Round-Up Family's Trip To Melbourne

The final post on our Melbourne trip has finally come to a close... 

Our eight days tour started on the 6th February and ended on the 14th February, 2014, coinciding with Chap Goh Mei and Valentine's Day.  It took me more than half a month to finish posting our itinerary.  Thank you for bearing with me... putting up the pictures and trying to recall the name of the places need a lot of effort.. (for my age)... 

Some have asked me how much was spent on this trip... I have estimated and each person for a trip like this cost around RM4000 ($1300) and that includes some shopping as well too... :)  Depending on what each wants to buy... as for us, we didn't buy any expensive stuff, we were more into sightseeing and of course, food! 

 Here is round-up pictures taken from my sons' handphones.....

 Outside the Greek restaurant on our first day....

The food pictures were a bit blur so those had to be excluded...

 

Victoria Market on second day....

 

Along the Swanston Street....

 Findler's Station... an icon in Melbourne

In front of RMIT University, one of the renowned universities in Melbourne...

 

A cooling evening walk along Yarra River...

Our funny smiles....

 Feeling carefree and relaxed....

In front of the Sealife Aquarium...

 The Biggest Purse we ever encountered.... in front of GPO...

 At the Sovereign Hill in Ballarat...

 Watching seagulls fly while waiting for the penguins....

 At Great Oceans...

 One of the spectacular oceans ....

 Sibling's selfie....

Our tour bus....

 

Driver cum tour guide....

Brother using sister as a "tripod"... 

Lastly and not least...

Our $25 picture as a token to Sealife Aquarium...

End of Trip!

Now back to "slaving" and saving for our next trip....

er... no plans yet actually.... any suggestions?

Our City Edge On Elizabeth Apartment In Melbourne

Many of my friends asked me where we stayed during our eight days trip in Melbourne.   Before coming over, I've asked a blogger friend about the accommodation and which one she would recommend and she was so kind enough to find out for me.  Her recommendation was City Edge at A'Beckett Street and without much ado, we just booked it online...

The City Edge is just on the right.... directly opposite the Book Sale sign....

There is one queen size bed....

and another sofa-bed at the living hall...

The pantry is just two steps away from the sofa bed.... LOL....

The corridor where we put our luggage....

Initially we were given this apartment but the air conditioner was not working very well...

The heat outside was really terrible and we went down to the reception to request for another room...

The lady-in-charge was very friendly actually, 

she took the trouble to let me see another two more rooms 

before we finally settled for the third one.....

At least the room was not facing the evening sun as the other two rooms....

And this room was a bit larger than the other two..... 

We could chuck our big luggage inside here...

So... this has become one room apartment during our 7 nights stay here in Melbourne...

We can do our cooking... (dish washer provided)

We can do our own laundry (washing machine and dryer too)

Ironing..... stand fan... heater... hair dryer...

4 sets of plates, cups, glasses, bowls, pans, pots...

What else did I miss?

Oh, the rates..... 

For our 7 nights, it cost around $1100.00

I think the rates vary depending on peak and non peak season...

So that is about it....

Happy Staying!!

Our Orders From Afghanistan, Spanish And Australia

My Final post on the Food Festival in the Victoria Market on Wednesday night....

The atmosphere at the market was "enhanced" by the cheerful songs and music by a group band...

It was indeed a merry evening filled with music-licous folk songs in the air... .

Ok, how to find four seats in this crowd.... hmmmm.......

Somehow we managed to... and these were what my boys brought back to our table....

Mexican rice with oysters... or is it Spanish rice?  

Both are the same, I guess... LOL....

Afghanistan Food.... chunks of chicken meat with naan....

Brazilian food.... don't ask me what it is.... I just ate what was on the table.... 

But I am amazed by this giant burger.... 

..... and what burger is this?

They told me it is Crocodile Tail Burger!

Meat from the crocodile tail?  Is it just a name or what... I really don't know...

Took a few bites of it... and I am full!!

Well, these were the food we ordered...

What do I think of these food? 

Well, not that they are not nice, it is always interesting to try out new food... 

But overall, I still MISS Malaysian food whenever I am away.... 

So that sums up my opinion in a way... :)

Taste Of International Food Festival In Victoria Market

Too many stalls to choose from, really this looks like an International Food Festival to me!  Imagine having all these food stalls every Wednesday evening in Victoria Market, if given an opportunity, it would take me many weeks to partake all the food here.

How about Spain food?

Southern Indian food...

I guess we could skip these since we have lots of Indian food in Malaysia...

France....

Polish Dumplings...

Looks like our "shanghai dumplings"...

Sorry, no pictures of the dumplings...

I forgot what this is but it certainly reminds me of our own local Satay!

Now what is this?  Sorry... I couldn't recall....

Must be something milky and cheesy....

ahaaa... I found Malaysian food stall here... but no, we didn't buy any...

Now where is this from.....

Choosing the food may be difficult, finding a place to sit is more difficult!

That is a real problem..... 

So what's next?? "What to eat...where to sit?"

Never mind, take a picture first... decide later!

Part of the stalls we passed by and still not deciding what to take.... really... too many choices make decisions very difficult...  There are a few rows of food stalls, we couldn't get to finish walking all of them.  Some stalls have long queues... I guess the food must be nicer if the queues are longer, right?