Australian Trip

I just got back earlier this week from a 12-day holiday in Australia. Actually it was a 6-day tour with my family but I extended it for another 6 days to chill (literally; on one particular Sunday) in Melbourne with my aunt and cousins. I was really looking forward to this holiday after getting stranded in the jungle for 2 months. I informed my boss about my holidays plans in July, 3 months before the holiday so that I wont be sent somewhere during this period.

So, my family and I left Malaysia on the night of 24th October for Sydney, Australia. When we landed, they brought us straight to the Taronga Zoo to see some of the local and not so local animals.

How can you not have a picture of a koala when you write about Australia?


That's his tail ok. Don't get overly excited.


This is the Tasmanian Devil having his siesta and no he doesn't spin to move around.

After the zoo, we went to a shopping centre (cant recall the name) to have our first meal in Australia, but to my dismay, we had Thai food for lunch. The food didn't taste Thai at all. The tomyam wasn't spicy and the rest of the dishes tasted more like Chinese rather than Thai. This meal would set the tone for the rest of the meals that we're gonna have during the tour.

Next, we were brought to the world famous Sydney Opera House. From there, we got on a cruise to go around the bay of Sydney.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.


The Sydney Opera House.


I like this picture a lot because it shows the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the Australian flag.


A photo of the family sitting in Mrs MacQuarie's Chair.

Later that night, we were brought to the Sydney Aquarium to see the sea animals that can be found in the waters of Australia. The night tours were actually optional tours that we have to pay extra to go on. Since we're already there, we might as well make full use of our time in Sydney and see as many things as possible, right?

The Sydney Aquarium.


I dont know what fish is this but it surely is one hell of a weird looking fish.

The next day, we were taken to the Blue Mountains to see the blue mountains of course. The name Blue Mountains derives from the blueish tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance, which is caused by the release of volatile oils from the eucalyptus forests. Sadly i dont have a picture to show you guys. I was a bit slow in taking out my camera when the bus slowed down for us to have a look at the mountain range when we drove along a cliff.

This rock formation at Echo Point is called Three Sisters. Read one of the few stories about it in the picture below.

On the second night, we were taken to the Sydney Tower to get a 360 degrees view of Sydney at night and also a Motion Master kinda ride which gives us a brief history lesson of Australia and the major attractions of Australia. After that, we walked through the Queen Victoria Building to see a beautifully restored 18th century building. It was once threatened with demolition in 1959 but it was restored between 1984 and 1986 by a Malaysian company, Ipoh Pty Ltd. However, in 2003, Ipoh Pte Ltd was taken over by GIC Real Estate Pte Ltd of Singapore.

Night view of Sydney from the Sydney Tower. It isn't the best quality but you can lebih kurang see the Sydney Harbour Bridge.


A replica of Queen Victoria.


The interior of the QVB.

So that was our last night in Sydney. The next morning, we got on a Virgin Blue flight to Melbourne. The LCCT of Sydney is much better looking than our LCCT and the Virgin Blue planes have individual LCD screens but you have to pay to watch. The most interesting thing is that it has live TV broadcasted to the plane. It cost AUD5 to watch TV on the plane.

The Jetstar counters. The Virgin Blue counters are at the opposite end.


The shopping area of the LCCT.


Just swipe your credit card to watch TV.


Saying goodbye to Sydney.

The first place we visited in Melbourne was Queen Victoria Market. This is supposedly the place where tourists visit to buy souvenirs. However, this is not the cheapest place to get souvenirs. I've found cheaper souvenirs in the souvenir shops along Swanston St. and the streets around Melbourne CBD. After that, we were taken to the Shrine of Remembrance. This is where they honour the soldiers who have died in service of Australia. On the stone slabs, you can find the names of the places where Australian soldiers have fought over the years and from the steps of the Shrine of Remembrance, you get a panoramic view of Melbourne CBD.

Anyway, i would like to take this opportunity to thank the Australian soldiers for their contributions during the emergency in Malaya and during the formative years of Malaysia. Your sacrifices are greatly appreciated.

The Shrine of Remembrance.








Horse carriages along Swanston St.


Federation Square, taken from Flinders St. Station at night.

The next day, the tour took us to Chadstone, which is one of the largest malls in Melbourne. However, my cousins say that Mid Valley is bigger than Chadstone while my aunt asks why the tour brought us there instead of duty free outlets. There's a huge one not far from the Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine). After Chadstone, we went to a farm along the way to Phillip Island. There, we had the chance to feed the kangaroos, milk a cow and drink fresh milk straight from the cow's udders, learn how to crack a whip and watch a sheep shearing show.

Before shearing.


After shearing (habis botak kawan tu). The blue liquid is to prevent ticks from infesting the skin of the sheep.


A photo of me and my sister with our kangaroo friend.


A peacock trying to tackle my sister. Wahahahahahahahaha.

After that, we proceeded to Phillip Island, where you can watch penguins march back to their burrows while enduring freezing winds blowing from the Bass Straits (it feels more like from the Antarctic if you ask me).

We were told that the penguins will be returning at about 8:05pm (dont ask me how they know this...maybe they have a penguin forecast thingy to predict these kinda things). So we went out to the viewing area by the beach at about 7:50pm to wait for the little guys (these fellas are the smallest penguins in the world...an adult penguin is about 33cm in height). However, the penguins decided to come back a little later than their curfew. We had to wait till about 8:20pm before we had the first glimpse of the penguins. All you can see are a few moving white specks. After about 10 min, we decided to walk back to the visitor centre. It was a good decision after all because the penguin burrows are located along the pathway connecting the visitor centre and the viewing area. So, we managed to see many penguins walking back to their burrows alongside us.

The next day, we were brought to Dandenong (i think) to experience Melbourne's countryside. There we went to a place to feed the birds. All you need to do is put some bird seeds onto your hand and hold it up in the air. The birds will automatically land on your arm and will start eating the bird seeds. I got pecked a few times because their beaks aren't the best for eating from people's palms. Then, we went for a train ride along the countryside. The view from the train was awesome although i cant see myself staying in these kinda places at my age. It's surely gonna be very boring after the awe effect wears off.

Later, we had lunch at this place called Cuckoo. They serve buffet Bavarian food and it's really good. The entertainment was also top notch. That was the best meal i had in the whole tour. Notice that i used the word tour instead of the whole trip because during the whole tour, all the meals included in the tour was either Chinese or Thai except for the one in Cuckoo and another buffet at a casino in Sydney.

Next on the list of places was a lavender farm, vineyard and a gerbera farm. At the gerbera farm, we had the chance to see alpacas, which closely resembles llamas. For those who dont know what are llamas, just think of Kuzco of Emperor's New Groove. If you've not watched this cartoon, then you must be from a really hulu place. And if you look closely at the alpacas picture, you can see one alpaca with kinda normal fleece while the other one has a dreadlocks fleece. Cool eh?

Lavender.


Vineyard.


Alpacas.

Then, sadly for my parents and sister, their tour ended the next day. They flew home in the afternoon while i continued my holiday for another six days in my aunt's place. During the 6 days, i visited the Melbourne Museum (i spent 5 hours here and still couldn't finish seeing everything...and my cousin called me a geek for spending 5 hours in the museum), watched buskers perform at Federation Square, had a tour around Melbourne University courtesy of Jon, saw many people dressed up for the races (Melbourne Cup), met up with Seetha and her colleagues (their company trip was to Sydney and they extended their trip to go to Melbourne) and met up with Justin for lunch at a cafe for lunch (the fusion food is superb and thanks for lunch).

Royal Exhibition Building (opposite Melbourne Museum).


Melbourne Museum.


A busker performing his tricks.


Spaceman on Swanston St. Only available during weekends.

If you are ever in Melbourne, visit this place called Il Doce Freddo along Lygon St. Their gelato is simply superb. For chocolate lovers, try the Roche flavour. Snickers was also good but i didnt like the tiramisu though. If you go during weekends, there's durian flavour. I was told that many Malaysians eat this flavour when they have durian cravings. Wahahahahahahaha.

Finally, i've reached the end of my Aussie post. I think this has to be the longest post ever because of the amount of photos i've included. Enjoy the pics everyone.

It's Been Quite A While

I just realised that it's been 3.5 months since I've written anything. Actually, my sisters told me to write something new back in July so that the previous post wont be the first post on my blog. They say that every time they see that post, they'll start crying. So now I can fulfill their wishes and write something new. However, I dont really have anything new to tell because for the past 2 months, all I did was sleep, eat and work in some remote area of Indonesia. That place is so boring because there's no where you can go or visit in your free time as it's bordered by the sea and jungle. The nearest small town (more like kampung with a small airfield) is 1.5 hours by boat away. In addition to that, the camp subscribes to Indovision who lost the rights to Astro Indonesia to broadcast EPL matches this season. So, when every Astro subscriber in Indonesia is enjoying football every weekend, we have the priviledge to watch motorcross, baseball, X-Games, etc. Damn bodoh sial! This is one of the reasons why I'm so glad to step on to Malaysian soil again. I guess that's all for now.

Rest In Peace, Bro.

Dear Wafi,

I got a call from Gary at 3:40pm today telling me that you've left us. His words left me in shock for a few seconds as i dont know how to react to such news. I was actually planning to visit you this Sunday so that we could hang out together like we always did after gym. Even though the circumstances have changed, i'll still visit your family to pay my last respects to you. I just need to find the way to your house in Rawang (which you always called "the great city of Rawang").

I didn't expect you to leave so soon as you sounded so positive the last time i visited you (although Manika said the doctors gave you 9 months to live). You even asked me when are we going clubbing at Zouk again and if i've asked my company if you could do your internship there. Then, I promised you that i'll start rehabilitating my knee again so that when you recover, we can play football together again. Although we wont be able to do that now, i'll still keep my promise in your honour. I just realised how short life is and that i should do everything i can to do the thing that i love most again.

Anyway, it was great having you as a friend. Ever since Alpha, you've provided us with so many good memories; always saying "ape tu" when giving presentations in Sharimllah's English class, having fun in the same drama group as you (that's because each group had to lose a member to form another group with you as you didnt manage to find yourself a group), playing football beside the tennis courts almost every evening, bowling at Golden Bowl with Zhao, Jason, Fun, Gary and Ashwin, movies as GSC Mahkota Parade, making fun of lecturers during class, skipping class during the half period break, playing pool at Senyum, BBQ-ing at Soon Khong's place after final exams, going for mamak at Daud or burger at Kota Laksamana, gym sessions (where you'll tell me about the chick you are trying to tackle) and so on.

So, rest in peace, bro. Maybe we'll meet again in another lifetime. This lifetime was certainly too short for you. Thanks for the friendship and the memories.

Best regards,
Glenn
Alpha Group 9 Class of 2001-2002

Laundry

I just realised on Friday night that it's been some time since I hung out at Laundry with my friends. Can anybody explain why did we suddenly stop going there to chill? I came out of Italiannies on Friday night to realise the amount of superb scenery I've been missing the past 2-3 months. Maybe we can hang out there sometime after I get back from my trip.

I watched Spiderman 3 at Imax in Times Square yesterday just to try out what is it like watching a movie there. It certainly was a new experience cause the screen was bloody huge and we were sitting 6 rows from the back. I was only able concentrate on the centre of the screen and the sides were completely neglected. I think i shall stick to the conventional screens (GSC@1U) for future movie sessions.

Anyway, is anyone looking for a notebook mouse? I bought a Logitech V150 laser notebook mouse on Wednesday and after using it for about 2 days, I found it to be rather small for my hand. It becomes a little uncomfortable to use after an hour. So if anyone (I think it's more suitable for a girl or kids) is looking for a laser notebook mouse, please let me know. I bought it for RM78 and you could have it for RM65. It's still only 5 days old and it comes with a 3-year warranty.

Man Utd Are Coming To KL

Manchester United just announced their Asia Tour dates yesterday and they'll be right here in KL on July 27th. I'm hoping and praying that i wont be sent somewhere during that time as it'll be my first time watching MU play live at a stadium. It would be even better if they arrived here as double treble winners.

On other news, i've listened to Snow Patrol's Eyes Open and The Fray's How To Save A Life albums and i surely recommend these two albums to everyone. I'm currently hooked on these albums, together with My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade album. So if you have the means, do consider buying these albums.

In response to Stella's post, i would like to say that all the best things in my life begins with the letter F, Family, Friends and Football. :)

Notification

I would like to inform everyone that I wont be in Malaysia for the next 2 weeks to a month. I dont really know the exact duration i'll be away because when you are at site, anything can happen and you'll have to solve the problem before you can go home. So please dont sms or call me as i wont be using my Malaysian mobile number when i'm overseas. Thank you.

Cockroach

My sister found a cockroach in her room on Wednesday nite and the next day she was wondering aloud to herself, "why did the stupid cockroach go into my room ar?" Overhearing this question, i cant help but reply, "when the cockroach reached your room, he said to himself, "ahhh! smells like home."."