Melbourne - The mountain, the sea and the city Part 1 -The Preparation

Assalamualaikum, suprised? Me too. So lets not wait anymore so here is the first entry.

So, my friend and I has been planning the trip from 2018. At first we wanted to include Tasmania, as we want to see the Aurora Australis but since our budget is not enough sob sob so we just stick to Melbourne only.

As we are two single girls and we feel that driving is not a n option and plus, it is during winter, so we are a bit scared to drive in unfamiliar territory. So, we scouting for tours and we manage to get kind of awesome deals from Extragreen Holidays where we get 2+1 tours just by paying for two tours. It is a Malaysian company and from our researched they are the cheapest by far. So we manage to book:

1. Puffing Billy (C98)-30 (Chinese speaking )

2. Great Ocean Road(C96E) - 31 Aug (Bilingual speaking)

3. Gold Trail+ Ballarat (C80)-2 Sep (Chinese speaking) + 20 AUD for Ballarat Wildlife Park Entrance.

4. Mt Buller Sightseeing Day Trip(English):($68) x 2 Subtotal: $136

Optional item: Toboggan rental: PerPerson (AU$15) x 1 for 1 days

Book Online & Save: PerPerson (AU$-1) x 2 for 1 days

Subtotal: $13 Total Tour price: $151.98

All these tours from AUD 245 per person (~RM 700). Not bad, right. And another reason why they are so cheap, it is because we took Chinese speaking tour. Yes, it is true. I mean, we only need to know where to go and what time should we meet right so the language is not a problem. As Malaysia, we are used to listen and maybe understand a little bit of Mandarin. Plus my friend is studying Mandarin so it is great practice for her. We also book another tour which is 

We also manage to get MAS flight to Melbourne of RM 1, 500 each with 20kg luggage. Haha...it is because of countless hours of monitoring Skyscanner and ITA Matrix https://matrix.itasoftware.com/. Since only two of us, it just easy to discuss and booked it immediately. But I do have feeling that 20kg is not enough as I have planning to shop until I drop especially for Smiggle (I have 5 nieces....so you think?) and to tell you the truth, the extra luggage for MAS is not so cheap, so we just bought 10kg with seat selection on our flight back to KL and it cost us around RM 560 (yeah it is absurdly expensive) but that is what happen when you bought cheap flight but you wanted to shop a lot. We do apply visa before buying the flight ticket. I use online and it cost us RM 40 per person and it is quite fast. I mean I apply it on Saturday and got the confirmation on Sunday. Phew, one thing has settled as I heard that some Malaysian are having difficulties getting the visa and sometimes they have to appeal and maybe apply the expensive ones.

As for accommodation, As we plan not to bring any food from Malaysia, so we need a place that we can cook. The reason why not bring food, one because of limited space in our luggage and we know that we need to declare if we bring food and as we will reach Melbourne around 9pm and we imagine it will take long for immigration and custom and we might be leaving airport around 11 or 12pm. If we bring food it might take longer, we assumed. So we just plan to buy food from the local market and and we are still ok just to eat bread or maybe to try local food there. As we are not driving, so the location is important. It has to be in the city and can take public transportation at ease. So we booked City Edge on Elizabeth Apartment Hotel in Melbourne CBD through Agoda for 6 nights and it costs us around RM 1,500 so per person is around RM 750 (RM 125 per person per night). It is a studio apartment with kitchen and washer. So we can save space to bring less close.

So, when we prepared for the travel, there was a viral story regarding a group of girls has denied to take their flight to Perth by Australian immigration liaison in KLIA 2 boarding gate itself because they thought that maybe they wanted to go there to work as apple picker. So, we are quite sure that we do have a face of apple picker and one of my friend who went to Perth also has 30 minutes interview with the immigration officer after she arrived there. But luckily, she was ok and for her friend, they even asked for her phone's password to check the messages. So avoid to be send home we did ask our HR to prepare us a letter and print all the itineraries and make sure we knows what we are doing. I even bought a clear file for the trip hehe.

As my friend is from JB and our flight is at 9am so we booked a hotel (Barry in KLIA) in Sepang the day before and the hotel has free Airport Transfer to KLIA 1 & 2. THe hotel costs us RM 56 per night for two person. The hotel is clean but small but good enough for one night. The next morning the airport transfer is a little bit late but luckily our flight has been delayed to 10.15am so we are manage to reach airport in plenty of time.

That's all for now but I promise to update as regularly as I can from now on. I have another two more exciting trips in December and February. Want to know where, stay tune. Nest update is on the arrival and visiting Brighton Bathing Boxes and Puffing Billy Train... stay tuned!

Our excited faces....

The sign of the hotel apartment

Washing machine!

Requested for twin bed, extra AUD 30. The room comes with queen bed

The kitchen

British Isles Road Trip: Preparation 2

I hope it is not too late to say Happy Ramadan and it is not too early to say Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin. 

So, how is your Raya preparation? For me, I just wear some old clothes that I rarely wear, I mean seriously, Raya is just for newlyweds, children and parents. For single like me, I will go pray in the morning and have nap in the afternoon. Seriously.

I quite pumped up about my road trip even though I just found out that my brother's car has met accident. Nothing serious, just a dent and he needs to pay 50 pound for it while he get more than 500 pound  claimed from the insurance company. Sweet.

So, I just Google and do a lot of digging especially on Tumblr on which places we should go. So here is my top 5 places we should visit while vacationing in British Isles. They ae not in particular order.

1. The Dark Hedges

Seriously, I knew The Dark Hedges, pre Game of Thrones, I always fascinated with the mysterious around it. The Dark Hedges is a unique stretch of the Bregagh Road near Armoy, in Northern Ireland. Hope I can have a picture of me walking from the back. It would be so cool.

2. Tu Hwnt I’r Bont Tearoom, Llanrwst

 

Tu Hwnt i’r Bont is a traditional Welsh Tea Rooms situated in delightful market town of Llanrwst and the gateway to the beauty of Snowdonia, Wales. The cafe’s roof is covered in Virginia creeper which is quickly changing from green to red as the autumnal colours start to show. I doubt I can see the tearoom as in the picture but it would be thrill to have some traditional tea with with my brother and his family here. My treat!

3. Loch Ness 

Ok seriously, who went to Scotland without going to Loch Ness? Who knew, I might having a selfie with the monster itself?

4. Stanage Edge, Peak District

Large gritstone edges that overlook Hathersage in Peak District, Stanage Edge found fame as the scenic spot where Elizabeth Bennet, played by Keira Knightley, daydreamed of dashing Mr Darcy, , in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice. Me and my sister in law want to re-create this scene...yeah waiting for my own Mr. Darcy....

5. Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye

Fairy Pools, seriously beautifully crystal clear blue pools on the River Brittle. One look and you just feel want to dive in and stay they forever. Seriously, I can't wait to swim in the pool.

So, here are the top 5 places that I wanted to go and hopefully, it will come true!

British Isles Road Trip: Preparation 1

Looks who is coming back? Yap, it's me again. I know some of you might fed-up with me appearing like chipsmore, "sekejap ada, sekejap takde" I'm so sorry. I just lost it. Sorry!

But now I pumped up already yeah...after some Skyping and televideo through Hangout, it is already set, I'm going to road trip together with my brother around British Isles. For your info, my brother and his family is in Nottingham since last year as he is continuing his study for Phd. I plan to visit them next year because I miss them and especially my niece so much. Then I told them I might want to visit Scotland (yeah because of Outlander) and they said they want to come to...so wohooo road trip!

So what is British Isles? It just covers England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. See, my brother would like to go Snowdonia, Wales so we include that and I really want to go to Isle of Skye, Cornwall and The Dark Hedges. So after some calculation, it looks like we will cover up to 2000km. Yep, I'm planning to cover for petrol expenses and try to find out how much is the petrol cost in UK.

So far we just try to plan which place we would like to cover and how much it will cost. I try to play with Google Map and find out what our journey will be like.

If we cover all British Isles

If we didn't cover Ireland, ten it will become UK road trip

So far everything is still under planning and I will try to find more info for the trip. We plan to to do it in the month of May next year as the day is longer and before fasting month.

So, if you have feedback and info regarding this trip, feel free to comment. I welcome any ideas and tips.

Ok, bye for now!. I promise I will be back soon!