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| Train journey towards Wollongong :) |
Weeks before flying to Australia, I contacted Yeshi or known more as Yessi Norfe (a young Bhutanese lady who currently resided in Wollongong with her two and half years old beautiful daughter called Daisy Choetsho Droma - whom she called 'Bumchu', who was also a blogger who blogged since year 2011. Find her blog here - Hear My Voice/ Mommy Blog. Obviously I knew her through the blogsphere, most probably since year 2013, when I started knowing few active Bhutanese bloggers around.
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| Feel like a student again :P |
When I visited Australia two years ago, I did no have chance to visit Sydney. So this time, when I had more time to spend in Sydney, I planned a whole day to be spent with her and Bumchu :) So, through Instagram message and We Chat, we chatted and planned our trip together. I took train early in the morning from where I stayed to North Wollongong for about 1.5 hours. From there, I had to go to the opposite platform (platform 1), walked few steps and got into the UOW (University of Wollongong) bus provided for students freely. Well, both hubby and I felt like a student taking that bus hahaha.... :P
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| Having breakfast while waiting for the bus :) |
Once reached the University's bus stop, we waited for both of them for a while. Since we had just missed our next bus, we paid a visit to the nearest loo. We had to change twice before reaching the Nan Tien temple. While waiting for the other bus, we went to 7-eleven to get our caffeine dose, orange cupcakes for Bumchu, and banana cake for myself. Did not expect the banana cake tasted really good! The $1 regular coffee/cappuccino was our favorite too!!! :)
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| Fo Guang Shan Nan Tien Temple - Wollongong |
Reaching temple, we went inside and prayed. We prayed to Goddess of Mercy or Kwan Im Pu Sha, also known as Avalokitesvara. Upon entering the main shrine, there were students doing some breathing exercise as part of their tour around the temple. We again offered our prayers to the Buddha (there were 5 Buddha statues inside). In a while, we heard what the temple staff explained to those students about the temple and the Buddha statues in front of us, also about Buddhist teachings in general.
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| Gratitude Bell - Nan Tien Temple |
We went to see the Pagoda and walked up towards the Gratitude Bell. You could 'gong' the bell as feeling gratitude towards your parents. There, we sat down and had a small picnic :)
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| Playing with Bumchu :) |
We saw the other parts of the temple before heading to the bus stop. We just missed our bus so the next one would take quite some time. While waiting, Bumchu was playing with us, acting as shopkeeper and we were all as the buyers. So cute....
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| Wollongong Botanical Garden - Australia |
Yeshi invited us to her rented home for lunch. To reach there, we had to walk across the Wollongong Botanical Garden. Wow!!! Again, we were blessed with beautiful flowers and natures there :)
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| Delicious Bhutanese meal at Yeshi place :) |
She prepared quite a lot of food for us, among them, many were cooked in Bhutanese style, such as; ema datshi, ezzay, dhall, kewa and nutella datshi. Only fried salmon was not. She prepared it all by herself since morning time. Wow!! She also prepared curd water for us to drink. Hmmm.. the food was all delicious la!! Hubby and I loved it very much la!!! Name same kadinche-la Yeshi!!! :)
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| When Mom gets busy :D |
While both of us were busy washing dishes and cleaning up, Bumchu suddenly disappeared. The room became very quiet. And I searched for her. Guess what? She was sitting on the floor inside the shower room helping the Mermaid and three yellow duckie taking a bath. Hahaha... I could not stop laughing looked at the scene. How enjoyed she was with the thing she was doing!!! :D
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| Wollongong Beach - Australia |
At 4 pm, all of us got ready for our trip to the beach. Wollongong was known for its beach with two lighthouses. I went here too seventeen years ago, but could only recall very little about the places. We took a bus there and reached towards evening.
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| Gift from Yeshi. Kadinche-la :) |
We had a stroll along the beach from one side to another. But the wind had become stronger. Hubby and I walked towards the other light house while Yeshi and Bumchu got their way back and waited for us near to the bus stop. We met there after a while before heading back to the train station,
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| Time to go... will see you again one day... |
We had to wait at the train station for about half an hour. While waiting, Bumchu and us were playing and laughing. Oh my!!! Bumchu's laughters!!! It was so contagious and so happy!!! We kept doing that until our train came and we had to leave. She was crying and sad as the train left. Poor Bumchu! I wished I could stay and play longer with you... Thank you very much Yeshi for all your time, effort, lunch, gift (book and post card), and everything you had done for us. It was not goodbye though but would see you again. We'd never know.. Just like how we both could meet up this time!!! :)
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| Shanghai noodle before going back :) |
We reached our station back in another 1.5 hours. Had Shanghai pork soup noodles with pan fried bun before going back to our place and having a good rest. It'd been a long day but it was all memorable la!!! Had recorded Bumchu's laughter on my phone. Could play it anytime I want :D
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