Canberra

Good day to you :)


Canberra is the capital city of Australia. It is more like where the government operates, where the embassies of various countries are located. One of the Australia's iconic building is here, The Parliament House. Canberra is quite close from Sydney. You can take the bus (3 hrs 55 mins), train (4 hrs 05mins) , or even plane (50 mins). I have always took the land method and the view along the way just made the time passed by. Pretty!

Since I lived in Canberra when I was a toddler, so most of the time the trip was walking down the memory lane. Visiting the house, relatives, and eating at the same old place, hahaha.

We went to the Parliament House, the symbol of Australian democracy. It is the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. Your family can enter the building, it is free! Then take the guided tour. A visit to the roof of Parliament House provides one of the best views of Canberra and the opportunity to get up close to the building's iconic 81-metre high flagmast, one of the world's largest stainless steel structures (www.visitcanberra.com.au)

Parliament House

On the way we passed a fountain that is located in the middle of a lake. The lake name is Lake Burley Griffin. The fountain is actually a memorial water jet of Captain Cook. The water jet is powered by two 560 kilowatt electric motors driving four stage centrifugal pumps capable of pumping up to 250 litres per second against a head of 183 metres. The water velocity at the water nozzle is 260 km/h. While running both pumps simultaneously the main jet throws approximately six tons of water into the air at any instant, reaching a maximum height of 147 metres. Alternatively the jet can be run on a single pump reaching a lower height of 110 metres. During special occasions it can be illuminated, often with coloured lights (Wikipedia). The jet operates between 2pm and 4pm daily.

A visit to Cockington Green Gardens is fun too. Here you can stroll the miniature buildings and gardens. It is fascinating how detailed those miniatures are. 

Tired walking around then you might want to take the train. The whole family can take a ride with the steam-train miniature. You think the kids who will be enjoying it? Guess again!

That would be all from my 1 day trip in Canberra. See you later!!

Babymoon with my toddler Part One!

Hello my ladies! Hope you all are fine :)

I wanted to share on my first long haul travelling experience during pregnancy. It was actually a surprise trip because my dad won a hole-in-one from his golf tournament. He got a return ticket Jakarta - Sydney - Jakarta and gave it to me. I was so excited since my brother was studying there as well. 

Unfortunately, my husband couldn't come on this trip and my mother was only able to join towards the end of the trip. I guess I was too excited to think that I will be doing a trip, at 6 months pregnant, alone with my 3 years old son. Oh yeah, it is my first time traveling being pregnant without any adults accompanying me (HA!)

We took our flight in the evening by Garuda Indonesia. Thank God it was a smooth departure. Al slept all the way until we landed. After 7+ hours finally I could stretch my legs, phew!! We boarded off the plane and off to the toilet. Pregnancy made me have a shy bladder, hahaha! I asked Al if he needed to go to the toilet. Surely, he said No! 

About to wait in line for the immigration check and my cute little boy said he needed to go! So all the way back we went to the toilet. Lesson learned for me was just sit him at the toilet and just wait, don't just ask. He would eventually need to do his business!

With my circumstances, for my carry on, I tried to have less weight to carry on my shoulder. So I used a cabin size wheeled suitcase and I also put my handbag along with my son's stuff there as well. Turned out when he got tired while he was waiting, he could sit on it and I just pushed him around. Happy mama!

One of my concerns on this trip was on taking my luggage out of the baggage conveyor belt. I was ready just to pull and let it fall. Thank goodness for the nice man that helped me and made it settled on my trolley. Back in line for the quarantine check and finally remembered that I forgot to grab the stroller!!! Damn this pregnancy brain!!! 

All settled and finally en route to the hotel!

My next blog post on this topic will be about Preparing myself to travel while pregnant..

Stay tuned! ;)