Category: Aussie Backpacking 2002

Melody and I had dim sum with Wei Chen and Ben at Sharkfin’s. The food was great. Ben was suffering from a hangover from last night’s clubbing session with his friends. Apparently, his friends were forcing him to drink because his birthday is next week (on the unfortunate September 11). He had to down a bottle of Black Label for 21 seconds (in conjunction with his 21st birthday). Wei Chen on the other hand passed me the anime that he burned for me. Thanks mannnn!

My dad recommended the Chinese museum in Chinatown for us to visit. After Ben and Wei Chen left, we headed to the museum which is just few blocks away. The entrance fee was $4.50.

The displays wasn’t that good. There are loads of things missing and not properly maintained and preserved. The lower floor exhibition was the worst. It was totally empty and deserted. The lights were dim and sounds of the Chinese opera playing. Back in Malaysia, the only time I get to listen to Chinese opera is during the Chinese ghost festival. The opera is held in an open space; up on a man made stage; with chairs arranged in order. The first few rows are usually empty. Apparently, it’s for the dead to sit.

They designed the place in to a replica of old Chinese ghetto. As we enter one of the exhibitions, 2 Chinese opera singer dummies freaked me out. It was so spooky that at one point I did not dare to enter one of the exhibitions. We quickly headed back to the ground floor.

The museum has 4 floors. The ground floor is basically the reception area with some souvenirs for sale.

The 2nd floor is a small art exhibition room and the 3rd floor is where all the important stuffs are. However, the 3rd floor exhibitions are not properly maintained. Some of the displays are broken and no proper security is installed. Anyone could just take anything back home.

But there were couple of interesting displays. Racism towards the Chinese immigrants was not bad. There had couple of degrading cartoons drawn by white extremists ie comparing rabbits with Chinese (on the terms of overpopulated), images of Chinese taking advantage of poor helpless white ladies, social ills brought by the Chinese. On the other hand, it seems that the Chinese population helped the Australian army during WWII by providing minor services.

After museum, we headed back to the city. Melody shopped again. I had to follow her around because I’m running out of money. I cant shop!!!

We had McDonalds for dinner. I had to budget myself.

However, I still could afford to watch a movie. Insomnia, based on Stephen King’s novel, was bad. The story line was boring but the cinematography was great! The movie is based in Alaska and the sceneries were great. Couple of months ago, I visited a website maintained by a girl who is living in Alaska. She had couple of beautiful pictures of Alaska. Unfortunately, I lost her url.

I’m leaving tomorrow night. It’s been 1 month 3 weeks ever since I got here. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Melody and I decided to go to Sandringham tomorrow. For your information, Sandringham is the train line we always take to go back home. Sandringham is located on the beach. We’re gonna picnic there!
A little bit of info on Sandringham http://www.bayside.vic.gov.au

The itinerary for tomorrow:

Wake up early for English breakfast in the city.
Go home, do laundry and pack up.
Head to Sandringham.
Dinner.
Airport and leave Melbourne 🙁
– 3:00AM

It’s been a long day. Melody didn’t sleep a wink but I dozed off at 4am (Melody was doing her assignment). She finally finished it at 3pm. I woke up at 2:30PM, cooked lunch and headed to Melbourne Uni to hand up the assignment.

We bumped into Ben while we’re on the way to the city after handing up the assignment. Ben is going to Irene’s party tonight but Melody and I decided not to.

We walked around the city and Melody did some shopping. As the sun is about to set, we headed to Flinders St. Station and Yarra River to take some photos. Hopefully they’ll turn out well.
We had dinner at Greco’s in Crown. It was good but we had to rush a little bit cause we’re watching a movie in an hour time.

The Sums Of All Fears was good, really really good! However, I felt uncomfortable throughout the movie. There was this old lady who kept on coughing and coughing, irritating, and worst of all, she smelled bad. I couldn’t stand it!

After the movie, we had cake and coffee at Greco’s again. The waitress who served us the previous time was surprised to see us again. Greco’s food and drinks (especially their café latte!) are good but sometimes it’s horrible. We had chocolate cheesecake which was really really good! But my Irish coffee was horrible. It was alcoholic and very bitter. To add salt to wound, it cost a bomb! Last week, the day where I spilled by coffee in Greco’s and was given a free cake and drinks in return, I had the most horrible tiramisu. It was soggy. It was as if it has been dipped into bucket of water.
– 11:22PMIt’s 3am and Melody and I are still awake. Dont think Melody will be sleeping tonight.
– 3:00AM

Irene is having a BBQ at her place tomorrow. I might drop by and say hi

grrr, i couldnt break the apple into perfect half again.
– 11:40PM
I’m in Melbourne Uni’s computer lab again. The mouse i’m using now is darn sticky. I wonder how many hands touched it. Imagine what they did before that, ie masturbated in the toilet, dig their nose, euw euw euw!!

Melody is trying to finish another assignment again. I guess we’ll stay up the whole night again…

I bumped into Kwok Hoong again in Bluezone cafe. We chatted for a while. It seems that he has a new girl in his life now (not to say very new but recently). That’s quick, he broke up with Irene (it’s Irene’s birthday today, Happy birthday! :P) a month ago! Kwok Hoong was eager to show me his new girlfriend. Probably we’ll have dinner this weekend.

The Bluezone cafe boss seems to like Melody and I very much. A Chinese man with huge glasses and unshaved moustache and speaks with a heavily Chinese accentted English, he’s always smiling whenever he sees us. And today, he gave us a discount for the muffin we bought (wee!). Even though he seems like a nice man, he’s somehow dangerous. He could split an apple into half with his bare hands! And it’s perfect half! According to Melody, the boss studied Shaolin Kungfu in China for 10 years.
And last night, i tried splitting a small apple with my bare hands. I grasped the apple and pulled it with all my strength. The apple did not split but the top part came off. I tried again and it split! However, it was perfectly half, only a quarter of the apple came off. I’ll try again tonight.

Interesting website, http://nowayjose.blogspot.com/ – traveller on the move!
– 3:54PM

I’m in Melbourne Uni’s library computer lab. Just had lunch with Melody and now i’m waiting for her to finish classes so that we could go home together and cook. I still have about an hour to go, i guess i’ll head down to the arcade. What a boring day (oh what a boring postt…)!
– 3:44PM

Melody stayed up till 9am to do her assignment but I only lasted till 6am.
I watched 5 episods of The Simpsons today. madness…

I found some interesting juice recipes while shopping for groceries at Coles.
Pineapple, Lime and apple.
Peel and chop ¼ pineapple. Using a juice extractor, process pineapple, 1 lime and 1 green apple.

Raspberry, orange and Passionfruit
Using a juice extractor, process 1 punnet fresh raspberries and 2 peeled oranges. Pour into glasses over crushed ice and stir in pulp of 2 passionfruit.

Tropical Blend
Using a juice extractor, process 1 chopped mango, 2 peeled kiwi fruit, ¼ pineapple and ¼ cup fresh mint.

Citrus blend
Using a juice extractor, process 2 large oranges, ½ lemon and 3 large apples. Serve immediately.

Carrot, Apple, Pear and Lemon
Using a juice extractor, process 2 carrots, 1 apple, 1 pear and ½ peeled lemon. Serve immediately.

Grape, Kiwi Fruit and Berry
Using a juice extractor, process 500g of seedless grapes, 2 peeled kiwi fruit and 1 punnet strawberries. Stir in low-fat milk and crushed ice.

Pineapple, Rockmelon and Grape
Peel and roughly chop ¼ pineapple and ¼ rockmelon. Using a juice extractor, process pineapple, rockmelon and 1 cup of seedless green grapes. Serve immediately over ice

Vegie Juices (euw!!)
Beetroot, Celery, Ginger and Pear
Using a juice extractor, process 2 large beetroots, sterns removed, 4 sticks celery, 1 small piece of fresh ginger ad 1 pear. Serve immediately over crushed ice.

Capsicum, Celery, Cucumber and Lemon
Remove seeds and membranes from 1 red capsicum, chop roughly. Using a juice extractor process capsicum, 4 stalks celery, 1 Lebanese cucumber and ½ peeled lemon. Serve immediately.
– 11:50PM

Melody is rushing her assignment tonight. She’s not going to sleep until she finishes. I guess I’ll accompany until I fall asleep.

Nothing particular happened today. All I did was just having lunch in Melbourne Uni, went online in the library, went to the arcade and cooked.

I cooked pasta. It was easy. All I did was just fry garlic, onions, mushrooms and minced meat. At the beginning, everything turned out fine but after I put in the sauce, Melody found out that I put in the wrong sauce! It was some instant pasta packet rather than the pasta sauce! Thank god she managed to recoup it otherwise her housemate would hate me even more.
– 9:38PM

Hen joined the Daytona I competition at Russell St. today. The entry fee was free but there weren’t much people (about 16 contestants). There are only 2 rounds, the qualifying round and the finals. The former is where 2 racers will be competing with each other and the winner goes to the finals. The latter is where all the 8 winners of the qualifying match compete with each other for the 1st prize. The winner will be presented with a small trophy.

Hen’s first match was exciting. Initially, he seems to be losing and the other player was much better than him. The other player kept on banging and overturning Hen’s car but Hen still could catch up with him. At the final stage, Hen was still behind, but within a twist of luck, the other player’s car crashed and Hen managed to win!

However, the finals wasn’t interesting. Cars just kept on crashing and cars kept on overtaking each other. Hen finished 7th out of the 8 contestants. Boo hoo.
– 10:50PMUpdated album section with Easter Break Melbourne trip pictures.
– 9:22PM

Melody and I had coffee at Greco’s Café, a Greek Café that serves really good coffee and cake. While I was lifting the cup, the handle suddenly detaches from the cup and all my coffee spilled. We complained to one of the staffs and within seconds, he cleaned our table, took Melody’s coffee and few minutes later, 2 new café latte and a huge piece of tiramisu are on our table. It’s as if the whole table has been reset! And the best of all, it’s all free!
– 11:56PM

Happy 43rd Independence Day Malaysia!

It’s Hen’s birthday today. Happy birthday!!

I feel so bad. While I was in Brisbane, I some how promised Hen to spend his birthday with him. I was supposed to bring him clubbing tonight but it seems I didn’t keep my word. I feel so bloody guilty! The reason for not going? Well, Melody’s housemate will not be home this weekend and she’ll be home alone. She doesn’t like staying home alone and I decided to accompany her. damn, I hate conflicting interests.
– 11:44PM

Hen is in Melbourne for a 10 days holiday. I brought him around the city today. We managed to cover almost the entire Centre Business District! We started off with lunch in A1 for the delicious roast duck rice with egg chiffon. I showed him my Aussie backpacking pictures and chatted for quite some time. Bourke St. was our next destination. I asked him whether if he want to eat free candies. I brought him to a Candy shop inside Royal Arcade where they give out free samples (it’s really good!). Hen felt so embarrassed that he took 2 small candies and ran out from the shop.

St. Paul’s Cathedral was next. I’m always fascinated with Cathedral. I love their architecture and their artwork even though i’m not a Christian. Hen doesn’t seem interested with it and we left as soon as we circled the building.

Since we’re near Crown casino, I decided to bring him there. As we passed the flaming towers, I told him the story I heard from our Grampians trip bus driver. The construction of the flaming towers was completed before the completion of Crown itself. Hence, it was left unused for months and birds started to nest on top of the flaming towers. And on an the day of Crown’s grand opening, without checking or cleaning the flaming towers, the staffs blasted the flaming tower at maximum power. Witness claimed that they saw flying pigeons on fire and charred remains of pigeons on the ground.

He headed back to Russell St, the Asian hole, to meet up with Hen’s girlfriend, a petite girl, cute face with huge eyes. We spoke for few minutes before Hen and I headed to the arcade (Hen is training for the Daytona Competition on Sunday!)

I had to leave Hen in the arcade for an hour to help Melody sort out some stuff in Melbourne Uni. We met up again in the city for dinner and this time, Irene joined us. She broke off with Kwok Hoong a month ago. geee, I wonder if they’ll get back together again. They’re always on and off.

Getting Irene and Hen sitting together on the same table is surely fun. Both of them are funny and entertaining. We never stopped laughing.
– 11:54PM
Yesterday’s Post
Melody, her friends (9 of them) and I went to Dracula’s. It’s some sort of cabaret performance with food provided in an old building. Their theme is quite interesting. It’s based on the western supernatural namely vampires, skeletons and frankenstein. Their staffs are dressed in gothic style ie black leather and painted faces. The staffs really put an effort in their work. They had to act, scream and laugh like a mad man every minute. The building is heavily decorated. Since the theme is based on western supernatural, they decorated the place with skeletons, taxidermies animal heads, ghoulish portraits and so on.

As we arrived, we were greeted by a tall man with a fake hunchback and his face well painted. He leaded us into the building and then descended the stairs to a little bar. He announced that we have to get on the ghost train in order to enter the dining hall. The train ride isn’t a simple train ride. It’s actually a little ghost house. It was completely dark and ghoulish figures pops out suddenly. Melody, Tiffany (Melody’s friend) and I shared a 4 seats train. It was really freaky. They even had real people popping out to scare the shit out of you! Tiffany was so scared that she screamed non stop.
The ride lasted only about 5 minutes. As we got out, I realised that we’re back in the same spot. All the train did was just going in a circle. The dining hall is actually downstairs!

The cabaret changes their theme frequently and this time it’s called Terrorvision. They made the whole scene like cable TV (they call it Channel 666). They even have their own MTVs, advertisements and movies (they performed Moulin Rouge)! The best was Dracula’s home video. It’s actually the videos of the person scaring people on the ghost train. It seems that ours was the best. Everyone laughed loudly as they watch Tiffany screaming her lungs out.

The night was great, great performance, good laughs even though I was with 9 strangers the whole night. The performers made the show great even though sometimes they really come out with corny jokes. There were mainly 4 performers, 2 man and 2 women. And as usual, in most cabaret shows, they always have wacky performers. The guy with the fake hunchback and another annoying girl were the wacky ones.

The performers always tried to get the audience involved. The annoying girl had this little interviewing thing, running around the room interviewing people or just to insult them. She would walk to a person, ask couple of questions and then insult them on either their clothing, hairstyle, looks or origin. Fortunately, no one took it seriously. Everyone was a good sport. However, unfortunately, the annoying girl came up to me and asked where I am from. I replied Malaysia. She then said, “oh I know some people from Malaysia. Dark hair and short (sounds like me!) and their names is like, kicking a tin into an alley! *Ting ling pang ling!*
– 10:33PM