As I have promised, here is my post about my second vacation during the summer break! About two months ago, I have had a 12-day solo trip to the Melbourne, Australia. Well, it was a reward for myself after I have successfully passed my second year in medical school. Also, this is actually my final three months of holiday because third year onwards the summer break will be shortened to a mere five weeks. #sadlifeahead Anyway, let's get back to the topic before I digress further. I will break it down into several parts since cramming 10 amazing days in Melbourne with a cornucopia of stories might take forever to complete and it may explode your mind! Jokes aside, I will also include my expenses while I was travelling around this lovely city! Hopefully it will give you an insight on how much it will cost you to visit Melbourne, Australia. All the expenses will be converted to USD.

I have purchased my return flight ticket via the AirAsia back in May which cost me about RM1204  ($283). It was a seven hour journey from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Melbourne, Australia. If you buy your flight tickets earlier, it might only cost you under RM 1000 ($235). I departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2) on 2/7/2015 at 10.30 in the night ALONE.

Day 1
Living in the tropics for all my life does makes me wonder what is the feeling of staying in an area with four seasons, especially winter since it is hot throughout the year in Malaysia! Fortunately summer break in the UK means winter in the Melbourne. Hooray. The plane landed safely around 8.10 in the morning at the Tullamarine Airport (also known as Melbourne Airport). After entering the airport, I have to go through the custom and it was so crowded with people and there were ferocious dogs sniffing around for illegal stuffs. By the time I have passed the custom it was already 8.30 in the morning. Then I proceed to get my checked-in luggage and it took me another 10 to 15 minutes. The temperature in the airport was just right and I thought it would be the same as the outside. The moment I exit the airport, I felt the cold and was shivering until I have my jacket on.

Since my friends were lazy enough to not fetch me from the airport, I have to board a shuttle bus to meet my friends on this foreign land which kind of terrified me! Luckily, it was actually pretty easy to spot those shuttle bus. All I have to do was to cross the road in front of the airport and turn to the right to see a fleet of shuttle buses waiting for you. I took a single trip to the Unilodge Swanston via the Starbus which cost me AUD$20 ($14) but if you purchase a return ticket, it will much cheaper overall. But the driver cheated me and dropped me off at the Faraday Street where I was told that I have reached Unilodge Swanston instead.

After wandering around to look for my friend's apartment (thank god I got his address before I came) but to avail, I ended up asking several kind souls on the street for the directions. Much to my delight, after walking for few minutes, I met my friend and we stopped at his place to put my things before we went out again to start my trip!

Melbourne University
Our first stop is definitely the eminent University Of Melbourne! My friend who was studying there brought me to visit around the university which consisted of several huge buildings. The things that I found interesting was that almost each of the lecture halls were named after a place. There were Malaysian Theatre, Singapore Theatre, Brown Theatre -just to name a few. It was unfortunate that I could not see the foliage and flowers around the university as it was winter and all I could see was nothing but dried naked trees.

Except for these three trees!

Monash University
Before we started our journey to Clayton in order to meet another buddy of mine, first we visited a seven-eleven shop and I got my own Australian mobile number as well as a MYKI card so that I can use the public transport. After glancing through the plans, I decided to opt for Optus mobile carrier as it was cheap (only AUD$2) and the MYKI card cost me about AUD$26 ($18.5) where AUD$6 ($4.3) was for the card and the remaining AUD$20 ($14.3) was for the credit.

MYKI Card

Flinders Street Railway Station

Then, we walked for about 15 minutes before reading the famous Flinders Street Railway Station boarded one of the trains to Clayton. After reaching Clayton, we walked around to explore a bit of the place while waiting for the other friend. The weather is a little bit insane right here as the temperature suddenly dropped from 10 degrees to 6 degrees. What might seemed to be a small change actually left me feeling colder and colder to the point that I was shivering! Right after we met with our friend, three of us dashed into an Indian restaurant to fill our empty stomachs (part of the reason we picked the restaurant was because it was so warm inside!), Anyway, we tried the delicious spicy Indian curry and goat cheese with spinach puree which were so good compared to any Indian dishes that I have ever had.

Indian delicacies!

After we have done eating, we went to visit my friend's university, the Monash University! I have to say that Monash's compound was enormous! You literally can call it a city with convenient public transports. There were various buildings for the university offered an array of courses for the students. In addition, there were also university shop where it sold all sorts of products ranging from clothings to books.












Brighton Beach's Bathing Boxes
After wandering around Monash University and its hostel, Brighton Beach was our next destination which was not that nearby. We had to take a bus and a train before reaching Brighton Beach railway station and walked for half an hour before reaching the famous tourist spot where it has 82 unique bathing boxes with different designs. Along the journey, we saw various kinds of opulent bungalows by the beach! Much to my dismay, the bathing boxes were locked and they were solely made for display purposes only. However, they does brighten up the beach and it was getting colder and colder as the wind was blowing violently !

Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes!

Panoramic view!

Free Fireworks Under the Stars at Docklands
When it was getting darker , we left the beach and headed to Docklands to watch the Winter Fireworks which marks the beginning of winter season in Melbourne. It was held on Friday each week from July till August. There were hundreds of people coming from all sorts of place gathering at the waterfront. The fireworks illuminated the dark sky with vibrant colours from 7.30 in the night and it lasted for a good 15 minutes. It was probably one of the best fireworks display I have ever seen! Once it has ended, we went for a simple dinner before heading back to our hostel and called it a night.