The Royal Palace (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

Operating Hours: 8am - 5pm
Entrance fee: 3 USD

The Royal Palace is pretty big so be prepared to spend a lot of time walking. It will be good to engage a local guide so as to better understand the history. The palace was built in 1866, and has undergone several restoration projects.

Silver Pagoda

this used to be the Royals' residence

A view from the front gate

One important thing to note is that visitors have to be properly dressed. Bottoms have to be beyond knee-length, and tops should be t-shirts, no spaghetti or tank tops are allowed in.

Caversham Wildlife Park (Perth, Australia)

Directions: Take train (Midlands Line) to Bassendean Station, from the station, take bus 955 or 956 and alight at Lord Street before Youle Road (well, the best way is to tell the driver where you're going and he'll let you know when to alight, since there's no bus announcement or significant landmark)

Cost: 25AUD

After you alight at the bus stop, walk towards the Whiteman Park entrance, and wait for the shuttle bus to bring you to the village where the Caversham Wildlife Park is located. The first bus only comes at 1030, if you are feeling adventurous, you can take the walking trail to walk into the park. It was quite a long walk (20-30min) but it was really interesting as I saw several wild kangeroos on my way in!

Okay so, when you are at the Caversham Wildlife Park, the few things you should not miss are the Farm show, the koalas visitation timings, the kangeroos area where you can walk through and get really close to the kangeroos. I was not so interested in birds but there were a huge range of birds display as well. Oh and I really love the area named the Molly's Farm! The farm show was really interesting! It includes a demonstration of sheep shearing, whip cracking and other surprises!

Since you're visiting Caversham Wildlife Park, you should walk around the 'village' too! There are a few museums like the revolution museum which shows the change in the transportation in Western Australia, there's also a tractor museum. There's also a 'train station' which allows you to take an old-style train for a fee of 10AUD.

Rockingham Wildlife Encounters Three-Island Wildlife Cruise (Perth, Australia)

Direction: Take train to Rockingham station and take bus 951 to Rockingham Wildlife Encounters ( tell the driver where you're going and he'll let you know when to alight)

Cost: 25AUD

Timings: Three-Island Wildlife Cruise is only available in Winter when Penguin Island is closed. There are two time slots per day: 1115, 1315

Tip : Do check their Facebook page on the day you are going as they will cancel the cruise if the weather is unfavorable

The ticket seems to be expensive but it was pretty worth well for me as I really love the dolphins and I was really excited to see them in their natural habitats.

There were about 200 dolphins living in the region and the people proctecting the area do not feed them or alter their natural environment. Besides dolphins, I was also able to see the sea lions, pelicans, auspreys and other birds.

I'd definitely hope to visit the Penguin Island or swim with the dolphins in the summer. The Rockingham Wildlife Encounters offer different tour packages of these sorts, do check out their website for more information. But of course, during the winter your only choice would be the Three-Islands Wildlife Cruise.

Hay Street Backpackers (Perth, Australia)

Hay Street Backpackers (Address: 266-268 Hay Street East Perth, 6004) was a really nice place to stay at!

Firstly, it is one of the cheapest backpackers hostel you can find in Perth. I paid 30AUD per night when I was there but the price has reduced to 28AUD during my stay there. Although on bookings.com it says there's no breakfast, BUT they do provide simple breakfast from 0730-1030, breakfast includes white bread, jams, coffee powders, cookies (yummy!) etc. There are also toasters available for use.

Secondly, the rooms and beds are pretty clean. When you first checked in, you will be provided with a pillow case, bedsheet and blanket. The rooms are very spacious, each person has a convenient bedside cabinet, and a locker. There are also hooks and hangers provided. Although one downside is that the power plugs are not at very accessible locations. There is also an A/C in the room which functions during the night time. Oh, the bathrooms are pretty clean too!

Thirdly, the hostel is really accessible! There are buses nearby (bus 37 and 40) to travel to and fro the Airport Terminal 3 and 4, so you'll save a lot from airport transportation, provided that you do not carry too much luggage. The hostel is also within walking distance to the Perth Train station, Esplanade Train station and Mciver Train station. But you don't have to walk because there's a free bus (red CAT) just opposite the hostel that operates daily at a pretty good frequency. So it is REALLY convenient to get around.

Lastly, the staff were really friendly! They were really helpful and made sure that we had a pleasant stay. Towels, additional blankets, cutlery, heater, etc could also be rented if required.

But of course, there were some downsides to it. The walls in the hostel were not soundproof and could get really noisy at night, you can even hear people walking on the creaky floors. I visited Perth in Winter thus it got really cold at night in the hostel. The heating system wasn't very good. BRRRR...

Anyway, I would recommend this place to my friends who would like to stay in Perth city. Oh, I forgot to mention that there is a swimming pool in the hostel! Woohoo!

Fremantle Prison (Perth, Australia)

Fremantle Prison is a must-visit place! It is one of the World Heritage sites. And in my opinion, the 19AUD tour is pretty worth it. There is a tour every hour, and a guide would walk you through the prison and tell you about the lives of the prisoners in the prison, and of course, some historical facts about the prison.

You will get to see the inner structure of the hand-built prison, inmates' cells, the kitchen, yards, offices and the most unforgettable one would be the execution room. There is also a segment which you get to see how the cells have changed since the it was first established in the early 19th century to its decommissioning in 1991.

There's also a small Freo prison gallery and a Prison Arts gallery other than the tour. There are other tour options like going into the prison tunnels etc, at more expensive prices.

State Library of West Australia (Perth, Australia)

I happened to visit the State Library of Western Australia while I was waiting for the Museun of Western Australia to be opened. The library and the museum open at 9am and 9.30am respectively on weekdays.

The library is a pretty nice place! There's a small corner which shows snippets of the past of WA through different means, for example, you can feel the material that some copies of the newspapers were printed on, or smell the flowers discovered by the botanist Ericksson.

There are also small huts in the library that show videos of the past and you can just lie down comfortably on the beanbags to view the films.

Another nice spot in the library is the library shop. You can find really cheap and used books on sale, one of the items that tempted me to purchase were the pretty mugs with the illustrations of Roald Dahl's books. I saw mugs of The Girrafe and the Pelly and Me, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach, etc. Luckily there's no Matilda, or I would have spent the 12AUD there.

It's a nice place to visit before going to the museum as you can just spend 30 minutes learning more about WA.

Batam

Batam is the most convenient destination for a short getaway for Singaporeans since it is only a less-than-2-hour ferry ride away. Thus, you can see Singaporeans everywhere in Batam.

Public transportation in Batam is not very well developed. Their most common mode of public transport is taxis. They do not have buses, only mini vans which routes are difficult to understand. While I was there, my family rented a car which costs only 24 USD for 24 hours. And it is really convenient to have your own car since parking is cheap and easy to find, just that you have to have a smart phone to help you navigate around the island.

These are the views from Harris Hotel. I have stayed in Batam Novotel Hotel before, although the facilities are much better, Harris Hotel provides a more affordable stay, and it is within walking distance from Batam Ferry Centre, and Batam Centre Mall is just beside the hotel, thus it is at a very convenient location.

A&W is a must-have for me when I am in Batam since it vanished in Singapore. Although the food is really not fantastic, it is a habit of mine to at least have its ice-cream waffles and Coke float.

Can you believe that my family of five enjoyed the above dishes for only 22 USD? The dishes include Spicy Crab, Fried Squids, Fried Chicken, Fried Rice etc. And they taste awesome! The restaurant is hard to access as it is located in the local neighborhood. But its name is Xiang Xiang Chinese Seafood restaurant. Its address is: Komp. Anggrek Permai Blok B No. 7, Baloi Mas (Jl. Yos Sudarso, Baloi Indah),Batam, Kepulauan Riau. It is highly recommended!

The things worth doing at Batam would mainly include EATING! And massage, ktv, and the purchase of cheap snacks from the supermarkets, and fried snacks (keropok) at the local stalls.