Weather was cloudy and windy. Drizzling too ;(
Planning to leave early Port Campbell at 8am for Melbourne so we had a quick cereal breakfast and packed the bread to eat along the way. We had planned to drive from Port Campbell all the way through the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne (passing by Apollo Bay and Lorne) but the staff at the Information Centre said that there were rock falls due to rain in between Apollo Bay and Lorne (which apparently is the best scenic drive route!). Given that we both are not steady drivers (ahahha!!), we decided to just head to Melbourne loh..
Along the way heading towards Geelong, the sun came out! So we make a detour back to go Great Ocean Road via the Anglesea route. Given the time limit, we could only do part of the Great Ocean Road and so the furthest point we drove to was Lorne. Aiyah.. better than nothing loh.. this way, we have an "excuse" to go back some day mah hahaha!
Great Ocean Road "entrance"
Part of GORAnyway, I lang-gah the car when making a sharp U-turn hahah!! Blind spot lah! Paiseh!! But fortunately, we need not pay damages as we had bought the max. insurance coverage ;p *sigh*... another adventure eh??!!
OOooopss!We reached Melbourne city at about 2+pm to return the car. Though the city is well planned in a grid like manner, driving certainly wasn't easy! We were going round and round looking for the hotel we have booked, and what made it worse was finding parking near the hotel. We finally got a spot but it only allowed a 5min parking round the corner where the hotel was! So we had to "cheong" to check-in, put down the luggages then rush out to get the car. It was really a huge sign of relief when we finally got to Hertz!
Accommodation - Pensione Hotel AUD100/night through the wotif "secret deal". Room #333 (3rd floor on a 3-storey hotel). Rather new modern boutique hotel along Spencer St within the Melbourne CBD. Room size was small but fine for sleep, BUT the bathroom was soooooo tiny!!! All time winner of the "smallest toilet we've ever seen" hahaha! The basin was amazingly tiny and with the shelve above the basin, it was not possible to even brush the teeth properly haha!! The standing shower did not have curtains too so the bathroom mat would get all wet. Rating: 6.5/10.
Pensione Hotel external
Room with toilet on the left behind the sliding glass door.
Super small bathroomThen, we had to "cheong" to Queen Victoria Market hahha!! It was a Sunday when we arrived in Melbourne and because QVM does not open on Mondays and we were going to leave on Tuesday, that was our only chance at QVM. By the time we reached, we only had 1.5hr ;( Also, personally, I think it was quite a disappointment leh.. undoubtedly, QVM is huge but I felt it was like a "pasar malam". We didn't buy anything at all... :(
We went to Chinatown for dinner. We were told we have to try the vietnamese noodles and so we did at this one which had lots of pictures the owner took of big stars like Jackie Chan, Sumo Hung and don't remember who else hahah!! Quite authentic I must say, but we think a lot of MSG went into it cos we both got really thirsty after that ;p
Shop front
Our noodles - yum actually!
Pork chopThe next day was the only and last day we had in Melbourne so we could only do sightseeing around the CBD area loh.. the furthest we went to was Docklands where we had buffet lunch at The New Quay - for AUD25 nett, the buffet was well-worth it ;) Certainly better than Jupiters Casino (Gold Coast)
Horse carriage
St Paul's Church
Federation Square
Buffet @ New Quay
Desserts!On the day of return, we booked airport shuttle Skybus http://www.skybus.com.au/ which cost AUD15/pax (door-to-door). We flew Virgin Blue from Melbourne to Sydney (AUD79/pax) before connecting to international flight back to Singapore. Return flight to Singapore was on A380! We sat on the Upper Deck hehe!
Bigger screen with more features including word or excel program, photo viewing etc
Compartment by the side of the window seat
4 comments:
Thank god for the insurance otherwise you'll have pay a minimum of $1000 for that!
Haha!! Yah man!! Hertz didn't ask or charge us for the half tank fuel we've used from the car that broke down. Good for them, else I'd xxxxx! Haha!!
lucky for you to have gotten car excess insurance! we also dented our rental car....and thank god we didn't have to pay...otherwise, the full amount that we'd be charged upfront is A$3,300!! really enjoyed reading your posts on the trip. haven't found time to write on mine yet =P
Thanks Tania! Let me know when yours is up ;) Oh, next time you can draft your posts (in word) along the trip if you have time (and while the memory is still fresh). Helps save time to upload later too!
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