Night Outing at Marina Bay Sands

This is my first time pay a visit to Marina Bay Sands few months after its opening. It was raining that night. Luckily still manage to capture some stunning night view. Thanks to CH for holding an umbrella whole night while I was capturing photos. =)

Marina Bay Sands from far. Heard from my friend, the lotus-shaped building is actually a theater. It is still under construction.


World's first double Helix Pedestrian bridge

Girls' shopping paradise..

A statue? Nope, he is a human who act like a statue...

Displayed set in the shop... Cool!


On the way back, we saw a group of people were attracted by this rainbow light. Same to me. :P

Inside the car. Heavy traffic congestion on our way home.

Jack's Place, Marina Square

One week back, I went to have dinner with CH before heading to Marina Bay Sands for photo-shooting. We have came across a lot of restaurants in Marina Square until we decided to take our dinner in this Western food restaurant - Jack's Place. Been heard about the good comments about this restaurant. They serves delicious steak. Unfortunately I cannot eat too much steak because of I am easy get heaty person. Anyway I ordered boneless chicken and CH ordered sizzling steak as main course. We ordered set dinner. Few dishes are included in this set dinner such as garlic breads, soup of the day "corn soup", dessert of the day "strawberry cake" as well as drink (choose between tea / coffee).

Garlic bread + corn soup.

Sizzling steak comes with some carrots, broccolis, cauliflowers, as well as my favorite baked potato. It really forms a great taste when eat the baked potato with sour cream. Nice! ^_^

Grilled boneless chicken with brown sauce comes with baked potato.

Next come to dessert of the day - strawberry cake. The appearance of the cake does not give any surprise to us, but the taste is WOW! Indeed it is fattening, but you can taste the fresh strawberry cream from it.

Last but not least, we end the night with a cup of tea and coffee.

Melbourne Trip: Melbourne City

[2nd May 2010]

Today we woke up early to return the car and GPS to AVIS car rental company around 830am. Since the car rental company is quite near to Queen Victoria Market, we just decided to take our breakfast there. For your information, Queen Victoria market is closed on Monday and Wednesday as well as public holiday like Good Friday, Anzac Day, Melbourne Cup Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.



This American doughnut is highly recommended by friend. Look at the queue, you will know how famous it is. It only has strawberry flavored. It tastes good but not surprise. Should give it a try because it is different from normal doughnut that can be get in Singapore/Malaysia.

This is how the American doughnut looks like..


We bought fish oil at Pharmacy near to Victoria market. This pharmacy gives a reasonable price + good comment for us. I forgot the name of the shop. Fish oil is comparably cheap in Australia. Therefore I bought one for myself. Hardly can find such a good price in Singapore/Malaysia.

We had to return to hotel to keep fish oil and some souvenirs, else it is quite difficult for us to travel whole day with holding 2 big packets of souvenirs... ^_^ The transportation in Melbourne is convenient and good. Without paying any money, we already reached at Melbourne city area. Please check on this page on how to travel in Melbourne without paying any dollars.

We took tourist bus and stopped at Flinders station (just right in front of St. Paul's Cathedral). We decided to travel around Melbourne city by foot and Flinders station is our starting point. We walked pass a lane. The unique of this lane is its wall. The wall full of 'drawings'.

We reached Chinatown, which is in the junction of Little Bourke street and Russell street. At here, we were looking for reliable tour agency as well as cheaper half-day tour package. Well, we choose APT and tomorrow we will go for a half day trip at Dandenong Ranges. The AUD 75 tour package includes breakfast, Puffing Billy steam train ticket and free courtesy hotel pick up.


We had our lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I was getting bored eating Fish & Chips. I started missing rice. :P

After lunch we walked to Fitzroy Garden. The weather is nice! Cooling~ and we passed by Parliament House. We saw a lot of couples was taking their pre-wedding photos or ceremony photos in that area. This is because of Victorian Marriage Registry just nearby. ^_^


Finally we were at Fitzroy Garden. In the garden, you would be able to visit Cook's cottage. The admission price is just AUD 4.50. You can still have further discount by showing them brochure that you get from visitor information center (as I mentioned in this page).

It is originally situated in Great Ayton, Yorkshire, England. The cottage was brought to Melbourne by Sir Russell Grimwade in 1934. Each brick of the cottage was numbered individually, packed into barrels and shipped to Australia.


And he is Captain Cook!

The Garden!! I love this garden!!! ^_^


After lazying for about 1 hour in the garden, we took city circle tram to Docklands Waterfront City. It is some sort like a pier. Berthing can be arranged with Marina office. The scenery is nice.



New Quay Promenade.

The sky was getting dark that time although it was just 6pm. We walked back to hotel since it is just nearby. On the way we saw a lot of unique architectures on the road. For example, the unknown thing showed in the picture below. =)

A cow on the tree?!

Tonight's dinner - NANDOS!!!! This restaurant is quite famous in Malaysia and hardly can find one in Singapore. So it is CH's first time in Nandos!!! :P


Tomorrow we were heading to Dandenong Ranges!!!! ^_^

Melbourne Trip: 12 Apostles & Phillip Island

[1st May 2010]
Today we woke up early, so that we able to reach Phillip Island before night falls. We stopped at our most-awaiting destination "12 Apostles" awhile. The wind was strong and cold. In this moment, I can't wait to expose to sunlight to get some warm.. :P Twelve Apostles no longer 12. Due to wave action eroding the cliff face, 12 apostles becomes 7 apostles. T___T


After that, we spent 3 hours road trip to Queenscliff. From Queenscliff, we took ferry to Sorrento. We have to make sure we manage to reach Queenscliff at 11am, else we have to waste another 2 hours while waiting for next schedule. Normally there is 1 ferry per hour. Unfortunately there was construction on going during our visit, so schedule has been changed. For more information, please click HERE. We were able to on board safely..




Next we headed to Maru Koalas & Fauna Park to visit my lovely koala Maru.. This is a really good place to see koalas or other animals in a very close distance.. Anyway you are not allowed to hug koalas for photo shooting. Entrance fee for this park is AUD 15 per person. Just pay extra AUD 1 for the food to feed kangaroos and pony.

I am very excited yet scared when I saw those kangaroos jumping toward me. They are almost same height as me. They are able to put their front legs on my shoulder. Luckily there is a fence between us. By the way you can freely walk inside the park.. no door is locked.. After get myself ready, I finally walked inside the kangaroos park to feed them food. Hoo! It's really fun!


The Koala, Maru.

The eggs look like fake but it is real.. this is emus' egg.


Albino Western Grey Kangaroo

Little pony

After that, we move on to Phillip Island. Since the day still early for Penguin Parade, we headed to Phillip Island Winery for late afternoon tea as well as wine tasting. I am not a good wine taster, therefore not eligible to comment anything about the wine. But indeed it is another good experience to me! Love it!

Having late afternoon tea at winery. I like the bread more than those precious cheese... :P

Finally come to Penguin Island. Entrance fee around AUD22. Strolled around the souvenir shop and grab some penguin magnets. By the way no camera / videa camera are allowed during the show. So sorry, no PHOTOS taken during the show.

We are allowed to get into the waiting area to wait for the penguin home 1 hour before the show starts. The weather was getting cold. After the sky turn dark, a thousand wild Little Penguins emerge from the sea and march across the beach to their sand dune burrows. This is really impressive!
We headed back to Melbourne city after the parade. By the way don't forget to look up to the sky. You will get to see thousands of stars shining on the sky... Some even form milky way.. it is really attractive! ^_^ Love the night in Phillip Island!