Royal Botanic Garden Melbourne

I believe Royal Botanic Garden Melbourne is one of the biggest. We were there for half an hour and I have already taken quite a number of pictures. Based on the map (click on the above link) there are a lot of floral and attraction to see. We were quite tired on that day as we have walked from 9 am until 4 pm so we decided to call it a day. Hoping that we will catch it in the remaining days in Melbourne, sad to say that we did not. So below are some of the pictures that I got. So for those who love flowers, this should be one place that you should visit when you are in Melbourne.

Temple of the Wind and some of the interesting flowers below.

Birrarung Marr Melbourne

Birrarung Marr. is a small park but I believe is one of the newer one around in Melbourne. It is near the junction of Flinders Street and Spring Street. You will need to walk across a flyover that connects Flinders Street and Exhibition Street.

There are a few attractions; most likely Federation bell will be your first stop. It is consists of 39 bells which will ring 3 times a day. Refer to the link above for more information.

And the next is Angel a three legged and 10 meter high sculpture. Click on to the picture you will find a another picture of Angel.

The next attraction is Doryanthes excelsa, its a native plant of australia.

Crushed Shell path, its just a small path leading across the park.

My Father 2nd year death anniversary on 8th November.

This is the 2nd year and I still felt although it has just happened. Especially when I see an old man walking past who has difficulty in walking. Why not I, be by my father side helping him, lending my shoulder while he was limping, walking around? My father is a stubborn man; he does not even want to use a cane to assist him. I believe I inherited that character of him.

Person or things like health that we have now will always be taken as granted. Why we need to wait until it has been taken away from us before we realize it? There is a lot of “why” post to our own self when it happens. For those who work hard and who uses the excuses that is for the future of the family, I believe that it is not 100% true. There are some “I” and not totally “We” in those excuses. The company will one day stop loving you but the family will not….

Some may asked why do I still recall the sadness from the past. I am trying to use the past to correct the present and the future.

Last Part of Fitzroy Garden Melbourne

Fitzroy Garden is quite huge there are numerous attractions; this is a quick post to finish off Fitzroy Garden. This is the first day and I was a kid at a Candy Store, clicking everything on sight. I captured almost close to 60 photos just at Fitzroy Garden.

Below is some of the attraction in pictures.

Tudor Village, miniature model of various types of houses.

Sinclair's Cottage, this is free, hahaha.

Dolphin Fountain

The above is Boy And Pelican one of the Sandstone Sculptures

Actually there are more, umm but I think I do not want to bore you guys some more with Fitzroy Garden hahaha...

Scene from Hotel@ Melbourne

Every morning, when we woke up we will see this scenery outside our Hotel Window, Tall building with blue skies.

And when we comes back this is what greeted us, a soft bed

and the Tall building changes its appearance

And finally we also doze off to dreamland and the clicking sound from the lift accompany us for the night.

Some food during my trip to Melbourne

Some may ask, what did I eat during my stay in Melbourne. I think one of the good points is that there are a number of restaurant that uses organic material and does not use MSG. I have did a search before I went down and I manage to find one such restaurant at the Federation Square, it is called Bok Choy Tang Restaurant.


I am shown here eagerly waiting for my lunch on my first visit to the restaurant. The restaurant is nicely decorated with Chinese paintings, furniture and etc which enhance the chinese feel to it.

The above is stir fried chicken with dried chilis.

The above is 2 types of Vege with differrent type of Mushroom.

This is the drink that my wife ordered, on the right is the before and left is after....

Siew Mai with a differrence, it has rice in it...

Wan Ton Noodles, the soup is not like those in Malaysia. You can actually taste the chicken in it. It feels like it was boiled for a long time with the chicken taste slowly absord into the soup.

A piece of clothes that I believe are meant to be place on top of the table. I believe it’s quite suitable for a person like me who is a bit dirty especially dining on wooden tables.

A fish, cannot remember the type of fish, hahaha.
That's all the food I have at Bok Choy Tang Restaurant.

Ah another interesting noodles. This I took along the way to the Great Ocean Road. This is actually Hokkien Mee Australia style, hahaha

I have only ordered this once, spring water. I thought its like mineral water but it looks like it is actually another form of Soda water. Anyone, is it right for me to say so? It got gas or bubble bubbling around it and its sodium contents is quite high...

I have eaten some other foods which is non organic during my trip but I am treating it as “a no choice scenario” as there are no way that I can go on a 100 organic diet while traveling. This trip is like a celebration of a sort, 2 years plus cleans from Cancer. Anyway I spend a few trips to mix rice stores located near China Town that charges only 7.90 AUD for a one time “fill up” of all the dishes available. It’s another type of all you can eat. I actually I gained 3 pounds when I am at Melbourne that is even with all the walking and sight seeing……

Cooks' Cottage @ Fitzroy Garden Melbourne

One of the main attractions is Captain Cook’s cottage. I believe the authority have weigh the historical significant of it and charges 4 AUD per adult. I was quite disappointed though as there is nothing much things to see to justify the cost. Anyway we paid for it and below it some pictures of the rooms inside it. There are 2 floors. The first floor is the dining and second floor is the sleeping quarters and study rooms.

The above is the exterior of it and it was quite well kept, all the bushes was well trimmed.

This is the first floor, which I believe is the dining place.

This is the second floor. You could see books, clothes scatter around and surprisingly plates that have Chinese design.

And Captain Cook himself keeping an eye on the place. And below is his ship….docking at port Philip……

Fitzroy Garden @ Melbourne Part 1

Fitzroy Garden is located right across Treasury Garden. It is much bigger and has more attraction than Treasury Garden. One of them is the Fairies Tree. I have another picture of it posted at my photo blog. I am not sure how it was carved but I bet children will definitely spend some time scrutinizing it and probably hoping that that fairies would pop up and fly around.

Next attraction is the conservatory, there are a lot flowers being displayed in there and below is some of the flowers that I have captured in digital.

Here is all the beautiful flowers, sorry I do not know the name...







Will stop here and continue later...

Treasury Garden @ Melbourne

Treasury Garden is the first garden that we went to as it is situated right across the street passing over the tramlines. It is situated just below the Treasury building. It has nothing spectacular just a few rows of trees and some interesting statue. For example Robert Burns Memorial Statue below

There are also some nice looking birds running around playfully flying just above us and frolicking around with each other picking up what I believe is their food from the grass.

It was our first morning in Melbourne and a sunny one when we stroll across it. The coldness brought from the wind negated by the sunray from above. It was a good way to replenish our energy and for our body to adjust to the time difference. Walking pass rows of bushes we came across a statue, which is located deep in one corner that seems to honor JFK, funny isn’t it. Anyone knows?

*Updated at 6:38 pm pictures of JFK memorial Statue for Wuching*

Parks and Gardens in Melbourne

What surprises me when I was in Melbourne, is the number of public parks or gardens available. During my trip, I stayed at Mercure Hotel Melbourne located at Spring Street. And right opposite it there are 2 parks, Treasury and Fitzroy Garden. And if you pass by it during lunchtime on working days you could see a lot of office worker basking on the greens enjoying the sun. We are the opposite; we will hide from the sun. Asian despises sun like Dracula. We look at Sun as a weapon that was created probably by the cosmetic company to create enough wrinkles for us to start buying their products like moisturizer, cleanser, anti aging cream and etc.

What so great about parks and gardens in Melbourne? I personally like the flowers, trees and occasionally sculptures or statue, which stretch my imagination. I love the flowers because of its color that I could not find in Malaysia. I believe it could be due to the difference of our weather here and Melbourne. Their colors are naturally more saturated and highly contrast. Its sculptures and statue is uniquely different, pieces of art designed and created for the majority of the public and not solely for those who study art.

Generally so far the parks in Melbourne are nicely maintained. I seldom or I did not see any overfilled rubbish bins or waste on the ground. There is only one thing in which it was robbed of its glory. When I was there, water restriction was announced hence there are fountains that were stripped to its bare. No sparkling water spurting out and catching the sunlight, creating man made rainbow…and I guess the grass is always greener on the other side no matter what.

Day Light Saving

For me I only saw this word from in short wave radio schedule. I do not understand what it is back then. When I was in Melbourne, I experienced it; we practically lost an hour of traveling time. If we did not board the city circle tram and feeling a bit friendly ended by chatting up with the lady conductor we might end up missing our flight back home. Our flight back to KL is just one day after they move forward the time. Oh by the way the city circle tram is free and it has been in business many many years in Melbourne

We actually wonder how one knows when to change their clock and watches one-hour forward. I actually checks with a friend of mine in Melbourne and he said that it always occurred on the last Saturday and Sunday of October. So I guess if one forgets about it they could catch up on Sunday, probably that is the reason why the time only changed at 2 am on Sunday, at least giving it a full day (on Sunday) for one to be aware of it. If not some of us might clock in an hour late for work.

I guess most homes in countries that practice it, might have only 1 clock if not they will be spending a day changing all the clocks, watches, gadgets and apparatus that have time on it. Does anyone knows why there is such practice, a search at wikipedia have quite an extensive explanation.