Melbourne in Words (Day 4 - 7)

Day 4

We were brought around MEL (bought a tour package days ago, in the city) to visit some farms and the very well-known Phillip Island! I have to say that i really enjoyed myself because we got to see and touch lots of cuuuuute animals!!!

We saw this very cute animal that looks a little like Butter (HAHAHAHA) but it's like a sheep with long neck. LOL, it's called the Alpaca! It spits when it's unhappy!!! One of the three (dark brown color) that we saw spat at my tour guide. HAHAHA! The other two (Butter's color) had better temperament!

Then we saw peacocks! The male ones were especially pretty. The one that caught our attention was a pure white, male peacock! Simply beautiful. Saw some HUGE ducks too. They damn greedy lah! Kept following us around for food. :/

My fav part has gotta be feeding the kangaroos! I kinda expected the kangaroos to be really hot-tempered and kinda fierce but noooo. The ones i saw were so tame. I kinda fell in love with one. I believe it's a she. She's so gentle and lovable!!! I kept feeding & patting her! Oh, and we managed to catch one kangaroo getting angry at another one. It made a "ROARRR" sound like those dinosaurs in movies? I KID YOU NOT!

After that we had tea at the farm's cafe and the butter/cream/don't know what that they gave us as spread for our breads WAS SO YUMMY!!! Tasted like MILK! Omggggg. So light, but sweet & refreshing! Maybe they milked their own cows & made that! SO YUMS!!!

Oooooo then we left for our next destination WHERE WE HAD OUR PRIVATE HELICOPTER RIDE! Hehehehehe!!! I gotta say that it was a damn cool experience. I felt powerful in the sky, and the view from above was spectacular! The sea waves from above looked funny and harmless, yachts looked weird too, like monopoly stuff and the cowssss, lol... THEY LOOKED TINY, LIKE ANTS! Suddenly, everything seemed so small and meaningless to you, from the sky. I can't describe that feeling.

Next up, Koalas!!!! The koalas we saw looked really different from what i thought they should look like! I thought they were supposed to look much cuter - Round face, round body with big round eyes and all but noooo, they look kinda..... wait for it wait for it! ASIAN! LOLOLOLOLLLL! Their eyes were kinda slanted upwards? I was a lil disappointed! They didn't look that cuddly and friendly leh. They looked sly. :/

Then it was dinner time for our tour group and OTOT.

So babz and i had fish and chips by the sea and we were kinda impressed with our food. Actually, i think that the environment helped a lot! It was sucha nice and angmoh-ly experience, LOL.

Yummy ice cream after that!!! Before boarding the bus for our next destination!

Next, we were brought to this cliff (oops, can't find the right geog term) and along the way, we saw wild wallabies, soooo cute! Some look like rabbits, lol! Then we proceed to the peak and had an awesome, breathtaking view of the sunset and the ocean. Ro-man-ti-ca~~~

Finally, the highlight of the tour. We arrived at Phillip Island at night and witnessed how many tiny blue penguins swam from the ocean to land, before waddling to their homes to feed their babies. WHAT A CUTE SIGHT!!! We also saw how the young penguins snatched food from the adults, LOL. Like a fierce lor!

Day 5

Met J's friends, Ash and Peter, for Andrews Hamburgers (v famous burger place) and yeah, we each had a HUGE, MESSY burger goodness to ourselves and it was YUMZ!

Basically Day 5 was simple & nice. We ate, chit chat, then went back to the city for coffee at San Churros & continued chit chatting. I tried the churros at S.C & didn't like it because the choc dip had some orange taste. :/ When it got late, Ash & Peter went home, and J & i continued to KOKO BLACK for another round of hot choc. We love it THAT MUCH!!!

Day 6

Went to the aquarium in the morning and saw loads of fishes, sharks, jellyfishes, sea horses, some scary reptiles (got frightened by some ;/). I was surprised to see penguins there actually. Didn't expect that at all. The penguins were different from Phillip Island's penguins tho (size and colors). The ones at the aquarium were HUGE. Like up to my knees (in terms of height) and they're also all quite fat! Saw some mother-penguins nesting, so blessed! ;*)

We were also very favored to notice two black swans swimming in the river (not in the aquarium, but across the aquarium). I love swans!

We were done in about 1.5 hr and had some free time before meeting William so we stopped for a cuppa coffee (omgosh, coffee in MEL's soooooo good!!!! They take their coffees v seriously!!!) and wondered around Federation Sq and to this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful church just across. I do wanna get married in such beautiful church one day! Went into the church and was even more awed. Fwah.

Met up with Will and he brought us to South Yarra for yummy all-day-breakfast! We dined at Two Birds One Stone and the food was omgggggg. Everything was good. The mushrooms, avocado, smoked corn, fried cheese, and boy the poached eggs!!! Can nv find such poached eggs in Sg because in Melbourne, the eggs they use are DA FRESHEST. The yellow goodness... wahhhh. Even J's sunny-side-up yolk was SO DELISH!

After that we went to this "it" store that sells desserts. Will said one of the patissier's from the show Master Chef, Australia! Anyway, we tried one of the desserts - Raspberry somethin, and it was SO YUMMY! I don't really take sour stuff but that as a whole was good. Because as you eat more, it kinda becomes sweeter along the way.

Then Will brought us to this cool shop called Urban Attitude and i found my precious Boo there. LOL. Know the celebrity dog, Boo? Yeah, J got the official soft toy Boo for me! I also got a cool mug for my dad. The cup has a pair of sleepy eyes... but the moment you pour hot liquid into the mug, the eyes kinda open up (no more sleepy eyes!). SO CUTE! Lol. Thought it'd be good for my dad as he always drinks a cuppa hot tea in the morning.

In the evening, we met up with the rest of J's friends and we had dinner at this korean BBQ restaurant that i highly recommend all of you to try. It's called ChangGo and the famous dish's the 8 flavors of pork set. DAMN YUMMYYYY PLS!!! Really damn nice!!! And cheap! They also have the vent thing that funnel smoke outta the restaurant. Actually J's friends said it's all over MEL, the vent thing.

They have this smart way of saving space. The seats have erm, seat covers where you can open up and throw all your barang barangs inside. When you're done dumping your stuff inside, you close it and then sit on it like a normal chair! So cool and so smart of them!

After dinz, the boys went to play pool.

Said our last good byes... Before heading back to the hotel.

Day 7

The last day was basically us checking out and heading to Southern Cross Station for our Skybus back to the airport. While waiting for our bus, we had lunch at some sucky Jap restaurant. The cool thing about the last day was us finding public lockers that we were able to pay & use for dumping our luggages inside for a period of time while we walked around. Saved us a lot of effort! Imagine us running around with our huge almost-overweight luggages. Meh.

After we were done with eating and walking around, we collected our luggages and board the Skybus. Had our last cuppa (GOOD) coffee at the airport before bidding Melbourne goooooooooodbye!







Melbourne in Words (Day 1, 2 & 3)

I'm here to pen down my MEL experience because it was so awesome i don't wanna forget that memorable trip.

We left Sg on the 7th and landed in MEL on the 8th Nov 2012 after 8 hrs. I slept throughout the flight (except the two meals) so it was okay.

I wrote some stuff on my facebook so i'm going to copy and paste them here instead of re-writing everything... Would help me to save loads of time, heh.

Below are Facebook statuses btw!

Day 1 in MEL
I'VE JUST ARRIVED SAFELY! 

You guys can still whatsapp me as per normal! 

OMG it's 13 degrees here in broad daylight!!! ;)))))

Hahaha! Ok! So we decided to take a Skybus to our hotel and it was kinda a culture shock when the guy made us walk one big round to board the bus. There weren't any one else, meaning no queue, but he still made us walk one big round with our huge luggages instead of our usual Singaporean way - cut through the bars! Lol... No worries, all's fine! We were just puzzled that's all! :)

Loving the weather here! Really quite cold tho its just noon... We just randomly walked into a store becos we were cold & hungry and it was such a nice experience to dine at an unpretentious, small and v traditional jap lookin place! Was happily slurping my udon out loud (can nv do that in Sg without feeling like an idiot!). Shiok mannnn!!! Hid in a cosy store, away from the cold, slurping hot udon LOL :) Will continue to update our adventure here!Arrived at our hotel safely!!! Very spacious! Ok nap now, visiting the city in the evening! Ciaos! ;)

Time here: 10:53 PM! Met up w J's friends and together we had Italian at Papa Gino's @ Lygon Street! According to his friends, the food wasn't fantastic but I felt that the (italian) food's better than Sg's? After that, we walked to Koko Black and sat outdoor to have hot choc on the cold. IT WAS DELISH!!! Omggggg!!! Beats Max Brenner in Sg hands down! P/s: The buildings here are so pretty! So tall and artsy lookin... I realise they use a lot of red bricks!J & I did something crazy! We bought Ferrero Rocher ice cream from a v popular ice cream store - IL Dolce Freddo (OMG SO SO SO YUMMY!!!) and strolled through a park. I think we spent half the time chattering our teeth cos it's actually SO MUCH colder at night! It was FREEZING in fact! The wind/breeze was the killer. We managed to warm ourselves up at J's friend's apartment & it was just so nice, chit chatting w them. Nice people! :)

Took our first tram ride & the driver was v helpful! Hmmm, over here, it's harder to get around i guess (as compared to Hong Kong & Taiwan), more complicated? Also, the walk from the station to our hotel was a lil too quiet & freezingggg cold!!! Victoria Market tmr!!! Can't wait!!!12:21AM here now...
Goodnight guys! ♥

(Miss my girl, Buttercup!)


Day 2 in MEL


Brrr it's cold in here!Ok! So we just finished touring round Queen Victoria Market! I really love the place! Lots of yummy treats -- Donuts, churros & gosh the fresh strawberries here are SO SWEET!!!!! 

We also tried the legendary hot dog with lotsa onions bread! Super huge and DELISH!!! (Many thanks to those who recommended me the MUST-TRIES!!!) The clothes were soooo expensive. Spotted a few BKK stuff and they were selling them at $40 Aussie dollars?! Bought some interesting things for our friends too~~~~ Was surprised to find them selling live ducks, chicks & stuff! They were so cute (but smelly)!! The public toilets' also v clean! I'm very impressed, lol! ;)))

As we were walking toward's J's old hostel (for him to revisit the place), we saw a few interesting shops! First, a pet shop... Loads of lively puppies for sale! The puppies were all playing w each other & making lotsa excited noises, unlike our Sg puppies -- Always sleepy, tired like they have no energy? :/ Then we saw a halloween shop! The clown was really quite scary-lookin. Lastly, we entered a basement aquarium store... Was expecting lotsa fishes but we saw exotic turtles and even lizards & snakes (for sales as pets)!!! 

Ok, getting really tired from all the walking. Update again later!- PEACE OUT! v

Okay from here onwards, i kinda stopped updating my fb status as often becos i was really tired, i wanted to save my hp batt and also to be honest, was afraid that i'd annoy some ppl on my fb.
After Victoria Market, J & i went to the city and he kinda brought me around briefly. Walked passed this damn cute cupcake/cake store... The stuff looked really pricey so i din even bother entering the store. I kinda regret it now tho. :(


Instead, i got this ice cream crepe from Harajuku Crepes. Truth to be told, i expected a lotttt and was a bit disappointed. The custard wasn't good (aiya, the name Harajuku i expected Jap standard ma) but overall when eaten tgt with the ice cream, the crepe was yummy! Yummier than Sg's def.
Walked to the State Library after that and was blown away. Saw many pigeons and seagulls just outside the lib at the grass patch (exactly like how you imagine, scenes in movies and stuff) and fed them, that's right! The State Lib's so gorgeoussss... It's so grand and white and quiet and nice. And neat! Lol.


Okay... Then we had hot chocolate at the Max Brenner. I wasn't blown away. KOKO BLACK'S STILL THE BEST!!! I did some impromptu shopping at BigW at QV (after buying Butter her giant chickychicky opposite BigW). Dresses @ BigW were dirt cheap, like $5 Aussie bucks each.After that, J & i met up w his friend, Bryan, who brought us around city and to the best macaron shop in MEL - LA BELLE MIETTE! So yummyyyyyy!!! Even J, not a macaron lover, liked them! Went to Koko Black after that where Bryan bought some chocs to bring back Indo, and we, too, couldn't resist a 2nd cuppa HOT CHOC for the day. Soooooo good! Taiwan desserts after that @ Dessert Story. It was not too bad! But of cos, the ones i tried in Taiwan were nicer lah. And finally, Ghung, a korean BBQ store, for dinner to end the night. Was not bad! Yummier and cheaper than those in Sg! Was really impressed that each table had its own vent when it'd funnel the smoke away and outta the restaurant and also, keep the fire burning! Nice.


As you can see, we ate a lot in MEL. :P

Day 3 in MEL

Gosh! Just got back! I have so much to update but I'm dead tired & we gotta get up early tmr so I guess I can only do so... Prob Monday? Or after the trip! Ok just a short one for now! Met up with an old friend/senior from MacPherson Sec today (Hi Will! Thank you soooo much for taking us around Melbourne! See ya on Tues?)! Melbourne's cool cos we still get to meet up w our friends and stuff! 

Ok goodnight!!! 

Phillips island tour tmr! FLUFFY WILD PENGUINS, KOALAS AND KANGAROOOOOOOOS!!! (Gonna be damnnnn cold tmr!)Met up with my friend from MPSS, William, and he brought us to this place called Proud Mary (situated a lil off City) for really yummy brunch and cool coffee. It was my first time trying filtered coffee and i nv knew such coffee exist! Will's super awesome when it comes to delicious food. Gotta give it to him. Everything he recommended became our favs in MEL lol. Will brought us to try this famous Lemon Tart. Gosh it was sooooo yummy. I hate sour stuff but that lemon tart was simply heavenly. J loved it too! Then we walked over to The Rose Street Market where local designers/artists display their hand-made items for sale. I bought a photograph (of a busy street in MEL that portrayed good photography skills) for dad. If he doesn't want it, i'm gonna keep it in my room as a souvenir for myself, heh!

After that, we slowly walked back to the city. The walk back was nice as we cut through a huge public park, something that i've always wanted to do (have a stroll in an ang moh park becos their parks are gorgeous). Along the way, we enjoyed the cold breeze and the sight of Melbourne houses. So pretty! Also saw a pond w super cute ducks & lil ducklings, and a couple getting married near the Melbourne Museum w their damn cool vintage cars.

We rushed to Harbour Town where i did some v chop chop shopping! J bought me this pair of Vans HK shoes at 50% off, what a steal! *dance around happily*

Then we went to Eureka Tower, Skydeck (88th level), to have a good view of MEL! The cool tower gave us a clear 360degrees view so we stayed there and witnessed the sunset (sigh, so gorgeous & romanticccc) and stayed on to witness the city lights when the sky turned dark! We also tried The Edge at the Skydeck (gotta pay extra) - where we entered this box-like space and it was all opaque. Then suddenly, some kinda 'grand opening' music played and the 'box' started moving outwards, to the edge. 

Without warning, the 'box' became transparent!!! And yes, we were out there, 'stuck in the box', overlooking MEL. It was really scary at first!!! Imagine all 'walls' - top, bottom and the sides ALL TRANSPARENT! Like a cable car except everything is glass, and without any chairs. If the glass cracks (which is quite impossible), all of us confirm DIE lor. I was so scared that i didn't dare to move, at first lah. After a while, i got better and we even took a couple pic tgt (must buy photo at the counter, photo quality SUX).

Tian hei le yi hou, we went to this restaurant that Will recommended - CHIN CHIN. And boy IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD. Thai fusion cuisine. EASILY MY FAV RESTAURANT IN MEL. We order this thing called "Feed Me" where the staff would just choose the best dishes for us and feed us till we give up. Hahaha, i'd say that it was all worth it! So yummy, everything! By the time we were done, it was alr 11pm. We rushed back to the hotel and zzzzzz.