Category: Aussie Backpacking 2002

Ben and I are going clubbing at Hard Kandy tonight. Apparently, it’s one of the best clubs around with really good Melbourne Shufflers. That pathetic Ben was so engrossed with that place that he even went to club there alone couple of times. hehe
– 1:28PM

Didn’t do much today. Woke up about 2:30PM and headed straight to the arcade with Ben. We then met up with Wei Chen in DMC records, Chapel st in the evening. He had his spinning session for 2 hours. We walked into a small room just enough to fit a huge turntable and 3 of us. The mixers’ buttons were complicating and even the turntables seem complicating too. We loafed around before headed to the city to meet up with my girlfriend for dinner. Dinner was extremely full. A1’s portion of roast duck rice with egg chiffon was extremely huge! We didn’t even thought of getting dessert after that.
– 11:22PM

It’s been a sociable day. I bumped into 3 of my ex-Alevels mates. Irene, Yean Peng and Joyce didn’t change at all. I spoke to them for a while and promised to have dinner with them tomorrow. I guess Irene will not turn up (she’s always been like that, She always tells people that she’ll call them tomorrow for dinner or something, but she never kept her word!). However, I’ll be having dinner with Ben and Wei Chen instead tomorrow. Sorry girls! hehe

I met a Singaporean in Russell St.’s arcade. We were challenging each other in King Of fighters. He was pretty good but yet he still couldn’t beat me flat (haha!) He told me that the good players usually play on Friday. I guess I’ll see him again on Friday.

Melody brought her Singaporean friend, Gin Li, over for dinner today. Gin Li stays with her aunt but her aunt left for Alice Spring few days ago. According to Melody, Gin Li was terrified of staying alone and inviting her over for dinner might cheer her up. She’s friendly and nice to talk to, unlike Melody’s housemate whom I despise (I better not say more otherwise some loser will be telling her how much I dislike her). After dinner, we sent her home. Her place is just couple of tram stops away. The alley to her place is spooky and her apartment is pretty old. No wonder she was terrified.
– 11:20PMI just got this from my dad.

This morning Mimi (my tenant) drove your car to college as her car was under repair. She met an accident at Kesas Highway near the Puchong junction. The Satria (my car) was badly damaged but fortunately she was not hurt (saved by the safety belt).

What happened was that while she was travelling at the middle lane of the highway, a speeding car overtook her from the left. This car hit the left front of the Satria, causing the Satria to spin around and hit the divider. The other car overturned and the driver was injured. The front part of the Satria was totally smashed up.

This morning after I got the call from Mimi at about 9 am, I rushed to the scene and arranged for the Tow truck, made report to the police etc. Finally the car was sent to my usual Honda workshop in Old Klang Road for repair. I’ll claim for insurance, but will incur quite some losses from NCB for next few years, and also reduced value from an accident car.

aiyayayaya!!!!!!!
– 11:16PM

I tried crocodile meat today. One of the eateries in Melbourne uni was selling crocodile sushi. Melody and I bought a piece of it and shared it. The meat was tough and tasted like chicken. It wasn’t really good, and it even has crocodile fat on it!

I met up with 2 of my good friends in Melbourne today. Kwok Hoong didn’t change much; he’s still the talkative and dramatic person I know. We discussed about the psycho in Melbourne. He couldn’t accept the fact that the arse could do such thing. Our discussion didn’t come to a conclusion, he was pretty uneasy about it. We decided to change topic then.

I had dinner with Ben at Chilli Café, Russell St. As usual, we were talking about Melbourne shuffle and the psycho in Melbourne. After dinner, we loitered in the arcade for few hours before heading back home.
– 11:28PM

I realised that everybody has something to learn from regardless of his or her age, physical being or behaviour. Take for example, food. Even the simplest ingredient can make something really taste good. Candy cooked a superb chicken just by boiling the chicken with chicken marinade mixed with water. Furthermore, Esther makes the most unusual but delicious Milo. All she did was just add Milo with cold milk.

In order to get to Melbourne, I had to take a bus to Cootamundra and from there I’ll have to take the train to Melbourne. The bus ride was absolutely brilliant. I had a clear view of the countryside, never ending green fields filled with sheep and cows, green stout hills and cloudy yet brightening sky.

Cootamundra is a small calm, serene and beautiful town. It’s presence dates back to the Victorian era. I was the only Asian on the whole train station. Never once I spoke to anyone, the closest I got was just exchanging smile with a white girl. It was drizzling and unpleasantly cold. I bought myself a piece of pie to keep myself warm.
– 11:50PMAfter 8 hours of boredom, i finally arrived in Melbourne. It’s bloody cold here!
– 9:20PM

I bought a boomerang today. Esther and I were trying it out in the park but despite following all the instructions, it didn’t work! According to the instruction, we are supposed to throw it 45 degrees against the direction of the wind (???). We gave up after numerous tries.

After that, Esther brought me around the park. It has a huge beautiful man-made lake (most of the lakes in Canberra are man-made). Anyone who loves jogging would love to jog around that area. There are also loads of ducks around hence duck feeding is a common sight. We then went for a short bush walking to search for some kangaroos. All we saw was just endless brown grassland. We extended our search to a small forest next to Esther’s hall of residence. It was also fruitless.

After dinner, Esther, Candy and I went for another kangaroo hunting session. After 2 hours of searching, all we got was just couple of rabbits.

We even extended our search to Mount Ainslie. Richie (Esther’s bf) drove us all the way up there. There’s a huge beacon on top of Mt. Ainslie and also few couples making out in their cars. The scenery from Mt. Ainslie is absolutely beautiful. I took couple of pictures of the scenery. We headed to Telstra tower next. While on the way up there, Candy started to tell us a ghost story. According to her, one day, 4 of her friends were driving up to Telstra tower (it’s located up another mountain) to witness a sunrise. Suddenly, the driver saw a middle-aged man jogging and few minutes later, he saw the man again, jogging. The same thing happened over and over again until they reached the top. After getting out from his car, the driver saw someone sitting inside the car when everybody was out from the car. Furthermore, the passengers sitting on the different side from the driver’s seat saw the same thing but the jogging figure was a women. They kept quiet throughout the journey until they reached the top. After listening to the story, all of us refused to get out from the car. We decided to speed back home.
– 11:45PMI’m leaving Canberra for Melbourne tomorrow.
– 8:20PMMark told me that he wouldnt want to return to Taiwan because of the military service. According to him, the service will take 2 years and by the time he is out from the military, everything that he have learned in university are outdated.
History of Taiwan – http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/asia_pacific/2000/taiwan_elections2000/default.stm
– 6:05PMClubbing was absolutely tiring. We started with couple of beers and vodkas we bought from Wollies (departmental store). I had a 2 bottle of beers, a bottle of Rusky and a pint of Vodka with redbull. I felt like puking throughout the night. shesh. Esther introduced another bunch of friends to me. Mark is from Taiwan, Lawrence is Aussie Chinese, and Alex is Ritchie’s best friend and also Aussie Chinese. Lawrence downed more than 6 bottles of beer, probably to drown his sorrows. We went to this club called Babylon. It has 2 floors, the first floor, filled with absolutely gorgeous girls, plays r&b (which I totally hate). The second floor plays break beats, progressive house and also trance. However, the second floor was almost empty. I guess most of the clubbers went to the rave in ANU (Australian National University). Candy and Alex were in the r&b room all the time while the rest hanged out in the second floor. Mark dances pretty well. He could do the Sydney style dance. The Sydney dance style is pretty much similar to the Brisbane style, even Esther, who has absolutely no idea about any dances said that our dance looks the same. I spend most of my time talking to Mark. Alex was too drunk to talk and Esther was busy dancing. Mark used to study in Sydney and now he’s studying in University of Canberra. He’s in his final years for his course, Multimedia. He seems pretty soft. I even suspected that he was gay. However, Esther said that he has a girlfriend. Oh well, maybe he’s bisexual? hehe. By 3am, we headed home, our legs were as if going to fall off!
Check out the Melbourne Shuffle Video!! Absolutely brilliant!
http://www.inthemix.com.au/tv/
– 4:14AM

Canberra, the capital of Australia, is totally different from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The city is small, unpopulated and filled with monuments such as fountains and statutes. The city is also a planned city where geometrical designs shape the city.

It’s been an exhausting day. Esther’s gang brought me around Canberra. Our first destination was Lake Burley Griffin. It’s a man-made lake with an average dept of 12 feet. We took a stroll round the lake before we went for a paddleboat ride. Candy and I shared a paddleboat while the 2 other couples (Esther/Ritchie and Cheryl/Harry) had shared theirs. We started a water fight in the middle of the lake. Boy, the lake was extremely dirty! We were totally soaked by the end of the boat ride.

The Parliament was next. Entrance to the Parliament was screened by x-ray and a metal detector (probably to detect bombs). There weren’t any personals to guide us or brief us and we had to wander on our own. We somehow managed to get into the senator and house representative’s hall. We headed outside to hike up to the top of the Parliament to have an aerial view of the city.
Soon we were bored. We decided to head to Melbourne and Sydney. There’s a museum inside the memorial. The museum has an excellent display of the wars that Australians were involved. It was huge and I couldn’t go through everything thoroughly. Their World War I display is extremely huge. It emphasized in detail of every battles that Australians were involved.

Btw, we’re going clubbing tonight!
– 6:40PM

I’ll be staying in Esther’s room while Esther moves to her boyfriend, Richie’s place. Her room is well equipped. She has a tv, fridge, internet cable connection and even a Play Station one. She introduced 2 of her friends to me, a Hongkie named Candy and a Malaysia named Cheryl. They’ll be bringing me around Canberra tomorrow.
– 1:33AM

I’m not leaving Brisbane for Sydney today. I couldn’t get a train ticket! However, I’m leaving tomorrow evening. The journey will take 18 hours.

Jin Han, Su Cheen and I went to Mt. Choo-tha today. It’s a scenery spot where you can see the whole of Brisbane from one end to another end. We took loads of pictures and had a drink before heading home an hour later.
– 11:44PMI’m leaving Brisbane tonight..sob sob. Sydney here i come!
– 1:15AM

» Gold Coast was great. It was about an hour away from Brisbane by train and bus. JinHan, Soon Loong, Kiang, Umeng, and I were extremely tired but Su Cheen and Su Min seemed energetic. We did not have enough sleep and we ended up sleeping on the train.

Racism is one of the main social problems in Australia. Some of my friends were victims of such social ill. Umeng and I were sitting next a young white boy. We were speaking in Cantonese but then suddenly the kid started saying, “yes, yes, what’s your name? Where are you from?” and his friend sitting infront of us started laughing. Umeng was pissed and screw him “shut up!” The boy was shocked and he kept quiet. We were suspecting that the boy thinks that we don’t understand or speak English. We plotted revenge. As soon as the boy gets out from his seat for his stop, Umeng said, “See you later guys!” the boy replied, in a surprised and embarrassed tone said “You can speak English???” Everyone on the bus started laughing.
First stop was a shopping centre. We had lunch before heading to Surfer’s Paradise by bus. In the beginning, we had no idea where the hell is the bus stop. We wandered around until we saw few benches in front of a 7-11. I sat down and asked a Japanese girl for directions to the bus stop. She replied, “oh this is the bus stop!” We started chatting. Her name is Noriko. She’s from Kokaido and 24 years old this year. Extremely fair with huge eyes, friendly and pretty but has really yellow tainted teeth. She can speak English (most Japanese cant) but she has a limited vocabulary (she doesn’t know what’s an architect). I asked her why are there so many Japanese around Brisbane and Gold Coast. She answered “because there are many Japanese shops and Japanese here!”

Umeng joined our conversation and we started chatting more. But soon Umeng and I ran out of things to say. However, this friendly Japanese girl kept on talking and asking us questions. She even led us the way to Surfer’s Paradise. We asked for her email so that we could keep in touch. She replied, “oh I don’t have email!”
We separated with a simple bye-bye.
Surfer’s Paradise was filled with people picnicking, sunbathing and taking photographs. We took off our shoes when we walked on the beach. Unexpectedly, the sand was cold despite the bright sunny day. The beach is clean but there is still rubbish around. The seagulls happily feast on left over food.
We weren’t properly dressed for the beach. Most of us were clad in jeans and even brought our sweaters along. Hence we didn’t spend much time on the beach. We took loads of pictures before heading to some of the shops around.

8 Hens in Gold Coasts!

God of Gambler – Hen??

Kiang feeding seagulls

Surfer’s Paradise’s Town

Sunset!

There was this entertainment centre that has shooting games that uses a real gun (but it was too expensive) and even a make-your-own-mtv (but it was damn lame). Soon, we were bored of that place and we headed back to the beach. We took couple of pictures again, ate sushi at “Sushi train” for dinner and then headed to Hen’s house. His place is just few minutes from Bond University (his uni). I took a picture of it before we left for Brisbane.
– 11:30PM
» We had a yamcha session in La Dolce Vista (café), Milton. My friends call it Bangsar because it has similarity as our Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur. But this “Bangsar” doesn’t have much pubs and cafes as they do back in Malaysia’s Bangsar. It’s just a row of single story shops. However, there’s a small radio tower which looks like the Eiffel tower within the shops. They call it Brisbane’s Paris. According to my friends, Dolce Vista serves really good ice mocha. They put gelati and chocolate syrup topped with chocolate powder and whip cream on it. yummy! We started talking about ghost stories. Him was telling us about his experience in his old apartment when he first stayed in Brisbane. His stuff sometimes gets missing or sometimes something that doesn’t belong to him appears suddenly. We then started talking about Ouija games. Him, Kiang and Soon Loong were telling us their experiences. They held a pen together on a piece of paper and kept thinking about summoning the ghost. Soon the pen started moving. They asked about some stuff and even asked about what’s the winning lottery number (sadly, the ghost answered he doesn’t know) and what’s the ghost’s race (he’s a Malay). And for the ghost to leave, all the do is just tell the ghost that they’re done. *phew* scary!

I’m going to Gold Coast tomorrow morning!
– 1:33AM