Here and There: A Few Matters

Firstly, Canberra's weather has gotten yet colder again. Now, the average temperature hovers a few degrees Celsius above zero, with night temperatures hitting sub-zero. Frost can be seen on grass in the mornings.

And the Captain Cook Memorial Jet is in operation again. The jet is a feature in the lake, a fountain that shoots a fine mist of water up about 50 metres. The first time I went around the lake with Weiling, the jet was not turned on because the wind was way too strong. And subsequently, I had not seen it in operation until yesterday. Here's a shot of it:



What's great about the jet is that the water is shot up high in a fine mist, so, combined with the scale of the entire jet, the whole it looks as if fog or smoke is shot out. This short video should do it justice:



Also, a few days ago I went to Batemans Bay just to enjoy some bayside view. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't that nice, with an overbearing layer of cloud in the morning and rain for the rest. That's not really surprising, as the weather around the New South Wales region has been rainy, but it was disappointing; I was looking forward to a bayside walk. Anyway, that night a storm hit the NSW coast and resulted in a pretty good amount of rain.

And next up, I'll be heading for the city with that deadly shooting: Melbourne. Not sure what I can do there, but I suppose with such a big city, I can find something that fits me.

Spot the Cockatoos

I wonder if anyone has tried spotting the number of kangeroos in a photo few entries ago. Now, try this:



Photo taken outside the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Demonstration in Canberra

While I was on the way back from Thredbo on Friday, the coach, whose route would pass by the Canberra airport, encountered a small demonstration there.



I did not get the details of the demonstration as I was inside the coach, but it seems to me that they're fighting for more benefits for cleaners. It was a rather small group... I estimate about thirty people in the demonstration, but boy it was lively! In fact, it was quite like a parade, with the demonstrators blowing whistles and shaking sand-filled bottles.

They halted traffic for a minute or two (during which I took this photograph), but it created little disruptions otherwise. In fact, I saw some passers-by waving and smiling at them approvingly. The drivers who were stopped by the crowd did not seem to mind either (but of course if they did, I doubt they would show it). There was even a television crew interviewing someone who seems like the organiser of the demonstration, probably some union leader.

I cannot comment if the demands and actions of the demonstrators are appropriate, since I know nothing about their situations, but it is at least, personally, enlightening to see for myself how a demonstration is really like (albeit a small scale one). It is one thing to think and read about demonstrations and another to really see one with my own eyes.

It's quite... educational (for a lack of a better word) to observe the contrast between Australian society and Singaporean society. I believe there will be more to discover; at least I'm certain of one: NUS grades are based on a bell-curve while ANU grades are absolute. I will definitely follow this pretty closely.

Greetings from Thredbo!

I woke up on 130607 (Wed) morning to find myself shivering in the freezing cold. Stepping out of the YHA hostel to make some purchases, it was evident why the weather was utterly chilling. It was a sunless, foggy morning. Gosh, it's the coldest ever since I've got to Canberra.



But I wasn't around to enjoy the stark opposite of Singapore's steaming oven climate that day, as I left for Thredbo in the morning. Thredbo is a village closest to Mt. Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia. It is located in New South Wales, a 3-hours coach ride from Canberra. Situated 1370 m above sea level, it is a resort village catering to bushwalking in the summer and snowsports in the winter. Yep, that's right! A ski resort, that's where I've headed!





Officially the skiing peak season has yet to start, so the village is still pretty quiet and peaceful - just the way I like it. And things are slightly cheaper too during off-peak seasons. Nonetheless, being a resort, it is pretty expensive. For example, the YHA hostel a night costs A$42, a good difference from Canberra YHA's A$25 a night. And situated in so high an altitude, the temperature is quite low, and with some wind, it can get rather icy at times, particularly at night. My typical Canberra-attire of T-shirt with jacket (and sometimes T-shirt only) simply doesn't do there. My jeans that kept me warm in Canberra failed to do the same in Thredbo as well. Serious winter clothing is needed there. I even had to buy another pair of gloves to go under the one I've brought.





There was also a very light snow on the day I arrived at Thredbo, which can only be seen very faintly in this strongly-lit photograph:



I was very lucky: I came to Thredbo at precisely the right time. On the first night, it snowed!



This was the first time in my 23 years of existence that I saw falling snow. Simply amazing, simply mesmerising. I was just walking under the snow, taking photographs after photographs, picking up snow on the ground in my hands, throwing snowballs at trees... essentially doing stuff a five-years old would do. I wished Yao or Weiling could've come along (so I could have a snowball fight!) but Yao had exams on Friday and Weiling's was leaving pretty soon (too dangerously soon to come to Thredbo).

And the snow got heavier...



... and heavier!



And here's a time-exposed photograph of the snow...



But like what Weiling told me (when I returned to Canberra), photographs and videos cannot convey that particular experience of seeing and feeling snow. The icy winds with specks of chilling cold falling onto your face... white stuff fluttering all around you... the snow gathering on the ground and leaves of trees and roofs... it's something so magical that photographs can only capture a small part. The beauty is more than just sight.

The next morning, the village had a nice, white frosting over it, just like those pictures of white winters I've always seen. And now, for once, I get to be inside them.







The ponds in the village had a very thin layer of ice over it. In the previous day, there were many ducks in the ponds and wandering about, but after the snow, they all disappeared.



In actual fact, the snow is still falling. It's just that I need to turn on the flash of the camera to capture them properly. But the snow is no longer as heavy as during the night, and remained so for much of the morning and early afternoon.



At YHA, I stayed in a 6-person room. One of my roommates was Chris, a guy from Manchester, England, who is on a backpack/working tour in Australia. He came to Thredbo to have fun in the ski season, and finding a job there at the same time. He had a very heavy accent that I have much difficulty comprehending, but we still got a long pretty well. After a nice breakfast with a steaming hot cup of tea, we went down together to the ski resort.

We went to the ski area for beginners, which is called Friday Flat. Chris had skiied before in many years ago when he was young, but he picked up almost immediately. He showed me some basics, but I probably held the record for the most falls for that day, if not this season. I mean, really, I haven't figured out the way to turn my ski blades (which is a prerequisite for braking), so the only way for me to stop is to fall down (which I did like every ten to twenty metres). I should've gotten the basic ski lessons, but I thought falling down would be a better teacher. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at this thought, it was too late: the day was almost over. Nonetheless, it was a whole lot of fun tumbling in the snow, spinning out of control, or crashing into bushes and trees.

This is a shot of the beginners' track (called Easy Does It) at Friday Flat:



By noon, my hand was frozen over with some eerie numbing pain, despite my wearing of two layers of gloves. Luckily, it did not hit the level of sharp pain - signs of frostbite - or I might lose my fingers! I did less skiing in the afternoon, and went around taking more photos. I followed Chris and some other skiers up to the higher areas. Most of them are accessible via the chair lifts.



And my, it was windy up there! My exposed face and my hands were numb, so much so that I had difficulties speaking! And the snow was heavier in the afternoon, so visibility was quite low. This is a view of the area somewhere around in the mid-mountain (and those are tracks to ski down from):



Then we went to the highest point possibly accessed via the chair lifts operating that day. It was so cold and windy that my knees were shaking, and Chris kinda tricked me into skiing an "easy" track from that chair lift to another (where we would descend to the ski shop to return our equipment; else we would have to take a shuttle bus at the village if we went down the way we came up). I had one of the most unnervingly terrifying yet intensely exciting moments of my life. By the time I reached the descending chair lift, I was chilled to the bone. I mean, at the top, it is like this:



The "fog" you see in the picture is actually snow, and the wind was so strong that it bites into the skin (and through my gloves). I even recorded a video of us taking the chair lift down (which took a shivering 10 minutes). The howl of the wind is pretty frightening; my gloves were covered with snow; and the change in the wind and snow at the top and bottom of the mountain is staggering. Unfortunately, due to expensive Internet charges, I will not be uploading it.

By late afternoon (around 1630), we ended our skiing, and went back to the hostel. It was getting dark anyway, and I am not so keen on night skiing. That was pretty much a wise choice, as - and remember I told you I was lucky to arrive in Thredbo at the right time? - the snow turned into sleet at night. It became a bit wet (with snow, things are pretty dry) and much colder, to the extent that the village is nearly as cold as the mid-mountain region.

After dinner, I stayed in the YHA lounge (there's nowhere to go at night except pubs, which isn't my kind of place). With the warmth of a cup of tea by the gas-powered fireplace (but it gave very little heat), I read my book in the huge sofa... what could be better than that? Maybe a real fireplace with real firewood, perhaps.

The next morning, I woke up with my whole body aching. Fortunately, I planned to have an easy day, since I will be leaving shortly after noon. Again, the lounge is a perfect place to be, while I ate some fruitcakes and (yes, again) a hot cup of tea. I laid there for much of the morning until I checked-out of YHA at 0930 (latest check-out time is 1000), which was a pretty good idea in my opinion since the sleet from last night is still persisting, making it terribly cold and very wet (there were puddles of water all over the place). The place was still white, but not as beautiful was on the day before.





In fact, by the time I left the hostel, the falling snow was gone: the sleet evolved into rain. Now comes the true meaning of arriving in Thredbo "at precisely the right time": if I were to go skiing that day, I would've frozen to death. And the snow would not be so soft anymore.



And here's a picture comparing the day I came (Wed) and the day I left (Fri):



I spent my remaining time there wandering around the village, stopping for a light lunch at the bakery which commanded a brilliant view of the mountain.

Thredbo's quite a nice place to be in. It casts an image of a tranquil, peaceful village, away from the crowd and noise of big cities; a silent village, sleepy, forgotten by time and the big world turning.



Or at least until the peak season starts.

So long, Thredbo, and thanks for all the snow!

Spot the Kangeroos

Spot the number of kangeroos in this picture:



Photo taken at Pine Island Reserve at the Tuggenarung suburb.

Updates from Canberra

Hello everyone! I'm in Canberra right now. It's winter time, and the air's pretty cold. It was insanely windy yesterday, as a matter of fact, so much so that cycling against the wind is like cycling upslope, and cycling against the wind and upslope is pretty much impossible. I think this picture will explain the wind speed:





Of course the wind and cold is a very nice change from Singapore's humid and hot weather (especially the super-oven weather just before I left), but yesterday it was so cold and windy that my face was quite numb throughout. Heh, looks like it's gotta be some time before I get used to the weather. Oh, and the wind was so strong that the lake's water kept slashing over the bank - something you won't see everyday:








And Canberra is really beautiful. From the National Capital Exhibition, which is a small museum explaining Canberra's urban planning, the city was planned from scratch in the early 1900s, with the city centre, the Parliament House and some defence centre at the three points of a triangle. The whole city is planned by taking the terrain into account; the Parliament House, for example, is built into a hill.





On the smaller scale, the city is clean. Very clean. I can hardly see any litter on the street - definitely cleaner than Singapore - and I seldom see cleaners or sweepers. There aren't so many dustbins around either. This says a lot about the differences in attitudes between the two societies. And the people here are very friendly, so much so that anyone can easily be role models for Singapore's GEMS project.








I went to ANU to settle some administrative stuff as well, and took a couple of shots. Here's a beautiful stretch of road that runs right through the university.





The city is very cyclist-friendly as well. It is typical for cyclists to travel in the roads, and on bigger roads there are even bicycle lanes. It is also very easy to find bike poles for bicycles. In fact, in the Union Court of ANU (the Yusof Ishak Hall equivalent of NUS), there are rows of these "parking lots" for bicycles.

And a big thanks goes to Weiling, Yao's good friend who's visiting her for a couple of weeks, for bringing me around the area near the lake, as Yao herself had a report discussion.






(You can see our bikes in this photo.)








I had a nice time going around ANU and the lake, and the National Museum of Australia (though this ended pretty quickly as both of us are not the museum-type) and the National Capital Exhibition mentioned above. We had our lunch near the lake, and our sandwiches attracted two flocks of birds, one of which sounded like R2D2. Anyway, the end result is that half of our lunch went to feeding the birds, which are actually not aggressive as one might've imagined (unlike crows in Singapore, which in similar situations would've attacked us and picked off our food; even birds in Singapore has the Singaporean kiasu mentality). The birds here are totally not afraid of humans, and it was very hilarious when we were feeding them, as they were "surfing" stationary above and around us hoping to catch the pieces of bread we threw to them:





Canberra's much better than Singapore in my opinion, and is more to my liking - quiet, slower-paced life. If there are drawbacks to staying in Canberra, it would be the high cost of living (one meal can easily cost up to A$10). Also, efficiency is not as high as back in Singapore. But I think I'd still like it here.

Going back all the way till before I reach Canberra, something interesting happened at the Sydney International Airport, where I was supposed to do my domestic transfer. Due to heavy thunderstorms, the plane from Singapore to Sydney could not land, which resulted in nearly an hour's delay. As a result, I missed my second flight to Canberra. Of course, the Qantas people fixed another flight for me, but as the airport was so huge that transiting between terminals require buses, and because there was a thunderstorm, there were many people and the buses were slow, and I arrived at the domestic transfer terminal just minutes before the departure time of the new flight - too late to board the plane in normal circumstances. However, due to the thunderstorm, that flight was delayed by about 90 minutes, so I didn't miss the flight in the end! If I did, it would have caused lots of confusion as the luggage was already checked-in with that plane.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to post updates as I go along, but no confirmation of that as it is not easy (or cheap) to get Internet connection.

Departure Delay

I know I have told some of you that I will be leaving Singapore tonight. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I'll still be in Singapore for a little longer. But if there's a need, do not contact me through my handphone. It will be suspended soon.