We are currently in Thailand, enjoying the Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort - we will post that later. In the meantime below is our posting for the Sydney and Melbourne adventures.....
8 Jan 09: Australia bound
The flight to Oz land was uneventful, the Air Asia plane was definitely comfy – A friend of ours who flew Air Asia warned us to look out for ‘tranny’ flight attendants (Air Asia doesn’t discriminate!) but alas, there wasn’t one on Bobby’s flight…though there was one that was questionable, but he couldn’t tell – He was hoping to take some pictures of a ‘hot tranny’ mess – He will have to wait for our Bangkok to Krabi Air Asia flight for another chance.
MEL to SYD…
Kevin arrived in Sydney around 7:45am, via Qantas Airlines. He slept most of the time on the plane though he had a lay-over in Jakarta, Indonesia. On the other hand, Bobby was busily typing on this blog content since its way behind. He did have some shut-eye on and off in the plane. He had to get rid of his Malaysian Ringgits – so, he bought lots of snacks and dinner (Air Asia is a no frills airline – you also have to buy your comforts, that’s why it’s so cheap). His flight arrived in Melbourne Intl. Airport on time at 11:25am. Once again, customs was a breeze – that is - if you’re not declaring anything like he did. It was another 3 hour lay-over for him to fly out to Sydney - this time taking Virgin Blue Air. Departure time was 3:15pm.
*Pictures: Kevin's first day @ Sydney - with Joe Beal and Ronnie.
Sydney, 4:30pm….
Bobby’s flight to Sydney almost took an hour. He slept most of the time – only woke up when the plane touched the ground. Got his baggage and headed out to the train station. Public transport was relatively easy when you know where you are going. We were staying with a friend of ours from Chicago – Joe Beal and his partner, Michael. They generously offered their domicile while we were visiting. Another friend of ours Ronnie LeBert (aka Lil’ Shady) was meeting us on this Australia portion of our trip and staying also at Joe and Michael’s place. Ronnie already flew into Sydney for New Years Eve, but took a side trip to New Zealand for some outdoor adventures. Joe and Michael lived in as area known as “Darlinghurst” and pretty close to the King’s Cross Station where Bobby alighted. Kevin, Ronnie and Joe met him right outside the station, after Joe gave them a tour of his neighborhood and Rushcutters Bay. We stopped by a Patisserie owned by a nice woman two blocks from Joe’s place to get something to eat. Ronnie and Boby were starving – we bought some quiche and then chilled at Joe and Michael’s place. The plan for the evening was just to go and check out the bars in the area. At around 10pm, we headed out to The Green Park Hotel Bar for a couple of drinks (many of the bars here are called hotels due to past liquor license laws). It had a nice atmosphere. We then decided to check out the gay bars in the area – first stop: The Colombian. We stayed there until Kevin left. He had to leave around midnight because he had to wake up early the next morning for his meeting with his Corporate Office in Sydney. Ronnie, Joe and Bobby decided to walk down to ‘Midnight Shift’ down the road – music was great but the clientele was ‘so-so’. After 10 minutes, we walked out and decided to hit the bigger venue called ‘The Arq’ – where they stayed till 3am.
9 Jan 09: Friday – Sydney walk-about
Kevin woke up early to go to his meeting. Bobby woke up around 11am – had a slight hangover, but was cured by drinking plenty of water and some Naproxen tabs. He mainly stayed in bed that morning. At 1pm, Ronnie got ready to go out have some lunch with Joe and Kevin who was coming back from his meeting. We had lunch at ‘Burgerman’ – the corner resto at Joe and Michael’s place. ‘Burgers’ are big in Sydney. McDonald’s and ‘Hungry Jacks’ (the name of Burger King in Australia) are all over the place as well as other local burger establishments (like Burger Fuel). Burgerman’s burger was good and filled us up nicely. It was already 4pm when we decided to walk to Sydney Harbor to check out the Sydney Opera house – its iconic scene is in many postcards. 
On the way to the Opera House, we passed some Warships and one of Russell Crowe’s houses at the ‘Woolloomooloo’ wharf – big house with lots of glass windows. We couldn’t see Russell – Darn! We also passed through the Royal Botanic Gardens – took some pics with the flora and fauna. Also passed the old Government House now a tourist site. Ibises and Cockatiels are very common in Sydney – their like ‘pigeons’ or ‘gulls’ – so, they can be seen everywhere you gad-a-bout in the City. The Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge looked pretty impressive from afar. We also had a clear view of Sydney’s city skyline on our walk (See picture link). On closer inspection, the Opera House was even more impressive - lots of tourist hanging about and taking pictures.
*Pictures: **On the Way to the Opera House; **Detour to the Botanical Gardens; **Sydney Opera House area; **On the way back to Darlinghurst
Sean’s Panoroma…
We had to walk back to Joe and Michael’s place at a hurried pace – because we had a dinner reservation at 8pm that night. We got home around 6:30pm and hurriedly got ready for dinner. Curtis, another friend of ours from Melbourne (we are staying at his house while in Melbourne) flew down to be with us for the weekend and rang the doorbell at 7pm. By 7:30pm, everyone was ready and we took two taxis to go to Sean’s Panoroma, a restaurant located at Bondi (pronounced ‘bhan-dai’) Beach. The resto was packed when we got there – since there were 6 of us (Ronnie, Kevin, Curtis, Joe, Michael and Bobby) they couldn’t seat us right away – they had us sit at the anteroom to wait for our tables – while waiting, we ordered bottles of white wines. Dinner was interesting and delicious…including the cucumber mint soup. They had a six course set menu, so we didn’t have to order anything. The food was mostly composed of seafood. I actually ate all the veggies and ‘mussels’ (or pipi’s as they call them) that was put forth, that was a surprise since I don’t like veggies and I detest mussels. The food was that delish. Everybody commented on how great the food was. There was also a local celebrity that sat next to us in the resto – a guy named Will Anderson, who is an actor/comedian. After dinner, we all headed back to Joe and Michael’s place to get ready to go out. Curtis went back to his hotel. Kevin, Ronnie, Michael and Bobby went to Midnight Shift bar. They had an ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’ venue – but you can’t go to both this night. We chose to go to the ‘upstairs’ (there was cover charge) venue because there was a drag show performance from the group known as “FAKE” - awesome drag show! We danced most of the night away till 5am. T’was a long night for sure.
10 Jan 09: Saturday
We woke up around 2pm (had to get our beauty sleep). We slowly gathered our stuff to go to Bondi Beach to just lay out and soak in the sun. Curtis came half hour later and we took a taxi to the beach. Since we hadn’t eaten anything, we decided to stop at one of the café’s that lined near the beach area – we chose Nico’s, a Greek Café with great looking wait staff. After we ate, we proceeded to the beach, laid our beach towel and slathered some sun tan lotion on. The sun felt good and Bobby got sleepy and had a nap. Kevin and Curtis went for a walk to check out the rest of the beach. Ronnie was right beside me – getting his sun tanning on and enjoying the beach views. Curtis and Kevin came back and we decided to explore the rest of Sydney’s bays. We took a taxi to area known as “The Gap” and walk around the area and took some lovely pictures. We decided to check out the ‘nude beach’ (aka Obelisk Beach) because it was close to the area. Not much to see there but just some old geezers. Disappointed , we decided to head home and take the Watson's Point ferry back to Sydney Circular Quay – the scenic way (See pic/video links). Upon getting off the ferry, we stop by Sydney Central Library where there’s a miniature model of Sydney displayed underneath a glass walkway. Ronnie decided to head home and left us to explore some more. We then continued on to the CBD (Central Business District) and ran into the Sydney Summer Festival. Curtis really wanted us to try a ‘meat pie’, so we stopped at ‘Pie Face’ – a store that basically sells meat pies – it was really good! – kinda like the pot pies in the US. We meandered towards the festival and watched the main stage where a ‘DJ’ was spinning and an aboriginal dance was performed. We left Curtis there – he said the festival was good. We stopped by to get some dinner at a resto named ‘Eat Thai’ – t’was good food and satisfied our hunger. We went home, showered and went out again to the Columbian bar where we stayed the whole time with Ronnie. This was another all nighter – we went home around 5am.
*Pictures: **On the way to 'The Gap'; **The Ferry ride back to Sydney Quay; **The Sydney Central Library/On the way to Sydney's Summer Festival
*Videos: **Ferry ride back to Sydney; **Sydney Summer Festival street scene
11 Jan 09: Sunday…
Another day of waking up late – 1 or 2pm, we forgot what time. Curtis was already waiting for us for 3 hours. He finally got tired of waiting and went to lunch with Joe and Michael, while we got ourselves presentable. Ronnie and Kevin wanted to go back at Bondi Beach again – but Bobby decided to stay put, since he had a bit of a hangover and my stomach was acting up again. Curtis, Michael and Joe came back from Lunch around 3pm. Curtis had to leave for Melbourne around 4pm. Around 5pm, Bobby left Joe and Michael’s house to meet Kevin and Ronnie who were leaving Bondi Beach for our scheduled Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb which was scheduled at 7:05pm for the twilight climb. Bobby wanted to walk to Sydney Harbour Bridge – which took him about 1 hour to do so. He met up with Kevin and Ronnie right around 6:50pm at the Harbour Bridge Climb HQ. We queued to get the tickets. It was very expensive since we were wanted the ‘twilight’ moment –which meant climb the bridge during while it’s still light out, watch the sunset at the summit and climb it down during night time – that was the plan. We went through the safety pre-cautions on climbing the bridge, training on how to use the cable, carabineers, etc. We got all suited/laced up on all the equipment and were on our way by 7:20pm. Unfortunately, for our group, there was a storm on the way, so the lead guide had to confer with his superiors on what to do. We were stopped beneath the bridge maintenance walkways and watched the lightning in the distance. They told us to wait out the storm while the climbers ahead of us had to get off the bridge to safety (lightings was now prominent). They herded us to a much safer area, along with all the other groups of climbers and waited out the storm. An hour later the storm abated and they gave out the ‘all clear’ signal, of course by this time, the twilight chance was no longer possible, it was completely dark and drizzly. 
They gave us a choice of having to come back the next day to experience twilight, get a full refund or continue on for a ‘night’ time excursion. Since, Ronnie, Kevin and Bobby had to fly out the next afternoon – the twilight run was out of the question – so, we opted to continue with the night run with compensation for the difference of the twilight run. The climb took us 3 hours long – to and back. We got to see Sydney high up – about 134 meters above the harbor – breathtaking sight. Unfortunately, cameras weren’t allowed – but the guide did take some photos at designated spots which we had to pay an arm and a leg – but it was worth it. The climb ended up at 10:30pm - pretty long one – we had a choice to get our pictures on printed hard copy or on a CD-Rom – Kevin and Ronnie decided to get it via CD – so it could be shared easily. The guide also gave us certificates and a token group picture for free. We left around 11pm and took a taxi to head home and got dropped off at Darlinghurst. Since, we haven’t had any food, we walked around Darlinghurst area to find some grub. Unfortunately, all the restos in the area where already closed for the night. We were desperate and hailed down a taxi driver and asked him where the places are that where still open. He told us to continue walking on at another couple more blocks going either back or forward – we were still confused until the woman who got out of the Taxi we hailed kindly told us to go back where we came from around King’s Cross area where the restos close around 3am. We thanked her profusely and turned around to the way we came – until we were at the area where the woman told us – basically, around the Gentlemen stripper clubs. The woman recommended the resto called “Café Roma’ – that served Italian food. We got sat down immediately and ordered our food. Pizza and Pasta – yum!
*Video: Kevin and Ronnie @ Bondi Beach
12 Jan 09: Monday - Halfway to Melbourne
Ronnie, Kevin and Bobby woke up around 10am to go running around the harbour area and the botanical garden. We had to get back by noon to shower, pack our bags, and leave for the airport to fly out to Melbourne.
Melbourne….
Kevin and Bobby flew with Virgin Blue, while Ronnie took Qantas Airways. Since we had time, Kevin wanted to shop at the Sydney airport - he saw the brand name 'Bonds' and bought a tank top, with the Bonds logo along with the Australian Flag - he was excited about the purchase but was disappointed later on that 'Bonds' was like the 'Hanes' in America. We arrived about the same time at 4:30pm. Got our baggage and took a taxi to Curtis’s place. The ride took approximately 20 minutes from the Airport to area known as Northcote (pronounced – North-kut) where Curtis has his house. Curtis was already waiting outside his house for us. He has a one story house that has a 20 foot ceiling. The hallway from the front door to his living room is so long that you could play bowling in it. The house has lots of space and is very clean. Curtis walked us around his neighborhood. Most shops/stores/bars were closed. Curtis says that most places aren’t open on Mondays and Tuesdays in his area and other areas. He took us to some quirky local bars that were open. We had dinner at a place called Northcote Social Club where they used to serve ‘kangaroo burgers’- were hoping to have a taste – but they took the ‘roo burger off the menu’ and only have a ‘rare roo’ salad mix – but we weren’t too adventurous to try it out. We ate some other food on the menu instead. Afterwards, we settled in for the night.
*Pictures: First day in Melbourne - Curtis Neighborhood of Northcote
13 Jan 09: Tuesday
Yarra excursion….
We woke up around 8am and decided to go work out at a gym a block from Curtis’s house. Good work out. Curtis had to pick up the rental car for us to travel to the Yarra Valley and Yarra Ranges National Park – a park within the state of Victoria and an hour away from Melbourne. We got done with our workout around 10:30am and got ready for a long day of seeing an animal sanctuary, wineries and rainforest in the Yarra Valley area. We left Curtis’s house around 11:30am. Our first stop was a winery named ‘Tarrawarra’ that also housed a museum. Had a wine tasting – Curtis bought a couple of wines. We were hungry by the time we left Tarrawarra so we stopped by for lunch at ‘Innocent Bystander/Giant Steps - a restaurant/winery – it was another real good food, good wine and good cheese plates. Yummy! So far, we are really liking Melbourne with its extremely delish cuisine…there hasn’t been any ‘bad’ eats! After lunch, Curtis took us to the Healesville Animal Sanctuary – where Australian animals who were rescued from injuries are being nursed back to health – saw plenty of ‘roos, wombats, wallabies, platypus, koalas and different kinds of birds. (See Pic link). We were excited to see those ‘Tasmanian Devils’ but unfortunately, they weren’t seen since they’re pretty much a nocturnal animals. 
After the sanctuary, we headed out to ‘Warramate’ winery. Since it was a weekday, there weren’t many people at the wineries for wine tastings so the old lady that was minding the wine store didn’t hear Curtis and Ronnie ringing bell at the counter for 10 minutes . She was watching the tele downstairs and didn’t have her hearing aid in. We could have literally grabbed bottles and left the premises without her knowing (just a thought). We had more wine tastings and bought more wines. We took pictures outside since it was very picturesque (See pic links). We then headed out to the Yarra Ranges where the rainforest grows. Tall Mountain Ash trees, that look like toothpicks from afar (see pic links) made for awesome scenery. We drove through the ranges for about an hour without seeing any sign of human life. We came back to the city and stopped by a Thai resto around Curtis’s neighborhood– again the food was good. We got home and got ready to go out on the town to check out the bars that Curtis wanted us to see. Since, it was still Tuesday – most bars weren’t open, so, it was a hit or miss. We took the train (which is a ½ block from Curtis’s house) downtown and walked to the first bar called ‘Hells Kitchen’ which was about to close. It was located in an alley where Graffiti art reigned supreme. After seeing more closed bars, Curtis decided to take us at the Hyatt Hotel bar called RU-CU. Each of us had a specialty cocktail – awesome mix! We then left for a unique bar called ‘the Croft’s Institute’ – again, it’s located in an alley where graffiti is all over the place. This bar had a ‘chemistry’ lab as it’s décor inside – cool atmosphere. We only had one drink there also since they were closing too! It was already midnight and we were pretty tired from the days jaunts so we headed home.
*Pictures: **On the way to the Yarra Valley; **TarraWarra Winery; **Independent Bystander/Giant Steps; **Healesville Sanctuary; **WarraMate Winery; **The Yarra Rain Forest range
*Videos: **On the way to TarraWarra Winery; **Koala bear at the Animal Sanctuary; **The Yarra Rain Forest range - #1 and #2 Scenes
14 Jan 09: Wednesday
Wicked Opium Day!
Curtis had to work this day so we were left to ourselves. The day started good. Kevin wanted to work-out but Ronnie and Bobby didn’t – so they decided to ‘Shop’ at downtown Melbourne while Kevin worked out. Ronnie wanted to shop at clothing stores where you can’t find in the U.S. or Europe. He was looking for ‘Aussie Bum’ underwear too. He bought clothes at ‘YD’ and ‘CM’ stores – these stores are Melbourne based and are really unique. We couldn’t find any store that sold ‘Aussie Bum’. We also looked at other specific Australian stores: ‘Calibre’, ‘David Jones’ Department Store and some specialty shops. It was a grueling ‘shopping’ day. We ate at an Italian resto for lunch – ordered paninis. Bobby couldn’t eat all of his food and asked for a ‘doggie bag’ but he was apologetically told that they couldn’t/wouldn’t do ‘doggie bags’. We told Curtis about it later and he was perplexed because he says ‘restos’ in Melbourne allow ‘doggie bags’. Shopping done – Ronnie and Bobby headed back home to relax. We got home by 3:30pm. Bobby helped Kevin update his ‘written’ Journal (given to us by Kevin’s sister-in-law, Kate for our wedding). He is keeping a journal – apart from this blog – to include things that are personal to us - written for posterity. 
At 5pm, Curtis came home from work – we had to get ready for the show – ‘WICKED’. We left the house around 6:30pm – got to downtown around 7pm and stopped by the ‘Greenhouse by Joost’, a temporary resto built with recycled materials smack dab right at the central area in Federation Square near Flinders Street Station. Curtis wanted to show Kevin this resto which was only built for 3 months. Materials are all recycled and the demolition will not create any landfill waste…a very unique place indeed. It was built to inspire future temporary housing projects. By, 7:30 we headed to the Regent Theater for the show ‘WICKED’. All we can say is – the show is Awesome – we’d see it again. Kevin and Ronnie cried. We think Curtis did too – but not Bobby. Yeppers. After Wicked, we took a taxi to an Asian themed bar called ‘Opium Den’. Another good bar – they had drag shows (take note, bars in Sydney and Melbourne have ‘drag shows’ – doesn’t matter whether it’s a ‘bar’ or a ‘club’). The clientele at the Opium Den on Wednesday nights is predominantly ‘Asian’. We met a former drag queen that said she was voted the best Marilyn Monroe look-alike a few years ago. We closed the bar at 2am. Another fun night. Ronnie had to say his early ‘Goodbyes’ as he was leaving early the next day.
*Pictures/Video: *(pic)*The Greenhouse Resto, located on *(vid)* Federation Square - across from a Church.
15 Jan 09: Thursday
Ronnie had to get up early for his flight back to the States – not sure how he managed since we were all drunk! We woke up around 11am and decided to walk around Curtis’s neighborhood again for some lunch. We found this hip Café called ‘Coco Inc.’ – the food was just delicious. Again, we were amazed how Melbourne establishments are consistent is delivering good food – Curtis was telling us that most restos have to go all out with their menus otherwise they won’t survive for very long. Dessert was a killer chocolate mudpie (see pic ->). We stayed there for a while and chilled. This was mostly our day to kinda be ourselves. Curtis, suggested that we check out another Melbourne neighborhood named ‘Fitzroy’ – close to Curtis ‘Northcote’ area. The Fitzroy area has lots of boutique shops, bars and restos lining its pedestrian sidewalks. We shopped for clothes at a store called Factory X…similar to Ragstock in Minneapolis. We met Curtis around 4pm at the ‘Black Cat’ Café for a break in our day and to drink some wine. Curtis left us after we went with him to a bookstore and we continued to window shop. By 6pm, we stopped by another Café called Joe’s Garage to rest and get something to snack on. Again the food is great! We had bruschetta, mocha, and coffee. We got home around 8:30pm, showered and headed downtown for some late night dinner. Melbourne’s weather changes constantly and this day was no exception, shorts-n-t-shirts during the day and we had to wear sweaters at night. We took pictures of Melbourne’s night scenery. We walked down towards the Southgate area by the Yarra river. Curtis told us to go there because there are restos lined up along the river coast. We found an Italian resto named ‘E Gusto!’ – and wouldn’t you know it…food was fantastic again! Bobby had some gnocchi while Kevin had some chicken rigatoni) . Since it was close to midnight, we went home afterwards to catch the last train back to Curtis’s place.
*Pictures: **Northcote (Coco Inc.)/Fitzroy Area pics; **Melbourne Night Scenes
16 Jan 09: Friday
Kevin woke up early to go to his URS Melbourne office at 10am. Bobby was suppose to workout at the gym while he was at his meeting but he was tired and went back to sleep. Much to his chagrin, he re-awoke around 11:45am and chastised himself for wasting half a day being lazy. Kevin texted that his meeting was going well and that they were going out for lunch.
We agreed to meet downtown after his lunch to walk around central Melbourne. Bobby took the train to downtown early so he could window shop before meeting Kevin – big mistake – he doesn’t have self control when it comes to ‘window’ shopping. He usually HAS to buy something! In this case, he bought a belt and T-shirt. It’s a good thing the shops in Melbourne had this massive discount sales going on, besides, he needed the belt since Kevin commandeered the belt he brought on the trip. Also, he does need a T-shirt since he only brought two. Anyways, 2pm rolls around and Bobby met Kevin at Federation Square. He was relatively chipper on the outcome of his meeting. He says that the Melbourne office folks were very cool and real nice – he met almost all of the department heads and they went all out to lunch. They liked what he did in the U.S. and are interested in his professional experience and the experience of the overall staff in Minneapolis. Bobby hadn’t eaten anything at this point, so we stopped by the “Greenhouse by Joost” resto (the ecco/environmental restaurant) again to get some grub. After eating (had some quiche and some cake – t’was good!), we decided to go clothes shopping ‘cuz Kevin wanted to buy something fashionably and distinctly Aussie. Bobby dragged him to CM (the store that he and Ronnie went shopping the two days earlier) and we bought 3 shirts. Very Nice! We hit a few souvenirs shops too but by 3:30pm we decided to head home.
*Pictures: **Walking around Melbourne
*Videos: **Conga line of Hari Krishnas!; **Street Opera Performance
Housewarming & Honeymooning…
We got home around 4pm and decided to go running outside at nearby Merri Creek. Curtis had planned a housewarming party that night (as well as a ‘honeymoon’ party for us) because he only moved in to his new house a few months ago. We ran for about 6 miles, got home, showered and got ready for the party. Guests started arriving around 7pm. Joe Beal and Michael Byrd, flew in from Sydney to be at the party and also to see the ‘Wicked’ show the following day (Saturday). It was great to see them again. We met Curtis’s Aussie friends: Dan Vo (a local DJ on a GLBT Station ‘Joy 94.4’ where he plays Opera/Classical Music, for beginners), Vidar (a former roommate of Curtis), Vidar’s friend, Elma (not sure how to spell her name), Kris (who owns a perfume business), Pete (who also flew in from Sydney and is a good friend of Curtis from London now living in Sydney), Chris (another local Melbournian and friend of Curtis and Pete), Ross (a student studying music), and Gareth and Laurent. T’was a fun evening which included spilt wine and hiccupping. Everyone had a merry time. We went to bed around 2am.
17 Jan 09: Saturday
Woke up late again around 10am. We just laid in bed for a while - Hangover! We finally got up around 1pm and decided to go to gym to sweat out the alcohol the night before. We got done around 3pm – Curtis took us to St. Kilda area, a coastal and beach area of Melbourne. We forgot to bring the DigiCam but instead had Kevy’s Blackberry pics to put up later. It was very windy. There were Kite-Surfers on the ocean making good use of the wind that day. We walked along the boardwalk, headed out to the inner portion of St. Kilda neighborhood to get some sweets and then headed back into Curtis’s house. Below are pictures from Kevin's Blackberry: St. Kilda coast.
...We had dinner reservation that night for 7pm at ‘Matteos’. Dinner was good (again) and Curtis bought us dinner as part of his many fabulous wedding gifts. We headed to the ‘South Side’ bars after dinner. The first stop was “DT’s” where there was a drag show hosted by the ‘Oldest’ drag queen named “DOLCE”. We met Pete and Chris there first, Joe Beal and Michael met us shortly after seeing the show ‘Wicked’. Later that night, unbeknownst to us, Curtis told ‘Dolce’ about Kevin and Bobby’s whirlwind 6 week Honeymoon so Dolce called us ‘onstage’ to be ‘interviewed’….at this point we already knew because Curtis had to let us know, so we didn’t get spooked. But of course, by this time Kevin and Bobby were sweating bullets. For those not familiar with Drag Queens, they tend to make fun of people when they are on stage. Lucky for us, Dolce was SUPER nice, didn’t really made fun of us at all and…WE GOT FREE DRINKS! Thanks to Curtis and Dolce! After ‘DT’s’, everyone was in the mood for some dancing so we all headed to ‘The Exchange’, a club/bar filled with 20-somethings. This bar also had a drag show and the theme happened to be based on Wicked. Yep, they had songs from the current theater show, The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz songs incorporated in their act (again, we didn’t have the DigiCam cuz it was too big for our ‘going out’ outfit so no pics). It was really a fun show, however, there were lots of drunk people in the bar. Someone fell off one of those ‘dancing boxes’ on the floor, hit someone with a drink and spilled some beer on Bobby’s back. He had to leave the bar (with Curtis) but it was too bas since it was already 2am. Kevin stayed behind with Pete and Chris to ‘The Market’ club and didn’t come home until it was daylight…which he ultimately suffered (check Sunday entry).
18 Jan 09: Sunday
Bobby woke up around 7:30am to pee and, lo and behold, Kevin was in the living room munching on some ‘nuts’…like the legume kind (tee-hee). Pete and Chris dropped him off perhaps around 6:45am. He said that, they left the Exchange and went to another club ‘The Market’, to dance some more, etc. Anyway, let’s just say that he didn’t go to ‘bed’ until 9am that day and stayed in bed for the rest of the day. Since, Bobby had a late night he didn’t get out of bed until 12noon. On this day, Melbourne had several festivals going on: The Midsumma Festival which is the start of Melbourne’s gay pride AND the Chinese New Year celebration by the Vietnamese/Lao Community. Curtis left around noon to go see Dolce’s ‘dog show’ (yes, it’s a dog show) at the Midsumma Festival. 
Bobby told him, that he will go later to the festival with Kevin…since Kevin wanted to go. Unfortunately, Kevin was still ‘indisposed’ so, Bobby decided to head out and hang with Curtis. He met Curtis at Federation Square by the bridge around 3pm. Since, he hadn’t eaten they decided to get some grub. All of a sudden, some darn pigeon pooped on Bobby! We HAD to make a detour to Curtis’s office, which thankfully was just around the corner, to wash off the offending bird poop on his new T-Shirt. Once the b-poop was washed off, they continued to search for grub. They settled on a sandwich shop that was new to Curtis and close to his office building. They ate and then headed back into the festival. They checked out the area – lots of diverse peeps. They met up with Dan Vo (Joy 94.9 DJ) for a while to talk. After two hours at the Midsumma Fest, Curtis and Bobby decided to check out the other ‘Festival in town’ in an Vietnamese neighborhood for their celebration of the Chinese New Year. The scene was more like one big block party: food stalls, vendors, and Karoake! (See pics). Curtis and Bobby only spent an hour there and decided to head home…via the way of a secluded park with bike trails. Curtis decided to show him the peaceful park with birds and dangerous/poisonous snakes! Fortunately, they didn’t see one that day. There were plenty of ‘Lorikeets’ and ‘parakeets’ to see (See pics). Bobby got a text from Kevin, saying he was up and rarin’ to go to the Festival ...but they were on their way home. Curtis and Bobby got home around 7pm. Kevin was hungry and wanted some sustenance so he and Bobby walked around the neighborhood to find a resto. We settled on a Japanese cuisine (Otsumami Restaurant)…again the food was good. We are really impressed with Melbourne food! After dinner, we hung with Curtis for a while. Kevin had to fly out the next day (we were on different flights this time) so it was an early night.
*Pictures: **Melbourne Midsumma Festival; **Vietnamese/Lao Community Chinese New Year festival; **Nature Pics in the midst of Melbourne
*Midsumma Fest Vids: **Country Dancing en Mass; **
19 Jan 09: Monday
Kevin woke up early to go to the gym. Bobby stayed in bed since he didn’t have any plans. Kevin’s flight to Bangkok was scheduled for 2pm (via Melbourne to Sydney, then to BKK). He had to take the train to downtown and transfer (via Skybus shuttle) to the Airport and allotted an hour travel time but because he took the wrong train into Melbourne he had to double back and ran late. Bobby got a text from him that he was still on the Skybus (this was around 1:14pm) and that he thought he might not make his flight. Thankfully, he made his flight since he was allowed to jump two queues. After Kevin left, Bobby was going to bike around the park but instead wasted 3 hours walking around trying to find a replacement battery on our very old Fuji camera. None of the stores carried the particular rechargeable camera battery that we needed. He was able to put in a good work out at the gym. Curtis came home around 6pm and we went to a Moroccan resto named ‘Najla’, a 20 minute walk from Curtis’s place in the neighborhood of ‘Westgarth’. As mentioned before, most restos are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays but this was open. Unfortunately, they only had two wait staff on hand and many patrons, so the service wasn’t so good. They had to wait for a long time to get their food and didn’t get all the food they ordered. However, the food tasted good once we had it. After dinner, Curtis took Bobby at a local bar named ‘Kelvin’ – not a lot of patrons inside. Nice ambience and they pour plenty of alcohol…most bars use the ‘shot’ glass to measure alcohol but this bar didn’t! After one drink, Curtis and Bobby went home and called it a night.
***Next - Thailand, Bangkok and Krabi Trip
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