Raod trip to Adelaide!

For my Easter break, or my Only Break (sad. . . ) I took a short escape to Adelaide - The Festival State! Despite numerous obstacles and let-downs prior to the trip (one of my nice coursemates actually asked me why I chose to go to a 'big hole'), I ended up with an enjoyable trip. No, I should call it a road trip! Ooh, to better describe it - 'The Road Not Taken' road trip by Me, Ray, WenJi~

Why? Cos for some reasons, we always end up taking 'scenic drives' and 'short-cut/ detours'. We have strong navigators onboard! The most extreme scene would be WenJi driving up an almost 60 degrees slope to reach a thin and fragile wooden bridge which finally connected us to a highway (civilization!) around Murray bridge. We saw a lot of 'scenic' cows, hays and dirt tho. I was the navigator, yes.

The first day we arrived, after a butt-pain-staking journey by bus. . . we were ady navigating our way through to Hampstead! Met up with WenJi's friend, Beatrice who spoilt us not only with a place to live, but also home-made cream cheesecakes, apple crumbles and pastas! No rest required, and straight on we attacked Hahndorf - the German village. Went to the Beerenberg strawberry farm and had Kransky for lunch and ice-cream (the start of the 5 day-icecream diet).

As you can see, we weren't just picking strawberries, we were snacking on them along the way. So much that we ended up feeling 'jelak' from strawberries.

We went all the way to Glenelg for some quick soaking under the sun. . .set. But it is liberating to watch the sunset by the beach! By a very clean beach with cute, fat kids running around. Took a few too many pictures of the sunset. But all of them were taken at such random angles that, it failed to look like the progress of one single sunset. But, it is.

Leaving a permanent mark before we left. Going to Adelaide to me, is like, my entry into the wine world. Or introduction into the wine world. For now, I know quite a few things related to wine -

• I dun really like dry wine!
• I prefer red wine!
• When they describe a wine as sweet, it is not necessarily sweet!
• Wines I love: Rosemount 'O' and Platinum from Wolf Blass.

Victor Harbor is a very nice cozy place. Ferris Wheel and stuff are just so cute. . . miniature. . . and wobbly. . . So we ended up going on the Horse Tram instead as seen above. Although it looks cruel, but actually it is machine-operated. See the tram-rails? Loved the scenery there, the sea, the breeze, the waves crashing against the rocks, and the strawberry ice-cream. . .

This must be the most interesting beach we went to. And I bet you must be most excited to read, or visually imagine. . about this.

Well, we didn't unclad for the beach. Cos we wanna protect the pride and namesake of Malaysia. Won't wanna give this stereotype: Malaysians - flabbiness all over.

Northern Lights! Some kinda lighting show near University Adelaide. 5 designs of lighting are projected onto each of 5 old buildings making them seem surreal and colourful. From a splashes of musical notes to scribble-like patterns, it was really impressive and I would have gladly stayed on to watch some more. . . if only it was not that cold that night.

We learnt of a very unique tradition in Adelaide! Crabbing - as in catching crabs! One, almost everyone seems to have a net for crabbing. Two, almost everyone knows how to do it. Three, almost everyone has done it before! We got introduced to it around 8 pm at night. Found a net by 8.30 pm (after almost calling up all contacts in Adelaide). Went home to prepare baits by 9.30 pm. Reached the jetty by 10.30 pm. Started crabbing at 11 pm. Went home empty handed and cold at 2 am. But we made a surprising discoveries that night!

• Baits normally used - chicken bones! (Out of desperation, we mutilated Beatrice's supply of chicken drumsticks. Some of them marinated! WenJi's quote, "The crabs here are quire stupid, such good stuff and they dunno how to appreciate!")
• Baits have to be as smelly as it can get! (Raised a question that nite - can crabs smell!?)
• Beatrice's tutor actually got 100+ crabs once!
• It is a . . . Malaysian-thing. As the crabbing community on that jetty consisted 100% of Malaysians. To the extreme, they had been there for 6 hrs by the time we left and got only 1 crab. Their supply includes sleeping bags, hot water flasks, loads of food. Kinda like a warm refugee camp, or so we felt. U can't say Malaysians are not kiasu after that night!

What is a trip without a bit of self-indulgence? While the others were busy with either driving, navigating, debating over trivial topics and so on, I 'experimented' with my camera. The purpose is concrete of course, for I am the camera-man!

I was not the only one self-portraiting the whole time! Here are some failed versions of me and Ray. (For WenJi, I bet there must be some in her own camera!! Wait till I find out!)

Another few failed pics at the hands of an unskilled cameraman. I dun wanna reveal who he is. But whoever's not in the picture, and was the only male there, shud be him la. . . .

And now, for the STAR of the trip!! Our red hot, baby car~ which sailed us through our Adelaide days, breeze in ur hair and all! And according to Ray, the water squirted from the front of the car is sooooo silent and it spreads out! And the wipers the dun leave any lines on the window! So this was our baby for the whole trip!

And the number 1 most important picture of all!!!
Pictorial evidence of me DRIVING!

Dun give me the 'The Rock' brow slant now. . . .