The Journey : Day 6 Australia : Melbourne City -> Sandringham

Artists trying to make a living

We moved out of my sisters new place on Day 6 as it's inconvenient from her place to take public transport to move about. We stayed in a motel within the city and it's quite affordable as the price is about AUD130 for a room for 4.

Walking around the city taking some shots and also visited Queen Victoria Market; which is another popular tourist attraction. I felt that it's not as special as what the brochures claimed to be as it's just another market but with a very pricey tag for all its goods.

In the afternoon, I took a train to another suburb Belgrave but it was raining heavily halfway and since it's going to be another 45 minutes ride, I stopped at Boxhill; which most Chinese residents resides. Moved about the suburb for quite awhile....and I found out that most of the marketing/signs are written in Chinese....

I later headed off to Sandringham....a beachside to view the sunset and it was amazing as you can see from the picture below. It was really chilly as the Antartic wind blew towards the beach. I tried to withstand the strong wind by wearing my windbreaker but it seems the cold wind is so strong that it eats through it. Well since I can't get such nice chilly wind back in Malaysia; might as well endour it and enjoy the sunset.

I stayed on about an hour before I left as it's already too cold when the sun disppears from the horizon and left for Melbourne city freezing off my ears and hands....brrrrrr

Lots of beautiful sculptures around the city

Queen Victoria Market

Heavenly ray of light penetrates the dark clouds

Sun bidding goodnite

Day 6 Completed

The Journey : Day 5 Australia : Melbourne City

Melbourne City

It's already my 5th day in Australia and time is really running fast when one enjoys himself huh? This time around will be moving about within the city instead as we already sent back the rented car. So it will be walking and taking public transport only. Though it seems that it's complicated and tiring; it's really not if you're doing it in Melbourne city as the design of the roads within the CBD is like a rectangular shape and most of the tourist attractions maximum walking time takes less than 30 minutes.

Moreover they do provide free shuttle bus to popular tourist attractions with bus drivers providing valuable histories and insights of the locations and same goes to the free city tour tram. Now thats what I call hospitality for tourism. Also they have information centre which is a big complex with all the information required to get around the city as well as the suburbs. Melbourne also allocates friendly volunteers around the city that patrols around to help tourists get to places they want.

Now thats what I call great hospitality to boost tourism.

St Paul Cathedral

Arts Centre

Crown Casino

Melbourne City night view

Day 5 Completed

The Journey : Day 4 Australia : Sovereign Hill

Sovereign Hill Town

The journey to Ballarat which is west of Melbourne took us nearly an hour. The attraction that we came for is Sovereign Hill; an open air museum that was recreated based on the 1850's when Gold was first found at the location. Sovereign Hill is an interesting attraction for visitors albeit the hefty fee of AUD 37.50 for adult not inclusive of rides and other tours inside. For me I feel it's worth it as you are transported back to the 1850's time zone as there are people dressed up in clothes of the era while working.

Mode of Transport in the 1850's

Class in Session

Making of Candles

Chinese community campsite

Overall a great experience to understand the historical that took place since the gold boom in Australia.

Day 4 Completed

The Journey : Day 3 Australia : Great Ocean Road

Day 3 started off with helping my sister to move some stuffs to her new house and then we're off to see 1 of the most scenic coastline in Australia which is the Great Ocean Road.

Wikipidea : The Great Ocean Road is a 243 km stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was constructed to provide work for returning soldiers and dedicated as a Memorial to those killed in the First World War.

The Great Ocean Road was built by 3000 returned servicemen (or "Diggers") as a war memorial for fellow servicemen who had been killed in the First World War.
The idea for the road was suggested as far back as 1864. Surveying began in 1918 and construction took place between 1919 and 1932.
Parts of the Great Ocean Road run around steep coastal mountains. These were the trickiest and the final sections to be built.
In 1922 the section from Eastern View to Lorne was completed.
In 1932 the section from Lorne to Apollo Bay was finished, thus completing the entire road.

The journey using The Great Ocean Road is not easy as the curves and the slopes are everywhere....as 1 mistake would prove fatal for inexperienced drivers. The view was simply amazing and lot's of historical sites for tourists to stop by to enjoy the story behind the history.

The main attraction at The Great Ocean Road is the Twelve Apostles which by the time we visited left only 7. The Twelve Apostles are a collection of limestones stacks off the shore and was created by waves eroding the cliffs ages ago. As time passes on The Twelve became Seven as it succumbed to its creators as well. Visitors to Victoria should visit this marvel before it all eventually disappears.

Split Point Lightstation

Significant historical site of W.B. Godfrey wreck

The remaining Twelve Apostles

Port Campbell

There is also a historical site where a ship W.B. Godfrey wreckage was still located though we're not lucky to view it as it is only viewable during low tide. We did managed to move about the location to find intriguing colors of rock formation. The wreckage seems to be of significant history to Victorians as this location has also been tragedy to a few other ships which tried to salvage the W.B Godfrey and of course which the remains of W.B. Godfrey still remains.

We never finished the total journey of the Great Ocean Road as it was getting late although the sun is still shining brightly at 6pm. Our last stop was at Port Campbell which is a small town about 10 km from the Twelve Apostles. We order "fish & chips" to go as we try to get back to Melbourne before dark as the journey is quite exhaustive as we took nearly 6 hours to cover almost 3/4 of the road with some stop over for sightseeing.

Althought exhaustive it was a great sight to behold of the old coastline road and it's recommended visitors to at least take 2 days to fully enjoy the whole strecth.

Day 3 Completed

The Journey : Day 2 Australia : Phillip Island

Phillip Island, a southern part of Melbourne which is famous for their little penguins coming out from their hiding place during dusk. This is where our 2nd day road trip/journey and it's kinda far; more so when we're not familiar with the road. My dad is driving while I'm the co-driver looking up the map to move and we succeeded in less than 2 hours covering about 170km.

We arrived in a small fishing town called San Mora before crossing the bridge over to the island to have our afternoon snack which my mum already prepared earlier before. Was a good lunch by the sea as you can smell fresh sea air while feeling the sea breeze blowing at your face and hearing the waves crashing down on the beach....

Once lunch was done, we drove to the island and visited the Wildlife Park as the price to visit Koala Park is AUD$10 to see Koala only while the Wildlife Park has about 100 species of bird and animals and it's just worth AUD$15. A wonderful trip overall but mostly kangaroos and their family species and also every native birds and animals to Australia.

We skipped the Penguin Parade as well as it's AUD$20 per person and not allow any type of photography as well as video recording. Therefore we just move about the island visiting the many beautiful surf beaches and the beaches around the island before taking the long journey back.

On the way to Phillip Island ( Melbourne City View)

On the way to Phillip Island (marshland view)

Kid chasing after hungry sea gulls

Wildlife Park Kangaroo vs Black Swan

Wildlife Park Koala

Wildlife Park Kangaroo with it's baby

Wildlife Park Wombat

Wildlife Park Tasmanian Devil

Around Phillip Island

On the way back to Melbourne

Day 2 completed

The Journey : Day 1 Darwin->Melbourne->Geelong

Singapore to Melbourne transit via Darwin at 10.30pm flight. It was kind of QH to send me to airport ( so called send me off :P ). Quickly checked in and then grab a quick ramen dinner at Terminal 1 where I'll be flying with Jetstar.

Reached Darwin around 5.30am Darwin local time...was not able to sleep much as the sit is upright and yea, you can't lower it at all! Was still half asleep while going through the customs clearance. After clearing everything, went for a quick bite at the cafe there while sipping the hot chocolate as it's freezing in the airport even though its small. Lift off around 8.15am and reached Melbourne 2pm Melbourne time. All in all it took almost 12 hours to reach Melbourne from Singapore!!! :(

My parents rented a nice Toyota and awaited me and my brother at Toumaline airport. The Toyota is known as Corolla Ascent while Malaysian knows it as Altis. It's a powerful car and really good 2 move about on OZ roads since it's Freeway connecting within cities are far and apart. We moved directly to Geelong; second largest city in Victoria. Just cruise through by the sea side and take some snap shots before going back to my sisters place.

Upon arriving her place, take a quick shower and KO!

Flying via JETSTAR

Hot Chocolate at Aromas (Darwin Airport)

Chicken Sausage (Darwin Airport)

Hilton Hotel @ Toumaline Airport

Geelong Seaside

Geelong Seaside

Rented Toyota

Ascent aka Altis

Sis's Place

Sis's Dog Tigger

Thats all for DAY 1 in Australia!!

The Journey : Singapore

Merlion @ Sentosa Island

Reached Singapore via AEROLINE bus around 11pm and carrying such a heavy ( about 19kg )luggage trying to find a cab when to my surprise my dearest fren/host; Qian Hwei showed up! She's so sweet...came all the way to the bus stop point to "pick me" which is easily about 9 MRT stations from her place. We took a cab to her place and then we went to East Coast Park to have my dinner. She took 3 days of leave to accompany my stay in Singapore...how fortunate of me! GOD sent fren :D

On the next day, woke up early in the morning and we went to Jurong Bird Park and was supposedly to visit the Zoo but the weather was not permitting. Therefore we visited a small Botanical Garden instead after the rain stops as it was too late to visit the Zoo. We visited Night Safari later on and met an ex-colleague there.

The next day we revisited the Zoo again and was amazed with the animals there. It took us about half day to finish the whole Zoo. We later went to Toa Payoh to visit my aunt and my cousins which they celebrated my niece and my birthday by treating a delicious seafood hawker dinner...We later adjourned to Clarke Quay; a famous hang out location in Singapore for some drinks and some photoshoot. My dearest host surprise me with a birthday cake and we celebrated just by the river....thanx again QH!!!

The following day was my last day in Singapore and we were off to the Waterworld which is located in Singapore where we also had a fantastic view of the famous Merlion. After that was rushing off back to pack for my trip to Melbourne.

Night Safari

Jurong Bird Park

Zoological Garden

Clarke Quay

Underwaterworld @ Sentosa

my beautiful host Qian Hwei

I want to dedicate this post to Qian Hwei for her friendship/companionship/host/guide especially for accomodating my trip to Singapore. Appreciates it wholly from my heart. I thank GOD and you for you!

The Journey South : Packing

Well, here it is....the long awaited holiday....yeah....3 whole weeks baby!!! First off...Singapore for 3 days and then Melbourne 6 days.....then Sydney 5 days....and then Perth 4 days! Wohoo!

See you guys around soon!

P.S. Rachel, thanx for the RIMOWA travel luggage bag!

A City Called Ipoh...

Was back to my hometown; Ipoh last weekend as I need to visit my grandmother who is hospitalised. Luckily she has been recovering since my previous visit which is a couple of days back before the weekend and all is thanks to my friends & relatives prayers.

Since I'm back; might as well take the opportunity to try out some delicacies which I've been missing out for quite sometime and of course Ipoh is famous for none other than their "kai si hor fun" which means flat noodles soup with steam chicken....yummy...even mentioning the name already making my tummy growls....I'm already missing it while typing this. The chicken served is so tender and juicy while the brean sprouts are fat and juicy as well. The flat noodle taste superb with it's sweet soup.

I also take the opportunity to try out a beer that has brought into reputation from Ipoh itself; so I heard. It's called "Snow Beer". I find it quite odd at first when the beer was served as it looks all icy & foamy as you can see in the picture; therefore dubbed the name "Snow Beer". It's actually normal beer which has been chilled and served with chilled glass. Tasted better than normal though as I feel it's much smoother and less gassy.

Freshly chopped steam chicken

Fat & Juicy Bean Sprout

Smooth & Sweet Flat Noodle Soup

Snow Beer