Melbourne revisited, again.

So I talked about the motivations behind this trip previously. Helped that it’s during Hari Raya and I have birthday leave AND my boss opted against taking leave because she decided to save her leave for December holidays now that her kids have started primary school.

I was thinking about Anywhr, honestly most people have been leaving raving reviews and YOLO but in the end I decided that I am way too picky on my destinations to have someone else surprise me like that. Took matter into my hands as usual and I ended up picking Melbourne, for the third time. Always thought that Melbourne had more to offer from my first two visits - the first one was for my sister’s graduation which I didn’t spend much time in the city, the second time round I only had two days there and took in some sights via the walking tour but didn’t get to sit down and appreciate it fully, so it’s worth a third visit. Actually that is in the pipeline all this while ever since I found out the Melbourne couple are expecting and they asked me to visit, just that I didn’t know exactly how to fit it into my year because I do have a couple more trips lined up in the second half of the year. So why not now right? It’s a bit last minute though, so tickets, accommodation weren’t the cheapest but hey it’s a birthday present so it’s alright to pamper myself a bit.

Took my own sweet time getting to the airport after work for the red eye flight. Wanted to chill at Jewel (I do recognize this two words don’t go together) but in the end didn’t get to coz the Starbucks at Jewel closes at 10 and I am only due for check in at 1230am. So change of plans, spent a couple of hours in T2 instead, doing a bit of trip planning lol because I didn’t have much time to do that beforehand.


I don’t usually do well at red eye flights but I decided to spend on seat selection this time round so that I can secure a window seat, which, going by past experiences, gave me the best chance of actually getting some sleep in (the worst is actually middle section seats, my record was a grand total of 10minutes). And I did manage a respectable 4 hours (out of the total flight time of 7 hours) with the help of neck pillow and blindfold which I never used. And that’s with a kiddo next to me who, while sleeping, occasionally lean on me instead of his dad. *pats myself*

So arrived at Melbourne, not as a zombie. Whew. Strict immigration as usual but the immigration officer did notice birthdate and cheerfully went “it’s your birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday.” Hehe.


Plan for the rest of day was to rest in the hotel and only head out for dinner, and stuck to that even though I managed to clock in some hours of sleep. Caught Skybus to the Southbank area and alighted right in front of accommodation for the first two nights, Crown Metropol. While I wanted to pamper myself, I also didn’t go too overboard as usual lol so this was the cheapest out of the few Crowns in this area but still pretty classy. Only complaint was that the shower cubicle has unadjustable shower heads. Bit inconvenient if you know what I mean.


So showered, and fell asleep watching French Open replays. Woke up at about 5 and headed out. Plan was to go to Chinatown hahah. Because it happened to be my lunar birthday (they are on back to back days this year) and the traditional part of me have insisted on having mee suah every year and I hoped that this year isn’t an exception. Chinatown seemed to be the best place to look for it...so walked down the entire length of Chinatown and just when I was about to give up and go in one of those China Chinese noodle places - I found this. I think they have a few branches in Malaysia too so I thought that is about as close as I could get.


Australian winter officially started on 1st June so the first week of Winter night market at Queen Victoria Market happened to be on this day - so obviously that’s where I ended up at. Lots of food, even more people and queue so I didn’t get much since I also kind of had dinner already. Lesser artsy stalls and I didn’t see anything that I really liked so went back empty handed.






Day 2 - the big day! Covered parts of it in the previous post. Oh Crown Metropol did offer me a complimentary bottle of wine (not sure if it’s coz of the birthday or not) but didn’t deliver it in the end. I actually called to check on it and they said they asked me to request for it when I am around coz it will be delivered chilled with ice. In the end I couldn’t be bothered about it.

Lots of sightseeing, mostly revisiting places I have been to in the past.























Day 3’s main agenda is to visit the Melbourne couple. Packed up and checked out in the morning before heading to brunch, and set off to Melbourne Park. Quite a bit of construction ongoing and had wanted to go on a tour but didn’t because there are concerts the next day and it won’t be a full tour because of preparations for concert. That and the fact that there doesn’t seem to be anybody else joining a tour oh well.



Killed some time, had light lunch, and head off to North Melbourne to visit baby Apollo! Spent the whole afternoon there, chatting while baby slept away. Nice to see these two adapting to parenthood well and life in general.



Back to Melbourne city, collected luggage and switched hotels. Jazz Corner Hotel, got a studio room (actually don’t really need the studio facilities like kitchenette) but more because the place looked really nicely decorated. And it comes with a balcony with a nice view too. And washing machine which I did laundry and regretted because drying took hours and eat into my sleeping hours, and still didn’t come out completely dry zzz.





Plan was to go down and grab a quick dinner downstairs and go back to chill in the room with tennis lol. Because I don’t really know what I can do at night? Totally not a nightlife person. Got down to the jazz bar thinking that I can just get a quick dinner before discovering that there’s an admission fee involved because it’s like a performance, concert. So ended up having dinner (same menu) at the lounge area at hotel lobby instead.



Day 4 is reserved for exploring other areas which I have not been before - South Melbourne Market, Brighton and St Kilda beaches. First couple of days have been spent almost exclusively within the free tram zone hahah so this is the only day I ventured out of the zone mostly.













Back to the city before sunset and did some research for final dinner of the trip, and ended up settling for Greek food in a nod to the city with the biggest Greek population outside Greece. Had to queue almost 40 minutes for it though.



Up early on Day 5 and headed home! Trip reflections are in the separate post already. I do think that I have finally done Melbourne justice. Even though I still haven’t gone on the Great Ocean Road, did think of squeezing in a day trip but felt that it will be too rushed and I personally don’t see myself appreciating it so decided against it, and don’t think I’ll have much regrets.





So that’s about it for this trip! Post is getting too long already.

Labels: australia, holidays, travel