Melbourne 墨尔本 - Great Ocean Road Trip

Day 2 - Great Ocean Road 

Halo. There are lots and lots of day tours available in the market and I get confused which day tour to choose. After doing a lot of research online, I had chosen Melbourne Australia Day Tour that fitted my budget and itinerary the most. Overall, the day tour was good !!
Tips: Check the weather ahead to book for your tour, choose a sunny day ^ ^
Pros for signing up day tour

• Free pick up and drop off from your place of stay
• Have rest throughout the journey that takes 3 hours to the Great Ocean Road from city 
• Small group of people in a mini van, less noise, more mingle 
• 7 famous stops throughout the journey

Cons for signing up day tour 

• Spend only around 30 mins at each stop 
• Driver aka tour guide spend time taking nap when you go around the destination, less interaction on the spot. 
• Delay in schedule when pick up other tourists at farther places

Why Melbourne Australia Day Tour ?:
Sunset view at London Bridge and reasonable price at $AUS 85 (including delicious buffet style lunch in a restaurant)  

#1 Splits Point Light House

#2 Memorial Arch & Beautiful Beach

#3 Koalas and wildlife 

Although there was only 1 koala which was sleeping on top of the tree, we managed to have some interactions with colorful parrots and birds. The tour guide from other tour gave us some seeds to feed the parrots. I guess they pay more for their tour to have privilege to feed.  :P We were lucky. When you raise out your hands with seeds on it, the parrots just fly to you immediately, their craws are sharp and they flap their wings strongly. 

My awkward expression cause I am scared >.< 

#4 Illuka Restaurant at Apollo Bay. 

You must must must choose to have their fish and chips. This is the first fish and chips I had in Australia and the Best Fish & Chip I had in this Australia trip. Since I had a nice impression about fish and chips from my first meal, I ordered fish and chips most of the time later on in my trip but none of the others tasted as good as this. Maybe I am over- reacting but I really miss that and hope to eat it once more. The fish was fresh without any fishy smell and taste, breaded and deeply fried in front of you. Finger- licking good. Sadly, I didn't take any photo at that time. 

#5  Here comes the most famous location of the day: 12 Apostles

I love the breeze, the sun, the waves and of course the limestone stacks. But, one word to describe this place : Over-crowded. It was the holiday season, people from all around the world were there to see the beautiful limestone stacks.  No kidding, a lot of people.  Although there are only 8 Apostles left, I am amazed with the beauty of nature. It took me sometime to count the Apostles. 

**** I video recorded ! Must watch ~

# 6 Loch Ard Gorge
Less crowd with a beautiful love story about the Loch Ard Gorge.

Tom & Eva

# 7 London Bridge

I love the sunset so much and I talked with dar all the way back to Malaysia Hall.

Hope you enjoy all these photos taken by us ^ ^ 

Don't miss out Melbourne - Day 1 and stay tune!
Tataz.

Melbourne墨尔本 - Hoiser Lane & Night View

Halo everyone! I know, I know I didn't blog since July. When things started to pile up, I was lazy to blog; when I felt like blogging, my laptop broke down.. My laptop was in ICU for 2 weeks and it cost $170 USD for screen replacement ONLY. I know it's pricey, but what to do I love my laptop and it still serves me well. So, finally, I have a very nice laptop screen :) I feel so much comfortable using my laptop to blog. "House Cleaning" checked!

Wohoo~ I am so excited to share with you my Australia Trip during July. I seriously left my heart behind at all those lovely places. The memories are vividly on my mind. Maybe some of you might visit Australia one day and hope all these great stuffs helps you along the way.

Melbourne City 

Transportation: Train, Tram, the easiest way is to walk and enjoy the city.

Accommodation: 

Malaysia Hall, the BEST place to stay if you are on a budget trip ($AUS 6/ night) .

Great spacious bedroom with two twin size beds, heater provided ( no worries on winter days) and nice bathroom. It basically looks like a classy hotel room which I had never think of.

http://www.msda.org.au/malaysia-hall/about-malaysia-hall-melbourne/malaysia-hall-melbourne/

Weather: 

It was Winter and the weather was around 3 -15 degree Celsius. Sunny days throughout the week. 

Food:  

Budget food: You can find Sushi Rolls everywhere. Costs ~$AUS2.50/ each (with a variety of choices) I love "Tower Sushi" at the Flinders Street Station which I passed by almost every morning. They are freshly made and I love the vegetable version which has pickle vegetables in it.

Throughout the trip, special thanks to my photographer (bro): Kai Zhe Yeu 

Without him, I won't have all these memories kept.

Day 1 
1# Hoiser Lane.

The lane with all the colorful graffiti.

#2 Yara River 

Romantic walk along the river at night and enjoy the great night scenery of Melbourne City. We spend about 1 hour strolling in the cold winter night. syok !

Art of Museum Melbourne

Federation Square

Flinders Street Station 

I slept at 8:00 pm on the first day- relaxed relaxed relaxed... Too tired after the flight... 

Stay tune. More to come ! 

Penang Hill Trip

Penang Hill is definitely a must visit place when you have friends from other places. The last time I went was in the year 2011. After 2 years, it is very disappointing that there are still insufficient parking lots even in weekdays. We park in the residence area which I am sure the residence will be unhappy. Hope this matter will be resolved quickly as I can't imagine the traffic problem during weekends. However, the train is now in great condition with  air conditioned and clean. We managed to grab the first cabin of the train and enjoy the great scenery. The weather is good too with some breeze.
P.S. The train ticket for student is only RM4.

The delicious kacang putih with onion and curry powder! Sedap ~

I even try this!! 

Once, I used to talk about henna during public speaking class. So, I decided to give it a try although it was quite $$ = RM 15 You might never know about henna. Here's a brief explanation form Wikipedia: Henna is a flowering plant, also refers to the dye prepared from the plant, used to dye skin, hair, fingernails. There are lots of design for you to choose from. I choose to have butterfly and flowers. The henna is good in quality and can be there for 3 weeks. After 5 minutes, with no pain, I got my first body art henna tattoo!!

Visit Penang Hill, You will love it. 

Tataz. 

Victoria Rossa English Tea Room

Halo. Victoria Rossa: a great place to go with a girl friend of yours for an English afternoon tea. The tea room has flowery walls and white decoration items, spacious and contains some private rooms that are suitable for bigger gathering.  The space makes you feel more comfortable chit chatting with your friend and spend more time over there. 

We had a pot of tea (RM12) from the Victorian English Tea Collection (I can't recall what tea we had; omg, I really have poor memory) and a blueberry scone. The tea is special and I like the flavor of it, it tastes minty (Really minty) and has quite a number of different flower teas in combination with it. We notice that the other teas have cinnamon bark which I personally dislike strong flavor of cinnamon. (If you like to order the same pot of tea like what we had, you might like to show the picture of the tea pot I captured below.) I think that different teas come with different colors of tea pots. The scone tasted OK, which made me a bit disappointed as it was too brittle when you cut it. You might like to try other desserts and food items. They looks good !

People there are nice and with a smile. The highlight of The Tea Room is it prepares a small little basket for you to put on your belongings, a very nice space for your handbag. 

So, Victoria Rossa English Tea Room is your next stop for a lovely afternoon time. 

No.33, Jalan Irrawaddi, 10050 Penang, Malaysia

Bussiness Hour : 11am - 10pm

( Tuesday Closed )

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Victoria-Rossa-English-Tea-Room-Penang/286851771436898

Do forgive my tan skin color :(

Perhentian Island

Yippy! My family and I traveled balik kampung  :) I am grateful to meet my grandparents at Bedal Villa, Kampung Bedal, Krai, Kelantan.  Besides spending time at kampung, we decided to go to the beach. It has been quite a long time since the last family vacation at Cameron Highland in 2011. Woo~ time really flies fast. This makes me even enjoy the family time! We departed early in the morning and arrived at Pulau Perhentian Jeti (Kuala Besut, Terengganu) after one and half hour.
P.S. writing in a way of primary school essay hehe.

Travel tips:

Boat ticket charge is fixed (RM70/ person), you can choose from any company you like and they will then send you to the resort that you had booked
Marine park fee is fixed too. (RM5/ person)

We stayed at Flora Bay Resort Family Room (RM 185- CHEAP CHEAP and no any extra charge/ room)- spacious, 2 queen beds with a balcony (good to have balcony to hang wet clothes)
Snorkeling trip at 5 points around perhentian island (RM45 including life jacket, snorkelling equipment)
In front of our chalet, there is a long sandy beach :)
Canoe trip for an hour (RM15/ boat (3 people in a boat, include life jacket) )
Flora Bay foods are good with reasonable price compared to taxi point but their drinks are expensive (Rmb to bring your own drinks). I think that Malay food is the safest, best choice to order: nasi goreng kampung (RM 8) tastes good.
So not necessary to follow a package, if you like to be free and easy ~ enjoy the beach during the afternoon all  by yourself cause many people are joining package and go out for snorkeling at that time.

Not to forget, when you are on the way back using Alternatives to Kota Bahru, you will spot a lot of stalls selling keropok lekor. you definitely need to give them a try. Piala Keropok lekor is the one we had and they really taste good. Keropok lekor is made of fish and molded into a long dough.

Now enjoy our photos!
Photo credits : Bro Kai Zhe Yeu

I really love all the photos!!

Simple, nice, relaxing, love, family :)
Tataz.