London lessen the cold

Brisbane - Melbourne

Virgin Blue was the carrier. Air travel simplified to it's most. Bus trips might even seem more complicated compared to Sir Richard Branson's enterprise. Self-service boarding pass was issued through our self-printed itenary utilizing the barcode technology which I still fail to comprehend (c'mon pieces of black lines can contain information on my name and stuff?). The flight was literally like riding a bus. The flight attendant did'nt serve food and drinks, they sold them. Yup, economy class reflecting it's true nature. Now, enough about the chronological tale on how I got there, what I did, and all the diary style crap you see on people's blog nowadays.

The real thing is about to happen.

*Complainer mode on*

Melbourne is known to many as the most livable city in the world, tied with Vancouver according to a survey by Economist Intelligence Unit. And Melbourne is a city located in Australia, right?. I'm in Brisbane, also a city located in Australia. Therefore, my curious nature will fall to the urge of comparing these two cities. There are five main catagories for assessment (in importance order, to my own standards anyway) : entertainment, food, girls, transportation, and weather.

1. Entertainment.

The casino in Melbourne had this Vegas style approach with the grand looking building complete with a large fountain completely disregarding Australia's water restriction and the lights voltage which could easily provide brightness for the dark suburban streets of Brisbane. The clubs, were fantastic they had every options for everyone. I was lucky enough to get into this underground club called Hongkytong (yeah, strange name) which played progressive music in a very unique anti-mainstream set. Not to mention the selection of clothes you could find at a very cheap price. The discount was quite crasy enough to cut down A$60-80 t-shirt with a A$10-20 price tag. Definitely, this is the hip central of Australia.

2. Food.

Yummy. That's all I can say. Although the price tags were somewhat unreasonable in certain places it was really worth every penny. Kanpai, a Japanese restaurant located on the bussy Chapel St had this teppanyakki mixed with a very distinct Greek cream taste. Fantastic. However, in most places you could also find the below A$8 budget food around the city which was also tasty and did'nt have any dissapointing features. This is addded with the various places selling food till early in the morning. Oh, and how did i forget to mention there are TONS of Indonesian food available. I tried ES Teler 99 and a noodle joint which had this very same taste as any traditional noddle vendor in Indonesia. My stomach may have found his Goddess for sure.

3. Girls.

*Drooling......



*Still drooling...

The best Indonesian chicks are there. No research or statistical measurement needed, my bare eyes are the witness to the most facinating aestethic living creature ever created by The Almighty. The girls not belonging to my culture? Well, take a breath and just imagine this mental picture. A female having this European body the typical long legs lengthy posture, a tanned Mediteranian skin presumably Greek, an oval face with wide Japanese eyes with her long curled brown hair. Beautiful. And I can go on and on about this multicultural offsprings that people create back in Melbourne. My xenophobic visual set were tantalized and started changing to become this inferior inlander. What the heck...

*Drooling again

4. Transportation.

In Brisbane to get out of a train (or bus) and you want to get to a certain destination you know instantly you are going to have a long walk since the train (and/or bus) stops are far away from each other. In Melbourne, some guys were intelligent enough (or thoughtfull) to create waht is called a tram acting as a feeder if the train station stops a mile away from your preffered destination. So, you save time and energy. I wonder how Brisbane's city council failed to think of this idea. Okay, you may argue the daily ticket costs A$6 (CBD and surrounding suburbs) with no concession option as opposed to the A$2.50 in Brissy. However, this also means there is only a A$1 difference for adult travelers. Such a rip-off considering the service they get. SO, I prove my point. Transport in Brisbane sucks!

5. Weather.

Febuary in Brisbane: 36 C.
Sahara imported sun accompanied with dry and warm winds. At night the wind dissapears. You are left waking up so wet, sticky, and smelly.

February in Melbourne: 16
The sun is still shinning however everything else is cool. Nice breeze. You don't have to worry waking up so sweaty.



I rest my case. Any rebuttal would not be accepted in any circumstances.