3 Cities 4 Airlines: SIN-MEL-SYD-AKL-SIN on SQ A359, VA 737, LA (LATAM) 787, NZ 787

[yflyer]

There was a small gym...



...and rooftop pool.



There was a laundry room with washing machines that were paid via credit card tap. Very convenience and much more cost-effective than your typical hotel laundtry service.



I was very happy with my stay at the Victoria Hotel, which has now become one of my favourite places to stay in Melbourne, mainly because of the location and great value room rates.

[yflyer]

The hotel was just a few minutes away from Flinders Street Station...



...and also just a short walk from the banks of the Yarra River...



...which remains one of my favourite running routes in Melbourne.

[yflyer]

On this trip, I met up with fellow SQTalkers Kyo, SQ228 and SQ218 for dinner at Kakilang, a restaurant that specialized in Penang-style Char Kway Teow.



Kyo was of the opinion that this place was a worthy competitor to Lulu's, and we were here to try it for ourselves!



Apart from CKT, there were many other Malaysian favourites on the menu...



...as well as options for the health conscious and not-so-health conscious...



My char koay teow was superb...



Kyo went for the version with a huge portion of blood cockles...



The verdict? Excellent...at least as good as Lulu's. Kyo claimed that this was now his go-to place for CKT. As for me, I would be happy with both Lulu's or Kakilang for my CKT fix.

An excellent dinner and great conversation with our Melbourne-based SQTalkers!



The branch of Kakilang we visited was located in Balwyn, one of Melbourne's suburbs, a short drive from the city, but I have heard that Kakilang has now opened a branch in the Melbourne CBD as well.

[yflyer]

This was a fairly busy business trip, so most of my time was spent working, however I did have the opportunity to check out several new bars and restaurants.



I visited the Apollo Inn...



This was an intimate, old style bar with great staff and a top notch cocktail menu...



I sampled their Corpse Reviver No.2....



..and several other drinks...



...which were all expertly mixed...



The food menu here was also quite impressive...



Sydney rock oysters...



Raw tune, grapefruit and fennel seed...



...which was one of the tastiest things I ate on this trip...



Beef tartare...



Part of the reason the food at Apollo Inn was so good was that it shared the kitchen with Gimlet restaurant next door. After tasting the food at Apollo Inn, I headed to Gimlet later in the week, and it quickly became my new favourite restaurant in Melbourne.

[yflyer]

Gimlet is a restaurant on the ground floor of Cavendish House, a heritage building in the Melbourne CBD, walking distance from Flinders Street Station.



Very pleasant ambience inside, with a range of seating options, from formal dining tables, to casual seating and bar counter seats.



I loved the high ceilings and spaciousness -- it wasn't crammed with tables the way some other restaurants were.



The cocktails here were absolutely world class.



Their signature Gimlet was superbly balanced and ice cold. The perfect way to start an evening there.



I found their martini to be among the best I have ever had as well, served with 3 different varieties of olive, no less.



The menu...



There was also a set menu available...



I began with a Grilled Lyonnais Sausage skewer -- very tasty.



My main was the Gippsland strip steak, which was full of rich, beefy flavour and very satisfying.



For dessert, I had the pear and gelato.



Everything was delicious and so well executed.

This was one of those restaurants which was so good that one felt like returning over and over again to sample different items on the menu, which is exactly what I did.

The raw tuna starter was the same dish that was served at the Apollo Inn and that was a standout favourite.

On other occasions I also sampled the baked scallop...



...and the John Dory Florentine with spinach,salmon roe and brown butter.



This is now my go-to restaurant in Melbourne. Reservations essential as the place fills up very quickly.

[yflyer]

On another occasion, I headed to Melbourne's Chinatown...



...to Shark Fin Inn...



...for old school Dim Sim (or Yum Cha, which is what it is called here...)...



This was served old school, from the trolley...which is so rare in Singapore these days...



It is so old school that they count how many items you have had, in multiples of 5, by the 5 strokes of the Chinese character 正...



Needless to say the cuisine there was delicious and very authentic, as good as dim sum anywhere in Singapore (and dare I say many other Asian cities).

[yflyer]

My next stop was Sydney. I flew there on Virgin Australia.

A busy check-in area, with Y pax checking in via self service kiosks.



J and priority pax (Including KF Gold) could use a manned check-in counter.



Priority security lane for J and Virgin Plat and Gold Frequent Flyers.

[yflyer]

I headed to the Virgin Australia Lounge...



This was a very large lounge. As I was there in the morning, there was a queue for coffee at the coffee bar.



Very pleasant decor...



...and decent tarmac views...



The buffet counter...



...where a simple hot breakfast was being served...



Coffee machine for those who didn't want to queue at the espresso bar...



Fruit and yogurt...



Danish pastries...



Sausages and scrambled eggs...



Pancake machine...



...which made quite decent pancakes, 2 to a serve...

[yflyer]

The bar area, which would be much busier later in the day...



..when alcohol service began (No alcohol before 12pm).



In-lounge shower suites, complete with WC.





In the news that day...



Overall quite a pleasant lounge to spend time in.

[yflyer]

My flight was VA827 MEL-SYD...



Business class on this 737 was 2 rows of 2-2 seating.



I was seated in 1C today.



A decent seat for this short sector, with a block time of 1 hour 25 minutes and a flight time of just over an hour.



Adequate, but not overly generous, legroom in row 1.



Pre-departure beverages - a choice of water or juice...



From seat 1C I could just about peer into the cockpit as the tech crew prepped for departure.



There was one lav just ahead of the J cabin, next to the cockpit.

[yflyer]

Take-off...



Quite a full flight today, from my experience, most MEL-SYD flights were chock full, whatever the hour...



Wifi-based entertainment (Just movies and flight info, no internet access).



Entertainment options...



Flight map...



...and flight info...

[yflyer]

On this short flight, business class pax were served a full hot breakfast.



After take-off, I thought I heard a soft "pop" from the galley. Could it be that they had sparkling wine onboard? They did!



Nothing quite like starting the day with a glass of bubbles.



The cabin crew member serving the J cabin came round to top up my glass when he noticed it was almost empty, and did it again prior to descent.

I told him he deserved a medal for keeping my glass so well filled on this flight. Thumbs up!

Approaching Sydney...



On the threshold...



I had no checked bags so I cleared the terminal very quickly and caught the airport train to the city.



It was great to be in Sydney again!

Overall this was a very good flight on Virgin Australia. Flying J on this short sector was a nice treat as well.

[yflyer]

My stay in Sydney was a very short one. I stayed at the Tank Stream hotel in the city. This hotel has nicely styled, if quite small, rooms, and is very centrally located in the city, within walking distance of Wynyard station.

I headed to one of my favourite bars in Sydney, Dean & Nancy on 22...



...where I savoured the view of Sydney at dusk.



I had dinner at Jimmy's Falafel, along George Street...



...where I sampled their Kibbeh Nayeh...



...a dish of raw beef, marinated with seven spice, toum, onion and bulgar...



...and their lamb tongue shish.



Both were quite delicious, and worth a repeat visit to Jimmy's Falafel to eat again.

[yflyer]

In the morning, I caught the airport train to Sydney airport for my flight, LATAM LA800, to Auckland.



My flight was a Qantas codeshare, however, it appeared that apart from lounge access (As it was marketed with a QF flight number), I had no other frequent flyer benefits, as LATAM was no longer part of the Oneworld alliance.

This was the check-in queue when I arrived at the airport.



I looked at the priority check in lane and noticed that there were no familiar Oneworld logos, or FF programme tiers that I could recognize.



For the first time in a long while, I had to join the snaking check in queue, which took a really long time to clear. Pax on this flight were either headed just to Auckland, or onwards on the continuation to Santiago, Chile.

Worse still, my boarding pass had me listed as Boarding Group 5...



Wow...it had been a really long time since I had a boarding group number so high...

I headed airside...



Quite a busy morning in SYD. I like the way the flight monitors said "Relax" next to your flight if there was still a lot of time before your flight. I wonder if the text changed to "Panic" or "Run!" if the flight was about to close...



LATAM flight LA800 was operated that day by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner registration CC-BGM, a 7 year old aircraft.



Despite being in Group 5, I found the boarding process very quick and efficient.



A very cheerful cabin crew member at the aircraft door...



Inside, the Y cabin was laid out 3-3-3, with fabric coloured seats in grey/green, red and blue.



There were LATAM+ seats...



...with slightly more legroom...



...and regular Y seats with more standard seat pitch...

[yflyer]

I thought the Y seats were quite comfortable...



...with good recline...



There were clear and sharp seatback IFE screens with full AVOD.



Movies, TV, Games, and music...



There was a fairly large selection of programmes to keep pax occupied, especially on the long 10.5 hour continuation from AKL to SCL.



A/C power...



Old school headband-type headphones (Which generally sound better than the cheap earbuds that other airlines give out)



The tray table had a vertical indentation that I had never encountered before.