Barmah Forest Trip & Visit To Melbourne

Worldviews lecture was cut short due to fire drill. Everyone rather stand in the sun than listening to the weekly philosophical lecture.


The guys above 25 (only three of us) gets a chance to drive the bus on trips and get paid 25AUD/hour. The rest of the young punks don't get a chance cos insurance don't cover them. This time Liam gets paid as he study!


Bus rides like this last for one to five hours. The longer ones are the kind I buay tahan...noisy...smelly...dirty....


On this trip, we study the human activities that affects the Murray River which is the longest in Australia. We also took a look at the Barmah forest state park...where we saw wild horses and emus...they run too fast...cannot catch a shot of them in time.


Flood levels through the years.


Unlike the ang mohs the Aboriginal people in the past don't believe in chopping down trees. So they cut part of it out to make canoes or furniture. Scar trees like this one can be found throughout Australia.


I had at least a Singapore kakhi along on this trip. Suzanna who is doing her postgrad studies in Outdoor Ed decided to tag along for the trip. We had sushi for dinner and the ang mohs was so amazed that we can do that in the field. Swa ku!


"Kumpung Singapore"! The 20 year old Macpac tent vs my 300SGD "Nut" tent on the right!


An overview of a dried up lake in Barmah Forest. Photo was taken on top of a tree I climbed. Can see the ang mohs were up to something among the Giant Rushes...their kind of lalang.


Stunt one: As usual, they got bored and started running and diving into the rushes. Then later... like the previous trip, some started stripping and taking nude shots in the grass. I discovered the ang mohs just have this habit of stripping...


Stunt two: While studying the thick amount of duck weed on the river, Beck took up the dare to cross the river by crawling over the weeds without getting wet. Result: She failed horribly and had to endure a wet trip back home.


The Great Wall of Instant Noodles! You can find all the varieties of instant noodles on this seven 30meters shelves in the Melbourne Asian grocer.


Manage to find the new Hardrock climbing gym in Melbourne!


...but very crowded. Nice place though...look like Camp 5 in KL but slightly smaller. Earlier that day Suz and myself went around Melbourne shopping for my wetsuit. We went to have tim sum in chinatown as well. Just to show that life here is not as bad as it seems to some of you...

Winter Alpine Trip At Bogong High Plains

Just came back from my ski and alpine trip in the mountains some where along the Great Dividing Range. Here are some of the many pictures taken...takes too long to upload all.


We had to put up at a school hall near Falls Creek for the night. Everybody was dead tired from a long day of lectures and bus ride from uni.


A cold front hit us as we were on our first day of expedition led by our leader cum lecturer Terry Gaechter. The problem with Australian snow is its cold and wet...sometimes snow, sometimes hail and other times even worst...rain.


After setting up camp, we kept ourselves warm by digging a sheltered kitchen with wall lightings. By night fall we were so tired that we went straight to our tents once dinner was done. Due to the wet and cold conditions, some of the chow ang mohs didn't even get out of their tents the whole day!


After enduring minus two degrees temperature in the wet tent the whole night, I was so glad to see the sun the next day. Good time to dry all my gear.


Our campsite from a nearby hill. The pile of snow on the right is our "great wall" to shelter the kitchen and tents from the wind.


Heres a shot with my tent buddy, Chris. We started to dress down as the day grew warmer.


I can stand with my skis on!!!


After the bad weather on the first day, we were blessed by warmer weather as we toured the region for the next couple of days.


When tired, we stop for an hour long lunch picnics. Slack man...heres mine.


Here is the group skiing up the towards the ridge going up Mount Nelse. Can see we all no teamwork...don't ski even ski together.


At our pace, even the fox also faster than us!


Summit shot. After this all the pui ang moh cha bohs decided to do a nude shot together...I not pui enough to join them.


The sian look on my face after seeing their fat white naked butts.


Eye power! This is the usual scene when there is serious work to be done. Feels like doing national service again.


With all the mountain views by day and star filled skies by night, this was a great experience personally. However I found it difficult to share this experience with anyone as I stand alone in this foreign land...Damn! I miss home!

Water Environment Survey, Mt Stirling Ski Trip & My Mug

We had to do an environment survey of the water around town...recording frogs species, doing water test etc. I am suppose to write a 2000 word essay on what i think about it. Sian man! How to write 2000 words on catching frogs?! Can see thats why there were unhappy participants around.


We had to count and take note of water bugs like this as part of the survey.


While doing all that, we came across this site. The white stones here were placed by the parent bird to act as a decoy to prevent predators from getting the real egg in the nest. Interesting!


Did an introduction to cross country skiing last week at Mt Stirling. Here is my group and some seniors. It is much tougher than down hill skiing cos there isn't any ski lifts to get you to the top of the hill. So we had to ski up and down and to make it worst, I had to do all this with my 18kg pack. Sorry...no photos of actual skiing cos I spent most of the time crashing while the group waited for me.


Can see there is not much snow left as we had to find a patch of it to pitch our tents on. If not how to call it camping in winter and alpine environment?


Here is my mug I made during my orientation. Not bad for a half hour job...still got my name some more.


Thought it is nice, thats why I took it. There are more flowers blooming as its the end of winter now. Great time to get out for some sun...we even had our tutorial class outdoors instead of using the rooms. Its starting to get busy at this stage of the semester...assignments and field trips almost every week. Still moving along...

"Operation Ba Kwa"

"Operation Ba Kwa" was something I wanted to do when I am here. So earlier this week I finally did it! It actually turned out pretty good. I brought some to the people(from church) who ate it before so that they can give me some comments. These were some of their comments: "where did you buy them?" or "wah! can sell and make money" or "how did you make it?". I added some photos to prove to my critics back home that I actually did it! Acknowledgement goes to Jerri for giving me the recipe and showing me how its done. Thanks Jerri!


(a) A bowl of marinated minced beef after about 30 min(can't find minced pork or chicken). (b) After spreading on an alum foil, put it into the oven to dry and drain away the excess.


(c) Cut it up and then either grill or fry it. (d) End product! Goes well with porridge too.

Mid Week

I will usually take a 15 min drive north to an indoor heated pool at Eaglehawk for my weekly swim. Its 4AUD per entry (concession rate). The temperature of the water is far from heated...24 degrees but this is as good as it gets...especially in winter!


Some Asian stuff I got from the grocer in Melbourne.


Mail from Singapore!!! Unfortunately they were mostly investment related or bills to be paid or even junk mail... I guess this is the kind of mail you find in a 30 something's mailbox. Sad but still enjoy reading them. Thanks Dave!


The Drosera peltata is starting to bloom which only mean one thing... spring is almost here!!!


Was walking in the bush and had a rare visit by a Echidna (ant eater) in the bush. They are usually more common at night.

Naturalist Studies

This week I had my first field trip for one of the units called "Naturalist Studies". Sounds cheem but in this trip, we were taught how to kwa zhiow(see birds)...


...like the small ones, the Australian version of Magpie...


...and got up close to the bigger ones in the water like the cygnus atratus...which simply means black swan...must show I got do research mah!


We did other stuff as well...like study about the Acacia pycnantha aka Golden Wattle which is also the country's national flower. Damn! Im good!


This is how the real mistletoe looks like...its actually a parasite that grows on trees. My chow ang moh classmate tried to con the girls to stand under it with him so he can get a chance to kiss them. He failed horribly.


The remains of a Brushtail Possum...had to draw and do research on this as well.


Tracks of a wallaby(smaller version of the kangaroo)...measurements were part of the job too.


Other than the week of "National Geographic" activities, it wasn't a happening week. Now that the hype of being away is over, it tends to get really lonely at certain moments...many of my dreams are about the ones back home...symptoms of homesick? I think so. Going to Mr Brown's website helps me stay Singaporean! Free some more...not like The Straits Times Interactive!Still need to pay to feel Singaporean! tsk tsk tsk...SPH shares better go up! Anyway pictures like this brings back good memories...of Home.