Whitianga, New Zealand: Cathedral Cove

So I made friends with my French roomies back in Paihia and lo and behold, they were going to Whitianga on the same bus AND staying in the same hostel as me. We managed to get a ride from another traveller and headed to Cathedral Cove. It wasn't as amazing as I expected though, a really small beach with quite a few people kayaking. Maybe we should have gone during sunset? Or when the sky wasn't so overcast? Go Google image for this place and you'll see why I had high expectations.

Then we headed to Hot Water Beach. It looks exactly like a normal beach but when you dig into the sand, hot water comes out! As you can see, lots of family were out having fun in the hot pools. We dipped out feet into some holes and boy, the water was really hot! The hot water comes from underground, natural hot springs which filter up through the sand. Fascinating isn't it? Note that you need to go there during low tide.

Having friends meant that I could buy more ingredients and cook to share! :D We had a lot of fun cooking and sharing meals together. Photos taken off my Instagram account (@allyoffduty).

There wasn't much we wanted to do and we were rather tired so we spent the last day in Whitianga watching movies together. The hostel was quite empty so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves and it was great, like a temporary home. :)

Battambang, Cambodia: Cooking mama and Bamboo Train

First impression of Battambang was that it was a lot quieter and smaller than Phnom Penh. In fact, there wasn't much to do in the town at all. It was a place that you can relax and that was nice, a nice break from rushing around trying to see everything. We had a walk around after dinner at the local market. I went from being pensive about eating street food to being not fussy at all. It's really lucky that I didn't get food poisoning though because I think my stomach is pretty weak.

The next morning, we went for a cooking class! We were brought around the local market and he showed us some interesting local vegetables but since we were from South East Asia, it wasn't that different. But I think the experience would be really enriching for someone from another part of the world. The leaves you see above are tom yam leaves (if I remember right), they smell exactly like tom yam! I was fascinated. So we got a bit of stuff and went back to the kitchen. We were taught how to make fish amok, beef lolak and spring rolls. I really liked the fish amok, it tasted like really soft otah. Cooking classes are cheaper in Cambodia than in Thailand or so I've heard, so go for one if you're there!

A trip to Battambang is incomplete if you don't go for a ride on the bamboo train! It used to be used for the transport for goods, now a section of it is kept as a tourist attraction. There's only one track and the trains go back and forth. So you must be wondering, won't they collide..? Well, when two trains approach each other, they stop and whichever train has more goods (or now, people) gets dismantled to let the other train pass. And after the train pass, the train gets fixed back and off it goes again. The train was actually pretty fast and a little bumpy, almost like a ride in the amusement park. Really fun and worth a go. You need a tuktuk to get there though.

After the bamboo train, we went to this mountain to see about millions of bats flying out of a cave to a forest nearby to feed at night. It was really an endless stream of bats flying across the sky, pretty amazing sight.

Vienna, Austria IV: My second home

M persuaded me to extend my stay in Europe (well, I didn't need that much persuasion actually), so I made a quick search and found a one-way ticket back to Singapore from Istanbul for 200 euros (350 SGD). I jumped at it. But now the question is how should I get from Vienna to Istanbul? I wanted to take a bus through Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria and visit those places along the way but friends back home advised me not to due to visa and safety issues. I really wanted to explore Eastern Europe but since this is my first trip alone, I didn't want to risk safety. So I decided to take a flight to Istanbul (which cost me 250+ euros, more than my flight back to SG pff) and go to Poland in between.

Staying with a friend meant I could spend time doing nothing, go grocery shopping, cook, hang out with my friend and basically live like a local for a few days. It was so great. Hostel stays just isn't the same. I'm very anti-social in hostels because I get tired of small talks which usually circle around where are you from (if the other party has been to your country, ask about his/her experience), how long are you travelling/have been travelling, where have you been to and where are you going and you only meet these people for at most 2/3 days. So yes I don't bother unless I'm in my I-feel-like-talking-and-knowing-people mood or I meet really nice people whom I click with instantly. Even couchsurfing is a little different because there's the getting-to-know-you awkwardness and will-we-get-along worry. So now I just need more friends abroad which is a pity I didn't start travelling more when a lot of my friends were studying overseas.

We made strawberry tarts! Well actually M made them and I assisted. After we are done, both of us whipped out our cameras instead of our forks and started snapping photos. Hee. Food styling is so fun!





Apple strudel in vanilla sauce. *wiggles eyebrows* We My friend cooked other things too, pasta, cream mushroom soup, cream zucchini soup, rice pudding.. I love the soups and I swore I'm going to try when I'm back but I have yet to do so. Oops.









M's roommate, M (yes they're the M&Ms!)'s friend invited them to her garden to pick cherries. She invited me as well and I had such a lovely time picking fresh cherries right off the tree. We had a lovely afternoon hanging out (and napping) in her garden on the beach chairs. Then we had a spitting competition to see who could spit the cherry seeds the furthest. I was terrible at it, M went "It's obvious you're from Singapore!" Hah. So they changed the game to spitting the cherry seeds into a bucket and I got so good I won a piece of cake. Not too bad eh ;)

The four of us also went to a vineyard and enjoyed the night view of Vienna from on top of a hill. And the M&Ms brought me to a music festival. It was packed with people but the songs were too rock/techno for my liking so we left early.

I was really reluctant to leave this comfortable place and I LOVE their apartment! It's in an old Victorian(??) building which is just beautiful. The apartment has a ceiling which is about twice as high as the ones in Singapore, I loooove high ceilings. Because they have high ceilings, they have long windows and with long windows come beautiful long curtains. And they have carpets! I love carpets. The furniture they have is mostly made out of wood (I love wood!) so it really fit in well with the Victorian theme. So basically their apartment has everything I want in a home. The company was another reason that made me reluctant to leave, I had a swell of a time with M but their exams were coming up so it was a good time to leave them to their books.