By the time we arrived Adelaide, it was around 11.30pm. To my surprise, dear Beng Beng (Hayden) was already there in the airport to pick us up. It was delightful that we could meet up again since Chinese New Year earlier this year. We took bus from Adelaide airport to Hartstreet, to our stay for the night in Beng's house. Although we planned to go for a drink in the night, it was late though and kind of tired hence we decide to make it another day.
Beng's house was awesome, small apartment with a room, kitchen, a bathroom, and even a small backyard. I love the interior of the apartment a lot. He has another very good-looking housemate, Tyrell (=///////=). Me and Min slept in the very huge sofa in the living room, and we did have nice sleep for the next 3 days.
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Day 4 [21th Apr 2012] - Adelaide Town
Since we had another long day the day before, we woke up quite late on the first day in Adelaide. Tyrell went out early that morning. Beng took us to Marketplace for brunch in his Vespa scooter, but twice round since there was two of us and that was in Australia ^(+++)^. Marketplace is also know as chinatown in Adelaide (I knew that only later on), its quite similar to what we have here in Malaysia, but a cleaner ver. It was a surprise for me that the market didn't smell at all, and was very hygiene indeed. Initially Beng wanted to take us to another shop which was closed that day, and I don't really remember the name of the shop. We headed for Zuma caffe instead. I liked this shop a lot, nicely deco with kind of a erm.. not vintage, but kind of like the type of bar shop that can be found in cowboy movies (personal opinion). I had my favourite Croissant with Ham and Cheese and a cup of Cappucino. Beng and Min had breakfast set, with eggs, tomato, bacon, mushrooms and toast. Min had scrambled egg while Beng had poached egg. I like these selection a lot, since I hate bullseye and I don't eat half-cooked or uncooked egg, and here in Malaysia when asking for cooked egg for some reasons, it always come with either half-cooked or sometimes even with the yellow fluid flowing out. We had a looked of the Marketplace after brunch, I and Min got some handmade soap. I was thinking of getting the purple carrot for my Zizi, but I was concerned if she might pee purple.... We then headed back to Beng's house for a rest.
Beng had something to do in the school， we followed him and took the chance to have a look in Adelaide city and also the university. We walked for around half and hour to reached Adelaide city. The only reasons I think its possible for us to walked in that condition would be the weather and temperature. Here in Malaysia, we might be dehydrated. Beng meet up with some friends in the University for Bersih3.0 banner thing. Kind of awkward we were helping out to draw Malaysia flag there..= =... Met an old friend as well, Keiro, he was going for classes. Made an appointment for dinner and he then fled off for class.
It was a cold and cloudy day, it drizzled on our way to the University of Adelaide. Beng studies in University of Adelaide. I liked the buildings a lot, which it might be my University if I hadn't gave up for some stupid reasons (grudge....). Especially for the library, it looks as if its out from Harry Potter! It was a pity that we were not allowed to go into the hall where normally they had their graduation ceremony there, I saw once in Beng's photo, that was just way more awesome T^T!
We walked ourselves back Beng's house after settling the things under the rain. Drop-by Hungry Jacks for our high tea. I only knew by then its the Burger King in Australia and it did tasted quite good. Overall, the size is quite larger then in Malaysia.
I got one Jeffrey Archer from a bookstore that was doing sales for Aud5 per book on our way back. A very nice shop and since they were moving to downtown, they were doing book clearance before they moved. We took one small alley and pass by a quiet and dark warehouse, and it was the first time I saw this KONY poster, and then I only knew the story.. god bless them...
We reached Beng's house around 6pm something. After resting for a while we then prepared ourselves for dinner and clubbing~ I wore my pink high-heels.. that I hate a lot.
It had been quite a while since I last meet up with Peng.It was quite nice that I was able to meet him again. We go by in his car while Beng and Tyrell rode the scooter (ngek =3= jelly!). We had our dinner in Seoul Restaurant, a Korean Restaurant, the very first rice meal we had when we were in Australia. I could see the satisfaction from Min's face, she missed rice a lot. Well, I was quite okay without rice, when I was back here in Malaysia, I kind of missed bacon and cheese and ham and all those food I had in Australia..=3=. We had dinner together with Beng, Tyrell, Jeremy, Johnson, ShiYuin and Peng. We had spicy hotpot, one Kimchi and one Toufu, with some rice cake as well as some side dishes of kimchi-s ~ Very nice dinner indeed. I did noticed that Tyrell had a pairs of beautiful eyes, hazel green I think, kind of shy to look into them =//////=
After we had our dinner, Tyrell went back home earlier. The rest of us went for dessert in Eggless. (I was wondering how was I able to fit in so much of food that day...= =) Fortunately, they had made reservation earlier. It was a busy shop, especially at that hour of time, 9.30pm, where it was kind of hard to find food in Adelaide, and the best time for people to hang out for supper(?). There was quite some people taking queue waiting for their turns outside the shop. I like the shop design, with unique drawings on the wall and lantern deco, and even their toilet papers was with blue sea shell prints. It's a cakehouse or dessert house opened up by a Malaysian, hence that's why I can find one similar dishes there. Basically, this was a late celebration for ShiYuin's birthday.
We had quite some desserts and shared among ourselves. Sweetcorn custard (2) , Black sesame tiramisu (4) , Vietnamese coffee(5), Chocolate orange hazelnut(7), Rum Brownie with warm sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream(3), Autumns harvest(8) and Hot cross Apple Cinnamon Puffs(6). The numbers in the bracket is the position of the photos for that desserts. I and Min shared Tiramisu, tasted quite ok, it has that kind of homemade taste. Hot cross Apple Cinnamon Puffs tasted a lot like Cekodok Pisang that we have here in Malaysia. Autumn Harvest tasted awkward to me though, baked pear with raspberry or somekind of berry jam, too sweet for me. Eggless often do some special event for different occasion. That week when we were there, if I was not mistaken, should be chocolateless week. But we still manage to get chocolate though....=3=
Late night, Beng agreed to bring us to explore the night life in Adelaide. I was surprised to know that in Adelaide, they only have night life for Friday and Saturday night. Not like here in Malaysia, its 365 days per year. That was the first time I ever entered a Pub/Bar. We had a few drinks in a pub before going to Mars Bar. I forgot the name for that liquor we had, its a cocktail of some mix fruit juice and Vodka. I did mentioned that I was a bromance-lover... hence I just so loved Mars Bar. Quite a lot of couples dancing there in hall, I was in max Shiawase that moment =///,,///=. Beng and Min said that that would so be the very last time they bring me to a Gbar... ( I do know that staring at people is impolite, but... =P) At around 1o'clock, they had a burlesque-type performances done by the owner and some artist. They were just so awesome, and ..... I found out later they are all men... [face palm.jpg]. Jeremy had to leave earlier as he stay quite far from where we were. We took a cab home after the performance.
___________________________________________________________________Day 4 [22 Apr 2012] Glenelg Beach
Beng was sicked the next morning. Most probably because we were in the rain for the whole day the day before. I was told that a week before we went, Adelaide was still in warm season, it turned suddenly cold on the week when we were there. The sudden climate change might be a reason to fall sick too. Hence, Min and I decided to go Glenelg by ourselves. Beng brought us out to a cafe restaurant just a road out from his house, Alfonso's caffe, to had our brunch. Beng had a Mushroom Ricotto ( some kind of rice baked with mushroom and cheese) and Min just fell in love with that dish. Min had a pita with some egg and bacons, I had toasted I supposed with salad. I don't really like mine though, the rocket leaves tasted awkward, wasn't used to that.
Beng showed us the way to tram and went back home to rest. We took a long road down the street until we get to the tram stop. I enjoyed the walk though it took up to almost half an hour for us to reach the tram stop. We took our very first tram in Adelaide to Glenelg. We were wondering there in the first place how can we get the ticket, Min tried asking a random passenger there, then we know. I like the machine the attendance used to print the ticket. The journey was not as far as what we imagined.
Beng gave me a voucher for Anderson's ice-cream earlier that morning, hence we went to get ourselves the ice cream. It was a total experience to eat ice-cream in cold weather. Anderson's tasted quite similar to Baskin Robbin, my Rum caramel tasted quite awesome, I can't recall what Min had, but she did't like it much though.
We split up later where Min was meeting a friend there. I then strolled around the shops there. I happened to bunk in a record shop which was going to closed down, Krypton, if I was not mistaken, got myself two singles (Mika and Duffy) for 1aud each. The CD's were selling off with a very cheap price as they were trying to clear out the stock. I passed by a bar later on where there was a live going on. I loved his vocal a lot, hence stood there for a while to enjoy the songs. I met up with Min later on which her friend offered to send us home.
We reached Beng's home around 6pm, and Min started to doze off after the tiring day. I decided to go with Beng to his lab instead. He was attached to sub-campus of University of Adelaide. He then brought me on his Vespa riding on the road under that kind of cold weather. I was practically frozen on the way, shivering all the way to his work place. Beng tried to introduce the place around to me, which I was not able to capture everything due the wind and also the helmet on me.... I like his lab a lot, at least it looked like a real lab... unlike mine... (trollface.jpg)
We then had dinner in Astor restaurant. Peng, Johnson, Keiro and Jeremy joined us for the dinner. Food were nice, I and Min shared a lamb curry rice. Although I think we actually mix up our food... but overall tasted good. Min then go dating with her friend after that. I and Beng headed home.
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Day 5 [23 Apr 2012] Toy Factory & Barrosa Valley
I and Min always wanted to have close contact with Australian native animals, like Alpaca, Llama =//////= Kangaroos and also Koalas. Hence, as promised by Jeremy and Johnson, they decided to bring us to Toy Factory, a small farm like zoo which we were allowed to have real close contact with the animals there and also a trip to Barrosa Valley.
We waited until we got a call from Jeremy that he was there already, and hence he brought us to take tram to get to the meeting place with Johnson. On the way, he took us to Adelaide Arcade ( something similar to Block Arcade) to have a look on the building. I liked these kind of buildings very much, felt like going back time to 70s or 80s. I saw one glass box with a lolita dress in, which suit my taste to max. I decided I am so going to make that dress out !
We met up with Johnson later on, which Beng was there together. We rented a car for the rest two days. Johnson was the driver for the whole trip, pity him =3=. Beng was not coming together as he still had some work in the lab. Hence, Johnson and Jeremy took us there instead. One of thing I was impressed there would be the grafitti art. That was just so awesome that Min and I could not resist ourselves from going for photos despite its drizzling out there.
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| Camwhoring while in the car |
We then continued the journey to Barrosa Valley. Its a place famous for winery. Jeremy took us to this Two Hands Winery, which I loved the most in this whole trip. The building was a bit countryside type and very pretty. The special thing about this winery is that they with a 5aud paid for each person, we were allowed to taste all the wines that were opened on that day. Hence, we enjoyed ourselves with all the 12 bottles opened that day! The Sommelier was a very nice guy, he explained origin and also the process of harvesting and making of the different wine that we tasted one by one. I favored Grenache, while Min liked Semillon. Out of the twelve bottles, only Moscato tasted sweet and Semillon tasted like syrup. Others were quite dry, like Shiraz was not my taste at all... Grenache although was not that kind of sweet type of wine, but for some reason, it fit my taste the best. In the end I got myself a Grenache, while Min bought Semillon. They had special name for all the wine they produced. All the wine produced here is meant to sell only locally, hence, we can't find it here in Malaysia. =3= Until then I only realized the experienced the awesomeness of winery, unlike the one we had in Fergursson～～～～
Next stop was another winery, Grant Burge. I was told that the Moscato here tasted better, hence I would like to get one from this winery instead. When we arrived, Min said she was not feeling well, she told me that she would like to rest in the car for a while. Johnson and I then went into the shop, while Jeremy waited in the car with Min. The moment I was at the bar, I felt so dizzy suddenly and rushed for toilet.. I think I actually did vomit everything out, might be because of the awesome scenery there as I start jumping all over the moment I was off the car..serve me right OTL... I felt better after that though. It was almost 5pm when we were there. In Australia, the off time was always punctual, 5pm they would closed the shop already. This shop was not like what we had in Two Hands, we had to point out the wine that we wanted to try then only they will let us taste for it. I tried two types of Moscato, a normal and a Rosa. Rosa Moscato had a better smell and taste mellower, hence I got one of this. Since the shop was closing soon, after we paid for the wine, we went out to meet others. Peng joined us here already and they were taking photos outside the winery. Almost similar to Two Hands, cottage village style buildings but with awesome vine plant that the leafs turned all red in this season. Since we had two photography freaks here, we started to take all kinds of awkward posing photos. I tried to collect some of the red leafs there. I asked Jeremy to take some of my normal posing photos, although he gave that kind of irritating look but still I get something nice there ^^.
We drop by a weird place.. which I forgot the name of the place, the area was full with pine trees, and I immediately thought of Twilight, and start suggesting that we ran into the forest to take Twilight scene. Well, no comments from others, but I think I felt some of them rolled their eyeballs though XDD. We hop off the car and start climbing up the stairs to the olympia style buildings. Well, started to pose awkwardly again obviously. I stood up on the edge on top of the stairs, and the scene was breathtaking. It was dawn at that hour, I could still pictured the sunset down to the mountains and trees at that moment, sky dyed with orangy blue colour, flocks of birds flying back home, beauty of the nature just could not be described with words alone.
We headed back to the town when it was almost dark. After picking Beng and others, we straight go for dinner in Regent Thai restaurant. It was a Thailand restaurant. We had quite some spicy and familiar food and also rice. I think it was kind of rare for most of restaurant to have Asians customers. At first, the waitress did serve us the rice patiently. However, since most of us were rice eater, we kind of like refilled for 3 or 4 times, which in the end, the waitress just put the rice pot (?) on the table for us to refill ourselves. The taste of the food didn't suit me much. The spiciness of the food was not enough, well Australian don't really ear spicy, and the food were more to sweet, which I preferred salty food. Maybe because it was kind of rare for all of them to hang out together like this, we stayed back quite long until I could feel the flaring glare from the waitress and shop owner.
Mount Lofty is famous for having night view of Adelaide, hence they brought us there to enjoyed the night of Adelaide. I was so excited when I saw the full Scorpio on the sky!! At first I was quite curious what season it was as I could not recognize most of the stars, and suddenly that Scorpio just came into my sight!!! It was quite hard to have a full Scorpio here in Malaysia, and it was comparably smaller than that. Lucky that I was able to recognize it. It was freezing outside the car, hence I just had a small view on the lights of Adelaide and quickly rushed back to the car for warmth. I just could not stand the strong wind and cold weather. Well, not only me, all of us just could not stand that, hence 8 of us just squeeze ourselves in that small car. Min then start camwhoring. We looked so incredible here. To our surprise, there was a couple just next to our car. Well, it was night time and in such a lovely place, hence... what they were doing ( or trying to do) in the car was expected. XDDD But I think they actually noticed that we were staring hence, they stopped half way and drove away. Pity that we could not see live there..... (jokin jokin).
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| Camwhoring again... and now everyone look weird XDDD |
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Day 6 [24 Apr 2012] Cleland & Handorf --> Back to Melbourne
Early morning, we had breakfast at Bar9. Well, I basically like all those deco for every shop or restaurant that we went. So, yes I do like the deco of this shop. It had a lot of displayed of different equipment for coffee making and some unique drawings, like the one on the walls. I would say the person who designed this was just so talented. I shared normal breakfast set with Min, with scrambled egg, bacons, hams, bread, and also mushroom. I had another cup of coffee latte again (max coffee addiction ^(++++)^). One of my dreams when I was still small was to become a Barista. The guy that was making coffee on the bar was just so drooling, and now I sound so lusting.... XDDD. I liked the mushroom a lot but Beng and Min thought that it tasted weird. It tasted a bit sour, but overall, I think it cooked well.
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| Me pretending to be Pro XDD |
Emu was a bit shy, it was kind of hard to touched it. We saw Wombat as well. But it was in a separated area, which I think it might be wild. The zoo keeper was feeding them at that time. One was obediently in the cage eating while another one name Wally( if I didn't spelled it wrong) was being ill tempered. It refused to go back to its cage and kind of like wanted to go to a hole ( I am not sure what was the hole there for). The zoo keeper quickly close the hole with the cage door, and I saw something I used to see Zizi (my pet rabbit) do. It keep on biting the cage trying to get it off, how cute! We got to see Dingo, a type of Wolf-like animals that look a lot like domestic dogs which is totally wild. They could not be trained as dog and petted at home. But still cute though. Quite a lot of birds, but I was not a bird person, and Min practically hates them.. hence.. hmm... We happened to pass by a lake with black swan and also pelicans with almost half of height and extremely bit beaks. I tried to fed them with my feeds on my hand and it was so tickled. Something interesting do happened here when I was feeding all those birds and ducks, one of them was being so arrogant and selfish when he actually peck others that came near to have the feed. So bad of him! Min was so terrified at that moment and start standing up on the bench near there... Apparently, I think most of them can feel that she was scared of them and they just wandered around the bench, and Min ended up stranded on the bench and started asking for rescue. We got to see tasmanian devil as well, but it was busy doing exercise I perhaps. It kept on repeating the same route of jogging for the whole 5 minutes when we were there, non-stop, cute! After going almost the whole park, we finally came to the most exciting part of the day, to have contact with Koalas. By the time we were there around 2.15pm, there were already people queuing up. Might be because it was raining that time hence most people just hang in that area as there was shade there. By 2.30pm, the zookeeper carried on Koala out, which she actually caprices due to the weather and refused to contact with others after the first group of people. We waited patiently for another 10 mins for another Koala to come out. It was hard to pleased them though, they had to have the satisfying food, the best spot and position to sit on, then only they will stayed quite for a moment, as soon as their food, the eucalyptus leaf was finished, they will start behaving badly, maximum pampered animals. By then I only knew they were such snobbish animals.... = = , heart broken instantly. The image of Koala's being nice and cute and tame just vanished on spot. Min told that it actually smelled but that time I was having flu and my nose were stuck hence didn't sense that. I still managed to catch one picture with its snobbish attitude though. I was thinking of getting a picture of me carrying it in the first place, but after I know that the price was like WOW! , hence gave up that thought.
It was almost 3pm when we left Cleland. I think I smell like animals after wearing that jacket for whole two days into zoo and carrying all the animals with it. We headed to Handorf, the German Village and meet up with Peng. Peng normally had work in the morning hence he was only able to joined us in the evening. Chun Hao joined us here as well. I always knew Adelaide as a very beautiful city, and indeed, it is, especially Handorf. It was autumn hence the whole street with cottage houses in Handorf was painted with yellowish, orangy and reddish view. It was like the street from all those fairy tales that I loved a lot. We were trying to had our lunch or high tea in House Inn in the first place, but the kitchen was closed. We ended up in Handorf Inn, and set ourselves just next to the fireplace. It was just so comfy! We had 2 big platters of German Kransky, grilled pork knuckles and pretzels. I would like to take back my words of Australian having less saltier food. The pork knuckles was salty, very salty but just tasted so nice! I would say I just missed the food so much now!!
We had some time on the streets too. We got some Handorf sweets and chocolate. I got my Lilttle Silver ( my car lol) something as well. Took awkward pictures on the street again and then headed back to Adelaide.
Our flight back to Melbourne was around 9.30am. We tried to settle what we haven't with Beng and others. I forced Johnson to sell me his Moscato from Two Hands as well, and also have Min sold her Semillon to me... hehe... ya, I got 4 bottles of wine back home. Said farewell with everybody and got hug Tyrell for the last time XDDDD and having Beng glared at me again. We headed on to Adelaide airport after that, with the whole gang. It was so sentimental when we were going to board on. Min even cried. I was emo, but not to the extend of crying. Min was so determined to go back to Australia after that. Last day in Adelaide, sad and happy. I was so glad that I continue for the trip instead of giving up due to some issue in the lab, but still managed to go. I was happy and grateful to know all these new friends of Beng and glad to see Beng again. They are really friendly!! And, so at last, goodbye Adelaide, I'll definitely go back if I had the chance!!
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Day 6 [24 Apr 2012] Melbourne Tullamarine airport
By the time we reach Melbourne, it was already 11.30pm. Was glad that we booked the Formule 1 hotel that was nearby to the airport earlier when we left for Adelaide. The room was very nice and comfy, and there was only one type of room, hence no conflict on that. The hotel was just 5-10minutes walk from the airport hence was quite convenient for people like us that reach here late.
After bathed, Min called Raoul, the teksi driver to pick us up for supper. We had something from the teksi's canteen and something from McD. We stood outdoor under 7degree celcius with strong wind and had our supper there. Was a great experience though, since we were so freezing death and try to pretend that we were not cold.....
After saying farewell with Raoul, we went back to the room and slept off.
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Day 7 [25 Apr 2012] Melbourne ---> LCCT KL, Malaysia
Finally, our trip came to the end. We woke up early 6am in the morning, as we need to check in before 7.30am. Got ourselves some souvenirs and nougats from shops in airport. Although they were slightly expensive compared to outside, but we don't really have any choice there. This shop was quite good as it had two branches, which was before and after we pass through the gate. Hence, we can buy anything, with or without liquid in that shop and they will help to transfer into the other shop in the gate, quite convenient.
On our way to the boarding gate, I saw one piano which was playing by its own!! I was so surprised and started to joke with Min that there was someone that was playing just that we were not able to visualize him or her. Might be someone that the management can see then hired him or her to play the piano there.
We boarded on and took another 8 hours flight back and reached LCCT around 3.50pm. The moment we were off the flight, it was kind of sentimental, I missed the weather in Australia so much.
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| Awesome liquor bottles displayed in the Airport |
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| Min's Akuma and the persimmon given by Jeremy ^^ |
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| Min's in flight meal - Thai Curry Chicken |
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| My in flight meal - Nasi Lemak |
That's about the whole trip to Australia. Basically, it was an awesome country, with nice food, place, buildings, people and coffee ^(+++)^. I would like to go again if I were given the chance to. Next trip I'll try to had the whole trip for Melbourne~
Australia Voyage ~ Part 1~ :
http://mashimarocosplay.blogspot.com/2012/05/tripaustralia-voyage-part-1-late-autumn.html
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