me to my destination. It has an edgy cool vibe, crammed with small bars, restaurants and filled with people - even the people look so indescribably NuYorican. Our apartment is on the top floor of a building with iconic fire escapes that hug the facade of the building and lends it character, rather than detract from it. We also have a view of the Empire State building in the distance from the living room window.

I drop my bags and we're off to have sushi near Tompkins Square. I then head off to Rivington St to meet up with my friend, Amanda, who has been living in New York from Sydney for 6 months.

The thing I notice straight away is that the drinks are super strong! Everyone is happy after 2 drinks and jetlag hasn't settled in. We entertain everyone in the bar with our outlandish Aussie accents (except for Thierry who is French) and go bar hopping along Rivington.

When it was time to call it a night, we decide to walk the 7 blocks back to the apartment - obviously alcohol was numbing the pain in our feet! Nevertheless, my first 12 hours since landing in New York have already been memory filled!

September 2010 - Hong Kong

I am on a short visit to Hong Kong for a work trip and what a great city it is - i am so amazed at the number of sky scrappers fighting for space that it seems like every inch of HK island is covered by these steel giants!

Although I visited 5 years ago, the city seems so different when you're there for work. You have to fight the same morning commute as the hundreds that ride the MTR. My office is only 15 mins or 5 stops from Central where I'm staying. I marvel that I don't even have to leave a building in order to get to work and back. Having said this, I look a little forlornly at a tree beyond the glass walls and start to miss the outdoors.

It is also typhoon season and there are ominous signs everywhere optimistically predicting the size of the typhoon that is supposed to hit HK. Unfortunately for me, my very first typhoon blows over HK and choose to harass Macau instead.

I'm distracted by the shops that stay open until 11pm everywhere and my credit card is getting a workout. Fortunately, it's Friday and there are drinks to be had. I have to rush to meet up with some of my dear uni friends who are all movers and shakers in HK's legal scene. I meet up with Martin and Angie, Ann, Mel and Michelle at Alfie's. Alfie's sounds like an English larger pub but, like everything in Central, is a polished and fashionable bar that is set atop the glittery, golden Dunhill store. After a few cocktails, we head out for some food. At my request for good, Cantonese food, my friends opted to take me to Yong Kei's, a Michelin starred Cantonese restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong. The goose is golden there; the century year old eggs are nice and smelly; the pigeon is crunchy and there is also some strange fried milk (go figure).

I spend the Saturday wandering around Central and ride the famous mid-levels escalators from Central to Soho. Being so steep, i gather that everyone must have formidable quad muscles but sore knees! The mid-levels were full of wonderful boutiques and trendy cafes filled with expats having brunch. As I walked down the steep slopes back towards Central, I pass traditional wet markets and these stalls selling little lions and lanterns.

I have a flight to catch home that evening and even if I didn't get to try hiking on the other side of HK island (where there is real greenery), I vow to leave that for my next visit.

August 2010 - Singapore Sling

After months and months of complaining that I never get to travel for work enough, my lovely boss sends me to Singapore! yippee!! I get to visit my friends, eat like there's no tomorrow and shop to save the economy as long as I have a few meetings in between.

I've only ever known Singapore as a land of stop overs. My eldest sister, Vivian, lived there for 15 years and I visited en route to or from home

over the years. As a stop-over city, you can't help but be impressed by the efficiency and the cleanliness. As a mad foodie, I would always leave this stop-over city carrying extra kilos in my belly and my luggage!

This time, I'm visiting friends, who take me to Haji Lane in Little Arab. In many years of visiting this city, I have never visited this cool alley with its Banksy-esque street art and edgy boutiques. We had coffee in a really cool shop which serenades as a mid-century design workshop - coffee was bad, furniture was too amazing! I could've bought the entire shop's stock!

I also visited the impressive new casino - the MSB or some acronym or another. The

re's a cool bar at the top where you have the view of the entire city - tres tres chic!

Judy and Greg - being excellent foodies themselves, took me to most of Singapore's hawker centres where I chowed down on Char Keoy Teow (fried flat rice noodles), wonton

mee (braised egg noodles with slivers of roast pork) and had piece after piece of nonya kueh (Malay steamed desserts).

Notwithstanding the time spent eating, I also managed to snap up Zara's finest :)

April 2010 - Adelaide and Barossa

April and her awesome holidays - it's definitely my favourite month in the calendar! This time, I grab Dee and Julie and head to Adelaide and the Barossa for wine and cheese tasting.

Adelaide is a very pretty town, like a small Melbourne, but without Melbourne's definite worldliness, history or coolness.

We head to Barossa on the first day of the long weekend, stopping off at Torbreck to try a little of that $240 bottle of shiraz, then it's off to visit other boutique wineries, including the crowded Rockford Wines withs its very tasty blends and the 'ye olde' grandness of Seppeltsfield with its 100 year old Para success.

We also make a pitstop at Maggie Beer's famous Pheasant Farm and fight the throngs of geriatric foodies to try some of her delicious produce.

After a full day, we head back to Adelaide feeling quite tippled and traipse out to dinner at a Spanish bar in town. Strangely, we are stared at as we walk in the joint by Adelaide's movers and shakers. It wasn't entirely unfriendly but not friendly as well - you could hear the crickets in the first 15 seconds of our arrival as 30 pairs of eyes viewed us, leading Dee to comment that people in Adelaide had a staring problem. Nevertheless, we have cocktails and tapas and forget the stares and soon head off to join friends at another bar in town, then a club and a

nother bar. Finally, we head back at 3am after having to ask the local constabulary the way home.

Feeling a little seedy but with a steely resolve set by our minimal time here, we nominate a driver and head off to the Adelaide Hills district for more wine tasting. We stop off first at Hahndorff, a little kitschy German town for bratwursts and brunch. This is followed by wineries, the most notable were the rich reds at Bird in Hand and the wonderfully minimalist (and very Sydney) tasting rooms at Shaw & Smith.

Ahhh Adelaide - with more knowledge of shirazs and 5 bottles to

imbibe, I bade the staring city adieu!

Easter April 2010 - Bali

April - and it's travel season again as Easter invites us to manipulate a day off work to gain an extra long holiday! This time i'm off to the Island of the Gods - that's Bali - to meet up with my good friend, Judy, who is flying in from Singapore. I land in Bali on a short Jetstar flight and, leaving the bogans at the baggage claim, I head straight to Ubud, a beautiful mountain town billed as the cultural heartland of Bali.

What a charming place Ubud is. I wake up and smell a mix of jasmine and incense as graceful women carry trays to make the morning offering to the gods. I catch up on gossip with Judy and wander around the markets, eating great food and visiting art galleries. One of the first places we visit is Ibu Oka - the famous 'no frills' eatery serving Bali's best babi guling or roast suckling pig. Here's a picture of me looking very happy at receiving my portion of babi guling. The crackling is so sharp, the meat very spicy (not hot but definitely spiced) and the rice, fragrant and filling.

What a far cry from the madness of Kuta (which I visited more than 10 years ago) with its neon dreariness, Aussie bogans, Bintang beer smells and general sadness. The people in Ubud are laid back and chilled, very friendly and accommodating.

I also have the most amazing spa treatments at a nirvana next to our little hotel, overlooking a rice paddy field. I settle into a routine of wandering around the boutiques, swimming in the tranquil hotel pool, having an afternoon nap and then dinner and drinks before an early night. What a great way to rest up after a hectic time at work.

Not forgetting that Ubud is also the spiritual capital of Bali, I visit the local yoga centre, called Yoga Barn. Our classes take place in a gorgeous, circular thatched building in the middle of a rice paddy field. Maybe it is the warm weather but I feel my asanas are more aligned and my breathing is definitely centred. As I lie in chivasana, I hear the breeze rustling the leaves and the roosters crowing and I smell inevitable afternoon rain in the air. Rolling up my yoga mat, I head back to the hotel, for that well-earnt afternoon nap.

January 2010 - Hakuba Ski Olympics

After the peaceful little Japanese ski town of Nozawa, we headed off to the site of the 1998 winter Olympics, Hakuba, in Nagano. En route, we stopped off to see the famed snow monkeys - who, very sensibly, keep warm by soaking in the hot springs. Hakuba is big and Westernized and we have a plethora of ski fields to choose from. Every day was a bluebird day and we mostly have the runs to ourselves during the week. We skied hard at Hakuba 47 (crowded), Goryu- Toomi (challenging), Happo-One (icy) and even Iwatake (deep powder) and Tsugaike (wide and family friendly). My favourite would have to be Tsugaike, mainly because it was our last day's ski, the weather was unreal and, well, i did my best skiing that day. What an amazing holiday - the heady days of powder, hard skiing from first run to last and the nights starting with a soak in the hot springs to rest weary limbs, followed by bouts of of karaoke, sake and awesome Japanese food. Skiing in Japan rocks and it was so much fun because of the excellent group that we had - Banzai!

January 2010 - Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival

Some clever kid in the pack decided to organise our first ski location to coincide with the Nozawa Onsen fire festival. Nozawa Onsen is situated in the Japanese Alps on the main island of Honshu. The Dosojin or Fire Festival is an ancient Shinto festival where drunk 42year old men sit atop a huge wooden pyre and, using smouldering branches, beat off drunk 25 year old men who try to storm the pyre. Meanwhile, everyone watches the spectacle and drink free sake which is dispatched by drunk wardens. It is bizarre and utterly fun! After a hard day's skiing the perfect powder conditions at Nozawa, we head off to the festival in deep snow. There are cheering crowds, film crews and jeering 42 year olds sloshed atop the pyre. After hours of being thrashed and burnt, the 42 year olds are brought down and the whole pyre is set alight! What results is a huge bonfire, singed eyebrows, chaotic scrambles as bits of smouldering wood comes crashing down. I come out of the festival covered in dirty ash and snow and thinking, "Those crazy Japanese..."!

January 2010 - Japan ski desu-ka?

January - that must mean it's time to start the new year with a big ski trip to Japan! I'm off with my ski buddies to the land of the rising sun to grab some of the finest powder this side of the world. I catch aflight with Sammy, ahead of the pack, with horrendous layovers in Cairns and Brisbane (courtesy of our free Qantas frequent flyer flights). We chug shots of sake throughout our Jetstar flight between playing games of Tetris on Sammy's iPhone.

We land in Narita, bleary eyed and drunk, and check into Narita's finest, the Holiday Inn. Immediately, i knock on the door opposite and whoop in excitement at seeing my mate, Guro Vik, opening the door! Guro is my crazy Norwegian friend - Dr Vik by day, crazy Anna by night!

I collect the other Scandi and we're off to explore Narita by night. First stop is an izakaya - a Japanese pub - for some good Japanese food and more sake. After getting kicked out of that joint, we move to other late night haunts - following the drunken singing of salarymen around the corner. We spy some bright pink neon lighting up a Japanese sign and ventured in to find an entryway dominated by a wall of pigeonholes filled with bottles of XO brandys and room keys. A little, old lady in a kimono immediately rushed towards us

as Guro reached for a bottle of brandy and a key. The little Japanese lady made a huge 'X' sign with her arms and said firmly, "No". We stood in the foyer confused at this reception. I took a closer look at the scene and realised that we were not in an ikazaya but a brothel! Laughing at our folly, we headed into the inky Narita night and stumbled back to the Holiday Inn to call it a night.

Island cocktails and dancing lions

Ahhh...another year, another post. Well, i have to confess that it has been a few months since my last ramble. 2010 was full of fun and travels and i will have to blog in retrospect about the capers I got up to.

Today in 2011 - cycloness in Queensland, storms in Melbourne...and mainly it is hot hot hot in Sydney! To beat the heat and swelter with the best, we're off to Cockatoo Island to check out the Island Bar's cool, industrial charm. Then it's off to Chinatown for more Chinese New Year madness - watching those colourful lions shake their booties to the compelling bass of drums and pieces of lettuce waved in front of them.

Keep tuned for the photos and more posts of today's event.