OK people...

Not going to write much today.. have company.. Anyhow, here are the shots from St Kilda.. Will probably elaborate further when i get back from sports camp on sunday.

Our travelling Party...


And their Shadows... Guess who?


A Beacon


A Lighthouse


A Pier


The Famous Eyes of the entry facade of Luna Park


Lamp Post with St Kilda Monogram


The St Kilda Salt Baths



Ok sorry for the lack of info on the photos... meanwhile pls feel free to form your own opinions.=)

Till Next Time, Cheers

Okay! Day 6..

The day we were waiting for had arrived.. twas the Yarra Valley day!

For the uninitiated, the Yarra Valley is one of the many wine producing areas of the Australian (sub?) Continent.. And the best thing is that it's just under an hour's drive out of Melbourne... Unfortunately, despite a relatively promising morning, it was quite dismal weather.. Quite cold and overcast most of the time.. wasted.=)

The brave party which ventured out into the untamed wilderness... ok exagerrating.. there were 4 of us which formed the so called brave party into the untamed wilderness; There was the designated driver, Cheh Nessa, Her friend Maya (again not sure if im spelling this right) or issit Maja? Hmm.. Anyways, the other 2 were me and Cali as usual la.

Yep seen above, from left to right, Cali, Cheh Nessa & Maya

So after the trip into the Valley proper, our first stop was the Yaring Station Winery. The photo above was taken there. The format of the wineries there is pretty uniform- theres the retail store, where you can try the various wines and produce. Then, there will normally be a restaurant where you can have their great wines with greater food. The reason why im telling you this is because Yaring Station has an excellent restaurant. Ok, i'm not sure of that, but the restuarant has floor to ceiling windows on one side, and the view of the fields outside is quite breathtaking.. even on a gloomy drizzly day..

Our next destination was a cheese factory! I'm not much of a cheese eater, but the cheh's managed to get some cheese for slow enjoyment back at home.=) We all bought drinks and sat down for a while.. Or rather, they sat down.. I was walking around shooting.=) 3 pics below..






The next stop was the Bortelli Winery. Apparently, the original owners of the winery camp from Italy, hence the Italian name. We had lunch at the restaurant and it was very good. Plus, I had my first taste of Pinot Noir.. It's a red wine, which is quite popular over there, but i realise we dont see it so much in Singapore... Was quite nice though, not as siap as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz but not as mild as Merlot.. But then again, maybe its just the glass i had. I confess not to be a wine connoisseur.=)

I also got Dad & Mum wine from the Bortelli Winery store..=) And a T-shirt for dad.. Also, I managed to break a wine glass.. I dunno how i did it, but i wasnt really even high on the wine.=) haha i suppose the sales people just looked at me like i was some lousy chinese kid who couldnt hold his wine.. heh.. Oops...

The last stop on our Yarra Trip was at a little town centre called Yarra Glen. There was this tea shop there which had all sorts of tea.. quite amazing.. the smells.. But they also had coffee beans.. Haha.. was a real assault on the senses cos we smelled every bean i think..

Cali and I FINALLY got ice cream at Yarra Glen.. Fudge ice cream.. which brings me to another quite out of point idea.. U know how they have Fudge Flavoured Ice cream? And they have Ice Cream Flavoured stuff, possibly fudge? In that case, if they had Fudge Flavoured, Ice Cream Flavoured Fudge, what would it taste like? Understand? I didnt think so.. never mind.. Like i said .. Out of point..

Yep.. but we finaly got ice cream and it was Fudge flavoured Ice cream, thanks very much. Eating Ice cream in the cold... its something Cheh Nessa swears by and i think grew on me.=)

So having had a great day in the Yarra Valley and finally had some ice cream, we all made out way back to the city..=)

Of course, the day was not over yet! We met Wenjie and John for dinner.. Something i neglected to mention before is that I had actually met them another evening after dinner one of those days.. Yep went to Jon's room in Trinity College.. quite interesting.. apparently they turn off the heaters at night.. Poor Jon.. Hang in there, man... Only a semester there, then you can start to look for another place.=)

Anyhow, met Jon and Wenjie and we went to Jap restaurant for dinner.




Was nice to meet up with them.. Hadnt seen Wenjie in a while and Jon to a lesser extent...

Yep... Of course, we had to end the day with dessert.. and where did we go, but back to Cafe Greco again.=) We got better service that day than when i went with the ex Sb4 ppl... Dunno why.. perhaps they were less crowded? hmm...

Ok.. i realise im not being very articulate... So I shall end today's commentary here..=)

Tommorow, St Kilda!

Till next time, Cheers

Evening people...

The 5th day was kinda non-eventful, compared to the previous days where we got to travel here and there.. On a side note, I realised that i took almost all the forms of transport when i was there.. We took the tram most of the time, then we took train to Weribee & we too cab too.. Didnt take the bus though.. haha.. maybe next time eh?

Anyhow, we took the train again, down the Weribee line to another station, this time nearer, called Spotswood ( thanks for the info, Cali). The reason why we took the train, is so that we could get to this place called Scienceworks... Yep, initially i thought it was some happening museum, cos on the Visit Victoria website, it looked promising.. Unfortunately, when we got there, we realised that Scienceworks is actually similiar to the Singapore Science Centre.. In terms of their target audience... But what to do? we went all the way there by train, and walked in the gloomy cold morning weather for 10 mins from the station to get there, so just make best..=)

Yep, the museum, as i said, probably good for the under 12 crowd, possibily even the under 14 crowd, but 21 year olds, pls pls dont waste a morning by going there.. not for us oldies haha..

Anyhow, after Scienceworks, we came back to the city and had lunch, followed by a trip to the Queen Vic Market, again. Yep.. the previous time we went to have a look see, but this time we went to buy stuff! So I got 60 bucks worth of chocs and nougat..=) worth every cent, methinks. But I gotta tell you about the guy who sold us the candy. The shop is called Queen Vics Sweets and its highly recommended, by me anyways... It was quite funny, cos the salesguy probably had sold candy to so many Singaporeans, that he was speaking Singlish to us. Yep.. a bit contrived, but nonetheless, I suppose it loosened us up and helped him make a bigger sale. having said that, the chocs I got are top class. We tried this Irish Cream flavoured Chocolate covered Almonds, and ended up buying 500 g each haha..

Yeah.. anyhow, after Queen Vics mart, we basically just hung around for a while, then I needed to go have dinner with the Chehs & Shaylin (is that the right spelling? Hope it is, or if its not, hope she's not reading this.. ). Anyhow, dinner was nice... Went to this place called the fish house.. The service, as per melbourne norm, was great.. and the waiter brought out the board with all menu for the day and all.. the food was as good as the service , if not better. And , again as per melbourne norm, I was VERY full at the end of the meal..

A note on the food in Melbourne.. Its good, but the portions are very big and as a result, they charge you for it! a basic main will set you back about $7-10! At some point during the trip, i began to miss the 2 dollar wantan mee in the Mandai Hill Camp canteen.. Cheap and Good.=)

Ok and to end the day, we went to this nightspot , of which's name i cannot recall now.. Quite a nice nightspot.. more like the type i prefer... a nice bar, with house-ish music without being to hip-hop poseurish.. The whole place was done up in the style of a school. As in, their toilets were called male/female hygiene classrooms or something along those lines. Also, they distill their own vodka on site. Pity, i didnt get to try... haha maybe next time... I did however, have a beer, courtesy of Dominic, Cheh's friend. Thanks Dominic!

Yep... so that was an interesting end to an otherwise, not very eventful day, and hence, the only day i didnt take any pictures...

Stay tuned, day 6 is just ahead..=)

Hello again...

Yep... not feeling especially talkative today...

But still, the show must go on..=) and today, the Weribee Open Range Zoo!

Ok... As u may or probably will not know, there are 3 Zoos in Melbourne and its vicinity...1, The Melbourne Zoo, which is near the city. 2, The Healesville Sactuary, which is enroute to the Yarra Valley and 3, The Weribee Open Range Zoo, which is ,as its name suggests, in a suburb called Weribee.

That suburb happens to be the last stop in what happens to be called the Weribee Line. So if youre thinking of making your way down there, train would be a good way to go...

Reading the stuff in prep to go down to Melbourne, I realised that the Weribee Zoo is the most similiar, in the way they exhibit animals, to the Singapore Zoological Gardens. That is, in their natural habitat. So, I decided, or rather told Cali, that I wanted to visit it. Probably one of the best decisions i made in preparation for the trip.

Like I said, the place is about 45 mins away from Flinders Street station, or Spencer St if u prefer, down the Weribee line.. The ride there was quite nice, got to experience a train ride in Melbourne, and its probably closer to our MRT than the trams (which would be equivalent to our buses) . There are shuttle buses from the station to the Zoo, but we took a cab to the zoo from the station... not too costly, about 10 AUSD... as opposed to having to wait for the next shuttle... A word of advice... check the timings of the shuttle buses if youre not willing to pay for the cab.=). Anyhow, the Cab was happening too.. the driver, i suspect, is a stunt driver on the side... cos he was hapilly zooming through the suburb.

Personally, I like the suburbs.. Theres something romantic about owning your own single storey house with a little front lawn and a garage by the side. I suppose it's something which is pretty hard to come by in Singapore, owing to our land scarceness. I think where i live is a little bit in the direction of that... In the sense that it has a little lawn and driveway... But i think the thing i like most about the suburb houses is that there are no gates.. None of the gaudy grille with spike rubbish that Singaporean houses have... The lack of gates and fences, i think, also speaks of trust within the community... Perhaps that's what makes the suburbs attractive to me.. the kampung spirit of it all.. Saying Good morning to your neighbours and all that stuff.. hmm...

Ok but anyways, the cab brought us to the Zoo.. and we got in at discounted price! haha.. Thanks to Cali and her Student card.. and my non existent student card which i supposedly forgot to bring with me... haha...

Ok... finally after my narrative...

the pictures.=)

I suppose the first thing anyone expects to see is...

Haha.. actually this isnt really a kangaroo.. it's a shadow of these brass cutouts that they have there... but looks nice eh?

OK this is a real kangaroo.. a Joey i think... either that or its a smaller breed of kangaroo.. Eastern Grey i think... not sure la..=)




Yeah... a step back... The zoo is organised in a way that there are walking tours (2 of them, one african plain one and another marshland one) and the tram tour.. The trams are quite cool.. Forgot to take a picture of them.. crap.. but theyre quite happening.. cos they actually open up.. the whole side of the tram opens up for the people to get in, then it closes up again... Like Cali said, I dont think anyone who hasnt been there will be able to visualise...

Ok back to the animals... We took the tram tour, which goes through pretty much the whole zoo.. and lets u get close to the animals... the non carnivorous ones anyway.. The first animal we saw, was one of the Big 4 of the African subcontinent.. I think the Big 4 are the Lion, Rhino, Wildebeast and the Elephant.. but i might be wrong.. perhaps the Leopards (HOO-HA.. never mind.. leopards will understand) are part of the big 4 ... dunno... Anyways... we say the most dangerous animal in the Big4.. I.e the animal which incurs the most attacks on humans annually...

The animal is none other than...



Yes, the Hippo incurs the largest number of attacks on humans annually... But this guy was happily just slouching by his pond.. quite lucky that he was out of the water and posing for photos!

Back to the tram tour, we soon entered what they call the African Plain segment of the zoo... another point for the case to visit the Weribee Open Range Zoo - The African Plain segment alone is the size of the ENTIRE Melbourne Zoo..=)

We saw the usual suspects, which youd expect to find on the Aftican plain-

Zebras ( pronounced Zehb- bra),




Rhinos,




and this Giraffe



Again, we were quite fortunate cos this guy was standing right next to the tram track and he kinda looked down at us with that Oh no, another batch of silly humans expression. But he did afford us a great photo op.. and we got to get a pic of him close up...

Anyways, another interesting fact... didja know that giraffes have super long tongues? which are super flexible? Its so that they can use their tongues to pull high growing leaves of branches.=) I suppose its another reason why chicks dig giraffes.. Heh... i brace myself for the wave of controversy whipped up by the last sentence.=)

Yep.. in addition to all these super big animals, we also got to see a celebrity close up..=) U know... Hakuna Matata? the smaller, less strong smelling of the dynamic duo ...

Timon!




Yep.. He's lost some weight since the movie, but still looks funny nonetheless... heh.

Speaking of small animals, there was this other one which was adorable... And he got into the tram! And was willing to pose for pictures!




Yeah.. this guy is a natural model i tell u... He saw me looking at him through the viewfinder and he just broke out into an adorable grin! I suppose Aussie kids would do that..=) it's a nice refreshing change from the local kids who run away from me when they see me putting a camera to my eye.. but then again, perhaps i havent had to fortune of meeting a photogenic Singaporean kids! Parent, pls apply! I'll shoot your kids for free! haha.. no results guaranteed though..=P

Have i mentioned in previous posts how fantastically blue the skies are over there?





Was just talking to mum today and telling her how the skies in Spore looked nice today, and she said she couldnt see the difference.. and i suppose she was right.. But the Aussie Skies...
BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL!!

Haha...Another thing about the zoo... the signages are quite nice.. as in, theyre quite artistically done.. just 2 egs below...






Yep... So that was the Weribee Open Range Zoo... A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, must see place for those going down to Melbourne...

In the evening, met up with my ex classmates... Esther, Yangling & Rongyao... so Cali had a rare moment to herself in my week there...=) They all looked fine... Seem to be enjoying the life there.. despite it's coldness and short days and shops closing at 5pm (!!)... But Esther says its coming to spring soon, so ppl hang in there yah?

Yep... SO that was day 4 in Melbourne... and it was day and it was night and it was Good.. Especially good because of the fantastic weather... which in a way we had begun to take for granted.. all that was about to change..=)

Haha... Tommorow, Day 5 & 6... cos day 5, i dont have pics.=)

Till next time, Cheers

Greeting people.. I see youre still tune into the riveting commentary on my Melbourne Holiday.

In today's episode, as promised, THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD!!

Yep... Im not sure if it's one of the natural wonders of the world, but it was sure wondrous to me. haha sounds lame.

Anyhow, I remember when it was back in Sec 3, last millenium, my Geog teacher, Mrs Elaine Lee, told us about the 12 Apostles when we were doing something about coastal processes.. Of course, being the visual , but not very studious ,person I am, I soon forgot about all the coastal processes, but the image of the 12 Apostles remained etched in my mind.

So for those who are still wondering what I'm talking about, the 12 Apostles is one of the great sights along the Great Ocean Road... Basically, I'm not going to bulls*** ( censored for the under 12 crowd who might be reading this) you.. the ride to the place is quite literally a pain in the @55 ...

at this point, I feel it neccessary to share some valuable intel with you people who are going to be travelling down to Melbourne and want to see the Great Ocean Road on a day trip.

DO NOT BUY YOUR TICKETS PREBOOKED FROM THE TOUR AGENCY!!!

Haha... Cali and I bought our ticket from Half Tix.. (the place is on Swanston in the City Hall)... Basically, we bought tickets for a 120 buck Day tour for 70 bucks.. "How?" I can hear you asking... Well, My dear Watson, the answer is simple.. This place basically sells whatever remainder tickets that the tour agency (in this case, Grey Line) cant sell by the day before. What this means is that they sell super cheap so that they can at least make some additional revenue from the tour. As opposed to having empty seats on the coach. Empty seat which incidentally, do not bring in extra renevue! Viva La Economics! Having said that, the only catch is that if you go in summer, there's a high chance they'll be booked solid.. So, not half priced tickets for you. Moral of the story: Be psycho. Go in winter, when its cold and gloomy.. Most of the time anyways.. The day I went on the tour it was gloriously sunny.=)

But I Digress

Yeah... back to what i was saying. The bus leaves at 0800 in the morning. Sounds pretty much ok to us while we're all happily sitting in Sunny Singapore doesnt it? But there, at 0800, its cold... And still not very bright. so it was a bit of a struggle to get there on time. But from 0800 after you get on the bus until about 1130, you see Nuh-Thin...well close to nothing... Theres Bell's Beach and it's insane winter surfers...



haha ...but other wise, honestly.. It's pretty much the driver humouring you with anecdotes about the road and its history. Sure, you get to see Lorne and at 1130, there lunch at Apollo Bay... but that's not what youve come for no? So just a warning to you people who get car sick. Bring bags.. the road's pretty windy.. not as in the wind blowing, but there are a lot of turns ... ok Rephrase.. it's a really windING road.. There was this one lady who was quite sick cos of the ride and we felt kinda bad for her... But our theory is that she was sick cos at every stop we made, her husband would light up a ciggy... or two.. i dunno, but if you asked me to breathe ciggy smoke at every stop, after having just gone through a super winding road, I also sure throw up...




For your viewing pleasure though, this is a picture of the view out of the window.. at the earlier part anyway, before we reached the winding ling ling long long road...

Anyhow, we stopped for lunch at Apollo Bay @ 1130.. It's a nice quaint little coastal town, but Cali did ask quite a relevant question. What do people who live here do? Honestly, there is only so much work at the row of shops and a small hotel... Points to ponder...



Yeah.. Anyways, this is a picture of the Apollo Bay Hotel.. as you can see, the sky's BEAUTIFUL.. at least for a winter's day it is...

Finally, after lunch, we head on toward that which we had come to see.. the 12 Apostles!



I dunno, but to me, the 12 Apostles was the protagonist in the story that is the Great Ocean Road.. The other features are all kinda nice, but the 12 Apostles is what people remember... It was nice to finally see with my own eyes, the picture that was printed in the geog textbook. Like i said in a previous post.. a picture can do a lot, but for somethings, a photo just cannot do it justice...




Haha... what you see in the picture is actually a sign that they put out near the viewing platforms... If you look at it, the top one has this person who's almost falling off a cliff... The whole pretext of the picture is quite serious, but the presentation, was quite funny... The 2nd picture, the one at the bottom, is a picture of the parent holding on to a kids hand.. but as if the graphic was not good enough, they have magnified the segment with the held hands... quite funny la..

Yep... I actually have more pics of the other smaller coastal features, lemme know if u wanna see them...=)

Otherwise, that's it for the Great Ocean Road.. Highly recommended people.. Despite the long journey and the winding road... It's definitely one of the things a person has to see before his time on earth is up...

Ok... So that was Day 3, Wednesday in Melbourne.. And it was day and it was night and it was good... (In case you all are wondering why i keep sayin this, go open Genesis and read the creation account..haha)

That's it for today! Tommorow, the Weribee Open Range Zoo! Stay Tuned!

Till next time, Cheers

Ah...

Forgot a picture i took at the Melbourne Museum...

That's a soft toy of Ned Kelly.. Coming soon to a cinema screen near you, with Heath Ledger as Ned Kelly... For those who dunno, Ned Kelly was this guy who roamed the Aussie Outback as a sort of Robin Hood figure i think.. Anyways, he had this home made armour which he used to defend himself against the Aussie Outback Cops who had guns see?

That time calibre super low, projectile velocity also quite sad case, so his armour worked.=)

Yep.... Till Tommorow and the Great Ocean Road!

Cheers

Yep... Sidenote... It's Cali's Birthday Today.. meaning the 2nd of Aug.. which it is already in Melbourne now...

SO...

Happy 21st Birthday, Cali Babes!

May all your Hopes and Wishes come through.. blatantly plagarising Perfect 10 .. haha

As promised, Day 2 of my Melbournian Sojourn..=)

Day 2, we went to Queen Vics Mart...=) Quite a happening place la... This despite the fact that it features in most of those Melbourne Travel brochures.=) I liked it because it wasnt like Freo (Fremantle, in Perth for the uninitiated)... For one, it's bigger.. and for .. err.. two, it's less catered toward the tourist crowd... This despite it being in all the travel brochures... Like someone said, I'm confused la huh?

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from Queen Vics Mart... Except one.. which is still yet to be processed in my camera.. The Film one...

Anyhow, after Queen Vic's Mart, a hop skip and jump away is the Melbourne Museum... Actually i realised that most things in Melbourne are pretty much near to each other.. kinda... In the sense that its at most a 15 min tram ride away..

But back to the Melbourne Museum.. I think the nice thing about the museum is that it seems that they've invested a lot of time and effort in it. Not to say that S'pore's museums arent nice... The Melbourne museum was quite happening in the sense that they covered a large spectrum of "genres", for want of a better word.

Of course, there was this "interesting" part of the museum that was entitled Body and Science.. It's basically all about the human body and all that kinda stuff.. However, having lived in Singapore all my life, I innocently went in expecting like the same old boring stuff with skeleton models and all...

I could not have been more wrong..=) haha... you walk in and the first thing that hits you is the walls of the place are covered in pictures of naked people.. I mean.. its not porn or anything..But like I said, raised in Spore it's a bit of a ... culture shock.. So that's the first thing.. then the next thing is there are like preserved samples of human... u know... the title of Michael Chiang's latest play.. and theyre like happily mounted there... haha... BUT, The thing that took the cake, the cake box and the whole bloody (no pun intented) cake shop was this looping video of a live birth.. yes, people... if u wanna remember what you had for breakfast an hour after you ate it, go watch this tape... Having said that, it was quite educational... the tape i mean.. of course the other stuff as well.. but the tape.. haha... the memory of it shall be burnt into my mind forever... Heavy Stuff...

ok ok... So I'm finally getting to the pictures... Those that i took la, not the naked pics... all you cheekos reading my blog... mumble mumble...

Theres this part of the Museum they call the Big Box..

That's it in the picture... It's literally a Big Box. haha.. in it, is housed the kids section of the museum.. quite interesting as Cali and I found out, because there's this mini playground outside.. haha.. It's not the normal little tikes fare mind you.. It's all those old games! like Coits and the various other things.. There was also this xylophone... with blocks of the different notes that you can move around.. Anyhow, i think some itchy hand aussie kid moved the blocks... and the notes were all wrong.. So OCPD-influenced me, had to arrange them in the proper tonal sequence.=)

Also, next to the Melbourne Museum, there's this building called... err... I think it was called the Royal Melbourne Exhibition Centre? Yep.. anyways, it's this nice looking building, with domes and all.. and apparently, it was (dunno whether it still is) and exhibition centre... But as far as the Uni Melb people are concerned, its another possible Exam venue..

So, this the the Royal Melbourne Exhibition Centre(?), or at least its silhouette on the beautiful blue Melbournian sky.. or issit Melburnian.. whatever...




Yep... So that was Day 2.. and it was morning and it was evening and it was good.

Haha i realised that i typed a lot of rubbish, but only posted 2 pictures.. sorry people... Anyhow, tommorow, the Great Ocean Road!!

Till Next Time, Cheers