I spent my Chinese New Year 2013 in Melbourne with my boyfriend and his family. It was definitely an awesome one! Seen new, feel new, touched new and experienced new.
Love the weather especially, although daytime could sometime be as as hot as Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, I look forward to the late afternoon, close to evening time when the weather is cool enough for me to breathe deeply in *closing my eye* and enjoy the cool and cozy breeze.
Thanks to Clifford's eldest brother, Colin and his wife, YeLing, who have provided us hospitality and transportation all this time in Melbourne.
Driving down to the city
Just one of the bus stops on the street, and a broken glass.
Read your bible! Good way to remind :)
Two Monks Cafe at 350 Sydney Road *copy from the board*
Signature Brew in a shopping mart
Had our lunch at Subway, which I had quite a few times in Singapore. Taste the same lol.
This place sells a lot of discount items, including branded stuff and domestic household items.
Fish and butchery area, a lot of people speak Cantonese, they make the whole atmosphere feels like a Hong Kong market haha.
Fruits and vegetables on the rack for sell
Sweet cherry, my first time trying them. My first impression for this berry is, sour, medicine taste, and I'm wrong (probably because of the red berry which we always can see on top of birthday cake lol). They actually taste very sweet, just like apple plum.
Day Day Cooked Food.
Nut Shack or snack? o.O
Home cook dinner, bean curd with tomato seasoned vege soup, can I say this is a typical Chinese Asian soup? Taste awesome ok.
Just a random building from the street, it makes me feel like I'm in Melbourne, which duh of course I am in Melbourne. Take me as cow in the city la lol!
Hong Mart the Asian grocery
Dim Sum for brunch at a Chinese restaurant.
We ordered Chinese fried mochi, fried yam, Siu Mai
Stir fry Chee Cheong Fun (Rice Vermicelli roll) with onion spring, I still prefer over the steam type with soy sauce.
Fish eggs Siu Mai.
Chicken Legs or feet?
Buying fish for dinner that night for Chinese New Year Eve dinner.
Colonial Fresh Markets
Abalones for each of us *smiling*
Tada! Home cook dinner for CNY Eve. Very blessed and thankful for every dishes on the table, for the talented chefs (ok I'm not one of them if you are wondering).
Right after dinner that night, we went to Melbourne China Town for a walk, since its related to Chinese New Year, enhance enhance the environment lo.
As expected, on that cold night, China Town was packed with people, human and mortals.
They have this Chinese New Year festival that night, people including couples, families, friends, tourists (like us) almost made the walking pathway blocked.
Went to Church the next morning (Sunday)
They have both Chinese and English session, we went for the Chinese session. The one who delivers the speech spoke in Cantonese and there's a translator who translates into Mandarin. Eh, should be the other way round. I have forgotten, but I remember I listened to the Mandarin one teehee.
Chadstone Corner of Melbourne
I don't know if I'm the only one but this reminds me of Marina Shopping Mall, the design of the ceiling especially.
Lord of the
Ring Fries, I bet they get the name from the movie I know I knew.
Yam Milk Tea from Bubble Cup. As an experienced milk tea drinker, I would rate this AWESOME! Everything is awesome for me :]
Joyce had her green tea milk tea from Bubble Cup too.
Beautiful crystal ball on the ceiling, couldn't resist to take a snap of it.
Outside of Chadstone Corner, mushrooms statue aww.
Super duper sweet rock melon ohh emm gee! I would have stuff them all in for my 3 meals.
Trying to act like feeling cozy in a cold winter, if you notice my hand gesture. FAILED. By the way, the top is from Esprit which I bought in Singapore, yes they sell seasonal garments too!
Erm, when I saw this picture, my thought popped right up "Is this Chinatown? How bout the Chinatown I talked about just now? Holy crappy, I think I shared the wrong info" Still, I'm not sure if this is china town, but the possibility is bigger than the previous one. So let's forget the China Town I talked about just now ah *swipe hand in front of your face* "Forget...forget....
A snap of street down the China Town
Public cubical toilet, yeah I know I know it's just a toilet, but I never seen one before, so.. *kacha* lo.
Entrance to China Town
Loving the night street view of Melbourne
We also went to pick berries! Too bad it's not the harvest season (which is around October), so we are told that there may not be as many ripen one as in harvest period.
Sunny morning to start with that day.
This is field which we were about to step on for the pick.
Can hardly see big and red strawberries :( But guess what, I still manage to pick plenty of them :)
Black berries especially! I just picked and eat them straight away, which I then realised that there's actually quite a lot of tiny bugs on them :S *the bugs eat fruit, I eat bugs, ma equal to I eat fruit* yes! self-convincing success
Cute looking strawberry
Found this star-shaped strawberry, didn't pick it nor eat it.
On the way picking berries, simply delicious just by looking at them.
Me and Clifford, happily holding our collection on hand, before walking back to the main reception.
We didn't manage to eat all them, there are around 7 containers of berries altogether. In fact, we blend them with milk and make into berry milkshake, some with yogurt. I miss drinking all these healthy drinks everyday. They contain anti-oxidant you know?
Grape field, where free tasting of wine is available!
We went to zoo too.
Lovely child by the bench while at the bird show.
Instructor feeding the bird. These birds on show are very clever and smart. They would fly to anywhere the instructor ask them to. One of which can talk too, the parrot yes. Really enjoyed the show :)
Ahh yes, it's the koala, I would kill myself if I didn't get to see the featured animal (which is koala and kangaroo) of Australia lol. I dare to say this because I saw them already ma.
150 years old tree, what? The picture very artistic? I know right, hohoho. *thick face*
Didn't get to see an open-eyed owl :( They sleep during the day and awake during the night time. I really salute the way they sleep (or rest?), like a boss.
Cute bat rubbing his eye (I assume?), this kind of bat feeds on
blood fruit only. Which reminds me of a movie call "Contagious", the human are trying to find the origin of the source of the outspread of virus, which in the end is this bat (not particular this bat, but bat yeah).
Had lunch at Lunch box Kimchi, a Korean restaurant by the street.
Simply nice :)
The shower of sun rays through the opening of the clouds (Good caption? :D) Loving the view of sunrise.
On the way to pick Pipis by the beach (a type of clam) Just know that, in order to pick clams on the beach, you have to buy a license to do so. No there is no lessons to be attended to get the license, you have to buy it. And one person is limited to a certain weight of picking these clams. I guess this is how Melbourne protect their living things on the ground, and to avoid extinction.
*Being drawn into the scenery*
That's me walking along the seashore, I know right, it looks "beachy" lol! And see the bumps of sand? Those are created by us, digging for pipis.
Awesome, amazing, breath-taking, natural, worldly, unbelievable, gorgeous, greenish, bluish, speechless, view. (Just to make sure people on google search can find this, who wouldn't want to share this amazing creation of God? :))
I hope this is not considered as vandalism lol.
Our successful collection of the pipis of the day! Now you see a live pipis in sea water.
Now you see
dead cooked pipis on the plate, yummy. I heard they have lower cholesterol than many of the other seafood. (Alasan to eat more)
Stop by chocolate factory on the way back home.
100% Chocolate made penguins and even the sand! They even give name for each penguin aww :)
Pyramid Rock of South Coast, super strong wind that could blow someone lighter than me, away. (Aha no I'm not gonna tell you how heavy I weight :P)
On top of the mountain, Clifford and his dad are lying on the rock because of the super strong wind that could possibly blow away someone lighter than them, away. (Aha, no I'm not the camera man :P) So yeah, they have to lie down to reduce the wind pressure on them.
Walking down the wooden staircase, sometime (if you are lucky) you can see living abalones by the rocks.
The yellow patches on the shore are normally what the abalones feed on (if I am not mistaken, better put a claim lol)
Rocks by the shore
Guess what are the white dots? They are all tiny snails! I have to admit that I killed some of them (accidentally stepped on them) as there are too many of them on the ground.
Close up look for the yellow thingy (don't know what is the name) I stepped on them too lol, at first it feels tickling and tingling, the more you step on, the more you feel like you are stepping on a slimy bubbly carpet.
We also stop by the area where penguins can be seen.
There you go, penguin resting in a man-made wooden box. The entrance is built facing towards the sea (ie. the sun), so that the penguins will know when to leave home for food and go home before the sun sets.
Sadly, I didn't get to see penguin that day, because I leave before sun sets.
Big rocks by the beach, located in one of the biggest park.
Breath-taking scenery, can I just live here?
Sticking-out leafless branches out of the bushes
Oh yes, I must story about this. In this picture, I was standing on a beach sand call, Squeeky beach. Each step of walk u took on the sand, they will "squeek". So if you run or just jump on the spot, they will "squeek squeek squeek squeek squeek" hahaha, it just simply made my day haha.
Sunset, the eye of the sky.
Sunset by the jetty port while crossing a bridge, was a tired day that day, but I can say it was a definitely wonderful day.
Kindly ignore my weird impolite standing posture (still wanna 'nge nge' look at the camera lol?!), I'm just too nervous feeding the kangaroos for the first time lol!
Feeding them aren't as spooky as you think (or maybe just me?), they eat the food on your hand gently, can say in a very polite way. Notice the middle kangaroo in the picture? She is carrying a baby kangaroo in her pouch aww :)
Ok there is this story about this particular kangaroo, he/she is following us almost the whole journey in the park area. I bet he/she is begging for the food on my hand, how to beg? By biting my bag =.= As long as he/she didn't jump and kick like the kangaroo 'Muay Thai' or whatsoever boxing style can already.
Koala in the picture: "I've wonder what's the life it would be if I wasn't a koala..."
Do you know that Koala actually slow moving all the time as they are low in nutrient and because of that they have to conserve energy. Which explains they sleep a lot throughout the year, new perspective of view on koala? They are not lazy, they fight too!
This parrot (I suppose) is really friendly and socialised. It was resting on the top of branch when I arrived, I then made some imitating sound sound trying to get its attention. Then the parrot really climbs down toward my direction using its beak :D More over, greet me with "Hello" too aww...
Eventually later I found out that this parrot has a plan on prison breaking, I was stunned. You should tattoo a prison map on you too smarty.
Can I call this 'angry bird' instead of its real name, since I don't know its real name lol.
Tasmanian devil, cute looking "bear?". They are being called devil because of their scary sound they have, this is for the purpose of self protection. God always has His very own unique way of creating :)
The 3 little emus, approaching me for the food on my hand *gulps* Don't dare to feed them on hand because when I saw the way they eat on ground, they also eat off the sand. Imagine the sand as my hand, you know how I feel lol.
Perfectly bandaged sleeping bat. Actually I first know how a vampire sleeps (which is in this way), then how a bat actually sleeps. Guess which cartoon? :)
Franklin Point, some point in the middle of the hill.
Endless view across the ocean and the city.
Stop by one of the restaurant nearby for the famous fish and chips.
Custard cream cake
Famous fish and chips
On the way to the famous rock of the 12 apostles
This is one of the famous, probably one of the most visited area in Melbourne. You can actually google search for "12 Apostle Australia", 12 limestone stacks off the shore. And then you will see a lot of pictures which have the EXACTLY same angled picture as mine.
View of other 'apostles' stones.
It's been told that there's actually a sunken ship under this sea? O.O
Baskin Robbins ice-cream in Melbourne! Bought them using deal coupons, awesomeness overdose!
Home cook dinner, fried noodle with pipis :P
Went to this Vietnamese restaurant for its famous beef noodle
Tada! The soup is soothing enough to warm your tummy, especially when it's very hungry. Couldn't have any other better beef noodle elsewhere, seriously.
Avocado milkshake, super thick! They put the real 'ho liao' to make this milkshake perfect, there are some where they put either more ice or milk than avocado (hmm it is indeed normal when ice and milk are more than avocado, but what I'm trying to say it, the proportions are really a lot a lot a lot more than the avocado itself, okimdoneexplaining)
Vietnamese market here sells cheaper fruits and vegetables, you can see people scream all the 'lelong' deals. This second they can sell a bag of apples for US$4, next second they sell it for US$2, lol.
Beautiful building structure
If I'm not mistaken, this is the Victorian Market. Too bad when we reached there, around 2 in the afternoon, most of the stalls are closed. Some still open, selling super cheap fruits just to clear them up, guess we are lucky? Haha
Random shot of a walkway by the street, loving the beautiful sculpture. I know it may looks normal for you, but you know, take me as a cow in the city.
That's basically how I spent my trip in Melbourne. There's actually 700+ pictures, you can see all of them in my
facebook albums (Melbourne trip part 1 and 2). Quite impressed by the picture quality taken by camera Nikon (not advertising ah), thanks to Clifford's dad who gives me a chance to actually be a real photographer. As you know I normally use the digital camera (Panasonic Lumix TZ7) which I bought in year 2009, time to change I guess? :P TeeHee!
Thanks for reading, have a nice day ahead!
One more hour to tomorrow, so have a nice day ahead ahead!
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1 Cicles!:
i believe the 'angry bird' is a King Fisher =)
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