Happy 2011

2011 is coming soon!

Happy 2011 from us at Walk Walk Melbourne!

If you have enjoyed our site, or have found WWM to be helpful, come and join us in facebook.

Click here: Walk Walk Melbourne Fan Page

Till next year, let's look out for more walks in 2011 :)

wondergram!

Make way for wondergram!

Fancy buying some prints of Melbourne for yourself, or to send as a gift through the mail to someone?  I have some snapshots of Melbourne and other photos taken in instagram and hipstamatic formats, on a 4x4 glossy photo paper.  Prints will be mailed from Melbourne to anywhere in the world :)  I will update more details soon.  Meanwhile, anyone interested can email me at blogwalkwalk[at]gmail[dot]com


Now wouldn't it be nice to receive cool stuff in the mailbox?

A Summer Evening Walk in Fitzroy Gardens

Keep your eyes open...
for Fitzroy Gardens!

Fitzroy Garden is just a stone-throw away from the CBD, and on a good sunny cool day, you must find time to visit and walk through the gardens.  It's one of Melbourne's heritage, with layout similar to that of Carlton Gardens.  It's funny that you don't get the sense of how big the garden actually is until you walk through it.  The thought of the garden being right next to the city centre will fade quickly once you're inside, surrounded by huge matured trees, rows of elms, spacious lawns and lush landscape.  Urban parks like these are just breath-taking.  They truly are sanctuaries for the city!

 You can get to Fitzroy Gardens via the City Circle tram, get off at St. Vincent Plaza and walk for a bit.  Or, if you're take a tram at Collins St and stop at the corner of Spring St, you can walk through Treasury Garden to get to Fitzroy Gardens.

Walk alone, or bring a company, take a mat with you or a good book, have a picnic or a light run, or just simply anything.  You'll definitely find some serenity there :)

Camping at Ocean Grove, Victoria

Planning a camping trip for the weekends, but don't want to drive too far?  Well we think Ocean Grove may just be the answer!  We visited Ocean Grove in late Spring for a 2-night camping trip over the weekend.  Ocean Grove is only about 1.5 hours drive from Melbourne, and the best part of the camp site which we stayed at was that it was by the river, and that beach was not far away.

Ocean Grove is more like a seaside suburb, but it does have several caravan parks and camp sites.  We stayed at Riverview Family Caravan Park, located right next to Barwon River.  If you want a place to relax, a change of air from city life, then get going to Ocean Grove.  You can choose camp grounds with power outlets, and the site has shower/toilet/laundry facilities.

While camping at Ocean Grove, you can visit the small towns of Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove.  Have a nice stroll by the shops or stop for some coffee.  You can find Coles Supermarket at Ocean Grove in case you need to buy some things.



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For more trip varieties, try going for a roundtrip drive.  We drove from Melbourne to Ocean Grove via Geelong, then came back via Queenscliff on the ferry to Sorento, and drive back to Melbourne.

The Garden of St. Erth, Blackwood, Victoria

If you happen to be on the way to Trentham, Daylesford or on a detour from Ballarat, and you happen to love pretty little gardens, then The Garden of St. Erth in Blackwood is a nice place to visit.

Although the garden is not big, it is very cozy and pretty romantic with lush flowers, trees and green lawn surrounding you.

The garden is opened daily, with an entrance fee of AUD10.00 per person.  There's a cafe, and it only opens on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If you wish to have more privacy, go on weekdays, as there's hardly anyone around and you can have the garden to yourself.  Do call and ask them if they allow you to have picnics inside the gardens, because if you can, we think it will surely be a lovely picnic.

Open 9-5pm everyday (closed December 24-26).
Simmons Reef Road, Blackwood, VIC.
Melways ref: map 609(or 909) E11
Phone: (03) 5368 6514
Garden entry: $10

Full info here at their website.

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Coming Soon: Walkalogue on Garden of St. Erth, Blackwood, Victoria

Daisies. Garden of St. Erth, Blackwood, Victoria

Market Updates

If you're looking for places to shop or browse for stuff, other than at shopping streets and shopping malls, try checking out some markets from this list by Only Melbourne.

You're sure to find some pretty unique things from the markets ;)

We've started Walk Walk Hangzhou!

Dear All,

We've finally managed to start putting together Walk Walk Hangzhou, although slowly bit by bit.  See you there!

Watching the Water @ Port Melbourne

There are just those times where you yearn to be somewhere where it's peaceful and serene.  A place where you can just stand, watch and appreciate all that is beyond your own self.  To us, that place is often a place of nature.  One of the perks of living in Melbourne is that you get the city, the suburb and nature all in one place (as what I've told a lot of people why we truly enjoy being here).  So if you're ever feeling in the need of going to that place, we are delighted to recommend any beach along Port Phillip Bay.  Unlike many of the locals here, we prefer to go to the beach when it's not hot nor sunny (which means, bring a jacket just in case the wind and chill gets too harsh on you).  And the best thing about going to the beach when it's not the typical weather that one would go out to the beach is that there won't be a lot of people.  That's what you need if you're looking for some tranquil moments, right?

Bring coins to pay for parking and a picnic chair is good if you just want to sit and watch the sunset and the sea (maybe we should try sitting next time instead of standing).  And may I add, the clouds are always breathtaking to watch, especially when it gets heavy and seems to be as intense as the water.

a brief visit to the beach

Port Melbourne

Check out the Waterwall at Collins St!

This is a wall that we always keep our eyes on - waiting for the next feature.  The current wall feature is pretty awesome.  From far, we thought it is a digital screen of moving water.  We went close to touch it. It is water!

green green grass

We always find this type of temporary installation fascinating, although it's a very simple gesture of putting fake grass on a square.

Here's our take on it: "square + artificial grass + people = instant pocket park" (well, given that it's a nice weather outside, and the fact that QV courtyard is surrounded by cafes, restaurants and a busy-enough pass-through square for people to go to the other shops).

It's always nice to see greens.

Luxurious Scenery @ Mordialloc

It was raining this morning and from the weather forecast, it seemed like it was going to rain the whole day.  Fortunately for us and you, the rain decided to make way for the sun.  Wet Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny (but still pretty cold) Saturday evening!  We were driving out from the city, bound south towards home, earlier this evening.  It was about 4pm, the day was still bright and the sun was shining, and it was too good to be spent indoors.  We couldn't think of where to go to spend what's left of the day, so we decided to keep on driving south on Nepean Hwy.  We knew that had we kept on driving, we'd at least reach Frankston, and that's still pretty good considering that we haven't visited there for some times.  So we just drove, enjoyed the highway and the sun, and decided to take a turn at Mordialloc via Beach Rd to catch a view of the beach in exchange for the roads.

Lucky enough, we were at the estuary of Mordialloc and the river was filled with boats.  It's not a big place, but we felt it was such a lovely scenery - of boats, river, timber platforms, some nice breeze and the sun.  Somewhat 'luxurious' scenery I would say, and a nice change from looking at city buildings all week long.  We were reassured that the scenery was a great one because we even spotted people taking their wedding photos there!

Mordialloc is about 45 min away from Melbourne CBD.  Free parking for 2 hours is on the other side of the river near the boat clubs and houses (where we took these photos), but otherwise, paid parking spaces are plenty.  You can come for a picnic on the lawns by the beach - they are pretty similar to those along St. Kilda Beach.

p/s: You can even hire the boats.

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Sunday Coffee in the City

We went to the city today.  Then drove round and round and round looking for a free parking.  As it turned out, all were full!  The unsuccessful search for parking had cost us more than a half-hour of time (and fuel), and at last, we gave up and decided we needed to have a coffee break.  Lucky enough, we found a 1-hour parking spot right in front of a cafe.  The books by the window were what attracted us to go inside.  Can anyone guess where this might be? :)

IndoLicious @ Lygon St

Last Friday, while it was raining, we walked through the winds to have lunch at a new place (such an effort to walk outside in the wet and cold!).  IndoLicious is located at Lygon St, next to Lazzat.  I suppose the restaurant isn't that new because the owner said that they have opened for a year (or maybe they just recently opened 'there', I didn't ask).  WWM hasn't visited any new halal eateries for quite a while, so I was thrilled to visit it and have lunch there (thanks to friends who asked me to join them for lunch).

Prices for ala carte are pretty much similar with other Malaysian/Indonesian restaurants.  They do have Nasi Campur (sorry, didn't get the price).  We wanted to try the ala carte menu, so IndoLicious recommended us to try their Nasi Iga Penyet - that's rice with deep fried beef spareribs and sambal.

There it is!  Looks delicious, right? Yummy...  The serving of the ribs were very generous I would say, and they were very tender, so you'd have no problem eating them with fork and spoon.  The sambal could've been spicier for my liking (suka pedas2!), but it was still good. 

 So if you want to try out IndoLicious, it's just a walking distance away from the CBD.


Indolicious is located on 114 Lygon St, Carlton.



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Rainy Melbourne

Salam & A Good Week to Our Dear WWM Friends,

As you might have already noticed, we haven't uploaded anything new recently.  Well, that's because we haven't done a lot of walking lately.  I have been very much occupied with research work that most of our leisure "walk-walk" plans have to be put on hold for a while.  But of course, brief daily ones can't be missed :)  I'll upload some snapshots of the everyday Melbourne sometimes later.  We've been busy that we even had to miss out on Festival Malaysia and Harmony Market Festival.  So, if any of you would like to share your photos and experiences going to those two events, even other ones that we might have not know about, we would absolutely love that! Just email your contribution to blogwalkwalk[at]gmail[dot]com.  (Which reminds me, there's some line up of nice emails on suggestions of places and feedbacks which I am yet to post and share with the rest of WWM friends).

 Here are some future posts to look forward to:


1. A new Halal eatery that I visited just now for lunch at Lygon St - IndoLicious (thanks to friends that recommended it!)
2. The overdue Winter Trips (perhaps to give ideas for your next winter)
3. Spring events (heard that there will be a lot of Spring Garden events in the parks)
4. Summer is coming soon!  (Another overdue post of our Autumn Camping Trip to Wilsons Prom, and planning for a brief one sometimes in November).  And, a fishing trip which we have missed out twice (Sorry kawans, we will definitely make plans to go one day).  I'll ask my friends of the details in case any of you want to go.
5. Walk Walk Sydney! I'll share some places that I found interesting during our trip there a couple of months ago.
6. Not to forget, Walk Walk Melbourne CBD Map.
7. And lastly, we'll be doing a "walk walk abroad" soon in November.  Where?  That will have to wait ;)

So do stay tuned... and to those who helped to share about WWM to others, or even mentioning to restaurants that you knew about that place from WWM, you have really made our day :)


Meanwhile, umbrellas up people, coz it sure is raining this week!  Enjoy the rain and cool weather, before the summer heat comes.

Till then, happy weekends to all!
kayla

Festival Malaysia 2010 @ Queensbridge Square, Southbank Tomorrow!

Festival Malaysia 2010 tomorrow, Sunday 2 October 2010! More info here: http://www.festivalmalaysia.com.au/

My Restaurant @ High St, near Chapel St

My Restaurant is one of the earliest Halal Eatery that we came to know about during our short stay at High St when we first arrived in Melbourne two years ago. Tucked not far from the corner of Chapel St and High St, My Restaurant serves a pretty good briyani (simple and not too heavy, just the way we like our briyani). We've never tried their rice and lunch menu (as we're usually around the city during the day), so if any of you have tried their rice dishes, do share with us your experience. Their roti canai and tosai are another good options if you're looking for something light.







I found their opening hours via The Age's Epicure:

Sun-Thurs noon-3pm, 5pm-11pm; Fri, Sat 5pm-midnight

My Restaurant is located on 186 High St, Windsor.



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Mama Wong's Kitchen @ Corner of Flinders St & Exhibition St

We visited Mama Wong's Kitchen back in May, after a Khatib at RMIT informed the Friday Prayer Jama'ah that it is another Halal restaurant in the city. The photos have been in my iPhone, and I really thought that I've uploaded them, but actually, I haven't (lucky that they're still there!)

Mama Wong's sell a range of Chinese and Malaysian food. You can check out their website for more details. Go to http://mamawongs.com.au/

So here are some images from our visit.







Mama Wong's Kitchen is located at the corner of Flinders St and Exhibition St - exactly at the corner and it will be pretty easy to spot.




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