Australia via Singapore 3 to 18 May 2012

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We left Sri Lanka and arrived in Singapore just over three hours later and what a shock to the system it was. How different can two islands be in this part of the world - Singapore was so modern, clean and new compared to Sri Lanka which was so old, chaotic and raw. We were staying at an airport hotel as we only had a few days but it was an ideal location for our short time on the island. After collecting our luggage we took the shuttle train to the next terminal and then just walked directly into the hotel lobby where we were greeted with a friendly welcome by the reception staff. The hotel room was immaculately clean and tidy compared to many we had stayed at in Sri Lanka but that being said, did not have the same atmosphere - so each island has its own qualities - depends on what you are looking for and willing to pay........





We intended to make full use of our time in Singapore and caught the local train into the city centre where we explored the area utilizing the easy ‘hop on hop off’ buses - there were plenty to choose from but they all took you on roughly the same route. Massive shopping malls were dotted around the city, which again was so different to Sri Lanka where we hardly saw any large department stores.





Whilst strolling around Chinatown we came across a Buddhist Temple, which stood out against the buildings all around and was very different to the many temples we had seen in Sri Lanka. The Tooth Relic Temple was built over four floors, the third floor houses the Nagapuspa Buddhist Culture Museum which was interesting to wander around. Other floors contained a Tea House and Dining Hall, serving vegetarian foods. Many locals and tourists were visiting on this day, making donations and offerings. We chatted to a lady who said that the tooth relic was upstairs and probably if we had not spoken to her we would not have seen it. Unable to find any stairs we located a small lift and on the fourth floor we came across the highly protected sacred tooth of Lord Buddha in the Sacred Light Hall. The hall/room was extremely ornate with vibrant colours and hundreds of gold buddhas glittering everywhere. A guard stood at the entrance and one had to remove their shoes before entering the hall. I always used to worry when we took off our shoes at the various temples that they would disappear, or we would be left with some others the 'wrong size' but this never happened during all our time in Sri Lanka and we must have entered over twenty temples there.......... It is claimed that this particularly tooth relic was found in a collapsed stupa in Myanmar (Burma) and here it was right in the centre of this opulent room in the centre of Singapore being visited by many pilgrims. On the roof of the temple was a pagoda of 10.000 Buddhas and the huge Vairocana Buddha Prayer Wheel, which is turned by worshippers. You would need quite a few hours to explore all of the building but we did not have enough time but were happy to have seen the tooth relic itself.





We made our way outside and right next door to the Buddhist Temple was a equally stunning Hindu Temple which we also wandered around at leisure. The Sri Mariamman Temple was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the British East India Company established a trading settlement in Singapore. Pillai was a government clerk from Penang who arrived in Singapore with Stamford Raffles on his second visit to the island in May 1819 and that leads us to our next destination - The Raffles Hotel. Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, (1781 – 1826) was a British statesman, best known for his founding of the city of Singapore and the hotel was of course named after him.



One of the reason that I have always wanted to visit Singapore was to visit the Raffles Hotel, sit at the bar and sample a Singapore Sling - as you do.... So after our exhausting tour of the city, where better to end the day........... We chatted to one of the Doormen and he escorted us through the huge building and grounds to the renowned Long Bar and on the way gave us a brief history of the hotel. So here we were sitting at the bar with Paul enjoying a beer whilst I sampled a delightful Singapore Sling - sublime... We noticed that the floor of the bar was covered in peanut shells and huge bowls of nuts were displayed on the bar and tables. Apparently the tradition of the hotel is for the shells of these complimentary peanuts to be 'disposed' of on the floor - glad I am not the cleaner......



The drink was truly delicious but as expected dreadfully over priced - when the bill arrived it was $52 (over £25) for two drinks, with Paul’s small beer about the same price as mine. On paying the bill he moaned it was, 'not half as good as a British Pint...........' I thought I had better not ask for another one so made a note of the recipe. The Singapore Sling was created at the Raffles Hotel in 1915 by a Chinese Bartender and was meant to be a ‘Ladies’ drink hence the pink colour - although it is now drunk by all and comes in various other colours and varieties (one for every season). The original recipe which I tried contained; 30ml Gin, 15ml Cherry Heering, 7.5ml Dom Benedictine, 120ml Sarawak Pineapple Juice, 15ml Lime Juice, 10ml Grenadine, a dash of Angostura Bitters and garnished with a slice of Pineapple and a Cherry. Must try and replicate it when we settled down........



We enjoyed our few days in Singapore but it was time to move on and so in the blink of an eye and a short flight (well short for us) here we are back in Australia. We had not expected to be back 'down under' so soon after or last trip but the time was right and we are both delighted to be back.



We had a smooth transit through customs and wandered out into the Melbourne arrival lounge looking for Bronwyn and Alan - our Aussie hosts. If you read our blogs you may remember that we met them whilst on a walk in Port Fairy at the end of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria last year. We only chatted to them for a short while on a riverside walk but had a lot in common, particularly our joint love of travel. So we kept in touch by email and now we are going to 'house sit' for them whilst they go on a special journey travelling north to Queensland in their caravan. This has given us a great opportunity to return to Australia and explore Victoria in more depth and then to move North ourselves to visit all the areas we missed last year because of the dreadful weather disasters. As we walked through arrivals lots of people were waiting and as we had only met Bronwyn and Alan for a very short time last year we were concerned that we would not recognise them. However Paul remembered that Alan had a beard and I remembered that Bronwyn has a nice smile - need not have worried though as there they were with a small 'sign' with our names on and we all 'recoginised' each other straight away - only a year older!



Straight away they made us feel very 'at home' and it was good to get to known them a little bit better before they set off on their own journey. It was quite strange the morning we waived them off with their car and caravan all hooked up for their long journey and we turned around and walked back into their home. We have always been told that Aussie hospitality is good - well it really is, particularly with this friendly couple who were entrusting us with their lovely home and even their second car. The day before they left Bronwyn was singing with the Casey Choir at a special event being held at Montsalvat so we travelled with them to the venue and enjoyed listening to her sing with her choir in the Long Gallery. We also met her daughter and some of their friends who had come to support Bronwyn and they all made us feel very welcome to their country.





Montsalvat is Australia’s oldest artist colony and home to practising artists who work and display their work there. Set in 12 acres of gardens which had many historic buildings dotted around including a Chapel, Long Gallery and several quaint mud built Cottages. The Great Hall was very impressive and it was in this building that we listened to the Melbourne Welsh Male Voice Choir. The Choir was formed in 1984 and since then it has grown from a small group into one of Australia's most acclaimed male choirs with more than 60 choristers. They were asking for new members and were particularly looking for tenors as most of theirs were 'getting on a bit' - their words not mine! Paul would have volunteered if we had been staying in Victoria long enough - probably best that we are not though as he has not been blessed with the voice of his father, Clifford Williams who sang with the world famous Morriston Orpheus Choir in Wales many years ago. We have fond memories of him singing to Sharon and Kerry when they were children and can remember them trying to sing in Welsh with him - it probably encouraged their love of singing today.





Whilst in Melbourne we have met up with Ros, the sister in law of Peter and Margaret, our friends in Wiltshire and with whom we stayed last time we were here. It was lovely to meet up again it was though we had not been away. We definitely hope to see a lot of more of each other this time and are planning a trip to Echuca, Ballarat and Bendigo to meet her daughter Carol and family. We have walked and cycled around Narre Warren (east of Melbourne) and have enjoyed staying in one place and putting our feet up for a while! Although we have not stood still for long and have had plenty of 'adventures' in the surrounding area which has several National Parks including the Dandenongs and Mornington Peninsula.



One day we travelled into Melbourne City on the local train and spent time visiting the places we missed last year and particularly enjoyed the Royal Botanical Gardens with the lovely autumnal colours. Situated across the Yarra River, southeast of Melbourne city centre, the gardens were an easy walk from the train station. We had lunch in a little cafe in the gardens and tried Tuna Patties with Garden Salad which was very tasty. We sat and watched as many Melbourne workers came out of their offices to jog around a multitude of designated routes around the gardens - so many that you had to move out of the way on some of the tracks....... Several beautiful Black Swans were gliding on a picturesque ornamental lake which looked quite strange as it was covered in green algae, so the swans looked like they were swimming on a huge lawn. Signs were everywhere warning people that it was water in case they stepped the wrong way!!!





We spent a wonderful few days in Bright which looked quite near on the map but was in fact a four hour journey north without stops. Bright is situated in the Ovens Valley and is a delightful place in “Autumn’ when the poplars, maples, silver birches, pin oaks, ash trees and many others display their vivid colours. Although nearly at the end of the ‘season’, the beautiful autumnal colours contrasting with the evergreen pine trees growing up the hills and mountains was lovely. We spent many hours undertaking a variety of walks in the area and enjoyed having 'ad hoc' picnics in the fresh mountain air. These walks included the Canyon Walk and the Valley View Walk, as well as the Apex Lookout Walk which started with a short drive to Quinn's Gap where we parked the car up a steep gravel track in the middle of nowhere. We set off on a steady climb through a mixed Eucalypt forest of Peppermint and Box (lovely aroma) and after an exhausting 30 minutes were rewarded with a delightful view over Bright town with the trees in all their splendor. A further short walk and we were looking out over Mount Feathertop, Mount Fainter and Mount Bogong the highest peak in Victoria which was covered in a dusting of snow. Although we did not see any animals during our climb there was plenty of 'evidence' that the hills were full of wombats and wallabies, also the songs of the birds filled the air as we made our way back down the hill.





We undertook several other walks in the nearby village of Wandiligong, a few minutes from Bright. Bordered by orchards and nut groves it is a small village with century old miners’ cottages, churches and other heritage buildings weaving along the riverbank. In the gold rush years of the 1860s the village had a population of 1000 with the arrival of European and Chinese prospectors but now there are only about 250 living in the village, many of these work in the surrounding orchards and farms that cover this region. The local school that once housed 300 children had about 30 pupils today but was still open.





On the ‘Diggings Walk’, a loop walk through the old goldfields we stopped at the Chinese Bridge near the site of the main Chinese miners camp which used to contain a small settlement of shops, houses and gardens as well as a Joss House. The bridge is dedicated to those long departed miners who worked the mines in the hope of making their fortunes, which so few did. In one area we saw the sealed up entrance to one of the mines and it looked a very tough live for all. We crossed the river and continued only to find that the next bridge had been damaged by floods and so were unable to cross to get back to the car park! We did not fancy having to retrace our route so we continued on hoping to be able to cross further down river........... After a while we realized this was not possible so decided to walk back to see if we could get across the damaged bridge but it still looked a little bit too 'risky'. In the end we decided the least risk was to jump down the embankment where the river narrowed but it was still in full flow...... Paul went first and he made it safely across landing on some rocky stones, so after hanging on to a bush which started to give way I had no choice but to jump and thankfully also made it without any damage or getting wet..... Luckily we were then able to pick up a track back to the car park without coming across any ‘nasties’ on the way!





The next day we drove into Mount Buffalo National Park to undertake a couple of waterfall walks. Mount Buffalo is a mountain plateau in Victoria and is one of the oldest parks in the Australian Alps. We drove into the park and appeared to have the whole place to ourselves as we did not see anyone all the time we were there. Our first walk was a short 45 minute loop walk to the pretty Ladies Bath Falls and then on to the Lower Eurobin Falls. Both of these were the most beautiful we had seen in a long time. A steeper track then continued up to the base of the Upper Falls which again was stunning and we thought it would be a brilliant sight in full flow when the snow was melting in the mountains. It was quite a hike up but well worth the effort and apart from one area where the edge had fallen away into the valley below it was quite easy - if you kept to the side.....



We continued on by car further into the National Park and I was not too ‘fond’ of the road, although well graded, care had to be taken all the way as the road wound its way into the park with steep drop offs right at the side of the road (ugh) - a sign had warned us at the entrance to the park that the roads were hazardous - but it was a fine day! With nowhere to stop or turn around we continued to our next walk, the Rollasons Falls Track (4 km, 1.5 hours return) and set off through the forest. The walk was not too bad to start with although it was downhill all the way but at the end it split into two sections for the Upper or Lower Falls and here the track became very steep and narrow and quite slippery. We set off one way only to find it got too slippery so tried the other way and encountered the same problem. In the end we decided not to continue as could not risk a fall down the steep sides, particularly with no-one else around for miles (I can hear the family saying 'thank goodness'😉. It was a shame though but probably for the best! We drove back down the mountain road and stopped at a picnic area (flat) with the river flowing nearby and a new bridge crossing the river and still no-one around - where is everybody. However whilst eating lunch we were surrounded by a flock of Fairy Wrens as well as a vivid Flame Robin and it was lovely just listening to the sounds of the birds in the bush.





Later we drove to Beechworth, one of Victoria's best preserved historical gold mining towns. Gold was first discovered in Beechworth in 1852 and in just 14 years more than 115 tons of gold was found. We arrived in the town and parked right outside a little bakery - nice place for lunch. Which ever way you looked there was an almost unbroken line of historical buildings and shop fronts - still being used today as they were in the 19th century - very quaint. The Post Office directly opposite where we parked was built in 1869 and the former Bank of Victoria (1857), there were also several old hotels and churches near the centre of the town.





We walked up Ford Street to the Information Centre located in the Town Hall. The staff were very helpful and we watched a short video of how the town was 'born'. The Historic and Cultural Precinct directly outside the Hall was like looking directly into the past and some of the lovely golden granite stone buildings included the town’s old Court House where Australia's infamous bushranger 'Ned Kelly' and his Mother were tried. Directly behind the Court House was a Stone Lock Up which had two cells with males kept on the left and females on the right. Prisoners were kept here whilst awaiting trial in the nearby Court House. For security reasons the stone used for the building was carefully cut and dressed so as to require a minimal amount of mortar. Ned Kelly was kept here in 1871 and his mother in 1878 - a horrid place to be and apparently the lock up continued to be used well into the 1950s.





Next door to the Court House was the impressive Telegraph Station which opened in January 1858 and was a key point of communication throughout the district. In 1871 Morse code greatly improved communications throughout Australia by the sheer speed of sending messages and news. The building remains an active Morse code station where visitors can send telegrams to anywhere in Australia for just $2 or the rest of the world for $4. The last telegram that I received was in 1967 when Paul informed me he was off to Aden with the Armed Forces and therefore would not be able to help me settle into our new home in Colchester with our baby daughter Sharon.







Nearby were other memorable buildings including a Gold Office and Sub-Treasury - during the peak of the gold rush this building was used to store 14,000 ounces of gold every fortnight and which would then be escorted to Melbourne every two weeks. In the 1880s the building became the Police Station and was still used until the mid 1990s.





At the other end of town the Beechworth Cemetery is divided into various religious denominational sections including early pioneer graves which were moved from an earlier cemetery. Soon after gold was discovered at Spring Creek in February 1852 a lack of sanitation and primitive living conditions on the diggings led to an outbreak of typhoid. Among those early deaths was the first Doctor to arrive in Beechwood who died four months after his arrival. Between 1853 and 1860, one child a week died of measles, scarlet fever, dysentery and typhoid. Some 2000 Chinese gold settlers were buried here in the Chinese section behind two large Burning Towers. These were built in 1857 and were used by relatives to burn paper prayers and money in memory of the dead. In northern China it was the custom to burn paper money at the graveside, whereas in southern China, these burning towers were used, indicating that a large section of the Beechworth Chinese community came from southern China. These tall towers stood at the entrance to the Chinese section and when they were built over 5000 Chinese were mining gold in the region.





Before leaving Beechworth we took a scenic drive (recommended by the information centre) close to the town centre, following a one way 5 km Gorge Road route. It travelled along the edge of the Beechworth Historic Park with its network of walking trails, geological features and relics of the region's gold mining history including a powder magazine built in 1859 which you can visit on the way in the middle of the bush. The stone building was built here encircled by a thick stone wall in the hope that if it did explode it would go upwards and be away from the town..... Along the route we stopped at a couple of large granite boulders to saw wonderful views towards Beechworth and the surrounding countryside. Half way along a bridge where Gorge Road crossed Spring Creek offered an interesting view of the creek as it cascaded downhill along a rocky bed, a lovely place for a picnic and paddle in the warmer weather - not today though and it was getting late. The road then turned into an unsealed section (although quite passable in the car) towards the end of Gorge Road and finished at the Newtown Falls back in the town. We then parked near a small viewing platform which provided good views of the falls and the Newtown Bridge which was constructed from granite in 1874 and replaced an earlier wooden version. We stopped and enjoyed the view back along the gorge and both agreed what a lovely historic town and area this was - we could be back.



Tomorrow we head ‘home’ to Melbourne taking the scenic route which is a little longer (6 hours) than our journey up - but is via the Yarra Valley. The Yarra Ranges and surrounding valley is renowned for its beauty, wineries, national parks, forests and mountains. Although its Autumn and the vines have all been harvested I am sure there will be plenty of samples and detours on our way - see you there.



PS - Sorry Simon C no bird photographs this time although I did take a few so will email them to you separately....

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