Qing Ming Festival is usually occurring on the 5th of April (+/- 1 or 2 days) every year when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 15 degree. Most importantly, it is also the day for Chinese to pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper accessories etc..

Usually my grandfather, granduncle, father, uncles and aunties would go to “sweep” the tombs of my great-grand parents and great-great-grandparents 2 or 3 weeks before the actual day to prevent traffic jam. My great-grand parents passed away when I was studying in primary school, but I have never followed them to sweep the tomb every year on Qing Ming.

Yesterday (Sunday), I went to the tombs for the first time. The two big blocks of tombs were just next to each other. This year my grandfather and my elder granduncle (my grandfather’s elder brother) did not follow the team because they are too old and it will not be easy for them to climb up a hill. Therefore, this is the first time my brother and I are “invited” to join them this year.

My relatives and my father, my brother and I spent about 2 hours there cleaning the tombs, give the food as offering, and finally we burned the “golden and silvery paper” before we said bye bye to our ancestors.

From the tombstone I saw that my great-great-grandfather was labeled with the 18th generation, and my great grandfather was labeled with 19th generation. Then I calculated which generation I am. It turned out that I am the 22nd generation, and my nephews are the 23rd generation.

Do you know that great-great-grandfather is also known as:-
1. Grandfather’s grandfather.
2. Father’s great-grandfather.
3. Great-grandfather’s father.

For me, I do NOT agree that burning things such as “fake money”, fake clothings, paper houses, paper cars can help the ancestor in the other world. These actions do not make sense at all and create pollution. But most of my relatives are doing that and I can’t stop them.

The most important value of Qing Ming Festival is to remember our ancestors and learn the value of “XiaoDao” (filial piety in Chinese). It is the good and positive value of respect and obedience to parents and ancestors.  It is the basic value that helps in creating a peaceful and harmony environment from the scale of a family to the entire country since thousands of years ago.

We did not bring back a lot of souvenirs from Perth for our friends and family, but I did bring back a lot of memories, photos and some valuable driving experience from Perth which I would like to share with you.

Rent a car is cheaper than taking a cab / taxi, but we were forced to study the map and has made quite a lot of mistakes especially when we came to junctions.  The parking fee is quite expensive.  We parked for less than 1 hour and it cost us A$4.30, compared to Kuching, average RM1+ for 1 hour.

The drivers in Perth are more polite, compared to our country.  I noticed most of the cars were moving according to the speed limit.  I did not have to worry that I have to wait for a long time to get out from a parking space or a junction because I am sure someone will give way to me.

There was one day we were at one of the busiest traffic lights in the Perth City and I wanted to take a right turn, but I noticed that there was no chance for me to turn right. I was sure it is legal to turn right, but there is no right turn arrow on the traffic light, when the green lights were on, the cars from my direction and the opposite direction can go at the same time.  On my lane, I have to wait for the cars from the opposite to finish passing the traffic lights.  By the time the cars from the opposite direction finished passing the traffic lights, it has turned red already.  I missed 2 rounds of traffic lights, and suddenly I saw a car behind me over took me, the car stopped in the middle of that cross road, when the lights turned red, it was the time to take a right turn because the car from the opposite direction has stopped.  I have learned that, and I asked one of our friends in Perth, she also said that this is the way to get through this type of traffic lights.

This was the car which we have rented - Hyundai Accent.  Everything was fine except the cushion for the rear seat which was a bit hard.

We almost forgot to take picture of this car with us until the last evening we were there before the sky turned dark.  I suddenly thought that if I did not take photo with this car, we won’t have the chance anymore because it was getting dark and we were going to depart in the midnight.  Therefore, we quickly took the photos with the car in front of an Asian food center.

The car has carried us to many places including SiewPeng’s sister’s university.  SiewPeng and I hope to study again in a university in Australia if we have the opportunity (We are planning to do that in the coming decade).

We were at the Perth city again.  This time we didn’t have to catch the bus.  We bought some key chains, which I have given out to friends and family before I took their pictures.  Key chain is the most common souvenir.  However, the most common thing around us could never be found on the other places on the Earth.

SiewPeng and Colin in Perth City.

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Well, another thing I brought back from Perth was the following food.  It might be the most common breakfast in Australia or other Western countries, but we have never found it in Kuching.

I wanted to let my family test it and tell them that this is the food I ate in Australia.  But they said it is tasteless.

It is called crumpet.

This is how it looks like.

If you want to know more, click on the crumpet link above and read it from Wikipedia.  :P

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This time, I played with my mobile phone, searched for the network operator and found the other two.

Last year I found Telstra only, this year I found Vodaphone and Yes Optus.

The thing that made me curious and tried to search for other network was :- last year, when I arrived at the Perth International Airport, the first roaming network operator was automatically switch to Telstra, but this year while I switched on my mobile phone at the airport, I received 3 text messages guiding me on how to make out going calls, and I saw the operator logo was Vodaphone.  I start to think that other network operators might be cheaper.

It is not cheap for roaming service.  I have to pay even to receive a call.  It was worse when come to Chinese New Year when I receive calls and texts from friends wishing each other Happy Chinese New Year.  One of my friends in Kuching went to a national park and texted me to ask me where the waterfall is.

Each minute is RM3 for receiving and making outgoing calls, and each text message cost me RM2.  :O

We have not planned for our next trip yet, but we will sure be going again.

This post is the last post for our Perth trip on Chinese New Year 2010.  We will make a summary soon in the comment section, and we have written 21 posts for this trip.   Actually, there are more things to write and post, but I have to make it short.

Hope that you have enjoyed all of them!  :D

From the road directory, we found that the Piney Lakes Reserve is at the junction of Murdoch Drive and Leach Highway.  We parked the car at the car park near Leach Highway entrance of the Piney Lakes Reserve.  If you are familiar with this place, you will know what happened as we were looking for the lake.

Well, it was a hot Tuesday afternoon.  The first impression was good because there are solar power street lights.

We were walking in slightly deeper to the park and found another big piece of solar cell.  Thumb up because it is using clean energy which is environmentally friendly.

We saw the signboard showing the dog restrictions rules for Piney Lakes Reserve.

We were in the woodland and we reached a junction.  The following signboard stopped us to use this path.  If there were snakes, do you dare to walk into the park?

As you can see, the signboard is labeled with City of Melville.  It is a Local Government Area in the southern suburbs of Perth.  Piney Lakes Reserve is surrounded by the 3 suburbs under City of Melville (Winthrop, Murdoch and Bateman). …

… I have learned more about suburbs in Perth although sometimes it might be confusing.  Without doing some reading from wikipedia, I thought I had went out of Perth City when I saw “City of -something-” in Perth.  As I know, there are many “cities” in Perth, there is a local government / authority for each “city”, and each city has many suburbs.  Correct me if I am wrong.

We continued to walk into the wood land.

We found some protected plants along the way.

We found many things, but we did not find the lake.  A question started to come into my mind, “Why is there no lake in a place called “Piney Lakes Reserve?”.

I play a joke with SiewPeng’s sister by asking her this question bacause she brought us there and was our tour guide.  :P  She did not know how to answer my questions.  Hope she did not take my words seriously.  Hehe…

What we had found out is that the lake is actually located about 800 meters from where we parked our car.  There is another entrance for car park at Piney Lakes Reserve at Murdoch Drive which is just next to the lake and it would save us a lot of energy walking under the hot sun for almost 1 km if we parked there.

However, we had seen more things along the woodland path.  The longer we walked, the more we saw, and the more photos I have taken.

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We had walked for about half an hour,  but the lake was still out of our visibility.

Another batch of protected plants with red tags.

Suddenly we reached a big piece of grassland.  Hey…  If you are using Windows XP default desktop wallpaper, try to compare to these photos.

When I was there, I felt that I have jumped into the Windows XP wallpaper.  It is not exactly the same but looks similar.

We took some photos and have some drinks (we were really thirsty).  First part of the journey exploring the reserve, I guessed we were the only group of people in the park.

Colin version of Windows XP wallpaper with SiewPeng and Colin (not forgetting our bag at the right corner as well).

Finally we found the lake, after walking across the grassland.

The following pictures were taken somewhere near the lake.  I will show you the lake in the coming post.

Not far away, there is a playground.

Stove for BBQ or cooking.

Do you know what this structure is built for?  They are the public toilets.

At the place I saw this board, the car park was just next to us but our car was not parked here.  We have no choice but walked for another 800 meters or 1 km back to our car.

Besides tiredness and hot, it was a great experience and we have had a happy time there.  While walking back to our car, I was far behind SiewPeng and her sister because I was busy taking photographs.  SiewPeng has lost her balance on the little hill at the grassland.  She fell down and her sister laughed at her.  I took their photos from far away and will keep these photos for ourselves.  :D

This is the Cenotaph of the State War Memorial.  [There is an 18 metre granite obelisk commemorates all Western Australians who gave their lives in the service of their country] - from bgpa.

[At dawn on April 25 each year, Kings Park is more than a bushland reserve, The cenotaph at its heart becomes the focus for the annual Anzac Day dawn Service. Thousands of Western Australians gather to pay their respects to The men and women who died in their country’s service. The cenotaph was unveiled in 1929 and the centenary of the founding of the colony was Celebrated by planting an avenue of red-flowering gums along Fraser Avenue.] - from wa.gov.au.

The Cenotaph in the night.

The internal walls of the undercroft list the names of more than 7000 members of the services killed in action or who died of wounds or illness in WWI.

There is an area next to the Cenotaph that allow visitors to view the city of Perth and Perth Water.

This is called “Court of Contemplation” at State War Memorial precinct with the words written - “Let silent contemplation be your offering“.

Then we reached a curved wall with country names written on it.  One of the names stated is Borneo! :)  And SiewPeng’s sister told us another specialty of this curved wall.  If one sits at one end and leans against the wall to say something (with normal speaking volume), the person sitting at the other end of the curved wall can hear every single word clearly as if they are talking to each other face to face.

SiewPeng doubted her sister’s words because one would sure look insane if he or she sits at one corner and talking to a wall all by herself or himself.  However, she finally decided to give it a try.  The picture above shows SiewPeng delivering her words to her sister through the wall who was sitting at the other end of the curved wall.  And it really worked!

This is where the other end of the curved wall is.  It’s quite a long distance from the spot where the arrow is pointing in the picture above.  And that was where SiewPeng sat just now.

Here is another picture to show that the distance between the two spots is really far!  Look how tiny SiewPeng is at the beginning of the curved wall!  But it is true that the person sitting at this end where the arrow is pointing at, can hear every single word crystal clear as if they were sitting next to each other and talking!  Amazing!

We will remember them - the Australian army.

Light yellow flowers as the offering.

There is a flame - “Flame of Remembrance” in the middle of a pool - the “Pool of Reflection“.

2/16th Battalion Memorial - honours the men of this battalion who fought in Syria, New Guinea and Borneo in WWII.

There are other memorials, statues and structures in the park which I did not take the photos for each of them.  They are the statue of John Forrest, ANZAC Bluff Commemorative Plaque, 10th Light Horse Memorial, South African War Memorial, Queen Victoria Statue, Floral Clock, HMS Queen Elizabeth Shells, Leake Memorial Fountain, Kokoda Memorial Plaque, Jewish War Memorial and Dr Arnold Cook Memorial.

And I believe the most recent memorial would be the Bali Memorial that commemorates the loss and suffering of the Bali tragedy which occurred on 12 October 2002.

This is the last post about Kings Park. As usual, let me summarize the posts about Kings Park as follow:-

1. Visited Kings Park, Western Australia
2. Kings Park - Part 2 - the Nature
3. Kings Park - Part 3 - Perth City
4. Kings Park - Part 4 - Sunset
5. Kings Park - Part 5 - Night Scene
6. Kings Park - Part 6 - Gija Jumulu at Botanic Garden
7. Kings Park - Part 7 - State War Memorial (This post)

Hope you have enjoyed them.

This is famous the Boab Tree / Adansonia gregorii (Gija Jumulu) located at one of the car parks near the Botanic Garden in Kings Park.  It has been moved 3200km away from Warmun in WA’s Kimberley region to here. - Amazing!!!

The Gija Jumulu, SiewPeng and Colin.

This tree was estimated 750 years old, 36 tonnes weight, with 2.5 meters diameter trunk, and relocated due to works on the Great Northern Highway.  It took days (14 July 2008 to 19 July 2008) on its journey to arrive at Kings Park.

25 metre truck trailer and two traffic lanes were required to transport this giant boab tree with police escorts. :O

[Boabs are deciduous trees that are highly valued by Indigenous people for their edible fruits, medicinal uses and water-holding properties. …

…Now known as ‘Gija Jumulu’, the tree is a special gift to all Western Australians from the local Indigenous people, the Gija, who are the traditional land owners. They performed a farewell ceremony to the Jumulu (boab in Gija language) on Monday, 14 July 2008. …

…Along the way, almost entire towns came out to see Gija Julumu and people honked horns and waved the whole way down. The boab arrived at its new home in the heart of Kings Park on Saturday, 19 July. ] - from Botanic Garden and Parks Authority Website.

This is the signboard telling the story of Kings Park.  Kings Park was officially opened on 10 August 1895 whereas Botanic Garden was opened on 1965.

First I was confused about “Kings Park” and “Botanic Garden“.  How are they related?  And where are their boundaries?  From Wikipedia - “The botanic garden is an 18 hectare site within the park“.  It answers my question.

It is now known as Western Australian Botanic Garden and has a collection of 2000 species of Western Australian flora.

We haven’t finished exploring the entire botanic garden, because we wanted to look for the sunset.

Are these flowers Banksia?  They are in red and light orange.

We heard about this Boab tree before we came here, and we were not sure where it is in the huge Kings Park.  We explored and we found it.

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Last night, I had a chat with my brother, he told me about his experience with the tour guide when he visited China.  I told him that I like to travel without tour guide because I like to explore places myself.

Most of the time, after I have visited a place I will do some research on Google or Wikipedia, then I might try to find it on Google map to have an idea about its shape and topology.  If I visit that place again in the future, I would be able to explore it better.

Sometimes, the things that were discovered, are not on the web but will be stored in our memory and accumulated as experiences.