Farm life experience in Warrook Cattle Farm

On the way to Philip Island, we visited Warrook Cattle Farm for an educational tour to see kangaroos, wombats, sheep shearing demonstration, cow milking and the working dogs demonstration.

Warrook cattle farm is an 100 years old historic cattle and  sheep farm situated at 4170 South Gippsland Highway Monomeith, Victoria with one hour drive from Melbourne. At Warrook, you will experience a real lifestyle of Australian farming which you couldn't experience in the city.  Therefore, relax and get your hands dirty!

When we reached Warrook, what welcoming us was the tranquil trail with two rows of trees waving at us. The air crisp and the breeze playful. What a good weather it is. After that we were brought to the fauna park to see wombat and kangaroos up close. The question arouse "are joeys (baby kangaroos) born in their mother's pouch?" "What is the size of a new born joey?". These are the questions you can get your answer in this educational tour.

We proceed to the cow farm, "Do, Re, Mi, Fa..." four calves stretched their heads out of the cage awaited for our arrival, I think they were in hunger. Some of it even licked on the handbag of one of our group members by thinking this is their food. Feeding the ridiculously cute calves was another experiences you can get and I have experienced it before in Korea trip at an open farm. The calves will chased after you when you hold a milk bottle. It was fun experience! After we finished feeding the calves, we were introduced on the correct way to milk the cow. It was not hard to do it, but I just afraid the cow will felt pain. I just pretended it and took a picture.

One thing I noticed that, most of the pets are given name, and the farmer treated them as one of their family members as well. The two working dogs were then brought to the sheep area and instructed by the guide to round up sheep in a lush pasture. But there are incident that one of the working dog tried to bites on a sheep and the owner had to punish the dog. Was it an accident or a show?

The educational tour were then followed by a sheep shearing demonstration before it ended. The poor little sheep was being pulled out from the cage and look innocent when the owner sheared on its skin. It also look like the sheep was enjoying the whole process without struggling and sit still. Although the skin have been sheared, but the lanolin (wool wax) will protected it from coldness.

 

 

 
Before we departed, we have our lunch in Warrook and I enjoyed the chicken set and their house wine. 

   

What we can learn from Australia...

Discover why "There's Nothing Like Australia"... This is the new tourism tagline for Australia, I think the main marketing idea is to bring out the unique experiences you will get when you travel in Australia.

So, what is so unique travel in Australia compared to the rest of the countries? Some people even told me that Australia is the miniature of Europe, but if I would like to see Europe, I wouldn't come here purposely. I didn't really plan this trip in the beginning, but my mum insisted that she would like to discover the beauty of Australia, of course, the first westerner trip.

All the while, I have been travel in most of the countries in Asia, one reason is because the exchange rate is affordable but also I like to discover the mystery culture in Asia. It was not a bad experience travel in Australia, although it was quite rushed, but it gave me some insights...  

Quote a phrase from Samuel Johnson, “all travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.”

One thing surprised me is that the toilet in the Victoria market is very clean. Told by the tour guide, usually the family will teach the child from young to clean the toilet bowl for the usage of the next person. In Malaysia, there are no such concept implant to us, we only learn how to take care of ourselves. May be this is why our public toilets are always dirty. This is something difference in the education system, if we claimed ourselves as civilized person, this is something we can improve.

Second, they take care of their environment and valued their natural resource. A good quality control of the water can been seen in the oyster farming business when we met Uncle Jim in Jim Wild's Oyster Farm. It is a home business, but I can noticed that the river besides the farm are clean and clarity.  Not only that, Koala Conservation Centre and Penguin Reserve Centre in Philips Island also demonstrated to us the important of wild animal for them.

Third, enjoy is the part of their life. I think this is what we mean work hard and play hard. Therefore, most of the shops do closed at night. And the last one, urban planning. Malaysia authorities often changed the road structure and make the traffic terrible jam. In Australia and China, the urban planning is for 50 years.

The above is solely my opinion, if any offended make, I wish to make apology in the first place. 

Dolphin Wacthing in Jervis Bay

It took around 3 hours drive from Sydney to Jervis Bay and along the way you will have the chance to see the beautiful coastal rainforest scenery and spectacular coastline of South Pacific Ocean.

The end of winter was gently chill, the sky is cloudless, the water is clear and the air crisp. Apart from its pristine natural beauty, Jervis Bay does offer the ideal viewing experiences for dolphin, whale and seal in Australia. This trip around we are going for the cruise of seeing dolphin in wild. There are no guarantee you will see dolphin in live, therefore pray hard on it.

Australia abundance's of natural resources are the key sources of its economy. I can see that Australian really take a good care of their environment and protect the wild animal. I think we as a Malaysian should learn from them.

We are so luckily that we were able to witness dolphin with close proximity. At last, we took the famous fish and chip at the nearby restaurant after the cruise.

  

Malaysia Taxi the worst in the world?!!

It was quite shock and shame to know that Malaysia taxi driver is the worst in the world at the recent survey  published in the newspaper! Although I seldom took public transport but I have encountered the same experience where the taxi driver refuse to use meter and quoting a higher fare.

It was during a visit to KLCC. Me and my husband decided not to drive and took LRT at Taman Paramout station. We do this to avoid jam and paying high parking fees charged by KLCC during holiday.

After shopping in KLCC, we went down to the KLCC station to get our LRT ticket. But it was to my  surprised to see that the station is flooded with foreigner workers. We try to squeeze into the crowd to line up for the ticket, but we really do not know where to line up from. At last, we have to forget the idea of went back using LRT.

The next solution we have is to go back by taxi. We went to the taxi stand and get a taxi, but the taxi driver told us that the fare was RM40. We surveyed three more, all of them refuse to use meter. At last, we have to haggle and got RM35 per trip. Mentioned by the taxi driver, it is not worth to take a trip to the place we go without charging a returned trip. It will be a loss for them.

It was nonsense. But I didn't argue, I only want to go home without any delay. From this experience onwards, I will always drive myself. It is really a bad reputation for our Malaysia if this happened to traveler, although the taxi driver earned a bit more but it will affect on the long term tourism business. At last, it comes back to the taxi driver as well.         

I was being scammed in Beijing, China

I promised to write this scammed incident in my blog but I wait until now only I put down my words. Before I departure to Yangon, Myanmar, I have send a letter to the Tourism Quality Supervision and Management Offices in China to complain against the dishonest of the hospital/ company which the travel agent brought us to. But it almost one month and I didn't receive any reply from the authority.

I am writing this is to prevent the same incident happened again and hope tourists in China will be more alert. The incident happened like this. Me and my husband had been brought to a place, called by the travel agent as a Tibet hospital. Why we being brought here is because the China government would like to promote the Tibet art of healing to tourist so that people are aware of their existence.

When we walk through the main entrance, the photo displayed are the top politicians in China. They even mentioned that this is one of the government department to promote Tibet culture. After that the person brought us to a room and a lady started to share the knowledge of health. After the lady finished the sharing, she went to invite her so called head to diagnose our health by seeing only our palm lines which is the uniqueness of Tibet art of healing.

The Head came in together with two boys and the two boys will be helping us to massage our foot. But this is one of the tactics they used to hold us and prevent us walk away. The Head then introduced himself and asked where do we came from, after knowing where we from he started to put some relationship with our local famous Chinese hospital leader so that the whole scammed looks real.

After diagnosis my palm, he started to told my health condition and problem, if I didn't treat it, it will become worse and hard to get pregnant in future. Then he introduced their Tibet herb and he wrote 900 x 3 is equally to RMB1800, converted it was just around RM900. The price is considered reasonable for me but I didn't decided to buy. Then he started pursuing and mentioned the seriousness of my case. At last, due to my husband is very caring for me, he pulled out his credit card and purchased the medicine for me.

When the slip came back, it is RMB5400 (9 bottles with 20 pills in a bottle) rather than RMB1800. And he mentioned that he wrote the times 3 at the bottom at his note. We didn't argued it and at last we signed for the bill.

When we back to Malaysia, I checked the ingredient of the herbs Er shi wu wei gui jiu wan (二十五味鬼臼丸) we brought and I found out, it is just a normal medicine. Then I checked on the web for the same manufacturer printed in the bottle, the price is only RMB87. That's means 9 bottles is only cost RMB783.

So ridiculous! But what goes around comes around, I always believe that a person's actions, whether good or bad, will often have consequences for that person. 

I managed to capture this photo together with the Head which I kept it as my proof for my complaint.

The medicine and credit card slip.

  

Buying a violin in Myanmar...

After reading "how to think like Leonardo Da Vinci: seven steps to every day genius" book by Micheal J. Gelb, I am suddenly interested to classical music and hope that one day I can play a classical song.

But I didn't really plan to buy a violin in Myanmar, it is just coincidence that I came across a music shop in Bogyoke Aung San Market. The violin here is cheap compared to Malaysia, I have brought it only with USD50. Although the quality is not that good, but for a beginner like me is ok to play around as my "toy".

Taking the violin on flight is another challenges which I didn't put in mind when I purchased the violin. I forgotten that passenger is not allow to hand carry violin on board after 911 incident. This means I have to check in as luggage. What if the violin break in to two piece? Although is not that expensive, but it is still a waste.

At last, I still have to check in the violin cause mentioned by the ground staff the string of the violin can be used as killing weapon on the flight. No choice, I just have to bear the risk.

Luckily, the violin is in good shape and I am now started to learn violin in hometown. It was quite fun! 

Shopping in Yangon, Myanmar

The best place for you to shop around in Yangon, Myanmar will be Bogyoke Aung San Market. You can buy their local longyi, jade, ruby, sapphire, wood carving and painting in this local market. There are plenty of stores in it and I have dropped by to this market for 3 times during my stay in Myanmar.

I seems "lost" when shopping around in the market, and always back to the same place where I have been. There are plenty of shops around and the place is clean too. I got the impulse to buy their longyi when I saw most of their people wearing longyi in town. It is like a sarung for our Malaysian.  

Bogyoke Aung San Market is the shopping paradise in Yangon, Myanmar

Jewellery shops in Bogyoke Aung San Market, you can purchase precious gem such as jade, ruby and sapphire. 

Full of local people sitting in one of the alley in the market.

People are enjoying the street foods in one of the corner of the market.

Most of the local are wearing longyi on the streets including female and male.

Along the way to my 2nd destination - Chinatown, you can see plenty of stalls and street foods along the walkway. And it was to my surprised to see that they even sell books and reading materials on the roadside.
 

The local people selling their food in the street

There are plenty of books stall like this along the roadside

Local food stalls

Local market selling fruits and vegetables along the roadside

It was a far distance walking from Bogyoke Aung San Market to Chinatown. I passed by Sule Pagoda until I reached the significant Chinese symbolize - temple. Then I realized that I have reached Chinatown.

There are nothing really special in the Chinatown and you can notice that you are in Chinatown when you see stuffs like mooncake, Chinese sausage and dim sum. Due to the moon cake festival is around the corner, moon cake are selling in most of the stall and I have purchased their local moon cake for tasting. The special favour I have chosen is cranberry and cheese paste. The taste is like western cake and biscuit.

The Chinese temple which is located in one of the corner of the road.

There are different favour of moon cake sell in the stalls and I brought 2 favours (cranberry and cheese) for tasting, it taste like western cake rather than traditional moon cake.

The Chinese sausages are hanging in the stalls which is seldom we can see around in Malaysia.