Melbourne Day 3

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Melbourne

Mt Buller

Though we left our hotel at 5ish in the morning, we only managed to get Mt Buller at noon. It was such a long travel journey. And sadly, we couldn't stay at Mt Buller for long coz we need to make our way back to town before sunset. Nevertheless, we were glad that we took the opportunity to visit the place and captured a few nice shots.

Mt Buller was packed with locals, probably due to weekends. Anyway, tours to Mt Buller are only available from July to November so do take the opportunity to visit Mt Buller if you are in Australia during winter. =)

We gotta take a free shuttle bus which takes us to the ski resort. Yes, it is the blue and white bus in the third picture.

Yeah! We reached the ski resort!

0 degree! Cold!

Acting cool...Again!

The kids were learning how to ski

Snowing! Smeone who couldn't control his ski nearly bang into me while I was taking this picture...


Our lunch @ Uncle Pat's. The serving was huge

Yes, we enjoyed ourselves!

Melbourne Day 2

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Melbourne

Great Ocean Road

Yes, Great Ocean Road is indeed scenic! Though this was my 2nd trip to Melbourne, it was the first time I went for Great Ocean Road tour. Have heard so much about it…the good and the bad…but my conclusion is that I enjoyed the tour. We were lucky to have Doctor Phil from APT as our driver cum tour guide. We rate him as the best guide out of the four who took us on tours with APT. Having an entertaining and humourous guide, I spent most of time on the coach listening to stories and laughing at jokes (instead of the usual snoozing...).

Our first stop was at Angelsea where we spent about 45 minutes to enjoy our morning coffee.

Angelsea - a relatively quiet small town

Yes! We have arrived!

Spotted beautiful scenery along the way:

Given that we had to visit a few places within a day, we couldn't spend too much time for our lunch. Glad that our food was served pretty fast and thus, we had ample time to enjoy it. =)

Went for a quick lunch before heading on to the 12 Apostles.

Took the helicopter ride which costed AUS 75 per pax. I managed to coax FK to take the ride with me...hehehe...

Such strong wind...I was soooo cold!

Acting cool

Sooo excited!

Can you see the seahorse?

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...

A long ride back.

We only reached the city at around 8pm.

Went for a sumptuous dinner in Chinatown before we headed back to our hotel

Melbourne Day 1

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Melbourne via Qantas

Compared to Gold Coast & Syndey, Melbourne looked rather gloomy. In fact, it reminds me of winter in Europe.

We spent our first in Melbourne touring the city. And if you have read my previous post on my bad experiences in Hotel Sophia, you would have guessed that we spent some time searching for Holiday Inn Flinders.

the gloomy weather

Surprised to find beautiful pink flowers


Though Queen Victoria Market was supposed to close at 5pm, most of the shop owners have packed up by 4pm. It was quite quiet and empty when we reached there.

Honestly, there was nothing interesting in the city. Shopping wasn't fantastic as things were relatively more expensive...so taking pictures became our priority. Haha...

Bad experiences in Hotel Sophia (Melbourne)

Before I share my traveling experience in Melbourne, I need to warn all travellers or future travellers to Melbourne NOT to stay in Hotel Sophia. Not because of the physical conditions of the hotel, but the poor customer service that was rendered by the staff.

Was supposed to stay at Mercure but couldn't get any room so...

1. I shared with the Manager of Hotel Sophia that we need to board the coach for our tour to Mount Buller at Holiday Inn Flinders and requested for her assistance to check the location. I even provided her the phone no. of Holiday Inn Flinders so that she can help us call the hotel. However, she just brushed us off by saying that she will check the internet and send the info to our room. Needless to say, it was NOT done. We had to search for Holiday Inn Flinders on our own. Damn!

2. We requested for morning call as we need to get up early for our Great Ocean Road tour. Yes, no morning call! When we told the receptionist on this lapse in service, he insisted that he called us and even went up to our room to knock our door...ya, what a liar! We are not deaf or stupid ok!

3. Given that we had to board the coach to Mount Buller at 5.45am, we requested 2 breakfast boxes. We even reminded the receptionist the night before our tour to ensure that he wouldn't forget...but still, argh! We had to share 1 breakfast box!

4. The housekeeping staff forgot to put towel in our room after housekeeping. FK had to call them 3 times to request for towel before they sent it to our room. Argh! Testing our patience?

5. When we had our breakfast in the restaurant on the last day of our stay, there was no hot water. So no coffee or tea in the morning...pathetic right?

Poor attitude and customer service is something which I can never tolerate…if you can make your customers happy (or at least not upset) by providing the basics, why should you hestitate to do that?