I've been back from Australia for more than a week, so I think it's time to brog bout the trip. Well, it's quite a fun one. The time there is 3 hours faster than Singapore's. And the weather there is weird. Firstly, the sun sets only at about 8 to 9pm plus. 2ndly, though it's summer with the sun, the temperature there was like air-con temperature outdoor. However, there was a day, i think it was the third day we were there (9 Dec) when it was reported to be the hottest December day in many many (dunno 43 or 53) years. Wow, honoured to know we experienced this special day. Haha..
On the first night when we arrived in Melbourne, we went to hotel to rest for a while before going for dinner, after which we took a walk near Telstra Dome, a place for sports and entertainment. The weather was burrr.....cold.. Below is a picture of Jan posing with the recycle bin. Haha.

Then we went back to the hotel to rest, before going on the tour the next day. For the tour on the follwing day, we had to cross the road to the street outside a bigger and more-star hotel to wait for the bus. It was a bus which the driver was also our guide. He could talk and drive at the same time, good skills. We went on this tour on the Great Ocean Road, which covers dunno how many thousand kilometres. To both Jan and myself, it was like a real life geography lesson, cos we really saw the features that we learnt for the topic on coasts and the sceneries were just simply amazing. Like heaven! Hehehe... Below is a photo of me posing at the Twelve Apostles:
We also visited the gorge. All these are really wonders that God has created for us to appreciate the beauty of nature. Cool...


Isn't it just beautiful...?

Other than the beautiful scenery, the other thing(s) that impressed me the most were the houseflies!!! It's the first time wherever you go a dozen or more houseflies follow and stick on your shirt. IRRITATING!!!

On the second day, we went to visit the farm to see kangaroos, cow, dog mustering sheep, sheep shearing (ouch for the sheep!) and a wonderful country lunch..

Ronny outside the restaurant...

Jan milking the cow.. mooooo....

The dog chasing the sheep.. cute arh!! Like a commander training his soldiers.. Haha..

Our last stop at the farm was at the kangaroo's... By the time we reached there, they were already in deep sleep, cos the other group had already fed them. They simply "bo chap-ed" us when we wanted to feed them. :(
After that we visited the koala conservation park. Those bears were simply so cute!! Do you know that they sleep 2/3 of their lives away? How I wish I can be like them... Hahaha...
Cutie bears on the tree sleeping!! Hahaha...

After this stop, it was finally the highlight of the day. We're on the way to see the Penguins!! But before that, at our dinner slot, we went to the beach to soak our feet in water while the adults took a break...
Does Jan look as if he's peeing?? Haha.. pointed out to me by Mother...

I was getting excited at how I would take the picutures of the little penguins when they marched onto the shore back to their burrows, when the driver guide suddenly reminded that we're not supposed to take any photograph or video of them when their maeching back, cos it is their natural habitat so we must respect that. Hence, we only took a picture at the entrance before we entered.

That concluded the day, and then we made a 2 hour bus journey back to Melbourne, goodbye Philip Island.

Next day, we went on a half day tour in Melbourne city. Below is a public toilet near a park. Actually i'm surprised that almost all the toilets we visited are very clean. Even those at the parks are very well maintained. Some are very nicely built too (you wont know it's a toilet if you're not told!).

Jan outside the gents in the park.. nice eh?

After visiting the park we went to the shrine which was built to commemorate those who died in WWI, the Royal Botanic Garden and a conservatory where beautiful flowers are grown. After the tour ended, we went to Queen Victoria Market to shop. There were a lot of things to shop for there: clothes, sovenirs, fruits, dried products, plants, etc. At night, we went to the Crown entertainment complex, where we had our dinner. One bowl of seafood noodles, which was a humongous serving, cost about $10 Australian dollars.

There was also a casino there, where the adults played for one hour while we shopped outside. Hehehe.. Quite a nice shopping area. There was a Warner Bros shop, outside it were big statues of some characters. Very big and cute.. Haha.. Below is one big bugs bunny statue.

Next day was a free day where we shopped at Chinatown and other shopping centres. We found out that the things sold as many of these departmental stores are very expensive. But one interesting thing we did was to take the free city circle tram which was quite cool. Took some photos on the tram... Look at this one, there's a cow on the tree! Taken when the tram was near the port... Cute right!
As we were walking along the streets, we saw this horse carriage on the road. Quite an interesting sight as we've never seen on on the streets of Singapore before. Imagine seeing one.. Hahaha... To go back to the hotel on the last day we're in Melbourne, we took a train back from Flinders Station to Southern Cross Station. It was a wonderful expreience taking a public transport of another country. It was just one station, like travelling from Bishan to Ank Mo Kio.. Haha.. This is a photo of Jan and Ron with the train in the background.
It was fun staying in Melbourne, might go back there again. I might consider studying there next time. Hehehe.. One last photo, Jan and me at the Melbourne airport.
Cool experience. Wonderful place.