For Australia travel info, click here.
For Sydney’s itinerary, click here.
For Melbourne travel info, click here.
For Melbourne’s itinerary Day 1 free tour, click here; day 2 Queen Victoria Market, click here.

Melbourne Itinerary Day 3: Yarra Valley and Mount Dandenong

We wanted to visit Yarra Valley and Dandenong but we didn’t bring our driver’s license so we had to skip Yarra Valley. If you do not plan to self-drive, you can always book a day tour to Yarra Valley. For Yarra Valley wine tours, you may want to check out Wine Compass.

We went up to Mount Dandenong to take the Puffing Billy. We took the subway to Belgrave station, and walked to Puffing Billy to take the steam train ride on Puffing Billy. It was great fun to sit on the sides of Puffing Billy with your legs dangling out, while you enjoy the surroundings.

After the train ride, we took a bus (Route 694) from Belgrave station to Mount Dandenong for Miss Marple’s scones. Plan your trip wisely because the last bus back from Miss Marple’s is about 4.30pm.

Miss Marple’s Tea Room
382 Mt Dandenong Tourist Road,
Melbourne, Victoria 3787, Australia

We were glad that the bus stops directly opposite Miss Marple’s and we literally ran across the road for it because it was so cold. You have to come to Miss Marple’s Tea Room!!! The place is so cosy, and very old English. We didn’t wait for long, and we were served very quickly. We ordered Miss Marple’s Famous Fingers – Champagne Ham, English Cheddar & Chutney fingers (AUD13) which is basically open toasted sandwich, sliced into 6 pieces. It was so good we wanted to order another piece.

We also ordered their Beef Cottage Pie (AUD14.50) which had lotsa of mashed potatoes. It was OK but it would be better if there was more cheese and beef.

And the must order dish will be the scones! You can choose either 2 plain scones, or 2 fruit scones, or 1 of each for AUD9.00, served with ‘Miss Marple’s Own’ delicious home-made jam and lashings of freshly whipped cream. The home-made jam tastes fresh, and intense, much better than any jams out there. They were generous with the whipped cream and jam. The scones are not exactly scones but more like sponge cake, topped with sugar icing.

FOMO Thai
171 Bourke Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000

We went back to Melbourne City and craved for Thai food, especially Tom Yam soup. We found a very good Thai restaurant, FOMO Thai with many Thai customers. The staff are Thai too, so it has to be somewhat authentic. We want to order Moo Krob Tod (AUD38) – Roasted pork bellies served with 3 specialty condiments but the portion looked huge!

So we ordered something similar instead. Pad Prig King Moo Krob – Stir-fried crispy pork belly with red curry and wild ginger (AUD19). This was so good, we bet it was as good as Moo Krob Tod!

We also had Khao Pad Subparod – Pineapple fried rice with Chicken (AUD12) which was a bit too oily but good. We wanted to order Tom Yum Goong Ma Praw Aon – Spicy, sweet and sour soup of king prawns, mussels and mixed mushrooms (AUD16) but we were too full from the stir-fried crispy pork belly with red curry.

Melbourne Itinerary Days 4-5: Great Ocean Road & Philip Island

We sourced out the cheapest 2D1N tour to Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island (AUD195) but we were informed on Day 2 in Melbourne that the tour is cancelled because there were not enough people! We were super disappointed as we had to scramble at the last minute to find a substitute tour. VERY VERY VERY disappointed that we didn’t go Phillip Island. It is like going to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower.

Also, we had to extend our hotel stay for 1 more night and we didn’t get the rate we booked much earlier online. We settled for a Day Tour to Great Ocean Road (AUD99) with lunch provided.  The tour group provided pick up near our hotel at 7.15am. We visited Apollo Bay, trekked a bit at some forest, went to see the rock formations at Port Campbell National Park, saw the 12 Apostles (but I counted only 8), visited Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge.

We reached Melbourne City at about 7pm, and went for dinner at Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam.

Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam
241 Swanston St
Melbourne, VIC 3000

It’s a no frills eatery. The walls are full of pictures of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. Apparently, they are frequent customers of the place. We ordered a bowl of pho with beef (AUD8) and the soup was very good!

Photos and Words by Chiobu.