my melbourne experience: arrival drama

i know this is way overdue but i am determine to blog about my melbourne experience before the year end. in fact i am trying to blog all my backlog entries which i’ve fermented way too long in the draft folder. i saw mushrooms all over the folder already. fo’real.

i’ve always wanted to visit a place other than asian countries. and it is one of my errmm… things-to-do-before-getting-married or things-to-do-before-30 kinda list :p and why are you laughing?! T___T and as i was browsing through AA as usual whenever i have free time in between work i chanced upon their AA Go package and it was found to be worth it. a 6D4N (return flight + accomodation + tour) package RM2199 per person. i was thrilled!!!!!! but who’s gonna go with me?! cos i know everyone that’s crossed my mind wont be available. *sigh* BUT…. i remembered there’s one person who used to say ‘if u are going to melbourne, count me in.’ and guess what, of all the people in the world, this time my travel partner was my boss!!! haaa….. beat that!!

we picked the end of august. it was the end of winter ushering in spring. the weather was cold 10-16 degree celcius. we were grateful for the 1st three days the weather was wonderful. the sun was out. but the wind was harsh it chilled to the core of my bones. thank goodness i brought my thermal wear i wore them almost everyday :p

hmm… so here are the things you need to do/bring (just a humble tips);
1. passport! duh!!
2. apply your visa. you do that here in just few minutes.
3. your printed itinerary by AA (important! and fyi, this was the 1st time i went for vacation on a package tour so i was being cautious and organised :p)
4. your winter attires (jackets, socks, gloves, hat, boots, scarf, thermal wear)
5. lip balm (if u have a crappy chappy lips like me which cannot stand extreme weather)
6. cash. please do not do the convertion at the airport. they charge higher. do it at you nearest money changer. i converted mine at kl sentral.
7. bring universal charger. different country different power point.
8. extra bag to store your shopping
9. a book / psp (eight hours yo!)
10. camera with big memory card storage! :p

eh, tell me if you are sick of my checklists ok. sorry. i am long winded and like to reapeat myself sometimes :p

there were some last minute changes on our flight prior to our departure dates. but all went well after that. we reached melbourne around midnight. so we actually lost one day in the flight alone T____T (i did feel i a little bit like being cheated but wth we arrived safe and sound so no harm at all)

this is how it looked like during check in at LCCT…..

such a long queue during check in but only 2 counters open.... *shakes head*

i still managed to catch a glimpse of the sunset 🙂

AAX

we arrived around midnight. oh i told you already :p while waiting for our luggages i took out labo and took some photos as that’s what a photographer do (wth) just to be called and warned by a sterned-school-principal-look-alike woman T_____T saying no camera was allowed at that area. ok. i just made a scene. fml. T_____T some of the tourists started to keep their cameras back into their pocket. ok. i just got caught because my camera appeared to be the biggest one T____T and there was indeed a sign of ‘no camera allowed’ there that i must have missed it.

and then the most unexpected event happened after we’ve got our luggages. jeng… jeng… jeng…. believe it or not we were being held for interrogation q&a session by the security personnels which we’ve no idea how and what prompt them to be so suspicious toward us. do i look like a drug pusher?! T____T we were asked for our passports and our itineraries (what for this one?). and then suddenly we were asked to walk on a different lane from the rest of the passengers. a red lines lane. while the rest walked on yellow lines lane. kns!! we felt like VIP and suspects at the same time T___T we were asked to open up our luggages. they rummaged every nook and cranny of anne’s luggage while me on the other hand was bombared with millions of irrelevant questions eg:
where are you from?
can you pls show us our passport? *flip flip*
what were you doing in Brunei? (KNS!! why only ask about Brunei? why not Sg.? Thailand? Hong Kong? Indonesia? T____T alang2 betul!)
what do you do for a living?! ( i was so tempted to lie i am a student. kns!)
do you bring USD10K cash? (i’m a broke employee…..)
what is your purpose to melbourne? (to bomb your country, can?!)
where do you stay here?! (sheesh…. !! was so tempted to say kaki lima)
who bought your ticket?! (OMG!! is this relevant?! do i look so stupid that i dunno how to purchase flight ticket!? huarrggg!!!!)
how did you come to know about this tour package? (kns la!)
and this last question was epic…. wait. for. it.
why do you carry such a big camera?!! are you reporter or something?! (i almost fainted with this one!)

after 20 minutes of long winded q&a session with hundreds set of eyes curi2 glanced at us whenever they passed us we were finally released. and the stupidiest thing was we didnt even ask why we were being held for such drama of all the people who just arrived T_______T kns!!

just so u know actually we were not the only people who were asked to open up luggage. some of the passangers too. the only thing that set us apart from the rest was that we were in a different lane and we were asked millions of questions T______T

we reached our hotel and was thankful that it was right at the heart of the city. and apparently only the two of us took the package on that date. great!

our room 🙂

hmmm… nothing much to do when u reach a place at midnight in winter time. so the next best thing was to sleep…. zzZZZzz….

i shall blog about my next experience in a diff post. before that. just to show you one more picture. a sneak peek. kns!

our first breakie 🙂

stay tune for my next MME, k. answer la… i need motivation T.T

be blessed, peeps!!