Melbourne Day 1

After much delay, I finally manage to sit down and write the first post of my Melbourne trip back in July. Aunty Judy, don't flood the whole U.K. after this ah! :P

2nd July 2007
It had been a long time since I last travelled in a long journey bus. After having an 8 hours ride, we (Danny and I) finally reached Melbourne from Adelaide at 6a.m. sharp.

I picked up my mobile and started to call my friend, Siong Bing. Before I could do so, my mobile rang and it was him.

"Hey, I saw you! Stay where you are," he said.

I saw him coming out from his car wearing a short pants. It was so cold and he could stand the coldness. I was freezing at that time, holding on two luggages and a backpack and went straight to his car.

He fetched us back to his house after that. On the way to his house, I could see myself the Melbourne city which was full of high rise buildings. And at about 6:30a.m., the freeway was already lining up with cars.

"What a busy city", I thought.

Once we reached his house, he asked us to take a rest (sleep). Although I manage to take a nap once in a while in the bus, I was real tired. Danny felt the same. After setting up the living room with two mattresses, comforters and pillows, we slept. The living room became our "bedroom" for the next few days. Thanks to Siong Bing and his brother, David, for taking these two refugees.

Sleeping for about 4 hours, we were woke up by Siong Bing.

"Eh, time to explore Melbourne!" he reminded us.

He drove us to the nearest shopping centre, Chadstone Shopping Centre, to take a look. Yea, just take a look since guys seldom shop.

Chadstone Shopping Centre.

Oh, fresh Mrs. Fields.

The "open" roof is fabulous!

Coconut trees in the middle?

Lovely flowers.

Siong Bing claimed that's the biggest shopping centre in Melbourne. In my opinion, every shopping centre in Australia looks the same. In addition to that, all are occupied by the very same chain stores. So, nothing to shout about.

It only took us less than 30 minutes to walk around the whole shopping centre. Fast eh? :P

It's about 1p.m. already. Siong Bing suggested us to have lunch, next. Now, frankly, guys are more interested in food!

Toorak Road, South Yarra.

Darling Street? ;)

He took us to Toorak Road, South Yarra which he explained, this place is a rich-men-road. Want shopping for expensive and branded stuff, this is the place to come.

Pacific House Seafood B.B.Q. Restaurant.

He proposed to eat chinese B.B.Q. that day at Pacific House Seafood B.B.Q Restaurant. It is located along Toorak Road.

Packed.

The design of this restaurant is a bit classy but all the "colourful menu" on the wall spoil everything. Maybe this is the modern Cha Chan Teng (Coffee House).

Roasted duck.

We ordered roasted duck which was seriously good! The meat was tender and tasted better when it was dipped in the plum sauce provided.

Roasted Pork.

Served next to the roasted duck was this roasted pork. Like the duck, this roasted pork was served in highest quality. The meat was very juicy and I simply love it!

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken.

Siong Bing highly recommended this Salted Egg Yolk Chicken. The chicken was deep fried with salted egg yolk batter and curry leaves. This dish is definitely a must when you come to this restaurant.

Complimentary soup.

The dishes were accompanied by a bowl of complimentary soup each. They use pork bone to boil the soup. It was sweet and tasty. Yummy!

Both Danny and I agreed that this restaurant served far better B.B.Q. than B.B.Q. City Restaurant in Adelaide. I'm willing to pay more for the quality of the food.

All and all, it costed us about Aud$50 for everything. It is definitely worth every single cent. Out of 5 stars, it deserves a 4! :)

After lunch, time to go to some of the tourist spot.

Shrine of Remembrance.

We went to Shrine of Remembrance in St. Kilda Road. It is one of the largest war memorials in Australia. This was built as a memorial for those who served and died in World War I.

To remember those who sacrificed...

Private John Simpson and donkey.

40 metre wall of 4000 service medals.

Father and Son statue.

"Greater Love Hath No Man".

No matter it is inside or outside the shrine, there are all sort of stuff to remember those who were sacrificed during the war. The most interesting being the Stone of Remembrance. The marble stone, which was craved with "Greater Love Hath No Man", would require the visitors to bow their heads to read the inscription. No one would be able to touch the stone as it was well below the pavement.

Not only that, at 11a.m. on the 11th of November, a ray of light will fall on the word "LOVE" on the Stone of Remembrance. Only on that particular day as it marks the end of hostilities in World War I. Interesting eh?

Look at how huge is Melbourne city.

On top of the shrine, we could have a view of the Melbourne city. The city is three or four times bigger than Perth city!

Prince of White Horse in the red.

After spending quite some time in this war memorial, we agreed to move on.

Albert Park.

We went to round Albert Park thinking the car that we were sitting in is Ferrari or Mclaren. haha! Oh by the way, if anyone doesn't know what's Albert Park famous for, it's no other than the Formula One.

Pit stop?

It's quite cool eh? A real track is opened for public. Nothing much to see here as there's no race on that day. So, move, move, move!

Smith Street, Collingwood.

Several factory outlets.

Since I wanted to try my luck to get some cheap stuff from some of the factory outlets, Siong Bing brought us to Smith Street, Collingwood. In this street, there are quite some factory outlets. Nike, Adidas and Calvin Klein, to name a few. Shopping for cheap, branded stuff, come here!

However, I was disappointed to find anything that suits me. I just didn't have the luck to shop. :P

Our next destination, a church nearby. I couldn't remember what church is this actually. Aunty Judy, maybe you can help me with this.

Lovely church.

Garden outside the church.

The architecture is just awesome.

"The angel showed me a river whose waters give life, it flows as clear as crystal from the throne of God and of the Lamb."

Interior.

Classic.

This is a huge church with awesome architecture. Siong Bing told me this is one of the most beautiful church in Melbourne. I fully agree with him.

I snapped a lot of photos of the church. Most of them appear to be blur. How I wish I have a better camera with anti-shake technology.

Anyway, we left the church and rushed to the Eureka Tower.

Eureka Skydeck.

Eureka Tower is Melbourne's tallest building and is the world's tallest residential building. It 300 metres from ground with 92 storeys high.

88 levels in less than 40 seconds.

We paid Aud$11 each to travel to the 88th level of the tower. This is what they named, "Eureka Skydeck 88".

Snack on the 88th level?

Yarra River.

How huge is Melbourne?

City view.

All the high rise buildings.

On that particular floor, we walked around the tower. Taking photos of Melbourne in all direction. That's also the time when my camera's battery started to go low, forcing me to take photos using the "zoomviewer". It was extremely tough to take a good photo there. Nevertheless, I enjoy the sceneries there. :)

In addition to that, we paid another Aud$10 for the observation deck; The Edge. It is a glass cube which projects 3 metres out from the building - with you in it - suspended almost 300 metres above the ground! Shiok, I tell you! :P

Inside the glass cube, a photo was taken. We had no choice but to purchase that photo as no camera is allowed in there. We paid Aud$15 for one photo! I'm sorry I don't have the photo to show here as I haven't scanned it yet. Next time, ok?

Now, do the maths on how much we spent there.

We left Eureka Tower after spending about 2 hours there.

Since we were in the city, Siong Bing decided to bring us to Crown Casino for a while. Not for gambling, but to just walk around.

Night view of Yarra River and high rise buildings just beside Crown Casino.

Warner Bros.

Bugs Bunny.

Warner Bros Shop.

Crown Casino is rather huge with not only the casino itself. It has coffee shops, retail shops and many more. The one that attracted me most is the Warner Bros. Too bad, according to Siong Bing, there were more cartoon characters (like the Bugs Bunny) if not because of the renovation.

Fireballs.

We were lucky that day to see fireballs (gas brigades) released from the top of the towers outside Crown Casino. The brigades operate on different times depending on the season. I only managed to capture two photos of the brigades as my camera's battery finally drained out.

Dinner time, dinner time!

What do you want?

Again, it was Siong Bing to bring us for dinner. We went to a Malaysian cuisines restaurant (I forgot its name, sorry!) somewhere near Lygon Street.

Nasi Lemak Kerabu.

Nasi Ayam Goreng (?).

Fried Kueh Tiaw with Egg Sauce (Wat Dan Hor).

I ordered Nasi Lemak Kerabu while Danny and Siong Bing had Fried Kueh Tiaw with Egg Sauce and Nasi Ayam Goreng respectively. Nothing to shout about for all the food actually. It's so normal that I don't have anything to write about. Oh, maybe one thing about the sambal of my Nasi Lemak Kerabu. It was so hot that I had to gulp down two or three glasses of water!

Dessert? We wanted to try the famous gelati at Lygon St. but unfortunately, the good ones were closed on that day. Don't worry, stay tuned for the gelati on the next few posts. ;)

We went home straight after dinner. We were too tired that we slept after taking a shower. It was a long day that day. More to come...

Melbourne Day 2, soon!