Travels Adventures and Odysseys - by John

Located in hip multicultural West End, the Three Monkeys Café on Mollison Street has been welcoming patrons for decades with its low lit atmospheric interior evocative of a middle eastern bazaar, with walls emblazoned with framed signed posters of artists and entertainers from the nearby Queensland Performing Arts Centre. Also featuring a garden exterior, the Three Monkeys is without a doubt one of Brisbane's most famous places to have a coffee and also has a wide selection of delectable cakes and standard café fare. Highly recommended.

Passing by Helensvale Train Station this morning, it is evident that most of the construction and beautification for the new Light Rail extension has been completed. Services are slated to commence in December, ahead of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

42 kilometres of uninterrupted beach make the Gold Coast a haven for sunbathers, swimmers, and surfers alike, and for a birdseye view one cannot go past Skypoint on the 77th level of Q1, just at the Surfers Paradise tram station. At Skypoint not only do you get 360 degree views, but at Bar Seventy 7, one can order meals and drinks as well as a daily buffet breakfast from 7.30am to 10.30am. Admission to Skypoint costs approximately $18, with a value for money 360 Club Annual Pass for $36, which also gets you discounts at Bar Seventy 7. The tallest building to the left of above image is Q1. Image courtesy of http://allhdwallpapers.com/surfers-paradise-amazing-hd-wallpapers-high-quality/

There are various means of getting into Broadbeach and the rest of the Gold Coast after alighting at Gold Coast Airport. Of these, the 777 Gold Coast Airport to Broadbeach Express bus will take you into Broadbeach South Station, connecting you to the light rail network to Surfers Paradise, Southport, Griffith University and Gold Coast University Hospital, with the extension to Helensvale Railway Station (for rail connections to Varsity Lakes or Brisbane) being completed late 2017. The journey takes approximately 40 mins, and you can pay the bus driver in cash for a single journey or use a TransLink Go Card for a discounted fare. Go Cards can be purchased and topped up at the Airport or most 711 stores on the Coast. For timetable and fare information ring TransLink on 131230, accessible 24 hours a day. Alternately access the TransLink Info website at http://www.translink.com.au /.

I really like this photo I took of the entrance to Melbourne's Chinatown in Little Bourke Street. The vibrant colours of the gate and lanterns contrast well with the brilliant blue sky. Photo taken 17 October 2017. The Chinese text at the top of the gate says "墨尔本唐人街”, or, "Mòěrběn (Melbourne) Tángrénjīe (Chinatown), read from right to left.

It looks brand spanking new and a great improvement over the old T4! Well done!

A relaxing way to tour Melbourne's CBD is to take the free heritage City Circle trams, which run in clockwise and anticlockwise directions from 10am to 7pm most days. Call Yarra Trams for further information.

If you are stuck in Melbourne for a late night coffee, you can always go to the delightful Westin Melbourne Lobby Lounge and indulge. A cappuccino here will set you back $6.00 AUD.

Home to a delightful array of coffee houses and gift shops, the Block Arcade is one of Melbourne's best kept secrets. I stumbled upon it quite by chance after visiting the Post Office.

I am now catching the Melbourne Skybus to the Airport, which leaves from Southern Cross Station in Spencer Street. Tickets cost approximately $36 for a return journey, with buses leaving every 10 mins most hours of the day. The trip takes approximately 25 minutes.

These three days in Melbourne have seen glorious blue skies without a single cloud, and temperatures of 29 degrees. Here are some random pics from downtown, as well as from the good ship Bianca, which I did from a river cruise yesterday, from where Flinders Street Station meets with Swanston St.

Mr Tulk, the State Library of Victoria's coffee shop welcomes an eclectic number of patrons to its benches, and has two entrances, one directly to the left after entering the Library, and an adjacent street entrance. Here I am enjoying an almond milk cappuccino - $1 extra for the almond milk.

I always enjoy coming to the State Library of Victoria when I visit Melbourne, and to admire its wonderful sun-drenched dome-filtered La Trobe Reading Room. Here are some photos. The Reading Room is on the 3rd Floor of the Library.