Flew to Melbourne to attend Cheng Yee's convocation via Scoot airline.
The flight was scheduled to depart at 1.20 am. But alas due to some technical error, all passengers had to disembark and board another plane. (There seemed to be some circuit breakdown which shut down all lights and engines). The engineers attempted to salvage the situation, but gave up eventually at 2am.We finally took off at 3.30 am. The flight was fairly uneventful. Our sleep was interrupted when the crew served breakfast around 7am.
We were the only flight disembarking at Melbourne international Airport on arrival. No queue at all at the immigration counter.
Kevin was there to meet Cheng Yee. He drove us to East Coast Car Rental which was about 5 minutes drive away, to pick up our rental car. We went for our brunch (Vietnamese pho) in a suburb. After that, my wife and I drove to our hotel (Miami Hotel Melbourne), while Cheng Yee and Kevin went off separate way.
After checking into our hotel, we walked a short distance to catch a free tram ride to Flinders station from Victoria Market, bought some health supplements from a chemist store, before returning to hotel.
We then met up again for a sumptuous dinner at an Italian restaurant in the city.
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| A church along the road to Queen Victoria Market |
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| Flinders Station |
We woke up quite late in the morning, and went to a restaurant at Hardware Street for brunch. What a sumptuous meals, with eggs being the main ingredient, but cooked in different styles.
After lunch, we set off to Eureka Sky deck @ 88 floor (courtesy of Kevin) .The view from above was stunning, probably the best I have seen from an observatory tower (excluding Eifel Tower in Paris). Easily surpassing that of Empire State Building, KL Twin Towers andToronto Tower.
Eureka Skydeck 88
We parked our car at South Gate. The scenery along Yarra River just outside the building complex where we parked our car was rather tranquil, but the parking fees of $43 for just over one hour scared the hell out of me! (so much for parking in CBD).
After lunch, my wife and I drove out to Mornington Peninsula; we just managed to visit Rye Beach and London Bridge. Took some pictures there...
Rye Beach
London Bridge Lookout Point
Highlight of the day: CY convocation at 8pm, Clayton campus
Woke up at late in the morning, went for brunch at Carlton (quite delicious), then took a short walk around Queen Victoria Market.
After that, we took a break in our hotel, before driving off to Monash University to attend CY's convocation in the afternoon (Stopped briefly at Chadstone Shopping Centre enroute to Monash for some shopping).
Kind of strange to have convocation at night (8pm to be exact), and worse still the graduation gown could only be released to the graduants at 6pm, and had to be returned by 11 pm. No opportunity to take photos at fanciful places, apart from nearby facilities (library, campus center), and in the dark. The close-up shot of graduates receiving their certificate from Chancellor cost $50...but what the heck, it's the one and only close-up shot you have;so just have to stomach it. We took a few photos when the ceremony ended just before 10pm, and left for late dinner in the city (Stokers fine pancakes restaurant).
After that, we took a break in our hotel, before driving off to Monash University to attend CY's convocation in the afternoon (Stopped briefly at Chadstone Shopping Centre enroute to Monash for some shopping).
May 25 (Wed)
After checking out from Miami Hotel Melbourne, we drove to Essendon DFO (direct factory outlet) for shopping. My wife bought some jeans which were on sale (50%off). Then, after one hour or so, we rushed off to catch a domestic flight from Melbourne to Perth.
Arrived at Perth @ 5pm,picked up a Toyota Camry (supposed to be Corolla when I booked online) from Avis car rental, and checked into Bailey Motel. Went for dinner at Red Opium, a Thai fusion restaurant (true to its form, expensive but delicious).Took sushi that we bought the night before for breakfast, then drove to Northport @ Fremantle to buy ferry tickets to Rottness Island. We rented bikes and cycled round 2/3 of the island (for 3 hours or so). It rained quite heavily in one segment of our ride but we ventured on. Fortunately it stopped after about 15 minutes or so. The weather was otherwise quite kind (partly cloudy).
Northport @ Fremantle
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| Bikes for Rent |
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| Harbour view |
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| Rottness Express The 25 minutes ferry ride across the ocean was quite choppy |
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| The Settlement @ Rottness Island |
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| One of the lakes in the island |
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| Before it rained... |
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| Quoaka |
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| Hiding under shade of the trees, from the rain |
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| Scribbling on the beach |
Our next destination was Yanchep Historic Inn, which is located in the midst of Yanchep National Park. It was pitch dark when we reached Yanchep, but alas, our GPS was unable to locate the Inn. Fortunately the signboard was quite prominent when we reached the periphery of the national park.
Strolled around the neighborhood of Yanchep Inn in the morning, exploring the koala bear enclosure (spotted a few koala hugging tightly to the tree branches) and a lake nearby. Quite a number of kangaroos were wandering and foraging for food around the compound. The many colors of the trees and shrubs surrounding the lake, with pairs of Mandarin ducks paddling in the water, added calm and serenity to the atmosphere.
After checking out from the hotel, we embarked on a 1.5 hour drive to Pinnacles. The 4 km driving tour within the center itself, exploring the mystifying pinnacles "sprouting" from the desert was simply amazing. Looks like scientists are still not sure how they came about.
The Pinnacles
We left for Cervantes for lunch, then detoured to Lake Thetis nearby to look at stromatolites, another natural wonder of the world. It's akin to growing limestone formation created by cyanobacteriuum (a kind of algae).
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| Stromatolites |
This was followed by a grueling 4.5 hours' drive to our next lodging at York. We detoured and made a brief stop at a quiet monastery town, New Norcia. A rather bare town. No visitors at all, apart from three of us. (It is almost 5pm, in winter).
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| Spanish style monastery |
After New Norcia, we traveled another 2 hours or so to Swann Lodge B&B at York. We were worried that all the restaurants might be closed by the time we reached there in the evening. Fortunately, a Chinese restaurant was still opened and we bought one packet of fried rice for consumption in our hotel.
The hotel was surprisingly good.. French theme decor in the room, beautiful garden and sumptuous breakfast (included).
Overlooking York
The view of the wave rock was spell bounding...
Fancy a stay in prison!
After taking our free pancake breakfast (courtesy of the hostel), we went to explore the Fremantle Market (a smaller version of Queen Victoria Market).
Then we paid for a 1h15min guided tour of the Fremantle Prison. The guided tour paled in comparison to the one in Port Arthur, Tasmania.
Fremantle Prison
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| Kitchen |
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| Solitary confinement. Guess what the bucket was used for? |
Kings Park @ Perth
We drove back to Perth International Airport way before 4pm, to return our car and embark our journey home to Singapore!
AFTER THOUGHTS
The main attractions of Perth are the natural wonders of earth - The Pinnacles, Stomatolites and Wave Rock. However, the long hours of driving can be quite daunting and gruelling. Worse still the sky gets dark quite fast in winter. Hence, the effective hours of sightseeing are actually quite short!
