There is no theme this week for Monochrome Madness. However, I have taken inspiration from Leanne’s post. Her post focuses on buildings or architecture.
Tirana, Albania and London
Hong Kong
Hydrabad, India
Girokastra, Albania
Stratford Upon Avon, England
I’ve enjoyed editing these photos with different tones of black and white. It’s been fun working with all the different tools that come with Canva.
The day we left started well, we got up on time, after that not so well. We left our house 15 minutes late and after ten minutes drove straight into heavy traffic. Looking at Google maps it still seemed ok, but then it just kept adding on minute after minute. After not moving for 30 minutes, we decided to turn at the next break in the road and try another way. For reasons only known to my dear hubby he didn’t do as Lady Google suggested but went his own way. We could only turn back if we drove up the kerb and over the grass divider which he did! I thought we had lost the bumper at the very least or an oil leak with the noise the car made bumping back onto the road.
Finally getting to the airport carpark with 30 minutes to spare before the flight, we still had to wait for the bus to terminal. When we got to the counter we found that the flight was delayed, yay! so the check in clerk put our bags on the belt and they almost made it, but not quite. Apparently our seats had been given to someone else! We were outside of the required check in time. We were offered another flight at midnight getting in at 5 am, but really 3 am Perth time. What would we do all day? We had booked a carpark for five days, I couldn’t cope with such a late flight.
In the end I booked another flight for the afternoon, at great cost but saving time, Anthony would have gone on the midnight flight at no cost and having hours to kill.
What would you do? Are you Team Ali or Team Anthony?
I can’t believe we missed the flight, the reason – being complacent with my dear hubby and not giving him stress to hurry himself along.
The flight we took was delayed for over an hour, so we didn’t end up getting to our apartment until 10pm.
On landing the first thing I did was check my messages, as luckily Elena Damian and the kids had all made their flight. Oh my! the photos she sent of the apartment! She refused to sleep there that night as it was truly appalling. Absolutely filthy dirty throughout, although the beds did have clean bedding. There was a family already there – of cockroaches! Our apartment was better but the smell of smoke was awful.
I am now having an ongoing dispute with Booking.Com about receiving some compensation.
Anyway I’ll end this diatribe now and just say in the end we had a fabulous family time. It’s been over six months since we were altogether.
The first two days for us were spent getting to know Melbourne again. Elena and Damian visited the aquarium and zoo where the kids had the best time.
Melbourne is such an easy city to get around, there are tram and bus stops everywhere and the train routes are excellent. We bought a Myki card which enables you to tap on and off, there is also a free zone in the middle of the city.
Just a few of the photos I took on the first two days.
Once again we were back in Penang, almost a year to the day. Anthony was determined to accomplish what he failed to do last year and climb Penang Hill. It was my turn this year to succumb to food poisoning on our first night here. Fortunately not as bad as he was, just had to spend the first day in the hotel, sleeping it off.
We were staying in a place called the Ascot Gurney, situated on Gurney Drive. It was a fabulous hotel, ideally situated within walking distance to many restaurants and right on the waterfront.
A view from our room and the pool area, where I spent many an hour relaxing and reading.
Mixing the old with the new
We did some walking around and did some shopping, also had lunch in cafes and restaurants. I wasn’t fussed about doing any sightseeing as we saw so much the year before. I did manage to eat some of the massive lunch that we ordered, good job we were sharing!
The day dawned when Anthony finally made up his mind to climb Penang Hill. It was decided that he would take a taxi to the bottom of the hill in the botanical gardens and I would take the funicular train up. Once he had left I looked up how to get there and realised it was closed for maintenance that week! I was in a dilemma about what to do. Once I had spoken to him he said there was a jeep service that took you up the hill, so I jumped in a taxi to where the jeep service was.
Honestly these guys were raking it in, it was one jeep per party of four. When I asked if I could share they said no, but Anthony was allowed to come back down with me. It was organised chaos, you were given a number on a small sticker to put on the back of your phone, the price was astronomical and one guy said it was more expensive than his air ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. I had to wait for around 30 minutes for a jeep to be free and then it was a 15 minute drive to the top. It took Anthony just under two hours to climb up.
A number of hills are covered by Penang Hill, with the highest point being Western Hill that stands at an altitude of 833 meters (2,733 feet) above sea level. Penang Hill is a hilly and forested area that stands out from the lowlands of Malaysia. The area was used as a retreat during the British colonial period, and is now a very popular tourist destination due to its history and heritage.
Because of the funicular railway being closed most of the shops and cafes were closed also. The only place open was The Bellevue Hotel, where we sat and had lunch. Here we spotted black gibbons swinging through the trees. They moved too quickly for me to get a good photo.
Breathtaking views from the top, and so much flora and fauna to see. There were bees and dragon flies swooping in and out of the flowers.
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On our last night we decided to treat ourselves to dinner in a fancy restaurant. It was called Thirty Two at The Mansion overlooking the water. Having just recently celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary, I thought it was very apt.
The lobby and waiting areas
Not sure of the relevance of Boy George being hung on the wall, but he’s a favourite of mine so I snapped him at once.
There is also a beach bar at the back, called Beach Blanket Babylon.
The food was delicious and I would recommend a visit here if you have the time.
As usual though Anthony was still hungry, so off we went looking for pork satay which is not easy to find in Penang. We took a taxi to a street food market and saw there was a long line for the satay. Deciding he didn’t want to queue up, he went straight to the cook and got served straight away!
This is the end of our adventures in Asia, thanks to everyone for tagging along.
Finally after three long years we are back in Hong Kong. But first a brief stopover in Singapore. We had so many hoops and hurdles to jump through and over to get here and I’ve never filled out so many forms and scanned so many QR codes.
We flew Scoot to Singapore and then Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong. In January we said never again would we fly Scoot! Seems like we have memories like goldfish. When we arrived at Perth Airport the checkin line was huge and could see that the flight would not depart as scheduled. The plane finally left at 10.15 pm, 45 minutes late. Arriving in Singapore at 3.15 am I didn’t realise that we had to fill out an immigration card online! I have to say that I was very impressed with my dear hubby who actually managed to do his on the phone. We eventually got into bed at 4.30 am. Luckily our flight wasn’t until 1pm the next day so we managed a few hours sleep.
We stayed at Yotel Hotel located just outside Terminal 1 for convenience. It turned out to be a very expensive few hours sleep in a damp and mouldy room the size of a shoebox.
I wasn’t expecting anything large as I had seen photos and reviews, but this was smaller than a cabin on a ship. It was overpriced and needed a good refurbishment.
After not much sleep I was definitely “blur sotong”.
It would be easy to spend a few days just in the terminals at Singapore airport. If we had been there longer I would liked to have walked around the huge fountain and waterfall.
Our first day in Hong Kong is classified as Day 0 and when we arrived at the airport, we were whisked away for a PCR test. I can’t imagine that there is any unemployment in Hong Kong judging by the amount of people there telling you which way to go. Maybe people can’t read or follow signs so you are herded onto elevators and walkways to the appropriate places. It was all very efficient and we were in our hotel by 6.45 pm. We ordered room service, no other choice, which we will have to do for the next two nights.
The view from our room on the 19th Floor
After a fairly good night’s sleep we had breakfast (or I did) in the room and then headed out to the Immigration Department.
One of the reasons we are here is to renew our HK ID cards, very important to Anthony to maintain having lived in Hong Kong for 45 years before emigrating to Australia. This was a fairly easy process and we were finished within 30 minutes. We walked into Central from Wanchai which was around a 20 minute walk.
Everywhere is now fully decorated for Christmas and with the weather being fairly cool, it was starting to feel a lot like Christmas.
Picking up a takeaway lunch we headed up Battery Path to the park outside St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Not too cold to sit outside and eat.
Even though this is an urban jungle there are many small parks around surrounded by towering Banyan Trees.
Everywhere you look there is art and it’s all free! Such incredible sculptures and murals are found on walls and outside buildings.
There’s no better way of seeing Hong Kong than riding on the top of the tram, even better if you can get a seat at the front.
Anthony has been in his element all day, in a bit of a daze really. It’s been a stop start kind of day with him pausing all the time to look in all the shops. For me it’s a fantastic photograph opportunity, and I hope to be posting more in the next few days.
Such a contrast between the old and the new buildings. It’s hard to believe that there are people living in the apartment building above. Anthony pointed out that they are also likely to be paying a high rent as it’s bang in the middle of Central.
At the end of the day I had walked 13,000 steps, time for us to head back to the hotel. After a quick rest for Anthony he has headed back out again for another walk around the shops, for me I’m going to have dinner without him.
Hong Kong is a special place for both of us as this is where we met. I was on a two month working holiday and met him after five weeks and the rest as they say is history!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the first day back with me
Waking up to blue skies again was a very nice surprise, especially after the weather forecast had predicted rain for the whole of our stay here. We had the day to ourselves, so what to do! I do like a walk along a river so did a quick search and saw we could walk the Yarra Trail into town.
We hoped on a tram right outside our apartment building and got off at the start of the trail to walk into Melbourne. It’s a great scenic walk, good for cycling, walking and running, starting with bushland and ending up with skyscrapers.
As you can see there are many bridges to cross the Yarra River, whether by foot, train or car.
I spotted these concrete blocks high up on the ridge, the photos make them look larger than they are. Pretty cute I thought!
Rowing is a very big part of Melbourne sports, dating back to the 1800s. There are many clubs to choose from and the Yarra River is ideal for training.
“Warin the Wombat was carved from a 2.5- tonne redgum log by Des McKenna and took two weeks to complete. The wombat is named ‘Warin’ pronounced Wareeyn, a name derived from the local dialect of the two most important Aboriginal tribes of the Melbourne area.” . Source: City Collection Melbourne
This is one of my favourite photos of the trip that I took. I’ve decided to call it “Elements and Textures”. There is sky, water, earth and foliage and also steel, glass, tile and brick. It captures the diversity of Melbourne.
Of course as we were now so near to the city what choice did we have but to go shopping! Anthony always says it’s just for a look, but I think I know better after 30 years.
The challenge from Leya for this week’s Lens-Artists is all about curves. I found some curvy buildings in my archives from a visit to Seville a few years ago.
The featured image is Puente de Triane.
Our trip today into London was going to take us “across the water” to Borough Markets. It was a beautiful bright sunny day, perfect weather for pounding the pavements of London. From the station we walked down Fenchurch Street and across Philpot Lane onto King William Street and over London Bridge. Our first destination was Borough Markets.
Bloom Paradise by Jun T. Lai
These two very colourful sculptures are sitting just outside Fenchurch Street Station.
These ornamental works of art are part of Sculptures in the City and were commissioned to bring colour and life to the City. A wonderful contrast to the glass and steel monotone high rises that now line the streets of London.
I’ve always wanted to go the top of this building to visit The Sky Garden. It’s a fairly difficult process though as I discovered. Although it’s free you have to book a time slot online and you also have to show a vaccination certificate. Although we’ve both been double jabbed and boostered, I couldn’t commit to a timeframe and I was also worried I would have no battery left on my phone to show our certificates. Something for another day then!
This building is where I had my first office job at 16. I thought I was the bee’s knees on £25 per week.
It took us around half an hour to walk to Borough Markets. There were lots of different food stalls offering all kinds of cuisine. Seating was mainly outside only though and food was served in disposable boxes with wooden cutlery, plus it was very chilly. In the end we found a wonderful Spanish restaurant and had tapas.
I wanted to explore around for a while before my dear husband wanted to cross back over the water to head for the shops! He will be now be know as Mr. Shopper.
The top photo is a replica of the Golden Hinde, the galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. Not open on a Monday so just a look for us.
A mural painted by an Australian painter, Jimmy C in 2016 to commemorate 400 years of Shakespeare.
We decided to cross the river at the Millennium Bridge as this was a pedestrian bridge.
In the background you can see Cannon Street Railway Bridge, London Bridge and in the far distance Tower Bridge.
Southwark Bridge opened in 1921. A beautiful arch bridge crossing over to Walbrook Wharf.
A very elegant Millennium Bridge in the distance held up by giant steel supports, opened in June 2000. Behind this bridge is Blackfriars Bridge.
Above are Cardinal Cap Alley and The Deanery. The Dean of Southwark Cathedral’s private residence and dates back to 1712. Cardinal Cap Alley is an alley in Bankside. It used to lead to a brothel called The Cardinal’s Cap named because it had been owned by Henry Cardinal Beaufort, the Bishop of Winchester, who had paraded here wearing his red hat, after being appointed a cardinal by the Pope. Source: Wikipedia
I was intrigued by this “river furniture” as they are described and did some research. They are the old red pillars that supported the original Blackfriars Bridge in 1864. I think they are rather beautiful and add a touch of colour to the grey river.
From here we walked towards the Strand and up to Southampton Street where the Shopper had some shopping to do. A few streets more and we were in Covent Garden. Deciding enough was enough I suggested a pit stop for a quick pick me up. We had a coffee and a beer in a very grand place called Caffe Concerto. Adorned with crystal chandeliers and small elegant tables we sat and rested before moving on.
Chinatown was not too far away so we walked over towards that area and thought “Chinese for Dinner”.
Deciding on a restaurant that looked good we walked to the door only to be told that the restaurant was next door. Anthony asked the security guard why he was standing there in an empty doorway and he said there was a cocktail bar on the top floor, five flights up called Opium! Well not one to turn away a cocktail before dinner we found ourselves heading up the dark and gloomy staircase. At the very top we opened a very ordinary looking door to a small dark lounge and three men waiting to take us to a table. We ended up sitting at the bar chatting with the bar staff and the owner!
Thanks for coming on this journey with us and hope you are not as exhausted as I was at the end of the day. I think we walked approximately 20,000 steps in all.
This week for the Lens Artist Photo Challenge – Sofia from Photographias is hosting and the theme is Looking Up/Down.
“Knowledge comes from looking around, Wisdom comes from looking up” – Adrian Rogers
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There is something absolutely nerve racking about being inside a cable car in the elements with only the floor between you and the depths below. It is quite eerie sitting there in the deathly quiet except for the clanking of the machinery.
Riding in a cable car is definitely the best way to see the world below.
Some cities from around the world for Debbie’s OWS – Urban.
These are all cities we have visited over the last few years or so. It’s nice to spend a few days in a city but that’s about it for me. I much prefer a beach holiday, relaxing under an umbrella, a swim in the sea and watching the sunset. Da Nang in Vietnam is perfect for both which suits hubby and me down to the ground! He loves a good shop and browse and to tramp along streets unknown, letting his feet take him wherever! We rendezvous later after his explorations are over and to see if he’s found anything interesting worth visiting.
My photos for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. Some from the archives and some from today.
