Melbourne XMas Trip

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This is a inpromptu trip. We book our flight and accomodation one week b4 the trip :P
Well….as expected most cheap flights ( jetstar & virgin) were sold out. Qantas is the cheapest now (ironically). And we are left with flight as early as 6am…
And we book a couple of backpacker hostels luckily one replied :D King St backpackers!!!
Well, we were greeted by rainy weather.

i so didn't expect this in summer. the wind was freezing and i have to buy another jacket. my hands crack instantly. once we reach the hostel we had a little nap b4 we start our journey.


Day 1
1.QV market
QV market is so much bigger, spacious, cleaner than Paddy's in Sydney.
had nasi bryani at the food court. visited the pet shop to see some cute little animals.





emo Jacq

the free city circle tram


2.Flinders Lane - the supposedly artsy place but didn't see much artsy stuff. have to walk carefully cuz slippery.....


3. The Shopping Place
Elizabeth St, GPO (general post office but now a shopping centre)
myers and various shopping centre



as light as feather.....:D

poor horsy, have to stand all day and night even in the rain

4.CHinatown at little bourke St
chinatown is a long stretch of organised shops and restaurant. unlike sydney where it's more scattered. chinatown in melbourne has less boutiques but more restaurant than sydney. had jap dinner at yoyogi

at the entrance of chinatown



L watching you change in one of the chinese boutiques

5. Melbourne Central
Met up with john's hk fren, Tony, went to melbourne central to had dessert at Chillipadi (a malaysian owned cafe). was at max brenner at first but they were too cheapskate to on their heater so move to Chillipadi instead.
ordered the blueberry something. it definitely look nicer than it taste........ the cream is not the refreshing fresh cream, make worse by the original sourness of the berries. could hardly finish it.


6. Docklands night view(equivalent of Darling harbour in sydney).
much more spacious, peaceful, less crowded than Darling.

the cutsy artsy sculptures



Day 2
1. Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) juz at the street behind our hostel.
2. Yumcha went to Chinatown the famous Shark Fin House to yumcha with Tony
3. QV went to Queen Victoria Shopping Centre while John and Tony go play snooker
4. Melbourne Cetral and many more that i couldn't name
5. National State Library.


there's this lady giving speech in front of the library. when we finished our shopping she's still there talking...........

we oso saw xmas carols


RMIT is juz around the corner with it's innovative aka ugly deco :P

6. Little Italy at Lygon St
met up with jacq's fren david and went to the little Italy at lygon st to have dinner.


the guy on the left is the benedict lookalike. the guy even sound like benedict...

after than went on to KOKOBLACK to have dessert. ordered the mint mousse something while jacq order the belgium choc mousse. couldn't finish it again. i realise that i have low tolerance for sweet stuff. but it's interesting to see the hot choc harden on top of the ice cream :D


7. Crown Casino
numerous pokey machine. and the gambling table. we saw someone lost 1100 bucks in juz 5 minutes. CRAZY!!!! i can feel the sinful aura....


me with a fake crown at crown city

8. Chadstone Shopping Centre
the shoppin centre was supposed to open till 6am the next day becuz of Xmas. well it's interesting to see pple stayin awake to shop. i can say i have never seen so many pple in a shoppin centre. it's a total frenzy and HAVOC. so damn crowded
i am so turn off by the crowd to shop. can't wait to get out of it. it's always nice to shop with few pple around and the stocks nicely displayed!!


Day 3
1. St Kilda Rd with nice sea view & luna Park


2. Chapel St (equivalent of paddington in sydney with designer hi class shopping but much more longer and more variety) - we only drove pass

3. Richmond (factory outlet) the guys bot their Country Road Wallet for 20 bucks
4. Smith St - sport stuff factory outlet. bot a pair or normal black FILA slippers (7.5)
*all these place are at the Southeastern area of Melbourne CT
5. meet up with AUnt Maria and family at Taylor's lake. my first time meeting them after hearing much stories about them from my parents.
had dinner, chit chat , play cards .etc


"fighting" with Sarah

6. hang out at Tony's place for a while. see him play his SWORD :D

Day 4
1. Great Ocean Road
it's a 8 hours to and fro journey
we stopped by the Lorne Beach, 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and took plenty of pictures
thanks Tony for driving!!! while i kept dozing off at the backseat.



very Wong Ka Wei feel....






me with 4 of the 12 apostles


one of the apostles is goin down soon..........

so many flies bugging!!!!


London Bridge


Loch Ard Gorge


Another magnificent view


very LOST


on our way back.....
2. Korean Restaurant
when back to CT, we then went to the Korean restaurant near QV marketrecommended by Tony to have seafood steamboat and korean pancake.





the residents at king's backpackers exchangin presents

3. Victoria Tower
after that went to Jacq's fren's place at Victoria Tower. the view of the CT from the balcony is splendid. to get a place lidat in sydney the rent can easily doubled (800-900)



thanks to this corolla and her owner who teman us for our melbourne trip :D

4. Stay up Late till next day
after that we stay up at entertainment centre to play pool, DDR, pokey machine..... simply CRAZY lol.... (John won 30 bucks !!!!)
and straight away took our flight back to sydney

Day 5
after napping till afternoon, we headed to CT for Boxing Day. again it's people everyday......
headache....manage to exchange present with Jacq finally.

in conclusion:
what's so good about melbourne
more organised, more peaceful, more spacious, have free city circle tram and free tourist bus, more shopping places and variety

what's so bad about melbourne
the drastic weather..... >_< 4 seasons in one day. well i only experienced one season - winter....