More Melboune

No big city is just one thing. Beautiful or ugly, modern or historic. Any adjective you give it will do it injustice because they are a bit of everything, and Melbourne is especially much so.

What I really hate about the city is the noise and too high concentration of people. I liked the Royal Botanical Gardens where you can find peace and relative quiet (if it weren't for the Formula 1 racecars running laps nearby that do their best to spoil it). I had a nice visit to the Plant Craft Cottage where a group of respectable old ladies welcomed me and showed me how they make elaborate handicrafts using plant materials -- e.g. baskets, hats, and hand-made paper from various plants. All a heart-warming labour of love. I should have bought something but there was nothing that I really needed.

And then I found another place in Melbourne I really liked: the National Gallery of Victoria, a big (and free) art gallery. Lots of artistic and design inspiration there, close to the city center, but far from the madding crowd.

I also went up the Eureka Tower, the highest residential building on earth or something, which has a viewing platform at 285 metres above ground. I went at the best time just before sunset, and stayed until nightfall, when the city lights turn on. The city seemed to be actually relatively dark at night, but maybe that seems so to me because the last time I had such a view was in Las Vegas a few years back.

Today I went together with Siow Boon, Ben and the boys to Frankston beach, half an hour's drive down the coast but still within the big basin of Port Philipp. They have a nice exhibition of sand sculptures there (at the moment, all of dinosaurs). I had a dip in the mirror-like ocean, and we had a barbecue, and saw a magnificent sunset.

(No, that's not the sunset, it's Hongsen's bum. ;)