It’s finally June !
The day for my new life is finally here !

After tiring weeks of packing and preparation, me and my wife are ready for our new life in Melbourne, Australia. Our flight was early in the morning and we planned to spend few hours in Singapore to buy an electronic device (Apple Airport Extreme) and probably walk a bit in the city. Managed to put everything in our luggage and still have three more baggage for cabin. With this many stuff to carry, I guess it would be impossible for us to travel light in Singapore city, anyway. Maybe spending few hours at the airport is not such a bad idea.

Arrived at 1pm, Changi airport never disappoint me. Always full of life and always many things to do. First we tried to  decided to buy my Airport Extreme first (cheaper in Singapore than in Australia). Went to three Apple stores and all have no stock. Since we barely have any strength left, we ended up enjoying the free foot massages available at the airport while waiting for 5pm when we can go to check in counter for our next flight to Melbourne.

5pm, smooth check in, and the check in officer told us that we are eligible to enter Qantas business lounge. Why not? Got nothing to do anyway and a business lounge is definitely gonna be a better experience than walking around on tired legs.

And so we headed to Qantas lounge. Nice environment, I must say. Comfy seats, light snacks, I thought that’s already all I can expect until I discovered that we can take free shower there ! And so I decided to try having a shower. To my amazement, they got plenty of shower rooms (24 if I’m not mistaken) and each is cleaned up after every use. New towels are available and the cleanliness standard is one you would expect from at least a bathroom in a three star hotel. Not bad at all !

Melbourne flight departed at 9pm and we went into the plane feeling fresh after our surprise shower =) In flight meal was nice (though it’s not exceptional) and we had a quite nice of a travel experience.

7 June 2011, 7am, long queue at the immigration counters in Melbourne airport. The queue moved faster than the one we had at San Fransisco counters last January though. With all the cabin baggage that we must carry, the queue only became tougher to survive. Glad that we did not get any problem with either immigration or customs. So we headed outside and our lovely Melbourne greeted us with its fresh-but-freezing winter wind ! Man, it was super cold ! colder than what I remembered to be Melbourne’s weather. But again, maybe it’s my memory getting rusty after 5 years not coming here.

First thing to buy : a mobile phone number. Found an Optus outlet at the airport and decided to buy a SIM card there. Then the bus driver already found us (we book for airport pick up service), and so we headed to our hotel with our BIG luggage. Guess what, we had a traffic jam ! Surprise ! Never thought traffic jam can be this bad in Melbourne. But the bus driver kept telling us that the traffic jam is very unusual. There might be an accident or something that triggered the traffic problem this morning.

Hotel check in, then we had our first breakfast at McDonalds. And no, it was not planned. It’s just happened that the first restaurant we found near the hotel was that McDonalds. So we had our brekkie there, and using their free wifi to download some Melbourne maps in our iPods. We started to look for for a house or unit to rent starting from our first day. Surely we can’t stay in hotel forever now that we need to live here for long term, not for a vacation.

Purchased our Myki card (something like a refillable ticket) at nearby train station and we started our adventure around Hawthorn and Toorak suburbs.  It was freezing, it was a lot of walk, it was… maybe a mistake for us to start doing another tiring activity after a long flight. We ended up with nothing at dawn, very hungry in the middle of nowhere and found no restaurant anywhere close. Felt that this was not the Melbourne that we remembered. Not quite the first day experience we would expect, but here we are, and somehow we must survive.

And so we went to city and had our dinner hoping to restore our memories of the city we enjoyed so much back in 2005. It was a good decision, since Melbourne CBD is still the very same as we remember and love. Great atmosphere, well organized city, excellent public transport system, quality food, fresh air, clear sky. We also breathed the same fresh air in Hawthorn and Toorak, actually, but maybe it was under a different mood that gave us very different impression.

Had our dinner in Melbourne CBD, re-planned the whole activity for tomorrow, then returned to hotel in a very tired condition. What an amazing day ! Can’t wait to start our new life here.