It was a sunny day alright.

Yesterday we went to Mount Dandenong and had a ride of Puffing Billy the steam train. It was fun!

Siaw Tze and I checked the time of the buses and trains the night before yesterday to confirm which bus we should take and what time. We even checked the weather forecast (you know, Melbourne weather is really weird). The first bus we should take is the 703 bus to Blackburn, then train from Blackburn to Croydon, and the 688 bus to Olinda (get down at Observatory Road). Us at halls planned to take the 703 bus from the bus stop behind Deakin Hall at around 9.30am (the bus would depart from Monash University bus loop at 9.20am, so should take around 10 minutes to reach halls). While we were walking towards the bus stop, Li Ping called me to say that she took the wrong 703 bus towards Middle Brighton (opposite direction and she's going towards Clayton) =.= so she had to get down and take the 703 bus towards Blackburn, which meant she would be late. I told her to meet us at Blackburn railway station. Just then, Calvin who got up on the bus from bus loop told us that the bus had already gone pass the Deakin Hall bus stop before we could even hail it to stop. We missed the bus! It's not because we were late to arrive at the bus stop, it's because the bus was earlier than the time stated in its timetable. Oh no, I thought. Would we be in time to catch the 688 bus (703 bus and train are frequent, but the 688 bus is not frequent)..?

Yun Ying, what are you trying to do? =P

Anyway, we took the next 703 bus (which arrived few minutes later), and was in time to catch the train from Blackburn to Croydon. Li Ping was still about 25 minutes away from Blackburn railway station so we planned to wait for her at Croydon railway station to catch the 688 bus together. We met up with Zhi Han and Ling Sing on the train (as planned). It was already around 10.20am when we reached Croydon, barely a few minutes before the 688 bus arrived (10.28am, the next 688 bus would be at 11.55am). We ran towards Bay 6 to wait for the 688 bus. Li Ping hadn't arrived; she hadn't even got on the train. She would be late. She would miss the bus! All the while we were text messaging to find out where she were and to tell her how to get to our destination. Just then, the 688 bus arrived. We were still hesitating whether to get on the bus or not, and someone shouted that the next bus would be 11am. Oh well we could wait for about 20 minutes for Li Ping to arrive then we could go together, I thought. BUT....as Ryan was shouting 'The next bus is 11.55am' - we were shocked and confused - the bus just went past us! We missed that infrequent 688 bus! Miscommunication occurred sometimes =.=

Luckily there was another 688 bus to Olinda at 11.07am, just that it would only go to only half of the way up to Mount Dandenong and we had to walk about 20 minutes or more to reach our destination (the earlier 688 bus and the 11.55am 688 bus would go all the way up instead). So we took this bus at 11.07am (again, Li Ping hadn't arrived, yet she would be in time to catch the 11.55am bus...LOL). Wow, there were so many turnings on the way up to Mount Dandenong! Thank goodness the road was not really bumpy. The bus driver was kind enough to drive us to the junction of the road near our destination - that meant we would only need to walk about 5 to 10 minutes! Yay! I felt that this was like the day trips that we went with Monash Residential Services, just that this time we organised it on our own =)

The kind bus driver dropped us at the junction, and we walked uphill towards 'Skyhigh Dandenong' with much effort. There was a platform where we could have a good view of whole Melbourne city/metropolitan. We saw Monash University! =) There was also a garden/maze, and a bistro/function room. We had lunch and coffee inside the building, while avoiding ourselves from the strong cold wind outside. Siaw Tze was telling me earlier that the sky looked dark and it might rain. 'It would be a sunny day,' I said, 'We checked the weather forecast, remember?'

After finishing my cup of latte, and Nooi Hoay finished her lunch, we were about to go out of the bistro and had a walk around to take pictures. It was about 12.30pm then. Li Ping hadn't arrived. I started to get worried. She told me earlier that her mobile phone was running out of battery. In addition, there was no mobile line coverage at that area either. Would she know that we are here? What if she got lost? 'You sure that she knew the way here?' I asked Ryan who gave her directions earlier. 'Yes,' he replied. 一说曹操，曹操就到 - just then, Li Ping appeared! 'Hoooi~!!!!' We waved our hands while calling at her. ‘快点上来，我要抱你！’I said. ‘真的很佩服你，一个人过来eh! 两个小时的车程……’I said, while giving her a hug. ‘很寂寞啊！’she replied. ‘你很勇敢哦！’I smiled. Yun Ying asked her, ‘有没有想过要回头，回家就算了？’‘有啊，刚才在巴士上时就想过要回头了……’Yay, you made it! =)

We took a few pictures around the area and at Forest Walk.

=D

美女出动！=P

I saw this red tree with red branches

Looks like a real forest right?

I dunno what was Chean Ying doing

躲猫猫

Ryan 'piak' like a lizard on the big tree =P
There was also pictures which we were circling the big tree, but the pictures are not with me now

Siaw Tze 'kicked' the tree!!

While waiting for bus to Belgrave to take the Puffing Billy train, Chean Ying and Ling Sing decided to take such a 'wedding photo'

Nooi Hoay was using Chean Ying's sunglasses as a mirror to tie her hair

The last line appeared on advertisements on TV too (if you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot)

Puffing Billy!

Inside the train

Our hair being blown by the wind

Yeah we sat like this...legs outside the train =P

This is how we sat, looking from inside of the train

We reached Emerald (our train destination), the conductor offered to take a picture for us

Winter is here

After the Puffing Billy train ride, we decided to go back home...so we spent the next 2 hours on bus, train, and bus...then we decided to have dinner at Clayton...Korean BBQ!

Korean BBQ...yummy~!!!

The wind was really strong at night, it reached 'gale force' as checked out by Ryan earlier. Zepeng told us that it would be 100km/h even! After dinner, we stood in a circle chatting and laughing (to conserve heat) while waiting for the bus to go back to halls....people who passed by us must be looking at us strangely LOL!

Watched 3 episodes of School Rumble anime with Siaw Tze before went to sleep, haha... [edit: and finished one packet of Doritos...]

p/s: Phew, I took 2 hours to write this post...