Day 2 Phillip Island - Melbourne CBD Tour Around

Check out Day 1 Phillip Island here

Day 2

Next off, Panny's chocolate Factory.

More for the kids, but I do enjoyed it myself with all the mini games where you can win rewards to exchange for chocolate balls!

Though the review is not great from what I can see in google review and tripadvisor.

 Panny's chocoalte Factory

Heading off to Fountain Gate shopping mall for window shopping.

Again, can't really afford anything at this stage ):

before driving off to Melbourne CBD.

Crossley Hotel is the place to stay for the night.
Located just off China town. Great location.

Do give wotif a try if you are looking for places to stay. 

Is a booking website with cheap pricing but the trick is you will not know where you are staying until they sent you the confirmation letter of booking.

However you do know the rough area and the stars rating of the hotel you will be getting. 

Like a gamble. Pretty cool.

Dinner for tonight is DTF Melbourne.

I think it matches up the the Din Tai Fung I had in Taiwan years ago. 

Check out the post here. Their Taiwan beef soup noodle is to die for!

Mum and sister never try them before so I brought them there.

I know, Melbourne for DTF really? but mummy requested Asian food and I can't really think of any where else to bring her.

Not much of a interesting day. 

Day 1 Phillip Island - Melbourne CBD Tour Around.

Day 1 

Mum and sister were here a couple of weeks ago to visit me since I started working in Melbourne 2 years ago.

They came down to Gippsland (2 hours towards the east by car from Melbourne CBD), where I stayed for a day and then I drove down to Phillip Island where we spent a night.

We started driving around 11.30am and reach Phillip Island around 1.30pm. 

Lunch at Pinos Trattoria, which is a Italian Restaurant. We decided to give it a try due to the great amount of good reviews from trip advisor. It did not disappoint! 

We had a meat lover pizza and a seafod linguine. Very tasty.

Keep in mind they do have a 10% surcharge on public holidays.

We have a walk around the beach after lunch before heading off to the Wild Life park. 

I would highly recommend to pay a visit to the wild life park if you like feeding Kangaroos! 

Phillip Island Wild Life Park 

We spend a good 2 hours there. We could have spent more time there if not because of the early closing time ): or maybe because we went too late! I honestly think they would close a little later given that the sun sets at about 8pm at this time of the year.

Entrance fee is 18AUD per adult and 9AUD for a child, which comes with a bag of food for the animals.

You can see reptiles, snakes, dingo, wombat, free roaming greedy swans that always chasing after visitors for more food but watch your fingers with these hunger birds , birds (owls, eagles etc), wallaby and kangaroos. 

Do recommend not to waste your food at the very start of the journey until you find a park which has plenty of free roaming friendly and hungry kangaroo and wallaby coming after you for food. 

They are so cute!

 Unfortunately I do not have any pictures or whatsoever because we were to busying feeding the kangaroos!

Its time to see the infamous penguin in Phillip Island after all that!

Before that, we had to check in. 

We found this place from Airbnb, called Aloha ha

Is a self contained room with well equipped kitchen which comes with a electrical hot plate, microwave, plates and cutlery. Good for two.

Another up point about this place is, it is really close to the penguin parade.

I have never seen the owner Bob and Vardy, but could easily access to the room as instructed.

Very clean and well maintained.

Note that they do only accept cash. 

So no payment or deposit upfront as of the time of me writing this.

Now, before heading off to the Penguin Parade,

I do strongly recommend you to have a early dinner, buy some snacks or food for supper from WoolWorths in Cowes if you don't want to spend on food in the centre which is usually overly priced and not so tasty. 

All the restaurants will be closed after you are finish with the penguin parade (you will finish around 10pm, depending on what time of the year, during summer the sun sets later and the penguin comes up the shores later) and there are no fast food chain nearby either. 

The nearest Mcdonalds is located at the entrance of Phillip Island which is about 20-30 minutes drive away from Penguin Parade.

So, after check in and resting for a bit, we head off to purchase our tickets for the penguins.

Penguin Parade, visit their website for more details.

We head off to the Nobbies Centre, which is just 3kms down the road from penguin parade.

Very good view of the sea and the seal rock, though it looks nothing like a seal to me.

A way to kill time before the penguin parade starts.

Clifftop Broadwalk

 Seal Rock?

 Penguin Parade

Do bring a jacket without even though its summer, it can get very cold during the night and the wind is definitely not helping. 

Finishing the day with some sausages and instant noodles from Woolworths as supper before we go to bed!

Check out Day 2 here

Day 7, Din Tai Fung, Good Cho's, SYS Memorial Hall, Taipei 101

Day 7 - Saturday 14th December 2013

Day 7 started out with Din Tai Fung, which is famous for their dumplings, Xiao Long Bao.

We went to the branch in Da'an District at about 10am, when they open. 

Address: 106, Taiwan, Taipei City, Da'an District, Section 4, Zhongxiao E Rd, 218之5号2楼

 We ordered the signature dishes such as XLB and fried rice which tastes pretty authentic, and tasty.

However I would not recommend the glutinous rice, as I found very bland.

Overall is a good experience and is definitely cheaper to dine in at DTF in Singapore and Melbourne

 Xiao Long Bao

 Prawn Dumpling 

 Prawn Fried Rice

 Glutinous Rice 

 After the breakfast, 

walking down the street we saw this shave ice shop opening in the early morning. 

Come to think of it, 

I think we were crazy to have shave ice as dessert in the morning after our breakfast. 

Its called: Ice Monster 

Address: No. 297, Section 4, Zhongxiao E Rd, Da'an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106

 I'm Menu

 Keep in mind that they do have a minimum of 120NT minimum spent per person,

and one hour time limit per table. 

We were the only table when we went in the morning, and few visitors joined minutes later. 

I don't think they were fuss about the time in the morning. 

On the other hand, the minimum spent is a little annoying. 

One shaved ice are about 150-200NT so you will have to order 1 serve per person, 

when I think 1 serve is more than enough to feed 2-3 people ):

I ordered the milk tea flavoured ice dessert with pearls and a shot of caramelised brown sugar.

 Boyfie has the mango flavour with fresh/freezed mango.

I LOVED the milk tea flavour.

Whereas the mango flavour, I find it way too sweet.

 Shave Ice 

After a very satisfying start with our belly filled with great food, we went for a walk to SYS Memorial Hall and from the memorial hall to Taipei 101.  It is walkable from the Ice monster, alternatively you can take the train.

SYS Memorial Hall & Taipei 101 

DTF do have another branch in Taipei 101, but by the time we get there, they looked busy. 

If you do not want to crowd with the touristssss, I suggest the branch above :)

We did not go up to Taipei 101 because you have to pay ): and it was raining and cloudy on the day.

We did spent a bit of time window shopping inside Taipei 101, could not afford anything though. 

I must introduce to you my favourite cafe of the trip. 

Good Cho's

 I am absolutely in love with this place.

They are famous for their bagels and has a bakery that sells lots of bread and pastries.

Click on the link to check out their website and opening time.

There was a flea market out side of Good Cho's on the saturday we went. 

Unfortunately the weather did not play its part.

Good Cho do have a section that sells bit and pieces of cute stuffs, from bowls, to bookmarks, to lollies and lots of random things.

We went about 3.30-4pm and had to wait for 20-30 minutes to be seated.

Very popular among the locals too.

The ambience were really good and is prettily decorated to resembles bookshops. 

They do have books and magazine on the shelf which is free to browse.  

We ordered two bagels, the roasted pork bagel (190NT) with citrus sauce and roasted duck bagel (200NT). 

Finishing off with a afternoon tea set that comes with a brown sugar sweet potato latte, savoury soup of the day and a scone with honey. Set costs about 200NT. 

Do note that prices excludes service charge.

The brown sugar sweet potato latte is probably the best drink I had so far!

Pork bagel with the combination of citrus sauce make it the most delicious bagel I ever had.

Duck bagel was good too but nothing like the pork one ;)

 Roasted duck bagel

 Kamkuat pork bagel

Finishing the day off by shopping at the nearby underground shopping mall. 

Address: 106, Taiwan, Taipei City, Da'an District 大安路1段77号

which all shops were basically closed by the time we get there because its a Saturday.