A dream realized
When I was a child I was fascinated by maps. I looked at them in encyclopedias. I studied the globe. And when I did so there was one place that interested me more than the rest--Australia. This early fascination with the country grew in elementary school when I had an Australian pen pal. We exchanged only three letters but the short correspondence made me want to visit more. Little did I know it would take twenty years for me to finally make the trip.
Boris and Me
Boris was a friend I made in Japan where I live now in Minokamo. We met at a multicultural center and soon got to know each other as most people would, by talking at length over food and drink. Boris told me was spending a year in Japan at his wife's family's house so that his son could improve his Japanese and better understand the culture. Not surprisingly, a year can go by very fast, so just when I thought our friendship was truly blossoming it was time to say goodbye. And when we did part ways I shook his hand and promised we would meet again in Australia.
One year later I arrived at Melbourne Airport and Boris was waiting. It was great to see him again. We hugged and laughed, and he drove me to his house. We spent the next few days together. In addition to his wife and son, Boris lives with his grandmother, a Bosnian woman who speaks no English. She was quite nice to me and cooked delicious traditional Bosnian food. Then there was Boris' dog Layla, a little dachshund who peed herself when too excited. Because I had arrived on Christmas eve, we spent most our time indoors, relaxing and chatting. But there was a time when we went out to visit Boris' mother's grave. We had coffee and cookies next to her gravestone and the grandmother cried at length missing her daughter.
On Christmas day Boris prepared a turkey. On the side, we had fried potatoes, vegetables and cherry pie. There were also prawns. For whatever the reason those are popular with Australians during the Christmas season. The meal was splendid, and became the first time in several years that I had turkey for Christmas. In Japan people celebrate Christmas as a sort of novelty holiday, but they eat fried or roasted chicken. Turkey in fact is very hard to come by out here, so I have been missing out all this time.
Summer Time
Since Australia is in the southern hemisphere, December and January are summer months. The days are hot and long, and around Christmas and New Year's people are off for summer holiday. When I arrived though it was a bit cold and rainy, which everyone complained was very unusual for the time of year. I was fine though, because it was still a vast improvement over the cold dismal weather in Japan where I was coming from.
After a few days the weather did sort itself out. It became hot and sunny overnight and I was pleased to feel rise in temperature. So I went and made the best of the days by visiting the beach and sightseeing. In Melbourne there are actually several beaches. One can go and lie in the sand or play cricket, and a few beachgoers will even brave the water. Unfortunately, the water didn't have much to offer. It was cold, muddy brown, and bereft of waves. Still, I went in and splashed around.
Australia wasn't the first time I enjoyed a summer Christmas. When I lived in Chile it was much the same. I went often to the beaches in Valparaiso and Renaca in December and January. However, I don't think I appreciated it as much back then. Up to that point I had spent most my winters in San Diego where the weather is very mild. In Japan though the winters are awful. It never gets too cold. Maybe minus ten at the worst but the real problem is this country's lack of central heating and proper insulation. This becomes an issue at work because more oft than not the schools are freezing. And the kerosene heaters never make it comfortably warm, especially not when they frequently open the windows to ventilate the fumes. So yeah, it was nice to go somewhere hot and have a reprieve from the cold.
Cost of Living
I've traveled enough in my life to expect the unexpected while abroad. I mean, even if you read travel guides and do research on the Internet you will inevitably come across things that you had no idea about. Therefore, I kind of mentally prepare myself to be surprised before taking a trip. In the case of Australia, what really got me was how expensive everything was. This turned out to be a problem because I had budgeted myself thinking the prices would be less than that of Japan. But they weren't. Food at restaurants and stores was actually much more. And it didn't stop there. Alcohol, public transportation and admission prices were ridiculous. Currently, the Australian dollar is on par with the American dollar so I can say with certainty that Australia has a much higher cost of living than the US.
I met several other tourists who were equally surprised. Some complained about how they had to replan their agenda to account for the prices. I was lucky that I knew Boris and others with whom I could stay. That saved me a lot of money. Plus, I was treated to free meals and other perks that fall under the umbrella of friendship. But I still ended up spending about 2,500 dollars for my two week trip, the most any vacation of that length has ever cost me.
From what I gathered the recent economic crisis did not have much of an effect on Australia. Unemployment is low and the country is still experiencing steady economic growth. The only drawback is that inflation has brought prices up. Fortunately, minimum wage has also increased to help people get by. I couldn't believe it at first but in Melbourne the minimum hourly wage is fifteen dollars, and in Sydney it's even higher. That's almost twice as high as both the minimum wages in California and Japan. In fact my current salary probably averages out to about 17 dollars an hour which is good by Japanese standards but would be very pedestrian in Australia.
Melbourne
Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia. Due to its rapid population growth it is expected to become number one in the next few years, eclipsing Sydney. The city center is located along the Yarra river in and around station. I thought this a little odd because Melbourne is a coastal city and most coastal cities have their downtowns near the ocean, whereas Melbourne's is few miles inland. The center is very developed with large city blocks and skyscrapers. The most prominent building is the Eureka Tower, the tallest in the southern hemisphere. On the 80th floor is an observation deck. I went up with Boris and got an impressive panoramic view of the city.
The whole feel of Melbourne and local lifestyle reminded me a lot of Southern California. The look of the buildings and layout of the streets are very similar, but beyond that the people behave much the same. Melbourne is also a huge melting pot. Walking around, I saw many Asians, East Indians and Arabs. There were however very few Latinos and Blacks. I didn't see many Aborigines in Melbourne either.
One other huge similarity is that everyone spoke English as a native language. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but of the 25+ countries I have visited, Australia is the first where I didn't have any issues with a language barrier. The culture, as I said earlier, was not difficult to understand either. It was very easy to talk to people and get around and I found that to be a great relief.
Busted!
Australian outlaw Ned Kelly
The Royal Exhibition Building
Downtown Melbourne
Eureka Tower
View from the Eureka Skydeck
Flinder's Station
The public transportation
New Year's
Australians take New Year's very seriously. It is their biggest holiday and the peak of the summer season. Everyone celebrates in some capacity or another, and most go out to party. In the larger cities they have extravagant fireworks shows. In Melbourne the fireworks were at midnight on the Yarra River. They shot up from the tops of the tallest buildings and exploded overhead. First there was a countdown, followed by a large 'Yeah, it's 2011," and all that good stuff. Then the show commenced and went on for about fifteen minutes while the masses along the river oohed and awed.
For New Years I first went to a house party with my friend Thomas. It was a costume party with a cartoon theme and everyone was expected to dress up like a character. My friend Thomas said I should be Speedy Gonzales and found me a sombrero. It was a rather crude costume but better than nothing so that's how I went.
In the downtown area I had another friend I visited. So I spent the later hours of the night at her place with her and her friends. It was a quiet change of pace but outside there was still a great deal of commotion coming from the street below. People were out in large numbers, getting drunk until 4am.
Never had I been to a place where people partied as hard on New Years. The streets downtown were packed from around 8pm and when I went to the station about 5am, it was still quite crowded with late night party people waiting for the train home. I was dead tired by that point and wanted to sleep, but the rowdy passengers kept me up. There was also some disgusting puke sloshing around on the floor of the train. Not a peasant way to end the night.
New Year's Eve after the fireworks
At Jen's place
People out and early
Cairns
On the first day of the new year I returned to the airport and caught a flight to Cairns. Flying in I was concerned about the weather. I had seen on the news that the region was experiencing heavy rainfall which in turn caused flooding throughout the state of Queensland. When I arrived however, there was only a drizzle. The heavy rain had occurred a few hundred kilometers to the south near Brisbane.
Cairns was markedly smaller than Melbourne and much greener. Because it is in the north of Australia the town actually falls within the tropics. So I was thinking there would be plenty of nice beach. And while there was some sandy shoreline no one went in the water for fear of jellyfish. The tourists instead gathered at a large public pool just north of the town's small port. Because it was peak season there were many, many tourists who inundated the downtown area.
I was in Cairns for five days but I did not spend much time in the town. I simply checked in to my hostel the first night, got a bite to eat, then left for my dive boat the following morning.
The public pool in Cairns
The Great Barrier Reef
The great barrier reef straddles the north eastern Australian coast and is comprised of over 2,900 individual reefs. They form so large a mass that the reef system can be seen from outer space.
To reach the reef from Cairns one must take a boat out. For me the ride took about an hour and a half. Our destination was the dive boat where I would spend the next two nights. It was not too large a vessel. There only were three decks and enough cabin space for about forty people the staff included.
We were given an orientation about the reef area and shown a map and depth chart. After that it was time to suit up and jump in to the water from the back of the boat. Since you can't dive alone I buddied up with a Norwegian who was much more experienced than I. We went in and swam to the reef.
The Great Barrier Reef is without a doubt an incredible natural wonder and extremely diverse ecosystem with all manner of corals and aquatic life. However, inspite of all there is to see, a dive can still be poor if the conditions are not right. Poor visibility, strong currents and cold water temperatures distract a diver and take away from the experience. Fortunately, for the three days I dove none of these factors were an issue.
The reefs really are exotic, and I saw sea turtles, stingrays, reef sharks, giant clams and plenty more. Swimming under the water puts the diver in another, quiet world where you fly above the ocean floor. There is no better way to explain it.
Not everyone on the dive boat had a scuba license, so some people went on introductory dives. Others simply used snorkel sets. Though not as intense as scuba diving, snorkelers are able to see the most beautiful reefs near the surface. This is because at shallow depths all the colors are clearly visible, whereas at only a few meters red becomes brown due to the refraction of sunlight as it passes through the water. The deeper one goes the more colors that are lost, and at about thirty meters the ocean becomes completely black.
In total, I dove ten times over the three day period. Two of those were night dives. At night each diver receives a flashlight. This allows the person to locate the reefs and spot fish. Not surprisingly, after dark most fish take refuge within the corals and are hidden from view. The one major exception are the large red sea bass that hunt at night. They patrol the ocean floor and will eat anything that moves, so the reef becomes a dangerous place for small fish. Interestingly, if a diver shines their light on a stray fish the sea bass will pick up on it immediately and come to eat it. In this manner a diver can help the large fish hunt.
Ready to dive
The calm water
In I go
Going down
Scuba men
Big fish
The reef up close
Me examining the corals
A dive completed
Ready to climb back up the boat
Out of my gear
On the way back to Cairns
Queensland Rainforest
The northern part of Australia was one covered in vast tropical rainforest. However, most of the trees that sustained the ecosystem were cut down by loggers over the past 200 years. That left only a few forests, one of which is the Queensland Rainforest.
The Queensland rainforest is one of the oldest surviving forests. It is believed to have been in existence for some 200 million years and is located right outside of Cairns in the hills that extend upward from the coast. While there is road access, many tourists choose to enter the forest by cable car. The Kuwanda cable car service passes over the treetops and continues on for 7.5 kilometers, making it the longest cable car in the world. The route is broken up in to three segments joined atnstations. At each station, the passengers may explore part of the forest.
The cable car terminus is a small town with restaurants and gift shops, and not too far from there is a nature park that features animals and aboriginal dance. Since I had made the trip in I decided to visit the park. I was placed within a group of about twenty. We first saw some dingos, kangaroos, crocodiles and koalas. Then we toured the forest in an amphibious vehicle which included a stretch through a muddy river. It was just like the jungle boat ride at Disneyland, only this was the real thing.
The last part of the nature park was an interactive experience with aboriginals. They put on a traditional performance and explained how song and dance are very important to their people because that is the way by which they conveyed their history and culture before English was adopted as a written language. Next, the aboriginals took us to an area where we could throw a boomerang. I gave it a go, doing just like they explained, but my throw sent the boomerang careening off to the side. Of all of us that tried, only one person got it to come back.
To get back to Cairns I had to return to the station that I first arrived at. I could have headed back by cable car but opted instead to take a train. The railway line was built 150 years prior and had long since been converted in to a tourist attraction. The railway straddled the contours of the mountains and made a single stop at Baron Falls lookout. From that vantage point the falls were in clear view and an absolutely amazing sight. Because it had been raining recently there was a large amount of water gushing over the edge, and the waterfall was without a doubt the largest I have ever seen.
The Queensland Rainforest
Taking a guided tour
Patting down a wallaby
A cassowary
crocs
Ready to board the amphibious vehicle
The wetlands
The train back to Cairns
Barron Falls
Aboriginals
In contrast to Melbourne, there was a very large aboriginal presence in Cairns. Many of these locals gathered in plazas and parks, merrily chatting to one another. At night it was much the same, but by then several appeared to be drunk. Still, they were in good spirits. A lot even said hello and smiled whether they were drunk or not. This was unusual because the average Australian would not greet a stranger on the street. Since the Aboriginals were very friendly I talked to few. It was only small chit-chat, but I was happy to have the opportunity. One woman complained to me about her cheating husband and warned me to never get married to an unfaithful person. Another younger guy asked me how I liked Australia and appeared pleased that I was enjoying my trip. And another told me about his experiences growing up and how he was proficient at spearfishing.
After these experiences and my trip to the nature park I thought very highly of the aboriginal people and at the same time was sad they had been marginalized by Australia's modern society. Still, I have to admit they have it much better than the Native Americans in the US because the Aboriginal people receive a weekly stipend of 500 dollars. This is more or less the governments way of apologizing for past atrocities. So regardless if they work or not the aboriginals are given money. For this reason many Aboriginals choose not to find a job and much like unemployed native Americans some ultimately suffer from alcoholism. They unfortunately do not have a genetic resistance because the widespread consumption of alcohol was only first introduced to their culture by the Europeans.
An aboriginal performance
Ready to throw thier spears
In Conclusion
Australia is a very unique country. I am very happy I was able to finally visit. Had I not gone this past holiday I'm not sure I would have never made the trip out. However, it cost me a great deal of money so I will not be traveling in April. A pity too, because that's the cheapest time to get flights. Okay, maybe I will bite the bullet and pay to go to Singapore or elsewhere nearby. Traveling is an addiction of mine. If I go too long without it, I begin to feel stressed. But with my plans to study in Fall I need to also save money. Decisions, decisions.
