Fun in NZ: Tekapo

We arrived in the afternoon and the first view of the renowned Lake Tekapo took our breaths away as the turquoise color promised to us peeked out so slightly to greet us as we climbed over the hill to enter the town. Magnificent. Just magnificent. I remembered I totally went OMG, OMG, OMG when I saw the view that greeted me. 

Our first encounter with the Lake

We headed straight to our hostel to check in before we make our rounds around town. We were greeted with friendly faces and helpful suggestions as to where to go to get the best out of the stay in this town. Naturally, the Astro Café is a big hit, almost everywhere that talks about Tekapo will point you in that direction. And so, we headed there. But the wind was so strong that the only road leading to the Café was close. We had to turn back and continue our exploration elsewhere. Delightfully, we found a hidden gem just along the road to the Astro Café and the views were just astonishing.

Small private road further down the road from Astro Cafe

After which we went around for a while before heading back to the hostel to get some rest before our night tour.

Church of Good Shepherd

The night was cold and we had our dinner before heading out. After the experience this afternoon with the road closure due to strong winds, we actually didn’t keep our hopes high. We reached the Earth and Sky office just down the road and the reception told us to wait a bit before they confirm the weather and register us, so we stuck around.

Finally, good news was broadcasted and we queue up to register ourselves and got a jacket each. Mind you, we were already wearing ultra-thick jackets. But they said that the wind is still crazy up the mountain, so it’s best we don their “arctic jackets”.

The drive was an adventure by itself. As to minimize the light pollution to the observatory, they would switch off their headlights while navigating through the winding mountain roads. I really have to salute the experienced driver for his balls and skills. Driving mountain range at night is one thing, but driving mountain range with headlights off is just insane. But he was quite right to say that once our eyes get used to the darkness, the moonlight is actually pretty bright.

And so we finally arrived at the observatory after the thrilling ride to face our old enemy – Cold. The wind is really gushing strong and the path was dark, really dark. They did give us a small red light torch just in case we need some lighting up of the paths. Red lights are less polluting than white or yellow lights.

There we learn about the stars we could see in the south. And the most amazing thing happened. We saw the southern lights. THE AURORA AUSTRALIS. Yes. The legendary aurora australis. The dancing lights lit up the sky and it was the most beautiful thing we saw.

Aurora Australis

Tips: don’t have to bring a tripod to the tour as the staffs are more than glad to help you take some amazing long exposure shots of the night sky.

We finally went back down cold and tired but feeling amazing af.

The next morning we headed over to the mountain range that leads to the Astro Café again and it’s open! We went ahead to have our breakfast and morning coffee up in the hills enjoying the cold breeze and amazing views before heading down to the Church of Good Shepherd again. It’s just too beautiful.

This is the first thing that greets you as you arrive at the peak

Walk along this road to find treasure

Astro Cafe

View that Astro Cafe overlooks

After that we went to a recommended Japanese restaurant to fill our tummy before we move on. And there we ended our happenings in Tekapo and continued our adventure.

The Road Less Traveled: 7 Days in Myanmar (Part 1)

After a long excruciating pain of waiting for almost 3 months after we booked the tickets, we finally set out on our next adventure to the holy land: Myanmar.

To be honest, I didn’t get a good feeling since the start of the journey, mainly because I did not plan this trip. The bulk of the itinerary was provided for by a dear friend, who even helped us get cheap day tours for the various cities that we will be visiting. However, we were too underprepared for this unexpected trip.

To start with, we travelled on a budget airline – Jetstar to Yangon. Having booked the tickets way ahead of time, we got really cheap tickets. However, do to the lack of planning and incomplete information, our mini nightmare was about to start. We took an early flight departing Singapore and we arrived at Yangon near noon. To our horror, Myanmar do not allow visa on arrival for tourists.

Please take special note on this if you are ever travelling to Myanmar.

Myanmar DO NOT allow visa-on-arrival for tourists. This is only applicable for business travellers and require company registration as well as letter of invitation by the company.

And so the story goes.. We got deported.

It was a horrifying experience. We tried talking to the immigration officers as well as the airport staff. But we were only met with hostility. We were being shoved back onto the plane. Even back in Singapore, we were being escorted by staff after staff. We only managed to clear customs at almost 7pm. The whole ordeal took us more than 12 hours. Hungry and tired as we were, we were considering flying back the next morning (with our visas of course) or to change the whole itinerary and fly somewhere else instead. Rationality made us fly back, considering that we have already paid for our hotels, and some of the attractions we were so looking forward to.

And so, we spent the whole night sorting out the documents we need for the visas and we re-booked our air tickets, all ready to fly back the next morning.

Damages

Visa = USD 50 per pax (straight new notes only)

New air tickets = SGD$383 each (Note: We only paid SGD$243 per pax initially)

DAY 1

And finally, we cleared customs without hiccups and all ready for our first adventure of the year. We changed some local currencies at the airport (before you exit the airport) and took a cab from the airport to the hotel our friend will be hosting us for the day before we leave for Bagan that night.

Singapore doesn’t really have any currency exchange whom sells Myanmar Kyats (pronounced as charts) and I have confirmed with my Burmese friends that the exchange rates at the airport are pretty good. Just note that Burmese are a little concerned with straight new US notes. Meaning if your notes are old and crumple, they will reject your notes (as I have suffered later on).

1 thing that I like is that there is a taxi booking stand right after you clear the customs. There’s only 1 so there’s not much left to chances.  We were told that you could haggle for the price and the costs of a cab from the airport to Downtown usually costs MMK8,000 to MMK10,000. After the whole ordeal, we thought our whole luck has changed for the better since we got the lower of the range without even asking.

Damages

Taxi = MMK 8,000

Note: Exchange rate is approximately USD1 ~ MMK1000 (for easy reference)

We settled at a nearby place for lunch and it was fabulous!

It was near evening and we got a cab to the bus terminal for our night ride to the long awaited Bagan. Truth to be told, the 10 hours bus ride was none but torturous. I have no idea why I could bear with the previous 7 hours ride in a minivan to El Nido but this seemingly comfy ride was rather an agony. There was only 1 stopover for a quick bite and toilet break in between. And finally as we reached Bagan at near 5am, only the next horror struck us.

DAY 2

It was COLD. It was actually FREEZING COLD. BRRRRRR.

We were told that Bagan would get colder at night but we didn’t know it would be so cold. As a simple reference, it is colder than Genting at night. I have to wear 2 thick jackets and I am still freezing my butt off. Brrr. As I was saying, we got deported so our itinerary was all pushed back by a day. Our guide came to pick us up and we were ready to check in but our hotels made a mistake and told us that no room was available for us until later in the day at about 9am. What a joke. So anyways, we went to visit the renowned sunrise of Bagan.

Part I

We climbed the Pagoda bare footed in the darkness. It was almost horrifying. And then we waited…

Slowly, the sun came up.

It was beautiful. It was stunning.

But it’s also cold as hell. Barely fighting the cold, we left soon after the sun rises. Remember us saying climbing the pagoda in the dark was horrifying? Trust me, the climb down in broad daylight was worst. 

Way worst…

As we were told that the room will only be ready by 9am, we went for a local breakfast before we head back to the hotel.

It consists of "you cha quey", local bee hoon soup (it's not spicy, don't be deceived by it's looks), curry puff lookalike thingy and chinese tea!

And it only costs us 800kyats!!! We were finally checked in and the hotel was amazing!!!

Zfreeti Hotel

As Bagan is naturally cold due to its high altitude, the room was naturally cold and do not require air conditioning. They have an outdoor swimming pool which would be great during noon as the sun can be pretty harsh at that hour. We have told our guide to pick us up at around 1030 after we are rested and washed up. Since we have paid for the room for the day before, we also enjoy complimentary breakfast! They have a simple fare of western and local dishes for the breakfast. To be honest, it wasn’t fabulous but I thought it was good enough for the 2 of us. I love it that they serve eggs cooked on the spot. So you can have a choice of omelette, sunny side up or jus scrambled.

So our guide came and picked us up for the 2^nd part of the tour. Well, I am not going to bore you anymore.

Part II

One thing to note is that most of the operable temples and pagodas in the area require you to be barefoot, so bear in mind to wear slip-on footwear for simplicity sake. You can thank me later.

And we head for our lunch before we head back to the hotel for a short rest!

I love the guides in this area. They are so chillax, and so cool about everything. They'll go, "oh, it will be really hot in the afternoon, why not we start earlier in the morning so that it's more cooling and we can go back to the hotel for a short rest during 1-3pm when the weather is the hottest." AND I LOVE THE IDEA! Travelling is always meant to relax our mind, so I guess no point we stress ourselves over the hot weather. 

One more stop before we head back to our hotel for our afternoon nap.

Booking the hot air balloon tickets!! Actually, it was a concern for me for the entire time because I understood that the tickets are usually sold out way way before flying day. Hence, I have requested our dear friend whom assisted us in this trip to reserve ticket for us since she said she was able to get them at a cheaper rate and guess what? WE DIDN’T HAVE A TICKET!!! It was really nightmare after nightmare. So, we have to get our local guide to help us source for alternatives. Finally, we found the GOLDEN EAGLE hotair balloon ride simply because no other operators have vacancies anymore. It is really true that you have to book your hot air balloon way way way before your trip to secure a seat. Lucky for us, as Golden Eagle was only established slightly over a year ago, it was only known amongst the local tour operators. Meaning, it would be almost impossible to locate them over the web. However, they only provide the exclusive services, which means we have to pay more. SOBX. But since this was the main intent to Bagan anyway, we have decided to go for it.

Part III

After our brief nap in the room to compensate our lack of sleep this morning, we proceed for the 3rd part of the itinerary. 

Since we had sunrise for breakfast, it is necessary to complete the course with (i bet you guess it right) SUNSET!! We had chance to witness this beautiful sunset at another historical building (duh!). And it was pretty exciting as you have to climb through a steep stairway that i can barely fit through (bear in mind I'm pretty petite compared to the other travellers there). But the end result was a set of remarkable and cloudless sunset.

After the day long tour, we had dinner in our hotel, by the pool. It was very romantic, considering the dim lightings and dining under the stars. It was an incredible experience.

DAY 3

AND HERE COMES THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR TRIP!!!! We woke up at 4:30am to wait for our bus to come pick us up. It’s really really cold in the morning. But the anxiety kept us warm and hopping around.

My boy was really hilarious. We came out of our hotel all sleepy and we saw a bus for BALLOONS OVER BAGAN and guess what he did? He ran to the bus and told me to follow up. It was until I opened my eyes then I told him it was not our ride. I couldn’t stopped laughing since.

So we board the mini bus and we got to the place from the day before, the large open fields preparing for the taking off. We were then served bread and tea/coffee in the cold hard wind. The process was really delightful as the flow was smooth and things just happened one after another. Just as we finished the breakfast, we were told to observe the mini balloon sent up to determine wind speed and direction. Then they also tested the burners and the warmth of it felt so great!!

And then you get really excited because they started to give us a brief training on safety and they start to PUMP UP THE BALLOON!!! It was really exciting as it marks the start of the ride and I haven’t exactly seen a balloon this size being pumped up before.

We climbed in and up we go!!!

The view is breath-taking. And the ride was surprisingly stable. You almost didn’t feel like you are in a balloon. And we learned a few things about the hot air balloon. For instance, you cannot navigate a hot air balloon, you can only control the height of the balloon and “catching” different layers of wind going different directions. I thought this was pretty cool as it really gives you an idea of a really really primitive type of transportation and you are totally reliant on the experience of the pilot and nature forces.

The landing was rather similar to that of the taking off, we both had a dozen people “sending” us and “picking” us. The landing was surprising smooth, no huge bumps or “turbulence”. The pilot accredited this to his crew. He was joking how he flew in so many other countries and he only had 1 assistant to help him along the way, and how pampered he was flying in Bagan with a luxury of crew to assist him, thus causing him to be so reliant on them.

And so we landed and we were presented with champagne and a certificate (of course) for our completion of the ride of a lifetime with the backdrop of the crew packing up the huge balloon!! 

After which we were sent back to our hotel.  We checked out and get ready for our next journey. We hoped onto our pre-booked bus and off we go. I thought the service for the bus is pretty good as they sent our bus tickets to our hotel. Also, we were due to arrive in Mandalay bus station but they offered to drop us at our hotel in Mandalay!! I guess our luck is turning for the better. (or at least I thought)..

Till later......

El Nido: Hidden Paradise

“Waking up with a sea view, crystal clear waters and embracing sea breeze, it is indeed a haven for us city dwellers.”

That is what I got at the end of the 6 hours drive. That is if they are fast. If not it might take up to 8 hours on the rocky mountain roads. To be honest, it was a painful decision my partner and I had to make while we planned for the trip. It ain’t easy, to make a 12 hour trip to and fro just to visit an area for 2D2N. But like me tell you straight up, it was all worth it. Even my partner who was so reluctant to visit El Nido had to admit it was all worth it at the end of the trip.

We took up Tour A after much research on the internet. Since we can only afford 1 island hopping tour, we took up the much recommended one. I can only say pictures and words do not do justice to the place.

Back to some introduction of the island.. For those who have been to Phuket or Krabi, the nature of the shops there are quite similar, but unspoiled by the waves of tourist who travel there. I supposed it is because of the long tedious journey to reach this unlikely haven. When you arrived at El Nido, you have to take a tuk tuk lookalike or walk into the town proper as the buses and vans are not allowed in due to the nature of narrow roads and to protect the town from massive damages that might be caused by traffic. 

There are 2 main beaches in El Nido proper, one being along the shop front of the numerous restaurants operating there and one is the infamous La Cabanas. 

We have to trek though this road for about 2 minutes to reach the beach. To be honest, It may look like nothing here, but when we reach the entrance to this road, it was a little horrifying, it looked nothing near the coast. But the view is so rewarding. 

And one thing I loved the most was the stretch of restaurants along the beach. <3 

Like a scene we see in movies, dining along the beach, soaking our feet in the cooling sea is the best feeling ever!! As we spend our night indulging in live bands, cold beer and feet in the water, our journey in Philippines is slowly coming to the end.

The following morning, we went to the long anticipated Tour A!! Wheeee! Bundles of excitement on this one. We waited for the tuk tuk to come and pick us up to the beach area where we onboard our hire for the day! Funny thing is when the tuk tuk came, there was already 2 ang mos on board. Mind you, the tuk tuks here are unlike those in Bangkok which are relatively larger. Tuk-tuks here can fetch up to 5 people or maybe 6 with petite size. But to be honest, 2 is the most comfortable number.

Anyway how, we managed to get to the shop to register our names and get our goggles and supplies for the day and we head out!!! The rustic feel of this place is no joke. Think about Phuket or Krabi or Langkawi island hopping, the boat usually gets to a dock or ferry for you to board right, this is not the case here. We have to walk like 15m into the sea? Hahahaha. It was rather shocking for me since I’m really short. The water is already almost at my chest level when I reached the boat.

And our journey starts…

Secret Lagoon

Only entrance to the secret lagoon..

 7 Commandos Beach