Summary of My 9D8N Australia Melbourne & Sydney (2017) Travel Expenses & Travelogues

At last, I managed to complete another of my backlog travelogue - Australia (2017): Melbourne & Sydney.  I know it took me more than a year to blog about this but then, it's better late than nothing, right. 

MY TRAVEL EXPENSES

For this round, I began with sharing my travel expenses breakdown first. For your information, this is my favourite part to share. Once an accountant, always an accountant. I can conclude that almost everything within our budget; like I budget our stay for RM150 and below per night, food allocation RM100 per day but however, there's one thing for sure which it's hard for me to control is spending for shopping. I tend to buy more supplements and vitamins compare to my previous trips to Australia.

PARTICULARS	AMOUNT
	AU$	RM
Airfares KUL – Melbourne via AirAsia Sydney – KUL via AirAsia Add: Luggage Melbourne – Sydney via Jetstar Accommodation Arrow on Swanston (Melbourne) – 3 nights Carisbrook Cottage  – 1 night Lido Suites Hotel (Sydney) – 4 nights Melbourne Car Rental Apex Car Rental Fuel & parking Searoad Ferries Transportation Within City Taxi & Uber around Melbourne Myki Melbourne Taxi around Sydney Opal Card Sydney Admission Fees Puffing Billy Scenic World Featherdale Wildlife Park Koala Encounter Food & Beverages Melbourne Sydney Others Australia ETA Visa Optus Sim Card 3S - Souvenirs, supplements & snacks	- - - - - - - - - - 24.25 - 16.00 - 40.00 54.00 39.00 31.00 20.00 170.00 100.00 - 20.00 354.00	301 523 192 347 410 132 528 78 68 80 130 52 102 130 176 128 102 65 555 327 25 65 1,155
TOTAL (RM)		5,671

Exchange Rate:
AUD1 = RM3.26 as at September 2017

MY TRAVEL HAUL
As for the things I bought throughout my trip:


#1: Chocolates, biscuits, coffee, tea and more food


#2: Perfumes, supplements and vitamins

#3: Caps and tissue holder from Paddy's Market of Sydney and as for hoodie, it bought from Queen Victoria Market of Melbourne. 

#4: Sweater and body lotion from Big Q department store

SUMMARY OF MY TRAVELOGUE 

Day 1: 20th May 2017
Touched down Melbourne Tullmarine Airport and wandered around Melbourne city

Day 2: 21st May 2017
Puffing Billy

Day 3: 22nd May 2017
Road trip to Great Ocean Road

Day 4: 23rd May 2017
Continue to Mornington Peninsula

Day 5: 24th May 2017
Leaving Melbourne to Sydney 

Day 6: 25th May 2017
Blue Mountains - The Three Sisters & Scenic World

Day 7: 26th May 2017

• Sydney City Tour
• Vivid Sydney Festival

Day 8: 27th May 2017
Featherdale Wildlife Park

Day 9: 28th May 2017
Leaving Australia

Extra Post:

• Desserts & Cafes in Melbourne 

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2017 Australia: Vivid Sydney Festival

What's the main reason behind causing me to visit Sydney for the third time? 

Simple - it's all because of Vivid Sydney Festival. It's Australia's largest event held annually which involving lights, music, colours and ideas. As the sun sets beyond the horizon, the whole city of Sydney gets drenched in colourful light installations and projections for more than three weeks between end of May to early of June. 

That's explain why I purposely booked my ticket to visit Australia end of May last year solely to witness myself of this creative and most-awaited lighting festivals. Finally another thing checked off from my bucket list. 

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2017 Australia: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney

If you are planning to visit Sydney and intending to get up close and personal with Australian wildlife, there are few choices to cater your need and preference such as Taronga Zoo, Wild Life Sydney and Featherdale Wildlife Park. After read through all the comments and feedbacks, I decided to go ahead with my choice - visit Featherdale Wildlike Park. 

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2017 Australia: From Melbourne to Sydney & Places of Interest in Sydney

Day 1: Landed Melbourne and wandered around Melbourne CBD

Day 2: Riding on the Puffing Billy train 

Day 3: Road-tripping to Great Ocean Road

Day 4: Continue road trip to Mornington Peninsula and return to Melbourne CBD

As for the day 5, right after we had our breakfast in Naughty Boy Cafe, we went back to our apartment in order to pack and get ready to the airport. It's time to hit Sydney, again! Yes, again for the third time. They said the third time is the charm and I'm absolutely agreed on this. Why? I will share more on the next few blog post. 

FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY 
Once again, we hired taxi straight to the airport from our apartment since each of us was carrying huge luggage with us. In case you are not pressed by time, you can consider to travel from Melbourne to Sydney via road by self-drive which takes about 8 to 9 hours, or even by train where the travelling time is around 12 hours. Due to limited of time, my friends and I can only opted to travel via plane. There are four airlines provide services from Melbourne to Sydney directly; Jetstar, Tigerair, Virgin Australia and Qantas. So far, I found Jetstar offers the cheaper deal and we got AU$97 for one way trip from Melbourne to Sydney, including 20kg of baggage allowance.

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2017 Australia - Desserts & Cafes in Melbourne

You know what? A trip with a group of ladies is incomplete without having desserts and cafes hopping. When my girlfriends and I were in Melbourne for four days, we managed to visit at least two lifestyle cafes and even ended our day with desserts right after having satisfying dinner. There's always a room for desserts, like they said! 

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2017 Australia - Road Trip to Great Ocean Road & Mornington Peninsula

On the first day touched down in Melbourne Tullmarine Airport, we wandered around the city and visited places like Queen Victoria Market, State Library of Victoria, Flinders Street Railway Station and ended our night by admiring the graffiti art in Hosier Lane.

As for the second day, we took ride on Puffing Billy - the oldest stream train in Australia and one of the finest preserved steam railways in the world. It was my second time on this train ride and because I blogged about this before, there's no point for me to do it again. You can check out my old post on Puffing Billy, Australia's Favourite Stream Train (here).

Third day, we went breakfast at a cafe which I will blog soon and went back to Arrow on Swanston for check-out. We left our huge luggages and just carried our light and small backpacks. Why? Cause we're heading for road trip - that's the main highlight of my Australia trip. I always wanna do self-drive road trip around Australia cause it's one of my bucket list. Previously when I went Melbourne alone, I signed up local tour operator for Great Ocean Road and Mornington Peninsula trip but I don't feel the excitement and fun during the trip. 

Cut the story short and now let me share which car hire service we booked from. I ended up with Apex Car Rentals Australia mainly for one reason - cheap. In Melbourne, they have two branches; airport and city center along Spencer Street. We went the latter one to pick up our car by taking Uber from our apartment. Only those persons named as authorised drivers are allowed to drive - hence, it's best to remind your friends or family members to bring along passport and valid driving license if you need more than one driver. The minimum age for drivers is 21 years old. Unlike Japan, you don't have to apply International Driving Permit (IDP) to drive around Australia. 

Right after checking the car, start the engine and prepare ourselves for another road adventures!

#1: We rented Hyundai Elantra - compact and comfortable for the four of us. Bear in mind, we don't have huge luggages with us as we placed in the apartment we stayed earlier. 

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2017 Australia - Revisit Melbourne For The Second Time

Last year, I got the chance to visit three of my favourite countries and one of them is Australia. At first, I plan to include Tasmania as part of my itinerary but at the end, I have to scrap this out due to time constraint. How I wish I could have a longer holiday? That's why, I stick with Melbourne and Sydney cause three of my friends who join along for this trip have never been to any of these two cities before. 

#1: Hello Melbourne for the second time

We touched down Melbourne Tullamarine Airport early in the morning. I'm not sure why but somehow I felt like Melbourne doesn't welcome me. Not just once but this is the second time I couldn't get through the immigration clearance smoothly. I was being asked sort of questions by the immigration officer but luckily I always well-prepared with itinerary as I planned everything for this whole trip.  

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2017 Melbourne & Sydney (Sneak Peek)

I'm not sure whether should I consider this as my first trip for the year 2017 as I did a short trip to Singapore in February but somehow I felt like it's been ages I haven't travel since ever I back from Sweden & Norway. 

I chosen to return back to Australia again cause Australia is always been my favourite country to visit, after Japan. Don't ask me why but it's been my favourite one since I was small. Eventually I plan to visit those cities I haven't been like Perth and Tasmania but at the end, I plan to revisit Melbourne and Sydney again cause three of my friends who tagged in this trip never been to these two cities before. 

So, hello once again Melbourne after 5 years and Sydney after two years. 

#1: Autumn in my heart💖

Since I went Melbourne before, many places I went for the second time like:

1) Puffing Billy, Australia's Favourite Stream Train (Check out my old post)

2) Great Ocean Road but this time around, I did self-drive road trip instead of following local tour operator

3) Mornington Peninsula - another self-drive road trip too

But of course, the significant differences between my first trip to Melbourne and the latest one is I was indeed having more fun travelling with my friends rather than travelling alone. Another best part is I can have more photos of myself when travelling with my own friends rather than asking strangers to take my photo as I did feel a little bit awkward. Not forgetting, you can even ordering and enjoying more food when doing cafe hopping. As the quote says, "The more, the merrier."


Cafe hopping around Melbourne

But I glad in between the trip, I managed to cover few of the places and attractions I missed out during my first solo trip to Melbourne;


Walked down and admired the graffiti street art in Hosier Lane


Did hundred of pose at the colourful bathing boxes in Brighton Beach

After spending 5 days and 4 nights in Melbourne, we flew to Sydney via Jetstar


Just like my Melbourne trip, many of the places and attractions in Sydney I went twice like Blue Mountain & Three Sisters, Bondi Beach, Sydney Fish Market but all these I haven't blog yet. I just did a short and brief sneak peek. Wondering when will I able to update all my backlog travelogues 😓

One of the main reasons why I chosen to revisit Sydney is merely to witness Vivid Sydney - the world's largest festival of lights, music and ideas. Another of my bucket list ticked off.


Vivid Sydney held from 26 May to 17 June this year - We were lucky to witness before leaving Sydney.


Vivid Sydney at Opera House - It's overcrowded 


Museum of Contemporary Art 

Magicians of the Mist at Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour 

The shows were absolutely stunning and fascinating, although minus the overcrowded with human part. I don't mind to return again back next year for Vivid Sydney, perhaps with my family next round. 

Till then, wish to back Australia again for more adventures

Except those with watermark, all my photos taken using Huawei p9 and Huawei p10. 

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