KURUVILLA

Hi all,

This forum has been very useful and informative.Hats off to all who have provided tips and advice.They became very handy in our recent trip to Melbourne to validate our PR visa.

We spent 10 days in Melbourne.Though we had time till July, we thought of avoiding the winter and go early instead.Let me pen my thoughts about the place:-

We (myself, my wife, daughter of 14 and son of 11) all liked Melbourne very much and think that's the place to settle down hopefully in the near future.Neatly planned, many leafy suburbs, unhurried and less business like I should say.

The people were very friendly (underscore), smiling and eager to help you out in case you need to find your way out.

What did we do ?The children were looking forward to a holiday.So we wanted to go to the tourist attractions as well as go to some suburbs, get a feel of the place and also get to know how things generally work there.First day, we really made use of the city circle tram.You can hope on and hope off at any place.Very convenient though they stop around 5 pm or so.

Then we bought ourselves the Melbourne Smart Visit Card that have built in entrance fees to a number of tourist attractions.The Metcard also came with it.Happy to say, we went to the Acquarium , zoo, museum, puffing billy, Queen Victoria Market, Healesville Sanctuary, took a cruise along Yarra river, Rialto, botanical gardens, scienceworks, Dandenong ranges etc.A little pricey but works out economical.Can't manage to reach all the places though within the limited time.

We had a look around Cranbourne, Dandenong, Box Hill, St.Albains, Ringwood, Camberwell, St.Kilda Road, etc.Went to the Hunt Club Estate In Cranbourne as well.Generally very impressive.

Public transport system is quite good and is expanding.

Regarding bank a/c, ANZ bank seemed okay vis-a-vis NAB and Commonwealth Bank and so I opened one with ANZ.Took only 15 mts.Had a look at some of the houses on offer.Good old advice not to hurry into any house purchase unless you know the place very well.It is location first, location second and location third as well.

When we finally go down to settle, the holiday honeymoon has to go and should be replaced with the nitty gritties.We know we only had a glance and there are better things to come probably.Melbourne is a friendly place and hopefully it will remain so in the future.

PJK

benny the ball

Good post.

angipipsqueak

Hi, sounds like you had a busy holiday. So did you decide on any suburbs that you think you may like to live in. Or was there any you thought were a no no. Did you stay in a hotel, camper bus, or with family. Only asking as were thinking of going on a visit to validate our visa's and every hotel I've picked seems very expensive, so we may just have to go for it and forget the rekkie visit. Thanks Ange

Bordy

Friggin hell, Ive lived here for 7 years & you have done more than me.

herrchook

That's cause you spend too much time on here talking pish with Soapy and Margaret.

To the OP, sounds like you've had a great experience - when are you planning on going for good?

Gill

Margaret2

I know, am even stalking him on his websits (pssssss gill, have you looked at it, its really good, i think you would find it very useful)

herrchook

Evening misses Do you mean the britvics one? If so, I joined it last year but I just can't bring myself to go look at it again unless we get the nod from Victoria re the STNI. I just think that if it gets rejected again and we've done even more research (and fallen in love with it even more) it'll be so much harder. That said, if we get the STNI, I'll be on there for a marathon stint

Margaret2

Oh yeah, sorry gill, wasn't thinking, when do you think you'll hear anything???

herrchook

Still waiting on OH's references coming through from his current and ex employers and once we get those we'll get it sent off. Could be a while yet!

Gill

Margaret2

It's ok, your just young so plenty of time

KURUVILLA

We stayed in Quest on Flinders lane.Centrally located neat two bedroom apartment.$ 200/- per day just after formula 1.They were kind enough to allow early check-in as our flight arrived early morning and we were there by 10 am or so.Majority of suburbs looked okay but I would prefer not to stay very close to city and not too far out either.Box Hill, Ringwood, St.Albain look interesting.IMHO rent first buy later.Investment property in middle class suburbs does not fetch more than 5% rent yield, so why buy and pay higher interest when you can rent cheaper.Any view on this ?

Kuruvilla

soapy©

u been on my website?

herrchook

Oh Margaret, you do wonders for my ego Certainly don't feel young - think I've aged 10 years since I started this process

Gill