5 Unmissable Melbourne Highlights

The bustling metropolis of Melbourne sits on Australia’s south east coast in Victoria. Although in Ozzy terms it’s close to Sydney – only a few hours away by train or flight – Melbourne is very different to the capital. It’s a vibrant hub with a lot more architectural character than Australia’s other cities. A place where culture thrives, coffee shops abound, artists and musicians throng and is full of green spaces. Melbourne’s also the stepping stone to the South Coast, home of the famous Great Ocean Road, Phillip island and Tazmania. In this article we’re going at my favourite Melbourne attractions, the best things you definitely should check out if you have a few days in the city.

1 – Melbourne Street Art Trails

Melbourne is famous for its great street art. Rather than a kid’s spray can scrawlings on the odd sign, these are true works of art covering entire building walls and covering every inch of alleyways. The street art is such a big attraction that you can even find free tourist leaflets with walking trails so you don’t miss anything. It comes in all shapes and styles and best of all is always changing and new pieces are added all the time. It transforms grotty alleys and dull buildings into interesting focal points, and few cities in the world have it on this scale and quality.

The art is mainly concentrated around the CBD (city center) and the district of Fitzroy, and is found in well populated areas just meters away from banks and shops. It’s a great way to spend half a day and it’ll also lead you around much of the city. I actually split it over two days as we getting distracted by other things we found during our wanderings! Or, treat it like a treasure hunt and just explore all the side streets and alleyways that you find as you explore Melbourne (keeping safety in mind, although the city centre is pretty safe).

2 – Eureka Skydeck 88

This sky tower right in the city centre offers amazing 360 panoramas of the city and the landscape for many miles around – right out to the coast. Because Melbourne has such interesting architecture it makes for an interesting view below as you watch the tiny ants (people) below you and the streams of traffic as you sit in peace almost 300 meters about the city. Check the weather and try to time your visit when it’s clear.

The best time to come to the Melbourne Skydeck is shortly before sunset, which is when I did it – see the daytime view, enjoy a gorgeous Australian sunset and then see the city from above in a whole different light at nighttime, it’s fantastic. Look out for discount vouchers in the free tourist brochures available from Tourist Information offices.

3 – National Gallery of Victoria

Australia’s largest national gallery is a real treasure. Not just full of old paintings (although it has those), there’s art of every size and description you can think of here, from photography to modern art and wild sculptures. You can easily spend half a day or longer exploring here. There’s plenty of limited exhibitions, interactive art and fun kids areas which adults will secretly enjoy too! I’m not usually a big gallery fan but I found plenty to interest me here.

The National Gallery of Victoria also sits on the edge of a huge parkland, made up of Queen Victoria gardens, King’s Domain and the Royal Botanic gardens, all of which are very nice and a great place to wander around or sit and relax when you need a break from taking in art!

 

4 – Fitzroy

Fitzroy, the hipster epicentre of Melbourne is just a short tram or bus ride from the CBD. Be sure to pick up a pre-paid myki transport card beforehand to make hopping on and off public transport super simple. Fitzroy was a quite a dilapidated, poor area of the city, and still retains a lot of gritty and griminess, with a mixture of dubious characters interspersed amongst an astonishingly diverse mixture of people including students, hipsters, artists and white collar workers who live or hang out in this redeveloping area. Why do people come to Fitzroy? It’s full of great coffee shops, unique stores, boutiques and galleries, little pubs, bars and restaurants with loads of character.

 

Art is big here, street art and sculpture can be found everywhere. Many of the shops have elaborate or sculptured fronts. Upmarket independent fashion stores sit alongside trendy organic restaurants. At night the streets are full of a mixed crowd coming for Fitzroys great nightlife, with lots of live music at many venues and homely craft beer bars or trendy pubs. It’s a joy to just wander around Fitzroy, browsing its many outlets and galleries, stopping for a top notch coffee, grabbing some tasty lunch, discovering some street art, and redefining how skinny a hipster’s jeans can get! Also don’t forget to check out the excellent Melbourne Museum on the outskirts of the area, which you can easily spend a day in as well.

5 – St Kilda

Hop on the tram and head out to the beach! St. Kilda’s a thriving Melbourne suburb on the coast. Although there’s a tackier vibe here than Fitzroy, you’ll still find a lot of good bars, restaurants and a big arts scene including a number of theatres to choose from. The main part of St Kilda has gone a bit upmarket but the rest is still home to copious amounts of British and Irish ex-pats, and backpackers who frequent the suburb’s many bars and hostels, and there’s still a bit of a seedy atmosphere about the place. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time here – St Kilda’s well known for it’s boisterous night-life and many people choose go out here for a big party.

Out at the long beach, the main attraction, sit back and relax. Don’t expect the water to be too warm but if you’re feeling a bit more energetic it’s a nice walk along the beachfront with good views of the city, and some long piers to wander. It can be pretty windy so bring your jacket! The most iconic place in St Kilda is Luna Park (which has a sister in Sydney). This fun fair has a huge evil gaping mouth luring visitors within. Inside, there’s not much to get excited about, some small rides and stalls, but it’s all stylised in a cool way. There’s also a number of distinctive old buildings of various styles in the area, such as the Esplanade hotel. St Kilda is a great place to come for sunset, followed by a meal and a beer in one of the copious number of establishments on the waterfront. Keep an eye out on upcoming events, as St Kilda hosts a lot of big festivals throughout the year.

Ah, Melbourne, how I love thee

Of course there’s plenty more to do in Melbourne. There’s some great parks and gardens, more museums and galleries to explore. There’s a huge amount of shopping to be done with arcades everywhere in the CBD. The city is full of great bars, coffee shops and restaurants and there’s other trendy and historic districts to check out. The nightlife here is renowned, catering for every taste (a lot of people have told me it’s better than Sydney’s). And if you’re short on time during your Australian holiday, you can also arrange day or multi-day tours from Melbourne to places like the Great Ocean Road, The 12 Apostles and Phillip Island. This is a true city of culture, so be sure to give yourself at least a few days to see Melbourne’s highlights. It was definitely a highlight of my Australian trip!

Check out more of my Melbourne photos in the gallery below. There are shots from all around the city including Fitzroy, the CBD, St Kilda, the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium and various museums and parks. Click to enlarge, enjoy!

Going off with Strangers – The Real Jakarta

Didn’t your mother tell you never to go with strangers? Well, sorry mum. I did just that. But on the plus side, I got to see a side of Jakarta that the average tourist will never set eyes on!

It was my second day in Jakarta, Indonesia’s massive, smoggy capital. My taxi had spent over an hour to grind through just a few kilometers of the gridlock of honking cars, tuk tuks, belching fumes and weaving motorbikes in the city centre, out to the old harbour of Sunda Kelpa. This area still has some old Portuguese colonial buildings, now rather dilapidated, and is also home of the Jakarta Maritime Museum, which I’d heard was worth checking out.

Jakarta

Welcome to gridlock city.

I took in the view of the museum, with its gleaming cream colonial buildings and red tile roof from the old watchtower. The complex rose like an island above a sea of rickety buildings with corrugated roofs jutting out like waves at every possible angle. This architectural chaos is typical Jakarta.

Back on true terra firma, I was approached by a local man who I will call Mr. Sukarno. He offered his services as a guide around the museum, and I politely declined. But I was travelling alone and happy to chat with him about the area, and the history of the old port. He seemed to know his stuff. There were no tourists here today, it was low season, so he offered to take me around the museum and I could pay him what I liked. If it was rubbish – then no charge. Normally I’d never go for a deal like this, but as he was local I thought it would be good to pick his brains on life in Jakarta anyway, and if I learned anything else, it would be a bonus.

Mr. Sukarno

It turned out Mr. Sukarno was actually a great guide. His English was good and he knew the museum well, as we wandered through the history of seafaring Indonesia and Jakarta, passing old ship hulls under the sloping wooden rafters of the building. Mr. Sukarno elaborated on a lot of the information of the rather sparse info boards and knew the answers  to all my questions. After an hour I was all boated out and ready to head off. Mr. Sukarno asked if I would visit his neighbourhood and see around the port area, knowing already that I was interested in local culture and photography.

Inside the Maritime Museum

At this point I had to make a tricky judgement call. Mr. Sukarno seemed legit, he was clearly well educated, and he was on good terms with the museum staff who obviously knew him, and he’d also chatted with my taxi driver earlier. But I’d heard of and encountered first hand con artists who lure tourists into “home invites” or “local tours” in various countries I’d visited, in the hopes of involving them into a scam, or worse. But my time with Mr. Sukarno had been good, and I’d quizzed him about his life and seen how the others treated him. After all, I’d also learned in my travels that some people just want to be hospitable and are proud to show foreigners their culture.

Mr. Sukarno led me out of the museum into the port streets. Stalls selling everything from fruit to Tupperware lined the roads, roofed by tarpaulins. We passed clanging workshops, fishing industry outfitters strewn with nets, and people carrying heavy loads and pushing trolleys of goods. The masts of ships of all shapes and sizes poked above the low rooftops.

Outside the museum.

“Don’t come here alone, this is not a good area.” I recalled the warning from my taxi driver. We were clearly entering a poor part of the harbour (large chunks of the city are slums or impoverished). Entering a warren of quieter alleys where people and bicycles barely squeezed past each other, we ducked into the tight maze of a dark concrete indoor food market, lit only by the occasional hanging lightbulb.

Mr Sukarno obviously knew a few of the stall owners here and although none of them spoke English, they were happy to see me and listen to my murdering of simple Bahasa greetings. After Mr. Sukarno’s comment about safety, during this part of the tour I kept my camera mostly in my bag, even with a guide I didn’t want to advertise I was carrying an expensive bit of kit. My flip flops slid on blood on the floor – but it was just the classic Asian market where butchery happens right in front of you. Fresh food indeed! I often pity the people who work in these dark and smelly indoor markets, where the sun never shines.

We exited the market and continued through a confusing maze of narrow alleys and wooden houses, we were at the waterside now and tromping over planks rather than concrete. Doors opening directly onto the walkway revealed compact households inside. Kids and adults alike stared in surprise or smiled and waved at the foreigner touring around their neighbourhood.

We emerged from the covered residential pier into bright daylight on a rickety bridge crossing the dark and oily harbour waters. Fishing boats ranging from big metal trawlers to low wooden longtails chugged around the port and rows of them were moored on every inch of free harbour wall. Wrinkled yellow strips lay on nets and the corrugated roofs around us – Mr. Sukarno told me they were dried fish. He explained that most of the families in this part of the harbour were poor fishing folk, many living right next to their boats on this cobbled together, ever expanding pier of houses.

Jakarta harbour longboats

Across the bridge, passing running, playing children, we entered a more regular neighbourhood, where Mr. Sukarno lives. Here the streets became wider again, and houses were taller and made of stone. It was clearly a bit wealthier, with some parked cars, brightly painted walls and various shops and stalls – although hardly commercial or modern. We stopped frequently to chat with shop owners and families, Mr. Sukarno certainly seemed to be a popular guy!

At Mr. Sukarno’s small but pleasant house he offered me tea and we talked a bit about his life. He used to be an English teacher, hence his good language skills, and after various business endeavours had started offering his services as a guide down at the museum, convenient because it’s so close to his home. Although it’s quiet for punters at this time of year, in high season it can bring him a nice bit of extra income. He claimed I was the first person to actually visit his neighbourhood and house, and he was very happy to meet someone who was so interested in seeing the “real” Jakarta, and learning about their culture. I was flattered.

With late afternoon creeping in I decided it was time to head back to my hostel before the dreaded rush hour, when the drive (or crawl, more specifically) could take literally hours. I was going to call a taxi but Mr. Sukarno insisted he would take me on his motorbike instead. I had seen how the Jakartan’s drove motorbikes and so was a bit wary, but a free ride is a free ride, and I knew it would be fun. We raced along as I clung on for dear life to Mr. Sukaro, weaving through multi-lane traffic (both sides of the road), driving on and off pavements and dodging bollards, just as I suspected!

We drove through a small Chinatown and stopped off at one of Jakarta’s few Buddhist temples there. Incense filled the air and red candles and Buddhist decorations filled the interior. I watched as people threw patterned paper sheets into a fire – a custom which I hadn’t seen before, even in Nepal and Thailand. Essentially it’s a burnt offering, the paper is called “joss paper” or “ghost money”, and it’s usually burned to honour ancestors or the deceased. After getting my fill of photographs, I hopped back on the bike.

We navigated the traffic gridlock in style, motorbike is definitely the fastest and most fun way to get around in Jakarta, if not really the safest! We passed through the true slums, visible over a dirty, rubbish filled canal. The people may be poor here but they’re still friendly enough – men waved to me at a traffic light from a weird floating wooden platform that I was informed was the canal’s informal ferry! Half an hour later back at the hostel and with a saddle-sore bum, I thanked and paid Mr. Sukarno a generous tip and promised to promote his guide services in the hostel. He’d shown me a side of Jakarta I never would have experienced, as well as allowing me to meet the locals, and I wished him well.

It just goes to show that sometimes you need to get outside your comfort zone when travelling to really experience what a place has to offer. I took a chance on this occasion, and it paid off handsomely. I was a little nervous until we reached Mr Sukarno’s house that I might have made a mistake, given the areas we were going through, but it turned out alright. Of course I don’t suggest that you head off with random strangers in cities, especially ones you meet at tourist attractions, but in this case I had carefully observed and questioned my host, and seen how the staff and locals knew him, before agreeing to accompany him into the unknown in a dodgy area of town.

Jakarta street photography

Often on the road you are put into situations where you have to make a gut call about trusting someone, and this gets easier with experience. It’s nice to know that not every person that approaches you is out to con you; some are just trying to make a living and are actually good at what they do. At the end of the day, an adventure with Mr. Sukarno taught me a lot more about Jakartan life than any museum!

 

Travelmates: Asia

When you’re backpacking, a lot of time the photos you that you share are missing a vital part of the picture – your travelling companions. By looking through my images from the last five years, you’d be forgiven for thinking I am a lone traveller exploring by myself. But of course although I am very independent, I still enjoy having travelmates and meet loads of people during the course of my travels, many of whom become great friends.

To show a different side of the story, here’s a collection of the better pictures of some of the fellow travellers I met in South East Asia. I don’t normally like to take photos of travelmates – mainly because they aren’t there to be my model! But occasionally I would force them in front of my lens for a quick snap!

Travelmate Backpacker Writing Diary Slow Boat Laos

It’s great to have like-minded people to share your experiences with and I met so many great people along the way, the backpacker circuit in SE Asia is a good way to meet travelmates, as limited hostels and popular transport routes naturally bring backpackers together.

Travelmate Backpackers Boat Thailand Khao Sok

I ended up travelling with some of them for months and now have a network of people dotted around the world who I met on my travels. Travelling solo is a liberating experience but sometimes sharing it is even better. Here’s to travelmates – miss you all! Check out the gallery below, click to enlarge.