Saturday, May 22, 2004
argh! finally have time to sit down and write abt the aussie trip..haha..received tons of complains that my blog's super stagnant so i shall do smth abt it :P hmm..guess i shall start with a brief summary of each day eh..anyone who wants further details can always check cass's blog ;)
:: day 1 ::
welcome to melbourne! haha..first thing that hit me was the cold weather..pretty refreshing change from hot s'pore! huawei sacrificed his sleep and came to e airport to fetch us..thank u so much! oh..and thanks to michael too! :) haha..huawei's place is damn nice..super cozy..and i especially loved the small heater *grin* well..managed to stay awake thru a full day of shopping at Chadstone..such a huge shopping mall! too bad we dun have anything like that over here :| it was like the longest day i've ever experienced. didn't sleep on the plane and all so the day seemed as though it was never going to end *bleagh* after taking a short nap back "home"..we met huawei's fren, rachel, for dinner @ Camberwell..ordered pizza, gnocchi and seafood basket..servings were huge..the garlic bread was huger! okok..there's no such word..haha..i meant larger ;) anyway..the food there was really good! *yum* oh yah..forgot..was nearly refused a bottle of wine on the plane cos the air stewardess thot i was underage..ggrrr.
:: day 2 ::
went to victoria market..it was much nearer than i expected..jus down the street. we kinda splitted up into 2 groups..me, mei and cass..deb went with clot and mandy..cos my group simply couldn't resist stopping and looking @ every single thing..haha..pretty inefficient to shop in a whole grp anyway. in the end my group din finish shopping cos din noe they close so early (2pm!!) so we kinda took our own sweet time :P had the best fish and chips i've ever tasted for lunch..from the vic market food court..i miss it loads! after that, we went to book the great ocean road tour and went to shop @ Myers..another of those huge shopping mall..smaller than Chadstone though. met clot's fren, poh, for dinner @ Lygon St..haha..had pizza and pasta again..that's like e typical aussie dinner or smth..i'm jus glad we din have to eat sandwiches or wraps :P oOo..the raviolli was really good..we ordered the meat-filled ones while huawei ordered e cheese-filled ones when he joined us for dinner..his was green pasta and all..looked a little algaeish *eww* but they tasted pretty good too..haha ;)
:: day 3 ::
great ocean road! i din sleep too well the nite before cos i got rotated to the window there..it was freezing! *bleagh* basically slept thru most of the bus ride..very comfortable to sleep..haha.. the scenery along the way was simply breathtaking. i really love the sea so it was like..woah. haha ;) really cold and windy though..good thing i was wrapped up in..think it was 5 layers? haha..deb was so funny..kept stripping and putting back on the layers everytime we got on and off the bus cos it was quite warm in the bus. the twelve apostles were pretty cool but we couldn't figure out why 'twelve' when there were probably more than a dozen of them there..haha.. basically the whole trip was like one big geog lesson ;) the bus was nice enough to practically send us back to our doorstep..after getting home..cj came over!!! haha..cj's huawei's fren jc's dog..she's so super hyper! ran all over the place..mei, cass and i were so scared she'd pee on our bags..and deb and mandy were hiding upstairs cos mandy's scared of dogs..haha. was pretty funny so see huawei tackling her..but poor dog eh..she's so small man..luckily never kenna squashed!
:: day 4 ::
cass, mei and i went to vic market to finish up our shopping..finally managed to clear the whole market! haha... huawei had to go to school for project work so rachel was nice enuff to bring us to Smith street to shop..there was adidas, nike and surfwear factory outlets..prices were okie lah..weren't as cheap as i expected but still cheaper than s'pore..too bad the sizes were so big so i didn't get to buy much..think only got a top..which happened to be from the kid's department..sigh. haha..wat clot and rachel did at the Bond shop was pretty hilarious..shldn't put it down here though *grin* ;) went over to rachel's place to kill some time before having dinner @ Lygon again..ying thai 2..thai place lah..food was good..esp the curry..which rachel dared clot to drink up with a straw in 10 secs..haha..clot won 10bucks! anyway..rachel's place was really nice too..i liked her room with the photos all over :) hmm..after that we went back to get our passports then went to visit Crown casino. had so much prob getting in cos according to the security guards, we apparently din resemble our passport photos..like dUh. they were taken such a long time ago. but mei's one was really recent and they took such a long time to check too..pUrpOsely one lOh. *humph* i was a 'borderline-case' while mandy was totally-refused-entry..heck. huawei snuck her in from another entrance anyway..haha. casino was okie only..i dun gamble so wasn't all that impressed..the fire show outside was much more interesting..haha. it was pretty chilly so the fire was nice and warm :D went for dessert after that..really sweet stuff :þ and then there was the cass incident..haha..okok..shldn't bring it up again eh, cass? ;)
:: day 5 ::
shopping again..this time at Moorabbin..think that place's called DFO..direct factory outlet. haha..bought alot of stuff there! levi's were really cheap..too bad sizes were too big once again..only found a pair that could kinda fit..far to long though..gotta go trim it. hmm..i got my wallet, belt and a couple of tops from there too..haha..and we got a nice tiger poster for rachel to thank her for accompanying us :) huawei had to leave for kendo camp that evening..guess we shopped too long..made him late for the camp..sorry! managed to squeeze some time to visit melbourne chinatown that night for dinner..had noodles and dumplings..pretty good stuff but the service sucked..if you think it's bad enuff to have aussies discriminating against chinese, wait till you experience the same treatment from mainland chinese man..sheesh~ then went to buy groceries for huawei..overused the toilet papers..whoops..haha..
:: day 6 ::
last day in melbourne *sob* the same old gang went back to vic market (yes..again...) to grab some last minute stuff..then i went with clot to visit poh again and went to morning glory! haha..we wanted to go there since the first day in mel..finally managed to make it there..got a card and a softtoy to thank huawei..and played a joke on huawei by pretending to leave cass behind cos she ran out of money to go sydney..hee ;) clot's frens were nice enuff to drive as to the airport..first time i rode in a sports car..damn cool! the road was kinda bumpy though..so wasn't a very comfortable ride :þ weijie came to fetch us from the airport..me and mei and all the luggages took his car while the others took a cab..in the end we took longer to reach there cos weijie kinda got lost..think i'm a jinx with cars..always get lost..bleagh. Unilodge's quite nice! i liked our room better than the other room cos the whole settings more cosy i guess..and deb's room got funny smell..hahaha. too bad we din get the double storied one..thot it held a stong resemblence to huawei's place....... after settling down at unilodge..weijie gave us a tour of sydney..the darling harbour area..and showed us how to get around and all. saved us the trouble of looking at the maps..haha. dinner at darling harbour was nice..esp the icecream..andersens mango icecream's the best man! most i've tasted are far too sweet but that mango icecream was just right. subtle but can still taste the mango ;) shld taste the same in s'pore right? shall go eat someday..hee...
:: day 7 ::
deb, cass and clot went to church in the morning..me went with mandy and mei to st james station where st mary's cathedral is..that place's beautiful! especially the stained glass inside and all..so lovely..*sigh* met the others and went to paddy's market after that..it's pretty much like vic market..i got lotsa nuts for mummy! haha..pecan, walnut and macadamia..which i liked too. :) went to sydney harbour after that..saw the sydney harbour bridge and the sydney opera house! so postcard-like..haha..we went on the harbour cruise and nearly got frozen to death..*bbrrr* in the end, me and mei couldn't stand the cold so we went to the lower deck and started eating our nuts..haha... after getting back on land, we tried to take photos of the bridge and opera house using nite mode but din work out too well :| got a little high singing disney songs and all..haha..really fun :)))
:: day 8 ::
Blue Mountains! the bus was smaller so guess it was less pukey for cass..haha.. we got to see kangeroos!!! they were all lazing around eating grass and suntanning..such a good life..i wouldn't mind being a kangeroo too..other than the fact that the grass they ate were being fertilised by their own poo......... *eWw* we visited this plateau..can't remember the name..i'll go check it out lah. anyway..there were all sorts of carvings on the rock surface..quite pretty..haha..in s'pore, it'll prob be regarded as vandalism :X one of them is very sweet..this couple went back every year to visit the place..think must have been some sorta anniversary..haha..got photo of it..can go see after i've finished uploading (it's is taking ages! *argh*) took the steep roller-coaster-like thingy..that was super fun man! hee..never go any theme park..guess that was the closest lah..damn shiok! the whole trip was basically mountains and mountains and...mountains. oh..but there were lotsa nice autumny trees too ;) dinner at Mamma's Kitchen @ unilodge was pretty disastrous..spilt coke all over the place and all..the food wasn't fantastic either (which kinda explained why the place was practically empty...) but it was quite a fun dinner..hee :)
:: day 9 ::
shopping time again!!! haha..we actually found our own way to the sydney factory outlet! think we were like super reliant on huawei in mel..he practically babysat us :þ kinda had a real taste of backpacking today. anyway..shopping was at Birkenhead Point..to me, the place's actually better than Moorabbin cos stuff are cheaper and all..haha..din have much money to shop so had to borrow from mei..hopeless hor. anyway..the tops there are sooo cheap! for like A$5 each..the tubes' material was so good for making bags that i got 3 of them..haha ;)we were so broke that day that we ended up having cup noodles for dinner..sounds pathetic eh? haha..had soup and bread and tuna too. fine, tuna was my idea..hee. walked past the shelf with all the canned tunas and i couldn't resist the temptation..haven't had tuna for very long mah ;þ it wasn't too bad in the end lah..pretty interesting and filling dinner!
:: day 10 ::
sighie..flying back home le..i got so used to the cold weather..super not looking forward to s'pore's hot and humid weather :| anyway..went to buy mei's wooden duck down the streets..realised the shop's never open cos it's linked from the shop beside it..haha..so dumb. checked out pretty early and went to the airport by cab..goodness..the cab meters all jump like siao one..see already will kenna heart attack! quite lucky that we din have to pay much surcharge though..maybe it had smth to do with us saying "how much lunch we're gonna have depends on the cab fare..." or smth to that effect..haha. the driver asked us whether we were taking china airlines..wat the heck..we look like we're from china?!! well..flight was at 3+ i think..we got there too early to check in so had to lug our luggages ard..haha..was pretty worried we had to pay excess baggage but it wasn't so bad (shld have seen clot's bagS though..hee...) wanted to get red wine for dad one the plane cos they came in bottles so can smuggle off the plane..then i saw that they had sparkling wine too..thought they'd come in bottle form as well..but no! the air steward gave me a glass of wine loh..like how the heck was i supposed to take that off the plane?! haha..in the end i had to drink the whole glass..on an empty stomach cos i wanted to finish it before dinner and ask for red wine again (they must have thought i'm some juvenile alcoholic..sheesh.) crap. felt damn whoozy after i downed the whole glass..luckily never fall into toilet bowl when i went to the toilet..haa. but everything went back to normal after dinner. pretty good dinner too..beef stew ;) right..nothing much till we touched down..where kaiwen gave me a waRm welcome back..hehe..home sweet home..very hot home...........
oops..that was much longer than i expected. :) the whole experience was really cool..good weather, good company, good food, good scenery..guess the discrimination part kinda spoilt it a little but it was still super fun ;) sigh..wonder when i'll get the chance to go back there again. was talking to yahui the other day abt going back next year to visit huawei before he graduates or smth..dunno if that's possible..heh..oh well..we'll see next year! :)
chee [2:14 AM]
___makee a wiish___
