Esthee H.

You know how sometimes you get bouts of nightmare on certain nights.... and you wake up feeling like your mind was really active but you're so physically dead tired that you usually just fall back asleep right away? Most of the time you don't really recall what you dreamt of. Even so, it is usually just bits and pieces of your dream. Last night, I had a series of dreams in my half-asleep state. I was dead beat from sleeping at 3am after flying to Shanghai without any sleep the night before that. And so, you can probably imagine how zombified I was when I finally got to bed. In my zombified-state, my mind was crazily active. So here goes.

My nightmare from last night:
Someone said to me: "Are you going to Rome? You should totally visit Transylvania! It's a must go!"
Me: "Eh yarrr. Of course!"

Ok, for those who don't know. Transylvania is most famous for the birth of Dracula cos Bram Stoker wrote Dracula and the entire novel is set in Transylvania. Bram Stoker's Dracula is nothing like the ones we see in 21st century Hollywood's Draculas. If you have read the novel and have vivid imagination power like I do, you will know what I mean.

Transylvania in Bram Stoker's Dracula IS SCARY CREEPY SHIT.

Okay, so what happened in my dream was, I went ahead with sight-seeing cos really, who wouldn't visit famous spots, especially if it's like a place from classic literature. Like, going to Beijing and not visiting the Great Wall of China just doesn't make any sense. So I did. I think I went alone in my dream cos there wasn't anyone else who wanted to sight-see with me. I went in the day, but boy, everything in my dream started to feel like Dracula happening to me. The whole Transylvanian setting, it's misty dark fog and hours and hours of traveling into the woods...
REALLY SCARED ME.

I woke up perspiring and it took me some time to fall back asleep. I guess I might have dreamt that cos I was worried about going to Rome for 8 days (longest time possible) and I usually don't count on any companion to go sightseeing with.

So now that I got home and I remembered this dream, I googled Transylvania.

Guess what?

Transylvania is not even in Rome!
It's in ROMANIA.
...........................


Ignorant moment. :(

So the next day we went to Pilanesburg to hunt some wild animals. It was a darn long ride out of the city area in Jo'burg and it's really interesting seeing the transition from city life to squatters and slums. The transition is like almost immediate. Some of these slums don't have electricity nor proper sanitation. Our guide Shane, was explaining to us how astonishing the crime rate is in Jo'burg. Apparently, cases of rapes, robbery and murder is high throughout the year but having lived in Jo'burg for almost all his life, he has never witnessed any sort of crime happening. He says many foreigners are afraid of stepping out of their hotels but he reckons it's perfectly safe to walk down the streets. Oh well.

So upon arriving at Pilanesburg, we got onto our open vehicle (I don't really know what's the proper term for this) and went on our adventure to hunt some wild animals.



The guides for the wildlife tour were young chaps who spoke great english and had amazing knowledge about wildlife animals, or at least the animals they had in the area. They could answer almost every sort of question we had, but of course, at times ignoring certain idiotic questions such as "So is the Zebra white with black stripes or black with white stripes?"

Here's Lester with the handsome safari guides.


Here's an idea of what wildlife is.



The guides drove us around the wildlife area and it all depends on how lucky we are to catch the solitary animals like the leopards and cheetahs. It was cool watching a family of 6 elephants walk by, or a bunch of zebras and giraffes munching on grass. There were so many animals! These animals are used to vehicles driving around the area and they're not really afraid of us because we're only observing them and do not pose any sort of harm to them, though they tend to stay away from the paths. Or in the case where there's a head/leader in the herd, the leader will watch out for the rest and defend should we go too close.





We had to trail behind this elephant for quite some time because he refused to get off the track and we coudln't overtake him cos you do not want to mess with this fella. When we finally overtook him, he flapped his ears wide open, raised his trunk at us and let out this roaring sound which means "I can attack you any moment".

Here are a few shots.

Family moving to find water source.


I have no idea what animal this is, but a friend says it's a Gazelle.


Below is a giraffe that got struck by lighting, probably while eating from the tree. Guide told us that this giraffe died over a month ago and amazingly, no animals have come by to eat it.
Point is, animals never eat cooked meat. Only raw.
So this giraffe's corpse is pretty much safe till flies and worms finish it up.


We saw many other animals too and the tour lasted for almost 4 hours, from day till sunset. We had to wait for the sun to set cos that's when the lions will come out. It was so fun hunting the lions and you see the guides driving around, corresponding with each other via walkie talkie with updates on where they last saw a lion. We had to use torchlights to shine onto the grassland because if there's a lion in the area, if shone by a torchlight onto the eyes, we'll be able to spot it. We eventually found a herd of them and watched for a bit. I was waiting for them to mate but seriously, all they did was to laze around and play with each other. Lazy cats.

Couldnt take any picture because I didn't have a pro camera but it was still exciting catching them! Also caught a female leopard on the way out.

The Pilanesburg day-tour was really expensive and some other people on the safari tour with us were apparently there in Pilanesburg for days just to go on the safari tour everyday.

I felt like a Nat Geo cameraman for a bit and I think I kinda know how it feels like to snap an awesome picture of nature after hours and hours of wait. Too bad I only had a digital camera and the pictures I took were nothing like a Nat Geo picture.

The lion park and Pilanesburg wildlife was all I did in Jo'burg but I had tremendous fun there. Thanks to Lester, who was my companion on the trip and I think he was a major factor to the fun I had. Who would have thought that Jo'burg would be one of my favourite stations? :D

Till, next time!

Okay, to Johannesburg. Not quite the same as Madagascar the country... but most people think of Madagascar the movie anyway.

Jo'burg has GOT TO BE MY BEST EXPERIENCE SO FAR!

It is sooooooooo cool because who would expect South Africa to be so fun?! Honestly, what do you imagine when South Africa comes to mind? I thought of vast land and wildlife and very little development.

I was half right I think.

Jo'burg is quite developed actually. Or maybe it's just the city area where our hotel is located at...but still, much more happening than I imagined it to be. And they all speak pretty good English! Though with an uncommon accent that makes it a tad hard to understand, I was still pretty impressed.

Malls are huge with massive brands. There was like sale everywhere. Stuff are like dirt cheap but quality's thin though, so I didn't buy much. But if you've heard of Bio-Oil, this amazing amazing product that helps to remove ugly scars (even stretch marks, which I have all over my butt), it's darn cheap in Jo'burg!!! Like 12 bucks for a huge bottle. How to not buy? That alone gives me a reason to go to Jo'burg.

We ate Ocean Basket, which everyone tells us is a must-try. Something like Fish N Co in Singapore... nothing special, just seafood in a basket.

One thing I gotta highlight about Jo'burg though: No joke when it comes to tipping. You might wanna always tip the waiters/waitresses because they can ask you rather aggressively if you don't. They are even quite aggressive in promoting their products at the mall. That gave Lester and I quite a scare.

So here's a picture of me in the city area with a huge statue of Nelson Mandela.
(check out the dude in the background posing for my picture)


Day 1 was basically spent walking around the malls and buying stuff, while Day 2 was what we were really looking forward to.

OFF TO PET LION CUBS AND CHASING ANIMALS IN THE WILDLIFE!!!!

I can't tell you the amount of excitement. It doesn't matter that the cost of the tour almost eats up our entire our allowance for Jo'burg because who gets to travel to Jo'burg and chase wildlife?!

ME! Wahaha.

Okay, so here's a shot at the entrance of the Lion Park.


African Lion: Rising Power of Truth.(don't mess with them!)


So all the animals are kinda kept in their enclosures. But the park allows you to enter and feed/pet them, do whatever you want. The animals are also allowed to wander around the park. Which this Ostrich here was walking around like-a-boss.



Here are some signs on the enclosures. Don't say they didn't warn you!





They had zebras, giraffes, lion cubs, ostriches, and Mort from Madagascar!

Mort wasn't that cute in real life, kinda like this squirrel looking thing, brownish, small and fast. Basically, animals that did their own thing so they weren't that fun.
Shall not post pictures of them cos they aren't that interesting to talk about.

The fun part was getting to feed the Ostrich and the Giraffes! It was quite scary at first. Cos the Ostrich was darn aggressive the moment he saw us holding onto the bag of food. She practically charged at us! The female pecks at food on your palm rather agressively but the male is kinda more docile and gentle. haha

Here are some shots of the male cos the female was too scary for me to feed.



I got to touch their feathers! Felt fluffy and soft, just like the rugs you get from Haji Lane or Arab street. haha

After the Ostrich, we went to feed the Giraffe couple. Again, the male is much more docile than the female. Apparently he was having some digestive problems that day, so he wasn't that keen on eating. The food we had on our palms didn't do much help at all.

She got THAT close to my camera, no kidding. But pretty shot I managed! :D Check out her eyelashes.





Feeding the Giraffes takes a whole lot of courage! Firstly, they are so huge. And they have really long necks which helps them fish for food easily. Whether you are ready or not, they are!

And it isn't just the long necks that are scary. Their tongues are longer than you can imagine. It's black and long, and REALLY ROUGH. So when they're licking off from your palm, you will feel this rough slab licking across your palm.

Not an enjoyable feeling.



After awhile, when I got more accustomed to feeding them, they seem like beauties.

After the griraffes, here comes the highlight! The lion cubs! Just look at them. Such adorable little things, almost like a plush toy.



The thing with getting them to come and play with you, is to get down to their level, preferrably in a lying down position, so they'll come close and play with you. Cubs are really playful creatures so if you show them that you are willing to play with them, they are willing to play with you.

Here's our guide Shane, showing us how it's done.



And me, trying to get them to play with me. Fearful, but willing to give it a shot.



Finally!







Super cute right?

It was so difficult saying goodbye. I felt like I could play with them forever. haha. But we had to because we were going to the Pilanesburg wildlife area to hunt some lions.

Which I shall talk about in my next post!

Copenhagen!

My virgin experience in Europe. :D

Gosh, I was really blown away by the architecture. For one that's never been to Europe, I think it's really the architecture that impresses you the most. Everything around you is just so magnificent. I felt like all the buildings were so beautiful and you could see one after another from miles away just because they are so magnificent! I was really taken away by the architecture, so my friend Zeek and I walked for like 3 or 4 hours staight, following the architecture until the sky turned dark and we started to panic. We were starting to lose our way and it doesn't help that the locals didn't really speak English as well.

So here are some pictures that I took of the architecture.

























There are just too many beautiful pictures of these to post, so I shall stop here.

But there are some photos that I JUST HAVE TO SHARE. Because Zeek is an awesome photographer and he took so many chio shots for me!!! *melts*

Call me narcissistic if you wish... I don't care. The pics are just too chio!

































So pretty right?! Thank you Zeek, for the awesome photos. :D I love having friends that take awesome photos and most of the time, these people always take such pretty shots and are always so willing to take pictures for you! He made my Copenhagen trip so much more memorable with these awesome photos to look back to.

Besides walking on foot around our hotel, we also did a river cruise around Copenhagen which brought us to most of the attraction spots in the area. We sat on a boat that looks something like this and learnt about the history of Copenhagen and its Dukes. It was an audio guided tour available in most of the languages and lasted through half the day! Not that expensive, so if you are new in the country and would like a good quick tour of the place, you can hop onto one of these boats easily.





We also visited the Little Mermaid, this famous statue that is the iconic feature of Copenhagen.

Here's a little quote I stole from Wiki!

The Little Mermaid (Danish: Den lille havfrue) is a statue of a mermaid in Langelinie, Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue (with a height of 1.25 metres (4 ft)[1]) is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction.

The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the prima ballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. The statue's head was modelled after Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor's wife, Eline Eriksen, was used for the body.[2]

The Copenhagen City Council decided to move the statue to Shanghai at the Danish Pavilion for the duration of the Expo 2010 (from May to October), the first time it had been moved from its perch since it was installed almost a century earlier.[3]

Don't get your expectations high though, cos all it really looks like is this.



I was extremely disappointed. We all were. haha

The next day, we visited Tivoli, the second oldest theme park in the world, opened in 1843!







It was quite expensive but we still got the unlimited ride ticket anyway, since I figured I'll probably never visit this theme park again. It practically poured for the entire day, right after we entered the theme park. I kept my camera in the locker since we were going on rides and I figured I wouldn't wanna be carrying it around. But it was good fun going on rides in the cold rain, though when you are up there, you would be cursing like I did. haha



THIS RIDE IS CRAZILY HIGH. When I went up, I almost peed in my pants.

Here's a pic of the theme park i took from wiki again. But it would have been the same if I had my camera, just a bit more professionally taken I guess.



On the last day, I went out to the street by myself and found a nice lovely spot outside of a church. I bought pastry and coffee from them since they were having some charity event for the church. And I thought it would be nice to sit in the afternoon sun and drink coffee and simply watch the world go by!


7SGD in total.

Before i could finish my coffee, it started raining cats and dogs and I sought refuge under a tree for close to 2 hours.

That was my first experience in Europe, Copenhagen! :D