Our itinerary for the day was to ride Australia's only operating steam train called the Puffing Billy. My youngest nephew Sean is "CRAAAAZZZZYYYY" about trains especially "Thomas the Train". When I say crazy, it is not just with a capital "K" but it is like an obsession type crazy. Pretty much like how Hitler was with Russia or how Communist are with the colour grey or how women are with shoes and bags. You cannot get past a shop selling trains without him going nuts and dragging his mother nose first into those shops. Coupled with the fact that they spoil him, he will whine and fuss to a point where his voice will go up into decibels that only bats could hear. "Sean the bat whisperer", that's what they will call him.
Anyway, the morning came and we drove about an hour to a town called Belgrave where Puffing Billy was and Mr Train was just thrilled (once he stopped whining about NOT wanting to go on the train. Kids!). The train ride itself was very uneventful. The view was nice, lots of trees and farm houses. It was a slow ride with the train rocking side to side. The ride was about an hour and we stopped, stretched a bit and then came back on the train the same way.
On the way back, I fell asleep. There are only so much rocks and trees and woodland creatures one can take.
On the drive back we saw a restaurant that said KL Noodle and Rice. We weren't sure if KL meant Kuala Lumpur or Koolalinga Lentilwawaga or something aboriginal. But when we took a look at the menu, there was no doubt. They served all our hawker fare, nasi lemak, chicken rice, dry wanton mee, curry laksa, fried beef ginger kuey teow. They all tasted just horrid but at this point, after suffering chicken breast, The Lot burgers and fries coming out of our wazzoos for the last 5 days, it was just great for us.
That evening we drove back to the city and walked around Chinatown see what the fuss is all about and I can tell you, there isn't anything to fuss. It was about 2 weeks to Xmas and there were hardly any decorations. It was positively sad. We chose a bad day to come to the city because of the weather. Of all the days we were here, the weather was never above 25 degrees. Today it was 40 degrees. It was cooking!!
In the evening (which since it was summer in Melbourne, evenings at 6pm was as bright as sunrise), we took a walk to Victoria Market to check out the fuss here. It was worth every painful step we took, every painful ankle agony and thigh muscle torture (we have been walking all day mind you). It was a "kwai-loh" pasar malam (or night market in Malay). Actually with all the Asians in Melbourne it did look like one of our pasar malam. They had Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Arabic food and these were those I had time to see. It was a very enjoyable time and even though there was a large crowd, it was nice not to be rushing from place to another.
We had a nice dinner of hawker fare and drove home in the hot, steaming night at Victoria Market. Thank God we are Malaysians.
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