Footscray - Vietnamese Village

 

 With Francis and John

It’s the night sail this time back to Melbourne, departing at 7.30pm and arrived Melbourne around 6.30am. For the night sail, the cheapest ticket to get is the Ocean Recliner, a designated seat which costs about $20 more than the day sail ticket. For the ocean recliner, we are provided with a small pillow and blanket, and the reclining seat is way bigger than the airplanes’. Hehe. We slept the whole journey~ No trouble Zzzz at all =P there are few people who just laid the blanket and sleep on the floor. No one will disturb them anyway.

We have already arranged staying at John’s house prior arriving Melbourne. John is friend of Peter’s dad. Very kind of him that we can have a comfortable bed to sleep in~! P’s dad arrived the next night; he had to take the next flight to Melb because he did not apply for the ETA visa into Australia. Malaysian passport is required to apply the visa either online or through agency before entering Aus. We came into OZ using our Work and Holiday Visa, so never thought of reminding P’s dad to apply ETA. How careless of us! Anyhow, he managed to come to OZ, to see his not too long gone SON and long time no see friend(about 40 years)!

We had four days in Melbourne before travelling towards Sydney. It was a full fun four days trip with the best local guide (John) and most comfy accommodation we could ever ask for! At least P’s dad can get some good sleep before going on camping with US! =P

The first day, we went to the western suburb of Footscray. It is hub for the Vietnamese immigrants and African immigrants come in after them, which was once the Greeks. But the Greek moved out many years back after gaining some prosperity, and so came the Vietnamese. We went to the Little Saigon Market, which offers lots of fruits and veggies and free tasting too! Many of the fruits which cannot be found in Woolworths/ Coles. There are many Viet restaurant around here. 

Since today has the good weather and unlimited visibility, so we went to Eureka 88*****, the tallest building in Melbourne. The entrance fee is $17.50, but Metcard and YHA card will be entitled for 10-15% discount. It was worth it to get up here and look at the 360̊ skyline. We came here before sunset and wait till it gets really dark to get the changing colour palette. 

Yarra River

Melbourne CBD

This is one of the BEST night scene photo we taken for the night. 

Melbourne City + the reflection on Eureka 88

Little tip for photographers, since the observation deck is covered with glass, so we use Angie's dark jacket to cover the camera lens and attached onto the glass to minimize the reflection.

 

A tip in avoiding the expensive parking fee in Melbourne is to park at the Crown Casino! It is $6 for the first six hours and if you join their member club (which is FREE), you get to park for FREE each time. And they will even give you $5 (either cash/chip) for joining~ What a perfect offer!! Walking to the Eureka 88 from casino is just about 10minutes, and you can easily access the city via the City Free Circle Tram/ Shuttle Bus. When we travel in the city, we always take the public transport instead of driving. Which is always more convenient.

Back at the casino, there is a fire show every hour, on the hour starting from 7pm. Quite an impressive show! Real HOT!