Trip of the Fellowships - Genting Highland 2009

It's been a long time that we did not have outing in a group of friends. We have decided to go Genting Highland for a short trip. All together we have 10 people for the trip. The trip members are: Suer Harn, Geok Shang, Pui Chien, Shen Ngin, See Chiek, Sek Hoe, Meng Tat, Jian Jun, Connie and me.

We boarded the 707 coach bus and left Melaka to Genting at 10.30am. We reached First World Hotel at about 2pm.

Having obtained our booking queue number, we wandered around First World Hotel and end up have lunch at Mcdonalds while waiting for our turn to check in.

After the lunch it was photo shooting time...




The guys...

The girls...


The lantern decorations inside one of the Vietnam House.


Luckily, we managed to get 3 rooms for 10 ppl with a promotion rate although we just had only 2 coupons with us. The 3 girls shared 1 room, whereas Mengtat, Sekhoe, Jianjun and me got into one room; Puichien, Shenngin and Seechiek got into another room.

We placed all our belongings into our room, and then we went "money hunting" a.k.a. gambling. My luck is not bad, won rm30. Enough to pay for connie's and my lunch in McD just now.

After that, we had our dinner at Lao Di Fang, one of the cafe near casino. The food quality is moderate and it came at a high price. I had an economy rice whereas Connie had a chicken rice. 2 plates of this cost us ~RM25. Freakingly expensive!

We went back our room for some well deserved rest. At about 9pm, we came out strolling around highlands. Thanks to Geokshang whom worked in Genting before, she brought us to a park where right in front of Resort Hotel and we could see the whole Kuala Lumpur scenery. What a sight to behold!


The scenery of Kuala Lumpur. Brilliant!


Feeling cold, we got back to our hotel wishing to have some drink at Starbucks but it was crowded with people. Thus, we just had some hot drink inside the casino and grabbed a supper in one of the cafe located in the lobby of First World Hotel. Feeling tired, we were off to bed at abt 12 midnight.

Woke up at 7am in the morning, after brushing up, we had our breakfast at Old Town Cafe. After the breakfast, we went to one of the Botanical Garden near First World Hotel.



At the Botanical Garden. Guess which is my leg?

Proud to be MMUians..

We are above the clouds..

Not forgetting to snap a pic with First World Hotel.

After that, we had a bowling game. Let's see who had the good skills to be the highest ranking among us. The result turned out to be Seechiek was the best bowler, whereas I am the "best" bowler counting from the back. :P Lady luck was not on my side, I had a great start folks. :P

Time flies and it reached lunch time again, we had our lunch at Hou Mei Restaurant. Having chosen this place as we had a 30% discount coupon. The food here is better compared to the one we had yesterday.



After the lunch, it was time to head home. Boarded the coach at 3pm, we left Genting Highlands to Melaka. Feeling tired, but anyway, it was an enjoyable trip to go with my friends.

Day 9 - Tour of the Wineries

This was our last day in Melbourne, and hence we have decided to have a slightly relaxing itinerary. We started our day for a visit to the Chemist Warehouse in Glen Waverley to get some fish oil capsules. It is really cheap as compared to in Malaysia at AUD 12 each!

After spending about an hour there, we headed towards Dandedong Market to grab some fresh foods back. This market is slighlty smaller than the one we saw in CBD - Victoria Market. However, it is having a typical classic feel of market.


Varieties of foods, vegetables, fruits can be found around a market. Besides that, flowers and cheap t-shirts are on sale as well. It looked as though it is a small night market a.k.a "Pasar malam" as we called in Malaysia.





One thing that is worth trying would be the Dandee Donuts. It is sold at AUD 0.80 each. A long queue for this donut attracted my attention and I went to grabbed 2 pieces. It is really really really tasty! Why? The donut is fried to perfection, 30% fried on the outside without affecting the tenderness of the inside added together with a blueberry filling inside the donut and some white sugar on the outside, make the donut absolutely yummylicious and cheap! Must try!



We didnt visited the wet market as we are not going to cook tonight, instead we went towards the dried market. It grabbed some figs that we couldn't find in Malaysia. Believe me, it is simply irresistable!


After that, we headed for our brunch session - Dim Sum! Today will be a eat and shop day for us. This restaurant is called "Hung Xing" Chinese Restaurant. The dim sum here is even tastier than the one we had in Hongkong! The freshness and varieties are 2 thumbs up for me. I love everything here but there is one that stood out among them - The brinjal with fishball. Finger Licking Good. I took 3 plates of it! I will definitely back to this place if I were to come back to Melboune.

Next, we started our journey towards the wine regions of Victoria - Yarra Valley. Yarra Valley is the name given to the region surrounding the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia. The river originates in the Yarra Ranges approximately 60 kilometres east of Melbourne and flows towards and into the city of Melbourne and out into Port Phillip.

Our first stop was at Bianchet Wineries. This was the first time we are so closed to the grapes.




For me, I dont quite like the wine in Bianchet as it is not so smooth for me. However, Uncle Martin got 2 types of wine for himself from Bianchet. Typically he is a wine lover I supposed. But not Aunt Yen.




We continued our journey towards the oldest wineries in the Victoria - Yering Station. Victoria's first vineyard, Yering Station, was originally planted in 1838. This historical wine estate was purchased by the Rathbone family in 1996, marking the beginning of a new era, with the construction of a state-of-the-art winery and award-winning wine tourism destination.


The car park for visitor to Yering Station.




We walked around the Historic Barn and Avenue of Elms before we proceed for wine tasting.





There is a wine Musuem there and the view here was absolutely breathtaking. It has wall to wall grapes yard and when the sun shone on it, a yellow blanket was embosed on it. Beautiful!












We tried alot of wine in Yering Station, from Sparkling wines towards Pinot Noirs and red wines as well.







After all the tasting, we found the Pinot Noir Rose a new product of Yering on 2008 suit us the most. At only AUD 22 we got the Rose Pinot Noir. We can't get this price in Malaysia! So be sure to get a wine when you visit the Yarras.


Besides of wines, there are many others product can be found at cellar door sales.








There is also a bar inside here.

We had some phototaking session there and after that we headed back towards Glen Waverley.



We did have a stop around a park to have our teatime. Both Uncle Martin and Aunt Yen had their coffee while me and connie continue our phototaking session. We didnt missed a chance to record every place that we had visited.




On our way back, we stopped by the Bunnings Warehouse. This is the biggest hardware warehouse in Melbourne. Australian loves to DIY a.k.a Do It Yourself. This warehouses are fully equipped with all the hardwares that are needed. Uncle Martin helped Daniel to get some plywood for his project while we just hanged and looked around.

At about 6pm, we reached home, Aunt Yen prepared some fresh vegetables and we had some additional dishes of Roasted Pork, Duck and Char Siew from Rock Kung. A nice and warm dinner with Uncle Martin and family.

At about 9pm we left from Glen Waverley to Tummarine Airport. After checking in, we waved goodbye to Uncle Martin and Aunt Yen, we went through the departure gate with mixed feeling. Why? Very excited but a little bit of sad. Excited as we enjoyed so much and the hospitality provided by Uncle Martin and Aunt Yen is at the upmost best. Wheareas, sad in the sense that we are reluctant to go back to Malaysia. He hoped we could spent more time there.