Adelaide – Part 2

After our city tour, we went and meet up with my friend, Shameeta!

She brought us to this Mongolian BBQ restaurant for dinner. It was interesting… but I wouldn’t recommend eating it often. You fill up your bowl with meat, then top it up with veges, and then mix in your own sauces/marinates… then pass it to one of these cooks to cook it on the hot plate or whatever you call this stove.

Advice: Follow the suggested ingredients, or else you’ll find that the food you “invent” yourself taste funny.

The very main reason we visited Adelaide… Shameeta’s birthday!

Shameeta and her husband

I was the deep fryer for her that day. I fried currypuffs and wicked wings! I know how to make wicked wings, thanks to Shameeta for the great recipe!!! The wicked wings tasted sooooo good ok…. can compare with KFC!

There was also rendang, sandwiches, cakes, fruit, etc.

Birthday girl didn’t want to risk her dress splattered by rendang, so she wore a bathrobe

The theme for the party is Indian. I didn’t have anything indian, so borrowed a top and also stuck one bindi on my forehead.

My new boyfriend, Aidan…. cute right?

Aidan is soooooooo handsome and cute!!! He calls me “Aunty Flowa”, so cute.

Shameeta’s father-in-law is so sporting. He really came dressed up as an indian, from head to toe.

FYI, the beard is fake. I wonder how he took it off after the party. It was funny to see him try to eat, because his moustache kept getting in the way.

We stayed 2 nights at Shameeta’s. Really had a great time with her and family.

And then, it was time to go and meet Mat’s cousin again on Sunday morning. We took the bus to the city. The bus service in Adelaide is really good. They even have special bus highways/tracks called O-Bahn. The bus goes at the speed of 100kmph on these tracks.

Mat’s cousins took us for tim sum. I can’t remember the last time I ate tim sun… really missed it.

This restaurant is so popular that, you cannot sit and talk after eating, they will “chase” you away to accommodate waiting customers. So eat, pay and leave!

First stop, Mount Lofty Summit. This is the highest spot in Adelaide.

You can see the whole of Adelaide from up here. The picture is not very clear, but you can roughly see the city. It’s really small… but the housing area is very spread out. Alot of satelite towns around the city.

And there’s this lighthouse that Mat and his cousin revealed their hidden talent….

Posing…

My hubby look very yao yeng here hor 😀

We all stuffed ourselves abit too much with tim sum, we went for a short walk in the “bush”. FYI, Australians call their jungle or forest, “BUSH”… go on… you can laugh… cause I did… hahahahahaha

Next stop, Beerenberg Strawberry Farm. It’s not the season to pick strawberries, but they produce some really good jam.

I heard SIA get their jams from here.

And our final destination, a German village, Handorf.

German people live here, some even speak english like German. They also sell German products, like their famous cuckoo clocks.

We also did alot of touristy stuff… like this classic one:

And I also digged a horse’s nose… everybody say… EWWW!!!!

You ever wonder where Crocodile Dundee went to all this while? Well… somebody burried him upside down here.

And who could resist an ice cream on a cold winter day…..

Reminds me of the ice creams we ate in Germany.

Next destination, airport. Time to fly home. Holiday over 😦

So many people say Adelaide is so boring, so small, nothing to do, etc… Too bad it was such a short holiday. We really like Adelaide! It’s so laidback, relaxed, peaceful. There are still many more places we haven’t visited. So… Adelaide… we’ll be back!

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Adelaide – part 1

We were on a short weekend holiday in Adelaide. Just came back on Sunday.

People call Adelaide the city of churches. And yes, there are really alot of churches. It reminds me of Mainz, Germany, with every 20 steps you take, there’s a massive church. Adelaide is something like that, but not that close in proximity.

People say Adelaide is a very small city. Well… we finished walking nearly the whole city in just 3 hours, including a 1 hour tour in the museum. That should give you an idea how small the city is. I think the size of the city can be compared with Kuching. I like it. Small, quiet, relaxed. For first time visitors, I would advice to go to the information centre in Rundle Mall and get maps and advice how to go around the city. Very good tourist service there.

Silver balls in Rundle Mall – this carless street is Rundle Mall, in other words, shopping haven

One thing we noticed, Adelaide is such a clean place… like Kuching… I think I’m a little biased here.. hehehe

Well… they have pigs to clean up the rubbish…

One place in the city you must see is the Haigh’s Chocolate shop. We bought a strawberry in white chocolate, and it tastes really good. Abit expensive on the price, but, I’m assuming it’s quality chocolate.

Haigh’s Chocolate

There are 2 churches here that you need to visit. We only managed to visit 1. The other one is walkable, but abit too far, and we had limited time for we had other things to do.

First church, Holy Trinity church and clock. It’s the oldest church in the state, built in 1838.

Holy Trinity Church and Clock

This next one is the old Parliament House:

Old Parliament House

And just next to it, is the new Parliament House. We wanted to go in for a tour, but we missed it by 5 minutes. We won’t be able to make it on the next scheduled tour. Oh well… next time.

New Parliament House

This building, is the State Library. I was in awe when I stepped into the old part of the library. It is absolutely amazing!

State Library

I was like wahhhhhhhhh…. then turned and wahhhhhhhhhhh…. then went upstairs and WAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH somemore.

This library is so beautiful, no wonder people in the olden days had such motivation to read and study and research eh? If my library was like this, I’ll read in here all day long.

Close up of the books from floor to ceiling

Mathias missed 3 days of doing this studies and research, so he had a little catch up time with his revision.

Talking about competition, The University of Adelaide and The University of South Australia is just side by side.

We passed by Governor’s House. It was opened for public on Sunday, but we had other places to visit. Maybe next time.

And just outside the Governor’s house is

…. oh… they shouldn’t have…

… oh.. I’m so honoured!… …

There was some service going on at the National War Memorial. This was erected in 1931.

Next stop, Botanic Gardens. Very much like the Botanic Gardens in Victoria.

There is a vineyard. Behind the vineyard, is this futuristic looking greenhouse. Well… you have to pay AUD8 to go in… to see what you ask? A Tropical Rainforest. I think I have seen more than enough in Malaysia. So I shall leave this to the people who has never seen a tropical rainforest. They built that humongous greenhouse to control the humidity.

What’s left of the vineyard:

And a rose garden:

Chinatown… seems like every where outside of China, there is a chinatown. Chinese are just in every corner of the world. The usuals… chinese food, chinese people, chinese ornaments, etc.

China Town

Adelaide too has a Central Market. Very much like Victoria Market here in Melbourne, but much smaller.

And this last picture… is for my mother-in-law to see.

More pictures to come.

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