I know I should have posted this earlier, but well, as usual, we humans are always prepared with excuses. This time around, please give my early excitement of arriving in Adelaide and subsequent laziness forgiveness.
So my winter holiday started right after Physics paper on the final week of June, with Melbourne being my first holiday pit-stop. I took the bus from Sydney Central at 7pm together with another two friends, my mind was full of anticipation of what’s there in Melbourne awaiting my arrival. Before anything, anyhow, next to me on the bus couch was a friendly pak cik. So the first couple of hours were pent chit-chatting, exchanging point of views with him. It could easily be elongated anyway, but I pretended to sleep after that as not to give him anymore chance of asking me more questions and before long, he himself fell asleep. Excellent. However, looking from the positive side, that pak cik essentially passed me pretty much a handful of insight. And yeah, if it was not because of him, I would not know up until now that Australia is actually less populous than Malaysia, though the former country covers a significantly broader ground on the world map. To cut the story short, let us jump into the next morning; Southern Cross, Melbourne, here I am.
For those of you who are still quite equivocal about the city, Melbourne is the capital of the state Victoria, located at the southern part of Australia about 12-hour ride from Sydney by land. Apart from the scope of being prominent for being the home for 3.8 million people thus making it the second most populous city in Australia and annually organizing the world-famous motoring event in Formula One, little are aware with the fact that Melbourne is in fact the first capital city of the country, before the title was handed over to Canberra.
So my winter holiday started right after Physics paper on the final week of June, with Melbourne being my first holiday pit-stop. I took the bus from Sydney Central at 7pm together with another two friends, my mind was full of anticipation of what’s there in Melbourne awaiting my arrival. Before anything, anyhow, next to me on the bus couch was a friendly pak cik. So the first couple of hours were pent chit-chatting, exchanging point of views with him. It could easily be elongated anyway, but I pretended to sleep after that as not to give him anymore chance of asking me more questions and before long, he himself fell asleep. Excellent. However, looking from the positive side, that pak cik essentially passed me pretty much a handful of insight. And yeah, if it was not because of him, I would not know up until now that Australia is actually less populous than Malaysia, though the former country covers a significantly broader ground on the world map. To cut the story short, let us jump into the next morning; Southern Cross, Melbourne, here I am.
For those of you who are still quite equivocal about the city, Melbourne is the capital of the state Victoria, located at the southern part of Australia about 12-hour ride from Sydney by land. Apart from the scope of being prominent for being the home for 3.8 million people thus making it the second most populous city in Australia and annually organizing the world-famous motoring event in Formula One, little are aware with the fact that Melbourne is in fact the first capital city of the country, before the title was handed over to Canberra.
Amongst university students, Malaysians in particular, three tertiary educational institutions stand out when the na
me Melbourne city echoes, namely University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology which bears a more-known acronym of RMIT, and Monash University. The first are located in the middle of the lively city, whilst Monash University covers a number of campuses which are spread around the Victoria state if I am not mistaken, the famous one amongst Malaysian students being the one in Clayton, a suburb area of Melbourne city about 40 minutes by train from the city hub. For a personal reason, I chose to stay with a friend in Clayton. I was nervously contemplating on the amount of cash I needed to fork out during my stay in Melbourne initially but thank God the public transport system was somewhat economical that the only drawback for staying there was the time spent travelling back and forth to the city.
me Melbourne city echoes, namely University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology which bears a more-known acronym of RMIT, and Monash University. The first are located in the middle of the lively city, whilst Monash University covers a number of campuses which are spread around the Victoria state if I am not mistaken, the famous one amongst Malaysian students being the one in Clayton, a suburb area of Melbourne city about 40 minutes by train from the city hub. For a personal reason, I chose to stay with a friend in Clayton. I was nervously contemplating on the amount of cash I needed to fork out during my stay in Melbourne initially but thank God the public transport system was somewhat economical that the only drawback for staying there was the time spent travelling back and forth to the city. One word I chose to describe the city- vibrant. If people talk about places on earth where there is no huge difference between day and night, Melbourne definitely fits in the bill as such place. Perhaps it was because of the ext
ensive tram network in the heart of the city that the city looked more crowded and busier, but throughout my visit to the city I failed to see a single place or road where there were less than hundreds of people strolling, coming in and out from one contemporary building to another. And yeah, talking about the tram, it was simply awesome. Imagine in the middle of a hectic road where dozens of people squeezing in between the cars that made the traffics, suddenly this tram came and at once those movements turned into standstill, giving ways to the moving tram. And there are not merely three or four of them, I believe there are hundreds, connecting the entire city of Melbourne. Going back to the issue of public transport system just now, I found it rather remarkable that the whole extend of bus, train and tram are all set under a uniform regulation, which means that one ticket bought for any one can be used for the rest, albeit under the time limit. So if you have just arrived at the city from Clayton and wishing to sightsee around but are too tired or lazy to walk, there is always the tram to bring you around town. The best part is the frequency of this tram is fabulous, albeit not all of them go to the same destination; some sway to a different branch at a certain place. But mind you, those who do not hold the valid transport ticket as I mentioned earlier but choose to gamble taking a ride are sometimes busted and required to pay heavy fines. This is already experienced by a friend of mine there. A little bit about the transportation cost. Well as I mentioned, I found it somewhat economical, but I do not know, perhaps it was for me who came from Sydney. Those from different parts of the country, especially where the living cost is considerably low will of course find it the opposite way. For the record, the daily pass for the public transport in Melbourne which brings you anywhere around the city zone in he space of 24 hours is AUD$6.30, which is only a little bit higher than the total cost to go to merely one place in Sydney and come back home.
All in all my days in Melbourne even though brief, was splendid. Absolutely looking forward to come again next time!
ensive tram network in the heart of the city that the city looked more crowded and busier, but throughout my visit to the city I failed to see a single place or road where there were less than hundreds of people strolling, coming in and out from one contemporary building to another. And yeah, talking about the tram, it was simply awesome. Imagine in the middle of a hectic road where dozens of people squeezing in between the cars that made the traffics, suddenly this tram came and at once those movements turned into standstill, giving ways to the moving tram. And there are not merely three or four of them, I believe there are hundreds, connecting the entire city of Melbourne. Going back to the issue of public transport system just now, I found it rather remarkable that the whole extend of bus, train and tram are all set under a uniform regulation, which means that one ticket bought for any one can be used for the rest, albeit under the time limit. So if you have just arrived at the city from Clayton and wishing to sightsee around but are too tired or lazy to walk, there is always the tram to bring you around town. The best part is the frequency of this tram is fabulous, albeit not all of them go to the same destination; some sway to a different branch at a certain place. But mind you, those who do not hold the valid transport ticket as I mentioned earlier but choose to gamble taking a ride are sometimes busted and required to pay heavy fines. This is already experienced by a friend of mine there. A little bit about the transportation cost. Well as I mentioned, I found it somewhat economical, but I do not know, perhaps it was for me who came from Sydney. Those from different parts of the country, especially where the living cost is considerably low will of course find it the opposite way. For the record, the daily pass for the public transport in Melbourne which brings you anywhere around the city zone in he space of 24 hours is AUD$6.30, which is only a little bit higher than the total cost to go to merely one place in Sydney and come back home.All in all my days in Melbourne even though brief, was splendid. Absolutely looking forward to come again next time!
1 comment:
yeah ive been there once. it was really an awesome place. not to mention my dad was snoring in the tram and kept everyone watching. hahahah
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