Melbourne - Phillip Island Part 1

I found that last entry is unbelievably long so for this and the following entries, I will break them down into parts so that the reading won't be too long and cumbersome.

Anyway, picking up from where we left, we drove a long long way back from Great Ocean Road to Melbourne City. There were several discoveries along the way:
1) Their expressways are nothing like the expressways that we see in Malaysia or Singapore. The expressways only have one lane for each direction and rely solely on reflectors to light up the road(no street lamps at all).
2) Their truckers drive either REALLY FAST or REALLY SLOW.
3) No matter how fast Australians drive on the road, they will obey all the speed limits in suburban and city areas.
4) It's much easier switching lanes when driving in Australia compared to Malaysia.
5) Parking in Melbourne City is FREAKING EXPENSIVE - we're talking about 2 AUD an hour AT LEAST here. Luckily we managed to find the cheapest parking lot in the city and paid a flat rate of 5 AUD after 6pm.
6) Some parking spaces only allow you to park for 1 or 2 hours max. Talk about inconvenience...
7) Hook turn. I literally went WTF when I was first told about it.

So we reached Melbourne City at night and met up with Myn Wee and Terence(who are awesome hosts and helpful in every way possible) for dinner. We went to this Greek restaurant(forgotten the name) and all I remembered was that I had meat, LOTS of meat.
Meat platter - every carnivores' wet dream.

After dinner we went for dessert and hot chocolate at San Churro
The hot chocolate was gooooooooood. If you ever go there, get the thicker hot chocolate - very very rich and sinfully delicious.

And this was our dessert - Chocolate and Churros. Churro is also known as the Spanish Donut.

After dessert we decided to call it a night and get some rest. The next morning we went to Queen Victoria Market for breakfast.
Queen Victoria Market(or Victoria Market) sells a wide variety of things. It can be divided into four main parts: poultry, meat & seafood; fruits & vegetables; cooked food & pastries; and finally souvenirs.

We sat outside and enjoyed some sunshine(and great light for photos too).
The little red riding hood and uhhhhh... the big bad wolf?

There's also a legally blind(or at least close to it) singing his rendition of Enrique Iglesias' Hero, earning a fair bit of shillings from passersby.

After breakfast we began our journey to Phillip Island.
There was one problem though - it was raining on and off; and the mood was generally gloomy in Phillip Island(not to mention my mood too thinking of the prospect of exposing my camera to potential downpours).

Regardless, we were already in Phillip Island and determined not to put the day to waste. First stop in Phillip Island: Churchill Island.

Churchill Island was the first European settlement in Victoria. Here we saw the first house built and its expansions.
That was the first home... more like room because that really was all. The table and the fireplace were all within one room. And a whole family lived in it, a WHOLE FAMILY!! We would've moaned and whined if someone else is sharing room with us... how pampered.

This was the device they used to tell time:
A sundial, which relied on sunlight to generate shadow that would point to the numbers to indicate the time. And if it was rainy day, like the day we visited, there's absolutely no way to tell time unless you're rich enough to own a watch.

We also visited the farm to get an idea on the activities they did to sustain themselves.

Then we had lunch at a fish and chips restaurant in Cowes. The fish they served were very fresh and received Elaine's seal of approval. She was even happy enough to pose for an advertisement shot:

After that we proceeded to the Koala Conservation Center to find...
Koalas!!

But a big one found Yen Ping:

Koalas are generally a lazy bunch... sitting and hanging about on tree trunks and tree branches. Apparently their diet consists of about 1kg of leaves per day so they have to conserve as much energy as possible by minimising their movements. Their lack of motion makes them hard to spot.
Yi Wang and Yen Ping trying hard to spot one.

And then Yi Wang found one:
He was immediately infected by the motionless Koala and induced to sleep.

Then we found one sitting around rather than hanging about on the branches:
Motionless as ever.

Then the rain got heavier and we had to run back to shelter. The rain was also the reason we visited the following place. Stay tuned to find out where that is. ;)