Up close & personal with the animals

Today after church, went for lunch at Ipoh Garden Restaurant to try their Ipoh chicken hor fun. CT ordered the soup


while I ordered dry hor fun. Very yummy! Love the huge succulent prawns all peeled out for me.



We also ordered a plate of fried chicken which is one of their popular dishes. But one plate like that costs us about $15 (if I remember correctly).



After a quick lunch, we made our way to Caversham Wildlife Park to see the animals. I wanted Caleb to see the Aussie animals when we were here in Perth and I figured, the Perth Zoo will be similar or not as good as Singapore's. Moreover, I wasnt interested in other animals but only Aussie ones. So this Wildlife Park fits what I wanted.



This place is highly recommended, especially if you have kids. But without them, you will still enjoy as you can get up close with the koalas and kangeroos without having to pay extra money for phototaking. You can take as many shots as you like and pet or feed them as many times you want.

When we first arrived, we were in time for the "Meet the wombat & friends" session. The wombat is like the main attraction in this place as its HUMONGOUS! As we were queueing up to meet the animals, one of the zookeeper came with a spotted quoll. So cute. Never seen such animal before.



Caleb kept stroking its tail.


Caleb was a little cranky as we were queueing up to see the animals and wombat but once he saw the animals, he were excited to touch every one of them.

There was the owl..



the joey (baby kangaroo)..



a blue-tongue lizard



and of course, the famous wombat which weighs 27 kg!





There were lots of animals to see. Like the quokka, which is another native animal



Think Caleb enjoyed playing with the rabbits most as children under 5 years old are allowed to go into the rabbit enclosure to play with them. Here's Caleb interacting with them. Its funny because Caleb kept disturbing the brown one which was sleeping and lying still. Then he said, "Go Go" and started pushing the rabbit so that it can run and not lie down. Check it out!



There was also a farm show where they showed the shearing of sheep skin,





the feeding of the sheeps etc. Very entertaining as they had participation from the audience. I was busy trying to keep Caleb quiet and still by continiously feeding him coco pops.



After the whole show, we could go down to the cow to milk it. CT had a go at it.



Caleb also went to touch the sheep that just had its skin sheared for some lanolin!



Caleb had a really great time going up close with the farm animals.





We get to see Wallaby and Baby Kangaroos too







Also got upclose with the Koalas. Their fur is soft and they look so cuddly.







And there were the carnivorous tasmanian devils which seemed to be begging for food.


Our last stop was the kangaroo enclosure where we had the most fun!




There were so many of them all over and there was endless amount of food to feed them with.




I didnt like to feed the huge looking ones as they would pounce on you to get the food. So I look for the cute ones to feed. Ha.


We stayed at the wildlife park for about 3 hours. We were all so tired already.



On our way home, the sun set and it was nice to be back home. Couldnt wait for dinner as Cherie was cooking for us! Yay!



But as usual, once I reach home, I would always be so busy with unpacking my bag, bathing Caleb and making sure Caleb has food for dinner etc. So its not as if I can chill out once I reach home. It is just so different when travelling with a kid as there is just so many things to think of.

The boys, including Caleb were having some male bonding time at the corner of the house



While Cherie and I were busy cooking (I was cooking porridge for Caleb).



Here's our yummy-licious dinner!

Pan fried herbed lamb chops topped with lemon zest.


Couscous with sun dried tomatoes, basil leaves and mushrooms


As well as a baby spinach, rocket leaf salad with pesto sauce, prosciutto and grape tomatoes.


(Cherie: do let me know if I got the ingredients wrong. I am just guessing based on what I see. Ha. Thanks for such a wonderful meal! I am still drooling when thinking about the food that you cooked.)

And of course, Caleb's porridge



After dinner, while washing the dishes, Caleb just randomly laid on the floor and did some colouring.



Then we all gathered to play "Who wants to be a Millionaire" boardgame.


Had loads of fun and laughter playing that game, though it was an Australian version, as we invented our own rules.

Tonight, had to pack bag for our roadtrip down South tomorrow. Another adventure is awaiting us..woo hoo!

Filipino glutinuous porridge

Today, Vicky cooked her filipino style chicken glutinuous rice porridge for lunch. It actually tasted just like any chicken porridge. I thought it would be thick and gooey, but it wasnt.

It was very fragrant because it was first fried with red onions, ginger and garlic.


Then you throw in the shredded cooked chicken strips into the frying pan.



Then just pour everything into the bowl of glutinuous rice porridge which was cooked in a separate pot.



Ta-da! A very simple lunch. I asked Vicky whether filipinos eat this for breakfast or lunch and she told me that they eat it for tea time usually. I was surprised as its quite filling. They have one big bowl each for tea time and do not eat this for breakfast or lunch. How interesting.

Last day at HK

Went back to HK by ferry this morning. Went sightseeing at the "Avenue of Stars".





Took the above picture because that's my chinese name! :)

After that, walked to Lock Road in search for egg tarts. We bought egg tarts from Wing Wah bakery- a popular store. It was nice as they used pork lard as the crust.

Next to it, we spotted a Macau restaurant..We just came back from Macau and CT already misses their famous pork chop bun. SO, we went in and ordered some Macau delicacies. How strange because we are in HK, eating Macau food which we just came from there. But nevertheless, we had a great time pigging out!

So here's what we ordered- a pork chop bun set that comes with scrambled eggs, Caldo Verde (Macau's famous green vegetable soup) as well as a nice, cold tangerine honey drink! Yup, this was our tea time!







Took this picture because we were sitting right in front of the mirror..It's just strange seeing ourselves while eating.



At night, we went in search for dinner and we had money to spend for our last night. However, we didnt know what to eat. So we walked and walked and walked somewhere near our hotel and we chanced upon this noodle house that was crowded.



I would recommend this place highly for those who love spicy food!! It's so good and shoik! You just have to bring your tissues!

This shop serves different levels of spice that you would like. Here's CT's order of beef noodles with medium hot and its already quite power!




I was afraid to order another spicy dish just in case it was too spicy. SO, I didnt order any spicy dish. I had a char siew ramen which was good because it neutralised our stomachs from exploding from the spice! The char siew was so tender and had many slices in it.



The small eatery is along the road which is parallel to Granville Road and Cameron Road. Its a small road that is not in the map. The Chinese name of the street is Huo Fu street. (Think it may be Hock Fu street or something like that)

We also ordered spicy chicken wings to go with our noodles as a side dish.

After a satisfyingly cheap dinner, which costs only about $5 per bowl, we exited the eatery and discovered the porridge stall which my hotel staff recommended on our first day in HK but we failed to find it! It's amazing how we found this place on our last day of HK such that we can go to this place to eat before we leave for HK tomorrow!

Ok, so the next morning, we went to this place for our last meal in HK! I really enjoyed the porridge! Highly recommend you to stay at my hotel- Kimberly Hotel and come to this place for breakfast as its only 5 mins walk. It's called "Hong Li" along the same Huo Fu Street, parallel to Granville and Cameron Road.



So here's our last breakfast before we headed for the airport!



Eating porridge in HK is akin to eating in Crystal Jade, Singapore. Same quality but half the price!



For our flight back, I watched ,"Definitely, Maybe"- a romance, comedy show. It's alright only.

Here's my meal..

First course, "Trilogy of hot smoked, cold smoked salmon and tuna with mazuna lettuce". I ate a little before giving the rest to CT. I am not a big fan of smoked stuff..so that's why. I only ate a bit of everything. And of course, a choice of bread which I took garlic bread.



For mains, I had grilled fillet of beef with shallot tarragon sauce, French beans, roasted pumpkin and black pepper mashed potatoes and ordered another round of garlic bread and wholemeal bread roll as the bread is just so nice! (especially with their creamy butter)



while CT had duck with pecan nut crust, wild rice, spicy corn souflle with honey butter, duck jus



As for dessert, we had haagen dazs.



I took one spoon and gave the rest to CT because I was just too full!

I really enjoyed my trip mainly because I get to spend alone time with CT and also, to enjoy one of my passions - food!

However, I also felt so happy to be back as I also missed my dear boy who seemed to know we were away from his reaction when he saw us! He kept screaming happily and wanted me to carry him. Aw...my little boyboy.