Month: February 2011

Total Miles Traveled: 55,900

Melbourne is listed as one of the most livable cities in the world and we could see why.  It’s got a little bit of everything: urban sophistication, a cafe/coffee culture, lively restaurant and bar scene, sports culture (Aussie-rules football originated here), stunning nearby beaches, wine regions, and an ethnically diverse population (they even have real mafia wars! No joke!).

I’d been to Melbourne 5 years ago for my friend Jinah’s wedding.  When we visited this time, she had 3 kids under the age of 5 running around the house.  Quite a change from when we were in b-school!

Anyway, here are some scenes from the city which has a very compact city center.  This is a view down Flinders Street next to Federation Square (also pictured above), which has very interesting architecture.  For example, the ground isn’t flat – it has many angles and slopes, like the building you see below.

There’s a nice riverfront area with parks, bars, and cafes – all very walkable.

The city also tolerates (encourages?) graffiti art.  There’s even a map at the tourist center that shows you where to go see the best graffiti!  Here’s Union Lane in the CBD (central business district).

Chinatown is also an attraction, though I’m not sure why.  It’s much like Boston’s, only 2-3 blocks.

The Chinese tourists find Chinatown to be fascinating:

Ahh, there we go – this is why Chinatown is interesting… there’s a restaurant named after Lisa’s family – the Westlake restaurant!

Then we headed out to St. Kilda, a nearby suburb on the beach.  Here’s the sunset at the beach:

Then, on our final days in Melbourne, we made it out to the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne, where there are a lot of cool-climate wines being made – think Oregon or Washington State.   Worth a visit if you have some extra time in Melbourne.  Thanks, Jinah, for providing us with a place to crash!

Cool photo of the peninsula:

Next up, we visit the Great Ocean Road, southwest of Melbourne, which is a bit like the California coastline.  Here is a slideshow of our photos in Melbourne:

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Total Miles Traveled: 54,208 (We passed the 50K mark!  This means we’ve circumnavigated the earth at its equator more than 2 times!)

After Madives, we rested for a few days in Bali.  We got massages at our favorite massage place Jari Menari … 3 days = 3 massages!  And we caught up with my friend from business school KW Low.  How did we know KW would in Bali?  We didn’t!  But he posted about going there on Facebook.  Gotta love Facebook status updates!

After resting in Bali, we arrived at our first English-speaking country in over 6 months.  We were thrilled to be able to read signs and communicate with the locals!   After going through a VERY rigorous baggage screening process (Australians are fiercely protective of allowing in any bio agent that can hurt their agriculture industry), we made our way 3 hours south to Margaret River Valley – one of Australia’s ‘premier’ wine regions.   So what were our first impressions about Australia?  Two things – one good and one not-so-good.

First, the good:  the area seemed unusually vibrant.  The colors were super crisp.  It was like walking around in a photo-shopped world.  We asked a few locals about this super-color effect.  They offered us 2 theories — (1) very little pollution and (2) the angle of the sun since Perth is very far south.  Regardless of the reason, our photos turned out great and we didn’t need to do anything to make them so!

The second – and not so good – we noticed how fricken expensive Australia is!  We call it “stupid expensive”, but not because it’s anyone’s doing.  It’s the exchange rate/weak US Dollar.  In years past, the US $ was stronger than the Australian $ so prices were discounted or even fair.  Now the currencies are 1-1.  NOT FUN!  Here are some examples:

Appetizer (what they call ‘entrees’) at a decent restaurant = $20-30

Entree (what they call ‘mains’) at a decent restaurant = $35-50

Dessert at a decent restaurant = $15-20

Subway footlong sub = $12

And … per the photo below… JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings book is $40 (in the US it would be ~ $25 or less)

But putting costs aside, we very much enjoyed our first few days exploring the west coast of Australia.  We tasted the wines in Margaret River…

We also visited the local Boranup forest, featuring karri trees.  The light through the trees was stunning!!

And after a few days getting to know the wines, we drove back up to explore Perth.  The photo below is taken at the Little Creatures Brewery / restaurant in the hip and trendy area of Fremantle.

We LOVED the Little Creatures micro-brew.  Every one of their beers is superb, but pale ale and bright ale are still our favorites!

We also found – but did not try – another local delight…  really??

Perth is the most remote city in the world, with the nearest major city, Adelaide, over 1,500 miles away.  It’s also where a lot of Australia’s wealth is generated, from all of the mining operations which are now buoyed by China’s demand for building materials.

The city reminded us a lot of San Diego with beach community after beach community going up and down the coast.  In fact, Western Australia also reminded us of the US.  It was like we were in an alternate reality complete with high real estate prices that California is known for.

People from all over the world flock here to take part in the water-related sports.  The wind and kite surfing looks pretty good.

Here’s the well-known Cottesloe beach:

To see all our photos, check out our slideshow:

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