Hey there! It seems like I'm combining day 5 and 6 again! This might be a fairly long post compared to the previous ThirstyInMelb posts but bear with. Both days mentioned here seemed too short to be on their own but hey, more visuals for you guys to wash your eyes with!
So the previous night at Zaki's house, his mom, Cik Rose felt that as hosts, she had to bring us around Victoria and after some serious discussion, the family felt it was best to bring us to Phillip Island, a place where they'd usually go as a family for a break.
Cik Rose picked us up from our apartment in the morning but before we made our way to Phillip Island, we had to stop by their place because Cik Rose left her driving license at home and apparently it's a big deal?? Clearly I'm not a driver because I was just like "Oh." But hey, thanks to this little mistake, Iffah and Liyana managed to get on Aqilah's trampoline again and I got some corn on the cobs leftover from dinner the previous night.
Onwards to Phillip Island! Cik Rose was gonna drive us around Phillip Island just as how she would've spent it with her family and Aqilah was the unofficial official guide for the day! Their family day on Phillip Island would typically start with some chippy at San Remo Fisherman's Co-Op, just opposite the island.
*Pro Tip*
Being Asian I guess there's always that need for spice in almost every meal. Australia does not believe in Chili Sauce. So bring your own packets or better yet, a whole bottle when you go out to eat, which iss what Cik Rose and her family does.
Cik Rose ordered for us some calamari rings, potato cakes (yUMMMMMmmm), fried flakes and of course, chips! It was so good but even this was a pretty big portion for like the 5 of us hahaha
The next stop was Panny's Chocolate Factory. It's for kids but what the heck it was so fun. The ticket was a chocolate bar and they had little robot penguins who would give you chocolates and even machines where you could draw with chocolate! At the end of the whole factory tour, there was a game room and we were the only ones there it was just so fun, like being in an arcade! You had to collect these wooden balls that could be exchanged for chocolate balls. Surprisingly, we actually won I think like 12 balls when we actually aimed for 4? Victory is addictive.
This was magical. According to Cik Rose, Cape Woolamai is popular among surfers but it was almost winter so the beach was empty. I repeat, the beach was empty. It was so windy and the sand was so soft, I couldn't help but take my shoes off and sink my feet into the sand. Standing on the smooth sand, feeling myself sink deeper, therapeutic. So while trying to take a gif of the waves touching my feet, I got myself wet, knee deep. Sobbles but no regrets. There ain't no beach like this in Singapore. BAE (Beaches in Australia are Everything)! This was also where Liyana decided that running for her vlogs was a good idea *rolls eyes* I don't even...
Moving on to Nobbies! Where you can see penguins if you're lucky! If you die-die wanna see penguins, there's a paid tour for that but we're on a broke student's budget so we settled with Nobbies and trying our luck with the penguins.
We managed to see some baby penguins in their tiny huts but I couldn't get a good picture, I'm sorry... We thought Woolamai blew our minds but Nobies literally blew us away, like we struggled to stay still, the wind was krayzay! After like, just 5 pictures, Cik Rose told us she was gonna nap in the car and we could walk around the WWF Centre. We were freezing so we went in to warm ourselves a little and decided to just chill in the cafe. Thus began our little gossip session with Aqilah hahaha what a scenic gossip sesh, overlooking the crashing waves.
We ended our tour of Phillip Island with a trip to Maru Koala & Animal Park! By this time, it was getting pretty dark and it started to rain so I didn't get the camera out but just enjoyed my time feeding kangaroos and singing to koalas and wombats while Liy, Iffah and Aqilah danced with parrots too. You'll see this in the vlog at the end of the series! Edited by Liy! This is me trying to make sure you keep reading my blog hahaha
ps, you'll have to buy the kangaroo food aside from the general admission tickets if you wanna feed the kangaroos and llamas
Zaki's dad kept telling us to try the meat packs and kebabs in Melbourne so Cik Rose brought us to their favourite kebab place in Officer called Officer Kebab (wow haha) but seriously, it's so good. It's so much more meatier and flavourful compared to the Pasar Malam kebebs you get in Singapore, 3 for $10 hahaha but of course this costs more but it's honestly satisfying. I got the lamb meat pack. It's basically the kebab meat with chips. I couldn't finish it so I saved some for breakfast the next day.
Ended the day with some shopping! Visited Target for the first time ever and I'm just disappointed at how there isn't a Target in Singapore, like that just doesn't make sense! Target is life! Went to K-Mart after that too! Ugh, I miss you Target...
As mentioned in our previous post, we planned to make use of our kitchen in our Airbnb apartment and since we were going on a full day tour the next day, we planned to cook some pasta to pack for the tour!
When you enter Queen V Market, you'll first be greeted by non-edible products. Things like clothes, posters, bags, flowers (although technically you can eat all of these things but would you?) etc. Honestly, I think getting souvenirs from Queen V is the best. The things here scream AUSTRALIA!!! Plus, it's slightly cheaper when you compare it to souvenir shops in the city area like Flinders Street.
After walking through the non-edibles, the real the fun begins. At the end of all the non-edible products, the doughnut food truck would be like "Ayyyye wassap gurrrrl" and you won't have any other choice but to queue up for the jam filled doughnuts and say "damn gurl you delish" you know? That's just the start! The magical world of food is right around the corner. The organic shed is behind the food truck and as you follow the general crowd, it should bring you to the fresh food produce or the deli hall.
Our shopping list for the pasta was basically tomato pasta sauce and pasta which we did not find at Queen V. We tried looking for a pizza place Cik Rose recommended but our navigation skills failed us; we couldn't find the shop. Instead, we found the dutch pancake stall that Zaki told Iffah to get while we were at Queen V!
South Melbourne Market is a slightly more higher end market compared to Queen Victoria. They sold local brands, the kind of brands you'd find in Haji Lane in Singapore. They had household items as well, fresh seafood, deli meat and PASTA!!!! We found this Italian shop that sold tomato pasta sauce and pasta so we bought that. There was a fresh produce grocer's in the middle of the market as well. There, we bought some garlic, onions and potatoes for some roasted vegetables to accompany the chicken we bought a few days ago at the Footscray Market near our apartment.
We were pretty beat from all the walking by now and decided to just sit around the market to rest our feet before heading to St Kilda Beach to watch the sunset. If you were wondering, yeah, we traveled to St Kilda from South Melbourne Market with our hands full of groceries hahaha
We enjoyed some corn on the cobs (yes, the same ones from Cik Rose's house) while a dozen of seagulls watched. We left the beach as last ray of light shone on the sea and the day was getting colder. Once we reached home, we began our epic cooking session. And for the first time in our lives, we used a dishwasher that night. After boiling pasta the way Iffah does it, baking our roasted vegetables (which was marinated with garlic, olive oil and curry powder) and making our bland but edible tomato pasta sauce.
That's all for today! The final blogpost in the ThirstyInMelb series will come soon and a vlog will be included in that one!
Hope July has been a good to you and may August be better!
See you
xx
Squidkid
We had to leave the house at 6am I think? And the sky was so pretty and it was pretty cold but so pretty!!!!
Write down in the comment section below if you disagree that Mother Nature is amazing, I kid. For reals though, my pictures don't do justice of how breath taking the Great Ocean Road was and to end of the day with such a sunset?? Iconic.
