Cuti Melbourne 2014 - Arrival

October 30, 2015

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Pending travel posts, as usual. Last entry was made on April, then draggggg all the way to October. No, I did not surrender to blog eventhough I haven't been blogging faithfully.

Busy. No time.

Cliche.

But that's the truth.

Ok, now I have time. Like 30 minutes? Well, I have tons of emails and whatsapps to reply sebenarnya, but I decided to jump start the traffic here a bit. Hehe. May I shall turn this blog into travel-blog jugak lah kot, cewaaahhhh macam lah hang jalan banyak sangat Shilaaa. :P

Ok day 1 in Melbourne. Touched down early in the morning, went through immigration clearance smoothly with minimal queuing time, collected our luggage at the bag conveyor area (nasib baik semua dogs behaved haha), passed through the arrival gate with no problem.

Maka selamatlah berbotol dan berjenis sos dalam luggage tu hehe. Yeah, I am so Makcik Bedah like that. Wait until you see my luggage to Paris hahahaha. Tu lagi Joyah Bedah Senah semua. :P

TIPS 1: Even if you travel in a big group, like kita orang ada 11 orang, SEMUA FOODS kita PACK into 1 luggage. Just in case kena buka luggage and declare, you know which bag contains all the must-declare-items. Foods all new, sealed and with English written labels. Maggi bawak, sos tomato, kicap, cili, tiram, segala bagai bawak hahaha. Tapi food items yang ada seeds, meat apa semua kami tak bawa lah. Formula milk bawak. All passed through.

TIPS 2: Yang penting declare. Dekat custom clearance form tu, declare je lah apa yang patut nak declare. Medication, formula milk, foods, konsep dia jujur sejujurnya. Kalau kena soal kita buka bag, yang penting declare.

TIPS 3: Formula milk. For consumption atas flight, I dah pack into small plastic bag, so lepas dah bancuh susu tepung tu, plastik tu buang saja. Tak payah nak masuk bag balik. Buatlah ikut agak-agak anak nak minum berapa kali atas flight tu. I tak guna milk dispenser tu, takut tak lepas dekat custom tu, mana la tau dia kata ni ada balance usage formula milk ke apa kan. For consumption selama bercuti dekat sana, bawa yang pack/tin susu baru. Yang belum buka la senang cerita.

TIPS 4: Rajin-rajin lah check pocket bag or luggage, takut-takut ada bekas foods, or maybe tea bag kita kutip kat hotel waktu percutian sebelum ni ke apa, or apa-apa yang prohibited items that possibly being left in the luggage. Nanti takut kena charge pulakkan. Contoh macam tea bag, rasanya tak boleh sebab seed items.

Ok done with airport part. Tunggu luar airport for the person in charge of our minibus to arrive. 12 seater van tu haaa kita orang sewa. Memang seronok. Rasa macam Rombongan Cik Kiah sangat hehe. Nasib takde banner, otherwise I will surely gantung luar van tu haha.

Van ni kita sewa from this Indonesian guy, a friend in Melbourne yang tolong arrangekan. Refundable bond taken, free child seats, unlimited KM, cuma it's a van like lah. Tidaklah feeling-feeling rasa nak Volkswagen ke apa, but hey who cares, konsepnya janji sampai destinasi hehe. Lesen Malaysia diterima.

Then, kita orang pergi Northland Shopping Centre, Preston, sebab nak makan. PAPPARICH. My second born was looking for Roti Canai Dhal. Time tu Aiman tengah suka makan roti canai, so dah sampai Melbourne pun nak cari roti canai. Nasib lah hadooo. Semua pun tengah lapar, sejuk pulak, memang sedaplah kena Malaysian meals gitu. Unfortunately no photos, sebab one of the folder masa mula-mula sampai Melbourne I tak sure transfer to which laptop or external disks. Cari pun tak jumpa. Tsk...

Habis makan, singgah Woolworths (tapi tak ingat dekat mana hehe) untuk beli barang makanan seminggu. Roti, susu, veggies, seafood, beras, biscuits and few other things. Eh, tak few other jugak sebab senduk pun I beli haha. Settle agenda dekat Woolies, kita orang pergi Sydney Rd pulak. Dekat sini banyak Halal Butchery, so kami stock up siap-siap ayam and daging untuk seminggu. Almaklumlah, pergi dengan rakyat jelata yang ramai, semua kaki makan nasi, so kena lah masak.

Atau mungkin kami trauma terus hahaha tengok bil Papparich AUD250 masa lunch tadi, untuk 11 orang makan. Well yeah, when you start converting the rate, terus rasa macam, apekahhh makan dekat RM700 Papparich je, sebab tak boleh imagine spend that much kalau dekat Papparich Malaysia haha. So konsep dia, nak travel ni jangan rajin sangat buat Math and currency conversion, regardless teruk mana impak sakit jiwa dia hehe.

TIPS 4: Sekarang kan ada Google Map, before kita orang pergi tu, puas dah I explore Google Map tu cari rumah, cari butchery mana nak pergi, siap boleh zoom dalam kedai. But not all shops lah, ada some tu siap nampak dalam kedai jual apa. Zaman dah maju, tinggal kena rajin explore sikit online.

TIPS 5: Phone and data usage. Dalam 2-3 hari before departure date, I dah call Celcom careline, untuk dapatkan cara-cara guna data flat rate RM38/day. Unlimited. Masa ni bagi budak-budak layan Youtube memang puas hati lah. Nanti customer service guy tu akan ajar which service provider to choose masa dekat Melbourne. I pun tak ingat, Telstra ke Vodafone tah. For call and sms rate tu cheaper a bit than the normal rates. Just call them je lah, dia akan ajar how to ON and OFF kan data roaming package semua tu. Ini postpaid Celcom, prepaid I tak sure hehe. AND make sure you mintak dia orang increase kan credit limit phone. Just ask, they will calculcate kan for you the maximum amount yang boleh. (tip ni apply to all other countries jugak, not just Aussie).

So done with all the above, maka kami pun balik rumah. That beautiful Yellow Door House. Malam tu dinner kita masak ramai-ramai, then lepak je rehat-rehat. By 4-ish dah nak gelap pun masa tu, sebab Autumn kan. Rasa macam dah lama dah malam ni, sekali tengok jam baru pukul 7pm hahaha. Rasanya dekat Melbourne je yang semua orang bedtime pukul 8pm. Tapi first day je, the days after semua kita orang merayap sampai malam.

So yeah, itu saja untuk Day 1. Takde pergi mana. More to settlekan rumah, kereta and stock up foods.

See you next entry. I still hutang banyak entries; Melbourne, Paris, Brussel, Singapore, coming up next ada 2 destinations lagi Inshallah jika diizinkan Tuhan. Konon macam kaki travel sangatlah hahaha. Takpe lah, berangan bukan kena bayar pun. :)