Melbourne trip (Day 1 Story 4) Phillip Island Visitor Information Center

From San Remo, just cross a small bridge and we reached Phillip Island. No toll charges is needed. After around 1km, we saw visitor information center on our left.

If the center is not open, you may try your luck with the information board for information.





The staff in the center are very friendly. Besides, souvenir are sold in most of the visitor center I visited in this trip. If you have nature call, you may find restroom in visitor center as well :)


In this trip, I also found a lot of different kind of flora. This is the first one :)


Visitor can purchased park pass from any of the visitor center in Phillip Island. Online ticketing is available as well. If you are traveling during peak season, it is advised to purchase online to avoid disappointment. YHA membership can enjoy 20% discount. Unfortunately, one need to show the YHA membership card to enjoy the discount, thus one need to pay in full for online ticketing. However, 3 park pass can be purchased only from visitor center from Churchill Island, Penguin Parade or Koala Conservation Center. We then heading to Churchill Island. We were lucky to travel on weekday, that 3 park pass can be upgraded to Penguin Plus ticket when we purchased the ticket at around 4pm. It cost AUD 95.20 for 2 tickets, after 20% discount.



Each of us were given a map, voucher for MP4 player for penguin parade illustration information and a voucher for one cup of beverage in Penguin Parade visitor center.

Browse Phillip Island official website for details:
http://www.visitphillipisland.com/

Phillip Island information and ticketing details
http://www.penguins.org.au/

Melbourne trip (Day 1 Story 3) Lunch at Hungry Jack's burger

On our way to Phillip Island, we stopped at Thompson Parkway, Cranbourne North for lunch and grocery. What, grocery? Mk are u settling down in Melbourne or you are just visiting? I am just visiting :) While traveling, if I am not traveling alone, I used to get some fruit to eat in the long driving journey, to stay hydrated and nourished.



We went to Woolworths to get some fruit. If you asked me if the raw material is expensive there, I would say, at their living standard, probably it is not. For example, navel orange is AUD 2.22 per kg, which is similar to the price we get in Malaysia. So, take more orange and apple at the exporting country, take more local fruit in Malaysia :)

After that, we went to Hungry Jack's (known as Burger King in Malaysia) for lunch.



When order the food, I am so new to Australia accent, and I guess probably the same for the staff to catch my Malaysia's. After he got to know we are from Malaysia, he looks 'That's why'. Probably it is not common to have foreign visitor like us there :p Luckily, if I cannot catch the accent, my sister will be able to. On the other hand, if I can catch their words, my sister won't be able to, so it is good for us, at least one is able to continue to communicate :) She told me she was lost in conversation when she pay me a visit in US last time, so she felt very comfortable with the English here. Okay, great, I can rest :p

Please be informed we need to pay GST when traveling in Australia. To request for GST redemption, you may google for details. For my 11 days visit, none of my bill fall allowed for redemption.

We need to pay 10% tax for the food.We ordered 1 set meal Whopper Jr and 1 Bacon Delux burger from ala-carte menu. It cost us AUD 11.10 in total.








Burger in western country always served with more vegetables. So I usually have less objection to go for fast food burger if I am in western country. The burger are nice but I still prefer beef in US better :) San Francisco In and Out burger, are you still as tasty as 7 years ago?

There is a small playground for kids. The kids are so cute, one of it came to say Hi when we passed by :) Cutie, all the best to you :)

Melbourne trip (Day 1 Story 2) On the way to Phillip Island

We brought along a GPS navigator. If you have a nokia phone which support map navigation, you may use your nokia phone for direction as well. The GPS setting lead us to use the highway, but we'd decided to follow the signboard by the road. The signboard lead us passing some town which we can find food, groceries store and etc. However, before that, let's take a look on some of bridge view on our way :)











Most of the highway/road are free of charge. However there are some toll road especially if you need to drive in Melbourne town. Ask your car rental company for information :)

Melbourne trip (Day 1 Story 1) Arriving

After a nap, we claimed the food before touch down. We ordered one nasi lemak, and one western meal. One bottle of water was given of each pre-ordered meal. In general, I think the taste is okay, but the portion is a little small :p



The plane arrived earlier than expected time. But due to a passenger fall sick, the whole flight need to be hold off until certain medical condition check has completed. There were more than one plane touched down at the similar time. Every visitor must fill up the arrival card. I was really surprised that the arrival card was available in many languages: Thai, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malaysia Malay, Indonesia Malay, Vietnamese, and much more. In Malaysia, just adding non-Malay word to the road name sign board can cause so many issue. Sigh. When to catch up? 天与地比。

The immigration clearance queue was long. If not mistaken, we queued for at least half an hour. When we went to pick up luggage, we didn't manage to get all after waited for long. After some inquiry, only we realize some luggage were put on the floor due to the conveyor belt was too congested. Australia is very strict in custom especially food, wood or goods that bring bacteria or virus. Thus it was quite a long queue as well. When it was our turn, we told the officer we bring just packed biscuit, and he left us go without further checking. Well, we didn't lie :) Finally, the arrival hall.



The weather was just nice, spring time. We walked to pick up our rented car from Hertz. This is our travel partner, Toyota Yaris, quite a good car! If you were asked on the petrol options, I recommend to buy full and return full. Once get the car, for sure we should have take picture and video of the car condition, to avoid future argument.

关于乌龙

看到乌龙二个字，喜欢喝茶的会想到乌龙茶。喜欢吃面的或许会联想到乌冬面。大学认识的几个女性朋友，可能会想到乌龙君 :)

从大学开始，一些比较熟悉的朋友都会叫我乌龙君。因为有时候我真的很乌龙，糟糕在事后也不察觉。（乌龙鱼，希望你在马六甲还好，多少年没见了，想到乌龙就想到你，为我取乌龙君这个名字的鱼，嘻嘻）

大学毕业后，偶尔还是会乌龙。但是程度和次数都还好。突然让我想起自己的代号，都是因为最近发生的一件小事。有一次约了一个朋友在一个广场等，我原本是在2nd floor，下了一楼，就是在1st floor。可是当朋友打电话来问我在哪里的时候，我毫不犹豫的告诉他我在2nd floor。等了一会儿觉得不对劲，到处看了看，哦，下一层是Ground floor，那我应该是在1st floor而不是2nd floor。往上一看，果然看到友人在2nd floor。恰巧友人同时也看到了我。

这只是一件很小的乌龙事迹。只是发现最近驾车好像精神不太集中。担心乌龙程度又恢复以前一样。所以啊，就写下来，提醒自己的潜意识，不要太乌龙，要集中一些。哦，上过阿保哥的NLP，需要改一个说法。“提醒自己的潜意识，要集中一些”
阿保哥，我都有慢慢运用学堂里的知识，你的口水不是白喷的 :p

Melbourne, here I am coming

If you recognized this blog header picture changes, you might probably guess what I am going to share :)

Stop looking back on what make me fly to Melbourne , I took an Air Asia domestic flight from Penang to KL and it took off on time. The company I worked for is under my foot.The Penang bridge that I always travel back to hometown is tiny as a rope, then it slowly disappear. Here I come, 11D10N Melbourne and Tasmania holiday :D

Air Asia visitor to Melbourne are advised to reach LCCT check-in counter 3 hours before depart, due to Australia government certain requirement (I forgot what is the details though :p). Due to the same reason as well, web check-in was not allowed up to the day I am flying. You may start imagine how long is the queue. I waited around 1 hour to reach my turn.

Finally.



Found something funny from the ticket above? Gotcha, that is the ticket from Melbourne to KL :p I just wish to show Air Asia X boarding pass :) Beside, if you pre-ordered meal, it shall be printed on your boarding pass, maybe it is BXBD,MEXA. If you have pre-ordered meal but no code were printed, be sure to verify upon check-in. The flyers sit behind me pre-ordered meal but it was not printed, thus they have to pay again for meal, then claim back from Air Asia office after touch down, extra work to do.

After checked-in, we took dinner at Marry Brown before take off.


Sometimes it could be true that chain restaurant/fast-food taste better in KL. The nasi lemak taste good, the salad is nice. But it was a bit hard to wash my hand there. The basin was too deep inside.



It is a Boeng normal Air Bus plane, nothing special. Luckily the head rest is adjustable.



In this 7.5 hours flight, 2 round of food will be served. First time is after the flight take off, the second time is before it touch down. Pre-ordered meal customer can choose if to claim the it in first round or second round. For sure, we need to show the boarding pass to claim.

After adjust my watch date time to Melbourne local time, I want to take a nap in this 7.5 hours flight, good night :) Melbourne, 'ayam kambing' :D

海上生明月，天涯共此时

前几天晚上晒衣服时突然好怀念月亮。自从在槟城做工，恰巧住的屋子的方向都很少看到月亮。或许晚上我有空到露台的时候，月亮都说拜拜了吧。通常去旅游时反而看到月亮星星，在那时候也都静静的看个够。最近的一次是在高渊之旅，在宽阔的河口看到的。是不是该说，河上生明月，天涯共此时比较恰当呢? :p

有时候说外国的月亮比较圆，倒不如说外国看到的月亮比较大，比较正确。因为位置关系，在美国看到的月亮比较大，比较亮。有时候走到游泳池附近就是想看看是否能偷窥到嫦娥美女，让月光洒在我身上，吴刚拼命砍的树的树叶也没有飘落在我身上。啊，是的，那只不过是一个神话故事，玉兔是不存在的。就像圣诞老人也是虚幻的，难道就不可以庆祝圣诞节吗？嘻嘻。

还记得小学课本里提到一个问题：为什么无论我们向什么方向走，月亮都会在前边吗？那个答案啊，如果你不记得了，告诉我吧，我会告诉你的。

到现在我还很喜欢的一把声音，祝你有一个愉快的星期天。如果你有参加槟城马拉松，希望你的脚尽快恢复知觉 :)


×才发现，原来我家的露台在8.30前是可以看到十五的圆月亮，以后要看嫦娥，非得早一些了×

*后记：昨天半夜好像下雨，希望在大桥上努力的健将们没有变成太糟糕的落汤鸡吧！

Amazing Nibong Tebal trip (14) 99 Door Mansion

After lunch, we went to our last stop, the 99 Door Mansion. It was previously government property. However, it is now private after someone bought the whole piece of land for palm tree plant. The tour guide has to contact the farm keeper to open the door for us. I believe he need to pay some small amount of money to let us visit it.



We drove into the farm. The mansion was name in such a way because it has in total 99 doors and windows. After years, it is now left 65. It was built in 185x, by the British when they setup the colony here. It was used as an army base station. During world war II when Japanese came, the Japanese took over the building. After years, the building was not maintained, the termite occupied the place now.

Look at the staircase, so unique. Going upstairs is a grand ballroom. However, the entrance is closed due to termite. Before it deteriorate, some TV program producer visited this mansion and produce some documentary film. SS watch it in Astro documentary channel before. The tour guide mentioned he show the place to a TV program producer from Singpore too.




The indian farm keeper used to live in one of the room.


See, the termite.




The local residents did feedback to government on this building existence. However, no action was being taken to restore the building.








Lastly, we heading back to Penang. Maybe some of you travel across Penang bridge everyday. But I just can't stop taking picture of it with such nice cloud :)


Thanks to the trip organizers and the drivers :D

The End.

关于音乐 About music

我还记得当我第一次去应征工作，应征者问我如何解压。我想了想，告诉他，我通常会站起来，走一走，要不然，听一些歌曲，音乐。音乐帮了我好多。当我在忙着杀虫(debug)的时候，音乐可以让我更加专注。当我情绪烦扰时，音乐洗涤我的心灵。今天，我想分享目前我的灵药，万试万灵。

I still remembered during my first job interview, the interviewer asked how do I release my tension. I told him, I will listen to song and music, or walk around. Music helped me a lot. It helps me to concentrate when debugging source code. No, the music doesn't distracting me at all. It makes me calm.





学吉他时学的第一首classical music前奏
The first classical music when I start learn guitar.


但是有一些音乐，我在工作时，是绝对不敢听的（在这里也不好意思公开那几首歌，以免大家有了first impression就不好了 :p）

Amazing Nibong Tebal trip (13) Lunch at Hua Ling Restaurant

Okay, everyone is hungry after visit so many places in the morning. The tour guide brought us to Hua Ling restaurant 花玲中泰海鲜 for lunch.


The tour guide's girl friend brought her pet with her, look at it, so cute. I am not sure what is the animal species though, cannot remember :p It cost around RM 500 per pair and they got it in Ipoh pet shop. Some tips from them, when buy similar couple pet, inform the seller, so that they will try to look for different family male and female for you. Besides, try to learn how to identify male and female before buy.




Our lunch. Seaweed soup.


Stir fried egg. There is few quite big size prawn inside.


Sesame chicken.


Fried mantis prawn.


Boiled octopus, served with special chili sauce.



Frankly, we were a bit disappointed by the meal in overall. We paid RM 196.20 in total, including one night hotel stay, 1 dinner, 1 breakfast and 1 lunch. We have to drive while visiting the places. Of course the boat is also included. Compared to last Kuala Gula day trip at RM 60 per person, we got to eat more seafood in that trip. We are expecting seafood porridge e.g. crab porridge and more seafood, as advertised in their brochure. Anyway, it might be a very special experience of octopus catching. Since we already paid, so just enjoy it :)

Hua Ling restaurant 花玲中泰海鲜
Business hour: 12.00 - 2.30 pm (Lunch), 6 - 11pm (dinner)

关于时间

上星期去了一个久违的口才训练班。这个训练班的例常训练向来以准时开始为第一准则，千万千万要传承的一个文化。很可惜，听学员说近来训练班的守时风气已经吹歪了，原本8点开始训练，时常变成了接近9点才开始。因为上梁不正下梁歪。

前一阵子去了一个姓氏的晚宴，同样的，时间掌握方面有待改进。
前一阵子去了一些结婚晚宴，同样的，时间掌握方面有待改进。流程节目表与邀请卡写的时间完全不符合，好奇怪，印刷之前没有人检查的吗?
还有什么场合是尊重时间，尊重地球幸苦转动的呢？

在类似的场合，我们时常都会听到迟到者说：“哎呀，不用这么早去的啦，这么早去也是等，倒不如差不多开场才到”。 不管你有没有说过类似的话。亲爱的读者，我希望大家以后不要这么想了。因为说这么一句话是很不负责任的。如果你有孩子，你的孩子懒惰读书。当你循循善诱引导他时，他说“哎呀，很多同学都不读书的啦，我这么勤劳干什么？”你会怎么想？如果啊，你真的可以接受那个理由，那么，你可以不守时。同时，你也应该接受某些人说的话“哎呀，不用这么努力工作，反正有政府养。” 我不能，所以我对政府有要要求，有期望。

只要每个人以身作则，就没有人迟到 （当然，除了无可避免的迟到除外。当然，化妆打扮懒惰都不是合理的理由。同时，我也可以接受5-15分钟的迟到宽限，因为有时候会有一些无法预料的如交通情况。），很多节目都可以准时开始，准时结束。那不是很好吗。

守时，由你我开始。才会有他、她，他们和她们跟着，从而培养一个健康的社会风气。

Amazing Nibong Tebal trip (12) Kwong Hock Temple

Departing from Sg Udang, we went back to Nibong Tebal to visit Kwong Hock temple. I have no time to read the history about this temple. Anyway, the carving looks nice.



The tour guide told us, when you are facing the temple, go into the temple using the right door, where the dragon carving usually is. Then come out from the left door, where the tiger dragon usually is. 左青龙，右白虎.


Inside the temple, there is a stone tortoise. Quite a number of people came here to touch the tortoise, hope to win numbers lottery :p None of us gamble, so we didn't touch it.

Amazing Nibong Tebal trip (11) Cockles washing process

Next stop is to watch the cockles washing process. This factory is by the river.



Wow look at the cockles, it is quite big in size.


This is how they wash it.


For the left over, the owner will bring those back to the river/sea, and throw it back there. However, there are some fisherman who is lazy, just dump it at the riverside.

Can you see the star fish among the cockles shell?