By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
Melbourne has a new subway line – the Metro Tunnel – running through five new stations and currently having a soft opening, before the schedule launches full tilt on 1 February 2026. The new Parkville Station will probably be the most useful new station, since it’s at the University of Melbourne which badly needed a handy Metro station.
▲ The Town Hall Station
The two new central city stations might look slightly redundant since the Town Hall Station is only a couple of hundred metres from Flinders St Station and the State Library Station is right beside the Melbourne Central Station. In fact you might find it easier to enter the State Library Station from Melbourne Central rather than from its own entrance. The Metro Tunnel line, however, runs in a different direction than the other lines through Flinders St and Melbourne Central.
Unfortunately to use the new line you still need the horrible old Myki Card. Transport Victoria have announced that they are introducing ‘tap and go’ technology to Melbourne. Tomorrow? No, they are testing it in 2026 and at some point in the future you’ll actually be able to use it. But didn’t they start testing it in 2023 at some stations? Well yes they did, but clearly three years of testing wasn’t enough, there’s more testing to be rolled out in 2026
◄ My hated Myki Card
Hasn’t anybody asked them about this before? Well yes, for one person I asked Transport Victoria why we couldn’t use contactless cards in Melbourne when London introduced the technology in 2014. So that’s 10 years ago.
And I did get an answer, ‘we’re working on it and hope to introduce it soon.’ Which in Melbourne seems to be in 10 years time. So for over 10 years I’ve been able to use my Australian ANZ credit card to pay for public transport in London, England. But not in Melbourne, Australia. Absurd isn’t it?
Once upon a time Melbourne was a regular ‘most liveable city in the world’ title holder. How could you be a ‘most liveable city’ and at the same time operate the world’s most-visitor-unfriendly-travel-card? I suggested that in 2013 and 13 years later my opinion hasn’t changed. Never mind, the new Metro Tunnel Line reportedly took lots of lessons from London’s very popular Elizabeth Line. In London I often use the Elizabeth Line even if it means travelling a bit further because it’s so fast and convenient. Perhaps Melbourne can also learn from London how to get rid of the Myki Card.
▲ The Elizabeth Line at Bond St.in London
Since it opened in 2022 the Elizabeth Line quickly became the busiest railway line in the UK although technically it’s not part of the London Underground network. It runs out to Heathrow Airport – but so does the Piccadilly Line – and even further to Reading. It’s popular and has won architectural awards as well as being so busy. Check my August 2024 posting about riding the London Tube.
There's really no reason to come to Nanning; it's simply a transit stop between somewhere and somewhere else - Kunming and Wuzhou for me (and in fact, Wuzhou is only another transit stop before Macau). On the other hand, it's an interesting mid-size city (1.5 million ...
The Western Hills, or Xi Shan, make a popular day trip for Kunming residents. The hills rise up beside Lake Dian and from the top there are superb views over the lake and back to the city. A bewildering tangle of footpaths connect lookouts, restaurants, temples, pavil...
It's the main city in the colourful Yunnan region, way off in the southwest of China - I'm not sure what I was expecting from Kunming, but it's what the city is not that really strikes me. This is not a developing-world city. Kunming is far, far closer to Boston, Sydn...
It' s pre-dawn as the train rolls in to Lao Cai, the Vietnamese border town for China. The border doesn't open until 7am, so I wander around and stop for a bowl of pho, the all-purpose Vietnamese noodle soup, before taking a motorcycle taxi 2km to the border and walk ...
Drizzle: it has got steadily hotter as I've travelled north from Singapore, inverting the usual climatic rules and peaking in Hue. Hanoi is noticeably cooler and all day it tries to rain. It's also Monday, when most museums are shut, so I spend the first half of the d...
Today's plan is to leave Hoi An very early, catch a train from Danang to Hue and then have most of the day in one of Vietnam's most interesting cities before taking the train to Hanoi in the late afternoon. Danang's train station, with its neat row of little all-in-wh...
Provence. It reminds me of Provence. No, despite the long French colonial period Hoi An doesn't look anything like the south of France, but there is the same feeling of being too pretty for a postcard. There's the same mix of trendy little cafes, bars and restauran...
My train rolls into Nha Trang station just after 6am, and just before 9am I'm underwater. I've found a hotel, dumped my gear, had breakfast, found a scuba diving centre, signed up for the morning's dive trip, joined the boat, got out to the dive site and there I am wi...
To get to Macau by the evening of 17 April is definitely going to be a race but until today I haven't felt rushed. I've only had to do one overnight train trip and I usually have the morning or afternoon (all day yesterday) to look around. It's actually felt quite rel...
Phnom Penh's exotic-looking Central Market is the place to change money; the jewellery shops around the market square and the jewellery stands actually under the market dome also handle currency transactions. Thai baht, US dollars and Cambodian riel are all equally ac...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013