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CHINESE WHISPER, WAKEY-WAKEY, TA

New words I learnt in Australia. To think that the words most associated with Australia is "G'day mate!" and I was never once greeted with it.

Dec 1999 - Jan 2000
 
21
days

I visited over 2 trips:

New South Wales: Sydney, Wollongong, Kiama, Blue Mountain, Byron Bay; Queensland: Gold Coast, SeaWorld; 

Northern Territory: Uluru (Ayers Rock), Alice Springs; South Australia: Cooper Pedy, Adelaide, Great Ocean Road

Victoria: Melbourne; 

 

Western Australia: Perth, Rottnest Island

Australia is HUGE.

Look at it this way. If you put all of South East Asia together, it would still pale in comparison with that giant of a continent down-under. No wonder it took days to get to places like 12 hours on the bus from Sydney to Byron Bay. Good thing was, it has nice scenery along the coast but you'd probably want to take an overnight bus to 'save' on the traveling time.

 

I visited Perth on a company incentive trip in 1996 and another time in 2000 to welcome the Millenium visiting Sydney/Wollongong, bus to Byron Bay, drove to Gold Coast, flew to Ayers Rock/Alice Spring, bus to Cooper Pedy and Adelaide, driving along the Great Ocean Road and end up at Melbourne.

 

That took me over 3 weeks and most of the time spent on transportation.

 

So you can imagine my admiration for Robyn when I watched the movie Tracks (released in 2013) of her journey walking across 1,700-mile from Ayers Rock and across Western Australia to the ocean with her dog, Diggity and 4 camels Dookie, Bub, Zelly and baby Goliath, earning herself the name "The Camel Lady". It took her almost a year. She wrote

 

"Camel trips do not begin or end, they merely change form."

 

I didn't see any camels in Australia but these were my Australian friends - Ian, Greg, Steven and Tasha - who offered me insights into Aussie lives, homes and warm hospitality.

ACCOMMODATION

 

Australia has one of the most established hostels or backpackers' lodges. Most are mixed dormitories. Some of them run-down, some newly "built" with swimming pools. You may be able to choose which hostel to stay in but you can't choose your roommates. In Melbourne, I've got one roommate who SNORED and the other TALKED in his sleep. I call them my sleeping-symphony. Another fellow backpacker told me of a story where his dorm-mate sleep walked & filled the room with water. I hope nothing more serious than this ever happens to me.

WOLLONGONG/WOONONA

DAILY STREET SCENES

 

The streets are safe and pretty colourful - they even paint on the Public Toilets walls. Cars give way to pedestrians and hardly anyone used the honk. No wonder it keeps attracting migrants to this country.

NSW

where Greg and Ian live (no, they are not gays, they are just friends!), is a nice and quiet town. You have the sea on one side and the mountain on the other.

 

People are friendly here, although I hardly met anyone on the street. There was a club nearby where you could gamble and get drunk.

 

The rugged and varied coastline provided hours of fun: from abseiling and hang-gliding...

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... to catching waves at the wavebreakers

 

... to beach ogling surfers in G-strings (yes, the men behind me were wearing G-strings!)...

... or just swim in the coves like the nuns did in the past or rock pools complete with railing and steps like in swimming pools.

KIAMA

 

A small seaside town famous for its blowhole, it's also a place where you could sit in a sidewalk cafe the whole day and finish a novel.

SYDNEY

is a city - no surprise there! What's interesting was to find a food court in Chinatown modeled after the ones in Singapore. Now, where is the authentic Australian cuisine??? Is there one?!

 

Sydney is the financial center of Australia and I was told that it has the largest population of gays. Too bad I didn't know this before and had just missed the Mardi Gras parade by one day.

 

Greg took me around the city all the way to Sydney Bridge. You can walk up to the top if you have A$100 to spend. The only picture I took in Sydney was this picture on the left. It is very tiny but there are people dressed in spacesuit walking in the rain and strong wind up on the bridge. No, you are not allowed to bring your cameras. Hm. I think I have a better idea how to spend A$100.

BLUE MOUNTAIN TOUR

 

It was time to say goodbye to Greg and go on to my next destination. Before leaving NSW, I joined a tour of the Blue Mountain.

 

The tour started at 8 in the morning with overcast skies unfortunately. First, we visited the Sydney Olympic Site which was a huge park with a lot of unfinished construction going on. It will be the world's largest Olympic Stadium to seat 110,000.

 

Next was Jamison Valley. We had to walk through the valley in the rain. All we saw was clouds. and for those without raincoats or brollies, they'll find that garbage bags work well too.

 

After the valley, we went to Katoomba which is my favourite place on this tour. It's a "Hippies-state" with many shops selling incense, yoga meditation, alternative healing courses and old book shops (I found a copy of Noel Coward Song Book firstprint here.) There are also adventure/outdoor-wear shops as the surrounding mountains and valleys are rockclimbing/abseiling haven.

 

From Katoomba, it's not far from the Three Sisters. We walked down the valley and took the Scenic Railway up. It's more scary than it looks because it felt like we are going to fall off!

HIPPY LAND: BYRON BAY
 

It looks like the further north you go in NSW, people are happier because they get to live like the hippies??!

 

I wanted to be here in Byron Bay because it is supposed to be the eastern-most part of Australia i.e. the first ray of the sunrise i.e. THE place to welcome the Millennium New Year here. I found a hostel right on the beach and all the hostel-ers are young people like me, it was very easy to make friends and I was definitely not alone. I was with a group of Swedes and an Israeli guy partying on the street. Australians really know how to make a party even if there is NO organised parties! A group of hare krishna with their processions is the most hilarious one and also one which I will never forget (even now when I re-do this site 15 years later, I could still see their happy faces, shaven head left with a little "tail", white dresses, little tamborines and the mega procession float dressed in flowers!) 

When we got back to the hostel, we were invited to join the rest of the hostel-ers on the beach. Someone played the guitar, another the drums just so that we have some music to dance to, and of course alcohol passed around. I was happy to just chat with my new friends but trying to stay up in the cold - the small bond fire wasn't big enough - was a challenge. I went to bed at 2 and told my "roomie" to wake me up for the sun rise. Because of the clouds, it was a bit disappointing to be honest.

 

 

There are at least 5 beaches to choose from here:

In the walk around the cape to the lighthouse, you may catch whales when they migrate.

GOLD COAST 

the home of surfers, beach bums and themeparks!

 

Steven came down to pick me up from Byron Bay with his lovely dog Tasha. I stayed at his family's weekend house on Nobby Beach. It's a really quiet house by the beach and a short drive from Gold Coast.

Someone gave us a free pass to SeaWorld & we became kids again. I managed to call the dolphins to come up & smile at us. I will never forget how happy this made me feel.

 

My verdict of Gold Coast? Well, it would be pretty if it doesn't have those tacky souvenir shops. I told Stevo to step on the accelerator and never looked back.

Gold Coast
THE RED CENTER SAFARI

 

From the Gold Coast, I flew to Ayers Rock.

Northern Territory

The 4-day safari trip started in Ayers Rock/Uluru, The Olgas, Kings Canyon, Finke Gorge and ended at Alice Spring. Expect to do lots of walking and the invasion of flies. It's advisable to invest in a flynet like Sandra, otherwise keep your mouth shut unless you are the tour guide and had to talk a lot, we saw him eat a fly!

Day 1 - The Valley of Winds, Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)
 

Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) is a collection of smaller, more rounded rocks. As the rocks are high in iron contents, exposed to air, they rust thus, the colour.

Our first stop was the Valley of the Winds which is a 7 km circuit track. It took about 2-3 hours to complete the walk. It's important to drink lots of water to keep hydrated. In summer, if the temperature rises above 34 Celsius, the park will be closed.

While some people raced to be the first, I was happy just taking photos & posing.

After the walk, we had champagne watching the sunset over Uluru/Ayers Rock.

The 'fun' doesn't start until the end of the day though, when we have to prepare dinner for 20 of us! It was like going back to school camps. Sometimes we have to pick up dried-up trees as burning woods along the highway but we always had candle-light dinners - so romantic - even though there were fluorescent lights. They were no good because if we get bugs in our food and the utensils are rinsed only once, you don't want to see them under fluorescent lights!

The campsites are minimal but fitted with modern toilets & shower. There were tents but we preferred to sleep like the bushmen in swags in the open, counting the stars but the swags are so comfortable. Zzz..

Day 2 - Uluru (Ayers Rock)...

Early morning walk...

 

It's against the Anangu spiritual beliefs' to climb Uluru (as in picture) as the climb is closely associated with the Mala tjukurpa, the traditional law of the hare-wallaby people. They prefer people refrain from climbing it but people still climbed it. It's also very dangerous and many people have hurt themselves from the climb. We saw rescue workers with a stretcher go up on the day we were here. Why do people still do it, it's beyond me.

The Aboriginals are nomads and they roam about. That's why these "caves" become their shelters and you can see some paintings were done while they sought shelter.

The walk in the morning was really nice. The whole place was so serene and magical. We also came upon what is called "a water-hole".

 

The Uluru is sacred to the Aboriginal (the Anangus) and no photography is allowed in some places.

Day 3 - King's Canyon

Literally took my breath away! The North and South Walls of the King's Canyon. It was very windy when we got here and only a few are brave enough to look down the edge.

 

The King's Canyon requires lots more climb up different types of steps. Some are man-made, some not. There were no toilets so we had to take our business behind the bushes.

Finally we came to the "Garden of Eden". It's so cooling & relaxing here.

 

Adam, our thoughtful and wonderful guide, bought us candies & peanuts. Most of us just ate & watched people plunging into the waters to cool off from the heat after walking all day to see the "Amphitheatre" & "The Lost City".

 

It had been a great one. We also came across wallabies & this pretty reptile at the last campsite for this trip.

Day 4 - Alice Spring: MacDonnell Range

Today, the tour started first at the Flynns Grave, then Simpsons Gap where a river cut a path through solid rock, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Glen Helen, the Ochre Pits (where the Aboriginal got the red colour for their paintings. The ochre is well in abundance in this area and is considered precious. It could be used in bartering! To get the colour, just pound the rocks into powder form) and finally the Ormiston Gorge.

 

We were told that the River Gum Trees are very "intelligent". They will "die out" some of its branch in times of drought so the whole tree doesn't die.

 

It has been a fascinating 4-day safari tour. German Sandra, Christoph and American Troy stucked to me most of the time. Since we didn't meet any croc in our tour, we decided to have croc for dinner, and to celebrate having survived the camping trip in the outbacks. However, the nice looking restaurant we chose in Alice Spring was infested with flying cockroaches. I found one on my bed too. Eeks! Isn't it funny that there were none in the outbacks?!

These were snapshots of the Center I took on a flight over. You can see the Stuart Highway which leads from Alice Spring to Adelaide which I will be travelling down to on the bus; the famous Ghan train runs almost parallel to this and the numerous salt lakes.

Groovy Grape to Adelaide via Cooper Pedy

Troy continued on the journey with me. Traveling in the center can be rather unpleasant with the heat, and dull. Here's me sleeping. Ha!

 

All you see on this super great highway are bushes & whirlies (whirlwinds) after bushes & whirlies. I even experienced being IN a whirlwind once when I decided to stay in the parked bus because it was a hot afternoon and I didn't want to get out for a walk on the salt plain. Something really loud as if a big train was coming towards me and the whole bus shook. I thought I might be going to the Land of Oz after all!

The tour buses in the Outbacks usually have a trailer to contain all our backpacks/ luggage.

COOPER PEDY - Opal digging time...

This is our dormitory in the underground "caves". It is just a simple place with bunk beds for us to sleep in. I can't remember the condition of the bathroom but we stayed here only for one night, esthetic didn't bother us much. Besides, above-ground, it is a constant construction site with parched, dried-up ground everywhere. Our guide told us that dynamites are self-made and readily available so when residents do not like something, like the new roundabout, they blast it. Since 1987, the police station has been bombed twice and the courthouse once.

Cooper Pedy means "white men's hole in the ground". It's an opal mining town with about 40 nationalities here. After mining for opal, people decided to put furniture in & live in the "holes" because the temperature underground averages about 20 - 25 Celsius i.e. if it's soaring hot summer outside (which could be 50 Celsius), it'll be cool inside; if it's winter (below 0 Celsius) outside, it'll be just right in the "holes". That's why half the population lives underground. The owner of a mine told us that her neighbour wanted an extension to their kitchen. While excavating for the extension, they found another A$50,000 worth of opal. I say we start digging now!

I took a photo of the opal found in the walls when we went to a tour, otherwise this would have been taken and sold off. At the end of the tour, they gave us a axe and pick. If we can find any opal, we can keep it for free. If only it was that easy!

ADELAIDE, GLENELG

My favourite place...

 

I don't know how many hours the bus ride was in total but I was really glad when we got to civilisation again and what better place than the seaside Glenelg which is by far my favourite city in Australia (other than Perth and Melbourne). Glenelg is about 20 minutes tram ride from Adelaide city centre. And the tram staff, unlike their counterparts in Melbourne, is friendly. At night, you may also use the mobile phone provided to call home to inform the time of your arrival to arrange for a family member or friend to receive you. This is a good idea.

 

The houses dotting the beach come in all shapes and sizes. Glenelg has tree-lined promenades, lined with path for cycling, roller blading or just strolling. It is really nice. We spent a lot of time watching these boys dive from the pier.

 

The sun is glaring and many resorted to using tents & other shades. The most amazing sunsets are found here.

 

South Australia

The houses dotting the beach comes in all shapes and sizes. Glenelg has tree-lined promenades with path for cycling, roller blading or just strolling. I could really live here.

The sun was glaring and many resorted to using tents & other shades. We spent a lot of time here watching boys diving from the jetty despite the warning sign. We had also one of the best sunsets in Australia here.

The Toga-night at the hostel was unforgetable. I wasn't going to do it but the boys handed me a (hostel) bedsheet and told me to wrap it around myself and viola! an instant toga. It was a lot of fun actually.

Really sad that my stay at Glenelg has to come to an end but the Great Ocean Road is waiting. I joined a "hop-on, hop-off" bus i.e. the mini-bus goes the same route and stops and eventually end in Melbourne. If you like to stay on at one of the stops, you can just get off and wait for another bus that will come along the next day (or a couple of days later) to carry on your journey. Otherwise the journey from Adelaide to Melbourne takes 3 days.

 

There were a few travellers on the route with us. The ones who stayed on throughout with us was a semi-retired couple from France. Paris, possibly. The woman is English but having married and lived in France for so long, her French was impeccable. Her grumpy old husband, on the other hand, spoke not a single word of English. He was such an impossible person to live with! He gruntled all the time and always saying nasty things to her. She had to speak gently, but exertively to him. He was reading his French newspapers the entire time while she would engage in interesting conversation with us once in a while. When we stopped at a fishing port, they bought a couple of fresh/live lobsters. When we got to our stop for the night, she made mayonnaise from fresh eggs, steamed the lobsters and invited Tristan and I to join them for a simple meal together. I forgot her name but I think her husband's name is Charles or maybe it is just a joke that he is King Charles??! but her personality, kindness towards us and her husband especially and how she calmly managed her husband, these, I will never forget.

THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD

Great Ocean Road

Day 1: â€¢ Hahndorf - a village left behind by the Germans • Murray River • The Coorong • Robe • Beachport - a sleepy port town

We took a break for a coastal walk in Beachport. The sea was raging.

Mount Gambier Blue Lake

 

The waters is extremely blue. We took refuge from the heat to swim here and had a "shock" when a couple of scuba divers emerged out of the water. They must be trying to find the reason why the water is so blue.

Day 2: â€¢ Coastal walk in Beachport • Mount Gambier Blue Lake • Cape Bridgewater • Umpherston Cave (sinkhole) • Port Fairy - a quiet marina where we spent the night.

Port Fairy

 

Port Fairy is a peaceful small town with a marina at the back. We stayed in the rooms above the Caledonian Pub which is essentially a very old pub. This pub is the only hangout for the small community here - old & young, guys & gals. The bathroom is outside in the commons. In the middle of the night, some of us heard footsteps without spotting anyone in the corridor. Spooky! The English lady said she had to use the bathroom and was terrified. I was glad that I did not have to. To this day, I have no idea if it was really haunted or were our heads playing with us?!

Day 3: â€¢ Tower Hill â€¢ Great Ocean Road, Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge â€¢ Melbourne

 

This is Tower Hill. It is a quiet scenic route and we caught sights of koalas and emus along the way.

Ta-dah! Finally we come closer to the highlight of the trip: the Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge

and here is the Star of my trip:

THE 12 APOSTLES

The 12 Apostles is an amazing place. I wish I was spending at least one night here instead of hopping on the bus to go again. It was our last stop together as Troy will stay a night at Apollo Bay. He had been a good friend, companion and my photographer. It was the companionship that I miss, nothing romantic from my end but I can't speak for him. It is always hardest when you have been travelling with someone for a while and now you have to travel by yourself. I've got to start all over again, as the saying goes. Ha!

But the drive from here to Melbourne, on a very coastal windy route, was the most scenic of the 3-day Great Ocean Road Tour and I enjoyed every minute of it that I have already forgotten that I am on my own.

MELBOURNE and ST KILDA

 

Melbourne, with its sloping streets and street cars reminds me of San Francisco which I love. Besides the pedestrian streets, I like the casino with its displays of water and fire, indoors and outdoors.

 

I stayed in a hostel in St Kilda, about 30 minutes' tram ride away. I was assigned to a dormitory with all guys who were all Scandinavians - Danish, Swedish, Norwegians and even a Dutch. They took me clubbing. We did 2 pubs, an Irish bar and a club in Chapel Street, South Yarra all in one night. It was fun to be the only sobber one.

 

There were many little shops and eateries along the Esplanade which makes great romantic dinner venue. I did not have anyone to go for a romantic meal with, only Bartholomew (Dutch). We had pizza and walked down to St Kilda pier where we, much to our delight, saw a penguin and a possum there. That saved us from having to catch the ferry to Williamstown to visit the small penguin colony there.

 

Melbourne is definitely one of my favourite cities in Australia.

Western Australia
PERTH

Perth was the first Australian entry point for me. It was a paid company incentive trip which I cannot complain at all.

 

We stayed at the Langley Quality Hotel which is on the edge of the business district, with a view to the river. Leslie, the appointed Organiser was given a suite and access to unlimited pornographic movies. No wonder he was the most-liked person because the guys kept going to his room, claiming to play cards. 

 

Everything was organised for us, from tour to cruise the Swan River, visit the University of Western Australia, the King's Park (for the city view) and the "farmstay" (which was a big disappointment) because it was just a large orange orchard with one horse carriage. They sheered a sheep just to show how it is done.

Of course we had at least one day of "no-tour" day so that we can go shopping and look around the shops.

After all my colleagues have packed their bags and gone home, I moved to a hostel round the corner of the famous Brass Monkey Pub, on High Street. It's time to explore Perth and around.

Beaches in Perth

I found out that there are plenty of beaches just outside the city.

I got to know the person who manages the hostel, Stuart. He is from the UK. He was in the midst of his application to migrate to Australia and he asked if I wanted to live in Australia with him. It is nice here but it never crossed my mind then to want to live here.

 

 

He took me out one day. We took a 20-minute train ride to Cottesloe Beach. From the station, you'll walk by many beautiful houses and at the end of the 2 km street, a beautiful sandy white beach greets you. Lovely! The sun was shining but it is end of winter afterall and windy so I didn't get to sun bathe. There were people playing beach volley but no one was swimming or surfing too because of the shark-scare. But people still fished. Are they hoping to fish a shark?!

Adventurous Exploration in Perth

 

I took the Wanneroo Explorer that allows you to hop-on & off anywhere along its route, taking me to attractions outside of Perth. I was the only passenger that day so the driver stopped whenever I like e.g. strawberry fields, Yanchep National Park & Sorrento Quay.

Yanchep National Park
 

Yanchep is derived from the aboriginal word "Yanget", meaning bulrush. It was made a reserve in 1905 for "the protection and preservation of caves and flora and for the health and recreation resort". It is 2,799 hectares wide. I visited a cave, did a native bush, saw "Blackboy Tree", wild kangaroos and wildflowers. There are also tiny honey-possums which feed on nectar, pollen and small insects from the flowers of the banksia and tuart trees; and tiger snakes in the low-lying marshland. Besides nature, there are manicured lawns, Tudor-style buildings and cultivated native gardens. You may stay in the hotel here if you like. For me, a visit is more than enough.

Sorrento Quay

 

I love Sorrento Quay. There are little quaint shops on the "marina" that I enjoyed browsing. While waiting for my Explorer bus to come & pick me, I met Laura, a woman in her mid 30s/40s walking her dog. I asked if she could take a photo for me and we ended up chatting with each other. She was very friendly and was curious about me travelling independently thus she invited me to her place for dinner with her teenage daughter Kathy and son Casey. She told me that just before she took her dog out for a walk, her daughter asked what will they have for dinner that night. She said she didn't know what but meeting me gave her a good idea to make it a special dinner that night because she hope that by meeting me, her daughter and son might be inspired to travel on their own some day.

I only hoped that the Wanneroo Explorer bus driver did not panic when he came for me but I wasn't there. 

Laura's house was nearby so we walked there. The whole estate is so nice, I don't mind living here! And her house is gorgeous. Besides their own outdoor swimming pool, they have a big flatscreen TV & entertainment system - this was when flatscreen TVs were RARE. She drove a big Land Rover. She said that her husband is in car dealership. I could only imagine that her husband must be very successful. I didn't get to meet him face-to-face as he was out entertaining but his photograph showed a really handsome man. Their son Casey surely took after him. 

Laura drove Kathy & I out to go shopping for dinner: we are going to have lamb chops. YUM! I helped to prepare dinner with them. At one point while we have knives in our hands chopping up meat or onions etc, Laura said "Aren't you afraid that this could turn out to be a horror movie?!" That thought didn't cross my mind until then but she quickly laughed it off. On hindsight and if it were TODAY, I wouldn't have accepted her invitation because of all the wackos and psychos around. A small part of me still wondered, when she made that comment, what is the possibility that she isn't a psycho deep down? I can't answer that question but the evening with her and her teenage children was a really nice one and I should keep my memory to that. After dinner, Laura drove me back to my hostel. I will not never forget this encounter. I wish the world hasn't gone crazy and paranoia so that we can enjoy pure friendship with people in this world.

Rottnest Island
 

The first place out of Perth that I actually visited was Rottnest Island. The ferry departs from the harbour port of Fremantle every day and Fremantle is about 45 minutes' train ride from Perth city.

 

It was just a short ferry ride to get to a small, pictureque & relatively flat island. No traffic (except for buses) were allowed. You can rent bicycles to go around the island or take the only one bus that runs the island. There's a bus schedule at every stop so it's easy to know when the next bus is coming. It was warm enough in the sun to walk around in my bikini top.

 

If you like to overnight here, there was only one camp barrack for you to do that. I only made a day trip.

The only "inhabitants" on this island are these very tame & cute quokkas. Like the kangaroos, they keep their young in their front pouch, however, they belong to the rodent family which fed on seeds.

P.S. Even though my photos are grainy because I had reduced/compressed its size to fit another site before, they bring back a lot of fond memories for me - which might not do anything for you understandably - now I can understand why anyone wants to migrate to Australia and enjoy these beautiful nature and outdoors! A couple of my friends have moved/moving there so I do hope to go back to visit and take a lot more (better) pictures!

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