It was budget airline time again. We hoped on the budget airline, with budget fair, budget seats, budget food, budget taste, budget stewardesses and budget services airline bound for Melbourne. It was our second year in a row to the Land of Oz but we thought, "What the hell. AirAsia flies there and we are cheap so let's go for it."
We also thought that Melbourne offered a bit variety than Gold Coast. Gold Coast was very "theme parky" and "tourisy". Also holidaying with the Khor family is also very "zooey". You just gotta see some animals for goodness sake!
So, we all piled into our flight and arrived at Melbourne airport at midnight. Initially we thought we would rough it out in the airport, you know like sleep on the bench or the by the wall thinking that 10 people including 2 teenagers, 3 hyperactive kids and a toddler that will can speak to bats using it's high pitch sonic boom that will wake up all the neighbourhood dogs and some bats from out of town, will go by unnoticed. You know it turns out that Melbourne Airport is not like those of 3rd world countries where you can loaf around. They will kick you out or worse, lock you up.
Staying in the airport hotel was not very advisable either seeing that it was an Hilton and with the exchange rate the way it was, it would probably have cost me some pints of blood for that one night stay. Fortunately, I have a very good friend who is in Melbourne and has a very comfortable and nice place. Some of us roughed it out on the floor in the living room. Just like old times....at least for us adults. For the kids, it was a novelty and hence it was fun. Win for all. So Chee Keong and Mimi opened their house to 6 kids and 4 adults, one of which snores loud enough to turn on mating hippos.
We woke up early and was driven to the van rental place and got our ride. We piled everyone on board and away we drove. We stopped at the rest stop, when both drivers were totally zonked out. It was so bad that I fell asleep WHILE talking!! So we pulled over, slept, woke up, had some really delicious coffee with whipped cream and ice cream and sandwiches. You know when you purchase coffee from Starbucks and they give you this white thing to COVER the coffee cup for you to take away? Do you know what that white thing that is used to COVER the coffee cup called? You would think it's call a "COVER" and you would be an language impaired imbecile! It's called a "LID" in Melbourne. Remember that!
We drove south and took the Great Ocean Road which is the coastal road that took us East to Warnambool. We were passed many really cool sceneries and even saw wild dolphins. At one juncture we took a spontaneous turn to visit a lighthouse and saw a wild koala posing for us. We suspect it's a professional koala hired out during tourist season. After enduring strong winds from Antarctica, we decided to visit a popular tourist attraction call "12 Apostle" where 12 (now only 7 is left) rock formations jut out from the sea, to encounter winds strong enough to strip you naked. The wind here is so strong that toddlers will find it remarkably difficult to walk.
My chopstick son had to hang on to me for his dear life. Nobody's laughing at the aerodynamic one now!!! It was evening then and our van was running on fumes. We finally found a town that had one diner (but didn't have a washroom), which was also a petrol kiosk which was opposite a convenience store that double up as a take away pizza place.
We arrived at Warnambool and dinner was really expensive and bland! Can't complain since every bloody restaurant kitchen closes at 9pm and since it was summer, darkness only came after 8pm. No one eats dinner when it's light out right??? It was a nice motel that we stayed in as our holiday got underway.
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