5 things you must do in Dubai

Dubai or Middle East in general always reminds me of Aladdin and arabian adventures. Sand dunes, camels, deserts, arabian nights and all that jazz. If you are heading up to Dubai, lucky for you! Here's 5 things you must do in Dubai! 

1. Desert safari

You cannot leave the middle east without visiting and experiencing the dessert dunes. Most drivers are very skilled, so be prepared for roller coaster ride through the deserts! I believe there's a lot of companies offering tours, so check up their websites and see which one suits you the most!

2. Camel ride

How can you go to the desert and not ride a camel? Lucky for us, travellers, almost all desert safari packages includes camel rides! 

3. Arabic food
Hummus and pitta bread are two of my favourite food, in fact Bitta Pitta is one of my go-to places in Beijing! ARABIC FOOD IS BOMBZ. Be sure to try an arabian feast while you are in the middle east! 

4. Souk shopping
Souk is middle east version of a market place. Dubai is famous for it's Gold Souk but it also has souks of every kind from spices to souvenirs to handicrafts. The one I visited (pic below) is the Old Souk/Deira Spice Souk. The south sides are mainly textile shops while spices are located on the north side. 

5. Burj Kalifa

You can't leave Dubai without a visit to the famous Burj Kalifa. Standing at 829.8m, it's currently the tallest building in the world. You get a panoramic view of the entire city, and believe me, the view is breathtaking! 

Apart from these five things, there are plenty of other places to visit in Dubai. Be sure to check out Dubai Mall, it's possibly the world's largest mall. It has everything a mall could possibly have, ice skating rink, cinema, waterfall, aquarium, on top of the countless shops. I spent a whole afternoon there and it wasn't enough. Since Dubai is summer all year round, hit up Jumeira Beach for a swim or tan and snap a picture of the 7 star hotel, Burj Al Arab. If you are in Abu Dhabi, make sure to pay Sheikh Zayad Mosque a visit. There's no better place to understand Islamic culture than a a mosque, the heart of it all. 

TRAVELOGUE: Canberra

What's going to a country without visiting it's capital city? Contrary to popular capitals like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Canberra is a not very popular among locals and foreigners. Reason being it's a city for politics and education, not so much for sightseeing or shopping. Nonetheless I still decided to head up here for a look and it didn't disappoint. It's definitely worth a visit! 

1. Transport

You can get to Canberra via flight, train, coach or car. 

Coach: Murrays coach run from both Sydney Central and Sydney airport to Canberra. 

Train: You can take NSW Trainlink from Sydney Central to Canberra Station (Kingston), it costs 79AUD (return trip). The ride is about 4hrs

Car: 3hrs drive from Sydney central to Canberra

We drove to Canberra from Sydney and the city itself is very easy to navigate. If you are not driving then bus is the only form of public transport in Canberra. 

2. Accomodation

We stayed at YHA Canberra. It's very affordable, esp for students-on-budget like us. It's located in the city center, a stone throw away from Canberra Centre. 

Address: 7 Akuna St, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

3. Places to visit

1. Parliament House

This is definitely one of the most grand looking parliament house I've seen, or maybe I've just not seen enough? You don't have to be interested in Australian politics to want to snap a picture in front of the parliament house. 

Address: Parliament Dr, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

2. Australian War Memorial

If you have very limited time in Canberra, this is a must-visit place (other than the Parliament House). It's one of the best curated museums I've been to! And you get a very nice view looking down ANZAC Parade from the war memorial.

Address: Treloar Cres, Campbell ACT 2612, Australia

3. Lake Burley Griffin

This is my favourite place in Canberra. Located at the centre of Canberra, it's easily accessible from both sides of the city. 

4. Telstra Tower
Located at the summit of Black Mountain, it offers a 360 view of Canberra. You can either walk up through the Australian bush or drive up (obviously the less tiring choice). The tower itself is not very interesting but the view's amazing! We tried locating where everything was, and yes the Parliament House is still very obvious from such heights! 
Address:100 Black Mountain Dr, Acton ACT 2601, Australia

Apart from these four places, we also visited possibly all the museums in Canberra. National Library of Australia, Questacon, High Court of Australia, National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery of Australia are all within walking distance from each other, so you should visit them altogether. And lastly, if you have time, take a walk around Australian National University, the campus is huge! 

4. Food

1. Dobinsons Bakery Cafe
We had breakfast on both mornings in Canberra. 
Address: Canberra Centre, 177 Bunda Street, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

2. Poppas Pasta
I believe there's not many Italian restaurants in Canberra so this is the only one we found but IT'S GOOD. We tried Cabonara and Spaghetti Bolognese, and they are really good. 
Address: 73 Canberra Ave, Griffith ACT 2603, Australia

3. Ka Sushi Ramen
Best japanese food in Canberra! The service is good and it has nice interiors! 
Address: 3/121 Marcus Clarke St, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

TRAVELOGUE: Ballarat

Headed to Ballarat, and I discovered that this city is a hidden gem! It's a short drive/train ride from Melbourne, about 1.5hrs. It's most commonly know as the mining town, with Sovereign Hill and Gold Museum as popular tourist attractions. If you are looking for a kids friendly place, Sovereign Hill is the place to visit.  

Lydiard Street is main street of Ballarat central. The buildings are mostly low rise buildings with Victorian style architecture. In fact, the tallest building there is 5 stories high I believe! The Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. It has a very extensive collection of artworks, enough to keep you interested and in awe. My favourite part of the city is Lake Wendouree, it's gorgeous. The perfect place for a run, a picnic, a stroll, and the best thing is people live right next to it! Apart from the city, if you are looking for some country adventures, here's 5 other places to check out!

1. Ballarat Botanical Gardens

I have a thing for botanical gardens, especially after spending a whole afternoon roaming around Melbourne's Royal Botanical Gardens. This one is relatively small, but beautiful nonetheless. I love the glasshouse, mainly because of all the flowers inside and the smell, heavenly! There's also this path with statues of very Australian prime minister, pretty cool!

Address: Gillies Street North, N Ballarat VIC 3355, Australia

2. Ballarat Wildlife Park

One of the places I was most excited about because of KANGAROOS & KOALAS! It's not a huge area but it's enough to keep you entertained for several hours. Other than kangaroos, most of the animals are kept in their respective areas. The kangaroos are super friendly (and hungry), and also very chill. All they do is eat, sleep and hop around. That's the life man!

Admission: 29.50AUD

Address: Cnr of York & Fussell Streets, Ballarat East VIC 3350, Australia

3. Mt. Buninyong

For the view, it is worth going up. I mean after seeing skylines after skylines, I really like seeing acres of land for a change. 

4. Yuulong Lavender Estate

Unlike the fancy pants (or should I say overly decorated) lavender farms in BeiJing, this one is very raw with minimal decorations. Most of the lavenders are harvested because they bloom in the summer (which is in December for Australia) but there were still some left! I love lavenders, they are possibly my favourite flowers after hydrangea. Well if you are heading here, make sure to come in late November or December! #seaofpurple

Address: 58 Sharrocks Road, Mount Egerton VIC 3352, Australia

5. Buninyong Blueberry Farm

Blueberry picking, this is my favourite part of the entire trip! When city girl me meets country life, I'm all in. First time eating a berry straight off the tree, sounds silly but #cheapthrill! I would come back just to do this all over again. You can pick and buy the berries at $7/kg!

Address: 7189 Midland Highway, Buninyong VIC 3357, Australia

xx

TRAVELOGUE: Tianjin

Took a weekend trip to Tianjin back in December. It's been so underrated due to it's proximity to Beijing, the capital of China. Despite the proximity, there's vast differences between the two city as I soon found out upon arriving. The main one being Tianjin just like Shanghai is a coastal city, hence it's skyline is depicted by the river that runs through the middle of the city. The river sort of separates the city. One side of the bank is colonial architecture due to colonization and the other side is modern architecture depicting modern Tianjin. Shanghai of the North maybe?

Tianjin's Eye (Ferris Wheel) is definitely worth a go. For 70rmb, you get a panoramic view of the whole city, especially the gorgeous skyline. I would suggest going there at night because night view's always better than day view. 

Speaking of views, this is the view from our apartment on the 23rd floor. *spot Tianjin eye* It's pretty easy to get accommodations in the city center, especially because everything is relatively near each other. 

The Italian Style Street was located right below our apartment so we went there for a walk a night. It's not exactly very much Italian but it sure has some fancy bars and clubs, for Chinese standards I would say. And yes, I had to get a TNL. 

We spent probably a good hour taking pictures around the bridge with a gorgeous back drop of the sunset and Tianjin's skyline. Then we walked over to the train station to catch our train back to Beijing! 

Would I go back to Tianjin? Yes, in a heartbeat. It's so different from Beijing, different in a good way. It's a more liveable place. I like how it's not crowded at all, people are more friendly, things are relatively cheaper, although cabs are way harder to get in Tianjin. Although having said all that, if you are in China just for holiday, go to Shanghai for city life. Tianjin's more suited as a getaway place for people sick of the hustle and bustle in Beijing but still wants the city life. 

Snippets of Dubai

So, this is UAE, Dubai. 

It was a really good week. Actually good is an understatement, because Dubai was such an eye opener. The week in Dubai showed me another side to this Islamic country. Maybe I'll do a detailed write up about my thoughts on this some other time. Dubai is more than just fancy hotels, tall buildings and shopping galore, it's arabic culture is so much more worthy. 

TRAVELOGUE: Stockholm

Stockholm. I don't know where to begin. The Stockholm I pictured in my head was the typical stereotype, Land of Ikea, but it's so much more than that. Stockholm has a charm, that captivates me, and it has my heart. Or should I say Scandinavian countries has my heart. Although I did of course pop into Ikea and you never say no to meatballs, you just don't. 

 

 

 Interesting fact, Stockholm is made up of 14 islands which are connected by bridges. I love water, sea, ocean, lakes, I love them all. And one third of Stockholm is actually water. I wish I could call it home. 

Did that make you wanna go there too? Or perhaps my pictures are not good enough. Imagine 20x pretty than that in real life. Now you would want to go. 

Take me back to Stockholm, now. Perhaps spending a few months or a year there is a really good idea? I wish I had the luxury of spending a few months just travelling. #wanderlustfever 

Hello Helsinki

I am finally here in Helsinki, Finland! I can hardly wait to start school, mingle with my classmates, explore Helsinki and fall in love with Finland. Quaint neighbourhoods, efficient public transports, friendly people, it is hard not to like this city.

Took a walk around the city centre after settling down, and realised that it's actually really small. The whole city centre is within walking distance. There's hardly an high rise buildings, the whole place is filled with low rise buildings of European architecture. I am indeed fascinated with this city people hear very little about. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks here!

Seoul Travelogue: Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gyeongbokgung Palace was the first royal palace built by the Joseon Dynasty, three years after the Joseon Dynasty was founded. Built in 1395, Gyeongbokgung Palace was located at the heart of newly appointed capital of Seoul and represented the sovereignty of the Joseon Dynasty. The largest of the Five Grand Palaces, Gyeongbokgung served as the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty. 

(quote www.visitseoul.net)

This place is a must visit place when you are in Seoul. It's one of the most beautiful and grand palaces I've been to in Asia. I'm sure you'll feel like you travelled back in time while exploring the palace. If you are into historical kdramas, you are at the right place! 

Since Gyeongbokgung Palace is located near many other attractions. I would recommend you to visit SamCheongDong, Bukchon Hanok Village, Insadong and Cheongwadae along side with it. I would advise you to spend half a day to a full day visiting these places. Also, be sure to stop by Tosokchon for lunch to try the best Samgyetang(Chicken Ginseng Soup) in Seoul! 

Directions: Take subway Line 3 to  Gyeongbokgung Stn. Exit 5. Walk 5 minutes. 

Tel: +82 2-3700-3900
Website: www.royalpalace.go.kr/
Opening hrs: 09:00~18:00(Final admission at 17:00)
Price: Age 19~: 3,000 won , Age 7-18: 1,500 won 
Recommended duration of visit: 1.5hrs