Day 5

Went to Yum Cha at Doncaster. Restaurant called "Golden Dragon Palace" on Manningham road. Restaurant was very crowded with an equal number of asian as well as anglo. Food was OK, but seems a bit pricey compared to Singapore. About $25/head. However I guess you can't really compare prices here with Singapore as restaurant food will always be more pricey here.

We needed a 2nd hand car as the one we have now is rented (Mistubishi 380 - I have some rants about this car.. later). There is a used-car lot at Ringwood which is a lot like the ones in Singapore except the car dealers aren't that aggresive. In a Singapore car-lot, once you are within a dealers 'zone' he will keep hounding you like a dog guarding his owners property until you run away. OK, that was an exageration, but I get that once in a while. Aussie dealers just ask you if you need help, and if you say you are just looking, they will leave you alone.

We were looking for a 10year old Camry for around $6-7K but apparently that is a bit out of range of reality. It seems that for $10-$13K you can get a very decent 4dr auto vehicle. Anything lower is probably very old. Another odd thing about the Australian used-car market is that 99% (about there) don't have leather seats; they use fabric. The ugly ones usually. The worse thing is that they seem to absorb and emit odors of the previous owners or cigarette smoke. Very nasty.

So we couldn't find our $6,000 dream car, so I guess we'll need to review our budget and review our requirements.