Melbourne Day 2

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been extremely busy with my final year project which is due at the middle of October. I haven't really started yet. I doubt if I can finish it on time...

Apart from that, I've been helping my friends with this 50th Merdeka Day Celebration Gala Dinner and Ball for the last two days. So, my time was pretty much used up. I'll update this event probably few days after this. Happy Belated Birthday, Malaysia!

Anyway, let me continue my post on Melbourne Day 2.

3rd July 2007
Second day in Melbourne, Siong Bing decided to bring us to Ballarat for Sovereign Hill.

I like this bridge.

We started off our trip pretty late. We were too tired the day before I guess.

Yes, slowing down won't kill you.

Ballarat another 89km.

If my memory does not fail me, it took us about 1 and a half hour to reach Ballarat. Drive slowly and safely mah, right Siong Bing? :P

Eureka flag.

The Eureka Centre.

Gold anyone?

We stopped by The Eureka Centre first. This centre gives a brief overview of what Eureka story is with a showcase of exhibition. Since it requires an admission fee, we decided to save it for Sovereign Hill later.

Isn't this look like Murray and Hay Street of Perth?

Nice building.

City of Ballarat.

We then proceeded on to the City of Ballarat. It's a small city with not much to look at. However, like many cities in Australia, there're quite a number of beautiful buildings.

Long queue!

Big Mac Value Meal.

Time for lunch! We went here and there trying to look for something to eat. Everytime we walked passed a restaurant, we would stop and look into the restaurant. To our surprise, most of the restaurants were either empty or with only few people. Then we saw this place which had long queues! Yes, the famous, McDonald! Probably this place serves the best food in Ballarat. :P

After this normal lunch, we went to the Sovereign Hill.

Sovereign Hill.

Sovereign Hill is a historical park which is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Melbourne. This historical park is something like a small town of the old Ballarat.

No proper road in the olden days.

A small town.

For your information, Ballarat is famous because of gold mining. Therefore, Sovereign Hill more or less gives an idea of how a "town of gold" look like in the olden days. It costed us Aud$27 per person for admission fee.

Left, left, left by left...

Everything looks so real in this park. They even had this Red Coat Soldiers marching!

Chinese Village.

Chinese shop.

"Bou Ji Lam".

Wooden pillow.

Bowls and cups.

Chinese vegie.

This is the Chinese Village. How should I say? It just looks very Chinese...

What's next?

So many people in this small room.

We went to this Gold Smelting Works. All waited in a small room to witness pure gold being poured.

Gold pouring.

The pure gold was melted in a high temperature before it is put into a mould.

Look at this gold bar.

The melted gold was then cooled down by dipping it into cold water. After that, a gold bar was formed. This gold bar worth Aud$50,000!

Bottles of gold leaf.

Since I don't have any money to purchase that gold bar, I had to satisfy myself with a bottle of this gold leaf at a souvenir shop outside the Gold Smelting Works. There are few other souvenirs sold here. Be sure to get enough money when you visit here. ;)

Vampire Empire Bowling Saloon.

Strike please!

Look at this! They have a bowling centre here! Normally, we would have the bowling balls come back to us after each throw. Here, you have to get someone at the end of the lane and then roll the ball back to you after each throw.

Snow, snow!

This fake snow attracted me to this theatre. I think this is the best photo for a preview of my Melbourne Day 3. ;)

Say cheese!

High class dining room.

Then, I went into this theatre but there was no show. I just walked into every rooms in that building and everything seemed so classy. If you "lock" me in this park, I believe I can have my very own, little world here. :P

Kitchen utensils.

How to make a pan (live).

In every shops, they have something different inside. In this shop, they sell kitchen utensils. Like I said previously, I really can live here since they have everything!

Danny and Siong Bing with their meat pies.

Fresh breads baked here.

Siong Bing and Danny were hungry after a "light" lunch at McDonald. Thus, they decided to get themselves a meat pie each from Hope Bakery. Taste wise, I'm not quite sure. I didn't get one myself.

Manufacturing factory.

"Today, I would like to show you all..."

"how to make a wooden wheel."

We were lucky to be able to witness the making of wooden wheel. There were only certain time of the day that you can witness this. If you're interested, don't miss out the time!

Nice view of Ballarat.

There's a high structure which I don't know is what already. Here, you can have a clear view of Ballarat.

Underground.

Underground transportation.

Exit.

We managed to join in the last gold mining tour. I think that was the best part as we were given more information about gold mining on a previous gold mining site. One thing I can be sure, it's really dangerous working in mining industry. Of course, it's offset by the high pay. ;)

Free gold!

Found a bottle of gold leaf.

Before we left, we tried to dig for some gold nuggets. Unfortunately, we found nothing. :P

This is one of the most popular places in this park. From the beginning, we already saw lots of people gather here, trying their very best to dig for the gold. Until we left, still, there were some people looking for gold. I wonder if there were actually gold left after so many years. *Scratching my head*

Sovereign Hill's newspaper.

We then left the park. We rushed to the Gold Museum next to the park after we realised that it's already 5:30p.m. We've no idea what time it's closed.

Gold Museum.

Too bad, it's closed already. Such a waste cause the admission that we paid include an entry to the Gold Museum.

My two cents for anyone who plans to visit Sovereign Hill is to get there earlier. Two or three hours are definitely not enough for you to spend there. Make sure you have at least half a day there. :)

Anyway, it was a good trip and definitely worth every single cent I pay. Thanks to Siong Bing who brought us to this interesting park.

We left Sovereign Hill at about 6p.m. At this time, what will you think of? Of course, it's dinner!

7 & 7 Korean Restaurant.

Quite traditional.

We had an ordinary lunch, remember? So, we had to eat better at night! :P Siong Bing strongly recommended this Korean restaurant to us.

Entree.

We were given 6 types of entree. The one I like most is the honey potato (2nd row 2nd column). It's very appetizing I would say.

Rice.

The three of us ordered a banquet (serve for 2) and an additional main dish.

Sweet Potato Cake.

First up, sweet potato cake. It's almost like the entree but this was fried beforehand.

Beef Bulgogi.

Next, we had Beef Bulgogi. It's just thinly sliced beef pan fried with dark and sweet soya sauce. The best part, it's served sizzling hot!

Samgyetang.

Then, we had Samgyetang. It is ginseng chicken soup. This is strongly recommended by me. The whole chicken was boiled long enough until the bone was soft enough to be eaten.

Tteokbokki.

We thought our banquet only has three dishes. When this Tteokbokki was served, we thought it's the wrong order. We had a hard time communicate with the Korean waitress as she understands little English. However, she managed to get her ladyboss and explained to us that the banquet actually includes Tteokbokki. We just didn't want to pay extra if that wasn't our order.

I don't know what's this Tteokbokki. To me, it's Korean Chee Cheong Fun. Served with some vegie, it tasted not bad.

Pork Bulgogi.

The last and final dish was this Pork Bulgogi. It's good but we were too full when it was served. Nevertheless, we managed to stuff everything into our stomach.

All and all, we paid about Aud$65+ for everything. I think the price was quite reasonable since the food was yummy and they were very filling! So, give this restaurant a try if you're in Melbourne.

The address:

7 & 7 Korean Restaurant
Shop B
21 Koornang Rd
Carnegie 3163 VIC

After dinner, we headed back to Siong Bing's place. We chit chatted for a bit before we went to sleep. We had to wake up very early the next day because we had signed up for a tour...

If you want to know what tour we had signed up, stay tuned for Melbourne Day 3! :)

P/s: I might write a post about the Merdeka Day Celebration which I mentioned at the beginning of this post.