Australia Holiday - Day 9 & 10

Day 9
We stayed in Greenfield Farm, Albany for 2 nights. Love, love the place!  It's run by a friendly elderly couple, Dave & Jeannete. They live upstairs while the guests area is downstairs.

Interior Photos

So cosy! Felt like being in a friend's home. There was even a jar of homemade cookies and various types of homemade jam in the fridge.  Plus an area filled with toys at the bottom of the staircase. The toys kept Elyssa really busy :)

Price : AUD 120. (AUD 50 per adult + AUD 20 for Elyssa)

One point to note is the common area is shared between 2 bedrooms. Luckily, we were the only guests that time.  

Photo of Exterior. Plus check out the vintage cars in their garage!

Jaguar cars. Pheuu Phitttt ;)

On the second morning there, Elyssa woke up in a better mood and wanted to bottle feed the lamb.

 

Drink up your milk, little lamb

She patted the calf as well. Top right is a photo of me with Dave & Jeannete. Bottom right : Elyssa with daddy on a swing just outside the living room.

We checked out shortly after breakfast. Oh, but not before buying 4 bottles of yummy homemade jam. (2 for us, 2 for my parents - but Erin broke one of theirs recently. Aaargh!).

The main plan for Day 9 was basically the 5 hour plus journey back to Perth city. But of course not without a last stop at a winery.

Plantaginet Winery

View of Yellow Flowers by the Roadside

So beautiful!!! 

We also squeezed in a visit to the Araluen Botanic Park, which was pretty near Perth city already. Check out the tulips there!

Tulips, tulips everywhere

More tulips!

Absolutely gorgeous eh?

 

 

So does that mean that a visit to Keukenhof in Holland is no longer necessary??  Not quite lar..... actually, the area planted with tulips was not that big. No where near the "fields and fields of tulips that can be seen from the plane" like in Keukenhof.  But good enough for photo taking :)

 

There were also other types of flowers at Araluen Botanic Park

Train Ride

We saw the train going around when we arrived, but that turned out to be the last round.  Elyssa was sooo dissapointed! But when we were about to leave, we saw the train parked on the car park. So we managed to take some photos  :)

 

 

After Araluen, our last destination for the day was Harbour Town Shopping Centre,  a branded factory outlet mall. Hubby and I bought 4 pairs of Levis jeans for AUD 40-45 each. Not bad.  

 

Enjoying Gelato at Harbour Town

And that ended Day 9 as well as our Australia trip. All good things must come to an end. *sigh*. 

Our flight  was 6+am on Day 10 which meant we have to leave for the airport around 4+am.  We checked into Confort Inn Hostel near the airport on the night of Day 9. In hindsight, I suppose we could have saved the AUD 110 hostel stay and just loitered around Perth city for that few hours.  

Day 10

On the morning of Day 10, we drove to the airport (luckily got GPS) and dropped off the car at the designated bay (so convenient!).

 

Bye Bye Australia !!!  We had such a good time!! 



Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (Day 5)

- Just a short post on our last day in HCMC as we left for the airport around 1pm -

For breakfast, I insisted I wanted beef noodles at Pho 24 again :) I thorougly enjoyed my 4th bowl of Pho 24 beef noodles for this 5 day trip. As usual, hubby said it was so-so only.

Exterior of Pho 24

We normally go to another outlet, just 2 minutes walk away from this one (this one is more cramped and warm inside)
Some of the outlets are really close to one another!

Elyssa, all ready to go "kai-kai" for the day!

As it was only half a day, we just walked over to the TAX supermarket do some last minute shopping. Ha ha..... last minute shopping can be quite dangerous cos there's the kiasu feeling of "if I don't buy now, I won't have a chance to buy again". Besides the planned purchases of coffee packs, I ended up with quite a number of embroidered bags and tissue paper covers. ;)

After shopping, we ordered coffee at one of the popular local coffee chains - Highlands Coffee. Not that great, I preferred the coffee at the other chain, Trung NguYen.

We were still pretty full, but we stopped for an early lunch at Augustin, a place recommended by the guidebook for French food. Didn't want to leave Vietnam without trying out French cuisine! This restaurant was pretty near our hotel and only re-opened that day after a long break for the Lunar New Year.

Exterior of Augustin. Nothing fancy

But interior was warm and cosy

Complimentary warm baguette rolls served with butter. On the left was a Pate dish we ordered. Can't remember the full name

Creamy Clams with White Wine soup

This tasted hea-ven-ly !!!

Pork and pasta dish (can't remember the fancy name)

This was very good too!

Family photo taken by the waitress
err.... I think hubby was still chewing something in his mouth

Lunch was approx RM60. I don't think we can get French food in M'sia at this price!
We were glad that our last meal in HCMC was a yummy one :)

Went back to the hotel for the last time, did some final packing then it was time to go the airport. Bye Bye HCMC!!

Last photo at the hotel lobby

I know I say this every time - but it felt like the 5 days just flew by. As usual, Elyssa was pretty well behaved throughout the holiday. There were of course the occasional whiny moments but most of the time, snacks like yogurt, milk and biscuits did the trick :)
And as usual, I truly enjoyed the time spent with the 2 darlings in my life!

Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (Day 4) - Bansai Cruise

For our last night in HCMC, we decided to go for a dinner cruise along the Saigon river. We asked our hotel reception and they booked the Bansai Dinner Cruise for us. It was pretty expensive - USD 33 per pax (with a USD 3 surcharge for New Year) but we thought we should still try it out.

Price includes a 2 hour cruise along the Saigon river, buffet dinner, live entertainment, one drink and a short massage.

The Bansai Boat

Supposed to be a replica of the emperor's dragon boat

Just before going up the boat
Elyssa, hubby and I with the "emperor" and his ladies

Food was so-so only (ok, it was bordering on lousy). Not much variety and not tasty either. Most of our previous meals in HCMC were easily better than what was served that night.

Luckily, we were not disappointed cos we had minimal expectations for food - our main aim was to enjoy the atmosphere of a dinner cruise!

We got a nice table on the upper deck

Cheeky Elyssa
(in her new dress no 4)

Enjoying the night scene

Now, our Main Highlight for the night :
During dinner, there was a singer performing on stage. I asked Elyssa whether she wanted to dance and she answered with a firm "yes". I led her to the middle of the dance floor and was pleasantly surprised.................. when she started dancing happily away on her own :)

Our little solo performer

Yup, there were about 10 tables arranged in a U shape on the upper deck, and my little girl was just happily dancing away in the middle. The little Miss Show Off LOVED it when everyone started clapping. Ha hah!!! And she couldn't help smiling when an elderly Japanese man came over to shake her hand at the end of the cruise.

I must admit that I felt sooooo proud of her! Growing up, I was a painfully shy kid so I just love her strong sense of confidence !!! I hope she will remain this confident when she grows up :)

Video clips of her little solo performance

There were other dances that night too -

Traditional dancing

Sexy dancing, to a Shakira tune

But of course for hubby and I, our favourite performance for the night was from our little girl :)

-End of Day 4 -

Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (Day 4)

For Day 4 breakfast, hubby said "no more Pho 24!". Ha ha... 3 days in a row was more than enough for him. So we walked around and ended up eating - beef noodles. Well, he was happy enough that it wasn't from Pho 24 plus he insisted it was different cos he ordered the oxtail version.

The big BOWL of Oxtail Beef Noodles
This was from a cafe serving Hue cuisine which is essentially Chinese cuisine. I didn't enjoy it that much cos it tasted like noodles we can get at home, but hubby loved it cos it tasted like noodles from home. Duh!

After breakfast, it was time for shopping at Ben Thanh Market again! Bought some boxers, t-shirts and souvenir items, but the main loot was DRESSES. Yup, we went crazy -

Absolutely Lovely and Sweet Smocking Dresses.
Irresistible!

Just look at the beautiful details!

More smocking dresses, in bigger sizes

Lots of cotton dresses!!!

The dresses were actually from 2 separate trips that day. Bought some at first, then went for lunch. During lunch, I kept thinking about the beautiful dresses and told hubby we should buy some more. Ha ha. I was finally contented after the second trip :)

Note : I'm not listing the price of dresses cos I bought extra to be given as gifts plus I'm toying with the idea of putting some up for sale. But main problem I'm facing is that I love them so much that I'm tempted to keep them all for Elyssa and baby!

After shopping, we went for lunch at Quan An Ngon, a place highly recommended by my SIL and the guidebook. The restaurant is in a big bungalow with a ring of cooks at individual stations serving a wide selection of traditional Vietnamese dishes.

It was absolutely packed when we got there, but we were lucky to get a nice table next to the indoor courtyard -

Our table at Quan An Ngon

Elyssa was fast asleep in her stroller

Some of the Cooking Stations

Food we ordered

Spicy noodles, beef & onion salad, steamed rice cakes with chicken wings, pork glutionous rice and Vietnamese pancake.

Elyssa woke up just as we were about to finish eating. She had her yoghurt plus some of our lunch, then we took some photos :)

My princess and I
She's wearing her New Dress No 3

By that time, the lunch crowd had already dispersed so it was really nice and comfortable in the restaurant. We decided to order two cups of iced coffee and just enjoy the surroundings. Aaahhh...... nice! I just love travelling on our own cos we don't get restricted by schedules of conducted tours.

After our long lunch, we mad a quick stop to the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City. Nothing much to see actually.


Saw from the guidebook that the museum is popular for couples to take wedding shots. Sure enough, there was a wedding photography session going on -

Elyssa on the same staircase. Errr..... hope she doesn't make her trademark gesture on HER wedding photography day. Ha hahh!!!

We went back to Ben Thanh market for shopping trip no 2 after the museum. Then it was time to sit down again for ice-cream at Fannys, another place recommended by the guidebook.

Our ice-cream

Interior of Fannys

Elyssa fooling around with the orchid and little hat from the ice-cream

-to be continued with Bansai Dinner Cruise at the end of Day 4. Something interesting happened during the cruise! -