11 Melbourne - Day 2 ... (Day 1 was part of GOR 3)

Ah, there is laundry facility in the apartment!  We took advantage of that and did not get out until 11am. We went to the Botanical Garden with Mom and cousin Christine. Melbourne has a free Tram zone in the Central Business District.  Instead of paying a regular fare of $3.90 one way, we caught the free ride half way and walked the rest to the garden. The garden is really big and very well maintained. There is a lake in the middle and it has many different plants from all over the world. We walked a bit and then stopped at the Rose pavilion for a quick lunch (croissant and left over roast duck from the night before).  The rose pavilion has only one kind of rose on one side and it would not even qualify as a rose garden!  
Since it is Sunday, all the exhibitions are closed. It was a hot day, especially under the sun, so we decided to go to the Queen Victoria Market. The market was a big disappointment, it was more like “women’s street” in Hong Kong with vendors selling similar things from Asia. Since we were leaving for Tasmania tomorrow, we did not check out the produce section as we could not bring any fruit or vegetable to Tasmania. Other markets we visited usually have coffee shops and such, but we could not even find ice cream anywhere. I ended up with a Magnum from a 7-Eleven close to the hotel.
In the late afternoon, we headed down to the water front where we had planned the New Year’s Eve dinner at an Italian restaurant.  Because it is Chinese New Year, various food stalls serving Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian and Japanese food can be found on the promenade, and some stalls offered astrology and feng shui predictions. The food smelled really good, but we had to take a pass as we were going to dinner. They also had a lion dance on a temporary stage where the signs actually said Lunar New Year.  Food was fabulous and service was good at the Italian restaurant. Carol’s (David’s cousin) research really paid off. Since we were close to a Casino, we had to try our luck and made some money for the New Year. David and I are not gamblers, but we tried our luck with the 3 dice game (sic bo) and came out even. For the other gamblers in our party, they all won some money.  Three of them won at the roulette table by picking the winning number … can you imagine the odds?  I suppose this is a good omen for everyone in the New Year J.

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