Korean fried chicken was so 2014. 2015 was
totally the year for burgers! And I had my fair share of burgers in 2015; back
to Mary’s, tried Bonditony’s, even Belly Bao jumped on the bandwagon with baogers, and the most recent one Canterbury Kebabs. Believe me, I have more stored to share with you all, posts are definitely on
the way.
2015, a year I actually wanted to end
sooner, I was just over it. I guess because the year had not started in the
best way for my family with the passing of my grandfather.
But nonetheless, here’s to a better and
greater 2016!
With that low start, there were still some
fairly great highlights in 2015, which made it that little bit better. The
Leong side of my family all headed back to the father’s homeland, Fiji and had
a great time enjoying 'Fiji time' as well as seeing what their family owned convenience stores
look like today and visiting their relatives.
I then headed off to Japan and Hong Kong,
and there are plenty of posts to come with that. But that's a sneak peek into
my Japan trip if you did not notice my instagram posts.
And because nothing can go bacon my heart,
I visited La Buvette for the bacon French toast and that was nom-licious!
Because GD looked at my camera #sayseveryfangirl
Then OCTOBER finally came for my inner kpop
fangirl to be unleashed! Kpop King’s BIG BANG visited the land down under with
their MADE concert and Miss CC and I decided that we missed out on so many of
their other concerts that we totally made up for it all by attending their
Melbourne show as well …
Then we had the Hello Kitty Diner open here in Sydney! All that built up excitement, and it was finally here!
Chatswood really is becoming the new eatery suburb, as Chatswood interchange has a lot of restaurants opening. Now, Chatswood Westfield has Hawkers Lane opened, transporting you into asian streets.
A photo posted by FOOD & LIFESTYLE BLOGGER (@jfromwithin) on
November, I popped by Perth with long time
friend Miss MC to visit our Perth-ian Miss NH for her birthday. There are
PLENTY of posts to follow as well.
A photo posted by FOOD & LIFESTYLE BLOGGER (@jfromwithin) on
December was probably the biggest month of
the year, being Christmas and all. As it was finally uni break time, so I had
Ed Sheeran concert being enjoyed under the rain. Because it’s just so romantic!
A photo posted by FOOD & LIFESTYLE BLOGGER (@jfromwithin) on
Had a family day trip to Canberra, mum’s
crazy idea of not telling one another where we will be and hope to meet by
chance. Result of my car was bumping into my cousin and her boyfriend…
A photo posted by FOOD & LIFESTYLE BLOGGER (@jfromwithin) on
I call it a mediocre year, but writing this
wrap up – I guess I didn’t have such a bad year after all. Lots of travel and
shows. But I apologise about the lack of posts in 2015, been such a busy
year with uni, work, and just life. I guess you can tell with how I haven’t seemed
to stay in Sydney for that long…
But here’s to hoping that 2016 can help me
catch up on all those backlogged travel posts!
I here wish you all a lovely, healthy and
prosperous year ahead. We may have all started the year with a lot of rain, but
we still have 300 odd days of hoping for more sunshine! #silverlining
Take
it from me… That played in my head continuously when I was lazing around in the Intercontinental Resort in Fiji.
BULA!
Leong gang
Smiles, warmth and familiarity emits from
everyone you see.
Our one week stay in Fiji consisted of
lazing around in the resort located 45 minutes from Nadi airport for the first
4 days and then the rest of the trip we travelled around Lami and Suva to visit
my dad’s relatives and friends.
Gone are the days to rising every morning
to a gourmet buffet breakfast, an omelette stand which you take full advantage
of when you’re there early with no queue, order, go for a round of food to fill
your plate to return to the stand and your omlette awaiting you. Get there
around 9AM onwards and that luxury turns into a 10 people queue and standing
there while it cooks.
Our first day we enjoy Natadola Beach, just
behind the Intercon Resort. The waters are crystal clear, and I cannot resist
but to take a dip. As I am not much of a beach person, and the first time I was
in Fiji, dad had thrown me right into the waters. As we were always told, sea
water helps eczema – so I have always hated it. The stinging was evident, but
the aftermath my skin did seem to not be as dry.
The family are all over the hotel, while we
are on the beach basking in the sun, my aunt and her mother are off to the side
enjoying a lovely massage. My parents and other aunts and uncles are walking about.
My brother, cousins, uncle and dad then enjoyed a lovely 30 minute horse ride
on the beach. It was only our first day, and they were all sunburnt already!
All from a horse ride…
Being in the sun can be so exhausting, no
joke. As the family were all lounging on the couches in the bar as we waited
for a quick bite. Such a hard life we all live.
Tivua Island
We joined several tours, one of the tours
we joined were via Captain Cook Cruises out to a private island, Tivua. It can
take you a whole 6 minutes to walk around the entire island. Here you have a
whole day of activities like snorkeling, canoeing, glass boat rides with a
buffet lunch included. It was such a
shame, my brother and I had his gopro all ready to go and yet when we were
snorkeling the batteries had somehow been all used up! The waters were clear,
the fishes amazingly beautiful and the corals, unfortunately some had died from
a not too long ago disaster.
Snorkeling
As we had enough people for our own tour,
we requested to go to a local curry house in Nadi. The local city is completely
different to what you are exposed to of Fiji, but it was an experience for us
to have. Even though English is not a problem in Fiji, it was still a bonus to
have my dad and uncles able to speak in Fijian to the locals.
Our early dinner ...
Their curries are absolutely amazing; you
get a choice of chicken, goat or beef with either a side of roti or rice. Don’t
worry about rice, but we love their roti, tearing it apart and dipping it into
the spicy yet addictive sauces.It is a
shame that the hotels don’t really offer curry much and are generally your
typical westernized pasta, burgers, sandwiches and steak.
Mum used to braid my hair when I was a
young girl, but in the spirit of being in Fiji and miss teenager cousin really
wanted it done, we headed off to the outskirts of our resort. Sitting just
outside the border of the hotel were some village people who offered tourists
massages and hair braiding. So we spent about half an hour there as they did 4
braids for us two girls.
My dad and his brothers are from a village named
Bua, it is located in Savu Savu, another island off Fiji. It’s unfortunate we
are not able to pop in there to visit this time round, but maybe next time.
Even though, they probably will not know anyone in the village now, as they
left for Suva when they were young, it would have been nice to see where they
were raised for a short amount of their childhood.
They were standing there waiting ...
However, we still got to visit another
village, Batiriwhich is near our resort. We
meet one of the men who is like the right hand man to the village chief.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to meet the chief, as he was unwell.
A classroom
It was interesting to see how the schooling
system worked over there. Due to the lack of teachers, they need to join two
schooling years into one class. If the students were late to school, their
punishment were things such as picking up rubbish, cleaning the toilets and
such. They all learn English and Fijian in school, and at home they will speak
their own village language. As we visited on a Saturday, we were unable to see
the school actually running, and luckily a classroom was left unlocked thus we
got to have our own teacher running with my little cousin, “Good morning class,
I am Mr Leong.”
The making of kava
If kava is offered, you cannot reject it ...
The village greeted us at their hall, with
girls handing out handmade flower necklaces to each of us. As we had chosen our
chief, little Mr Leong, we commenced with their common Fiji ritual, the
drinking of kava. They offer to your chief, he shouts bula, claps three times
and accepts the bowl of kava and drinks it. For those who don’t know what kava
is, it is a Fijian alcohol. I would say it’s more like a drug, as it is made
from tree roots. And for those who have not tried it like myself, I have been
told it’s sort of like drinking mud water. But the taste also really depends on
the person who makes the kava as well.
Dancing with a villager
And Fijians all love to sing and dance, so
without further ado they started to perform for us. Not long after that, we
found that we were all pulled into dancing as well. They are so warm and
welcoming, their pure nature really makes you feel accepted within their small
little community.
Sunset on the boat ride
Robinson Crusoe staff welcoming with songs
We return to the hotel and wait for our
next bus which will take us to the river, and on board the titanic boat and onto the island, Robinson Crusoe. Under the hot
Fijian night sky, we were going to watch the fire dancing. We were excited, and
how else to get us all in spirit, to get us all singing and dancing on the boat
ride over of course!
Harabuji drinking kava
Lovo digging
Fire walking
We undergo the kava tradition again here at
Robinson Crusoe, watch lovo digging and simply just wait for our buffet dinner
again.
Then the real show starts, it is amazing!
The way they throw their fire sticks, catch it, spin it and just the whole
atmosphere was great. We thoroughly enjoyed the show, and had a lot of fun.
We travel back in the river back to our
buses. What is amazing is, there is not a single light to be seen along the
river, the stars were shining brightly above us, millions and millions of them.
The path ahead was pitch black, a little fear in all of us wondering how we
will get back. But no fear, a man will sit a top your boat and with his torch
did an amazing job directing the
driver where to turn and how to stay in the middle of the river.
And that, ends our stay at the
Intercontinental Fijian Resort stay, we then got our hired cars and head out on
our three hour drive to Lami for the next leg of our trip …
