What Melbourne Means to Me & touristy stuff

I recently went to Melbourne.

If u know me u'd know I studied there.

I'd been back since after my studies but it was always more as a stopover with not much time to myself or to wander around.

Going back to a place u know well is difficult. on 1 hand, u have all these memories of places u went to with ur friends, memories pop up everywhere...sometimes old haunts r still there n sometimes they're not which can b saddening. n even if u go to an old place, it's not quite the same. u can't really re-live the memories. u don't really miss a place so much as what the place meant to u.

It's also difficult going with a bunch of people who have never lived somewhere else before. They like to ask questions like 'Do you miss it?' or say 'It must be nice to be back again'. I really don't know how to respond.

Asking 'do you miss it' is sort of ludicrous to me. You miss anything that becomes a habit. So after living somewhere for 3.5 years, yes of course i miss it. But even as I was there I was missing it, even more than when I was at home in Malaysia.

And yes, it's nice to be back again but it's also sad and empty without my friends but how do i even start explaining myself? So my typical response was just a shrug and a lame attempt to change the topic or to either walk away.

It was also really hard being there with a huge bunch of people from work who see the place as just a tourist place or a place where they shld take as many photos as they can to upload on fb, in a place that means something to me. It was really horrible being with a bunch of ppl who I don't know well and having to behave a certain way somewhere I once felt comfortable and happy.

Anyway, i'm glad i got over it, n that we went to new places. also i could jst b myself when hanging out with my brother, cousin n Jas who were very nice, hanging out with me n going wherever i wanted. it was also nice catching up with old friends. i didn't bother too much going to old places for 'old times' sake' because there was no point in going there just for that.

i did lots of things i was interested in but never got around to when i was staying there because i was only mildly interested n thought i had plenty of time and that i could do them whenever i wanted.

 There's also this thing about Melbourne - people are so proud about being Melbournian that it's contagious. Stay there long enough n u feel proud to be staying there n that Melbourne belongs to u. And it's so lovely being there - It's been voted most livable city a few times - check this link. I really started seeing myself as a 'Melbournian' so I didn't see the point of doing touristy things except maybe when ppl came to visit.

Anyway, enough about all that. The rest of this post will be only on touristy things I did. I don't want to talk about what Melbourne is to me anymore or the places I went to just because. 1st tourist spot - James Cook's cottage:

 Honestly, it was kinda boring. But the ticket is quite cheap (relatively to other touristy stuff). I think we only spent about 15 minutes there.

The inside of the cottage shows how people at the time lived. They even played recordings of actors pretending to be James Cook's family. I found that a little scary, voices coming out of nowhere in an 'empty' room haha..

The amazing thing is they actually shipped this house from England haha..

The garden was really nice though the flowers were really pretty. The park this cottage is in (Fitzroy Park) is also really nice.

We also went to the parliament, they have FREE tours a few times a day. Please click on this link for more info because it may change.

 a statue of Queen Victoria.

 It was a really interesting feeling being in a room I'd seen on tv before

 It's really beautiful inside and our guide, Martin was really knowledgeable, funny and interesting.

 This is the library

I definitely recommend the tour. Just a tip though, although it said 20 minutes for the tour, give yourself maybe an hour because the tour may take longer than that. We gave ourselves 40 minutes for the parking but it wasn't enough because we had to walk there, go through security, and some people had questions after the tour so it took quite a while.

and we went on the Puffing Billy train ride!

 The ride itself is kinda slow but if u love trains i think u'll love the ride. The view's also pretty neat - u get to see a different side of Melbourne and houses in the Dandenong are pretty different from the city.

If I go next time n they still have it I want to go on the 'murder on the puffing billy express'

i loved it when the train let out steam and blew its horn. I also love the history behind this train and track - how everyone worked so hard together to keep it running. There are so many volunteers working to keep it running! Also I love how the conductor and the driver seem to love what they're doing and they're so happy and dressed so cute! :)

back after a hiatus

So it's been a real long while since I blogged.

I suddenly decided that I didn't want to blog anymore because I felt my blog was boring and I got lazy and I didn't have the mood to. We all get into slumps like that where we don't feel like doing any damn thing.

In my free time for a while I felt like I wanted to get addicted to something and I was quite bored so I decided to read a manga I'd never read before! So I headed over to mangafox, looked under 'most popular manga' and decided to read the one on the top of the list - fairy tail.

I'd heard about it from my brothers so I thought it can't be boring plus it's 'most popular'...the beginning was kinda boring! but then I got into it and it was kinda a fun read. It's really funny too sometimes. The drawing style is quite cute. The only thing is the artist is kinda 'hamsap' I think hahahaha but other than that it's really fun to read. This is the cover of the 1st volume of Fairy Tail, as published on Dec 15, 2006 in Japan by Kodansha. The artist Hiro Mashima is also the creator of Rave.

After I finished reading till the latest chapter, I felt kinda empty and didn't know what to do with myself and still didn't feel like blogging or doing anything 'productive' so I decided to start another manga series hahahaha. And I decided on Beelzebub!

It was also 1 of the most popular ones and the name kinda appealed to me. It's about a really violent high school student who becomes the adoptive human parent of the baby of the demon lord. It started really interesting and I was quickly hooked. I quite like the drawing especially of the main character and the baby but I think he's not so good at drawing girls or clothes haha.

After I finished that...I'd gotten my manga fix and then...I didn't know what to do again hahahaha...Luckily at the time pvz2 was released! So I started playing it...I'm now stuck at the Wild West stage trying to collect stars but it's so damn hard!!

And then I started playing candy crush -_- I resisted for so long too! le bf was playing it on his ipad and i didn't know it was candy crush n saje wanted to play it so stole his ipad and started playing. i got annoyed coz he said i suck at it so i started playing it hahahaha. am now blogging waiting for my life to renew. it should have done that by now so....ciao! haha

Temples in Chiang Mai

We stayed at a place called Secret Garden, which I would recommend to anyone. Clean and convenient location!

There's a little market nearby too with wonderful sights and snacks.

Got some recommendations for temples to visit:

ATV

My friends wanted to go ride ATVs so what the heck i decided to go too. I hate being left out of stuff

We went for the 3-4 hour package. You can check it out at their website here. My friend'd been on the shorter one before and he said it was way too short.

This is the whole bunch of us. We all brought caps/bandannas for our heads because who knows how many have worn and sweat into the helmets??

I've to say it was quite fun. And scary. And tiring. But fun!! Some parts were really steep and going upwards is really scary. You go for a trial run around the starting point first though to get a hang of starting and stopping n all.

We stopped and rested here:

Another tip for you is to bring mosquito repellent. Some of the girls got severely bitten especially coz they were wearing sleeveless tops and shorts. Luckily I'd brought repellent.

I personally really like this photo of me hahahahha

We drove (do you say drive for atvs?) to a point and got off and had to hike up to get a good view. Because I'm a lazy p.o.s. and hate exercising I was super out of breath before I was even halfway up

I was so bloody sore the next few days. My arms, legs, butt....I was gratified to find out I wasn't the only one though hahahahah

Sun & Sea

Sipadan Water Village Resort on Mabul Island

As you can see, the water's really clear. But I'm kinda ticked off that these were built over corals. I somehow don't think this is very environmentally friendly. Couldn't they have built on shore and have boats that bring people out for a few days to go diving? That's how they did it in Cairns..What's the point of removing all the diving resorts from Sipadan Island only to move them to another island or allow the construction of resorts on another? Geez what genius. I don't support this kinda thing and I don't think I'll be staying there agian.

The rooms are pretty basic. The floor of ours was kinda sticky. I guess people walk in and out after diving so the sea water's pretty much seeped into the floor. The shower water was kinda salty too hahaha so my hair was terrible after a day or 2. It's quite a nice stay otherwise but it's definitely no luxury resort.

You should definitely go diving here because when we went diving we saw 4 or 5 sea turtles and they are just amazing and graceful. Especially when they start swimming after resting, SO BEAUTIFUL. I love turtles. I was in total awe just being near them.

On the way back to mainland we saw these huts. Our guide said that alot of them are illegal immigrants. I don't care so much about them being there but what got me really annoyed and upset was that there was a lot of rubbish in the water near the huts. The sea is NOT a huge rubbish bin or dumping ground for everyone!! If they wanna continue fishing in the sea illegally they'd better not continue dumping rubbish into the sea. 

Cave - Lost World

We went to Gua Rusa - so called because there used to be deer who drank at the cave (apparently the guano from the bats that go into the water is extremely nutritious and the deer liked the water there) but deer don't go there anymore because tourists go there. The formations were really interesting and beautiful.

Can you spot Abraham Lincoln?

Can you spot the bull/Lamborghini logo?

It felt like I was in the movie 'The lost world'

Make sure you don't go off the pathway where it's dark coz it's full of ROACHES

 There are cicadas in there too

It was quite mesmerizing watching the bats fly out in groups to go hunt

It's quite a long walk back so be sure to do it before it gets totally dark. I thought the park was very beautiful and the trails well done (I was actually surprised by how well the park is managed) and I would highly recommend anyone to go visit!

There's only one hotel  ( The Royal Mulu Resort ) now, which will be a Royal Mariott soon I heard. Otherwise, you can rent a place in the Park itself and stay there. The places in the park itself looked quite nice. Find out more about Mulu National Park here.