Canberra Capital of Australia

Last Tuesday, a Malaysian lady asked me a question – what if our passport expires in Australia, can we still fly back to Malaysia? I told her yes only if the immigration officers escort her up the plane personally then explain how she is severely banned from Australia, and she’ll probably get a free ride for that trip as well~

The alternative way will be like what I did, travel to Malaysia High Commission in Canberra and get the passport renew. The good thing is that the passport can be renewed and collected on that particular day and the bad thing is, if you are from other State rather than Canberra, you still have to be there in person (the only way) to renew that ‘Boleh!’ passport.

When I reached the Embassy at 9.15am, a few were there for passport renewal and they were already complaining about the expensive flight to Canberra just to get their passport renew – the passport cost AU $110 and the return flight to get to Canberra range from $300 to $500 depending on the location and that’s if they travel with Qantas or Jetstar. I got my return ticket for $120 with Tiger Airways so I’m cool with it - Tiger Rulez~

After submitting my applications to the staff, he asked me if I’d like to have a packet of Nasi Lemak for AU $5.00 then he told me “It’s fresh!! My wife just made it this morning!!!” But I turned him down because I wanted to try food in Canberra, definitely not Nasi Lemak from Malaysia Embassy. There’re about 6 packets on his table, and there’re 8 appointed persons on the floor waiting to submit their application – I believe this is one of the embassy staff way to earn more cash which I think is quite brilliant, maybe I can do it to my colleagues if I don’t get fired~

I didn’t go Canberra alone but with a friend Phillip and it happens that he asked one of the staffs whether there is any nice Malaysian food around Canberra. Phillip is from Kuching, that staff told him that there’s a nice Sarawak Laksa at this place nearby the embassy making him all excited. He came to me and insisted that we change plan and go to that place for the Sarawak Laksa since we don’t have it in Melbourne, we were discussing so loudly that it excites a lady next to us in the embassy. In the end, she actually joined us to all the places we went for that day. Happily, all taxi expenses divide by 3 since the taxi fare is so expensive!!

When we reached the restaurant, the menu read a dish name – Mama Laksa AU$20. I believe that this is the most expensive lunch restaurant around, and the High Commission definitely has some shares in this shop! AU$20 bucks for a bowl of so-called Sarawak Mama Laksa which tastes exactly like a normal Laksa is not worthy at all – the taste is decent, the look is decent, the amount is decent, even the shop looks decent but the price is definitely not worth it’s decency! So we got ripped!!

There’s nothing much in Canberra , we went to this famous long time café that I reviewed on Google ‘All Things Chocolate’ – I’m expecting the café to look modern and nice for its name but it actually looks quite dodgy, nothing like Max Brenner or Koko Black. Despite the look of that shop, I’m impressed by their unique hot chocolate as it’s very nice – I believe they live up their name.

We hang out around for a while, went back the embassy to collect our passport, then to the Parliament and some places around the city to pass some time while we wait for the flight to Melbourne.

Canberra is clean and green but an ultimately bored city, there’s so much trees around that I nearly felt I’m in a city within a big jungle. I hardly see anyone around during lunch time (you should realized from my pictures itself) and I counted 12 Asians throughout my whole day. There are more people in the city area but one of the Asian group actually stares at us in a weird way – so I thought they probably feel awkward seeing three more Asians around the city!

Well, there are some things that amazed me though...

The China High Commission – it’s so big and nice unlike the rest of the embassy

This Canberra fountain which is located near the city shoots up to at least 4 stories high, look through it towards the Sun and there will be a beautiful rainbow.

Nice finger food from Gus Café – they serve good latte too! *thumps up!*

Cool! We met a good company and made a new friend in Canberra itself!

But… One day in Canberra is more than enough!