Afterwards Sangeet stayed at the Gurdwara whilst I popped to Sim Lim Square, just to have a browse. The electronic gadgets are fascinating and worth browsing. Whilst there I met a family from England who were debating whether to buy the iPad 2 or iPad Mini, I suggested that if they are going to the USA they should buy it from an Apple shop there. In my opinion Sim Lim Square is good for buying accessories. Expensive items such as cameras sometimes only come with a local warranty. So please check before buying. As I was leaving Sim Lim Square I noticed a shop selling a rubber Bluetooth keyboard which would be perfect as the keyboard on the iPad sometimes gets a bit tiring to use. The cost was SGD$20, any other time I would have snapped up the bargain, as we have been traveling , every dollar does count!
I met Sangeet back at the Gurdwara.
As I wanted to show Sangeet Sim Lim Square we had a wander into town. Our last experience in Sim Lim Square in 2005 was not that brilliant. We were looking to buy a camera, sounds easy but in this case we just could not get the information we needed and all the deals seemed dodgy!
On the way we passed the art college:
It looked amazing all lit up at night.
After passing Sim Lim Square we went to Bugis Street
Bugis, in the city-state of Singapore, was renowned internationally from the 1950s to the 1980s for its nightly gathering of trans women, a phenomenon which made it one of Singapore’s top tourist destinations during that period.
In the mid-1980s, Bugis Street underwent major urban redevelopment into a retail complex of modern shopping malls, restaurants and nightspots mixed with regulated back-alley roadside vendors. Underground digging to construct the Bugis MRT station prior to that also caused the upheaval and termination of nightly transgender sex bazaar culture, marking the end of a colourful and unique era in Singapore’s history. This change helped improve Singapore’s international image as it began to be globally recognized.
Today, the original Bugis Street is now a cobblestoned, relatively wide avenue sandwiched between the buildings of the Bugis Junction shopping complex. On the other hand, the lane presently touted as “Bugis Street” by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board is actually developed from New Bugis Street, and is billed as “the largest street-shopping location in Singapore”. An attempt by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board to bring back the former glamor was unsuccessful. Although the street is not a well-known tourist destination, it is frequented by many Singaporeans.
A brand of clothing!!
On the way back we passed a shop selling fruit
I bought some durian fruit
The durian is the fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio and the Malvaceae family (although some taxonomists place Durio in a distinct family, Durionaceae.
Regarded by many people in southeast Asia as the “king of fruits”, the durian is distinctive for its large size, stomach-churning odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow as large as 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 15 centimetres (6 in) in diameter, and it typically weighs one to three kilograms (2 to 7 lb). Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale yellow to red, depending on the species.
The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, that is strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as pleasantly fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and revolting. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine, and gym socks. The odour has led to the fruit’s banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.
The durian, native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, has been known to the Western world for about 600 years. The nineteenth-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously described its flesh as “a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds”. The flesh can be consumed at various stages of ripeness, and it is used to flavour a wide variety of savoury and sweet edibles in Southeast Asian cuisines. When cooked, the seeds also can be eaten.
There are 30 recognised Durio species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. Durio zibethinus is the only species available in the international market: other species are sold in their local regions. There are hundreds of durian cultivars; many consumers express preferences for specific cultivars, which fetch higher prices in the market.
Just to prove I did eat it! Sangeet could barely cope with the smell as we chatted to an Australian chap from Sydney who is married to a Singaporean. He gave us some useful information on Durian and how to pick a good one.
This morning we went to the Gurdwara, in a suburb of Melbourne called Blackburn. We arrived at 11am and hardly found anybody there, the sangat turned up and 12. I was thinking that if this was an white American Sikh Gurdwara they would have been there from the start…….the reason why American Sikhs are leading the way and showing us how it is done properly!!
Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha
(Blackburn Gurdwara)
127 Whitehouse Road
Blackburn 3130
Melbourne
Australia
T: +61 3 989 41800
E: [email protected]
W: www.gudwarablackburn.com.au
The Sabha (SGNSS) was set up in 1981 to carry on the religious affair of the sangat in Melbourne. Prior to that and beginning in 1977 families had met in private homes, then Rathdowne Primary School and later Box Hill Primary school as centres for the Sikh Sangat. In 1984, through the efforts of the pioneering families the Uniting Church in Fern Tree Gully was purchased and set up as the first Gurdwara in Melbourne. The move to the current premises at 127 Whitehorse Road, Blackburn -a postal warehouse refurbished and transformed to serve as a Gurdwara was made in late 1993.
Today, Gurdwara Sahib at Blackburn is well placed to meet the needs of an ever increasing sangat. An elected committee manages the day to day running of the Sabha affairs supported by a very large team of dedicated volunteers and a resident team of religious workers. The sangat is able to listen to kirtan from some of the best professional ragis who provide their services for programs both at the gurdwara and homes. Regular programs are held on Wednesdays evenings, Saturdays mornings and Sunday mornings. Additional kirtan programs and weddings are held at other times on Saturdays and Sundays. Special programs are held to celebrate Vaisakhi and Gurpurabs.
Based at the premises, the Khalsa Punjabi School hold classes for the teaching of Punjabi language each Sunday. Punjabi is offered at VCE subject and classes are held on Wednesday evenings. The first batch of students completed this course last year with excellent `results. The Gurbani Kirtan School offers classes for the Learning of Gurbani, Kirtan and tabla on Saturdays and Sundays. The upgrading of resources and refurbishment of Sri Guru Hargobind Libraryis progressing well and the library is very well attended.
The Kirtan was very nice. Afterwards Sangeet bought the CD for AUS$2, unfortunately the sound quality on the CD was poor.
As I am looking for a SIM card so we have continuous internet coverage. We popped to a suburb called Boxhill.
Centro Box Hill
17-21 Market St,
Box Hill VIC
T: +61 3 9843 3900
The shopping centre looked small from the outside but was huge inside, like a tardis!
It would have cost us $50 for a 3gb limit so we decided against the idea.
Aferwards we popped to St Kilda, a seaside town with a big culture around drinking!
St Kilda was named after a schooner Lady of St Kilda (which moored at the main beach for much of 1841) by Charles La Trobe and the ship’s master and early settler Lieutenant James Ross Lawrence.
During the Edwardian and Victorian eras, St Kilda became a favoured suburb of Melbourne’s elite, and many palatial mansions were constructed along its hills and waterfront. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, St Kilda served a similar function for Melburnians as did Coney Island to the residents of New York City and its history draws an interesting parallel. Densely populated postwar St Kilda became Melbourne’s red-light district, home to low-cost rooming houses. Since the late 1960s, St Kilda became known for its culture of bohemianism as home to many prominent artists, musicians and subcultures, including punks[citation needed], LGBT and techno scene[citation needed]. While some of these groups still maintain a presence in St Kilda, in recent years the district has experienced rapid gentrification pushing many lower socio-economic groups out to other areas.
St Kilda is home to many of Melbourne’s famous visitor attractions including Luna Park, the Esplanade Hotel, Acland Street and Fitzroy Street. It is home to St Kilda Beach, Melbourne’s most famous beach, several renowned theatres and several of Melbourne’s big events and festivals.
Melbourne’s Luna Park is a historic amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It opened on 13 December 1912 and has been operating almost continuously ever since.
The Palais Theatre is a former cinema, now functioning exclusively as a concert venue, located in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. With a capacity of 2,896 people, it is the largest seated theatre in Australia.
The building, which retains many of its original features, is considered one of the finest examples of Art deco architecture in Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register. In 2006, the City of Port Phillip, which owns the site, called for tenders by private operators to restore the theatre, as part of the proposed redevelopment of the Triangle Site. However, the redevelopment failed to go ahead and the planned $20 million restoration of the Palais was also abandoned.
Lentil As Anything – St Kilda
Not-for-profit incorporated association, based on a ‘pay as you feel’ philosophy. Lentil As Anything features a global cuisine, e.g. Indian curry, udon noodles and lentil or tofu burgers. It has a cosy atmosphere and also provides seating outside.
In the evening we had a great meal at Loving Hut
Loving Hut
10/242 Victoria Street,
Richmond
T: +61 3 9427 8916
The menu was different to the one in Auckland which disappointed me. I wanted mock meats! For me the meal was okay nothing special, not a restaurant I would go back to.
As we had no accommodation for the night we decided to go back to YHA metro…..yes even though I did not like the place…..fortunately we got a double room with a shower.
Today we wandered around Wellington town, it is a nice town, reminds us of a smaller London or Washington, D.C. It was a relaxed wander as it gave us time to post the California guide book, road atlas and other bits and pieces back home. Helps lighten the load.
We had lunch at a restaurant called Auntie Mena’s, it is a vegan restaurant, Sangeet had ‘fried kue tiaw’ (stir fried rice noodles with bean sprouts, mushroom, tofu and vegetables) I had ‘lamb’ curry, Sangeet’s dish tasted very good, I did not enjoy mine….think we have been spoilt by much better restaurants serving better tasting mock meats though the service was excellent and the restaurant had a great energy.
We also popped into a organic wholefoods shop
Our ferry left at 13:30, the ferry company recommend you check in an hour before. At the checking terminal which you drive alongside they ask for your surname and forename, pretty straight forward, if you have an electronic ticket there is no need to print it. At check in they confirm your name and give you the boarding pass, a plastic stick, one for the car and one for each passenger, before boarding you hand the boarding pass (plastic stick) to the attendant. A good way of recycling. As soon as we drove passed the check in booth, Nolan was waiting there so he jumped in.
The ferry is equipped with a restaurant, not much choice for vegetarians, a small ‘cinema,’ outside viewing decks, it also offers some ensuite suites for having a sleep or just for your own privacy. Today we were fortunate with a gentle cruise once you enter the South Island (Cook Straits) the views are amazing. The mountains look stunning and so green, such a fantastic, contrast to the north island (which is also impressive.)
Once we docked at Picton, we headed to the city centre,the shops were closing, we walked around the dock area. It was very peaceful and quiet. As it was around 6pm we decided to head to Kaikoura (it was also getting cold, we had to wear our fleeces.)
The drive was amazing, reminded me of driving along the Pacific Coastal Highway in California. It takes about 1.5 hours from Picton to Kaikoura, about thirty minutes away from Kaikoura we saw seals along the coast and also near the road, we stopped the car and a seal was about ten yards from us and started coming towards us as we watched it from the car, an amazing sight, I got out of the car and walked towards the seal, it just turned around and jumped into the water! After a few minutes Sangeet and Nolan joined me on the rock edge, seeing so many seals in their natural habitat was fantastic.
Afterwards, we continued to Kaikoura, the last time we visited this town was in 2005, we remember it as a very quiet town. Since then there has been some development, a large supermarket has been built and the number of restaurants has grown. We drove to the YHA and enquired about room rates, they were reasonable at NZ$22 for YHA members, at the time we thought it was expensive! We enquired at local motels and even enquired about a two bedroom apartment the motels came out at NZ$110 and the apartment was NZ$200, we are now thinking the YHA is very well priced!
Instead of going to the YHA and booking the room, we decided to get some food!….we headed to a Chinese who could only offer us fries which are fried separately from meat and fish. We noticed an Indian restaurant on the way in (I know, this is going to cause me problems but I was hungry and this seemed like the only good option). Sangeet and I ordered began bharta mashed aubergine, Nolan ordered chicken curry. The waiter was Sikh, he said “because I cut my hair I cannot call myself a Sikh” so we chatted about Sikhi for a while. He gave us the wifi password, boy this was a fast connection, the fastest I have used in New Zealand. We uploaded 900 pictures in 30 minutes!! In New Zealand it has taken about 12 hours to upload 250 pictures. Will def go back and upload more pics and videos. The restaurant is called
Coriander
17 Beach Road
Kaikoura
Phone 03 319 6844
Lunch Monday-Sunday 11.30am-2.00pm
Dinner 7 Days from 5pm-10pm
after a very chilly meal the waiter said try the motel next door he can do rooms for NZ$20, so we decided to have a look, the room shown to us could barely fit in the bed! it was cheap because the only thing offered was a mattress with no bedding. I went back to the restaurant to tell the waiter, he said please hold on, after a few minutes his friend arrived with blankets, even though the blankets were not that clean, it is amazing that here is a Sikh guy who does not know us, tries so hard to help us, he did not promise or say I will help you but does not deliver, he just tried his very best to help. Now that is what I call a Sikh!
Today, Puaji (Puaji = means dad’s sister), Sangeet and I went to the Gurdwara in Hamilton, the sangat here are so welcoming and warm. The round trip from Rotorua is 4 hours, crazy when we are used to a 20 minute round trip.
After the programme we had lungar where we met Mandip Phenji’s (Phenji = sister) parents. They invited us to their beautiful home, there we met their two eldest grandsons, Jaspreet and Manvir.
The welcome was very warm and we learnt about their family history. We left their house around 5pm and headed back to Rotorua.
In the evening Phenji, Sangeet and I all sat and watched the GIMA Music Awards together.
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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