Let’s get high.

Happy New Year, Happy 2008 everyone. This shall be my last entry on my Melbourne trip, and the following entry will definitely be something regarding the New Year. Have a blessed day ahead, and remember to start it off right (:

Boxing day oh Boxing day. Finally all the shops were opened for business, and all with a huge sale sign displayed. In Singapore, the Great Singapore Sale during the June period might be the best time of the year to shop. However in Australia, it will be the Boxing Day and year end/stock take sales that is awfully wicked.

Being the usually typical Kiasu (scared loose) Singaporeans, we started shopping on Boxing day at around half past eight in the morning. However, upon arrival the city central, we realised lines of human bodies already started queuing up around bloody six in the morning.

The amount of sale items we bought within one hour is pretty worthwhile i personally felt, although i wasn’t the biggest winner.

Right smack in the city central area, there’s an alley full of amazing graffiti done by the locals. Well, i’m proud to say Singapore do have loads of graffiti too, all the owe money pay money, random paint splash in bloody red done by the loan sharks, well done right?

After like eight hour of shopping, i sat down in a mall and refused to move an inch. My shopping partners were horrible i tell you. Countless occasion when i have to follow them back to the same stall to check the item out again, the record was like for three times. Why can’t they just buy and move on, apply the buy first talk later teachings by me?

Anyhow i came up with a policy for them along the way, which is no such thing as turning back. Once stepping out of the store, thou shall not enter again. My legs were definitely saved from further damage.

I felt really disappointed with myself because i only managed to buy three tops, while the rest did like eight to ten damages. Please don’t blame me, because if you do take into account of the conversion rate, there isn’t much differences for the items i long for.

Things that i purchased,

1. Ben Sherman Target Tee – $33 AUD/$42.90 SGD, originally $50 AUD
2. Ben Sherman Short Sleeves Button Down – $52 AUD/$67.60 SGD, originally $85 AUD
3. Ralph Lauren Short Sleeves Button Down – $89 AUD/$115.70 SGD, originally $145 AUD

The day ended off with a feast back in the apartment while watching Transformer. Baby come back, there was something in everything about youuu.

Lights off was pretty early because we had to wake up the following day at around five in the morning to catch the train back to Adelaide.

Moving on, and fast forwarding, that’s me beside The Overland Train. It’s a train service that travels between Adelaide and Melbourne, $59 AUD for concession Red Service. It will be the first time i set foot into a real train, not a tram, therefore i was pretty excited about it.

The interior of the train reminds me of a air plane. The seats were comfortable, toilets were clean, just that it was a little too cold. Anyhow the program for most of us during the train ride was to catch up on sleep since we were all suffering from serious fatigue after the frantic rushing around.

For your information, the train left Melbourne at eight in the morning and reached Adelaide only at six in the evening, if you do the mathematics, it will be ten freaking hours, /ass-numb.

At least there was a feast to the eyes during the whole journey, when we past by the rural areas, with all the farms, sheeps, cows, horses and e certa. What you see above is the Murray Bridge/River!

Right after arrival, instead of returning back to our individual home. We headed to Norwood to have dinner at Cafe Primo and catch the Golden Compass. Though the show was rather exciting, rather i must say, there were moments i almost dozed off.

That shall mark the end of my Melbourne trip and it’s back to work at Adelaide. In conclusion, i really had great clean fun over at Melbourne with the amazing company. Melbourne city really reminds me of Singapore though, so if you are avoiding such a hectic place, do keep your distant. Cheers!

This is the car we managed to rent from Europcar, the latest Subaru Impreza hatchback series, sweet looking. The traction, design, gear shifting was great, comes with cruise control and steptronic technology. If i can recall correctly, it cost $186 AUD for 3 days of usage.

The itinerary for Christmas Eve was rather simple, hit Yarra Valley for wine tasting, back to city for chill and countdown from evening.

Yarra Valley do sound familiar to Barossa Valley . Indeed they are similar in many ways, just that Barossa Valley is bigger in terms of size/magnitude. Personally, i feel that Barossa Valley’s reputation and fame is better than Yarra Valley to a certain extent.

These photos were taken on the exterior of the winery Domaine Chandon. This winery is full of beautiful attractions and the wine cellar is higher than high class i felt, however i did not purchase anything from there.

Example of a wine cellar, a place to wine taste for free. Unless you want to try their museum/wicked series, which will most probably cost you $3 – $5 AUD for tasting them.

Welcome to Yarrawood Winery, and that’s us at their lawn. If you ever ever reach there, please try then buy their Autumn Harvest Riesling 2006.

Be appalled by the amount of awards De Bortoli winery won throughout the many years. Oh, the winery is also voted the best for tourism too.

That’s Kit acting like Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami. Did i mention, we have the season one to eight at our disposal, and that’s a way how we kill time. Over exposure to the show makes you think like a criminalist all the time. When you do smell anything weird, that will be decomp (decomposition). When you do see anything suspicious, it will be bag it tag it, send it to tox/trace. When you need to search for anything, it will be set up 5 x 5 grid. It’s crazy i know.

Ah, i’m not acting like anyone from CSI: Miami. That’s just me after having too much to drink, it was like glass after glass, wine after wine, taste first and talk later (our policy).

Our destinated driver (DD) was supposed to be Kenneth, but judging on his actions and communication, i thought it’s wise for me to take over the wheels, although i was also rather high, but not as high. It wouldn’t be nice if we ended up with a vision of white on Christmas Eve, and singing too late to apologize to the DD.

Along the way, we were just hoping there won’t be any road block for breathalyser, fingers crossed. I don’t wish to get deported back to Singapore!

As promised, the night scene of Melbourne Central. Say hello to David Jones and Myer people.

This was taken outside Crown Hotel, also a casino. They have fire spitting pillars on the exterior of the hotel, expulsion of flame will be done in every hour interval. Once again, Adelaide’s Sky City casino just got owned very badly.

After walking around the casino, i realised gambling is really not a thing for me. Although card counting and probability matching should be able to lower the risk/chances, but the luck element seems to be hard to control.

Anyhow, the amount of Asians gambling is maybe ten to twenty fold of the locals. The locals were all seen at the slot machines, throwing away their gold coin, while the Asians were at the tables throwing $50 AUD a bet type (loose until siaooo). Simply suggesting, gambling is in the blood of many many Asians right. Fear is defintely mounting up when Singapore’s integrated resort opens, i dare not imagine how much income will be rolling in a night for the casino.

The group of us met up with Kenneth’s Indonesian friends again to countdown at the Steakout club/pub in the hotel. It was a really really average countdown i must say, although the company was friendly/comforting, and a feast to the eyes for Kit. For example, after the countdown, i went out of Steakout to call her. After the short call, the bouncer insisted that i cannot go back in because it’s closing, like super oh my gosh right? Close right after countdown, hahahaha maximum. Thank goodness, i swindled my way through and insisted that i have unfinished drinks.

Sorry that i did not take any photo inside, simply because our camera wasn’t up to the job. However, our Indonesian friend Melissa (which Kenneth was trying to tackle) brought along her DSLR. Will get the photos from her asap and update, no worries mates.

Before heading to Yarra Valley, the group of us insisted that buying wines is forbidden because we have a problem going through the Singapore’s custom. So much of trying to resist the temptation, we ended up buying a total of eight bottles of wines. I bought a New Vintage Pinot Chardonnay from Rochford for someone special, Kenneth bought like three for himself, and the rest were all for sharing between us. For your information, Kit now has a fetish for Moscato and Bianco.

A point to note is that Barossa Valley produces great reds, while Yarra Valley is good with their whites.

Do keep a look out for the next entry, as the group of us travel along the ever so famous Great Ocean Road on Christmas Day!

St Patrick Church, one of the many tourist attractions in Melbourne is very near our apartment.

Since arriving in Australia, i didn’t get a chance to go to a Church because none of my friends are Christians you see, and drifting away is nearly inevitable. Since i was in the vicinity of a Church this time round, i requested for entry to pray. No photography was allowed inside the Church, or else i would be able to show you how Vatican-ish the interior is.

Anyhow, i felt really peaceful and rejuvenated as i kneel down and prayed in the heartwarming holy ground, sigh.

Along the way, we passed by the City Museum but my mates were not very appreciative of what a museum contains therefore it was a passed.

Say hello to this ever so enthusiastic busker that posed for us over at Federation Square, cheers mate!

Melbourne have many high rise building as compared to Adelaide, by the way this is just only a gist of the whole picture.

Above us is the Eureka Tower, it’s the tallest non commercial building, purely residential. If my facts are gathered accurately, it’s around 88 stories or even higher!

Kit mentioned about how beautiful the Melbourne Aquatic Center is, hence we decided to check it out with a fee of $17 AUD each.

Sadly, it wasn’t as good as i thought, though the fish bowl attraction was pretty neat. It was like, we were in a fish bowl, and the marine life were observing us! The variety of the fishes were pretty wide however they tend to hide behind the corals, so there wasn’t much to hype about.

The next stop will be Queen Victoria Market, which is only opened on Sundays. The place is so huge and messy, that it became scary for me. Basically, it reminded me of a local Pasar Malam, just that i cannot find my favourite Taiwan sausage and Remy Burger ):

All i could hear were people shouting out their catchy phrase to pull the customers.

Have some peach at the beach! What a beautyyyy (Courtesy of Steve Irwin isn’t it?)

For your information, i prefer Adelaide’s Central Market because it’s compact and moving around is much easier.

The day ended off with us planning for the road trip to Yarra Valley for the following day. Please do not worry, i wasn’t involved in the closure session you see above.

Thunderstorms ahead for the next following days in Melbourne, but it didn’t dampen our mood.

The mode of transport will be the Firefly Coach ($55 AUD), which will take around 10 hours via the Western Highway to reach Melbourne. We finally reached Southern Cross Station the following day at around half pass six in the morning. Hiked over to the nearest McDonald for breakfast before cabbing down to our pre-booked City Edge service apartment.

This is Melbourne City Central, and by the looks of it, Adelaide’s Rundle Mall just got owned, badly. Simply look at the decorations around and their sophisticated tram system. It takes around 15 minutes for a tram to come in Adelaide, but over at Melbourne, it seems almost lightning instant.

This is the Victoria Concert Hall if i’m not wrong, pretty pretty huh?

Here we are over at the Victoria State Library which is 4365465476 times bigger than Adelaide’s one i must comment.

They have loads of statues around the city to remember historic people, just like Adelaide. Yes, and i couldn’t help but to take a photo with one of the many around, /cheese.

Explored the city for the whole day before meeting up with Kenneth’s Indonesian friends for dinner at Chinatown. Yes, Melbourne’s Chinatown owned Adelaide’s once again. Thank goodness i’m half Indonesian so i was able to socialize pretty well with my counterparts, without one more drink or two more pills.

A night scene of the Flinders Street Station.

Melbourne do have a magnificent night scene you know? Due to the fact that we only have a lousy camera, therefore taking night scenes can be rather tough with the lack of ISO controls.

Melbourne have tons more fantastic chilling place, and here’s what just one store over at Crown Hotel offer!

The group of us ended up over at Melbourne Central Mall to chill our night away.

So far so good, my impression of Melbourne is pretty good, the life, the stores, the entertainments, the sceneries e certa. However, my heart’s also pointing towards the peaceful living Adelaide. I’m confused.

Deepest apologies people for not updating these few days because the apartment is charging us 1 gigabyte of internet usage for $35 AUD. Anyhow, i will be doing a series of entries for the Victoria trip that i went for during the Christmas Period, so stay tuned.