My first time trip to the Southern Hemisphere was in Nov. 2012, to Melbourne, Australia.
View from Crown Towers' Guest Room
It was a long way to Melbourne from Taipei, took me almost a day to get there.
There is no direct flight between Taipei and Melbourne. So, I had to fly to Guangzhou first, then from Guangzhou to Melbourne.
The flight takes a couple of hours from Taipei to Guangzhou. I had to spend 6hours in the airport for the next flight to Melbourne (bad connection...), then, flight time from Guangzhou to Melbourne took another 8.5hours....
After all that, even the custom at the airport stopped me for an hour! They almost took my "Taiwan's Famous Pineapple Cake" which I just bought in Taipei airport as a souvenir. (They are very strict on food, not only fresh fruits or meat but "any" food).
Even though, I was very tired after the long trip, the weather of Melbourne freshened me up immediately, once I stepped out from the airport.
Spring time in Melbourne in Nov. Not so cold any more and very warm in daytime.
Specially, the day I arrived was a very nice sunny day.
Crown Towers from outside
I have stayed in the Crown Towers hotel in Crown Melbourne (or, known as "Crown Casino" -the biggest casino complex in the Southern Hemisphere-).
I loved the big, clean guest room with a view of Yarra River and downtown Melbourne.
One thing though, there was no complimentary bottled mineral water which I usually see any 5* hotels in Asia. Maybe, it is only in Asian countries...??
A Crown Towers' Deluxe Room
A Crown Towers' Deluxe Room, a bathroom with TV (right)
Crown Towers' Entrance (left top & bottom), Entrance to the Casino (right)
A Beautiful Night view of outside Crown
Well, of course, I wasn't there for gaming.
On the second day in Melbourne, I woke up at 4am in the morning to visit a local seafood market.
A Japanese gentleman who owns a seafood supply company and lives in Melbourne for over 20 years, was kind enough to take me to the market and show me around.
New Seafood Centre in West Melbourne has opened about a year ago after many years of planning and debating on some issues. Many suppliers moved here from the former wholesale fish market on Footscray Rd.
Melbourne's New Wholesale Fish Market
Market's fish of the day, Fresh Tuna!
First of all, the market was so clean, well-organized and very hygienic. I was very impressed.
Whole building was air-conditioned to keep the seafood fresh. They even clean and sanitize inside of the building everyday after they close the market.
I also was impressed by the variety of seafood they had. Fresh tuna, snapper, yellowtail...etc
And the people, they were super nice (maybe, just because I was with their old friend -Japanese seafood supplier-...). They even opened up a fresh sea urchin in front of me and let me try how it tastes like!!
(* as I wrote about Tokyo's "Tsukiji" fish market in Nov. 2010 "Memoirs of Tokyo", they were not nice to strangers...)
Red Seabream Snapper "Ma-dai" (left), Kingfish -or Yellowtail- "Hiramasa" (right)
Fresh Sea Urchins "Murasaki Uni"
Tasting the sea urchin at the site!
I only had a half day to be a real tourist in the last day of short 5days trip to Melbourne.
I couldn't do much in a half day. Only thing I did was just walk around the downtown Melbourne and the side of Yarra River. It was a nice day to walk around and didn't need a jacket.
Yarra River, just outside of Crown
Flinders Street Station (left), a street view from outside of Flinders Street Station (right)
A street view from outside of Flinders Street Station (left), Flinders Street Station (right)
St. Paul's Cathedral
5days weren't enough... but I was still happy to experience a part of Melbourne.
I really appreciate the effort of the people who made this trip happen. Thank you all!!
