Khao Yai, Thailand

I would like to share with you on my recent trip to Khao Yai. Khao Yai is known for its national park which is a UNESCO world heritage. However, I didn't visit the national park but other places in Khao Yai instead.

I did a one day trip from Bangkok to Khao Yai in January. Khao Yai is northeast from Bangkok and is approximately 2.5h drive from Bangkok. Temperature was lower in Khao Yai than Bangkok, about 20+ deg C in the day. I booked a full day taxi service from Taxi Bangkok on Facebook and paid 3800 Baht for the day. If you are keen, you can send them your itinerary and get a quotation. Alternatively, if you drive, you can do a road trip which would be a cheaper option. 

Our taxi driver picked us up at our hotel at Bangkok punctually at 7.30am and we began our journey to our first top, GranMonte Vineyard. At about 10am, we reached GranMonte Vineyard and began the tour. There are a few vineyards in Khao Yai and the popular ones are GranMonte and PB Valley. The tour took about 1h and cost 300 Baht and included wine tasting.

Personally, I feel that the wines at GranMonte are not as rich, sweet and favourful as the European or Australian Wines, which could be attributed to the weather at Khao Yai. As the weather in Khao Yai is warmer and not as suitable for grapes cultivation, the grape plants cannot survive as many years as those in Europe or Australia, leading to more expensive wine in GranMonte. 

We had lunch at GranMonte and after that we went to Primo Piazza. Primo Piazza is modelled after Tuscany in Italy and the highlight of the visit was feeding of Alpacas and Merino sheep. Entrance fee was 100 Baht. 

Next, we went to a sunflower field. Entrance fee was 30 Baht and the entire field was field with sunflowers!

My last stop was The Chocolate Factory, a popular cafe that sells not only chocolates but also other snacks as well. I love the ice chocolate drink there.

We left Khao Yai at 3+pm and reached our hotel in Bangkok at around 6pm. Typically, the full day taxi service will end at around 6pm at Khao Yai, after which you would be taken back to Bangkok. 

If you are looking for more than shopping and eating in Bangkok, I would recommend a trip to Khao Yai. 

Salzbergwerk and Königssee, Germany

My main reason for visiting Salzburg was to visit Königssee. When I was doing my Masters in Germany, my then colleague showed me a picture book on Königssee. It is so scenic! I have to visit it one day!

From Salzburg Hbf, take bus 840 to Salzbergwerk, which is a salt mine in Germany. Bus 840 leaves every hour at .15 from Salzburg Hbf and the journey takes around 40 min. Tickets can be bought from bus driver. Purchase a Tageskarte (All Day Pass) at 9.80€ which also cover other local buses around Berchtesgaden. Note: Salzburg is in Austria but Salzbergwerk is in Germany.

You can check the schedule for bus 840 here. http://www.albus.at/files/2011/12/2015-05-24-TFP-S_840.pdf

Present your Tageskarte at the salt mine and you would be given a 10% discount. The tour takes around 1.5 to 2h. It is 12 deg C the salt mine and every participant given a set of salt miner costume to wear during the visit. The tour is conducted in both German and English (live commentary in German and recording in English). The explanation in German and English are rather different. Personally, I found the German commentary more informative. 

Me in salt miner costume

The slide was certainly a highlight!

From Salzbergwerk take bus 840 to Berechtesgarten Hbf and change to bus 841 to Königssee (King's lake). Take a boat ride at Königssee. 

There are 2 options for the boat ride. Either you take to St Bartolemä (35 min one-way,  €13.90 return) or if you have more time, take to Salet (1h one-way, €16.90 return). Both have pubs and walking trails, so it’s easy to fill up a bit of time. Take note of the timing of the last return journey. If you miss it, you either have to stay in the hotel there or pay a premium for your private boat ride back.

Hearing echo

Biergarten at St Bartolemä

Salet

Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg is well known as the filming site for Sound of Music. One could take a direct train from Munich Hbf to Salzburg Hbf and the journey would take around 2 hours. Unfortunately, when I was there last October, the border between Germany and Austria was closed to prevent refugees from crossing over. Hence, everyone on the train had to alight at Freilassing, the German border and take a free shuttle bus to Salzburg Hbf. That was not too bad as instructions were clear and everyone knew what to do. 

The return journey from Salzburg to Munich was not as smooth. From Salzburg city centre, I had to take a bus (and pay bus fare) to a station, and walked quite a distance (with no clear directions) to Freilassing. Luckily, there were other travellers on the same bus and they knew how to get to the station so I simply followed them.

Alright, back to Salzburg. My main aim of visiting Salzburg was to taste the original Sacher Torte. And so, I went to Hotel Sacher and ordered a piece of the original Sacher Torte! There are many cafes which were selling Sacher Torte, but the original one is by Hotel Sacher. Note that Sacher Torte was not in the display panel. I ordered the cake from the waiter/waitress directly and it cost 5.60 Euro for a slice. I found the cake too sweet for my liking. I preferred to eat it with the whipped cream to make it less sweet.

Original Sacher Torte at Hotel Sacher, Salzburg

I stayed at Yoho International Youth Hostel and it was a pleasant stay. The main draw was its central location which meant I could walk to the attractions. Every night, there was free movie screening of the Sound of Music at the hostel. Unfortunately, I only managed to catch less than 1 hour of the movie before I succumbed to jetlag.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthplace was in Salzburg. Hence, you could visit Mozart's house in Salzburg and purchase Mozartkugel as souvenirs. 

Mozart's birthplace

Mozart's souvenirs

Of course, a visit to Salzburg is never complete without visiting the Salzburg fortress. 

Salzburg Fortress

Sydney, Australia

I stayed at Sydney Central YHA, which is walking distance from Sydney Central station. It is also a pick-up point for my Hunter Valley trip. It's location is superb!

From the YHA, I walked along George Street to Queen Victoria Building. 

 Queen Victoria Building. There are many cafes inside. 

My favourite landmark in Sydney has got to be the Sydney Harbour Bridge! I am really impressed by how the bridge was constructed! It's an engineering wonder!

One can go for the Harbour Bridge climb. The Bridge climb takes around 3.5h and cost about AUD 200+ to 300+, depending on the time of the climb. The twilight climb would allow one to catch sunset. I contemplated over it but did not climb the bridge in the end, partly due to the high price and partly because the weather was terrible with intermittent rain. The sky looked gloomy and I could not see sunset that day. 

The Harbour Bridge climbers. It is not as scary as it looks as the steps are not so steep and there are railings and safety checks. 

I paid AUD 13 to climb up the Pylon Lookout next to the bridge.

At night, I walked over to Fish On The Rocks for dinner. Seafood lovers would love Sydney for the fresh seafood!

Fish On The Rocks - highly recommended by me!

Sydney Harbour Bridge at night

Sydney Opera House at night

From Sydney Central Station, I took a light rail to Sydney Fish Market. There is a wide selection of raw and cooked seafood. Yummy!

The pelicans were hunting for food!

There are a few popular beaches in Sydney, e.g. Bondi Beach and Manly Beach. I chose Manly Beach because it has a manly name, and because I could take a ferry to the beach. 

Manly Beach 

Fish & Chips at a restaurant at Manly Beach

Fish & Chips is a popular dish to eat at Manly Beach. You could either eat at a restaurant or takeaway the food and consume it at the beach. I did not eat at the beach because there were many birds preying on food. 

I visited Darling Harbour on a Saturday night to catch fireworks. It is similar to Singapore river. At Darling Harbour, I went to queue for pancakes at Pancake On The Rocks. It is a very popular restaurant! The pancake portion was huge though! It would be good to go with a group of friends to share the pancakes. I would not recommend having wine at Pancake On The Rocks though. 

Darling Harbour

Pancake On The Rocks

On my departure day, I went to Sydney Central Station to take a train to the airport. Alas, the airport line was down and we were instructed to board the train to the next station where an airport shuttle would bring us to the airport. At that station, we were frustrated when the train staff told us that they had just called for airport shuttle and the buses would take around 1 hour to arrive. We waited and waited and there was no bus. Instructions were unclear and we were led from one bus stop to another. Eventually, the crowd grew larger, majority was rushing to catch a flight. Those who couldn't wait jumped into a cab out of desperation. In the end, I shared a cab with a few people and the cab fare was exorbitant. What was worse? The remaining amount in my Opal card could not be refunded as I had neither an Australian address nor an Australian bank account.