清境住宿——黄庆果园

黄庆果园，听起来非常的不文雅。老实说，我是那种以名字取民宿的人。清境大大小小的民宿很多，黄庆果园是我轻易跳过的民宿。

但是后来为什么还是选择他呢？原因很简单，我上网搜查“清境亲子房”的时候，有好几个网友推荐这家。看着看着，我心动了就定下来。

结果真的没有后悔！房间很有趣，小孩虽然不是很会玩，可是布设全是为孩子设计的，所以一入住他们就很高兴。而且，民宿的范围种的都是不同的水果。住宿的旅客每天可以免费吃当季丰收的水果。我们是十一月中旬入住，天天吃梨子。据说十一月尾是苹果季节！

民宿规模一般，总共有十九间房间。其中让我最纠结的是欢乐亲子房和景观房。景观房是黄庆果园唯一可以看到山景的房间。后来，我还是为孩子们订了欢乐亲子房，虽然没有后悔，但是还是有点遗憾，哈哈。人生嘛，你不能什么都要。

右手边的那栋就是景观房

樱桃，可惜没丰收！

十一月尾就有得吃的苹果

第一次看到甜柿的果树

从黄庆果园看出去的山景 

走向我们的房间的小巷子

都是阶梯，我们住两晚天天下雨，地上滑滑的

欢乐亲子房

房里有很多公仔（熊猫是我孩子的）

我和女儿睡楼上，男人和儿子睡楼下

摆设也很可爱

要是天天都可以这样多好 

山上的天气合适，多肉植物很多，而且都长得很好。

入住黄庆果园，他们有提供交通到邻近的餐馆和景点。所以交通方面没有问题，从房里出来，到柜台说一声他们就会安排。从景点要回民宿，打个电话给他们，他们就会来接你。非常方便，很好。

而且，民宿附近有个海拔最高的7-11，要吃泡面也很方便，哈哈！

Quest East Perth

It's tough to look for an ideal lodging. I'm the Airbnb kinda traveller but The Man is not. I was looking for some Airbnbs until he voiced this out, and I actually looked into both hotels and Airbnb to find something that suits both of us.

And we found Quest East Perth.

Quest East is not exactly a hotel, it's not exactly an apartment, it's an apartment hotel. So you have a front desk that does your hotel check-ins and check-out, but your room is kind of like apartment, you chose your room type like studio apartment, one bedroom apartment, two bedroom apartment etc. We're a small family, so we took a studio apartment.

It's not a huge apartment but it's really just nice for the three of us.

The king size bed

The wardrobe, small kitchen (with everything you need), small dining table.

A work desk and a sofa

View from the room

When I said the small kitchen has everything you need. I meant it!

Utensils

Cook ware

Pots and pans of different sizes

Bowls, grater, chopping board 

Toaster, brush, sponge, and cleaning cloth

And on the third day, I realised they even have a set of three different sizes lunch box (microwaveable). I used that to bring banana bread for my son in case he's hungry on the road. Nice!

Besides, if you'd like to do laundry, it's FOC. There are two washing machines and two dryers at level 1 and even the detergent is provided, FOC too! There's a small gym at the same level, don't expect anything fantastic, pretty basic but good enough.

There's no parking provided, you can book a parking lot from them, which is actually Wilson carpark at the opposite street at AUD30 a day. I calculated the cost, if I didn't book I had to pay about AUD27-28 a night. It's about the same so your choice.

We had a little hiccup during the check-in. Small matters and it's sorted out pretty soon, thanks to the very helpful front desk lady, Megan. I actually wrote it in the review in Tripadvisor. And the management took time to reply to my review. Very attentive!

Quest East Perth is really new. When we checked in, they're just open for about two weeks. It's clean, it's new, everything is bright and shining. We love it :)

Recommended.

寻找魔戒之旅（五）—— 住得最开心的三天两夜

从新西兰南岛玩到北岛，我们的行程很不简单，几乎天天换房，几乎天天收拾行李，几乎天天把一箱又一箱的行李拿下了、又排（挤）过⋯⋯不简单。

在Rotorua住宿的那两晚，正是让大家松一口气的时候，终于都不用收拾行李啦～而且，在这里，也是我们全程唯一两晚大家同一屋檐下！其他时候，我们都是不同房间，不同建筑，不同楼⋯⋯往往晚餐以后就各自回房休息，很少有机会混在一起。

Pacific Valley Lodge可是我们一行人住得最满意的一次！

清晨，我们坐在太阳底下用早餐，听鸟叫声～

这是屋主的家，就在我们隔壁。

这是我们的客厅

厨房，大家忙着准备晚餐！

饭厅

睡房，总共三间，每间四张床。

Fireplace，为冷冷的晚上添了很多温暖！还好同行的有位Scout，起火就不管我们的事了！哈哈！

冲凉房，厕所两间、浴室两间、洗手盆两个，还有晾衣的地方，也有洗衣机。

此外，屋外还有烧烤的地方，我们入住的第二晚也搞了一个烧烤会！牛肉、羊肉、猪肉、鸡肉、各式蘑菇、青椒红椒、南瓜等！超级无敌好吃的，尤其是水分充足的蘑菇！在我们这里从没吃过这么美味的蘑菇啊！好怀念！我们看着满桌的食物还以为肯定吃不完了，结果，当晚大家的食量很好，统统干完了！一件不留。

屋主很用心打理空地，诺大的空地种了很多花，气候好的缘故吧，花朵都开的茂盛！羡慕死人。

而且，屋后还有小溪，是trout fishing的地方。我们在岸边看见很多鱼，可惜没有钓鱼好手，只有得看。

看见水里的三条鱼吗？

如果你到Rotorua来，不介意要开电车才能到市区，Pacific Lodge是很好的住宿！我给五星！

One Bedroom Apartment in Westerpark

Finding an accommodation didn't seem so difficult before baby came along, as long as they're reasonably convenient, reasonably hygiene and reasonably priced, I'm up for that. And I usually move from a place to another, never have I stayed put in one apartment for entire week.

But baby changes everything. (*music* *point at the baby and blame him*) :P

We were in Amsterdam from 21st April to 28th April. King's Day falls on 27th April, and it's a public holiday in Netherlands. Accommodation was a little bit tight for the weekend, which made finding a perfect accommodation a little bit more harder.

After searching high and low in Airbnb and also amsterdamapartments.com, I shortlisted a few and start contacting them. After a quite a fair bit of communication, we ended up in this lovely apartment in Westerpark, own by a nice lady named Steff.

There were a few firsts for me,

• First trip with baby
• First reservation on Airbnb
• First visit to Westerpark area which is not a well known attractions but I've really learned to love it. (Will cover that in another post)

I've set a lot of criteria in my search, 

1. Washing machine: Simply because travelling with baby means occasional dirty laundry is unavoidable. Besides, having a washing machine means we can pack lesser clothes.
2. Kitchen: Simply because I need to boil water and foresee we will make simple meals a day or two when baby needs to sleep and rest
3. Heater: Weather can be pretty unpredictable, the last thing you want is to fall sick during the trip. It's important to keep baby warm at night
4. Ground floor: Amsterdam buildings were mostly old buildings with very steep and narrow staircase. I wouldn't want to haul the heavy luggages, stroller and the baby up and down everyday.
5. Dryer (optional): Not the most important item but it'll really help me to reduce my luggage weight even more :)
6. Bath tub (optional): It's just easier for me to bathe baby

Unfortunately, I didn't get item 4 and 5 fulfilled, but I'm satisfied still.

Living room

Living and dining area (I have no place to hide the stroller)

The Kitchen

Bathroom with the washing machine inside

The bedroom (No safe place to put my baby except the bed while we're busy taking pictures)

This was a 40m2 apartment, pretty small but it's more than enough for a holiday trip. The bedroom was really small so we have our luggages lying in the living room. There's no TV in the apartment but it's not important to us at all, we didn't spend much time at home.

I almost ended up in another apartment which was situated at a more convenient neighbourhood, but it didn't have Wifi access. But according to The Man, Wifi is the most important thing and asked if I could find another one. Hmph! Found one I have, but a lot more work was done.

We were really satisfied with this apartment. Before I went I thought it's not very convenient. But turned up, bus 21 travels frequently between Amsterdam Centraal to Westerpark. Besides, tram 10 travels between east and west of Amsterdam which brought us to Museumplein and Leidensplein almost everyday during our stay.

The neighbourhood was quiet and peaceful. It's walking distance to the beautiful Westerpark, and great food and bakery and groceries stores are nearby too! I have nothing to complain about, really.

If you're interested, this is the link on Airbnb.