From KUL to SIN to MEL - Day 1 in Southbank, Melbourne

25 January 2018

Hello hello kawans! Now that my long delayed Japan travelogue is complete, I can finally work on my Australia travelogue without feeling any guilt! This time round I'm feeling a little extra as I'll be reviewing the places we stayed and some of the restaurants we ate at separately. I feel that this way my travelogue would be less messy and easier for me to slot in all the photos we took during the trip without the post being too crammed up! So here's Day 0 to Day 1 of my Australia travelogue!




Since we were flying to Melbourne via Singapore Airlines, we had to transit at Changi Airport first. So after working out the cost, the cheapest way was to fly to Singapore via Air Asia, stay a night at my aunt's place in Singapore, then take a morning flight out to Melbourne. As we had quite a lot of time to kill, we decided to camp at Texas Chicken while I work on one of my postings. (and my mom finally got to try Texas Chicken, she wanted to try it so long ago!)

When it was about an hour til boarding, we walked over to the Tune Store to pick up our Travel Recommends pocket wifi. Ever since our Japan trip, we've been so spoiled with "pocket wifis"! Now each time we travel, we'll make sure to always book a pocket wifi because our whole fam is social media savvy. Yes, even my mom and aunt wants to update their snapchat and instagram while on-the-go.

But from my personal experience is...

If you're travelling to Melbourne, please opt for a local tourist sim instead of Travel Recommends. We paid RM26/day and 80% of the time, we couldn't connect to the internet via Travel Recommends! Moreover, getting hold of them to complain was so difficult that in the end, we gave up and called this a lesson. No point ruining the holiday mood over some pocket wifi sigh. Throughout the entire trip, we ended up leeching off my aunt's hotspot cause she purchased a roaming package.

After collecting our pocket wifi, we grabbed dinner at Nan Yang food garden. In case you'd like, I posted up a quick review on our meal here so you could check it out. Basically we had a pretty decent tasting plate of chicken rice but waited pretty long for it. So heads up to those planning to eat here, you might want to check with the staff on how long your meal will take before placing your order.

Once we were done with dinner, we quickly head to the boarding gate to wait for our flight. As soon as we got to Changi, it was already night time. We got a taxi to my aunt's place, and stayed the night.

 The next morning we got to Changi early to check-in our bags and grab breakfast before our flight to Melbourne.




For breakfast, we ate at the Krisflyer lounge. There wasn't much to choose from but the chinese in me just couldn't say no to fried noodles! Since there weren't any sunny side up, I just went for scrambled eggs lo. For drinks, if there's tomato juice as an option, I'll always say yes.

 One of my favourite pumpkin soup!

After breakfast my mom and aunt went to shop in Changi while my sister and I went to take some pre-flight ootd hahaha!

Then we waited to board the plane

Finally boarded! Face totally can't make it. I spent the entire night rushing some blogposts so my complexion looked super restless ugh.

I think personally for me, the most exciting part about flying is most probably the food. I don't know what you guys think la but I think in general meals on Singapore Airlines tastes pretty good. This time the menu cover art looks so qq because SQ is celebrating their 70th anniversary!

Not long after the plane took off, lunch is served! So after purchasing your air tix, you have an option to pre-book a seafood meal/vegetarian meal. My mom and aunt decided to book a seafood meal and their food arrived first. My sister and I on the other hand decided that we'd prefer to have a choice from the two menu options available on flight rather than having a surprise seafood meal haha. Plus, both of us aren't fans of fish so yeah.

Their seafood meal was a seafood omelette with veggies and mash on the side. 

We waited for a short while and finally our food is served!

So for those whom did not opt for seafood or vegetarian we got to choose between soy sauce chicken noodles or pan fried fish fillet in dill lemon sauce. Not a fan of fish, obvious I chose the chicken noodle option haha.

After lunch you get ice cream! I kinda wish that they'd serve Haagen Dazs again but I guess Magnum's okay too la.

Since it was a long flight, we were also served refreshments. Here's the seafood meal refreshment. I tried a bite of this and the taste was not bad!

OK I KNOW THIS LOOKS...uh...scary. But this actually tastes damn good!! For those whom didn't opt for the seafood option, we got to choose between Pork and beef meatloaf served with stewed beans and mash or Ee Fu Noodles with chicken and vegetables. I had chicken with noodles for lunch so since I didn't want noodles again, I opted for the meatloaf option.

But another reason why I opted for meatloaf was because growing up watching western films, I've always wanted to try meatloaf. I don't know why western people eat meatloaf on christmas, but they made it look so good on TV that I've always wanted to try but have no idea where to find it in Malaysia.

After arriving at Melbourne airport, we went to pick up our prebooked rental car. We booked our rental car from a company called Hertz and picked it up at the carpark opposite the airport.

Then we followed Waze and drove to Experience Bella Hotel Apartments. We booked a 2 bedroom service apartment and since during then we didn't know they had their own covered carpark (then again there's very limited lots so no point also since we got there so late), we parked our car at Crown''s Multi-level carpark, just right behind Bella Apartments.

Here's the master bedroom. The place has a minimalist monochrome touch to it which I really liked. For a full review and more photos of the place we stayed, parking options etc, feel free to read my review on it here!!

After we settled down our luggage we were a little hungry and decided to not waste the night!! So we put on some extra layers and walked back to Crown's Multi-level carpark, take the lift to the first floor and walked over to their food court. Here's some food we ordered to share:

Mushroom carbonara from a stall called Cucina Italian. I'm super picky when it comes to Carbonara. Though from a food court perspective, I guess you'd consider it average?? Definitely won't come back for it though.

Pineapple & Ham pizza from Cucina Italian as well. Taste wise it was pretty good but the crust was way too thick and stiff for my preference :(

Roast duck noodle soup from a stall called Ten Miles. I find the broth a little too oily for my liking, but overall taste wise this was pretty good. The store was also pretty generous with the duck meat! By the way the 'mixed rice/noodles' choices from their stall tasted pretty good and affordable! (will show pics in upcoming travelogue posting!)

Lastly cantonese fried hor fun with egg gravy. Couldn't remember which stall this was from but I find this average.

When we were done with supper, we walked back to Bella Apartments for our good night rest. As we're gonna start our road trip to the 12 Apostles the following morning, we needed to get as much rest as possible!

♡ Thanks for reading! At the mean time I'll just curl up and chug warm water cause I got sick again -.- 

Quick links:
Experience Bella Hotel Apartments Deluxe 2 Bedroom review
Nanyang Food Garden KLIA 2 Mini review

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