Thursday, October 28, 2010

Hobart


"Time do pass so fast once u fall into that simple daily routine of life and without realising it, its been ages since i left Tasmania, memories fading. But it was one great relaxing trip i never hope to forget. So before i completely lose all my memories, i should pen all of them down"


Things didn't plan out right as soon as we landed in Tasmania, it was raining heavily and i was really really sick from a bad flu and cough ( i didn't recover until a month later). Our initial plan had to be changed, we were suppose to head to Port Aurthur or Richmond for a day tour before checking into the hotel for the night.  We opted to stay in a rather commercial hotel as my mom was visiting, however it was rather affordable. In Hobart we stay in Mercure Hobart for a price of AUD89 per night. Breaking it down by 3, it rather a good deal compared to backpackers.

As you could see, its rather luxurious for a short visit but the view from the window is spectacular. The building were so Victorian style and the colors were like out from Disneyland.
As our flight got slightly delayed due to the weather, and some time consumed during car rental process, soon it was noon. Even though the plan was to arrive there early and start some serious sight seeing. Not much debate was needed due to the weather and delay, because all we wanted to do was to get some lunch and relax the whole day away, mainly too cause i was pretty sick. GPS on and off we headed to the city towards Salamanca Place. If you're heading towards Hobart soon, don't do the same mistake as us. Salamanca Market only operates on Saturday, where locals and tourist hang about for local produce, arts and craft or just merely getting fresh air. We did a huge mistake if not checking the days for the market and only focusing on getting cheaper hotel rates on Sunday. Pretty much the city is quite dead on a weekend and we only had 1 day in Hobart. Bad bad mistake. (well, there you go, travel tips from us).

Salamanca Place is really just old building yet beautiful ones, inside house local artsy items and people as well some art gallery and eatery. If you are on a budget, look away as the eatery are rather pricey and heavy for breakfast and lunch. We headed for some curry for lunch at the end of the road as we didn't fancy a heavy breakfast. Reviews for the places can be summarized in one word, BAD. Serviced was bad and the food was not up to standard.

Annapurna, Will definitely never return. Farewell
Adding more pictures for viewing pleasure of Salamanca Place


Colville Gallery. Inside are some pretty chic arts, however no photography are allowed so i can't preview it to u. So head over there and check it out yourself perhaps. Price range from AUD 800- AUD 4000. How I wish i could decorate my house with arts as good as those.


More of Colville Gallery


Moving down the road there's this really trendy store that i like.


This will be appealing to the ladies, gift for lovers, mom, or maybe just yourself,don't you find yourself wanting some trendy good like this?


So this is trendy designer above is Rebecca Roth. Well, I am no friends of hers but i do like her work and colors. Simply aspiring and portrays well in my photo. Its my desktop wallpaper at this moment.

Rebecca Roth artsy shop
If you taking you kid out, this might be interesting. In an enclosed ally, house this pretty pink fairy shop. Pretty much every this magical and ferry, too much pink in a shop.

You wont miss it for sure if you are following this sign.
Let's have a look of the inside.

Walking through the entrance.


The interior of the fairy shop. Not even close to the actual shop yet. Sadly we cant take photos of the goods but there are a lot of variation of fairy stuff. Figurines, costumes etc

Won't your kids just love it there
Wooden toy and art shop opposite the fairy shop. 

This place just offer a serious of uniqueness in art and the personality one each shops. Even if you re not into art, i'm sure you find something worthy of your interest right here. Speaking of unique, I pass by this one shop and look into the windows. You wouldn't have guess what is in store on the display. quick quick , take a guess.

It;s non other than a uber cute puppy!

He look sad and tired waiting for his owner to finish work.
 The great overview of Salamanca Place

Salamanca Place
No post is complete without some humans photos right


We check in the hotels as soon as it started pouring and the temperature declined. All i wanted to do was to sleep. But maybe too much sleep. When i woke up, the sun has set and stomach was growling. Can't believe, we actually wasted our day. So stomachs needed to be satisfied. Here comes travel tips #2. Always check out where to eat, reviews and directions before traveling. For me the great pleasure of traveling is always food. I never budget on food as its the way to traveling for me since young. All i knew was Tasmania is famous for their seafood and i was looking forward for some yummy delicious seafood. However, not know where to go would be a waste of a night's dinner (well, since we only had one night). The hotel lobby has some travel brochures and i stumble across this one on famous seafood restaurant, Mures. Bull crap advertising this brochures. Driving all the way there, was delighted to see so many people in the restaurant thinking its must be good seafood. Eagerly ordering and consuming everything quickly. However, walk out with unsatisfied stomach still feeling hungry. The seafood wasn't fresh and it's quite fast food concept. Not cheap/budget as well.

Wanting to get more food, but not knowing where to go, we started walking in the cold and dead city. Night sight seeing as well. As we walk near the Henry Jones Hotel, there's this quaint looking restaurant. The windows are small and couldn't really see the interior at all or the amount of people. Looking quite desperate for food, we open the door to this quaint restaurant shockingly to see the restaurant packed with people. The aroma from the food was simply irresistible. That's it, we settle in and got our self warm and comfy for some good seafood.

3 seafood skewers hotplate. Simply divine. Must order. Though i have no idea what the name.

Osyters with champagne and roe

A little interior of the restaurant. Every corner is art! Lucky this Hobart people get to dine there whenever they wish. Admiral Cove, I will return for sure.

cosy fire place

Johnny Depp look alike

Dining area. Every corner is unique, it could as well be a pirate museum.


When we left the restaurant, it started pouring again and the wind was strong.
 How could we end the night with out any night shots. Our initial plan is to tour the city at night but not permitted by the weather god.


Rain!!
 Manage to only captured a night shot and was already drench in rainwater


This end the first night out in Hobart and off we went back to the hotel for some hot tea and getting ready for some good day next.


stay tune for the rest.

8 comments:

Che-Cheh said...

The hotel is very nice. Too bad about the weather though.

For me, my eating travel tip would be 'discover'.

Enjoyed reading your Tasmania trip. :)

MiqTravellers said...

hi, che-cheh. You must be from che-cheh.com. thanks for reading! maybe next time when you're in Melbourne again we can meet. stay tune for more.

nine.one.eight.one said...

lovely photos and lovely place. Melbourne looks great.

nine.one.eight.one said...

opps .. sorry I meant Hobart. :)

MiqTravellers said...

hi, thanks for the comment. It's great place that take great photos. Just recently started photography few months ago. Will be doing some Melbourne soon. Thanks for visiting.

Unknown said...

glad to see how much you guys & girls too of course are into travelling. Yes and as fun as it may seem, nothing always goes as planned :) Good job peeps, will check out your blog from time to time for updates!

surfs'up - alvinontherocks.com

hanna said...

beautiful ....

MiqTravellers said...

thank alvin and i'm farra.

great to here that you will return. yes, we all love traveling but definitely limited by money, so its fun to enjoy stories from each other as well as other people.