MELbOuRne

Went to Melbourne with some of my hsemates and some of hsemate’s med skool frens. Melbourne and Adelaide is like comparing KL and ipoh. When I first got there we were all grumbling at everything melb had to offer. First thing we got caught by tram conductor coz we had tickets tat we weren’t supposed to have…apparently in melb, overseas students/interstate students are not supposed to have concession tram tickets, which are like discounted tram tickets, but we didn’t know coz in Adelaide we could, and the conductor made a big deal of it and confiscated our $12 weekly ticket…ahh pain pain, got confiscated on the first day sumore. He made himself sound like a cop, saying we were lucky he could’ve fined us blabla, and we all ended the day on a bad mood, some ppl cursing the guy as a racist blabla. True he was rude, but then after staying a few days in melb I know why, coz a lot of ppl hop trams (don’t pay for tickets just get on) so they are probably just pissed off at their job and the world at large I guess. Come to think abt it, I guess we were just unlucky. The weather was just so unpredictable and the rain and wind here is so cold!it really bites, but then here there's a lot of autumn leaves around so i just love walking through them...ahhh.. this sounds sad but…..drum roll…..I was so excited seeing Starbucks!!! Reminds me of KL ..first Starbucks I have seen since landed in Australia..haha. Places we went to included the museum, Queen Victoria market (which is surprisingly cheecheongkai, i think a lot of things there are fake ), and also went to Carlton Gardens, St Kilda beach, Luna Park ( a yucky version of genting amusement park…where the adults sit on solero shot that only goes up 5 m frm the ground). Chinatown is quite big and apparently booking a chinese tour frm chinatown is much cheaper, is it cheap labour or helping fellow Chinese?? Who cares, good for us anyway. oh ya, i lost my phone in melbourne..terrible..Our motel room was enough for 10 of us, its like an apartment, problem was there was only 1 toilet. Melbourne is a great place to be at night, its so cosmopolitan-like, esp sat nite, the whole city was bright, colourful and bustling with business and we even bopped along to bhangra music coming frm a taxi. Went to search of the illusive one-metre long pizza which was so hard to find, we practically walked half the huge city. When we found it we were bone weary and they just had to give us a table outside where we were freezing to the point of shivering, and Kevin claimed to be in cold hypothermic shock, poor guy didn’t bring a jacket. In the end, the one-metre long pizza wasn’t that great, just like 4 square Shakey pizzas. Later went to visit Shau Fun’s apartment which was on the 8th floor, almost penthouse liao. Great view, konon over the cemetery but at nite I couldn’t see la.. and its quite nice. Its in College Square, a YMCA run accommodation for university students. Had to walk back to the motel frm CS as trams don’t run so late at night, had to walk back past the cemetery ..aiihhss……but it was quite refreshing to walk at nite I guess…Next day went out almost the whole day with Jon, breakfast lygon street (i love lygon street, its like all the nice cafe places..and had good italian lunch there with shau fun and frens), bumming around the city doing practically nothing, just chatting and enjoying the scenery, melbourne has nice tree-lined roads, and now is autumn so its nice to walk around get some fresh air, ok maybe not fresh la, since its so much more polluted than Adelaide.but i like the smell of rain in melbourne especially in the morning, it reminds me of home i guess. the fresh clean smell of rain and the leaves...sighh....in the evening, went up Telstra dome where they play Australian football matches. Wanted to go, but oh well not my favourite team playing also. Go go Adelaide crows! At night, I rejoined my housemates for dinner at Hard Rock café, my first time at any hard rock, my dear hsemate Grace had to get her vodka martini ala James Bond. She is really in love with pierce brosnan. Lolz. Next day did some shopping along the factory outlet places in Melbourne, for the first time I can actually afford something from esprit. Sobsobsob…didn’t buy much la..hooray..spent less than $30. we went to the observation deck to see melbourne from a bird's eye view, but at first we were too kiamsiap coz it costs money to go up the building, and surprising kevin paid for all of us! hehe normally he is so thrifty..hmm.. the view was beautiful, so much twinkling ....just that melbourne lacks an icon like harbour bridge or anything la..the train back to Adelaide was okaayy, but it was kind of cramped and for economy class we didn’t have any bunks for overnight trip so I practically stayed in the lounge car the whole night, arrived sleep-deprived in Adelaide. Well…thats about a summary of the trip la…cheers!