6 MAY - MELB

My body was very tired, but my uncorporative brain was still active at 3 am. This was not unusual for a picky light sleeper like me, especially when first move to a new environment. There was nothing I can do except to persuade my subconcious mind to fall asleep.

After a 3 hour interupted sleep, I woke Bernard up so we can fill our empty stomach with some complimentary breakfast in the hotel cafeteria. The buffet line looked great with a wide variety of choice. However, with a very heavy head and blocked nose, I only manage to take in 2 pieces of toast and a cup of mint tea. Nevertheless, my exhausted physical condition did not affect my mood at all, we chatted happily at the breakfast table and cheered for being able to make our vacation come true.

We checked out from Atlantis Hotel after breakfast and dragged our luggage to Alto Hotel located at Bourke Street, where we will be staying for the next 2 nites. The 500 m walk was hassel free as all the pavements in Melbourne City are padestrian friendly, with smooth slope at the edge of the pavement. What a thoughtful design for cyclist and padestrian with trolley or pram.

After storing our luggage at Alto, we went round the city before we can check in at 2pm. We first jumped on a free tourist tram to have a good look of the city. Melbourne city has obviously became busier compared to my last visit about 5 year ago. The number of smoker has vividly increased as well. Personally, this point has made the CBD (Central Business District) not so 'Ming Sze friendly'. My scarft has been on my nose most of the time to avoid the pungent cigarette smoke.

We dropped off from the tourist tram when the driver decided to take 10 at Spring Street. A short walk led us to the Parliament Building and St. Patrick's Cathedral. After catching some fresh air at the Parliament Garden, we walked down Bourke Street. It was already lunch time and many people were seen walking on the street, heading somewhere to have their lunch break. Almost everyone was in a black garment, making the streets look very monotonous. We both were coincidentally in the 'trend' as well to be in our black sweaters. With a Lonely Planet booklet on my hand, we decided to have sushi at the famous Kenzan @ GPO (General Post Office) Melbourne.

Kenzan was very extremely crowded. Sushi was a very famous gourmet in this metropolitan city. People in all kinds of colors were seen enjoying their Japanese delicacies. Bernard queued up at the over crowded but moving fast self service counter while I secured a 2-seated little table not too far away. Suddenly, I heard my name being called. Yes, my chinese name was being called in an English spoken city. Oh, I guessed my sinus was getting worst, I was even hearing funny things now. No, the voice didn't stop and in fact it got nearer to me.

OMG, that was Siew Jing (Estee Tan) standing in front of me! Estee, my secondary schoolmate who had studied and now working in Melbourne ever since graduated. I instantly experienced goose bump all over my body as I did not inform any of my friends that I will be in Melbourne since it would only be a short 2 -day-transit here before I proceed to New Zealand. How on earth she could bumped into me here, in a crowed little restaurant in one of the thousands of buildings in Melbourne at this time? I also found out that she actually just dropped by to take away some sushi before going back to her office at Little Bourke Street. So, that means if I walked into GPO 5 min later or she came to Kenzan 5 min earlier, we would not see each other at all! Of course we were happy to meet each other but since she was rushing, we made a point to meet up for tea tomorrow after she finished work. She would tried to get Hui Shan to meet up as well.

Sushi at Kenzan was superb. This was one of the best sushi that I had ever tasted. I couldn't think of a place back in Malaysia that I can get good sushi like this at the reasonable price that Kenzan offered.

I went back to Alto to take a nap after lunch. Alto is Australia's 1st carbon neutral hotel. The whole hotel is 100% wind powered. Besides, the amenity provided are 100% biodegradable or made of recyclable material. Despite all the environmental friendly plus points, you do not need to compromise your comfort here. The room even though is smaller in size, but they have all you need, even a knife and chopper board just in case you want to fix yourself a light meal in the room. Making a commitment to the environment was one of the reason we wanted to stay in this hotel.

Leaving me to catch up with my sleep, Bernard went out to buy some fruit supply for me. After rolling on the bed for nearly 30 mins, I still couldn't fall asleep. I knew what was the culprit! I woke up to wash my hair which has been marinated by the cigarette smoke of Melburnian! I expected the hair dryer to be slow and weak since this is a wind powered hotel. But, I was so wrong when the strong heat wave blew dry my thick hair in just couples of minute! This was impressive! Remember to support Alto Hotel if you next visit Melbourne. Bravo for their great effort in saving the earth.

For dinner, Bernard's friends who has migrated to this city more than a decade ago invited us to Box Restaurant at Collin Street. It was another cozy catch-up with the nice couple Wai King, May Peng and their three young daughthers. It was really warm to meet friends from your own land in a foreign land. The cold weather did not seem that cold this way.