Melbourne Trip : Day 2

Early in the morning we went to the city, because my mom wanted to go to China Embassy for her visitor visa. At there, I saw 3 person practicing tai shi right in front of the building, 2 Chinese and 1 Caucasian. They are members of the "Fa Lun Gong". There were another 2 person distributing a newspaper called "大纪元时报". I took one, because of curiosity. Yeah, I believe I won't be able to see it in Singapore. Why? It contains sensitive issues, mainly political issues. I failed to validate the validity of the contains, thus I don't want to comment about it.

My mum applied the visa with a photo taken when she was in her late 30s. Now she is almost 60. I told her to take a new photo because I don't think they are going to accept it and she might wasted her AUD 50. However she insisted. Guess what? She proven me wrong. They ACCEPTED the photo and the application was successful. Gosh, the rest of us had a joke of the day. After that we went for breakfast at the Cantonese restaurant. We had an authentic Cantonese food. Yummy~

I think the owner is from Malaysia. It says Chinese and Malaysian Food.


It might not look presentable but it is delicious!


And the portion is huge.

We went to the famous Victoria market after our breakfast. It is Huge! I think almost the size of NYP (including the carpark, they hardly build multi-storey carpark. what they have is land).

aww... isn't it beautiful... is a common tree in Melbourne.
I wish I can have it in tropical region.


I think is called daisy~


very different from rain forest yeah?

Melbourne Trip : Day 1

I departed from Singapore at 9:10 pm 10th of DEC and arrived at Brisbane 6:55 am. Almost 10 bloody hours inside the Qantas airplane. Luckily, it was a night flight, I spent most of the time sleeping. I had a pleasant flight with Qantas, the F&B were nice and what I am truly happy with was the banana given before sleep. Why? Because banana has calming effect. A banana before bed will give you a good sleep. I was having trouble falling asleep while my mum was sleeping soundly beside me. What is bad was the toilet, it stinks to the level that passenger sitting near the toilet requested for air freshener.

On the way to Brisbane, I believe below is a desert.


Take note of the forest, trees in Melbourne will be different from Brisbane.
So are the weather, is warm.


Look at the clear blue sky of Brisbane!
oh, I was standing on the MRT station.


Here comes the train and that is my mum.
The train may looks cool outside but it is old and stuffy inside.
The movement of the train is surprisingly smooth, I mean it, is very smooth.
If you have chance to ride on this train please do remember to push the open-door button.
HAHA... I was standing there waiting to alight before a local press the button.

After i reached Brisbane i had to rush from the international airport to the domestic airport by the train. I flied off at 8:50 am and reached Melbourne at12:10 pm. Another 3 bloody hours in the plane. This flight was just like the flight I took to Sabah, home. It's boring.
Melbourne is... COLD. When i stepped out of the airport, I thought the taxi stand is air-conditioned. I was wrong, it was about 16 degree. Melbourne was having a cold summer.

Going to land on Melbourne, HURRAY!


Right after i arrived we went straight for food at Preston.
A Cantonese restaurant.
The food was great, I had 3 bowl-full of rice or partly because of the weather.


Guess what is inside the bucket? It is rice!
They serve rice with a bucket to keep it warm.
Eat all you can, it will be refilled when it is finished.


A victorian style house, don't look down on it.
It may cost 0.5 million!! It is an antique.


A path between shops. Notice the spray on the wall and gate?
Is common at there, you can always find them in the street.
However is not common in the city area. This is not city area.


This is the street, just like those in MTV.

I didn't not stay in a hotel, I stayed will my brother in a resident area in Bundoora. Bundoora means windy to the locals, the area is always windy. Over there, they pay rent in a weekly basis. I walked around the neighbourhood. It is very beautiful, all you will see is beautiful flowers and other plants that cannot find in tropical region. The most amazing was, you can see sunset just in front of the house. Believe or not, i am not staying anywhere near the sea or up on the hill.

This is a grape tree on the roof of the garage.


Lemon tree in the front garden. There is a peach tree in the backyard too.


I don't know what this plant called.
This plant is very common in Melbourne, you will see them often.


Garden of my neighbour. yeah those are roses.


Rose from another neighbour.
You can always find roses in the garden. They are beautiful.


~Sunset~


I aaamm feeeeling... cold!
The wind was strong and cold.


Dinner at an Italian restaurant.


From left: my fourth brother, Louis; brother-in-law, Siow;
sister, Agnes; cute & naughty nephew, JJ;
me and of course, my dear mum.


LOOK AT THOSE FOOD!! Trust me, these pasta and pizza are the best I ever had.
Do you know what is the dish at the bottom? Calf chop in brown source.
It was the best among all.
I was wondering what the heck kind of brown source do i normally had in SG when I am eating this.

The LIST

Read a interesting book @ pitch black that night. It is called Singapore Cityscoops. It is all about interesting places and restaurant. Well... the following will be the list of places from the book that i fell like going.

1. 糖水 Cafe
www.tongshuicafe.com

2. Japanese Home Cooking
60 robertson Quay #01-01 The Quayside

3. Paper & Print Lab
41 robertson Quay
www.stpi.com.sg

4. Museum of Shanghai Toys
83 Rowell Road
www.most.com.sg

5. Ketna Potel Studio Gallery
35 Jalan Pateh Jerneh, Chip Bee gardens
www.ketnapatel.com

6. Ristorante Da Valentino
11 Jalan Bingka
Tue-Fri Lunch: 12-230 pm Dinner 6-1030 pm

7. Red Dot Museum

Anyone who have been to any of the above places leave some 'bless' please :)

Auf wiedersehen!