NSW: Kiama and Culburra Beach

Another perfect day trip from Sydney is to Kiama and Culburra Beach Crookhaven. It is about 1.5-2 hrs drive from our suburb. Kiama has the popular blowhole. However, I can't seem to find any picture of this on my phone right now. (will update once I find any in my external hard-drive). Note: lots of people going, plenty of parking in the area though. 

Japan Travel Video: CAMEL Fam Travels 02

Hello, my Lovelies!

Back again for this week's post.

Sharing part 2 of our Japan Travel Video's. 😃

These are videos for our day 4 to 6 in Japan.

PS: Our next family travel plan is for South Korea. When? That I am not sure. Praying it will be soon! 😉

PSS: I just realized I have other videos in youtube that I was not able to share in this blog. I'll be sorting through them when I have time and make sure to share them here. 😆

Till next time (or will it be next week?). XOXO 😘

Japan Travel Videos : CAMEL Fam Travel 01

Hello, my Lovelies!

I'll be sharing our Japan Travel Video's here. 😃

One of the things that I was finally able to do in 2020 is to sort and edit our Japan Travel Videos. This is my second time in Japan and with the whole family. (The first time I went to Japan was with my Brother and Cousin.) This time, were finally able to match all our schedule and the 5 of us went to Japan for a 6 day holiday! 

Hoping for Covid to get manageable and be able to safely Travel again. Lot's of Travel plans were canceled in 2020 and it looks like it will continue till this year (2021).

PS: I'll be splitting the post into 2 separate blog posts.

PSS: Actual blog post for the places we visited and the story once I have the time to sort the pictures. At the moment, I was only able to sort the videos. LOL. 😆

Animal Crossing New Horizon

Animal Crossing New Horizon (ACNH) is one of the games that help me get through 2020. I was used to going places every couple of months or so. The pandemic had forced me to slow down and prevented me from doing what I normally do. Eat out, going places, friends gathering. This game (along with the Final Fantasy Series) had helped me coped with the "New Normal".

The game has a pre-set storyline goal which was making your island rating at least 3-stars to get a character "KK" to have his concert on the island. You can get a higher rating when you clean, decorate, have happy villagers. After the initial goal, it becomes an open storyline where the next target was to get a 5-star rating and decorate as much as you want. There are also tons of Fish and bugs to catch and DIY's to learn. I honestly have not completed them 😅.

What I like about the game is that they have set events. Each season has at least one. You can set your game to follow your location's time and season. This will make sure you have access to events based on your current season. My favorite so far was the Sakura event. Shooting balloons to get DIYs. Catching Sakura petals for materials and seeing Pink Cherry blossoms tree on my island. 

You can also visit other people's islands and check out their shops and pretty decorations. You can see people's creativity! 

Since the game was released, there have been several updates to improve and add more to it. It's like playing one of those online games where the developer has pop-up events and new quests (RO player here 😉). I think this is one of the reasons why I am still playing the game. Something to look forward to, especially when Nintendo releases the teaser videos. 

The snaps below are from my island. 😉

Taipei: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

For our last day in Taipei, we went to Taipei 101, Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, and Ximending. 

(I have a separate post for Taipei 101. Click Here to see it.) 

It was raining hard on our last day. The picture I have taken have a gloomy vibe on them. I am posting them anyway as I want to share them with everyone. (lol)🤣

There was also an exhibition performance from the students in front of the Hall. We were able to watch it for a short while. I have short clips on my Taipei Travel Video. Click here for the post.

We also went to Ximending for a last-minute pasalubong (souvenir) shopping and food trips. Not a lot of pictures there as it was raining hard. 😅

PS: The whole Taipei Trip was only for 3 days and 2 nights. We were able to go to a lot of places. It was a full-packed itinerary but we managed. Cheers to brother-bear for accompanying me on this trip! 

NSW: Port Stephens Video

For this post, I will be sharing the Video for our Port Stephens Trip.

Port Stephen is about 3 hours drive from our suburb. This makes it an ideal location for a Day Trip. There are a lot of places to visit as well as different activities. The Beaches are nice as well. Perfect for a deep on nice warm weather. I honestly am not into swimming and beaches (scared of Sharks 😆). I do appreciate a nice beach view and walking over the ends chasing waves though. 😉

Places we visited:

• Nelsons Bay 
• Toboggan Hills
• Anna Bay
• ANZAC Memorial Bridge - Newcastle

Excuse the shaky video, this trip was in 2016 and I have not mastered the art of taking video then. <Laugh out loud>. Also, click "read more" below for some pictures. 😄

Taipei: Zoo

The Original plan was to go and ride the Cable Car to Maokong. We initially want to have lunch in one of the tea houses. Taipei Zoo is in between the main Train station and the Cable Car station. As we passed by the front of the zoo, we got curious and decided to do an impromptu visit. We didn't plan on staying too long. Just enough time to get an overview of the place and also see some PANDAs. 🤩

Entrance fee is about 60 NTD (100 PHP or 3AUD). You can use same train card for the entrance fee and you can get discount in the Maokong Gondola fare. 

Hello 2021!

Picture from my recent trip to Port Macquarie

Guess who's back in the Cyber World? ME! 

Finally have the motivation to write again. I was so busy working full-time, taking CPAA exams, food tripping, and going to places in 2018 and 2019. I thought this momentum will continue until Covid happened in 2020. No Travel, no food trip, and reduce work hours. Then I assumed I'll be able to sort pictures and write some blog posts since it seems like I have extra time. However, with everything that is happening, add paranoia and uncertainty in the picture, I did not achieve this either. The first half of 2020 gone. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Tulip Time : Bowral NSW

Our next NSW destination? Southern Highlands: BOWRAL! My friend Cyril and I went for their annual tulip festival: Tulip time.

Bowral is about 1.5 hrs drive or 2.5-3 hrs by train from Sydney. We opted to take the train because we expected that there will be lots of people coming to the festival and parking might be limited. Also, no tired driver! We can take a nap during the train ride. 😅

For this annual event, several promotions are being offered. One of them is riding the Old steam trains from Sydney Central to Bowral station. This included the High tea experience during the trip. I think it was around $100+ per person. We didn't want to spend that much hence we opted for the normal (modern) trains. We did have the chance to take a picture of the old trains. Train to Hogwarts anyone? 😆

Entrance to the garden is free. There are donation box at every entrance though. If you have spare change to donate, you can drop them on those boxes. Unfortunately, due to the sudden cold weather, the Tulips have not fully bloomed at the time of the festival. The garden volunteers said that it might take one to two weeks more before they get a full bloom. Nonetheless, I still think it was very pretty! It this is how it looks like now, how prettier will it be during full bloom? 😍

There was also a parade in the afternoon for the event. The festival is for 2 weeks but the parade is only done on the first Saturday of the event. This is the reason why we went on this specific day even though the tulips have not bloomed yet.

Note: Most buildings here are really old. They have the European/historical building feels. 😊

Hotel Puri : Taipei Station

For our Taipei Trip, we decided to stay at Hotel Puri, Taipei Station. It was about 10 minutes walk from Taipei station. We booked a standard twin room for 2 adults. While we were searching for our accommodation, we noticed that most affordable rooms in Taipei are dormitory style with shared bathroom. We wanted a room where we have privacy, own bathroom but still at an affordable price. I think Hotel Puri is the only one that fits these criteria. 

Location: 

Location is near the central station. It is around 10 minutes walk from the station. There are several 7/11 shops around and small restaurants / food stalls where you can buy your meals.

Price: 

I think the price for this is really great. We paid P5,478.86 (144 AUD) for 2 nights standard twin room with private bathroom. There were 2 single bed, safety box, water heater (for tea), complimentary tea bags, coffee, and water. 

Cleanliness: 

The room is very clean. They also do the beddings every day, change towels and refill the supplies. 

Others:

There is no breakfast included for this booking but they do have a mini pantry/kitchen near the reception area. There you can get extra water, tea, coffee and they have snacks available in the morning. I think I saw cereals, milk, and popcorn there (didn't go there for breakfast because we always eat out). If you arrive earlier than the standard check-in time, they allow guest to leave their luggage at the hotel. We did advise them that we might come back late and they said it's ok to do late check-in because they already have our luggage in their storage. Overall, I think this is a great place to stay at an affordable price and does not sacrifice privacy.😁