Malaysia Hall's Bazaar Ramadhan 2011 is also back!

Wow, Ramadhan bazaar in Melbourne TWICE  a week! What more could you ask for when fasting away from home right? :)

Source via Malaysia Hall's Bazaar Ramadhan Event Page

The bazaar is going to be held EVERY SUNDAY, starting tomorrow August 7, from 3.30 pm until Iftar.

Location: Malaysia Hall, 4K High St, Prahran

View Larger Map

Papparoti in Melbourne!

There's this bun called Mexican Bun.  It's mocha crusted on the outside, and soft, fluffy and buttery in the inside.  And it's so good!  In Malaysia, each time we walk pass by a shop that sells these buns, the aroma is so tempting that it's hard not to stop and buy one.  A couple of months back, I had one of those missing-food-from-home craving for this bun.  The thought of the warm, baked bun was just so tempting that I thought I had to learn to make some myself.  To my luck, on one of the days that we were walking along Elizabeth St, I saw a small sign that said Papparoti will be opening in Melbourne!

We finally found time to visit Papparoti last week.  The buns are Halal, and they taste just like the ones back home.  The buns are AUD2.20 each.  Not to forget, we had them with a cup of hot Teh Tarik.  They also sell some Halal gelato.  The one we tried was Durian Gelato and it was truly delicious.

 

 

Papparoti is located on 349 Elizabeth St, right opposite of Melbourne Central.
They have a couple of outdoor seating, otherwise you can have your Papparoti buns to go.

View Larger Map

For more info, visit their website here.

Walk Walk Melbourne is Giving Away FIVE Lord of the Fries Vouchers!

 Thanks to those who participated in answering the Mark Questions for the Voucher Giveaway!

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We were thrilled to have received these vouchers from Lord of the Fries, to be given to none other than friends of Walk Walk Melbourne!

"Lord of the Fries has decided to celebrate the specialness of those called Mark, because really, it’s kind of a forgettable name.  Nothing special in that name, you would have thought. But there are stacks of Marks who really deserve to be recognised, and celebrated for, well, their straightforward and plain ordinariness. We’ve declared the ‘International Day of Mark’ just for them.

We’re saucing (had to throw a pun in!) Marks all over Melbourne to be part of our mass taste test, with the aim of cramming 75 Marks into our newest store on Chapel Street! To commemorate this important day, on 21 June we’ll be launching a Special Mark Sauce, to accompany our award-winning Big Mark burger. We’re going to hold a mass celebration by hosting a ‘Big Mark burger mass taste test’. We’re hoping it’ll be the biggest gathering of Marks in the world!  So if your name is Mark or Marc, don't miss out!" - Lord of the Fries

 So, in conjuction with the launch of Mark Burger, we'd like to give away these vouchers to our friends, fans and followers out there.

How?  Easy!  The first FIVE people who can answer this question and first to send us an e-mail at blogwalkwalk[at]gmail[dot]com will get the FREE vouchers!

Here's the question:

Give us the names of FIVE people named Mark that you know and tell us a bit about who they are! Yes, it's that simple :)

I'll give you two hints to get you started:

(1) I know there's a Mark Wahlberg, also known as Marky Mark.  He was in the movie The Italian Job, driving that super cool Mini Cooper!


(2) We bought our car from a guy named Mark, seriously! He worked at the car dealership.


Easy right? So start listing your Marks now and email us right away!


P/S: We'll be giving the vouchers to the recipients by hand, which means you'll have to be in Melbourne.  Once we get the list of the winners, we'll set a date and time to all meet somewhere near Melbourne Central.

Walk Walk Melbourne: CBD Halal Map NOW ON SALE!

Getting around Melbourne for Malaysians and Muslims could not have been easier now that you can buy a copy of your own pocket-size WALK WALK MELBOURNE: CBD HALAL MAP.

If you're in Malaysia or anywhere you might be, you can also purchase this map before you come to Melbourne. Simply send us an e-mail at blogwalkwalk (at) gmail (dot) com to inform your interest

For Customers in Malaysia:

WWM CBD Halal Map = RM10.00
(Please note that it may take 3-5 days for postage)

For Customers in Australia and outside of Malaysia:

WWM CBD Halal Map + Postage Within Australia = AUD7.00

We can post the map to anywhere in the world! E-mail us for more details.
Payments can be made via Online Banking and also PayPal.

Send us your order at blogwalkwalk (at) gmail (dot) com.

Buy it for yourself, or send someone a surprise! :)

Melbourne Memories

We're delighted to hear that our blog brings back nostalgic memories to some Malaysians who have lived in Melbourne back in the 70s and 80s. If there's any specific place in the city that you'd love to see captured in photographs, we'd be happy to do some photo hunting to those places. Who knows, maybe we'll even discover places which we might have never visited before too. List your favourite places here, drop a comment, or e-mail us :)

Another WWM Roadtrip: WALK WALK ADELAIDE!

The Roadtrip: Melbourne to Adelaide

Places to Visit: Great Ocean Road, Mount Gambier, Adelaide, The Grampians

Duration: 5 days, 4 nights

If you want to see more of the Australian landscape, the Melbourne-Adelaide road trip may be something that you can consider.  A direct drive from Melbourne to Adelaide will take you between 9 to 10 hours, but what's the point of going on a road trip if you don't experience what's along the way, right?  We always feel that road trips are not just about reaching the destination itself.  It is about the journey along the way.  And I'm sure many of you would agree (coz that's what make road trips so much fun!) So if you have 5 days to spare for a trip, let's get on board!

Day 1: Melbourne - Great Ocean Road - Mount Gambier

If you haven't been to GOR (Great Ocean Road), you should.  Its a meandering scenic drive (Malaysians should be familiar with Balik Pulau - it's kind of like that).  You can see vast seaside landscape and limestone cliffs.  If you love ocean and breathtaking views, this is definitely your cup of tea.  Famous attractions along GOR is The 12 Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge, and along the way you may stop at Lorne, Apollo Bay, Port Campbell, Port Fairy and further up is Warrnambool.  If you don't want to go for the long scenic drive on your Adelaide road trip, you can always take the inland road, and exit at Port Campbell.  From Port Campbell, 12 Apostles, London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge are just nearby.  If start driving in the morning, you can have a relaxing drive, and reach Mount Gambier by evening.

The 12 Apostles

Day 2: Mount Gambier-Blue Lake-Umpherston Sinkhole-Centenary Tower-Tantanoola Caves

Mount Gambier is a beautiful place - a town once was an active volcanic site.  Expect to see gorgeous lake, vast vista of landscape, a secret garden and stunning cave.  The 3 places - Blue Lake, Umpherston Sinkhole and Centenary Tower - are all within the city of Mount Gambier.  Tantanoola Caves will be along your drive towards Adelaide.  Here are some sneak peeks of these beautiful places.

Blue Lake

 The water in the lake is blue or turqoise only in the summer; while in the winter, it is said to be grayish.  So do visit Blue Lake in the summer and you'll be blown away by how blue it looks!  If you're lucky, you can see it in turquoise, which only happen when the weather gets very hot.

Umpherston Sinkhole

This sinkhole feels like a secret garden! You'd be walking in a park and before you know it, you'll see a large hole with a lush garden inside it.  Imagine getting inside the sinkhole and experiencing how deep it actually is.  Well, no need to imagine as you can walk down yourself to the gardens.

Centenary Tower

Landscape should be experienced with a bit of walking, shouldn't it? Well bring good walking shoes as you're going to be walking up the slope to reach Centenary Tower.  From this tower, you'll be able to see the whole landscape of Mount Gambier.  Nice vistas - one side towards the countryside, while another towards the town and the lakes.  You'll know if the tower is open or not if you see the flag is raised.  If it's not open, you can still walk up the hill.  And if it opens, you have the opportunity to get inside the tower for a small fee of AUD2.50 per person.

Tantanoola Caves Conservation Park

Yes, a real cave with real stalactites and all!  It's amazing to see natural wonders like this up close, and being inside one made it an even richer experience.  It's also great opportunity to review those long-forgotten geography lessons!  The cave is wheel-chair friendly as it has smooth surfaces to walk on, which also makes it stroller-friendly.  Entrance fee is AUD10 for Adults and AUD8 for concession.

Details on Tantanoola Caves here.

Mount Gambier to Adelaide Coastal Drive

We accidentally took the coastal route from Mount Gambier to Adelaide, because we had initially planned to use the inland road from Tantanoola Caves.  However, the unplanned route was well worth it.  Did you know that South Australia produce salt?  Yes, they do.  Via the coastal route, you'll pass by Salt Creek and you might be able some salt flats.

Day 3: Adelaide CBD & Glenelg Beach

After driving through the landscape, a visit to the city is a nice change.  We spent a full one day in Adelaide, driving around the CBD to understand its layout, and then walking along Rundle Mall and Northern Terrace.  Along Northern Terrace, you'll find University of Adelaide, the State Library, Immigration Museum and South Australian Museum.  Here are some snapshots of Adelaide:

Rundle St / Rundle Mall

Rundle Mall is a pedestrian mall, like Bourke St.  You'll see many familiar shops here (just in case you miss Melbourne already!)  The tram is actually on King William St, which is the center spine of the CBD.  This is at the corner of King William and Rundle St.

Glenelg Beach

 I must say that the sand at Glenelg Beach is pretty soft in texture! And you can see this from the forms created by people's footsteps on the sand.  The middle entrance of the beach is also directly accessible by the street shops and plaza.  Have a swim, picnic or just walk around.  You'll enjoy it.

p/s: If you have friends in Adelaide, try asking them about crabbing activities.

Additional attractions:  If you're in for a bigger budget, you might want to visit Kangaroo Island.  We didn't go but have heard a lot of nice things about it.  We spent this third visiting some friends in Adelaide, other than experiencing the CBD and Glenelg Beach.

Day 4: Mount Lofty - Hahndorf German Village - to the Grampians

From Adelaide to The Grampians, we stopped by Mount Lofty and Hahndorf.

Mount Lofty

You can see an overall view of Adelaide from Mount Lofty.

Hahndorf, Adelaide Hills

Hanhdorf is Australia's oldest surviving German settlement.  Here you'll find some buildings/shops that was built in the 1800s.  Walk along the main street, visit shops and have coffee while you're there.

Day 5: The Grampians - Daylesford - back to Melbourne

The Grampians is another national park in Victoria.  Unfortunately, due to heavy rain the previous week, many of the major attractions were closed due to landslide.  Nonetheless, you can visit other accessible places like Halls Gap, Lake Bellfield, and Brambuk the National Park and Culture Centre.

Lake Bellfield, Grampians

Cultural Centre, Grampians

On your way back to Melbourne, you can stop at Daylesford to rest for a bit.  Daylesford is known for its mineral spring water, so take the chance to taste some of those water.

Food for Traveling:

We didn't eat out during our trip to Adelaide, as my road trip mates were very much well-prepared with some delicious home-cooked food.  Here's a tip that we can share for fellow WWM friends planning to do a road trip.  You can pre-cook the food, then freeze them.  During your trip, bring a cooler and fill it with ice to store your frozen food.  When you get to your accommodation, you can reheat them or continue to store them in the freezer, and repeat the process as you need.  All of the place that we stayed - caravan park and motels - had microwave oven, so reheating will be no problem.

If you want to eat out, you can get a list of Halal-eateries in Adelaide from here. 

So there we go, a Melbourne-Adelaide Road Trip: crossing landscapes, towns, lakes, sinkholes, hills, caves, city, beach, summit, and nature - in 5 days.  Do share with us your road trips as we would love to hear from our fellow walkers out there :)

Bairnsdale & Lakes Entrance

Have you visited Lakes Entrance?  If you haven't, you really should!  Before we went to Lakes Entrance and having never googled Lakes Entrance to know what it might look like, I thought it was a park reserve like Wilsons Prom.  Lakes Entrance is more open.  Imagine a road with a row of hotels, shops, caravan park, etc., and in front of the road there's a water body that looks like a river, and across that river there's a ridge, and behind that ridge is the sea.  Can't imagine?  That's because you simply just have to go there to appreciate the gorgeous landscape :)  You'll understand why it's called "Lakes" Entrance.

Lakes Entrance is about 4 hours drive from Melbourne.  Along the way, after about 3.5 hours of driving, you'll reach Bairnsdale.  We were very lucky that one of our friends has a friend whose family has a farm there.  We got the opportunity to have a personal tour around Picnic Point Farm, have a close encounter with cows and calves (calves are very camera shy!), and eat fresh picked apples and plums from the trees.  If you're thinking about going, contact us and we may be able to arrange something with them for you.

 

Our friend took us for a drive around Paynesville.  There was this one place in the picture here where we were driving on a narrow strip of land, and have a river on our left and a lake on our right.

 

Lakes Entrance is only about 30 minutes drive from Bairnsdale.  There's a lot of choices for hotels and caravan park at Lakes Entrance.  Below are some snapshots around Lakes Entrance.  What can you do there: immerse yourself in nature and the wonderful views, of course!  But there are also other activities and attractions at Lakes Entrance.

We felt a love for geography after visiting Lakes Entrance!

Map from Melbourne - Bairnsdale - Lakes Entrance:

View Larger Map


Now remember to include Lakes Entrance in your travel plans.

One of the Three

One of the “Three Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Lunch”.

Might this be Batman, Swanston or Hoddle?

@ Cnr Swanston n Bourke St

Saturday Sights of Swanston St

We never seem to get bored of walking in the city.  We go to the city everyday, and sometimes when we have to go to the city on weekends, there's still something to see and experience.  Most of the sights are pretty much the same, but there's always a different 'feel' to them each day.

If you walk along Swanston St on weekends, like a Saturday, you're bound to experience a more active street life.  Most of the times, there'll be the 'regulars', but somehow, they still manage to get crowds to stop and have a look.

You might have stumbled upon the guys who spray paints their painting:

The riders, the horses and the coaches:

And the guy with the mohawk who plays chess!

My personal favourite has got to be the couple who sing and play guitar at the corner of Bourke St.  Maybe next time I'll get a snapshot of them, or maybe record some bits of their singing.

Daily Melbourne: Thursday, 13.01.11

Tram Stop 25: Cnr St Kilda Rd & Commercial Rd

Weekly Wondergram

There's a lot of fun and quirky things to see in Melbourne when you walk around and take the opportunity to see the things around you.  Thus, having a camera with you when you're out on the street is very helpful if you're into capturing snapshots of the everyday like me.  Here are some of my snapshots from last week around Melbourne CBD.

 

 Aren't balloons just fun to see?

 

We are always attracted to these markings on the streets.  They look like a life-scale construction drawings.  And at the very least, they give you a hint that some works are about to be conducted there, specifically.

 Golden bikes, anyone?

Photos | iPhone

Apps | Instagram, PS Express

Location | Streets of Melbourne

Memories of Melbourne

How do you frame your memories of Melbourne?  I'm sharing some of mine here at wondergram.

If you have nice ones you'd like to share with me or others, feel free to send an email :)

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?

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!

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

Melbourne CBD Walk Walk Melbourne Map - Halal Map Melbourne

Yes! It's finally almost here! We're finally on it: our Melbourne CBD Walk Walk Melbourne Map, a.k.a Halal Map Melbourne!

Going back to the first entry of this blog back in 29 November 2009, it is now almost reaching 2 years since Walk Walk Melbourne gets online to share about Melbourne, and most importantly, the Malaysian and Muslim version of the city - which is what we would call our niche. This so-called project started out as part of my (Kayla's) parallel research project, as a way to understand cities differently. In a sense, it was for me to read Melbourne from different lenses - as a Malaysian, Muslim, student, temporary resident, and tourist all at the same time.

I started collecting and mapping places that I go to in and around Melbourne, as a Muslim and as a Malaysian. What started as collecting ordinary routine places; to finding the necessities such as Halal eateries, Halal grocers, and prayer facilities; to searching for new places to visit and explore, Walk Walk Melbourne begins to reveal these other 'layers' of Melbourne. That's what makes cities rich in characters.

We thank you very much for your support, feedback, and suggestions. Knowing that the site is useful to others motivates us to continue doing it, and who knows, we'll soon tread the globe with the same mission! Watch out, Lonely Planet! :D

So while you wait for our map to finish being constructed, do continue to browse through the blog and share it with others. Meanwhile, we'll be thinking of ways of how the map can be more than just a map, and most importantly, how we can make it fit into your wallets, purses and little pockets so that you'll always have your Walk Walk Map with you ;)