Melbourne in 3 days

It is very nice to have a long weekend in Melbourne last week.
My sis & her bf Mel had been great hosts and I enjoyed myself thoroughly this birthday weekend. I shudder at the thought of next year, where I can no longer say I am in my twenties anymore. The horror!

Anyways, here are the photos. Enjoy.


Perks of working for an airline; we paid taxes only for our flights to Melbourne. But subject to uncessary scares of being off-loaded if the flight is full. Melbourne is a very popular destination cos our hearts skipped beats twice for this trip, to and fro.




Self-shot while waiting for my chaffeur sis & BF at Melbourne Airport. They have a nice little waiting area outside the airport for pickups. Sydney? Nothing. You pay $7 for just stopping your car at the Sydney airport doors.

Yum Char at I dunno where, but very yummy. Standards very competitive to Sydney's.

Yeah, I know, the spread is absolutely gluttony

From left: moi, me sis & Mel


Off to DFO Essenden to walk off the food for the rest of the afternoon. The DFO in Melbourne is absolutely fabulous. Sales are genuine & much more attractive than Sydney's. I think I am falling in love with Melbourne purely for shopping reasons.

We headed to Crowne Casino's KoKo Japanese Restaurant for my birthday dinner. We decided for this instead of the famous Nobu because too many people have told me Nobu is over-rated and walking past Nobu to get to KoKo, I was kinda glad we are going to KoKo because Nobu was so dark inside that you might be chewing on someone's sock and you won't know any better.

Koko was warm and comfortable with ala carte area separated from the teppanyaki stations by an interior pond. Pond! I know, it's cool.

For letting us wait for 5 mins for our table, we were served complimentary sweet sparkling wine with cherries and wasabi peas.






The start of the alcohol-filled evening. First up: sparkling wine.



Then sake. I have started to talk to my sis very excitedly and gesturing a little too much.

This chawan mushi beats Kabuki Shoroku's hands down.

Interior of KoKo. Smashing right?


Wagyu beef....yum....

Duck breast, prawns and taro in mirin based stock.

Soup (not storm) in a teapot.

Fresh sushi.

We ended the night smashed in the casino where we just sat around and ordered rounds and rounds of cocktails. Poor Mel was the designated driver, so he had lotsa OJ & Ice lemon tea.

No matter, Happy Birthday to me!