Down Under 02 - Melbourne

It was a bright shining day when I checked out from the hotel in Sydney. Why wasn't it like that the whole time I was there? Alas, I had to catch my flight to join Hakimbo and Izad in Melbourne. 

The flight took about an hour and I had to pick up the rental car via Apex Car Rental upon arrival. The rental centre was about 10 mins away from the airport which was accessible by a shuttle service every 15 mins intervals.

That was my second overseas car rental and I managed to get the same Hyundai Elantra like the one I used in Jeju. Apex was one of the cheapest for AUD60 per day including CDW and GPS navigation.

Since the boys were out and about in town, I had to meet them at Fritzroy area. Driving was a breeze but parking was a heart ache. An hour parking was about AUD 3-5 per hour. 

There wasn’t much to do at Fritzroy; we were only there as a centralized meet-up with myself and Izad's friend, Sheereen. A walk down on Fritzroy and we moved on towards Swanston Street for dinner at an Indonesian Restaurant. 

We managed to walk around the CBD and I've started to shop as there was some good stuff on sale. I was TARGETed. I love Target, they have awesome items and mostly cheap too. I went crazy with clothes and some gaming peripherals. Screw the Apple Watch that I planned to get. I'll just get the next version once more reviews are up. 

Since I crash the Melbourne trip, most of the itinerary was Hakimbo and Izad's, so the choice of accommodation was theirs. They picked a superb AirBnB loft and host at York Street in Richmond. The place was lovely and the host, Damien wasn't home much. We stayed up till late on my first night. That was when I got to know Sheereen and also matched mate with my doppelgänger. Well that's another story if I'm up for it.

Since we were staying in a loft, Hakimbo had the liberty to cook. I fetch Sheereen from her hotel nearby the next morning and had a lovely breakfast before driving off to Brighton Beach. 

We were after the box houses and erroneously dropped at the wrong beach front. We drove to the correct beach and went crazy snapping photos. Since it was winter, there weren’t people soaking in the water except some crazy ones. Though I heard it was slightly therapeutic to soak in the freezing water. Next, we made our way to Bridge Road for brunch before dropping Sheereen off for her to prepare for duty. We then made our way to Chapel Street. 

My god, it was a long stretch of road. I wasn't daring enough to park by the roadside due to the hassle of hourly limit hence I parked in Jam Factory. Luckily, it was a Sunday and the charge was per entry at AUD 8. Hence we had the liberty of time. 

Hakimbo planned to go to one of the Weekend Market but they were closing very soon hence we had to divert elsewhere and ended back at CBD where we had more groceries to stay in. 

The third day started quite late. We set out for a drive to Philip Islands for the penguin parade. Since it starts during sunset, we made a stop at Chadstone Shopping Center for more Target and some other chain stores. The mall was huge and by far one of the largest mall that I've been to. If it wasn’t for the time constrain, I could have ran around the mall looking for stuff.

The drive to Philip Island took forever, which was actually 2hrs only. It was truly a nice drive thru the country side and I had a blast. After crossing over to Philip Island, we made our way to the Koala Conservatory first. It was a combined pass, costing about AUD38 for both Koala Conservatory and Penguin Parade. We were told that there were only 6 Koala in the conservatory and we were challenged to find them all. We found all 6 but they were high up the branches and some other animal in the compound.

We spent about half an hour at the conservatory before driving off to the Penguin Parade which was about 5-10 mins away. The place was densely packed with tourist and students. We were led to the beach stand where we waited for the complete sunset before the penguins appeared.  It took almost 1.5hrs from getting good seats and to viewing the first pack of penguin emerging from the sea. We were quite far off from them but we managed to get up close to them near their burrows. Sadly, photography was not allowed in the whole compound so I’m unable to share the experience.

Everyone thought that driving back would be slower as I might be tired, but it was so much smoother and faster, even in the dark. We even managed to stop for dinner at McDonald’s at Cranbourne. The drive back was roughly about 2 hours inclusive of the stop and congestion. We returned around 10pm and packed our baggage.

We were bound to return to Melbourne CBD the following day where we did some last minute shopping and a check at Hosier Lane. The café at Hosier Lane enables you to pay advance for anyone in need. That was really a nice thought and I paid mine for a small beverage. At least I contributed back to the people of Melbourne before I return back home.

I truly enjoyed Melbourne more than Sydney as it was more laid back. I’ve spent most of the time driving, so I didn’t get to immerse in the local activity of taking public. I would really like to come back to Melbourne someday just to enjoy the peace and scenery.

Photos of Melbourne,