Betty Loves Blogging

From the category archives:

photos

Winter trees

by Ashlee on July 27, 2010

in Albury, Australia, photos

Trees

Trees without their leaves at Albury’s Noreuil and Oddies Creek Parks.

Trees

[keep reading…]

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Scones at the park

by Ashlee on July 26, 2010

in Albury, Australia, Food, photos, yum yums

Scones

Savoury scones from the famous Beechworth Bakery’s Albury store ($2.90… very delicious!).  We also had a piece of bright red Jelly slice, straight from childhood birthday parties.  It was like the bakery had directly imported it from the 80’s.

I didn’t end up getting the time to go down to the pretty colonial-era goldrush town of Beechworth, about an hour outside of Albury, to have scones or pies at the bakery proper during this stay (or get lollies from the great olde-style sweet store right next to the bakery), but thankfully their Albury store is just as yummy.

What better place to enjoy some scones than down by the Murray River in Albury, the scene for so many of those sugar fueled childhood birthday parties?  The Oddies Creek Off-Leash Park is one of Pogo (our fluffy silly dog)’s favourite places in town.

But like most of our family though, when there is food around, Pogo isn’t interested in exercise.

Pogo wanting scone

He has very poor table manners.  At home, he knows he’s not allowed on the table, but he didn’t feel those rules applied at the park.

Pogo jumping

This jumping style is how he got his name of Pogo. (The park is partially sealed off in the background because they are building a new playground area)

Once the scones were gone, he finally decided it was time to have a run.  He’s a scaredy dog though and will only play with puppies his own size.  If there’s a big dog, he won’t stray far from his sisters.

Pogo and Britt

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Street Kitchen, Solo

by Ashlee on July 21, 2010

in Indonesia, Solo, photos, yum yums

Kakilima Solo

A street vendor selling mie ayam noodles in Solo, Central Java, near the Karaton. Right behind the fence there was a paddock full of pungent goats who kept sticking their noses through gaps in the tarpaulin, trying to get some lunch from diners and making lots of noise when they were denied a meal.

Below is the product of this man’s labor.  It was quite tasty, but I don’t really eat bakso (seriously, who knows what is in that stuff?) so I didn’t really touch those, only a little taste.  But the rest was good.

Mie Ayam

But after a couple of mouthfuls… CRASH. A goat had stuck his head through a gap in the fence and knocked over a whole tray of vegetables.  It was certainly a unique way to dine.

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Remembering

by Ashlee on July 13, 2010

in Aceh, Indonesia, photos, travels

tsunami memorial

A tsunami memorial in downtown Banda Aceh, consisting of rainbow coloured poles on an empty block of land.

Aceh coast

View arriving by boat into the Banda Aceh port of Ulee Lhee, where the tsunami first hit the Sumatran shore.  The port is now surrounded by stone walls intended to give some protection to the harbour in the event of another large wave.

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A few photos of my sister

by Ashlee on July 5, 2010

in Albury, Australia, photos

Britt

I always take lots of photos of my little sister when I’m home, and there’s a good reason.  Not only is she a gorgeously beautiful ballerina type, she’s also the type of person who responds enthusiastically to suggestions like “why don’t we go and get that carnivale mask I bought you back from Venice and go to the park in the Albury CBD in the cold at night to take weird artsy pictures while bored bogans drive past and honk their car horns at you?”  You’ve got to love that kind of attitude.

Britt

We had a pretty epic photo sesh tonight (I can’t find my damn tripod, making night photography tricky!), taking heaps and heaps of kooky snaps.  There’s some more…

… if you clickity-click-click this linkety-link-link.

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Tiger Tiger, PenangPrints of some of my photographs are now available to buy at RedBubble!  If you want to spice up a wall or can’t think of a good gift for someone, check it out!

I’ve tried to pick photos that I think would look good on walls and for interior design-y type stuff… but they also print postcards.  Maybe they could be used for dinner party invitations or something fun like that!  Who knows!  It’s up to you!

The prices are very reasonable and any purchase you make will be helping me a little with my education costs :)

If there’s any photos from the blog which you want as a print, but are not yet in my RedBubble gallery, let me know and I’ll get it organised.

Get browsing over here.  Pass it on to your friends if you think they might be interested!

Tiger picture is from a temple in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia.

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The jungle town of Bukit Lawang has a rocky river flowing through it.  Not so long ago, a flash flood in the river wiped away most of the town.  But now, on the weekends, locals flock from Medan to cool off in this tropical rainforest river.

Bukit Lawang

Bukit Lawang guys

Bukit lawang stuck

And one more pic of Bukit Lawang village over the jump…

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Home colours

by Ashlee on June 29, 2010

in Albury, Australia, Melbourne, photos

SunsetPhoto taken somewhere on the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Albury… still south of Glenrowan, maybe just past Stanley?

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Another belated Indonesia post.  No, I’m still in Australia, I haven’t gone back.

“From Sabang to Merauke”.  Anyone who knows a bit about Indonesia has heard this… it refers to the westernmost and easternmost points of Indonesia.

Sabang, as I have explained earlier, is an alternate name for Pulau Weh and is also the main city on the island.  However, on the island itself, there is a peninsula, which at the tip, is known as kilometre zero (Km Nol in Indonesian).  The officially recognized starting point of the country.

For me, Km Nol was more of an endpoint.  The next day, I would go back to Banda Aceh.  Then I would fly to Jakarta via Medan, then on to Bali and then home to Australia.  I had spent the day sightseeing around the island with a great group of Argentinian travellers I met at my accommodation.  Km Nol was our last stop for the day.

So what is at the beginning or end of Indonesia, depending which way you are going?

Km Nol chairs

Plastic chairs.  Just like you would see in the waiting rooms of any government office in the country.

Km Nol
There was also a large white tiled structure that somewhat resembled a very clean public toilet.  And some crazy monkeys that chased us.

Inside the bathroom tribute building, there was a plaque. But we knew the plaque wasn’t really on the true kilometre zero, the very start point of Indonesia, because there was land all around us. Fail.

KM Nol

But it still felt somewhat symbolic.  I may not have made it as far as Merauke (Labuanbajo was my most far-flung eastern destination), but I did get to Sabang.  Next time I’m in Indonesia, I’ll have to get to Merauke.

PS.  Do you like the bigger photos?

PPS.  OMG I was so tanned!  It vanished so quickly… :(

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Melbournelicious: Some photos of the city

June 26, 2010

Yes that’s me, in one of Melbourne’s funky graffiti and milk crate packed laneways.  I specifically requested my friend take me to one so I could take graffiti photos.
I’m clearly having travel/mad photographing withdrawals being back here in Oz, so I managed to take some 90 photos during my 24 hour stay in [...]

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Melbournelicious: Three Bags Full, Abbotsford

June 26, 2010

I made a whirlwind trip to Melbourne earlier this week to go to the US Consulate to get my visa to study in Washington D.C. I’m APPROVED!  Yay!
But that wasn’t the only yay.  The food in Melbourne is fantastic and I was lucky enough to have a delish breakfast with my lovely friend Tilda at [...]

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Aceh’s tsunami scars

June 13, 2010

On my last day in Banda Aceh before heading out to Pulau Weh, I wasn’t sure what to look at next. Banda Aceh is an odd place, because it was destroyed by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Much of the city is relatively brand new, so while in some ways it is just like [...]

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Pulau Weh… paradise

June 2, 2010

I could write a lot about Pulau Weh or Sabang, which is off the tip of Aceh province and is Indonesia’s most western point.  But the pictures tell the whole story.  It’s a quiet tropical paradise with amazing snorkeling and diving.  It’s pretty easy to stay in the little bunglows in the jungle by the [...]

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‘Pulau Weh… it’s alright,’ local resident says

May 25, 2010

We went to the ‘hot springs’ in Pulau Weh, but the water was so dirty and algae-covered none in our group of travelers would actually get in.
This little guy jumped up next to me on a wall we were sat on looking out to the coast (photo a little blurry because camera threw a brief [...]

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Searching for Sumatran Orangutans

May 23, 2010

I’m getting behind on blog… so much to write about. We’ll get back to Aceh soon, but now I’m backtracking to writing about Bukit Lawang in North Sumatra, where I went searching for Sumatran orangutans in the wild.
It’s easy to arrange a hike in Bukit Lawang… people start trying to coerce you into one [...]

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