A Day In Melbourne - Page 5

Walking around the QVM, the first impression of the market would definitely be Her cleanliness, well organized and well maintained wholesale to retail market as compared to our traditional "wet" and "messy" market in Malaysia.

The most obvious look is they are too "special" and "weird" for Asian country man like me seeing something that never appear in our wholesale to retail market...for example:

Dianne's Delights "home-made dips & pestos"

Hmm...home made dips and pestos? Heard about this? Tomato stuffed olives, home made marinated semi dried tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella fantastic with basil pesto? Those are only a few types that offered by the shop. There are many more different but unique shops in the QVM and also the A Shed A to the  "Z" Shed (not really until "Z" ), trust me, one day visit will never enough! QVM is open 5 days a week only and not Monday to Friday ya!

Take a look at the self-guided tour brochure if you happen to make a visit there, click HERE to read the heritage trail in e-copy pdf format... Site 9 - The Ghost!!! Or, just go to the QVM main website if you wish to know more details.

Dairy Produce, Therry st, QVM.

A Day In Melbourne - Page 4

After purchasing the prepaid card and reload a sufficient amount for the internet access on the android phone that we brought along, we started the first hot spot of tourist attractions in Melbourne - Queen Victoria Market or QVM (see the website by clicking HERE).

Arriving there near the Easter Day and also school holiday gave us an opportunity to visit a mobile farm where kids were free to have fun and get close with real farm animals and they did get their faces painted too in matching those "barnyard" animals!

Mobile Farm @ QVM

Taking from the Google Map, it will be very easy to understand free & easy budget holiday now a day is really free & easy! Take a look at the 800-meter walking distance from Tune Hotel Melbourne to QVM using the Google Map guides as shown below:

Tune Hotel to QVM

QVM is a historically well-maintained livestock and wholesale to retail fruits and vegetable market, established in 1878 as shown in the website. There are many brochures in its main website about events for easy reference and also self-guided history tour. Explore yourself on the website to find more details if needed.

Tune Hotel To QVM in arrow and triangle

A Day In Melbourne - Page 3

On the left of the photo is the main entrance of Tune Hotel Melbourne; what behind the reception desk in the lobby is the selling point that catch my eye - the black and white art design on the wall - a complete artistic unit and remarkable! They even have the skillful art invention printed in the little folder that keeps electronic key cards and appears in the hotel rooms.

There is a car workshop and traffic light just in front of the Tune Hotel, you may not be able to see the hotel and a tram station if you follow Google Map Street View (based on the time when this post is written). The 3D photo map as shown below is the City of Melbourne map that was taken during the first visit to Melbourne Visitor Centre. I did a horizontal arrow mark near the bottom of photo map to show the location of Tune Hotel Melbourne. Click on the photo map to get a bigger view.

In short distance, there is a phone shop and convenient stall opposite the hotel near the tram stop selling prepaid cards and reload services for our smartphone use especially the internet access for Google Map and email.   

A Day In Melbourne - Page 2

As mentioned in the page 1 about the SkyBus return ticket at $70 aussie, here is the sample return ticket for a family with 2 adults and up to 4 children as indicated in the tickets below:

Just remember to keep the ticket safely if you have purchased a return ticket; or else, you may have to re-purchase another ticket to Melbourne airport again as the SkyBus driver will surely ask you the return ticket for verification. You can actually get the SkyBus ticket purchasing from hotels if you only buy an one way ticket when reach Melbourne. It will be more expensive as compared to return ticket.

A photo from a room in Tune Hotel Melbourne. It is the upper Swanston Street that has a cross junction with Queensberry Street, a 5-minute walk and you will reach the trams station operated by Yarra Trams - website: http://www.yarratrams.com.au/. The website has a lot of information, including the trams history in Melbourne. It is this stop that brought us to see the daily life of Melburnian besides walking down along the Swanston Street.

The Yarra Trams - Queensberry St / Swanston St Stop

A Day In Melbourne - Page 1

Touched down Melbourne Airport or Tullamarine Airport at 8:20 am (or 6:20 am Malaysia time) on 16th April 2014 by taking the AirAsia X for about 8 hours flight from Kuala Lumpur LCCT had given new experience in my travel logbook. (Knowing long travelling is tiring but many do believe that it is help in improving our mood and reducing stress. I do believe that taking a break from our daily routines at home or at work can really prolong life and I wish the travel logbook can rejuvenate all and start planning your own holiday trips.)

The simple easy access of direction sign board in the second busiest airport in Australia was so good that we got on board directly to the SkyBus by purchasing the family return ticket at $70 aussie without second thought after leaving the airport customs. The SkyBus is the express bus that bring us to the city centre at Southern Cross Station and a complimentary hotel transfer service is also provided to us by using its shuttle bus. We reached the Tune Hotel early before the official check-in time at 2pm. Paying $2 per luggage for safe keeping in the Tune Hotel, we started our first day in Melbourne - free and easy travel holiday.

It is about 20 minutes travelling on SkyBus 

As shown in the above Google Map, it is 25-minute drive from the airport to Tune Hotel stopover Southern Cross Station with a driving distance of about 26 kilometers but the SkyBus did show a 20-minute ride to Southern Cross Station on the board. (Just click the above google map for better viewing if needed.)

Tune Hotel Melbourne is new and located at the upper end of Swanston Street (a historical street) intersected with Queensberry Street. We was told that it had over 80% occupancy rate during our stay.