Friday, December 19, 2008
9:13 PM

Aussielicious!

Australia. 1 to 13 December.

One. Brisbane. After some 1 hour delay and 7 hours of rather comfortable flight with Etihad Airways on a Boeing 777, my mum and I finally arrived on a continent we’d never set foot on – Australia. I was pleasantly surprised by the great service offered on the flight and we later found out from a senior pilot instructor that Etihad is one of the best in the world, comparable with Emirates. To me, it was comparable with my previous experience with Qatar and SIA, with perhaps a small regret, that they ran out of one of the meal choices, risotto. I happened to be having a small risotto craving when I saw it on the menu, placed my order for it, was promised one , but in the end was attended to by another lady who told me there was no more risotto! I could hardly conceal my disappointment. Sorry, food is a morale booster. The movie and TV choices were quite limited, according to my taste. SQ had a trendier set of movies to choose from.

my new trusty 70l backpack

So we reached Brisbane International Airport, and I followed my sister’s instructions which I had handwritten in a little notebook, to reach Indooropilly train station where she would bring us to her apartment. I actually like the name Indooroopilly, and suspected it has an Aboriginal origin. Afterall, it doesn’t sound English like the street names in Indooroopilly, like Stamford and Belgrave Road. Initially, I thought Indooroopilly was a cute and creative way to call the indoor mall (it’s not hard to believe that since the Aussies have their own slang)!

Basically Indooroopilly is like a housing estate, you know, like Bt Panjang. And her uni is 20 min away by bus. My sis’ new little apartment is more than comfortable for the 3 of us, and we visited THE most happening Indooroopilly mall. Do not belittle this mall, as it contains so many stores, big and small, from Crazy Clarks (equivalent of 1.99 shop) to Myers (equivalent of Metro), and is their equivalent of Vivocity, including cinemas and library!

I’ve long heard of my sister’s favourite Jap food in Brisbane, Hanaichi. It wasn’t as satisfying as I expected, but by Aussie standards it was great. The problem though, is that food prices in Aust are double, but portions are too!

So we visited University of Queensland at St Lucia and went on to take the CityCat, which is the river transport of Brisbane, to the City. Unfortunately, the river was brown and muddy, totally different from usual! Just my luck!

Lovely campus.

Great campus green to sit on.

Graduation ceremony going on

there's even a lake on campus!

and ferry transport to City

Rowers on the river.

Brisbane river

Earlier this year, my sister home stayed at this angelic couple’s place at Moggill, which is millions of miles away from civilization. Ok, not so far, but the travelling was killing us and we understood why my sister HAD to move unless she bought a car. Ron and Andrea were such angels. They were such good hosts and parents too, as they had 3 kids to take care of while hosting us. Andrea whipped up her delicious lasagna and apple crumble for dessert. Joshua, Hannah and Nic were so lovely!

Apparently, people here start work as early as 7am in the morning, but knock off before 5pm, many times by 4.30am! Perhaps it’s judgmental to say they’re slack. They may be; workload may be less than in Singapore or Hong Kong, but it could that they are efficient too.

Lovely kids!

With the angelic family!

Two. Today is shopping day! We took a trip to Harbourtown at Gold Coast for some shopping at the factory outlet stores where I bagged some great buys at Ripcurl and Valley Girl. I began to notice the fashion sense here - guys here are often unshaven and dressed in berms, t-shirts and slippers, while the girls would be in sundress with Spartans slippers or flipflops.

Nandos for lunch!

Three. Surfer’s Paradise. In Aussie, I no longer feel fat cuz everyone is 肉肉 with fuller shapes, unlike most Asians, where girls who do not have legs like sticks are labelled fat and slimming ads are everywhere. Australians wear bikinis regardless of age and figures. With tight-fitting clothes, most don’t even suck in their tummies. They wear whatever clothes they like, even if their little tummies show. These people are not as conscious of themselves, and are true Aussies, being casual and fun-loving. They probably take the opinion “why be so conscious.”

This contrasts with the terribly skinny, I mean, sticky girls I see in Hong Kong and the slimming ads that flood its streets and trains. While obesity should be avoided, losing weight should be for the sake of health and not just external appearance. I think a curvaceous and healthy girl looks much better than a pale skinny girl only eating apples (think Fann Wong who will probably faint after running 2km).

What's Surfers' Paradise without surfers?

Kids learning to surf

Four. Melbourne. Weather was chilly at about 18degrees, and upon my sister’s recommendation according to what she read on the website, we took a cab, which turned out to be a bad choice. It came up to almost A$100, 5 times the amount a person would pay for the bus ride, 3 times the amount for car rental a day. Apparently, the recommendation was for Tullamarine Airport, but we were nearer to Geelong, at Avalon Airport! Well, a sunk cost is a sunk cost, so we took it as a comfortable ride without hassle to our hotel.

The first thing we did was to take the City Circle tram which was free of charge around the city. We decided to stop at the Parliament Park and took a walk to St Patrick’s Cathedral which was very European, very gothic. Melbourne reminded me of spring in Europe, particularly Ireland and England. After all, Australia has roots from the present UK and Ireland, with buildings of Welsh, English and Irish origins. There were tram lines and electrical cables everywhere. Old European-styled buildings are found beside modern buildings.

the free City Circle tram

St Patrick's Cathedral

Very typical Irish building.

Who would have thought a train station would look so nice?

Continued and found Federation Square and Flinders' St Train Station. Walked to Swanston St, and ate some sucky Jap food cooked by this Chinese guy, which caused some super low morale. What's worse is that we then passed by Bourke St and Chinatown and saw many more yummy food. We should have walked around more before making the decision.

We instantly knew we were in Chinatown.

Melbourne was filled with European-influenced buildings from the 19th Century.

Interesting work of art

Five. Great Ocean Rd. We had to wake up early in the morning for the Go West bus pick-up outside our hotel. The first stop was Narana Aboriginal Art Place in Geelong where we saw the didgeridoo performance. The didgeridoo is made from hollowing out the eucalyptus tree trunk and has this loud and low-pitched reverberation when blown.

This didgeridoo performer could breathe while blowing continuously.

Memorial Arch

Along the way we saw many dead gumtrees which means we are in koala bears' habitat. This is a koala bear on its mission to kill the gumtree. No wonder their population is 10% that a century ago.

The Great Ocean Road is divided into 3 distinct parts. First part was the long and winding route by the oceans. The second is inland, among the temperate rainforest which we took a stroll in. We finally came out to a different coastline, with much bigger waves and higher cliffs. These are possibly the most amazing coastline I've ever witnessed. Wow-inducing!

Nice temperate rainforest.

Twelve Apostles.

The Twelve Apostles, now left with just eight, are limestone stacks as a result of erosion of the original coastline. This reminded me very much of the Lagos coastline in Portugal, only grander...

Loch Ard Gorge

London Bridge

In Singapore we use proper English for instructions, road signs and other signs. But over here, they practice creativity. I see road signs like “Open your eyes. Fatigue kills.” “Sleepy? Powernap now.” or signs that call breakfast brekky instead, or words like “supercheap” outside megastores. Imagine Singapore’s stores advertising themselves as “cheapo goods” or food courts saying “yummy food”.

Six. Melbourne. We went shopping at DFO at Southern Cross Station. Shopped at Bourke St Mall. Loved Forever New. We were sick so we headed back to our hotel to rest before dinner at Lygon St, which is like Little Italy with many restaurants, Italian and other cuisines alike. We picked one, and had bruschetta, minestrone, risotto with radisso, truffle oil and prawns, and Marinara. Another lesson we learnt is that one shall never ever underestimate the food serving quantity in Australia. One shall never suspect the portions are too small, even in a classy restaurant. Even 1 plate was probably too much for the 3 of us!

Bourke St Mall

Italian dining at Lygon St.

Seven. Phillip Island. Started with Gurdies Winery for some wine-tasting, but all the wines sucked. Only the white port tasted decent.

We stopped by a laidback cafe with senior citizens playing music and dancing!

Gurdies Winery

We then went to look at wombat, wallabies, kangaroos, koalas and other animals, but wasn’t able to touch or hug the koalas. The reason why I signed up for the tour was so that I could come close to the endemic species of Australia. I mean, how could I say I've come to Australia without seeing the koala bears or wallabies up close?

So I tried feeding the kangaroos and ended up having the teeth scraping against my palm and them licking my palm which got quite ticklish. The tassie devils were sleeping so we can’t see much, while the dingoes looked more foxy than dogs. We then headed to look at the nobbies, but the weather proved too cold for us to bear in our thin cardigans and shorts/ short pants.

Baby wallaby

Sleepy-head wombat

Not to be trifled with.

The kangaroos were licking my palm!

Penguin habitat conservation area.

A boardwalk filled with seagulls' shit and feathers.

Saw a dead penguin in our attempt to spot penguin chicks in the nests.

Sunset was slooooww.

But we were determined to persevere on for the sake of the cute little penguins. We waited from 8.10pm for the sun to set. Finally we saw little penguin faces bobbing in the water before the sun sets. Eventually, at about 8.45pm, the first batch of penguins dashed up the shore and started to line up on the shore, with a "leader" seemingly taking charge. Some seemingly headed back to the waters to look for their buddies. When all the penguins were present, the contingent of penguins started marching across the sandy beach, up the rocks and on the dirt tracks back to their homes. They were absolutely adorable! We couldn’t stop squealing for joy when we saw those cute penguins teetered and tottered in small groups. They appeared tired and lost, but in fact they remember where their homes are. Somehow they do, as they perform this routinely on a daily basis.

Soon we abandon the grandstand for the boardwalk, walking alongside the groups of penguins back to their homes. I was amazed by how these penguins are not intimidated by our presence. We were so near to them we could almost touch them if we wanted to. Besides there were so many tourists around and they are certainly not the quietest people around. We saw the penguins stopping to oil their feathers by reaching for their oil glands at the tail and rubbing them onto their feathers using their beaks. They were particularly adorable when they seem so clumsy in their attempts to run quickly. They were also extremely noisy as they make their mating calls. They will return to their nests to feed their chicks by regurgitating the fish they’ve eaten in the day.

Penguins are only found in the southern hemisphere. Apparently they had a tough day. The fairy penguins or little penguins, the smallest penguin species in the world, are so small their heights were probably the length of our head. They have plenty of predators at sea including seals, as well as on land. They have to walk about 7km home! Thus their survival rate is usually 20%. The nature park helped to plant grass as camouflage for the penguins to help to increase their population.

Now these penguins have overtaken the koalas as my officially favourite animals as they are so close-knit and smart to know safety in numbers, instead of being sleepy like the koalas who often kill the trees they feed on.

Initially we contemplate not going for this trip as my sis's friend said it was boring, but I knew I had to see it for myself to judge. Perhaps the difference lies in that we got the Penguin Plus at $11 extra, where an exclusively smaller group of spectators get to see the penguins at a closer distance, practically walking beside them and close enough to touch them!

Eight. Melbourne. After the harsh coldness the night before we had a good rest and slow walk down Swanston St, Bourke St and Southbank. I have to say I had fallen in love with the beautiful Melbourne... except sub-10 degrees was way too cold in here for a summer holiday.

Lovely dusk at Southbank.

Our hotel

Nine. Sydney. Sydney is filled with Asians! It was like Little Hong Kong! I couldn’t believe that I hardly saw any whites along the streets in the city. As compared to Melbourne, Sydney was nothing special; there were many heritage buildings here too. But it's more like a real city in here. People put on sulkier looks, walk faster, jaywalk, and drivers honk all the time.

Darling Harbour

Common to see kids playing at the fountains

Queen Victoria Mall

Ten. Went shopping in the town before heading to the Sydney Opera House. The Opera House was quite a disappointment as it was much yellower than expected, or seen in pictures. Part of the reason was the dark looming rainclouds above us. We then ate pancakes at The Rocks, which apparently were not as great as those my sis ate in Brisbane, Pancake Manors.

Cheesen brought us to Bondi Beach to have Hurricane’s Grill’s ribs at Bondi Beach which rocked. Bondi beach was small compared to Surfer’s Paradise as well as beaches along the GOR. But the surf was big that day, and I would be pleased to have a beach like that near to city to visit if I were a Sydneyer. Unfortunately I lost most of my Sydney pics including the huge pork ribs and the fish market! :(

Eleven. Sydney Fish Market was fascinating as with all touristic fish market, except that this fish market is quieter than Pasir Panjang’s or Hamburg’s where fishmongers yell out loud discounts. This was a civilized one with the fresh catches displayed behind the window on the ice shavings. But the seafood platter we had wasn’t that great. Fish n Co is prob better.

Paddy's Market at Market City

Night view at Sydney Opera House

Twelve. Brisbane. Back to Brisbane, it was finally warmness. Till now, we've yet to see aussies buying or eating nougats. They can't even be found in the supermarkets, which proves to say nougats are really a touristy thing than a local delicacy.

The thing I love about being in Australia. People here smile at you, sincerely, or at least I feel so. They're not as sulky as what you get in cities like Singapore. They say good morning to bus drivers and shopkeepers as they're all humans like we are. Passengers shout out a big "Thank You" when they get off the bus, while cashiers say "How're you going?" as a form of greeting. That just perks everyone's spirits. But on our little island, if you do that, you'll prob be ridiculed at. Life here is good too, without further elaboration. So it's really not that hard to understand why you get so many Singaporeans migrating to Australia.