Day 3 - Dandenong / Yarra Valley

Cocks do not crow in the Melbourne outback, or in the CBD for that matter. That was why morning crept up on us surreptiously.

Paul was the first to be up and was doing 5BX when the rest woke up at 8am. After taking a real long time to wash up, we got started on preparing our breakfast. Ah, breakfast... the most important meal of the day, good nourishment for the soul. It is food to put fire into your limbs and into your joints. It is fuel for the long day ahead. It was... bread with Nutella.

Holding the precious Nutella tainted bread flat across our palms, we laid back on the bed and sank our teeth again into the untoasted bread topped with Nutella with our eyes fixated at the television set broadcasting the morning programme. Mika (some singer) appeared on the show and started yodeling singing in his high-pitch voice that left us speechless. Our teeth got stained black and covered with Nutella but nobody minded. Usual fresh piping hot coffee was replaced by cold tap water. That... John minded, of course. Not used to not having hot coffee in the mornings, he spent the day groggy and was caught sleeping during the road trip.

Andrew's penguin refuses to get out of the cosy bed

Group shot @ Banfield's Motel patio
(John is showing off his soiled feet)

We were mesmerised by the morning sunshine and beautiful lawn in front of our window. Hence we took the opportunity to take some memorable shots of us sitting outside the patio. Mind you, it was freezing cold. The cold wood of the beach chairs stuck to our underthighs like tongues to a cold pole. Though we looked charming and smiled delightfully, deep down in our hearts we were all thinking: let's finish the shots and get the hell outta here. We hurried to change (took about one hour only), threw our stuff into the car while Andrew paid for the extra charges for an additional guest, for we were allowed to pay for only three guests through online booking. John took the wheel while Daniel reprised his role as Chief Navigator.

Banfield's Motel Conference Centre

The back of our Banfield's Motel room

The rest of the day were pretty much own time, own target. We took a wrong turn and ended up at a beautiful pond / small lake at a place called Tooradin. There's a jetty there for some quiet fishing and you could even rent a boat to go too! The tripod was quickly set up for some nice shots in the sun with the four removing their jackets in the warmer weather.

Group shot with the Tooradin Pelican
(from left: John, Daniel, Andrew, Paul)

We drove aimlessly along Dandenong National Park and took picturesque photos of falling red leaves, as well as the lake reflecting silver brilliance at Five Way Corners Lookout. We also barged into a vineyard and took photos of rows and rows of vines and daffodils. We were told off by the vineyard staff not to go too near to the vines as "humans carry diseases". Yeah right.

Driving along picturesque Dandenong National Park Ranges

Five Way Corners Lookout

Group shot @ Five Way Corners Lookout

Spiderman @ Five Way Corners Lookout

Superman @ Five Way Corners Lookout

Yarrawood Estate ("Humans carry diseases")

Vineyard @ Yarrawood Estate

Group shot 1 @ Yarrawood Estate

Group shot 2 @ Yarrawood Estate

We had started driving at about 10am, but it wasn't until 3pm that we reached our lunch place at Immerse Spa & Winery, tucked at a quiet corner in Yarra Valley. And no, we didn't drive at snail's pace either. Upon reaching the lunch place, out came the tripod for some group photographs.

At the front of Immerse Spa

Fooling around at Immerse Spa Car Park
(Paul sure has long legs)

We had a house plate, which comprised of food we normally don't take - olives, fried bacon, ham, hard-as-nails bread, etc. To hydrate ourselves (or more like dehydrate), we also ordered the house wine and finished the whole bottle on the spot, which made all of us blush bright red. The total bill came up to A$61.

Our lunch (Starter's Plate)

Staggering to our feet, we managed to take a photograph with the beautiful waitress (but John's alcohol-fuelled trembling hands spoiled the photo as you can see below) before rushing back to Melbourne to return the car before the car rental shop closed for the day. And no, the alcohol didn't make the waitress look beautiful; she was a genuine Aussie knockout. Daniel’s bright red blush testifies to that (but that is purely due to his high metabolism rate).

Group shot with Immerse Spa waitress (someone's blushing)

The drive back was not smooth at all. There were peak hour traffic snarls all the way along the “highway”. Our car proceeded slowly, stopping by traffic lights at every other junction. It wasn't until we got onto the freeway that our car could finally regain its Formula 1 speed again. But then again, Melbourne city's traffic was terrible like no other we had experienced. Traffic was heavy and traffic lights were dotting almost every junction in the grid-like road network. Plus, we had to familiarise ourselves with the strange Melbourne traffic rule which requires cars that are turning right to keep left: the keep-left-on-right rule. The rule only applies to certain junctions. Daniel postulated the rule only applies at junctions where there are trams running along the road.

We picked up this educational leaflet
only after we returned our car in the city

Time was ticking away. Daniel had to call the car rental company to inform them that we were held up by traffic. The nice guys told us the closing time was 7pm. We thought we had plenty of time but we barely made it in the end.

Our Hotel Formula 1 Melbourne Hotel was
housed in this yellow building

The hotel we checked ourselves into was called Hotel Formule 1 Melbourne. The only association to the Formula 1 Grand Prix motorcar racing was the name (even though the spelling is different). Though it was called a hotel, it appeared to be more of a motel (ironically the motel we stayed in the first day provided more comfort and facilities than this): there wasn't a parking bay, so we had to unload our luggages on the pedestrian footpath while being stared upon and risking our stuff being stolen (or stepped upon). The lack of bell hops meant that we would have to lug our luggages all the way to the room by ourselves.

Upon reaching the room, more shocks abounded. Imagine four full-sized guys squeezed in a room space that was meant for two. Bedsheets were provided, but we had to make our own beds (no kidding); showering area and washing basin were provided, but it was separated from the room with a mere curtain that provided scant protection; the list goes on.

As time was of the essence, we suspended our shock at the hotel's minimalist approach and rushed to return our car to the car rental company. Prior to that, we had to top up our fuel to the brim so we ended up asking a female passerby for directions to the nearest fuel kiosk. We quickly pumped our litres, rushed back to the car rental company drop-off carpark and said our bye byes to the monster truck that had served us well throughout the previous days.

The (Australian-Born) Chinese staff who served us added a dose of entertainment as well, peppering his speech with "dudes", "no worries" and all sorts of Aussie slangs. He amused us very much with his trademark greeting/assurance that started with tilting his head slightly, winked one of his eyes, raised his hand and cocked a gun-like gesture at us while making a "clack" sound with his tongue -- all at the same time. We left the car rental office sooner than expected, and were all inspired by his trademark actions that we started twitching our eyes, tongues, heads, etc.

Without a car, we were forced to slow down our pace and exercise our feet. We dropped by a 7-Eleven store which displayed magazines of all sorts at the entrance. We thumbed through one (definitely no National Geographic!), saw some rude stuff and put it down right away and hung our heads like guilty schoolboys. We then bought ourselves some overpriced non-fizzy drinks after a whole day of going the camel way. Gulp, gulp, gulp.

We soon found ourselves at the Shot Tower, a famous landmark in Melbourne that housed an abandoned tall factory within a glass cone.

Night shot of the Shot Tower

It was when we were mesmerised by the unique architecture and started to take out our cameras to take some photographs that Paul realised he didn't have his camera with him. Alas!

Panic grew as Paul rummaged through his pockets and waistpouch. Nothing!

Suspecting that we could have left it in the car, we darted back to the car rental shop and arrived just 3 minutes after its closing time, but found it all pitch dark. Apparently Aussies are quite faithful to knocking-off time.

Undeterred, we managed to sneak go into the car park where we had parked our monster truck to see if there was any sign of the camera. The old florescent tubes didn’t provide much light for our search. Andrew’s camera flash light didn’t help much either. After screening the interior of the car through the windscreen and side windows, we were fully convinced that the lost camera was not in the car. It was then we hit the bulb that the camera could be at Immerse Spa & Wine where we had our lunch, which was an hour and a half’s drive away.

We browsed through our cameras and found the restaurant’s phone number in one of the pictures. We immediately called up the restaurant and thank goodness, the staff confirmed that the camera was there. It was then we realised how useful it was to take photographs wherever you go, for it was this photograph of Andrew's that saved Paul's camera:

This photo saved Paul's camera

With no transport, we decided to retrieve the camera the next day instead. Meanwhile, heaving a sigh of relief, we made our way to Little Bourke Street to search for a dinner place. It was getting cold and everyone suited up.

Little Bourke Street is the Chinatown of Melbourne. It's a tiny little street flanked by rows of shop houses which housed many Chinese restaurants. Paul picked one that he liked. It was a popular choice, for we had to queue 20 minutes before we were allowed in. While queuing in the cold Melbourne night air, we watched horse-carriages go rambling by with the sound of the horse hooves going clop clop clop on the cobblestones. It was magical.

Horses trotting along Melbourne streets

Having got a table and settled down, we selected the set meal for four which comprised two hot dishes, two cold dishes, dumplings and a soup. We added a dish of greens to make it a healthier meal (a must for John!). The bill came up to a total of A$57.50 which was pretty decent.

Dinner at Shanghai Village

After dinner, we walked around and found ourselves in Paris! Not quite, but it was an Effiel Tower look-alike structure which housed the National Gallery of Victoria. It was freezing cold. We had to take shelter in the NGV before proceeding back to the hotel. Crossing the bridge that led to the NGV (and spanning the Yarra River as well), we braved the chill and took out our hands from the pockets for once and managed a night shot. Back into the pockets the hands went immediately after.

National Gallery of Victoria - Eiffel Tower imitation

Pitstop and Rest @ National Gallery of Victoria

As we made our way back, we were reminded by the locals that it was a Friday night. Not a verbal reminder, but a visual cum audio one. It was Friday Night Fight Club without the Brad Pitts. We witnessed a near case of civil fighting. A passerby in near vicinity behind us was provoked by a car driver (or perhaps the other way round, we are not too sure), and he smashed his beer bottle onto the car while yelling at the top of his voice. We were not sure what happened after that as we quickly made a turn to avoid the ugly scene, but found ourselves staring at smashed glass shards on the ground. We also heard muffled shouting down some other alley. We quickly headed back to the hotel to chill with our beer and chips.

Our amazing Daniel gulped down his beer quickly and went to sleep like a baby soon after. The rest stayed up to 3am to talk and catch Angelina Jolie the Bone Collector on the telly. Paul knocked out first, then John. Andrew was the last to sleep and turned off the lights before tucking in with his Penguin.

And that was how we ended Day 3.