HXBC.us - 竹難月金

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> (Written on the way back)
> 
> It's now 10:30 pm or 3:30 am, or more accurately, probably somewhere in between. As I am riding in a plane somewhere atop the middle of the Pacific, it's probably a good time to write about the Melbourne part of the trip.
> 
> Melbourne was very unlike Sydney. Maybe because I didn't spent as much time near downtown, or because there wasn't as much of a downtown, Melbourne just felt more like a suburb. If Sydney reminded me of New York, then Melbourne reminded me of San Francisco. Actually, people there are probably even more chill than fellow San Franciscans. At 10pm I could still see people hanging out at the grass outside of the library, even on a weekday. There were far fewer people in the CBD, but I guess that's to be expected since Sydney is the bigger city of the two.
> 
> The greatest thing about Melbourne is probably the free tram that runs on the city circle line. It's reasonably frequent and it's hard to beat free. Even with the free tram we didn't go to more places, mostly because there weren't as many things we wanted to see but also because we were getting tired. Even then there were still some good museums that were well worth our time, as well as some that were totally a waste of money.
> 
> Maybe I should start with the Old Melbourne Gaol, which was a scam at $22. Actually we probably could have gotten in for free, and the museum part had enough interesting stories that I probably would have paid $10 or so. But the part that cost $22 was the "prison experience", basically you pay them to "arrest" you and then show you around a little, before finally telling you that it was not really a prison but just a temporary detention center. It's more like a guided tour that other museums offer for free. Verdict: keep the $22.
> 
> The National Gallery of Art was pretty good, except we went there late and couldn't spent too much time there. The Hellenic Museum was tiny, but it was a good cool down spot during our walk to the Docklands. Plus the receptionist there was funny and couldn't stop talking about sharks.
> 
> The unexpectedly good museum was the Chinese museum in Chinatown. Not because it was free (it was not) or particularly informative (it was okay), but somehow it reminded me about the whole cultural identity thing that's been buried in the back of my head for awhile. I may write about that separately later.
> 
> While we were getting started this New Zealand couple who probably thought they knew a lot about China talked to us for a bit. I wasn't quite interested in talking to people who call others "those little Chinese people" so I sped up and away. Right after we got out of the museum this man who was walking his bike started to talk to us in Cantonese. Turns out he was born in Vietnam and has relatives in Sacramento so he visits California once in a while. We chatted briefly and he complained that things in Australia are so much more expensive the whole time. Anyways that was pretty random.
> 
> On the last day I suddenly had this urge to have some egg tarts so that's what we did. It wasn't as good as the one that I had last time, but I honestly can't remember how it tasted last time, so maybe my mind is just making up that part of the memory.
> 
> Anyhow, that concludes the Australia trip and I am getting back to real life.