De Bortoli's Viognier

(De Bortoli's 2008 Viognier: De Bortoli Website)

Last week, ten media representatives, including myself, left for what Tourism Australia calls “Melbourne South East Touring Triangle.” It’s basica

lly a post-Australia Tourism Exchange tour for the media to get familiarized with the area outside the windowless convention center.

Part of the trip is touring the Yarra Valley – a wine region just outside Melbourne with rolling hills and vineyards as far as the eye can see. As you can imagine, we tasted a lot of wine – one of which is one of my new favorites: De Bortoli’s Yarra Valley Estate Grown Viognier.

Now, I’m not very knowledgeable about wine, but the Viognier variety is new to me. Usually mixed with another varietal, De Bortoli’s was a pure Viognier wine that was light, refreshing and smooth with complex lychee and apricot flavors.

(The White Viognier grape on the vine: Wikipedia)

No one quite knows where the Viognier grape originated, but some rumors include originating in ancient Dalmatia and brought into Rhone by Romans or captured by a group of outlaws en route to Beaujolais. Whatever its origin, the grape is now quite rare.

Viogniers are generally crisp and dry with floral aromas and pairs well with spicy food such as Thai or Vietnamese. Go figure.

Market Mayhem

(Melbourne Design Market in the Federation Square Parking Lot: ML)

As I wandered around Melbourne, I couldn’t seem to escape the massive amounts of markets. It was as if the entire city was for sale all at once.

First, on the way to Federation Square, Melbourne’s newest and most prominent art center, I passed by an arts and crafts fair setting up for a 9 am opening. Although I’m much too boring to buy anything, the aboriginal art and glass mushrooms were far more interesting than the Federation Square book fair I sprinted through.

I found myself at the twice-a-year Melbourne Design Festival which had engulfed half of the Federation Square underground parking lot. Nestled into the cement confines was an array of goods from clothing to specialty prints to lighting fixtures that looked more like glowing sculptures. Children scampered through the galleria with “Melbourne Design” balloons while trendy Melbournians purchased the latest in design to trance music that was pumped through speakers completing the modern art, multi-sensory experience.

(A vendor sells tights balled up in stunted parfait cups: ML)

Needless to say, I was, once again, too boring to purchase anything. Instead, I hopped on the free bus shuttle to the most famous and largest market in all of Melbourne: the Queen Victoria Market.

To be honest, it was like any open market buzzing with both locals and tourists alike. Think the International Marketplace in Waikiki except instead of dolphins there’s Kangaroos and instead of ukuleles there’s boomerangs. Further along there was a meat and fish market, cheese and wine market and fresh produce market similar to Los Angeles’ Grand Central Market. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but the Chinese butchers yelling, “Good meat! Half off!” at anyone and everyone was pretty entertaining.

(Loads of delicious cheese for tasting at Queen Vic Market: ML)

Suffice it to say, the Queen Victoria Market was nothing special. It was then that I stepped out of the produce aisle and into a street where wafts of fried, doughy goodness filled my nostrils. A sweet odor led me around a corner and through a fabric vendor and into the sunlight, and there it was.

The Holy Grail of Melbourne’s markets: the American Doughnut Truck. Nearly 60 years old, the American Doughnut Truck serves up light, crispy, sugar-coated balls of deliciousness for 90 cents or six for five dollars. Airy, yet quite the opposite of Krispy Kreme, the center holds gooey raspberry jam that compliments the doughnuts fried shell.

(The Famed American Doughnut Truck: ML)

With the ingenuity of a taco truck and the move along of the Soup Nazi, it’s no wonder this find is a crowd favorite. Despite instantaneous service, the line often remains 20-30 deep.

(Raspberry jam fills this fried, little puff balls: ML)

As I exited the Market, I discovered on the far side the American Doughnut Truck’s obvious competitor: The Spanish Doughnut Truck. With genius come copycats, I guess. However, despite hip Spanish music pumping through a stereo, corny, oversized Christmas lights and its best efforts, the Spanish Doughnut Truck just couldn’t deliver. Slow service, higher cost and the fact that these “Doughnuts” were actually freakin’ churros ended in high marks against them. Just call it a “Churro truck.”

(The Spanish Donut Truck: ML)

So, kudos to the American Doughnut Truck for fast service, a great price and a delightfully crispy product.

Neighborhood Niche: De Graves Street, Melbourne

(A look down De Graves from Flinders Lane: ML)

De Graves Street, just off the main road Flinders Lane, is one of Melbourne’s many hidden alley ways with a character all its own. Lined with cafes, outdoor seating under umbrellas and heaters and a mish mash of odds and ends shopping including a barbershop and a Christian Science reading room, De Graves has the big city feel of London or New York with the quaint neighborhood seclusion of the back alleys in Nice or Florence.

(Umbrellas and wooden chairs fill the narrow cafe alleyway: ML)

The café and deli-lined alley is a great place to sit and people watch, enjoy your favorite tea or brew or grab a bite to eat on a Sunday morning (I nibbled on the “Aussie” which is scrambled eggs over a thick piece of sourdough bread with a rich side of mushrooms and a couple fatty strips of bacon).

(An organic cafe with lots of treats down De Graves: ML)

The narrow alley is so crammed with eateries, the foody fragrances mesh in the middle combining organic Thai and chili con carne with coffee and fresh eggs leaving De Graves so thick with aromas you’re hard pressed to pass on without at least one second look.

Pamp and Circumstance

(Melbourne's Flinder's Station after sunset: Michael Lowe)

Being pampered has its ups and downs. Now, I know what you're thinking - Michael, you're crazy. Of course there aren't any downs to being pampered! And, true, there aren't many bad things about being pampered. It's really nice.

As part of the international media, I was flown to Melbourne from Los Angeles in a $7500 business class seat on Qantas where, after the o.j. and hot towel wipe for our hands and face, we were given full on designer pajamas and sleeping kits.

Following take off, we were served porcini encrusted steak and pan fried gnocchi followed by a blueberry cake with some of the most delicious whipped cream I've ever tasted. And then I mechanically made my chair lie flat and fell asleep.

Ok, ok, so that's all fine and awesome, but seriously, doesn't that make you feel guilty at all? To know that people are riding on these things daily when kids need books for school and some countries still don't have clean water?

What if, instead, people paid $7500, they didn't get, say, designer pajamas or facial wash and maybe they gave up dessert and unlimited booze (which I will take advantage of on the way back) and $500 went to some charity?

Which brings me to my hotel room. I've been put up in the Crown Towers, one of three Crown properties. The other two are a casino and the soon to open mega-hotel, 650-room Metropol. I've found that the Crown complex is less of a hotel, and more of a shopping center, megamall, debaucherous pit of gluttony with rooms. A very nice debaucherous pit of gluttony, mind you.

The shopping center just beneath the hotel itself is glitzed with pricey shops and restaurants such as world-famous sushi restaurant, Nobu, and some place called The Waterfront which offers giant lobster for $95 for 1/2 kilo (about a pound). Seriously, $95 could feed a small child for a year.

Anyway, here are some photos of the unnecessary, but very comfortable, extravagance that I do not wish, but feel obligated, to enjoy.

Here goes:

Imagine you step out of the elevator, turn left and walk down a hall. You enter room 1502 on, you guessed it, the 15th floor and step foot on polished, shiny tiled floors. Immediately to the left are two glass doors opening into a spacious bathroom decked with hanging lights, a bath tub facing an LCD screen and one of those sweet showers that dumps water on you straight from the ceiling.


You continue down the short hallway and, right next door, is a walk in closet with semi opaque glass filtering in light from the bedroom. Slippers, a bath robe and exorbitant costs for laundry await in drawers and cubbies. (No joke, like $9.50 for a shirt to be LAUNDERED)


Then, the room opens up and you're faced with a 15th floor view of Melbourne's Yarra River (see top), a king-sized bed and a 50" (about) flat screen TV. An iPod radio, desk and little lounge chair rest next to the huge window.

With all these options, it was clear what to do first. Hit the restroom. It was very pleasant. Just goes to show even in the face of luxury, some of life's simplest actions are still high on the priority list.

Melbour-ed

(Federation Square Light Installment in Melbourne, Australia: Michael Lowe)

To me, Melbourne is a lot like London. Cars drive on the left, there's a brown, dirty river flowing through it with several bridges and weird-looking, colorful bills are exchanged for goods instead of bland, green, dirty paper. The wind whips through the city, probably a byproduct of being right on a harbor and people walk around in scarves and mittens.

Much like London, cloud cover and an overall gray facade create a gloomy, cold atmosphere, but when the sun begins to peak around the cloud, the sunlight brightens up the entire city flooding the angular high-rises with gold.

The actual town area is only about eight blocks squared and, unlike London, I have yet to really find something that piques my interest. Although, to be fair I just got off a 15 hour flight and am friggin tired and cold. The museums do seem sparse and spread out, rather than concentrated in one area and, although a true metropolitan area, feels quite slower and less densely populated than any other big city I have been in. It's also funny because all of the areas they call "Gardens" are actually just big plots of grass with a few trees.

(Fountain at the end of Carlton "Gardens": ML)

However, despite a first humdrum day, I already managed to stumble upon a Environmental Rally at the Victorian State Library and tons of free stuff. Perhaps the city just needs a little prodding to share its secrets.

(Environmental rally and lots of spirited people at Victoria State Library: ML)

Apparently THIS GUY was speaking while I was there.

Oh, one more crazy thing. Sometimes, cars have to go into the far left lane to make a right turn. WTF is that? Crazy Aussies....

Michael is in Australia for one month on assignment for TravelAge West magazine.

Welcome to the World Less Traveled

(Photo of Carlton Gardens and Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, Australia: Michael Lowe)

What you have discovered is a living account of the comprehensive travels and adventures as told by current or recently graduated UCLA students. With the domestic and international economy in the state it is, it's no wonder students are foregoing the traditional post-grad job plunge and heading overseas or across continent in search of experiences that may pay less, but carry their own veritable rewards.

Here, you will find firsthand stories from an extensive network of diverse voices from Econ majors teaching English in Chinese suburbs to those studying abroad around the world in Southeast Asia, Spain and Latin America. Regardless of where they come from or who they were back at UCLA, World Less Traveled's contributors are a world away from their old routines and out of their comfort zones only to explore new ones.

Whether its popular tourist traps or a more local view of neighborhood niches, it is through their eyes and words that we can hear each of their stories and experience the World Less Traveled.