Hey~! As I promised, a nice long blogpost about my current adventures here. I've came down to australia on the 11th Feb and now it's the 4th March. How time flies. I wrote down some notes in my travel log so i'm sorry if it sounds "note-ish"
11/2/08 Melbourne
Had a morning flight. Pui Yee and Zie Wei came to the airport to see me off
[they are the ones i miss most, apart from my family]
With 8 hours of flight time, 50% was sleep, 40% movie, 5% eating & 5% of just plain fidgeting. Landed at 5.40pm (except it was really 8.40pm in Australia time). Aussie is really strict when it comes to declaring food. I didn't bring much food, knowing this declaration process.. Took the taxi from airport to Glenferrie Hotel (my current student apartment is here) and it cost AUS 59 (that's RM180). Most of the shops close at 5-6pm here... Had McDonalds for dinner (they have bacon here~!)
12/2/08 Melbourne
Went to my apartment room for the first time.
[The Kitchen Area]
[My Study Area]
[My Bed Area]
The rent's AUS200 a week. Yes, a week. Logically for us, a month would come up to AUS800 right (200 x 4 weeks). But here they count it as a year is 52 weeks and then they work backwards... room 5071. My roommates are Neha (India), Van & Jane (Vietnamese) and Natalie (Hong Kong). Yea... it's like Little Asia in my apartment. Thank god that they're all clean and responsible people.
Anyway, we went to Victoria Market after that... which closes at 2pm curiously.
[Outside Victoria Market]
We bought a metlink ticket (1 ticket for trains, trams and buses. Convenient isn't it... at a price). A daily ticket's AUS 6.50 (Now I'm using the 10 x 2 hours ticket, costs AUS 28. Currently considering the monthly one)
[Photo Crazy]
Riding the trams here can be confusing... Buying a metlink ticket can give you access for trams as well as trains and buses (repeatitive information)
[This in particular is a City Circle Tram in the city, which is free for everyone to hop on and off]
Yea, so we travelled around the city for some site seeing until we came to the Crown... casino.
[Tada~! The Crown Casino]
Needless to say, we decided to try our luck in there. Was there from 6pm to 9pm. Hahah I won a profit of AUS90 (That's RM270) with a capital of AUS20 (RM60). the capital was sponsored by my mum some more...
There was a dragon statue in the casino that puts on a show every 30 minutes... Chinese New Year thing. Rather interesting.
[The dragon motionless...]
[Arrr... It moves!"]
On our way back to the hotel, we were shocked to see a long line of students outside the hotel... it was a tuesday night and apparently it's student night... Downstairs of our hotel is a bar... Although it was quite noisy downstairs, I managed to sleep anyway.
13/2/08 Melbourne
Went to Prahran.
[A sight that I see so very often now when I take the train to school and back]
Found out that instead of the pronounciation of literally Prah-ran, it was actually pronounced 'Per-ran'. So funny.
[This is the PA building where all the design classes are conducted]
[This is the PK building.. The Library, Cafeteria, Student Services,etc are here]
The campus was quite big and integrated into the town (but not as much as TOA...) From Prahran, we took the train to Melbourne Central (a stop right in the City Loop, like our KL city triangle) to pick up our rental car.
[One of the trams that run along the road. Yes with all the other vehicles]
Met with Uncle Michael and his wife (Parents' Malaysian friends to migrated to here) for lunch at Golden Leaf Restaurant. Lovely dim sum (note to PY: I want more dim sum dates)
Went to open a bank account at Commonwealth. No, I won't write down my pin number (although I nearly did because I wrote it in my notebook here...) Shopped at Coles (it's like a hmmm.. Giant i guess except it's smaller but nicer) Bought basic stuff like oil, sugar, salt, soya sauce, pepper, etc. After that, went to my room and explore a bit. Level 3 is a common area, there was a pool table & laundry room. Went to Safeway, things there are cheaper than Coles.
For dinner, we went to Uncle Gobi's house and had an Indian cuisine. It was lovely.
14/2/08 Great Ocean Drive
[A curious signboard that works if you ask me...]
[Pretty flowers, it's Summer here]
[Hello Mr Cow]
Left for the 12 Apostles, rock formations by the seaside. It was a hot day.
[Signboard of the Twelve Apostles]
[Some of the 12 Apostles that we can view]
[Another angle of the 12 Apostles]
[Some of the native wild flowers here]
We went to Otway Lighthouse but it was closed. Sunset in the summer's late (about 8.30pm).
[We spotted an actual wild koala]
Since it was Valentine's, we had a good seafood dinner at Apollo Bay.
[Apollo Bay]
[Happy Valentines 2008, written in the sand by Mum]
[I don't know how to climb a tree.. It's a sad truth]
Ate Kangaroo meat, taste like lamb but not as tender / tough and it's stronger in taste. Don't fancy it..
[The restaurant even provided 1 free glass of Champagne to everyone]
After dinner, we went to a 24-hours K-mart (like our Carrefour) Bought blanket, pillows, etc.
15/2/08 Canberra
Checked out from Glenferrie Hotel. My big luggage came to my room. Slept most of the way to Seymour. I took over the drive to Albury, then to Canberra (which is the capital of Australia, not Melbourne).
[Sunset]
[More sunset]
Checked into Queensgate Motel. The whole day was just driving... Crazy.
16/2/08 Leaving Canberra & onto Sydney
Checked out. Went to War Memorial park at 9.30am but it opens at 10am. So we went to the Parliament. Saw the Magna Carta (wiki it if you must).
[The front view of the Parliament]
[Australia's Emblem... It is called an emblem right?]
[The Grand Hall]
[A long showcase of an artwork made entirely of stitches]
[A closer view of the artwork]
[A closer view of the artwork]
[The Magna Carta]
[Up on top of the Parliament]
[A flock of seagulls flying around]
[Seagulls and the Flag]
After the Parliament, we strolled along to the Art Museum. I enjoyed the Art Museum.
[A metal ball which is suspended in the sky]
[With a little adjustment, it looks like the metal ball's in my mum's hand]
From here, we drove to Sydney in 3 hours. Checked into Crowne Plaza. The nearest train station was Paramatta station. Headed to Circular Quay (Pronounced Circular Key).
[Sydney Harbour Night]
Saw the Sydney Opera House at night time. It was happening~!
[Sydney Opera House at night]
[Mum and I at Sydney Opera House]
Took taxi to the Starhill Casino. Lost AUS 20 but mum made money. Hehe~! You win some, you lose some.
17/2/08 Sydney
Went to train station. Bought the Daytripper (like the daily pass, access to trains & ferries) that costs AUS16. Went to Circular Quay and saw the afternoon version of the Opera House.
[Circular Quay]
[Sydney Opera House in the afternoon]
[Sydney Opera House in the afternoon]
[At the steps of Sydney Opera House]
[Telstra Stadium where they held the 2004 Olympics... 2004 right?]
[Weekend Market at Manly Beach]
[Manly Beach]
After that, we boarded a ferry that headed to Manly Bay. The journey took 40 minutes. It like a small town. Went to the beach. It was super sunny with cool wind.
[China Town]
[China Town]
Mum and Dad wanted to go to Starhill again but I didn't. So I was stuck with all the bags and headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately for me, the time I chose to go back was peak hour... It was lucky I got a place to sit. Back in the hotel after a nice hot shower, I was engrossed with reading the third book of the Golden Compass that I nearly forgot dinner. By the time I got down, most of the shops were closing. I walked into a Malaysian Restaurant and ordered Wa Tan Hor. What a mistake... The food portion was enough for 2 people. When the bill came, I giggled inside. Written on my bill was the shorten version of the dish I got, WTH (what the hell). It was so funny...
18/2/08 Leaving Sydney
Activated my Aussie sim card. Had to register the number by talking to an automated person. It was queer. Went to Westfield and did more shopping. In one of the shops, I spotted a cute little mouse scurrying across the floor. We left Sydney for Melbourne at 2pm.
[Sunset again]
During the drive back, mum was at the wheel and she was sleepy. As she wanted desperately for my dad to take over, she decided to turn at the next rest stop exit... except she didn't slow down enough and nearly crashed the barrier... Luckily we managed to stop in time (the curb slowed us down). Dad took over the driving..
19/2/08 Back in Melbourne
Back in my room, we got the Internet to work. The lowest speed available (125 kb/s) for a monthly fee of AUS29. Went to Dandenong to see flowers.
[Lovely Flowers]
[More Flowers]
[Strong wind blew Mum's Umbrella up]
[Map of the City from Dandenong]
[Hey... we can see the city]
[Closer view of the city]
[At the Cuckoo restaurant]
We had lunch at the Cuckoo, buffet style with performance for AUS26 per person. The theme was Switzerland...
After that we drove to Frankston to see the sand scuptures. By the time we reached there, it was suppose to be closed but the keeper was so nice that he let us walk around before he closed for the day. The theme was fables.
[Sand Scupture]
[Sand Scupture]
[Seagull]
After that, we headed towards Phillip Island. Reached there about 6.40pm. Ticket was AUS13 per person. Wanted to see Swan Lake but it was getting too late already.
[Swan Lake Signboard]
[Sunset at Phillip Island]
Went to sit by the beach. The main attraction here was it was home to the Little Penguins (world's smallest penguins). They only came back ashore at 8.45pm. They were about 1 foot tall. Pity that they didn't allow photography / video.
[Art Illustration of the Penguin Parade]
Could see the penguins waddling back home.
20/2/08
Left for Prahran for orientation. Mum and Dad left back to Malaysia on this day. Class started on the 25th Feb. Cheers~!
11/2/08 Melbourne
Had a morning flight. Pui Yee and Zie Wei came to the airport to see me off
[they are the ones i miss most, apart from my family]With 8 hours of flight time, 50% was sleep, 40% movie, 5% eating & 5% of just plain fidgeting. Landed at 5.40pm (except it was really 8.40pm in Australia time). Aussie is really strict when it comes to declaring food. I didn't bring much food, knowing this declaration process.. Took the taxi from airport to Glenferrie Hotel (my current student apartment is here) and it cost AUS 59 (that's RM180). Most of the shops close at 5-6pm here... Had McDonalds for dinner (they have bacon here~!)
12/2/08 Melbourne
Went to my apartment room for the first time.
[The Kitchen Area]
[My Study Area]
[My Bed Area]The rent's AUS200 a week. Yes, a week. Logically for us, a month would come up to AUS800 right (200 x 4 weeks). But here they count it as a year is 52 weeks and then they work backwards... room 5071. My roommates are Neha (India), Van & Jane (Vietnamese) and Natalie (Hong Kong). Yea... it's like Little Asia in my apartment. Thank god that they're all clean and responsible people.
Anyway, we went to Victoria Market after that... which closes at 2pm curiously.
[Outside Victoria Market]We bought a metlink ticket (1 ticket for trains, trams and buses. Convenient isn't it... at a price). A daily ticket's AUS 6.50 (Now I'm using the 10 x 2 hours ticket, costs AUS 28. Currently considering the monthly one)
[Photo Crazy]Riding the trams here can be confusing... Buying a metlink ticket can give you access for trams as well as trains and buses (repeatitive information)
[This in particular is a City Circle Tram in the city, which is free for everyone to hop on and off]Yea, so we travelled around the city for some site seeing until we came to the Crown... casino.
[Tada~! The Crown Casino]Needless to say, we decided to try our luck in there. Was there from 6pm to 9pm. Hahah I won a profit of AUS90 (That's RM270) with a capital of AUS20 (RM60). the capital was sponsored by my mum some more...
There was a dragon statue in the casino that puts on a show every 30 minutes... Chinese New Year thing. Rather interesting.
[The dragon motionless...]
[Arrr... It moves!"]On our way back to the hotel, we were shocked to see a long line of students outside the hotel... it was a tuesday night and apparently it's student night... Downstairs of our hotel is a bar... Although it was quite noisy downstairs, I managed to sleep anyway.
13/2/08 Melbourne
Went to Prahran.
[A sight that I see so very often now when I take the train to school and back]Found out that instead of the pronounciation of literally Prah-ran, it was actually pronounced 'Per-ran'. So funny.
[This is the PA building where all the design classes are conducted]
[This is the PK building.. The Library, Cafeteria, Student Services,etc are here]The campus was quite big and integrated into the town (but not as much as TOA...) From Prahran, we took the train to Melbourne Central (a stop right in the City Loop, like our KL city triangle) to pick up our rental car.
[One of the trams that run along the road. Yes with all the other vehicles]Met with Uncle Michael and his wife (Parents' Malaysian friends to migrated to here) for lunch at Golden Leaf Restaurant. Lovely dim sum (note to PY: I want more dim sum dates)
Went to open a bank account at Commonwealth. No, I won't write down my pin number (although I nearly did because I wrote it in my notebook here...) Shopped at Coles (it's like a hmmm.. Giant i guess except it's smaller but nicer) Bought basic stuff like oil, sugar, salt, soya sauce, pepper, etc. After that, went to my room and explore a bit. Level 3 is a common area, there was a pool table & laundry room. Went to Safeway, things there are cheaper than Coles.
For dinner, we went to Uncle Gobi's house and had an Indian cuisine. It was lovely.
14/2/08 Great Ocean Drive
[A curious signboard that works if you ask me...]
[Pretty flowers, it's Summer here]
[Hello Mr Cow]Left for the 12 Apostles, rock formations by the seaside. It was a hot day.
[Signboard of the Twelve Apostles]
[Some of the 12 Apostles that we can view]
[Another angle of the 12 Apostles]
[Some of the native wild flowers here]We went to Otway Lighthouse but it was closed. Sunset in the summer's late (about 8.30pm).
[We spotted an actual wild koala]Since it was Valentine's, we had a good seafood dinner at Apollo Bay.
[Apollo Bay]
[Happy Valentines 2008, written in the sand by Mum]
[I don't know how to climb a tree.. It's a sad truth]Ate Kangaroo meat, taste like lamb but not as tender / tough and it's stronger in taste. Don't fancy it..
[The restaurant even provided 1 free glass of Champagne to everyone]After dinner, we went to a 24-hours K-mart (like our Carrefour) Bought blanket, pillows, etc.
15/2/08 Canberra
Checked out from Glenferrie Hotel. My big luggage came to my room. Slept most of the way to Seymour. I took over the drive to Albury, then to Canberra (which is the capital of Australia, not Melbourne).
[Sunset]
[More sunset]Checked into Queensgate Motel. The whole day was just driving... Crazy.
16/2/08 Leaving Canberra & onto Sydney
Checked out. Went to War Memorial park at 9.30am but it opens at 10am. So we went to the Parliament. Saw the Magna Carta (wiki it if you must).
[The front view of the Parliament]
[Australia's Emblem... It is called an emblem right?]
[The Grand Hall]
[A long showcase of an artwork made entirely of stitches]
[A closer view of the artwork]
[A closer view of the artwork]
[The Magna Carta]
[Up on top of the Parliament]
[A flock of seagulls flying around]
[Seagulls and the Flag]After the Parliament, we strolled along to the Art Museum. I enjoyed the Art Museum.
[A metal ball which is suspended in the sky]
[With a little adjustment, it looks like the metal ball's in my mum's hand]From here, we drove to Sydney in 3 hours. Checked into Crowne Plaza. The nearest train station was Paramatta station. Headed to Circular Quay (Pronounced Circular Key).
[Sydney Harbour Night]Saw the Sydney Opera House at night time. It was happening~!
[Sydney Opera House at night]
[Mum and I at Sydney Opera House]Took taxi to the Starhill Casino. Lost AUS 20 but mum made money. Hehe~! You win some, you lose some.
17/2/08 Sydney
Went to train station. Bought the Daytripper (like the daily pass, access to trains & ferries) that costs AUS16. Went to Circular Quay and saw the afternoon version of the Opera House.
[Circular Quay]
[Sydney Opera House in the afternoon]
[Sydney Opera House in the afternoon]
[At the steps of Sydney Opera House]
[Telstra Stadium where they held the 2004 Olympics... 2004 right?]
[Weekend Market at Manly Beach]
[Manly Beach]After that, we boarded a ferry that headed to Manly Bay. The journey took 40 minutes. It like a small town. Went to the beach. It was super sunny with cool wind.
[China Town]
[China Town]Mum and Dad wanted to go to Starhill again but I didn't. So I was stuck with all the bags and headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately for me, the time I chose to go back was peak hour... It was lucky I got a place to sit. Back in the hotel after a nice hot shower, I was engrossed with reading the third book of the Golden Compass that I nearly forgot dinner. By the time I got down, most of the shops were closing. I walked into a Malaysian Restaurant and ordered Wa Tan Hor. What a mistake... The food portion was enough for 2 people. When the bill came, I giggled inside. Written on my bill was the shorten version of the dish I got, WTH (what the hell). It was so funny...
18/2/08 Leaving Sydney
Activated my Aussie sim card. Had to register the number by talking to an automated person. It was queer. Went to Westfield and did more shopping. In one of the shops, I spotted a cute little mouse scurrying across the floor. We left Sydney for Melbourne at 2pm.
[Sunset again]During the drive back, mum was at the wheel and she was sleepy. As she wanted desperately for my dad to take over, she decided to turn at the next rest stop exit... except she didn't slow down enough and nearly crashed the barrier... Luckily we managed to stop in time (the curb slowed us down). Dad took over the driving..
19/2/08 Back in Melbourne
Back in my room, we got the Internet to work. The lowest speed available (125 kb/s) for a monthly fee of AUS29. Went to Dandenong to see flowers.
[Lovely Flowers]
[More Flowers]
[Strong wind blew Mum's Umbrella up]
[Map of the City from Dandenong]
[Hey... we can see the city]
[Closer view of the city]
[At the Cuckoo restaurant]We had lunch at the Cuckoo, buffet style with performance for AUS26 per person. The theme was Switzerland...
After that we drove to Frankston to see the sand scuptures. By the time we reached there, it was suppose to be closed but the keeper was so nice that he let us walk around before he closed for the day. The theme was fables.
[Sand Scupture]
[Sand Scupture]
[Seagull]After that, we headed towards Phillip Island. Reached there about 6.40pm. Ticket was AUS13 per person. Wanted to see Swan Lake but it was getting too late already.
[Swan Lake Signboard]
[Sunset at Phillip Island]Went to sit by the beach. The main attraction here was it was home to the Little Penguins (world's smallest penguins). They only came back ashore at 8.45pm. They were about 1 foot tall. Pity that they didn't allow photography / video.
[Here's a reminder to check beneath your car of wandering penguins before you drive off]
[Art Illustration of the Penguin Parade]Could see the penguins waddling back home.
20/2/08
Left for Prahran for orientation. Mum and Dad left back to Malaysia on this day. Class started on the 25th Feb. Cheers~!
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