Aug 7 2017 - Heading back to Kunming

Woke up at 7:30am today as I absolutely did not want to miss the 8:20am bus. By 9am, the bus did not appear and I was wondering if I had missed it since I was only at the road side at 8:15am. In the end, the bus appeared at 9:15am and I had to stand since all the seats were already taken. And apparently, someone had thrown up at the back of the bus!

The entire bus ride was uneventful and took 4 hours to reach Kunming North Bus Station. Nearing the end of the journey, someone else threw up too. Heading back from the bus station to the hostel was easy, with the quick metro services available. As I walked back, I took the opportunity to buy the limited edition KFC special burger for lunch. The prices of KFC here in kunming is rather similar to Singapore prices, at around CNY35 for a set meal.

After dining in the hostel, I lazed around and had the opportunity to chat with the lady that tended to my apartment, as well as a local who has been staying in the hostel for more than a year. We ended up going out together for dinner, and that was rather fun since it's not often that you get to make friends with locals and even have spontaneous meals with them!

We had dinner at a nearby local diner, and I had Mala Fish Slices with Rice. As there was a lot of small bones in the fish, it made the meal rather unenjoyable. Thankfully the company more than made up for it. After dinner, we strolled around the shopping area before heading to an underground mall for churros. It was their first time having it and I'm glad they loved it!

Back in the hostel, we all gathered to watch a sci-fi movie together. Being able to hang around at the lounge area and making new friends is what I love most about staying in hostels. While staying in hotels, it is so easy to be isolated from the local population and makes solo travel so much more lonely and boring. How I wish I am able to stay a couple more days here and spend more time with my two new friends. Alas, my bed, shower and fans at home await me. I can't stand the hot and humid summer weather here, and the hostel has minimal ventilation and no fans at all.

Aug 6 2017 - Exploring the Redlands

Woke up at 5am today as I had arranged for a driver to pick me up and bring me to catch sunrise. At 5:30am sharp, we left for a viewing area called DaMaKan. It took about 20minutes of driving in darkness before we reached it. Upon arrival, I stall had to hike up a small trail in the dark on my own as my driver stayed in the car to nap. 

I didn't think much of the viewing area at first but as the sky started to brighten up, my perception changed. The viewing area gave a spectacular view of an entire valley plus the sun rise directly in front. 

After 30 minutes of waiting, I realised that the cloud cover was too thick today and I would not be able to see the sun itself. However, I decided to fly the drone around to observe the surroundings. There were many huge wind turbines that gave the hilltops an unique character, combined with the ploughed slopes of the hills. 

Some time later, a small tour group came by to catch the supposed sunrise. As they left, feeling disappointed at being unable to catch sunrise, I spotted an unique sight and told them. Thankfully, the cloud cover broke up in certain parts and the strong light rays pierced through and lit the valley below. It was simply amazing. I have seen it before, but never in such grandeur. At about 7:30am, I left DaMaKan. 

We headed to the next spot, where I managed to get the drone to film me walking along the edge of the hill. Unknowingly, I dropped my phone but the earlier tour group spotted it and picked it up

Headed over to a couple more spots where the drone really shone with its aerial perspective. However, I started to understand why the locals don't find the view fascinating any more.

Reached back my room at around 9:30am and spent the entire morning and early afternoon in the room watching Masterchef Australia, the irony considering that I'm totally not into the local food here and have only ordered egg fried rice twice and shredded potatoes once in total over yesterday's lunch and dinner. Lunch today was instant noodles, but I had a tough time deciding on it as the kettle in my room was filled with cobwebs and dead insects, and a little rusty too. In the end, I decided to cook the instant noodles as I was sick of eating egg fried rice for the third meal in a row, and I didn't want to bring the instant noodles back to kunming too. 

At 3:30pm, I promptly headed to the carpark as I had earlier arranged for a driver to drive me around the countryside. Driving around, the layered landscapes is starting to look all too similar. After driving to a couple of spots and flying the drone for quite a bit, we headed to the final destination to await sunset. 

Sunset came late at 7:15pm instead of 6:45pm. Soon a group of noisy local tourists appeared to take typical posy shots with the sunset. They created such a din that it totally spoiled the serenity of the place. After the sun went down, it was time to head back to the hotel for dinner. Dinner was a bowl of egg fried rice and a plate of deep fried potatoes. Very basic but filling. I then spent the night in my spider-infested room and only managed to properly fall asleep at 3am!

Aug 5 2017 - Heading to Dong Chuan Redlands

Woke up at 5:30am today as I had a bus to catch at 8:30am. My plan for these few days is to head to Dong Chuan Red Lands and stay there for two nights. And so, I left my hostel at 6am. I was wanting to take a motorcycle ride to the nearby metro station but since there was none around, I walked over. It looked really far on the map but in reality, only took me about 20minutes. The train station at DongFeng GuangChang is really beautiful inside with a circular meeting area. It reminded me of the Beijing metro, with its clinical look and feel.

After a 30minute ride, I was at the Kunming North Bus Station. Ticketing was easy since I had already done ample research and knew which bus to take. I would have to take the bus heading to FaZhe but alight halfway outside my inn. And so, I asked the bus driver to drop me off at the correct location. As the bus headed across kunming, it started to fill up with passengers. Eventually, it left Kunming and travelled along the highways. The highways spanning across the countryside often meant having to traverse tall long bridges that linked mountains to mountains. The longest of these were 800m long and each looked equally perilous with the steep drop down that approximated 400-800m.

The entire ride from the bus station to the inn that I was supposed to arrive at took 4 hours, including a rest stop of 10 minutes along a dingy roadside stall and toilet.

Upon reaching the inn, I checked in immediately and found my room flooded with water. I had to request for another room and thankfully it was given without fuss. Lunch was a simple egg fried rice settled at the accompanying "restaurant". After lunch, I arranged for a driver and car to bring me around for the afternoon, plus the following morning and afternoon. The morning drives will include sunrise while the afternoon drives will include sunset.

Turns out my driver was the inn owner's son. He drove me to many scenic places and waited for me while I explored the area with both my camera and my drone. Later in the afternoon, it started to rain. My driver spotted a rainbow as we drove on but he could not stop at that location as it would be dangerous. Such a pity, as a rainbow to accompany the colorful landform would be amazing! The rain lasted for quite a while and it also meant that there was no sunset to catch due to the thick cloud cover.

Back in the inn at about 7:30pm, I grabbed a simple meal of egg fried rice and shredded potatoes before returning to my room to spend the night.

Aug 4 2017 - Naigu Stone Forest

Once again, I'm back in China for a short solo trip within Yunnan province. Since I had bought an annual pass for Shilin last year November, I decided to return to visit the Naigu Stone Forest (乃古石林). I chose a different hostel this time round and it turned out to be not as good as I expected. The ventilation is bad and the room is quite cramped. In fact, I couldn't sleep last night due to the mosquitoes flying around and the lack of adequate ventilation. Thankfully, the lady staff in charge of my room is quite nice and friendly.

As usual, I took bus K9 to East Bus Station before taking the Shilin Tourist Bus to Shilin itself. In total, it took 2 hours and 15 minutes to travel from Kunming City to Shilin Scenic Area. As I wanted to visit the lesser known Naigu Stone Forest, I tried asking around the tourist centre for directions but it seemed that nobody knows about it!

As I uttered a silent prayer for someone to assist me, a lady walked up and asked if I wanted to visit the neighboring touristy sites. I asked if she knows how to go to Naigu and she said she could drive me there and back for CNY80 per round trip. She also gave me her number so that I can message her when I am done.

The 8km ride took about 15 minutes and indeed it was hidden away behind the Major Shilin scenic area. The entire area area was devoid of tourists and the only people I saw were the visitor center staff and the farmers who were planting flower saplings in the field in front of the stone formations.

It was the perfect timing to take out my drone. The weather was sunny with minimal wind. Flying the drone there gave me a perspective I had only seen speriodically in advertisements. The grandeur of the stone formations, the immensity of the land area occupied, the different shapes and sizes.

Hiking through the area took 3 full hours and it was about 7km for a single loop, up and down stairs and rocky paths. After a while, the path started involving more stairs and it got narrower. Certainly not an easy walk, especially for anyone who is not used to walking for hours. There is absolutely no amenities along the path, hence I would advise against drinking too much water.

After the entire 3 hour walk, I was back at the entrance area and seeing a beautiful field of lavender, I took the opportunities to take photographs and fly my drone around. The rain suddenly came pouring and I had to take refuge in the visitor centre, before calling for my driver once the rain stopped.

Heading back to the main scenic area was rather quick and soon I was waiting for my long-distance bus for Kunming. This time round, as I had boarded my return bus at about 3pm, I was back in Kunming East Bus Station at around 5:30pm. Being early meant I could still explore the area surrounding my hostel before it got late.

Missing comfort food, I decided to order Ajisen Ramen for dinner and it was cheap at 70CNY for a bowl of ramen, a plate of gyoza and an additional marinated egg! Since I ordered for takeaway, I enjoyed the rest of the night eating dinner in the hostel while watching a show on the television!

May 20 2017 - Wedding Day

Today is James' wedding! Thankfully, the groomsmen only have to wake up at 8am since we only departed for Zoe's house at 10am! Breakfast was beef & scrambled egg sliders and it was really easy making it as Sam and I went for a quick supermarket trip in the morning.

After breakfast, the photographer came by and we went to the sky garden for a photoshoot before we went to Zoe's house. Arriving there, it was time for the gate-crash!

Gate crashing was super mild as we only had to do a couple push-ups, make up a song and sing it, and eat cucumbers without using our hands! And after James got to see Zoe in her cheongsum, we all headed back to the apartment to get ready for the wedding itself!

The wedding itself was held at High Church. It is similar to CHIMJES in Singapore, a commercial church venue for rental. It was a cosy wedding with about a hundred guests, most from James' and Zoe's life group at University of Queensland. As Zoe came out in her white gown, it was obvious that James was so captivated by her. And as the crowd witnessed their Holy Matrimony, we saw their joy and their emotions. The spontaneous flash mob by the couple and their bridal party surprised the crowd and it was pretty fun!

After the wedding, I quickly rushed back to grab the drone and took a couple of drone shots of the couple and bridal party in the church itself. And we all headed out to Story Bridge for more photoshoots!

After everything was over, it was time to head back! After popping by Coles at The Barracks, we rested in the apartment. Since Lynn was craving for Indomie, I whipped up some for the group. Pre-dinner before our post-wedding party!

The part was held at Norman Hotel, where there was a great steakhouse there. Their tagline is "Worst vegetarian restaurant" and I joked that it would be terrible to go in and grab a salad. And it turned out that I ordered grilled Salmon with spinach when I was there. The irony!

After dinner was post-party drinks at the apartment. And we chatted and drank from 9pm to 1am, eight of us finishing 15 bottles of beer, 4 bottles of soda, 2 bottles of cold brew and 1.5L of premium whiskey!

May 19 2017 - Shopping and Briefing

Today is the day before James' wedding! Woke up this morning making mini pancakes for everyone. And since everyone was waking up late, I took the chance to make caramelized bananas to go along the pancake too! Once Joel and Mong arrived at the apartment at around eleven, we had our late breakfast. After breakfast, we went for a coffee run nearby before lazing around at the apartment and only went down for a late light lunch at 1pm.

After a light lunch of Bahn Mi at a nearby Vietnamese store, we headed to Zoe's place for wedding briefing and rehearsals. It was quite a prompt briefing and we got the chance go rehearse a bit before leaving at around 5:30pm for Coles. I was to prepare dinner for 16 people at the apartment at 8pm. And so, I decided to cook Japanese beef curry, butter-poached prawns and calamari, grilled chicken, rice and mixed fruits! It was a military operation at the supermarket with the five guys, including me, heading out to the different sections with specific tasks to complete. And soon, we were heading back to the apartment.

Back in the apartment, I had the help of Lynn, Mong and Uncle KK and they cut and peeled all the raw foods while I seasoned and cooked it. Time passed really quickly and soon, everyone had eaten their share and James' family and aunty were heading back to their apartment. The rest of us continued with afterparty, which was simply more beer and desserts.

It has been such a "quick day" today with the bulk of it spent on sleeping in, wedding briefing and dinner itself. But I am really glad to be able to be a blessing to my friends by cooking for them!

May 18 2017 - Homecooked Meals

Woke up to my first morning in Brisbane. The weather is much warmer than Byron Bay, but still way cooler than Singapore! As Joel and Kah Wan went out to fetch Eugene and Lynn, I decided to laze in bed a bit more before washing up and heading to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, sliced rock melon and toasted rye bread! It was enjoyable having the kitchen to myself and preparing all the food before they all arrived for breakfast.

After breakfast, everyone went to shop but Joel stayed back to do work while I walked around the neighborhood. It was quite a sunny day and walking to the Roma Street Park did work up a bit of sweat. Took the chance to video and photograph the surrounding area, including the nearby railway station.

After a while, a park ranger came by and I could not use my drone anymore. And so I slowly walked back to the apartment, popping by Coles along the way. Eventually, I was back in the apartment.

The afternoon was spent reading my novel while in the apartment, waiting for the rest to return. Everyone came back at around 4pm and took the chance to rest. At 5pm, we headed out to another nearby Coles and picked up groceries for dinner! And I was back in the kitchen preparing dinner! Dinner was steak for everyone and grilled salmon for me. Together with grilled vegetables, garlic bread and leftover fries from Macdonalds. And there was really good Merlot that was purchased when the guys went wine tasting yesterday.

Post dinner, it was time to rest and relax. Really enjoy these precious moments of relaxing and chatting with the guys! Took the time to sauté some onions before getting it onto a wedge of Brie. And it was supper! Sautéed onions with toasted Brie, Port Salut, crackers, grapes, popcorn and red wine.  What a life! 

May 17 2017 - City Life

Today's my last day in Byron Bay. Woke up early today as I had to return the key before the owner goes to work. After packing up, the airbnb owner gave me a ride to town. With my huge backpack, there's not many places that I can chill at for too long. I found myself an Egyptian cafe and I found myself a corner seat amidst cushions. Thankfully it's a weekday morning so there ain't much crowd.

Brunch was a cold drip coffee, a plate of corn fritter, bacon, poached eggs and rocket, and a bottle of cold pressed mixed juice. It was such a relaxing morning as I spent three hours, from 9 am to 12nn, at the cafe reading a novel and slowly eating. This is the relaxing life that I love.

After the relaxing brunch, I headed to the beach and flew my drone for a bit in sport mode before heading to the railway park where I flew the drone a bit more. I had wanted to fly my drone to my airbnb place but all the surrounding houses created too much electromagnetic interference and my remote controller's range was barely at 1km. After a short while, my greyhound bus had arrived. It was time to leave Byron and that was such a bittersweet moment. I love the beauty of Byron Bay but the high prices of food really made it difficult to stay in Byron Bay for long, especially since I was not allowed to cook at my airbnb.

The bus ride to Brisbane took about 2.5 hours and was pretty uneventful. The free WiFi onboard allowed me to listen to Singaporean radio while I continued to read my novel. By the time I was in Brisbane, I was done with my book!

Walking from Roma Street Station to my airbnb apartment at Manning Street took longer than expected as I took a wrong turn. In the end, I had to wait outside the apartment for half an hour as the owner was late. After checking in, I took a stroll towards and past Minton Village and onto the surrounding estate.

Dinner with Joel, James, Kah Wan, Zoe, James' parents and aunty was at a Vietnamese Restaurant in town. I ordered a Laksa and it was so comforting to eat something that's closer to heart, and something that's soupy and a little spicy. Post dinner, it was groceries shopping for tomorrow's breakfast, which I'll be cooking for the guys. Scrambled eggs, sausages, sautéed mushrooms and toast.

Post dinner also meant chit chat over wine at my apartment, since James' getting married in three days time. Really soon!

May 16 2017 - Nimbin Tour

It's Nimbin Tour day! Woke up early yet again and I was in town at around 9:20am. Since there was still time, breakfast was at a nearby cafe. The flat white was smooth and fragrant while the croissant was so flaky and buttery. Soon, the bus came and I hopped onto the "Grasshopper tour" bus that was decked in all six colors of the hippie rainbow.

The tour guide, Ivan, was a really friendly and entertaining bloke who livened up the atmosphere. And after we picked up somemore tourists from nearby hostels, he gave his briefing.

"Hey guys, I'm your driver for the day. Ivan. I'm from South Africa and after 30 years in Australia, I still have this friggin' accent! I'm obligated by law to inform you that marijuana is illegal and it is an offence to possess or consume it. Now that we've gotten that over, any undercover cops around? Come on guys, own up now. Ah, nobody ever owns up. OK, we are going to Nimbim and they're selling those brownies there. I wanna caution you guys to eat lesser rather than to eat more. There was once an Israeli guy, a big buff dude who's been to the army, who said there's no such thing as 'too stoned'! Well, I found him an hour later in the bus crying after eating three brownies. He thought he was surrounded by Philistines!"

With that entertaining introduction, we headed off to Nimbin! About an hour into the ride, we stopped at a pub in an outlying town for a toilet and beer break. And another hour later, we were in Nimbin!

Nimbin turned out to be really subdued and stale, with pot smokers visible. Even with the colorful signboards, the town has lost its luster and appeal that it used to have in the Age of Aquarius. After visiting every shop in town, and buying some gifts for home, I was done. And so I decided to fly my drone out to the nearby Nimbin Rocks, which was about 2.5km away. Fly it there, took some photos, flew it back. Not spectacular either!

After Nimbin, the bus brought the entire group to Rocky Creek Dam. It is a beautiful freshwater dam with the reservoir supplying fresh water to the town of Byron. Amazing place, especially when viewed from the sky! The drone found freedom and purpose here as it flew and gave an amazing view of the entire reservoir, with its winding streams and surrounding forests. Over here, Ivan cooked lunch for everyone, which was BBQ sausages and hamburgers. Simple but so satisfying! After lunch, it was almost 4pm and time to depart.

The bus then travelled through Whian Whian National Park and brought us to Minyon Falls. It is a 120m tall waterfall and the observation deck was on the same side as the falls, hence the view was limited. However the 120m drop was very obvious and reminded me of my hikes in Zhangjiajie, China. This was a good opportunity to fly the drone and off I went. The drone gave good opportunity for a group photo with the falls, as well as flying near the base of the waterfall to take some interesting videos. Pity I forgot to take a dronie there!

After Minyon, it was time to head back. By the time I was dropped off in town, it was already 6pm. Grabbed dinner at Bayger and I went back, all ready to cosy up in bed.

May 15 2017 - Crystal Castle

Woke up early today at 7:30am today as my Nimbin Tour was supposed to be starting at 10am in town. However when I was at the Byron Visitor Centre at 9:30am looking for places to visit tomorrow, I was interested in checking out Crystal Castle. But since the Crystal Castle tour is today at 12:30pm, the counter staff helped me swap my Nimbin Tour to tomorrow.

With about 2.5 hours to spare, I headed off to Byron Main Beach. It was a sunny day, a great day to take photos of the beach and breakwater. Finally I had a chance to use my tripod and ND1024 filters in Australia. Though it was really sunny and hot, I found a shaded bench and parked myself there for more than an hour. Sitting there enjoying the view and people watching, it was pretty relaxing.

Soon it was time to head to the tour. It was a small minibus filled with Australian aunties who were from Sydney. The guide was pretty knowledgeable and friendly. Crystal Castle is a place filled with large imported crystals and a ton of New Age Mumbo Jumbo such as palmistry, auras, meditation and mindfulness. I departed from the guided walk and explored the place on my own instead. I tried to fly my drone to get aerial shots that was better than the brochure but after a while, a visitor came over and asked me if I had permission to fly it as it was disturbing the peace of the place. I kept my drone and roamed around for a while before grabbing a chocolate milkshake at the cafe. The cafe had an awesome view and I enjoyed sitting at the cafe, looking out over the forest.

Once the "Peace Experience" at 3:10pm to 4:00pm was over (I did not join it) , I quickly headed to a deserted corner and set my drone free. Even though people to spot and hear the drone, it was difficult for them to find the drone's controller. Thankfully, I managed to grab a few shots of the place that bettered their brochure!

On the way back to the minibus, I rejoined the group and we spotted a koala all the way up in the tree tops! Pity I could not photograph it as it was too far away. Would have been lovely to see it in front of me! Back in town after the 20minute ride, I dropped off at the main beach and grabbed my dinner at a nearby fish & chips store.

Walking back, I saw that the sky was really clear and I rushed to a nearby unlit carpark and tried to take photographs! Unfortunately after ten minutes, I could not get any photos of the stars and I decided to head to the beach instead. On the way to the beach, I kept wondering if there was any camera setting that I had messed up.

Turns out I had left the lens cap on!!!!

I spent almost 3 hours at the dark and secluded beach capturing the milky way. After seeing it once at Mt Bromo and another time in China, I could recognize the milky way formation easily. In fact, I'm very excited to process the photographs when I'm back home. The beach was so cold that the heat from the camera sensor constantly caused the lens to fog up! Imaging stand in the middle of a dark empty beach with strong waves and wind coming from one side and quiet forest on the other! Quite an eerie and otherworldly experience!

May 14 2017 - Rain Rain Go Away

Woke up to the sound of the rain today, and it made me laze in bed till eleven in the morning. Decided to explore Tallow beach again, the side nearer to the lighthouse this time round. Strolled out and headed towards Peterson Street and as I walked up, I chanced upon a huge metal tank probably 20m in diameter and 10m in height at the top of the hill that Peterson Street goes over. Just as I took out my drone, it started to drizzle. And with a sigh of disappointment, I trudged on and eventually took shelter at the porch of a nearby house 100m down the road. But the sky cleared after half an hour and I quickly set my drone free and it zoomed over to take beautiful aerial shots of the metal tank, as well as the surrounding forest. It's so exciting to see the world from a bird's eye view!

It started to drizzle again and the drone had to return. I then headed over to Top Shop Cafe nearby and grabbed a southern fried chicken burger and a Caramel thickshake for lunch. It was so nice to munch on my warm burger, read my book, enjoy the cool weather and soak in the atmosphere of the cafe.

After lunch, it was a stroll over to Tallows Beach where it started to drizzle the entire way. Not giving up, I hiked towards the end of the beach and took photos of the rocky shore. Thank God the rain cleared after half an hour. The drone came out to play again and I had fun flying it over the great expanse of white sand. It was a good place to use Sport Mode too. Rain came back not long after and I had to head off. As usual, walking back always feels longer than walking to the destination.

I headed back for an early rest. Grabbed myself a can of Campbell's Soup for dinner and tucked myself into bed for soup and a book not long after.

May 13 2017 - Beach Walk

It's Saturday already! I am in Byron bay for the fourth day! Headed out at about 11am this morning with my batteries all charged and my legs less sore. Visited the defunct railway station and took the opportunity to use the drone to capture some beautiful aerial shots of the tracks. Along came two policemen who were curious about my drone, and fascinated too. They weren't sure about the drone laws in Australia so I told them about the flight ceiling and certain safety precautions. They were pretty chill and were much more amazed by it than concerned. There was also a "hobo" lounging at the grass patch near where I was and he was amazed at the technology the drone represented when I showed him the views from the sky.

Moving on, I headed towards Belongil Beach, which was my destination for the day. The beach stretches for about 3km from the end of Byron Main Beach. I walked down the entire stretch, all the way to the end where Belongil Creek meets the sea. It was a long walk on the sand, with the occasional drizzle and the looming dark clouds. A pity there was the drizzle, else I would have been able to fly my drone more often. I was able to catch a break between the drizzles and fly my drone when I was at the creek side of Belongil Beach. It is really amazing to see how the river merges into the sea and the gradient of colors. As that part of the beach is also a conservation area for sea birds, I was able to observe the birds up close via the drone. They would have flown away if I had walked towards them, but they were pretty chill with a mechanical bird buzzing around them from a couple meters away!

The walk back to town was made dreary due to the unceasing drizzle but eventually I was back. I decided to try out the asian restaurant that I have been passing for the past few days. It has always been crowded at night but as I was there between lunch and dinner timings, it was empty. The price was high, as expected of Asian cuisine in America, Europe and Australia. I went for the beef Rendang with rice and papadum and it was a $20 well spent. The beef was fork-tender and the curry was rich. I decided to splurge a little and went for sparkling water and beer. I reckon it's a mix between lunch and dinner and so that helps to save a little money.

After the meal, I headed to Byron Beach and took the drone for a little flight. As there was a lot of clear space above the beach, I switched on sports mode and let it zoom in the skies at 65km/h. Having the spare battery power also allowed me to take some evening shots of the town centre roundabout. Nightfall came quick and I started making my way back. Yet again, another day comes to an end.

May 12 2017 - Lighthouse Trail

Since I was no longer attending the open water diving course, I decided to go visit the Cape and the lighthouse today. After slowly strolling to town, I walked about and found a cosy little Mexican store, Chihuahua, selling tacos. I ordered a fish taco and a beef brisket taco, plus a Mexican cola to go along with it. It was simply amazing as the fish was flaky soft while the beef was so tender and easily separated. Probably the best taco I have ever eaten in my life!

After lunch, I took a slow 30 minutes walk to the start of the lighthouse trail. The trail first led me to the edge of Main Beach, where there were quite a fair bit of surfers. Both beginners and those experienced. I took the opportunity to capture some drone shots too.

Further down the trail, about 20 minutes, I came onto Wategos Beach. This is a beautiful and quiet beach that is filled with many moss-covered rocks. I really love how the green and grey rocks gave the beach such a unique character. Over here, I did more drone shots and played with the active tracking function.

Eventually headed further up the trail and reached the eastern-most part of Australia after 30 minutes of hiking. I was too lazy to head down to the rocky outcrop below and so I sent the drone down to capture its beautiful rocky landscape perched just above the water. The wind was rather strong and hence I could not fly my drone for long.

After a short rest, I headed on to the lighthouse, which was just 10 minutes away. By then, it was already 4pm. As I had wanted to catch sunset at the lighthouse, I took my time to capture some aerial photographs and videos of the lighthouse. The wind was extremely strong due to the lighthouse being at the edge of Coral Sea, which was facing the Pacific Ocean. As the sun started to slowly set at around 4:45pm, I set up my tripod and camera and proceeded to take a time-lapse of the sunset. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and the sun was concealed by dark clouds.

Eventually it was nightfall and the lighthouse started to shine. I was amazed at the intensity of the light beam and how it shone so far away. After taking many photographs and even some of the moon-rise as the moon slowly moved above the horizon and into the sky. It seemed more like a sunrise as the moon was golden and created a beautiful shimmer on the surface of the sea.

Hiking back to town took about 1.5 hours hour in the darkness and there was no street lamps to guide the way. Thankfully there were reflectors on the road to mark the edges of the roads and it worked well with the flashlight on my phone. Back in town, I parked myself at Main Street Burger Bar. I ordered a crispy chicken burger with additional beef patty, a banana milkshake and a pale ale. The food was really delicious and filling, and I would love to return again to try other parts of the menu!

After dinner, it was yet another slow walk. This time round, back to my airbnb home.

May 11 2017 - Never Ending Beach

Decided to sleep in a little today and I ended up leaving the house at 10am. With my batteries charged and my backpack packed, I headed to Tallow Beach, which was just a twenty minute walk from my house. While walking through the private estate on my way to the beach, I decided to practice my videographing skills such as orbiting and slow reveal. However the wind was really strong and my drone fought hard to fly back to me. It normally flies up to 45km/h but it was just flying at 10km/h due to the strong winds it was flying against.

Upon reaching the beach, I was buffeted by the strong cold gusts of wind. The beach stretched for miles and I was so amazed at the expanse of the entire beach. To my left, I could see the Byron Lighthouse in the far distance. To my right, it was a never ending beach! I strolled down the stretch of beach on my right and eventually reached Tallow Creek. I could not cross the creek as the water was deep, but I was able to use my drone to fly across and grab some shots of a group of birds which were resting on the other side of the sandy shore.

I then headed back to the main road, through Arakwal National Park. Past two schools, I eventually reached a bridge that would bring me across Tallow Creek. The entire area was so scenic and mesmerizing, as I spent time there photographing and also using my drone to capture the beauty from the sky. Due to the strong winds, I could not fly my drone for long.
Carrying on, I headed to the beach area and center across two guys who were kitesurfing along the strong waves and stronger winds. Turns out one had been doing it for five years, while the other, a New Zealander, have been doing it for twelve!

Walking along the beach, albeit quiet and lonesome, was rather therapeutic too. And it helped that the temperature was manageable, with the wind to offset the harsh sun. Eventually, I made my way back to my airbnb house so that I could rest while I charged all four of my drone batteries and my drone controller. Turns out, it's quite easy to use up all four batteries! If not for the strong winds, I would have used it up faster. The difficulty in flying into strong winds meant that I had to hold back from flying my drone at many scenic spots.

At around 4pm, after an hour's rest, I head out to the town Centre. Then, I received the bad news that my dive course was cancelled due to lack of participants. I got my refund, but now am wondering what else to do for the three extra days!

Dinner was eaten at a rowdy sports pub named Sticky Wings, as there was happy hour from 5-7pm. A beef brisket burger with fries, 5 hot wings and a beer resulted in a bill of AUD32, which was kind of expected. Dining outside in Australia isn't cheap at all. At least the beef brisket and the beer was good.

Past dinner, I took a stroll along town and visited the lit portion of Byron Beach. However it was a cloudy night with a full moon, two things that prevent astrophotography. Hence I didn't get the chance to see or shoot the milky way.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll take the bus to Nimbin and check out that Hippie town. Hello space brownies!

May 10 2017 - Happy Birthday

And I'm one year older, 29 years old today. This is the first time in more than a decade that I'm spending my birthday without celebrating it with anyone else. And the first time in my life that I'm celebrating my birthday overseas. Furthermore overseas alone. It is quite an incomprehensible feeling, as I feel all alone and yet not as miserable as I would have expected.

The flight to Gold Coast landed at 10:45am Australian time and I managed to contact my airport transfer driver to pick me up. However she could only come at 12 so I had an hour to spend at the extremely bare and small Gold Coast Airport. It reminded me of the old budget terminal in Singapore.

The ride was about an hour long and I found myself dozing off. Must be due to the lack of sleep as I only slept for 4 hours while on the plane.

As my airbnb host would only be in at 5pm, left my big backpack at her garage and went about with a small backpack. The town is not very big but the airbnb home was about 20 minutes walk away from the town center where the shops and cafes are. After scrutinizing the prices, I decided to go for subway. I'll have to alternate between nice restaurant meals and cheap burgers. There's no Macdonalds or KFC nearby, but there's a couple of pizza stores.

The weather was rather dreary and dark with the temperature hovering around 19degC. As I walked along the beach towards Byron Cape, I decided to fly my drone for some aerial videos of the beach. It was rather scary to fly as the winds at higher altitudes were strong and on the way back to me, it started to drizzle very lightly. Quickly packed my belongings and I started walking back home.

Thankfully, there's a supermarket nearby and I bought some food back to my room as dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. Sun sets at 5pm over in Byron Bay during this period and hence each day has only about 11 hours of sunshine. I'm still contemplating if I should do sunrise photography tomorrow. The lighthouse is an hour away! Maybe I should head out at 5am and do some astrophotography and sunrise photography at the nearby beach tomorrow instead.

May 9 2017 - Departure

What a hassle. On the way the the airport, I received a text that my flight was delayed by 3 hours.. Since I was with mum, we went to have a nice dinner, kind of like a birthday treat from her. We had Thai at Terminal 1, and it was pretty delicious and affordable, at least by airport standards.

With me having pre-allocated 2 hours for preflight, now I had 5 hours to burn. And off I went strolling with my backpack across all three terminals! Meanwhile, I had to settle some work matters with my mobile. So thankful for smartphones and Dropbox!

And after one complete round through all three airport terminals on foot, I found myself an empty foot massage station and stoned there for 30 minutes.

Then, I found out that I had forgotten to bring the camera mounting plate for my tripod! Well done, Simon! Feeling quite irritated with myself, I went to the electronics store around the terminals before finding one at terminal 1. Thank God my tripod took the universal acra-swiss plates!

At 2230h, that's still 3 hours to burn. Hence I went to my pre-scouted entertainment hub at terminal 2 and parked myself there for 2 hours while charging my phone and watching Masterchef on it. And with an hour left before departure, the airport announced that my flight was changed from gate F34 at Terminal 2 to gate D41 at Terminal 1.. Gosh!

And here I am typing all these while walking to my flight gate. Time check, 00:28h.