My Life, My Pace

Sorry about the delay in updates. A lot of things have been happening lately but of course, nothing that I cannot handle =)
Apart from that, I had a really good and long weekend over in Singapore, with someone ;p

Anyway, continuing with my updates about my Melbourne trip.

Day 3 started out late because both of us are tired and the hotel's bed was too comfortable to be left alone.
However, my stomach called out, so I had to wake up first before the hotel's breakfast was over.
I quickly wash up and went down for a light meal before the breakfast time is over.

After a light breakfast, I went back up to wash up and head back to bed till she was awake.
We then head out for the real breakfast which we had in an awesome store that serves probably the best selections of pancakes, called Pancake Parlour.

She order the Chocolate Jubilee, which is filled with chocolate all over as you can see in the picture below.
While I ordered my favourite, the Country Breakfast that have lots of bacons, mushrooms, eggs.. well, you get the picture =P

After our sweet sinful and yummy wholesome breakfast, and about 3 refills of coffee later,
we decided to spend our 2nd day in Melbourne exploring the city and taking lots of scenery pictures.
We started out from Collins Street and headed towards Swanston Street because we wanted to see those cute horse carriages again as last night was quite dark and couldn't see much.


After reaching Swanston, we walked towards St. Paul's Cathedral which is located at the Swanston Street and Flinders Street intersection.
We spent quite some time there to take a few pictures and we saw this really cute bird standing on a statue's head. Pictures below:



Then we visited the Federation Square and also the tourist centre which is located in there to look at some sourvenirs.
It was getting really cold as we got closer to Federation Square because the Yarra River is located just beyond there, and also since the Federation Square is a large open area, it's quite windy there.


After spending some time in the Tourist Centre, we headed towards the bridge along St. Kilda Road to take some really nice pictures of the Yarra River.
It was already quite late when we reach the Yarra River because we started our day late.
We spent close to half an hour or more on the bridge just admiring and taking pictures of the river, and of course, a little couple chat.



It was turning dark when we decided to look for dinner. We couldn't decide where to have our dinner, so upon reaching the intersection of Russell Street and Little Bourke Street, I decided to have some chinese food for dinner.
Which we then entered Little Bourke Street and the whole street is a Chinatown.
We went into a Malaysian cafe called Oldtown Kopitiam. Both of us had the Hainanese Chicken rice, which was not bad, and the serving of the chicken was generous.


After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. While on the way back to our hotel, we saw this two person playing this really huge chess set on the street. You can see how big it is below, lol:


Well, this practically sums up our 2nd day in Melbourne, although to be exact, it's the 3rd day of the trip =)
The hotel room feels good, especially a hot bath after a day out in the cold.

Will update again as soon as I have the time. So, do drop by again in about a week~

Again, it's tough to find a slot amidst my tight work schedule.
However, it seems I've managed to squeeze in a little blogging now.

Okay, so to continue where I left off 3 days ago.. I think.
We got on the airport transfer bus along with 1 other passenger.
Along the way, I did snapped a few pictures with the new dslr which we got specifically for this occasion, while she was snoozing away on the seat with the head leaning on the window, which I took a picture of her =P
However, I will not be uploading it as I still have a life which I treasure alot..
Right.. so I was playing with the dslr. Not quite used to the manual mode yet, and because I didn't want to miss anything, I snapped a few pictures as the bus was moving with the Auto mode.
Which in the end, it was as good as snapping nothing..
There goes my attempt number 1 for trying to act like a pro photographer which clearly I'm not..

As we came closer to Melbourne Central Business District (CBD), we entered a really beautiful bridge.
Which she totally missed it because she was busy filling the bus with some "zzZ" xD
I didn't manage to take any picture of the bridge because:-
1. The bus was too shaky.
2. Still a dslr newbie.

After being on the freeway for around +/- 20 minutes. The skyscrapers of Melbourne CBD came into view.
Nothing beats the uplifting feeling of a start of a well deserved wonderful vacation.
After dropping off the first passenger to Collins Street, the bus then headed to where our hotel was located, Little Collins Street.

Upon checking into the hotel, we headed straight for the room as we were very sleepy and tired.
After snapping some pictures of the room and changed into a more comfortable attire, we slept till late afternoon.

If it weren't for my hungry stomach, I don't think I'll ever wake up.
We got changed and went out to search for dinner around Chinatown, but instead we got drawn into this beautiful building called the Royal Arcade.
Stumbled upon a chocolate store there, so we had a taste of some Aussie hot chocolate first as the weather was cold.









After the nice round of hot chocolate and a lot of picture snapping.
We continued our search for dinner till we got too tired and just entered a local fast food chain called Hungry Jacks, which was in fact the same company as Burger King.
Once I have finished my burger and she has finished my fries, we went to shop for souvenirs.





While looking for the various stuff available, I spotted a really cute stuff toy Wombat, and she immediately fell for it. So, all we got from the first day souvenir shopping was the Wombat, lol.



We headed back to the hotel after that because it was still raining and the weather was really cold.
That basically wraps up for the day. Will write about Day 2 soon, stay tuned =)

"The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see."

At last, with some free time on hand I can start blogging about my trip to Melbourne.

I know it's kind of weird to travel so sudden without any public holidays during April,
but the reason I chose to travel during April is because for the first time I do not want to
spend my birthday in Malaysia.
It's getting kinda bored you know with the same food and weather all year round.
That's why when I travel, I usually choose a country with a different climate, at least one with a four season.

Initially, mice and I planned to go Japan during April but since the triple disaster struck
Tokyo, we can't help it but change our plan to Melbourne.
So I did all the planning, bookings and visa applications.

As I eagerly wait for the day of our departure to arrive, I grew more anxious..
I started to double and even triple check every single thing, might be more than triple even.
I even made her print out additional copies of all the bookings and vouchers and
in the end, we had two of every document.
So I traveled down to Singapore early morning on our departure day which was the 8th of April.

We've already packed everything into a single humongous luggage the week before which weighs like a ton but surprisingly it only totaled up to 18.0 kg.
She worked for half a day, and around 4pm we headed straight home to get ready as her dad was dropping us to the airport around 6pm.
After we arrived at the airport, we took some pictures of Changi Terminal 3 then headed to the check in counter for Singapore Airlines.




We checked in early and we had a light dinner.. well, it was heavy for me =S
After dinner, we went into the departure hall to look at some duty free goods.
Before we knew it, it was time to board the plane.


She was excited because we specifically took the last flight to Melbourne so we could board the A380 Airbus.
Furthermore, we got her favorite seat next to the window which overlooks the wings.
While she was snapping away with her iPhone, I was busy looking at the menu =P



Well, nothing much during the flight just that there were two babies competing who's gonna win the loudest crying award.
Moments after entering cruising altitude, dinner was served.
Awhile later, I guess Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 somehow charmed her to sleep.

After 7 hours or so being in the plane, we finally arrive in Melbourne! which was 6.30am Melbourne time and 4.30am Singapore/Malaysia time~

Upon exiting the airplane into the airport, I could feel the difference in the coolness of the air already.. or maybe it's just the air-condition ._. we'll know soon enough~



After much walking, we arrive at the immigration checkpoint.
Unlike Singapore and Malaysia, their process speed was fast even though the queue was long.
After around 10 minutes of being in line, it's our turn. We were asked some basic question in a very friendly and welcoming manner, like why are we here, where we'll be staying and what we'll be doing.
They were like so friendly, which makes me wonder why can't the people back at home be more like them.

Anyway, after we were welcomed to Melbourne, we took another short walk to the luggage retrieval conveyor belt thingy.
After getting our luggage, we were told to place down all our backpacks and luggages on the floor and stand aside.
Then a cute custom dog, a beagle, came and sniffed for illegal products.



Upon exiting the arrival hall, I went to get us airport transfer to our hotel.
After around 15 minutes, our bus came and we're off to Melbourne CBD =D

Will continue in the next entry.. This entry is already too long. Stay tuned~