I’ve been wanting to visit this notorious suburb which is populated mostly by Vietnamese.

Today’s the day. The suburb’s shopping complex is very similar to Box Hill‘s as in selling oriental foods and merchandises, salespersons shouting out loud to attract customers, funny creatures and foods, instant noodles, cheap vegetables, etc.

This suburb is bustling with human traffic, people of all kinds of ethnic backgrounds live here. At Springvale, business for the Vietnamese are really lucrative as they provide the most economic of food and household products as well as services. Prices so low even the nearby Safeway (Woolworths) has to bear with them in competition.

This brought me closer to the feeling of Chinese New Year. Very red. Very Chinese.

Strange ocean creatures available here. The one on the left looks like a lobster with cheeky legs. On the other side, it’s eel – kind of.

God damn, don’t that look familiar you guys? and those are Huge! Sea cucumbers, fresh and just in. Well, oysters here are sold at a very low price of $7-$8 a dozen. Even cheaper than Victoria Market‘s!

If you’re considering of opening a Salon, shortlist Springvale in your list of potential locations. Out of 5 salons in the shopping complex, all of them are full, most of the time. Oh well, maybe it’s Saturday.

BBQ Pork paste and Har Kaw paste (Prawn paste).

Fresh female crabs and Tiger Prawns. My favorites. The pricings are quite reasonable, but still a bit over the mark for me.

Another “never-seen” in Melbourne since I arrived here. Ice Kachang, at a whoping $2.50! But I did go for it still. Never have them in a cup like that coz you can’t mix them well and in the end, you’ve to eat the snow ice and the syrup separately. Too sweet.

Some garments and household utentils for the aunties, erm, young ladies included.

People are queuing here to have a go at their luck. But never forget that, this branch is one of the highest ranked in chances of winning a Division 1 Jackpot – it’s the prize for all number liaw liaw tiok aneh la.

“Daum daum daum daum daum, come come , (Chinese: Play with boobs, sounded like One Nine Nine), mango very fresh try before you buy don’t worry very fresh very sweet le kau kut throng pat phong thai saigon….” Even though I don’t know what the f*ck they’re shouting at, but I know that they’re trying to sell their mangoes at $1.99 per kilo. Hmm…Maybe daum means mango in Vietnamese.

This is a view of the backstreet of Springvale Central. Careful when you commute around this area…

…coz the Springvale Ah Bengs are all around you. Springvale are pretty unsafe to reside due to these Ah Beng Ah Seng causing all the troubles here. They don’t speak Hokkien or Singlish, they speak Vietnamese. So for us who don’t understand their language, when they say “KNNCCB”, we might thought that they say, “Mango very fresh very sweet try before you buy don scare come try try ”

But then, they’re not that hostile afterall. Just don’t dress like an Ah Beng of their enemy counterpart, or walk, or talk, or act like one. Be nice and naive when passing by and that should avoid all the troubles.

At the end of the day, I drove home a happyman with a car load of bargain buys, which includes a sack of rice. From now on, Springvale would be my primary destination for weekly groceries. It could have been rated 4 stars but for the security issues around this suburb, I give it a 3.5.

Ratings: [rate 3.5]