Trip to Penang

Here are a few pics from a trip we made recently to the beautiful Malyasian island of Penang. Lots of golden temples with dragons and a lovely tropical spice garden here.

Aromatic ginger and lemongrass.

This plant reminds me of the dragon above!

Lots of different bamboos - this one is black.

And this one is Buddha's belly!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Sydney

Here are some more photos from the trip to Australia at Christmas.

Sydney Opera House from the water.

Notice that vapour trail?

Here's what the plane spelled out ! Party at Bondi Beach on New Year's Eve!!

View of Sydney from the ferry across to Manley.

Oz surf!

Our daughter Julie lives north of Sydney in Dee Why, within walking distance of this beach. It was summer in Australia but believe me this water was COLD!!!!. Lovely long walks to be had on the beach though!


Actually the weather during our stay wasn't great! We took a trip up to the Blue Mountains in the pouring rain.

We didn't see much!!

Bedgraggled daughter!

We should have seen The Three Sisters - the highlight of the trip ....

3 sisters on a good day
Photo from http://www.bluemts.com.au

The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

Ah well, we'll just have to go back another year!

Next stop was the Hunter Valley - wine growing territory. We enjoyed a couple of days here sampling lots of different wines - YUM!!

Elegant bottles with unusual labels made of metal.

!!

And finally, on the way back to Malaysia we overnighted again in Macau and wandered around the old town the next day.






And resisted the temptation to buy more painted boxes - I already have several which I bought in Hong Kong when we lived there!

I spotted these Chinese zodiac animals on a casino ceiling!

And hundreds of tulips were blooming - beautiful!