Melbourne--> Sydney --> Gold Coast 2008 (Melborne part 2)

14 May 2008...

Rabbit left early in the morning for work, leaving me alone at her apt. I tidied the bed and my bag...intending to embark on a brave solo journey to my next lodging - The Ritz for Backpackers.

Carrying my bulky backpack and dragging a heavy trolley bag, I waited for my tram at a bus-stop withstanding the cold air that blows right onto my face (luckily Rabbit helped me to buy the tram tik beforehand). It was a long wait....

My tram finally arrived and skinny me managed to drag the trolley bag up the tram (with quite a bit of effort,haha..). I have totally no idea which stop i must alight as it is my first time travelling to Fitzroy Street which is outside the Melbourne main city area. The bus-stop no. to stop is no. 132 but i can't find it and i alighted at the bus stop no. after 132. Clueless me was standing along the street not knowing what to do but to walk back the bus direction hoping to spot bus no.132 or a pub name as indicated on my itinerary sheet. I walked and walked...there was not many people on the street for me to ask directions as it was early in the morning. I was thinkin in my brain:" Wa liew, how cum so far? Did i overshot by a lot?" At this moment, i was a bit worried that i might have alighted at the wrong stop. The wind continues to blow on my face.

Finally!! I saw Elephant & wheelbarrow Pub which is the pub located below The Ritz for Backpackers!! YEAH! I was happy for a while but the happiness stopped the moment i saw the long staircase that i have to travel before reaching the reception of the hostel. ARGH! I was already very cold and tired after dragging my heavy trolley bag from a distance.. Bo bian.. after looking left and looking right, there was no one ard who could help me. The street as usual is so quiet.. I gathered all the strength i have left and dragged my trolley bag up the stairs with my bulky bag on my back.

I catched my breath at the reception and checked in. Shit man.. another flight of stairs to my allocated room! -__-" I felt like a weak and lost lamb. Yes, finally reached the door to my room...~



I rested in my room for a while and went down to wait for Kai at the reception area. He arrived at 12.30pm.

After being with rabbit for 3 days, my role is to bring Kai to Melbourne city to see see look look. So we took the Mel tram (trams there travelled in the middle of the road with tracks..so different) back to the city.


and tried Lord of the Ring... opps! Should be Lord of the Fries..


The fries are bigger, soggy (nice type of soggy) and hot.. great to eat on a cold weather~ There are diff sauces to choose from but you have to pay extra~

And we also went to try Crepes.. (yap, our lunch is very japalan)


along one of the eatery in this street..


On this day, we also tried the famous Koko Black Mocha as strongly recommended to try out by Rabbit. Both Kai & Me love it.. one of the best mocha we ever had (but of cos the price for one cup is nt cheap sia)



I have to satisfy kai's photo-shooting urge so we walked along Yarra River both in the day & at night.. beautiful shoots by him:


Ya.. normally he shoots the scenery while i shoot him.. haha..


Hehe.. another shoot by me again..


A bigger & clearer view..


ya the above 2 photos are def not taken by me.. chio, i like how the building reflects on the water..


Another direction of the river


Walkway along the river


Bridge to other side of the river where crown casino is located..

Here are the night photos of the same place:














Slideshow of the fire performance outside Crown Casino (a second view of it)

In the afternoon..Both of us has been walking along the streets, exploring Melbourne City..


A Camera museum cum shop that we stepped into..along Elizabeth Street


Ouside old Melbourne Goal.. i wanted to visit this but after looking at the price, i feel it might not worth it.






One of Melbourne parks that we walked by..


The leaves are really pretty.. even if you don't sweep them off, it forms s beautiful part of the park.





We passed by Chinatown at night



墨尔本 and 唐人街 is indicated on each red lamps..


Not Chinatown but one of the streets we walked by..




Federation Square..


Mario Kai is jumping in front of Mr Mario~

End of the day. We headed back to our hostel..My first time bathing in a shared bathroom..luckily it was clean and neat

I didn't have a good night slp for my first night in a hostel, thanks to the fire alarm. I was awakened by the loud fire alarm! When the alarm sounded, i didnt know what to do and looked at the still slping, unaffected pig beside me. I looked out my window, no one outside.. i opened my door and peeked outside.. no movement. I tried shaking the pig up but no response......... I was frantic inside but i didn't know what to do as it could just be a false alarm. As there were no commotion at all, I paced up and down my room. After 10-15 mins of sounding, the fire brigade arrived. Hmm.. but no action nothing. Assuming nothing has happened, i lie on my bed and continue my beauty sleep.

Can you imagine that the pig does not even know what had happened on the next morning i asked him? Kong Bu........ if there is a real fire, he could be the first to die. I will be the second. "-__-"

15 May 2008...

I have booked an Ocean Road one-day tour from Otway Discovery and both of us woke up at 6am for this =D
Ocean Road is one of the must go tour spot for tourist in Melbourne! The trip will be alongside Pacific Ocean. It's the only out of city tour attractions we are visiting so i really look forward to it. However, the journey is super long and tiring and we have to get up and down the bus several times. On board the mini bus with us are a Singaporean who is travelling alone and Australians from other parts of Australia.. Most of them are old ladies and boy! their energy level is super high! They could talk non-stop thruout the journey, cracking jokes, laughing.. If this was a car full of Asian, the situation will be the opposite. Well.. the weather is cold but sunny =)

Our first stop: The Bell's Beach (I think it's a beach for surfers but it was the cold season so there was only 1-2 surfers surfing on the beach)




View of the Great Ocean Road from the Bell's Beach viewing platform.



2nd Stop: Split Point Lighthouse



A closer view of the lighthouse


从灯塔脚下一眼遥望的景色。。


haha.. i can see my own shadow from this photo..


The sun, the lighthouse and me! Somehow i like this photo.. the sun seems so low.

3rd Stop: Beach walk & The Great Ocean Road Sign






Getting your feet on the sand of the Beach..



The tour bus then drove past some coastal towns (Torquay, Lorne etc..) for us to take a look. However, there was no stop.. just simply viewing from the bus..


Fourth Stop: Lunch Stop and Koalas!~

The lunch somehow disappoint me as I didn't expect to be just sandwiches.. moreover, sandwiches which you have to make yourself with the companionship of bees flying ard your food. There were also tea & biscuits. It's not because the food wasn't nice enough.. i was disappointed cos of the expectation we had. Nonetheless, it was a new experience, making your own sandwiches and eating with trees & birds around you.

We walked around the place and was told by the tour guide to look out for Koalas on the trees!!! Oh forgetting the sandwiches, this makes me happier.. hehe..


Can you spot the Koala?


This should be easier.. hehe.. so cute.. keep hugging the trunk


The bird that accompanied us while we ate our lunch..

Walking further into the place, we saw birds-feeding by other ppl..





Then we also saw more koalas!!!! too bad I didn't have the chance to hug and touch them..

Fifth Stop: Rainforest Walk of (Great Otway National Park?)

Before we walked through the rainforest, the tour guide bought us to another place for more photo-shooting..



This old lady is very cute.. she actually posed in front of Kai's camera..














A shoot we took during our toilet break.. even scenery near our toilet is pretty.. haha..

Sixth Stop: The Twelve Apostles


Note those stand alone rock stacks? Those are apostles... according to the tour guide, there are supposed to be 12 of them but due to constant water erosion, now there are less than 12 (can't rem exactly how many left..)








The Cape Otway..


The sun is setting..



Last stop: Loch Ard Gorge & London Bridge (is falling down...)


Is this the Loch Ard Gorge? Frankly speaking, i can't remember.. so many rocks..


The London Bridge: The tour guide told us a story of this London Bridge. When the rock collapsed forming the London Bridge, a couple was stranded on the London Bridge. They were rescued back on land of cos.. however the news appear in the newspaper. Because of the news, the wife discovered that his husband has another women! (which is the couple stranded on the London Bridge..)


View on land leading to outlook for the London Bridge..






Time to head back.. on the bus waiting to be 'transported' back to our accomodation for a good rest after a long day of travel..

Before that, the bus stopped at one the towns so we could have our dinner. We decided to have Macdonald for dinner as it seems to be 最划算. there was a chinese noodle eatery but it was too expensive for a simple bowl of noodle which we could get it much much cheaper in Singapore.


Hmm.. now then i notice their burger has no lettuce! Is that why kai felt their burger seems to be smaller??

16 May 2008...

A view of our hostel kitchen..





wa! Fully occupied..


Today is the day we will be leaving Melbourne for Sydney by Train..

As our train timing is at night, we decided to venture the city again..
I brought Kai to QVM early in the morning..


and tried Churros which Rabbit said is nice..we were unable to get it during our last visit.

Churros is actually Spanish Donuts... sweet with icing sugar.. crunchier than donuts.. :)

Kai is hungry.. i wanted to bring him to Metre Long to try out the pizza and spag.. however, i could not find it at first. After walking a long distance along Lygon street, we managed to find it but it was not opened... sigh... hungry us could not wait for them and we settled our lunch at one of the eatery selling also pizza and pasta..



My cabonara...

After filling up our stomach, we walked back to QVM for more shopping..

We saw Chicken Wings! hehe.. i feel like eating it so we bought some and decided to travel to Treasury garden and Fitroy garden to sit down and enjoy the food..In addition, we bought ice-cream to share..





I felt a bit bo liao so we took these shots! Heheh.. one of my fav shots.. we had to wait for the sun light to appear before we could take.. the sunlight came on and off.



Kai didn't want to take this photo so i pointed a gun at his head! keke..







Time past. It was already evening time. We went to buy some sushi & tibits to eat on the train for our dinner and hurriedly catch tram 16 back to our hostel.

There was a JAM! Jam was somehow more jialat in Melbourne as trams travel on tracks. Imagine if the tram in front of us breaks down, how are the trams behind supposed to travel ahead? Both of us were very gan jiong in the tram as we had to catch the 7.55pm train.. we even considered to just walk all the way back to our hostel which was really quite far. Furthermore, we will have to walk a distance to another bus-stop to catch tram 96 to Southern Cross Station.. Argh..

Heng we reached our hostel at 6.50pm which leaves us about 1 hr to travel to Southern Cross Station. Luckily both of us managed to reach on time..



Southern Cross Station..


While waiting for our train to arrive..


Finally...

-- On our way to Sydney --