Destinations
DJ down under
By Suwitcha Chaiyong, Photos courtesy of Tanya-un Tantasatien
DJ Pae takes to Australia
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Breaking from the usual routine and escaping to an exotic location is a great way to recharge your batteries. After finishing her final master’s exam, 29-year-old Virgin Soft DJ Tanya-un Tantasatien (Pae) decided to fly to Australia with a group of friends, visiting Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
“I have friends who studied in Sydney, and they all said that it’s a beautiful city,” DJ Pae said. “My friend managed to find bargain fares, so we decided to visit Australia for two weeks.”
COLD MOUNTAIN
• Did you know • |
 In 2005 Sydney was ranked
first in Travel and Leisure Magazine’s list of the world’s best cities. |
One thing that DJ Pae and her friends wanted to do in Australia was to go skiing.
“None of us had skied before, so we wanted to try,” she said. “It was the end of winter, but we found an agency that said we could still ski on Mount Buller in Victoria.”
DJ Pae went to Mount Buller on the last of her four days in Melbourne.
“We only had one day at Mount Buller, so I took a skiing lesson from an instructor,” she said. “I fell over a lot. But at the end of the day, I skied down from the top of a big hill. It was scary, but fun!”
NATURAL ATTRACTION
DJ
Pae also took sightseeing trips to Victoria’s most famous natural attractions —
Phillip Island and the Twelve Apostles.
Philip Island is a national park southeast of Melbourne, where visitors can watch penguins walk to their habitats across a beach.
“At around 7 pm we saw about 1,000 penguins pass by very close to us,” DJ Pae said. “They were so lovely and very tame, but unfortunately we couldn’t take any photos because the camera flash frightens them.”
Located off-shore at Port Campbell National Park, the Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks formed by the erosion of the sea. Some of the stacks have already collapsed from the ocean waves.
“The Twelve Apostles are enormous and spectacular,” DJ Pae said. “Our guide said that there are only eight stacks left, so I was very happy to see them before they all fall down.”
STREET LIFE
The next stop for DJ Pae and her crew was Sydney. Her first impressions of Australia’s most populous city weren’t very positive.
“We arrived in Sydney at night and walked downtown to meet up with a friend at a cafe,” she said. “I kept hearing sirens and seeing so many different types of people — it felt like Sydney was totally chaotic and scary.”
The next morning, DJ Pae saw a different side of the city and discovered that Sydney can also be beautiful.
“We went to the Sydney Opera House, and it was so scenic,” she said.
DJ Pae also got to sample some of the city’s renowned cuisine.
“One place not to miss is a restaurant called Pancakes on the Rocks,” she said. “I’d never tasted delectable beef like that before — and their pancakes were great.”
FLORA AND FAUNA
During
her 10 days in Sydney, DJ Pae had a ball. She visited attractions both
in and around the city, including Darling Harbour, the Fish Markets, Sydney
Aquarium and Featherdale Wildlife Park — a sanctuary for kangaroos,
koalas, emus and Tasmanian devils.
“There were many animals that we weren’t familiar with,” she said. “It was a great, feeding kangaroos and taking pictures with koalas.”
DJ Pae also managed to fit in a day trip to Canberra to see the Floriade Festival.
“Canberra is a fairly boring city, but the Floriade Festival was fantastic,” she said. “It’s a festival of many different kinds of flowers and unusual flower arrangements.”
CITY LIVING
When it was time to leave Sydney, DJ Pae didn’t want to go.
“I prefer Sydney to Melbourne. The architecture and beaches there are really beautiful,” she said. “There are lots of activities to do. I think it would be a great place to live.”
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bargain
(adj): bought
for less than the usual price IDIOMS recharge
your batteries: to get back your strength and energy by resting for a while |
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