Canberra Road Trip

Was up early on Sunday in eager anticipation (not!) for the road trip to Canberra. SJ and VB came over, then we headed to Footscray for Vietnamese noodles. SJ was worried we wouldnt get any Asian food along the way. She was right ofcourse. I've never eaten so much McDonald's in my life over the two days on the road! The drive up to Canberra was well, interesting. So many dead kangaroos, wallabies and rabbits on the road. I even saw a dead koala by the side of the freeway. How sad. I exhausted my Ipod on the way there and on the way back. Atleast the music was great. Made a stop in Albury, which is the border of Victoria and NSW. Even on this road trip, SJ never ceases to amaze me. She was on the lookout for "potentials"! What a crack up. We managed to act like total tourists with our camera in tow and snapped away at some unsuspecting stranger so I could eventually post it on my blog. I cant even begin to describe this town and the men that belong here. SJ went into Hungry Jacks to get some fries and was kicked out of the queue by 15 school kids. SJ was not happy, but she wasnt in her territory so, she couldnt really do much about it. People in this town are like stuck in time. They are still dressed like they're from the 80s, most men still have the mullet hair cut, which is sorta back in fashion isnt it? But the truth is, these mullet heads never left the trend from the 80s till now. Funny. It's like they didnt have to change cos it came back in fashion anyway. The women here are massive. I dont think I saw any women smaller than a size 14. What do these people do in a town like this? Actually, with all this criticism, Albury is actually a fairly decent sized town. It has a population of 41,000. That's quite a number.

Next stop was Holbrook. The place has a huge submarine in the city centre. God knows what the history is behind it and I dont really care to find out. Unlike Albury, this town only has a population of 1, 276 people. WTF? How can people live in such tiny communities? Some Asians alone have that many people in their family! We didnt give our camera a rest in this town either. People genuinely thought we were tourists.

Got in to Canberra at around 8pm, just in time for dinner. We headed out for dinner in Dickson, which is Canberra's Chinatown. We ate at a Thai noodle bar which wasnt too bad. The serving of food was massive. So, we've fulfilled SJ's taste buds with Asian cuisine. We walked pass a Chinese restaurant which I was told is owned by Jackie Chan's family. For those of you who didnt know, Jackie's Chan's dad lives in Canberra and owns a restaurant there. Even Jackie himself used to go to school in Canberra. With a population of 300,000, it is still a quiet and miserable city. I must say I'm a total city chick. Obviously cant get away from the bright lights and the loud music. In a matter of 7 hours, we were transported into a small quiet city where everyone is content with staying home and watching tv. The noodle bar we ate at was quite busy but the streets outside were dead. Given this was Melbourne or Sydney Chinatown, it would've been buzzing during dinner time.

Was up early again to accompany my ding dong cousin to the Malaysian Consulate. Well, this was the main reason we drove all the way up to this fabulous city. She needed to renew her passport. All the employees in the consulate were Malays. Not one sighting of a Chinese or Indian on deck. How racist! To top that of, the forms for applications were all in Malay too. If I wasnt there, SJ would be totally lost. Malaysian, but cant fathom Malay. It seemed like most Victorians had the same thinking cos the place was full of people from Melbourne. Everyone had the same idea of coming down cos it was a public holiday in Victoria. Thank God SJ and I were the first ones there.

After leaving her passport to be processed, we attempted to do some shopping in the city centre. The main shopping centre was quite sad. It's not even comparable to Boxhill Central shopping centre in Melbourne and Boxhill Central is pretty bad. We then headed to Manouka for lunch. People say this is the Chapel St. of Canberra. Not bad, a few restaurants and cafes here and there. We settled at a place called Belucci's. Let me tell you, it was the best lunch I've had in a long time. The pasta was beautiful. We had a pasta platter with three different types of pasta and it was heaven. SJ, VB and myself cleaned up the plate. It was that good. The waiter was really hot too. Best looking guy I've seen all weekend!

The drive back to Melbourne was pretty much the same as the drive up to Canberra. Stopped in a few towns, saw more dead animals by the road, ate more Macca's (I swear I'm not gonna eat McDonalds for the rest of the year) and finally got home just before midnight. SJ stayed over and we pretty much crashed as soon as we walked in the door. Felt sorry for VB. He had to be up again at 4am to catch an early flight to Brisbane. He was totally knackered from the drive.

It sure was good to be home. Canberra is truly not the holiday destination. They say it's the pron capital of Australia, but I hardly saw any Club X stores or any porn stores for that matter. Would've been nice to bring back a souvenior.