It took me about 2 hours to travel from Brussel to the Burgundy region in South of France. This is the countryside and there is no shopping centres or fast food restaurants. The place is every peaceful and I even camp near the river for a night.
Pont Canal De Briare
The Castle
There was a market near the castle.
I visited a museum.
There were people fishing and playing along the lake.
I have to pay 9 Euro to enter Chateau de Guedelo. This is a construction site where a team of people is trying to build a castle using the techniques and materials used in the old days (without the help of technology). The daily work stops after sunset as there is no electricity. The project began in 1997 and is scheduled to complete in 25 years.
Each year hundreds of people visited the site and this place is now a popular tourist spot. According to the information I have gathered while I was there, the authority has already collected enough money from the entrance fee to build the castle. Now they are trying to slow down the work so that more money can be collected. What a good business strategy!
Parc Astérix is a theme park situated in the north of Paris, France. This theme park is based on the stories of the French comic character Asterix. You will enjoy the park more if you do know about European comics and appreciate the France humour.
If you have more time, take a walk across the bridge and have a good aerial view of the habour.
You could sign up for the half day climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and get certified.
There is also the Rock where you could have some refreshment while doing your shopping.
You could also take the ferry to the zoo or to the other side of the nude beach and take a bus back. Just take note of the timetable for the ferry as the last boat is at 5pm.
The trip to Bali was through Time Sharing. Someone invested in time sharing and was given a free stay in a restort in Bali with 2 free return air tickets. He approached me to accompany him on this holiday trip. The resort is rather comfortable with a swimming pool infront of the room. The beach is about 15 minutes walk. However, when we turned on the tap to take shower, muddy water came out. The Australian engineer took a few hours to fix it. The next day, we hired a taxi driver to take us around to visit the tourist attractions.
Auckland to Rotorua is about 3 hours car ride. When I was in Auckland, I stayed in Nomads Kiwi Paka with 20 beds in a room and I was the only guest in that room. Maybe I should not call “beds” as it was rows of mattresses on the floor.
I visited the the Te Puia to see bubbling mud pools. I also visited a Maori village and experienced the culture differences. I went to a farm, watched the sheep show and fed the animals.
I arrived in Christchurch by the colourful Virgin Airlines. Anyone who has taken the flight will have a deep impression of the airlines as it is different from the traditional airlines. There are posters and advertisments inside the plane. When the plane landed, there were loud cheers and chaps (from the speakers).
I took the seven o’clock morning train on the scenic route from Auckland and reached Wellington at seven o’clock in the evening. The 12 hours’ ride was spectacular with the view of the snow mountain. We even had a stop in the National Park to get down for photo taking. In the city, I took the cable car up to the hillside and had the aerial view of the city. From Wellington, I took the domestic flight to Christchurch which is in the south island.
Fremantle is just about 45 minutes of train ride from the city of Perth. I was there on a Friday afternoon. The place is bit of slow and quiet. I think I see more people in MBC than in Fremantle. The Fremantle Market opens only on weekends. I bought a T-shirt from one of those tourist shops at a discounted price of A$10. The next day when I was in Perth, I saw T-shirts with the same design are selling at A$5 each. Got cheated!!!!
From Perth, I took the Indian Pacific Train (印度太平洋火车) to Adelaide. The journey is 2 days and 2 nights (48 hours). The train had a stop at Kalgoorlie at about 1am. I got out of the train with my seat partner (a young German girl) to explore the quiet town. We walked for about 30 minutes and finally found McDonald’s.
The train continued. We passed by 2 deserted towns – Tarcoola and Forrest. We had our second stop in Cook Town. There are only 5 men and one fat woman living in this 鸟不下蛋的地方. We got off the train and had a self-guided tour in this ghost town for about 2 hours.
