experiences in melbourne

This is not going to be a guide post on itinerary or budget planning if anyone wants to go to Melbourne, mainly because I can’t remember the details much now as the trip was done August last year (11 August 2015- 18 August 2015) so my brain cannot contain anymore information from that time. This is just me rambling few things I’ve experienced in Melbourne during my 7 days trip there.

#1- the season

Even though before coming here Reyna said that the winter in Melbourne wasn’t that cold, I think I spent so many time shivering and wishing there was a bonfire in front of me to take away the chillness. Coming from a country that doesn’t have winter, I always wanted to experience one, so to suddenly got assaulted by the temperature so low, my body wasn’t that ready. Worst part was I forgot to bring any lotion so my skin was so dry it was so painful. There wasn’t any snow back in the city but we went to Mt Buller and were so lucky because that day the snow was falling. Since we don’t have much budget we just went sightseeing there and playing toboggan instead of skiing or snowboarding. Sad that I didn’t get to make a proper snowman haha.

#2- the transportation

IS DA BOMB!!!!

Seriously I was so impressed with the efficiency of the public transport here (train, tram, bus) compared to how it was handled in my country. There was even a free tram zone in the center of the city so that people can hop off and on in that particular area without paying. We use only one specific card for all the transportation, so its easier. There, even going to place that was so far away from city can be done as the public transport is easily accessible and integrated together. Most of the time we use tram to go from places but there were two times we used train to go to two different destinations in two opposing directions in one day; Brighton Beach and Puffing Billy Steam Railway.

#3- the people

Honestly, I get why Melbourne is considered as a place people want to live in because after experiencing it myself, I wish I could stay there forever. The people just amazed me with their courtesy and friendliness. I don’t know if it because we are tourists or what, but whenever we boarded on the tram, people there always wanted to give their seat to us even though I think they needed it more than us (one time a mother with 2 little children wanted to give her seat). And you always gonna get greeted with “Hello, how are you today?” with a smile by the cashier in any shops you went that it was weird for me the first time because that wasn’t how it is done in my country. The most people did was saying thank you when giving changes, definitely not greeting the customers (hah, sometimes they don’t even look at you or talking loudly to coworkers while attending customers or even have such masam face). Im not putting people there on such a high pedestal but it give a different perspective compared to what I’ve experienced in Malaysia.

#4- the places

We tried to squeeze as many places as we can within the 7 days but some need to be taken off the list due to time constraint since during winter, the day is shorter and most place closed by 5pm. Notable mentions would be Great Ocean Road ( the tour consist places such as Twelve Apostles, London Bridge etc), Phillip Island to see kangaroo and chocolate factory (we missed the pelicans), steam train in Puffing Billy railway, bathing boxes in Brighton Beach and street art at the Hosier Lane. 

 

 

this post does not do the justice of how much fun i had during my trip to Melbourne because my brain now is the time i cannot strings any word to express my feelings so ciao!