1st to 4th May 2015
Its true 4 days is short to discover a great city like Melbourne, but we have to make do with what we have. We took MAS flight MH 149 which departs at 00.50 and arrives at 07.15 Melbourne time (Victoria time is KL+2 hrs). The currency exchange rate is MYR 2.85 to AUD 1.
Wait...before going through the usual visit detail lets reflect about the Country;
Australia has among the smallest population density in the world at 2.99/kmsq that's even smaller than Canada (3.14/kmsq), well thats bcoz it is mainly consist of Arid (desert) or semi Arid area. It only has around 23 million population. Australia was a British colony like N.Zealand, Wales and others until it got its independance in 1 Jan 1901.
What is interesting to note is Melbourne has been chosen as "The most liveable city in the World" !! now thats what we're looking forward to. And Australia has not 1.... but 4!!! in the top 10 most liveable cities.
After 8 hours, 2 meals and 3 films, we arrived to a sunny morning with temperature of 16 deg Celcius at Tullamarine International Airport, in Melbourne.
Wait...before going through the usual visit detail lets reflect about the Country;
Australia has among the smallest population density in the world at 2.99/kmsq that's even smaller than Canada (3.14/kmsq), well thats bcoz it is mainly consist of Arid (desert) or semi Arid area. It only has around 23 million population. Australia was a British colony like N.Zealand, Wales and others until it got its independance in 1 Jan 1901.
What is interesting to note is Melbourne has been chosen as "The most liveable city in the World" !! now thats what we're looking forward to. And Australia has not 1.... but 4!!! in the top 10 most liveable cities.
Just in case if you want to know the criteria for liveable city;
After 8 hours, 2 meals and 3 films, we arrived to a sunny morning with temperature of 16 deg Celcius at Tullamarine International Airport, in Melbourne.
DAY 1SKY BUS FROM TULLAMARINE AIRPORT TO VICTORIA CBD
I know I need to be positive but I still think that the customs services department is ignorant by making the passengers queue for hundreds of meters that you begin to think that they just don't care about the weary passengers. In our case there were only one flight in the morning and the queue was easily 300 meters (about 30-40 minutes wait).
We took the skybus to CBD at a fee of AUD 59 for 3 adults and 2 Childrens. The journey took around 20 min.
Then at the CBD station a free hotel shuttle bus waits to send us directly at our Hotel. It took around 15 min.
IBIS HOTEL AND APPARTMENTS
We took an appartment with 2 rooms (excl. b/fast) for 4D3N at AUD 730 via Booking.com. It was comfy and could easily sleeps 6 pax.
The reception girl was being so nice to let us check in early even though it was only 12 pm.
Everybody got their own bed,
If any...the hotel is not wifi friendly bcoz it impose AUD 10 for 2 hrs of wifi and AUD 22 for 24 hrs and only limited to 3 users. It left the kids disgruntled.
All the beds were very comfortable, all facilities were impeccable.
VICTORIA MARKET
Time to shop for fresh produces.
The fruits and salads are abundance and at relatively cheaper prices.
Brie cheese, Smoked Salmon and country bread.
We took copious lunch with cheeses, smoked salmon, fries and bread. We also bought fillet-o-fish with chips, calamari and salads including drinks which cost around AUD 30.
After a short nap we start our walk-through in and about the city. We were amazed at the variety of Audis on sale in the showroom.
Below are Melbourne baths Building, RMIT Emily Mc Pherson College and Old Melbourne Gaol (an old prison buildings converted to Museum)
Next we walked up to Carlton Garden.
At the background was Royal Exhibition Building.
What a lovely wedding photo-session.
Very exciting exhibits, there was an exhibition on Brain Study. My favourite is the assortment of tools used for manual operation before anaesthetic was discovered.
Then we took a short ride of the old Tram.
Below are the free Route 35 city circle tram and its route and station locations.
It is free and comes with voice guide on the history of the buildings and its events.
Then we settled down for dinner at Killiney's
This Musical Instrument store was huge and the varieties were astonishing, Afiq bought a special voice recorder for a bargain price of AUD 150. Abah was mostly attracted by the Gibson flying 'V'guitar but....maybe next time.
Window shopping and further groceries for our consumption at the Hotel.
Quite an interesting night life...then settled down with muffins and cup of tea and latte in the freezing night of Melbourne.
DAY 2,
SORTING OUT PAPERS FOR CAR RENTAL
Quite a good deal I must say, we were offered Ford Territory a 7 seaters MPV, 4.0 Liters Petrol engine....mmm exhilarating. The rate is AUD 137 per day with full tanks inclusive of GPS, Insurance etc. Upon return Abah top up AUD 28 back to full tank (petrol: AUD 1.35/ liter)
Just a note, if you decide to use Debit instead of Credit card make sure you have your name printed on the card, otherwise they wont buy it. And make sure your card is from Banks originated from Commonwealth country.
Sydney street
DESTINATION : YARRA VALLEY
GPS recommended a no-toll route of 56 km to Yarra Valley...ride-on!
TO EAST GATE FREEWAY
STOPOVER FOR FISH & CHIPS
People say the F &C here is as good as it could be, fortunately....they are not wrong.
This is definitely the best Fish n Chips. 2 sets of F&C with drinks cost AUD 40.
Healesville is like a typical scene from movie series...can't remember it, well its on Hypp tv.
Its really a beautiful autumn day...
HEDGEND MAZE
A family type recreational activities park with mini maze, observation towers, painball game using laser-gun and stuffs.
The entrance fee is about AUD 18 per adult, children are free.
You get to talk to the keepers and they will happily answer your question about the animals.
LOVELY KOALA
The keeper took time to explain and gave as much details about their animals while feeding them,
You are given a dough and few condiments to attach with the dough then baked them with the woodfire...it taste like....a burnt dough.
TASMANIAN DEVIL
HIGH COUNTRY RETREAT
HEALSVILLE TOWN REVISITED
A nice calm quiet town surrounded by beautiful Coronation park. No traffic, free parking and everything within walking distance.Hey thats a Gen-2 isn't it?
LOCAL CAFE AND PATISSERIE
VINEYARD AND REFINERY AT TARRA YARRA ESTATE
FISH & CHIPS AGAIN?
DOCKLANDS AND MARINA
Upon return to the city we went to Docklands to view the sunset.
THE STAR
DINNER AT SAMBAL KAMPUNG
A malaysian restaurant at Elizabeth street. The pastry below is the Lamington.
The resto is managed by Mrs Chia from Ipoh Malaysia, she worked there and stays with her daughter's family in Melbourne.
DAY 3,
MORNING BEFORE GREAT OCEAN ROAD
We took the West Gate Freeway M1 Melbourne to start our journey to Great Ocean Road. We set the GPS to Anglesea and no Toll-way it showed 74 km.
The highway is quite a straight horzontal line with few undulation and mainly passes through wide farms and cultivation land.
ANGLESEA TOWN AND BEACH
74 km from City of Melbourne.
We took 10 minutes to stop by a small lake, where we went to washroom at nearby Shell Petrol station. We also wind up, walking in and about the lake and feeding seagulls.
We stop at the beach to check out the sweet aroma of Bass Strait's breeze.
SPLIT POINT LIGHTHOUSE
LUNCH AT THE CAPTAIN
Our delightful host is Johannah and she really know how to make us feel at home, the lovely girl standing right next to Syahid is Mary Beth. And the pizzas were mouth-watering coming straight from the wood fired italian oven. The pizza was baked at 800-900 deg for maybe 3-4 minutes only.
CAFE TASTING AT FARMER'S PLACE, FRESHWATER CREEKS
We came here after recommendation from Johannah, its a kind of family picnic area, where the milk, cofee, cheese and salads are harnessed directly from the farm. We bought a good ground coffee here.
Its fun to see kids playing in an open farm surrounded by Cows, Llamas and goats. We are so stuffed with the lunch that we just hang around to share and enjoy the atmosphere.
It is really a quiet and peaceful town, everything is closed in a sunday afternoon.
SHOPPING AT DFO & DINING AT LEBANESE RESTO
Upon arriving at the city, we let the boys find their stuffs and have their dinner, Abah, Ibu and Zeti went for DFO an integrated shopping area at Essendon about 11 km from City centre.
After a slow-moving traffic crawl to Essendon, we arrived at DFO a tad too late. But we managed to shop for few items, Ibu bought a George Foreman Panini toaster at AUD 79 and Abah bought a HERO 3 GoPro camera at AUD 279.
OVERNIGHT CAR PARKING AND PAYING SUMMONS AT POST OFFICE
The earlier night Abah parked the car at a parking spot in Victoria street, it was supposed to be free from 7.00 pm to 6.00 am, so abah think its ok to park it at 6.47 pm, nobody would know...and will move it to the paid car park 6.00 am in the morning. Boom!! at 9 pm, we found the summon clocked at 8.09 pm. Ha ha...actually they have some kind of detector on the base of the parking spot, so they knew exactly at what time the car went in on the spot. So just pay the summon at post office....not much...AUD 74 ONLY!!.
OFF TO AIRPORT AND GOOD DAY MATE!
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