Melbourne (last part)

There isn't much pics the following week coz 1) we mostly stayed at home coz the heat outside was too unbearable or 2) we were shopping.

31 Dec 2007 - Countdown at Docklands

We stayed at home till around 6 to go to city for countdown. Think it went up to 42 degrees. Thought it would be cooler at night, but it was still kinda warm. No cool winds, but warm and stuffy wind. News reported that it was the hottest new year eve, like ever.


At Docklands while waiting for the fireworks at midnight.

We were waiting for the fireworks when it just started suddenly. No countdown or whatever. The atmosphere was not exciting. It was rather, ermm peaceful and quiet. Just had people throwing up into the sea coz they have had too much to drink. Everybody just went home immediately after the fireworks ended.

1 Jan 2008 - Casino

This day was the same. We stayed at home trying to stay cool. I even went to wrap some ice and used it like how you would a heat pack. I could not even sleep in the bed coz it was so hot in the upper bunk. Evening became cooler and I even went out in my jeans.

After dinner near Lygon at a Thai restaurant, we went to the casino.



Donut shaped sculptures outside the casino.

There wasn't much pics taken inside the building which contains the casino (CROWN). The building reminded me very much of the airport. And pictures are not allow in the Crown.


Outside the casino, waiting for the hourly fireballs to fire. But we waited for more than 2 hours and none came. =((

We had really huge ice cream too! YUM

2 Jan 2008 - City touring, Suzuki Market

It was really hot on this day too. But we decided not to waste any time to stay at home, so we went to do some touring of the city.

St Paul's Cathedral


I love cathedrals. I love their stained glasses and this sense of serenity.





The state library


We weren't allowed to carry our bags into the library, so we din loiter long inside. Instead, we took pictures outside, and oogle at a Japanese skateboard.



Then we went to the Suzuki Night Market which operates at Queen Victoria Market every Wednesday night. Gosh, an ang moh pasar malam!!




There was live music and people dancing! Love the feel!




Outside, they set up this booth to allow children to paint. And this little girl (Laura) allowed Rui to take a picture of her and her painting. Ain't she an angel?


Night view of the Flinder's Street station

3 Jan 2008 - Chadstone, Lygon Street

We spend most of the day at Chadstone Shopping mall. Had to take a bus to the city(~45mins), and another free shuttle bus (~40mins) to the mall. It was supposedly the biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere. Which part of the southern hemisphere, I don't know.


A tiny part of the mall. It was so HUGE!

Somehow we did not manage to shop or buy alot of things there. Think we exhausted ourselves (for shopping). We spend most of the time sitting down and in the food court.

Then we met the Melbournians to go to Lygon Street, or little Italian for some italian food!


Pastas! Good schtuff I tell you.


Then it was off to gelatos!! 3 scoops for $4.50?

4 Jan 2008 - Queen Vic Market, Movie

Went back to Queen Vic market to get some more stuffs that we missed the first time round, and then to Melbourne Central for movies! We watched Enchanted there. Whee.

5 Jan 2008 - Boxhill, Ikea

TLP brought us to Boxhill, in the hope of getting some chocolates as they are cheap there. But in the end we did not get anything coz we still have another leg of journey to Sydney. We managed to have some rice cake and glutinous rice chicken, and char kway teow, which made us really happy girls.

Then it was off to Ikea. Somehow, it wasn't as exciting as I had expected. Think it was the heat again. And we could not really buy alot of things coz our luggage were very very full!

At night was some intensive packing, and hoping that our luggage were not overweight.

6 Jan 2008 - To Sydney

Do not take Jetstar from Melbourne. Coz Avalon airport is all the way at Geelong, which is more than an hour's drive away. And guess how much our taxi fare came up too? AUD$172.80. Every cent it jumped made my heart skip a beat too. That is like the total of all my cab fare for a year, and maybe more. Gosh.

Luckily we left for the airport early, else we could well have missed the plane. Our luggages went through fine, except for Rui's coz hers was about 28kg. And so she had to pay $56 for the excess. This is alright! Except that our luggages weigh the same when we took the plane back from Sydney to Perth (by Virgin Blue), and we went through without paying anything. And amazingly, my luggage weighed lesser (21.5kg at Melbourne airport, and 19kg at Sydney airport). Was the scale at Melbourne Avalon airport, which only has Jetstar, skewed? We could only guess.

Next up would be Sydney!!