Melbourne Holiday Day Two

WARNING:  Our Melbourne Holiday posts are going to be very long posts, as I try my best to document down the things we did and saw, and places we went, the emotions felt, the people we met.  Just like our UK holiday in March 2010, this holiday tops our list.  I hope you enjoy reading them if only for a part of how we enjoyed ourselves. 


Thursday, 21st November 2013

Our holiday here in Melbourne effectively starts today (Day Two) since we touched down early at 6am.  In Malaysia, it was 3am and I was praying that the kids would be manageable.  They were not a big worry to us, as they are accustomed to traveling but never that I recall at such extreme hours.

I must applaud Vic for always being our little helper as she is ever willing to push the extra trolley, at the same time looking after her own backpack.  In her backpack, she has her deck of UNO cards in case we get stuck in boredom, her soft toy doggie (I only allowed one, so Heh Heh due to her fragile state have to be left at home), her pink hooded jacket and her socks, which she secretly added in.  She also carried with her, her own wallet which is attached securely to a security lanyard, and in it she keeps the AUD100 given by Yeh Yeh for this trip.  I thought it was a good idea that Vic keeps a little money in case of emergency and this also allows her to practice responsibility.

Back to where we left off - we collected our luggage from the conveyor belt then headed out to a bus stop, where we could conveniently wait for our friend Kelvin, or vice versa.

This is our second visit since the first in 2006 with Victoria (then almost 2yo).  It is William's first visit.  Look at all our tired faces here.

Chilly.  Great weather to start the holiday!

One of our luggage.  William the Spiderman has arrived. 

Excited!

Kelvin and his very capable, lovely wife EC would be our host for the next 6 days.  They have two very smart children, J & W who are in Year 5 and Year 4 respectively.  Our kids know each other, so this would be a reunion for everyone since Kelvin and family migrated here a year back.

The journey back to Kelvin's house in Doncaster (a nice, quiet suburb) took approximately 30 minutes (I wasn't really counting because my attention was focused outside and also listening to the men's catch up chats).

EC was waiting for us at home and had prepared a full English breakfast/brunch.  Amongst the many talents that this lady has, one is definitely her cooking!  She fed many of us whilst in Malaysia with local and western and even Korean dishes, not forgetting her desserts and cakes, and now in Melbourne, she continues to do so with all the tlc she puts in her dishes.

Free range eggs, bacons, stirfried mushrooms with zucchini and carrots, baked beans and toast, with a choice of fresh Australian cow milk or juice.

After a hearty breakfast, the men went out to pick up our rental car whilst the we went out to explore the garden behind the yard.  EC introduced us to the many fruit trees that were already growing there - we saw a lemon tree with really funny shaped lemons (this is really organic!), a peach tree and even an apple tree.  EC planted herbs too, and there were some wild mushrooms growing in the middle of the yard.

Remember the Lemon Tree song that almost murdered us in the late 90s?

We showed the kids wild mushrooms growing in the garden

About 1pm, Daddy drove home with our rental car.  We got a free upgrade (thanks to Kelvin for the corporate rate).  EC equipped hubby with a local sim mobile and a GPS with thoughtfully inputted destinations that we will be heading to.  We didn't have to use our GPS that we brought over (also with an Australian map that we updated a few days before).

VICTORIA - The place to be.  Victoria's name is on almost every number plate - how awesome is that!

This blue baby is gonna bring us places!

Since we had a little bit of time to kill, EC led us to the Westfield Mall, which is very nearby.  A little bit to shopping will definitely kick start any holiday, yippeeee!!  In that short time, I bought some undergarments for myself, some Christmas gifts, Christmas wrappers and cards.  There was a stall selling very thick, creamy homemade yogurt so Vic and Will picked one in strawberry and another in banana flavour.  Aaahhh... if only my homemade yogurt was just like this... : ) 

Around 3:45pm we left the mall, drove home to unload the stuff and parked the car.  Kelvin and EC's house is located near enough to J&W's school yet not too near as to be inconvenient by waiting cars.  We enjoyed the walk and William and I admired flowers along the way.  

Walking to school to pick J&W

This boy wasted no time in breaking a very obvious rule here.

Flowers along the way...

The anticipation to meet J&W after a year is great.  I wondered if they would still be their chatty selves with us, or will they be shy and reserved.  I wondered if J&W and V&W will mingle well, but there was nothing to worry when we meet them.  They were still their chatty selves and excitedly brought us around their school grounds, introducing the place to us as we went along.

J is in his Senior Year now, being in Year 5 and is also the Lunch Monitor for his class.  Both kids have good friends in school and blended in well.  Later at home, J showed me his work on his Ipad (the school uses Ipad from Year 5 onwards as part of their curriculum.  Special educational apps have been downloaded) including his essays and his collection of DIY dinosaurs. 

In the evening when Kelvin came back from work and the kids have freshened up, we loaded our cars and headed out in two cars to Ruffey Lake Park at about 6pm.  EC prepared assorted vegetable, assorted sausages, pork steak and lamb steak for a BBQ session at the park.  The kids had a blasting time at the playground.

This is really, REALLY fun!  I even sat on it and the kids pushed me along! 

Yaaaayyyyy!!!

J&W had no problem climbing up.  I helped the youngest one - William.  Vic was rather upset with that, and she was screaming her way up in fear.  As I took this picture, you can see she can't smile properly as she claimed she was "going to die."  LOL.

Our BBQ stove at the side and makan area.  The place is very clean eventhough it's open to public.  The responsibility is on whoever who used the place to clean up their own mess and the the BBQ stove. 

Succulent pork!

As you can see, God blessed us with good weather despite the gloomy forecast earlier.  Towards the later part of the evening, it became really cold but good that the kids had exercise on the playground which kept them energised and warmed.

Cooking was fun - onion rings, zucchini, fat juicy asparagus, eggplants, sweet capsicums, sausages. 

Back home, the kids had an easy evening...

... with Ipad bonding time!

And the parents had this!  We had a full tummy already but there's always room for wine and cheese and berries... (just a few of my favourite things)

Traminer Riesling, berries, nectarines and peaches, assorted cheese with crackers.  Yummzz!

What a wonderful day... and this was just the beginning!  Tomorrow we'll be off to Phillip Island. 

Melbourne Holiday Day One

The month of November is full of excitement, as you can see, we have had 4 days of break in Jakarta, then two weeks later just as our bums get a little more itchy we are off to Melbourne for 6 days excluding the flight days.

Wednesday, 20th November 2013

Almost a cancelled trip - a testimony

We departed KL at night via aircraft no D7214 at local time 1030pm.  We did a web check in earlier, and had one luggage to drop off at the counter.  When we were checking in our luggage, we were asked by the ground crew for our visas - which we then discover that we needed but had NONE!  No panic yet, as we asked the staff a few questions - is there a possibility of exemption, how to obtain the visas the quickest way, and we were then adviced to use the Premium Lounge internet access to apply for our visas.

We logged into the website provided, keyed in the necessary information and credit card details for payment of AUD20 per visa.  As informed by the ground crew, each visa took only 5 minutes to apply and approval was immediate once payment is received.  Total time taken was 30 minutes.  Thank God for the Australian government efficiency and fast internet.  Otherwise, getting to the airport would be as close as we got to Melbourne.

For those who intend to visit Australia, this is their Immigration Website to apply for visa.

Before we were told that we didn't have our visas

Walking to our aircraft.

William enjoys reading the brochures and manuals

Dawn.  Was told that I can see dophins and whales from up here but didn't see any.

Night flight is not easy, and I asked myself a couple of times why I picked the night flight as I tossed and turned and tried to keep my eyes closed, psycho-ed my mind into sleep in the plane.  The flight was full and a big group of boisterous Malaysian students were sitted in the rows behind us.  We didn't order food on flight this time but just in case the kids get hungry, I bought a red bean loaf and some buns just before entering the gate.  Both kids polished off the buns and a few slices of bread before dozing off.

It was obvious the kids were not very comfortable, neither was I but we all tried our best to take 40 winks.  Daddy sat across the aisle had a harder time because of the chatty students behind him.

They didn't sleep like this the whole flight...

Sometimes the boy was like this... and I was too cold to sleep

Other than this, flight was uneventful and we arrived at 6am local time on Thursday, 21st November, however we waited 15 minutes for the shuttle bus to ferry us to the terminal.  Sunny weather greeted us as we walked out of the terminal to wait at a convenient place for our friend Kelvin to pick us up.

Jakarta Day Four

Tuesday, 5th November 2013

Today is our last day here.  Our flight departs late at night so we have no choice but to extend one room for late check out.  We decided to extend Mama Yeh Yeh's room, which is the deluxe room since it is more spacious and we pay only standard rates.  We also receive a complimentary afternoon snack of our choice (finger food lar, don't expect gourmet cuisine).

Rating - so so only.  We didn't have much time to finish this, so ended up gobbling up whatever we can just before checking out in the afternoon.  There was another box of fruits which we finished as well. 

The Johnny Andrean experience

Our plan for today is any last minute shopping since we still had a lot of luggage space (see, we didn't shop that much after all) and a visit to the hair salon.  I got a tip from a friend to visit Johnny Andrean saloon for their creme bath treatment.

There was a JA outlet conveniently located at the mall adjacent to our hotel.  The night before, we dropped by wanting to make appointments but were adviced to just walk in.

Their price list

So this morning, whilst Yeh Yeh and Daddy went off to the malls, we ladies and our little 5yo bodyguard went over to JA at 10am and I asked for their creme bath treatment for all of us.  After all of us had our hair washed, we were asked to choose our treatment - whether it be for dry, normal or oily hair, based on their brochure.  Something prompted me to double check on their pricing as the brochure stated a different price.  It was then that we were told that they were out of creme bath material and we had to choose from their JA Treatment Series which, as you can see, cost almost double at IDR66,000 instead of IDR36,000.

Now, that got me furious, because I felt we were misled and conned to pick something more expensive, because I had explicitly and clearly stated the night before, and this morning when we entered that we wanted the CREME BATH.  Now there shouldn't be any language miscommunication, because we all spoke Bahasa and the name of their treatment was creme bath itself.  So now with our wet hair, we are asked to pick their higher end treatment or pay for their hairwash and walk out.  That professional, huh?

Well, since we were already there with, it was their Treatment Series that we had no choice but to pick.  But not after voicing my displeasure to them that they should have informed us upfront that they did not have their creme bath available when we walked in.  For a big name outlet in Jakarta, this is totally unprofessional.  At the back of my head, they just wanted to take advantage of us tourists but that's just speculation.

Having her saloon experience for the first time, in a foreign land somemore!  This girl is really blessed!  She thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the head massage. 

Another surprise we got was that blow drying of hair was not included in the price.  So we needed to pay extra IDR19,000 for a half dry, IDR36,000 for a full dry after the treatment.

William has his ipad session while the three generation of ladies have their hair treatment at Johnny Andrean.

The two men came back just as we were finishing, and the 6 of us headed to Mangga Dua Square to look around, have a simple local lunch at the food court before going back to our rooms to pack up.

Kids cleaned up and took their afternoon nap, whilst Mummy went off by herself to ITC for a last check.  I took the cab there and a tuk tuk back.  Wasn't easy to move around as the crowd has swelled in the afternoon, on top of the fact that this was a public holiday in Jakarta too.

I have bad directions so without my GPS-hubby, I had to make 1000 effort to get my bearings right at the same time squeezing in between the crowd and trying to shop too.

I bought an Ironman bag for William in this last trip - for only IDR60,000 (equivalent to RM18).

Our flight back to Malaysia was smooth but by the time we arrived LCCT, it was almost close to midnight and hubby went straight to purchase a premium cab for us.  When he told us to go out quickly to find our cab, I hesitated as we haven't collected our check in luggage.  So hubby had to run back inside to look for our check in luggage whilst the three of us waited outside.

At 11:55pm, we hopped into our cab just in time, before the rates doubled after midnight.  We were thankful that our cab driver had a choice to wait and charge us double, but he did not.  So guess what, we used him for our departing flight to Melbourne in our next holiday.

We arrived home close to 1am to clean house because our maid had clean up the house earlier.

Thankful

Weather forecasts from different sites showed rain and gloomy weather throughout our 4 days stay in Jakarta.  Instead, we had good weather of sunshine throughout and all glory and thanks to God for blessing us with great weather.   The earlier bout of purging did not persist and we were all in good health to enjoy this short break.

Jakarta Day Three

Monday, 4th November 2013

This morning after breakfast we decided to head straight to the Pasar Pagi Mangga Dua (translated as morning market, but effectively it's open from morning till evening like its popular brother ITC next door).

We took a Blue Bird there again.  Pasar Pagi comparatively with ITC is less crowded (or maybe because it was a weekday and working day) and cater more for whole sale because some sellers quoted prices for purchases in dozens.  It took me a little while to "understand" and had to work backwards to divide the price to get an individual price.  It's also harder to negotiated this way as you can see they already set the floor price for bulk purchases.  In particular I am referring to the stationery shops and undergarment shops.

We didn't mind buying 15 children panties but 15 school bags or water tumblers?  That's ridiculous, to say the least.

We moved in between Pasar Pagi and ITC after lunch, and continued to venture in between stalls sniffing out bargains out of bargains.  Oh yes, we also manage to buy a swimming suit for Victoria here too.

Hotel above the mall

After freshening up at the hotel, we proceeded downstairs to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.  We had half a roast duck, braised bean curd with mushrooms, pork ribs in some kind of sweet spicy sauce and green vege.  Rice was served warm and fluffy so no complains on this place.  Name of restaurant?  Sorry, no records but anyone who stays in this hotel won't miss it.  

Roast duck - not bad... crunchy, juicy, sweet. 

Bean curd

Pork ribs - sorry this was the last piece left before I realised I haven't taken a picture of this dish earlier

Green vegetable

Nothing much to do after dinner but to stroll around in the mall, and we chanced upon Baskin Robbins just before exiting.  Yeh Yeh asked the kids if they wanted ice cream... and guess what they replied?!

After a few rounds of flavour testing, Vic decided on a cookies n cream ice cream whereas William had the strawberry.  I think I influenced his choice as Daddy loves BR and HD strawberry ice cream.

That's all for Day Three.  Tomorrow will be our last day in Jakarta, and there's one more item outstanding on my list of to-do things.

Jakarta Holiday Day Two

Sunday, 3rd November 2013

The sun rises an hour earlier here in Jakarta so there's no excuse to sleep in, what with the building excitement of shopping at hand.

The malls open at 10am and closes at 6pm.  So what's the saying again? Make hay during the day??

Another testimony

Our room rates included breakfast, which is truly a bargain and only God led hubby to this obscure site late one night.  It was authentic, of course as he dealt directly with the hotel, but long story cut short again, confirmation of the rooms came as easy as filling a form, but he had to rush the hotel to take payment from our credit card (because the deal was so good, even Agoda and the likes could not beat this, and therefore we suspect the hotel management was trying to delay taking payment) to secure the rooms.

A few days before our arrival, hubby called the hotel again and there was no trace of our bookings, so a few more calls to their HQ in Paris, then Hong Kong and finally Singapore got our room bookings confirmed once more.  Imagine, money has been taken from our credit cards and yet they refused to honor the bookings. 

When we checked in, the reception upgraded one of our rooms to deluxe which was indeed very spacious.

Picture taken from Novotel Mangga Dua official website

Back to breakfast.  Kids received complimentary breakfast.  The selection was standard, could be better I would say, but at least they served pork.  I must add, they had traditional jamu (made from local spices and herbs) available too.

After breakfast and a quick freshen up in the rooms, we headed to ITC Mangga Dua, well known for its crazy wholesale prices.  We initially thought we could walk there, but maps could be deceiving despite the close proximity.  So the 4 adults and 2 kids squeezed into a Blue Bird taxi waiting just in front of the hotel, and we headed toward ITC.  I think the cab ride cost us around IDR40,000 (equivalent to RM12)  for a 5 minute ride.  Traffic was light as it was a non working day.   

Christmas trees and decos for sale. As with previous years, I bought some decorations to add to our tree.  I make it a point to add something new to our tree every year.  : )

Now, would you go to Jakarta and not eat their famous Ayam Penyet?  This looks simple but the chicken was surprisingly juicy and crunchy.  Cost IDR22000 (equivalent to RM6.6)

William had Soto Ayam which was a little bit too spicy for him.  Sigh, this boy needs more training in the spicy department.

Ayam Penyet stall at Level 7 Food Court, ITC

Shops selling clothes mostly, if not all, made in China.  I didn't buy any due to poor quality.

Looking down.  No retail space is spared. 

When we entered the ground floor entrance, on the left was this stall selling shoes and slipper.  One pair for IDR35000, and three pairs for IDR100000.  Their service is faster than Vincci's so don't be put off by the chaos and crowd.  You just need to get yourself heard.  We bought three slippers here, one for my MIL, one for Vic and one for moi.  Very comfortable, and designs are plentiful, so are colors.  Although our local night market sells these, but the ones here in ITC cannot compete with the measly selection we have back home.  

Kids were having a fun time at the pool with Daddy whilst Mummy and Yeh Yeh walked more at the mall.  This view was taken from our hotel room.

We got back to our hotel via tuk tuk around 6pm.  Yeh Yeh joined Daddy and the kids at the pool, whilst Mummy and Mama went downstairs to Mangga Dua Square Mall which was adjacent and linked to our hotel.  We were in search of a highly recommended massage centre, Lotus Reflexology.

When we finally located the centre, there was a 30 minute waiting time.  We paid IDR35000 for a 90 minute foot reflexology massage that included head and shoulder massage as well.  I must say, although it was dirt cheap (imagine, it's only a little over RM10 for a 90 massage, whereas we'd have to pay RM40 for a 45minute massage here in PJ) the quality was not there, or my masseur did a lousy job.

I was already put off by her when she did a half hearted job when cleaning my feet before entering.  Then just as she started, she wasted no time in asking me for tips, in Malaysian Ringgit!  The cheek of her!  I would have gladly given her tips if she had done a good job at the end, and without asking, but the fact that she asked in such an unashamed way, on top of the lousy massage she gave (when she chatted, her hands stopped and she disappeared for a long time at one point too)... I think the 90 minutes was definitely worth only IDR35000.

Having said that, I would still visit the place again, hopefully another masseur would be more professional and skilled.

We ended the day with Chinese dinner at a restaurant just opposite Lotus.  Food for nice.

Walking around the mall, we saw JCo, and Yeh Yeh bought half a dozen donuts for our supper back in the hotel room.

Donuts from JCo

That is all for Day Two.  Tomorrow we will head to another mall for another round of shopping.