Melbourne - Philip Island (6 July)

--Philip Island--

Philip Island is located about 140km away from Melbourne. Our main objective is to see the world smallest penguin. Since penguin will only come out when the day turn to night, we visited another 2 places - Maru Fauna Park and Nobbies Centre, before we go to penguin centre.

Maru Fauna Park is a small zoo. Again, you can see the australia animal such as kangaroo and coala.

At Nobbies Centre, you can see sealers if you are lucky enough. We were not lucky that day. As such, we just enjoy the sea sight + shaking when the freezy wind blow at our face. According to the tour guide, the place that we stand at is just 3000km away from Antarctica. The daily maximum temparature on July is 13.4'C. Imagine how so cold is it...

At 5.10pm, we headed to Penguin Centre. The world smallest penguin only can be found at Australia. The penguin's weight is only 1kg and its height is about 33cm. We are not allowed to use camera. This is because the flash of camera will cause penguin blind. So, we just sitting on beach, facing to the sea, and shaking about half an hour to see the little cute penguins walking back to their nest. The penguins are really really small and they are really really cute.

Melbourne - Great Ocean Road

There's two places you need to visit when going to Melbourne: Great Ocean Road and Philip Island. You can go to both place by day trip booking through nearest tour agency. HW brought us to a chinese travel agency for the day trip. It's cheaper compare to online booking (A$ 49 for Great Ocean Road; A$ 67 for Philip Island)

--Great Ocean Road--

We had been stopped at many visit points such as Grampians National Park, 12 Apostles, Loch Ard George, London Arch (London Bridge), and Bell Beach. Along the trip, you will see beaches and seas. This is very nice for natural lovers. I heard a gang of teenagers complaints along the trip , " all stopping points also beaches and seas, is there any difference???" For those who are not natural lovers, you better think twice before join the trip. Otherwise, you will feel wasted. But for me, I really feel it worth because it really nice.

Bell Beach is famous for surfing activities. Even though is winter, we can still see surfers at the beach. Wondering do they freeze after surf???

The Twelve Apostles are a collection of natural limestone stacks standing just off shore in the Port Campbell National Park, on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Currently, there are only 7 apostles left because others have fallen due to the waves continually erode their bases. If you want see clearer, you can take helicopter ride (fees applied depends on the minutes of ride)

Loch Ard George is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on 1 June 1878 approaching the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne. It is a visible example of the process of erosion in action.

London Arch aka London Bridge is another natural arch in the Port Campbell National Park. Previously, it is famous for couples as dating place. According to the tour guide, the arch closest to the shoreline collapsed and there was a couple stranded on the outer part and they been rescued. It's a song you can sing when you go there. It's a simple & nice song that children also know to sing... "London Bridge is falling down, falling down...." =)

lazy piggy

opppsss...sorry again for uploading part of australia trip only since i'm busy finding job and also be piggy again at home =p

For my dearest friends, this my newest updates - I'll be working at S'pore as business development executive (starting tomorrow, 1 aug). Here I want to thanks to those who give me advices when I'm confusing in taking which job offers. Now, I'm using s'pore number. If you want to save money, we can keep in touch through ym/msn/my blog haha =) Currently, Joanne & SiewYeng are working at s'pore. So, for those who work at s'pore also please let me know oo so we can date for yamcha when free haha =p

Tomorrow is 1 August, my first working day. I really miss lot about my U life...sob sob...Anyway, for all my friends, good luck for future undertakings. C u all at next next week convo =)

Australia Trip (Day 1&2)

Day 1&2 – 2 & 3 July 2008 (Wed & Thurs)

Today me & JiewAiel gonna fly to Australia from Singapore Changi Airport. Our flight is at 6pm and we had to check in at 4pm. Before depart to Changi Airport, we rush to Jurong East to buy sport shoe (me) and jacket (JA) as friend who studied in Melbourne advised us to bring more jackets as this week is getting cooler. We finished our stuff at 3pm. It’s a bit late as we need to check in at 4pm. Thus, we took taxi to airport. It cost us about S$22 from Jurong East to airport.

This is my 1^st time to Australia. It’s also my 1^st time to travel alone without family or tour agency. Thus, I’m very excited but also very scare that we failed pass through Australia immigration since many told us that we are young and immigration officer might misunderstood we go there for work illegally instead of travelling. JA scared till bought all brand new toiletries travelling kit, even in foreign brand. According to her friend, it’s better to avoid bring in things which “made in Thailand” or “made in Malaysia” as it might be failed to pass through Australia immigration (actually the brand won’t make u failed through immigration) = =” . There are so many sincere advices from friends & families since we are 1^st time travel to Australia.

There are 4 terminals at Changi Airport and ours is at budget terminal. After check in, we ate while waiting to depart. The food in airport is not so expensive as we thought, the price is almost same as other place. We ordered vanilla milk shake, coffee, and Foccacia ham sandwiches. It’s about S$8.00.

Finally, we are in Tiger Airline flight. We will be flying to Darwin and then proceed to Melbourne. In the flight, me and JA read Melbourne & Gold Coast book to get know more about its interesting places and nice foods. At 10.30pm (Malaysia time), we reached Darwin. We filled up immigration form and start going through the “test” of immigration department. The immigration asked us few question such as occupation, reason of coming to Australia, and length of stay. Surprisingly, we passed easily, even our luggage never been opened for checking. We still saw people pass through easily too although they brought in medicines and foods. It’s really not hard as told by friends and families. JA said maybe it’s 12am (Australia time), the officers are sleepy and that’s why we passed through easily. A nice explanation huh ???

After Darwin, we fly again to Melbourne at 2am. Finally, we reached safely at Melbourne airport. While inside plane, I thought it won’t be so cold thus we just simply wear a jacket. When we step out from plane, the cool wind kept blow towards our face. JA was cold until her teeth and leg shaking. It’s really freeze and cold. We rushed to toilet for add on more jackets. I wore up to 3 jackets and it made me look fatter =p

We took skybus to Southern Cross, Melbourne City. Since we didn’t know how to go to HanWah’s house which located at Lygon St, I approached an officer at tourist information counter. He gave a map and asked us to take no.75 tram and changed to another tram at xxx st (I forget the name). We followed his direction, AND we lost … During finding correct way went to friend’s house, there are 3 nice people guided us the way. Thanks to them and finally we reached after 1 hour ++ (the actual distance is only 15 mins)

At night, HW brought us for dinner and walk along Melbourne City. We walked from his house till Melbourne City. It took us about 1/2 hour and surprisingly we didn't feel tired of walking. Maybe it's because of the cold weather. (If asked me to walk in Malaysia, especially KL for half hour, I rather spent money for transport =p) There are many Italian restaurant along the way. We took dinner at a Italian pizza restaurant as all the pizzas are half priced on Thursday. The pizzas are different with PizzaHut's pizzas. It more crispy and nicer =p After pizza, we continued walked and visit chinatown & melbourne central. Along the way back, we stop while for eating ice-cream, cheese cake & coffee. Overall, we ate 3 times for the night XD

...

After back from Australia on last Tuesday, maybe sat non-stop flight (8 hours) and also took 5 times flight in 2 weeks, I repeated 3 steps (eat, sleep, watch movie) continuously for 4 days. Finally, my battery fully charged and now have mood to edit my 1500 photos & update my blog. I'm too piggy XD Sorry for waiting =p

Erm...I tried to recall back memories about what had done at Australia. I'll be posting up words & photos according to the days. As such, the total of the days will be 12 days (hope you all won't bored by the long words =p) . I'll try to finish upload all as soon as possible.

Hope you all like it =)

Gold Coast

This my 2nd time online at Australia but this time is at my hotel's internet cafe at Gold Coast. Today is my 3rd day at Gold Coast.

I'm really happy (can say damn "syiok") when stepped in hotel apartment room. 1st is it's very big (1 king size bed & 2 single bed), fully equip kitchen (microwave, oven, bread toast, steamboat poat, many many more), a clean bathroom...and the staffs are very friendly, even the price is quite cheap !! It's A$510 for 7 nights. (Melaka st.meridian apartment hotel also cost RM200++ per night) The apartment can in max 4 people. Imagine if you with another 3/4 friends coming for holidays..It only costs you about A$100-130 for 7 nights PLUS if you buy AirAsia promotion ticket (free ticket frm m'sia to gold coast) which costs about RM 600 - 700 for return trip. Total of flight + accomodation is about RM1000, and you can go to Australia dy....

Australia is a nice place, especially Melbourne (for me, it's a city of art) ... The lifestyle here is quite relax. If you like art and want see Australia buildings + culture, it's nice to go Melbourne. In other way, if you like theme park / shopping, Gold Coast is a nice place for you. Anyway, this is my suggestion =)

Since MJ want see some Australia pictures, just upload some here... I'll try edit and upload the pictures asap after i back from Australia since there are 1000++ pictures (though just 8th day here) >.<

My dear family & frenz ... Miss you guys =)

melbourne state library

flinders station , melbourne
mt. buller (snow hill) in melbourne
melbourne city

surfer paradise, gold coast

our gold coast apartment hotel for 7 nights stay ... very like it =)
sea world, gold coast

Melbourne

Hihi everyone...Currently, I'm at Melbourne University's library online...

I'm glad that we pass through Australia immigration, not bad and serious as many friends' said that it's hard to go through immigration since we are young and people might misunderstood that we go to Australia to work illegally.

Melbourne is a nice place. Now is winter time thus it's really really cold and I had to wear up to 3 jacket =p Melbourne people are nice and friendly too. Yesterday was the 1st day to Melbourne, we had lost during way to friend's house. Luckily, there are 3 kind Australia people guided us along the way. Thanks to them =)

Besides the scenery and people, there are different types of foods in Melbourne such as Chinese cuisine, malay, italy, greek, vietnam, etc... We ate 3 times in 2 hours for trying different foods (very full >.<) such as Italy pizza, mocha, cheese cake, and 3 flavor ice-cream (an unique experience for eating ice-cream during winter time =p)

I'll stay at Melbourne for 5 days and fly to Gold coast & brisbane for 7 days... Will upload the photos soon.... =)