Belgium Weekender 4

My first weekend in Belgium! It was a Sunny Saturday! As usual, the earliest I could start on a weekend is around 10. I have an idea on where all I have to go, but all according to a couple of Dutch maps I have. I couldn’t find a detailed map in English, all in Dutch or French!

The only way I can reach city from Evere is by bus. I took route 63 around 11, and got down at De Brookeré, its last stop around 11:30. I had no plans other than wandering around for the first 2 hours just following the pointers and then see how far I have covered. I saw a couple of Pizza huts on the way, and that relieved me of my tension for lunch.

I was following pointers for Grand Place, which is a sort of old Brussels Centre place. The pointers seem to vanish when I reach one point and then I go in another direction looking for the same pointers! Again I will come around the same area and the pointers for Grand Place vanish!

In that looping, I walked through some of the shopping streets with chocolate making shops, Fresh Waffle shops, etc. The same waffle piece if I buy in packed form from a supermarket will cost less than 25 cents; here it costs € 1,60 – more than 6 times! I decided to try it once, to taste the hot Belgian waffle and I think I fell in love with it! Fro, that moment, if for any reason, I happen to pass a fresh waffle shop, and I get the smell, I loose €1,60!

Another surprise I got during the walk through the shopping areas was a lot of beggars, Turkish girls, roaming around with an empty Coke can begging for money. I also got a painful site of a fair lady sitting with his about 7-year old son in the middle of the street, with an empty can in front of her ! I couldn’t really believe it! You can see them and say they had been thrown out to the streets from a far better condition and her face says she is not yet adjusted to this state! The other Turkish girls – sometimes women with infants – have no hesitation in begging! I am not sure what reason, but they would have to flee from their homeland and end up as refugees here. Anyway, I made up my mind saying why not I sympathise to any beggars in India who is in a worser situation.

I decided that one of those funny junctions is what is Grand Place, and even convinced that Brussels’ best glory is that small junction :)!

Then followed the rest of the pointers to see the symbol of Brussels – Mannekens Pis. It was a statue of a little boy doing what the name says. The statue is been there for centuries and there are many stories behind the making of this status. The story I liked is : ‘a man had lost his little son. He found the child after two days near the place where now the fountain of manneken-pis can be seen. When the father spotted his child, the latter was peeing. As a token of gratitude the father had the fountain with a statue of a peeing boy constructed.’

There was a huge crowd taking snaps in front of it, and they led me to the real Grand Place! I had no way to photograph its full glory in one shot! I miss my 28mm lens of my SLR :(. I enjoyed the place and stood there for more than an hour!

I was actually always coming very near to this place, so near that I could see this through a narrow street entry. Being built and preserved for more than a couple of centuries, its entry roads are all narrow.

Had my lunch in Pizza hut, it cost me around €10 for a medium pizza with coke. Now, I had one more thing to be finished for sure today – the atomium. I could see it from our apartment (as we live in 8th floor) far away. So just tried to find out what it is, and found its name is Atomium - that is all I know about atomium J!
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I have seen all cities build a tall structure for people go up and have a look at the whole city. I think, this is Brussel’s version of the same. The only difference is that it is outside the ‘downtown’. Also known as the ‘Eiffel Tower of Brussel for the fact that this was also planned to originally last for only 6 months, below is what Wiki says about Atomium:

“Built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo '58), the 103-metre (335-foot) tall Atomium monument represents a unit cell of an iron crystal (body-centred cubic), magnified 165 billion times, with vertical body diagonal, with tubes along the 12 edges of the cube and from all 8 vertices to the centre.
Nine steel spheres 18 metres in diameter connect via tubes with escalators as long as 35 m, among the longest in Europe. Windows in the top sphere provide a panoramic view of Brussels. Other spheres have 1950s exhibitions. Three upper spheres lacking vertical support are not open to the public for safety reasons”
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This was the first time I ever got in to the metro train and tram (which sometimes go underground on layer above the trains), my jump card could be used anywhere.

I had almost concluded that the trains are pretty slow here, before trying this metro train. Though Evere is only 10kms from the city centre, it is outside the metro network and the only way to reach the city, is by bus.

I tried to see the dutch map and made out the station where I can get a direct train to Atomium, and took a tram to the station. The train was going fast enough to my concept of European standard. It dropped me in Atomium’s nearest station……. in 10 minutes! This train also changed its direction in between, as my Evere-Halle local train.

A few minutes walk to the bottom of the structure, and a queue to get the ticket costing € 9, and another queue for the lift to the top. Had a view of the Brussels city, came down and tried to go in to the other molecules climbing the steps. After coming out, I just had a walk around the peaceful greenery. Took a train back to the city, continued walking seeing the Palace, and some more of the old structures in the downtown.

Had another waffle before taking 63 back to Evere.

Tailpiece: The electric female plug sockets are of this configuration:

That means male pin will look like our Indian one with no earth pin, and will have a hole for Earth. The shaded dot is a pin in the female part, which really looks funny! They had just intentionally done this to make it unique. And it is all in a small projection inwards and none of our plug with Earth will get in there (that makes it not follow the standard usage of electricians – male and female pin :D). I got a European adapter, which won’t work here!
Then had only one way of getting out of the dependency for using others’ pins – trim one of the Indian multi pins I have to fit in to this; It all went fine, and the first testing, unexpectedly the metal parts touch each other in between and it dripped! No power! We tried to reset our internal drip boards; and it is not working. After a little bit of panic, we found there is another main board in the basement and reset it!

Belgium Weekender 3

As anyone can easily guess, food is surely a problem for a vegetarian in most of the places in Europe. I am talking of real starving, starving for most of your taste buds :). If you are in your apartment, you can cook something, which can keep you happy. Anyway, it is good that I got used to Cornflakes, and that too with cold milk. Else I would have only had one option of bread with jam/butter.

But my lunch at office is a problem. Mostly I imagine as if I am having Veg:Biriyani or aviyal, and eat up the only vegetable salad available, which tastes almost grass. But there also I opt some bread, butter and banana with some chocolates, which keeps me happy at the end of the meal.

Night again, we will have cooked food with the limited varieties available. I have not fully explored the Indian stores, but have heard that nothing much is available here – like our pickles, or powders etc. So it is mostly rationing with what is been brought from India. I repent on the pickles I lost to security in Frankfurt airport :(. I couldn’t find pizza bases here; they have only ready to make pizzas, done with cheese and toppings! It irritates, really!

I am so much explaining it because I use to have a better food available in Sydney. I was feeling there, it is not as good as London. Now I am in a place, which is hardly a three hours journey from London, and it is all a different story here! Funny World!

Now, about the Traveller’s cheques: They are changed on a commission in most parts of the World, but you will have at least one option to convert them without commission. It may either crediting to your bank account or crediting at the counter belonging to the issuing company.

Here nothing works out! It varies from 5% at the airport to 1.75% at a place, which opens Mon-Fri 10-4:30 :). The normal other places charges from 3 to 4.5%. I at last made up my mind to pay 3% for converting some of my TCs with minimal loss of time at office.

Commune reporting is another drama I had to go through if I come here with a work permit (to be done in 8 days of landing in Belgium). I reported to the local commune (like a panchayat office, gave my details of residence, got my work permit verified. Then, they initiated a process charging me around € 23,00 (it varies from place to place in Belgium – from €5 to €40). That process includes police verification and will issue a white card in 3-4 weeks if all goes fine. There were some rumours that I need a permanent address to register here (that is I have to be part of the housing lease; or the lease should be in my name). As the lease is minimum for 6 months, I have look for costly options like Business apartments which signs lease for a month at a higher rent. My application was accepted with no question on whether I am in the lease agreement, it depends on the person sitting there. Till I have a white card, I have to carry my passport always as my ID. The fun part of my particular case is, I will have to cancel it by the time it is issued :D, as I will be here.

Commune has more powers than I thought, when I realised many things later. All work permits are issued in the Schengen Visa stamped will be for 3 months. The white card issued for an extended period serves as a Visa after that! So local commune can decide on whether a person can stay in their country or not!

Tailpiece1:- Tap water is not suitable for drinking – calcium contents they say. So we have to buy water bottles for drinking, though we use tap water for cooking. The bad part is, water is available only in bottle (max 1.5 litres) and no cans! We have a big box in each floor of our office to collect the bottle caps (I don’t know why not bottles). That is sold to raise money, which the firm donates to an orphanage!

Tailpiece2:-

Astrix: It is only afternoon and you are taking supper now ? Then when will you take lunch ?

Belgian: Immediately after the breakfast !!!
(taken from Astrix in Belgium)

Belgium Weekender 2

The weather here also is similar to London for its uncertainty. The day will sunny and all of a sudden it becomes cloudy and rains! So better always keep an umbrella and be ready for the rain anytime. And when it rains, I am seeing a lot of snails on the roads and the pathways, sadly half of them crushed to paste :(.

My first day to office, I partially made up for the loss with taxi. There are no counters or ticket machine in Evere station; it is so small. The train will have one conductor who will be walking across the train to check your passes and give tickets, like UK trains. It is not a tough job to walk across 3-4 compartments (that’s all this train consists of) and check the passes, and issue tickets to one or two people. Even in the peak hours, it will have very less people. The whole train will contain less than 10 passengers by the time it reaches Halle. The conductor didn’t come, and my first Belgian train travel became a ticket-less travel! There are no checks at the stations. Evere station doesn’t even have a single employee, not even a sweeper!

Applied for a train pass at Halle station, you have to come out of the station for the counter. Sham helped me with his memory on what he filled in a few months ago, as the form was in Dutch (I assume it is Dutch). For unclear ones, we cleared them with the person at the counter, who speaks English like an outline story. We mentioned that the pass is needed for bus and train, and he noted that also down. It came around €84 for a month which was much less than what Sham paid a few days ago. Then we tried to check why it is, and realised on comparison that the pass doesn’t include travel in Metro trains and buses running in and around the city (like Evere). I can only use it in the train to Halle and the buses in Halle! It is all so confusing; I have to take another so-called jump card for using in the city transports. The card is issued for 10 jumps costing around €11.

Now, what is a jump? Whatever trains, trams or buses I take in one hour will be counted as one jump. So if I have to go to a place taking a bus and then a train and it took me 20 minutes to reach there, finish my work and make it back to my destination with my last boarding within the next 40 mins, I will only be using one jump!

But that was all theory; I was initially not fully clear on its usage and successfully showed the pass in a wrong bus (it needs to be showed to the driver, not the scanner. As except for what is included in the pass printed, it is the same pass) and later when I learnt it; I was more confident that I can use it comfortably, I did it some more times when Sham was warning me I have to pay €50 if caught. I was just showing off my frustration in my helplessness to understand their system and was planning to explain it clearly if caught (surely was keeping a €50 note in my purse always). I stopped it when I got through the frustration, and did stop before I was fined :). Now Sham travels with me much more relaxed :). But I am also relaxed on being able to fully make up for my loss with the taxi.


Office is different from my previous offices, onsite or offshore. They are made of many cabins, and some are big to contain 10 people and some for one person. I am sharing my cabin with 2 others, looks far better in terms of non-distracted work. I have to swipe to enter as any other offices, but here the system updates my entry and everyone (including Chennai office) can see if I am in or not. The card’s use doesn’t end there. If I fire a print out in the central printer, I have to swipe my card to get my printout. It is security for me, none will see my documents, and traceability for the management.


Tailpiece:-
There is a solution I found here to make sure the buses doesn’t start before time from their starting point. There is a digital board kept at the station, which displays the time, then a random number. This random number changes every minute. The driver have to note the number at the time he has started from that point and report it as a part of his trip sheet. The route supervisor checks this number with what would have displayed for that time and confirm if the bus has not started before time. We could use this for our clock rooms, which is there to avoid over speeding.

Belgium Weekender 1

I was looking at the map in the corner of the street. The good news is that it is in three languages, and the bad news is that none of the three is English! It is not just the map, but most of the pointers, train timings, announcements are non-English. As long as it is not English, whether it is in three languages or ten, it doesn't make much difference :)

I am in Brussels, capital of the Kingdom of Belgium. I am doing many things first time in my life. This is the first country I am visiting which:

-doesn't have English as one of the official languages
-have driving on the right side of the road( on safer side I look at both side before crossing, wherever I cross); and
-was never a British colony ( and so, casual in office daily, and all non British ways which are again new to me)

It was a peaceful flight till Frankfurt where I had to leave my pickle bottles at one of the security checks because no bottles allowed in hand baggage having more than 100gm contents. The airport people spoke English, but most of the traveller's didn't. Again, the airport was big enough (much bigger than the other hubs I have seen, Dubai or Singapore) that I was walking a lot inside through no-activity areas, which was the right way to the gates, but it looks like I am walking to Brussels :))!

Landing in Brussels, my walk started straightaway. I was just wondering why someone should make such a huge airport to leave it so vacant, just to make sure that anyone landing there will walk 1km for baggage claim and another 500m for the 'uitgang', I mean the Exit!

I had trusted all taxis abroad so much, and this short guy exploited it well. For a charge of €22,00, he made it €25,00 with tip, and then vanished with €30,00 for dropping me in his jet black Mercedes so professionally!!!

I checked in to my apartment, I am fourth person in that two bedroom flat. It was spacious except for funny observations. In the place where we have a shoe rack - just as you enter - lies in the only wardrobe of the apartment!

I had landed on a Sunday, and shops including supermarkets will be open on Sunday!

I am staying in Everé, a suburb of Brussels (which means around 8kms from the centre of the city) and have to travel further another 20kms to reach the office. Going to office means, 15mins brisk walk to Everé station, catch a train to Halle (peak frequency is 3 trains per hour!), 35 mins train travel (it stops at a station and changes its direction and all - so much drama), and at last a 25 mins walk to office (I would be mostly be sleepy getting down after that slow train and so no brisk walk). So if I start at 7:40 and everything goes fine, I will swipe the card registering my entry at the gates at 8:58.

The best thing in the journey is the green part of the walk; and with the temperature also in tolerable limits (without a sweater), the walks are pretty refreshing. The walk from Halle is through a riverside for 300m, with houses on one side and trees on the other.

So my normal day starts around 6:30 and it will be 8 by the time I come back home if I get out at 6 from office. The days are longer now, the Sun sets only after 9.

Just waiting for the first weekend to come, many more things to do during my 6 weeks - commune reporting and getting the white card, changing my traveller’s cheques (normal commission ranges from 3 to 5 %) etc.

Let me take a week and will explain what they are.

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 32

Day2 : The main day of site seeing in Cairns ! We packed up our swim wears and started by 8. The pickup van dropped us at the tour office near the boat.
We were amazed to see a lot of Indian couples in the group, which we had seen in none of our previous tours. We spoke to one of them: one couple taking a vacation after both being at onsite in different countries and meeting after 2 years :) and there was one more couple enjoying their honeymoon came as a part of the ‘dowry package’ ( that is just what Krithi and me gossip J ) .
Then started the funny part of the show. Snorkelling comes as a free package with the tour, provided we don’t a person to take us for a snorkelling tour. We had a session in the basement part of the ship on what to do and what not to do while snorkelling. It went like this: there will be an area marked with floating balls tied with a wire, for snorkelling. The snorkelling materials will be available at the place we anchor, and people can choose the materials according to their fit. He warned us not to touch or try to pick a piece from the reef. If someone catches us with it, it can result in a fine of AU$ 5000 ! And again, he warned to not rest on the reefs if you feel like resting.
This somehow gave me a worry on what we will do if we feel tired in the middle! Krithi also had the same concern (and that whole night we were laughing on this worry, I will tell you why as we go). After an hour gone, this small ship of ours started swinging a bit more and there goes Krithi….:).
We reached a portion with some floating spots, in the middle of the sea. The ship settled there, and we were excited to get in to the swim wear and run for snorkelling. We were the first to grab the equipments and get down the steps. Then I got the first hit: I can’t see the bottom of the sea. I was somehow of the impression that it will be shallow waters, and was worrying about how I will manage with out touching or disturbing the reef. We got a shock when someone told that it is ‘only’ 30 feet deep at this part! I think I know swimming, atleast I can manage without drowning unless my towel flips out of my waist (I can see some of my REC classmates laughing now). But this is sea, and even with a floating suit, all my ‘bravery’ had gone. I tried to jump in to the water once, but I sprinted back in double speed than I went, in less than 5 seconds. Krithi didn’t give up. She was pushing me to start and with her half swimming skills, she was enthusiastic about snorkelling. I too am, but there is this humming sound of the sea if I get my ears go down in water and doing the breathing thru the pipe, the water somehow getting in to the pipe blocking the air, ‘I am afraid’ ! All we could do is, then, just put our face in to the water standing in water at leg’s level and take snaps with our ‘underwater’ camera. We still finished that roll of 26-27.
I gave up in half an hour; Krithi also came back with me half heartedly. We had a lot of friends to stand in the shore and looking at this 2/3rd of the World with fearJ, which were mostly Indians. Some people got the instructor’s assistance to go a bit and come back. That was about another 30-40$ per head.
We had a lunch served in the ship, all those salads for vegetariansJ. We had hope with the reef rides with the glass bottom boat and the semi-submersible boat. They were taking people in turns for their 30-40 min rides through the reef. Semi-submersible boat allows you to sit in a compartment under the surface and see under water through the glass walls. Glass bottom boat will just have a glass bottom in the middle where we will be sitting around and viewing like an aquarium.
After the boat rides, Krithi again went alone for another try, I was not even thinking of getting that failed-feeling again. I was just watching her again struggling to get in to the water. We were done by 4 and the ship started back. We were trying to console each other, but I could see Krithi was upset with her reef-snorkelling dreams going for a toss. But we couldn’t stop laughing thinking of our worries in the morning of how we will manage without standing in the reef!

Back home by 6. We spend the rest of the day cooking and having a leisure dinner and proving to ourselves that we can swim, trying in the swimming pool in the hotel.

Day3: We had nothing more to see in Cairns, but we have got a day left. Again, we need to check-out by 10. Most of the hotels, anyway, allow keeping the luggage in their store room and picking it up in the evening.

We were just free birds, nothing to do, by 10. Took a bus (it is a mini bus running around the town, with a frequency of once an hour) to the city centre, walked through the shore to see a place where small motor boats were available for rent. We will not be allowed to enter the reef areas, but we will still have some of the extended waters. I was thinking on what surety he will give on to us. But he was more confident than us. He showed us how the steer-handle and the accelerator fixed at the grip (like that for bikes) works. Rent was about 25$ for 2 hours, pretty cheap compared to the prices here. The two or three seater boat had a life jacket kit in case of emergency. And that was one of the best we enjoyed in Cairns. Alone in the middle of the salt water, in a small boat! It was not a very powerful boat to fly in 60-80 kmph, all it could do is a 40 maximum.

We had on both sides a lot of anchored sail boats for sometime, and then we were alone with the Shipyard on one side. We saw a couple of warships in the naval base, that too hours were peaceful.

We were back in two hours, had a pizza lunch at one of the Italian restaurants in the Town Centre. It was 1PM. We have 3 more hours to go. We walked to the meadow by the side of the sea, and sat under a tree peacefully. The lack of crowd gives it a very relaxing sensation.

By around 4, we took another bus to the hotel, and then a taxi to the airport from there. The flight gave us some stunning views of the sunset, and flying above the reefs not so high was also memorable. We also got some aerial video shots of Sydney CBD (they call downtown as Central Business District). Landed in Sydney by 10 PM. It took another 90 minutes of travel to reach home, tired.

Tailpiece: I am not sure whether it will be a surprise to hear that of the most stolen items in a Supermarket is condoms!!! The report of the loss prevention team says most of the people are shy to scan their condom packs with the girl at the counter, and they choose to hide it in their pockets and walk away scanning the rest of the items purchased! I couldn’t believe it in Australia, this happens!

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 31

I am not sure if anyone has ever heard of Cairns. I was thinking that Cairns is in New Zealand, because Chris Cairns was from New Zealand! So, you know where I am coming from :D. Krithi’s Thomas Cook exposure made her to put Cairns to the most would-like-to-visit place for her in Australia. She was talking about the Great Barrier Reef when we were coming to Australia itself.

Thus we made Cairns plan for last December, and made the bookings in November first week. The bookings were made in a hurry when we have diagnosed Krithi’s pregnancy. This time my lack of knowledge in biology did the damage. I was thinking it will be tough after 6 months and I was planning to finish off all travelling by first 6 months. As you know, in actual, the first 3 months is the sensitive period. I was in a hurry to finish off her priority places before it becomes impossible for her to travel.

Stupid me! We realised the mistake after 2 weeks, and the travel agents showed their colours when they declared no reimbursements if you cancel. They gave an option to postpone the trip charging some 100$ for that! Money never goes with me L !

Talking about Cairns, the coral reefs are the only visible natural reefs from space. The sites define Great Barrier ref as the World's greatest reef system, stretching more than 2000km along Queensland's north-east coast. As the World's largest and most complex reef system, it has thousands of individual coral reefs and hundreds of continental islands, reef islands and cays, small bare sand cays, and permanent vegetated cays.

So we were sitting tight for the first trimester to be over, and then tried the test our capacity to travel by trying the New Year fireworks. Then we went on to reschedule the trip to February first week, with a small change. We booked a furnished apartment instead of a normal hotel room. The rent was more, but we had reduced the days to be 3 days instead of 4 days, so the impact was little less.

Day1: Our first domestic flight in Australia. It was an amazing experience of technology to do e-check-in at the scan screen at the airport. It displays the available seats from which you can choose too. Cairns. I am first time trying this cheap type of flights which has converted air hostess to sales girls. We all had a list of available food and drinks with their price, and these girls were moving selling them. Cairns, though, in our same time zone won’t go for the daylight savings and so is an hour behind Sydney. So, we took off at 10, had three hours flight and landed in Cairns at 12. We had no processing time for anything while going in or coming out. Took a taxi to the hotel, it was a narrow road from the airport leading to the city centre. It took hardly 15 minutes to reach the hotel. The tropical climate was visible with the greenery, and the types of vegetation- with the narrow roads, it gave me a Goan feeling.

We checked-in by 12:30. The apartment was spacious, and I became very nostalgic when I opened one of the windows in the kitchen, and a coconut tree leaf peeped in as if it was waiting for me to open! We had a home-made lunch with a tropical view of palm trees and hills. We had no plans than just staying back and slowly explore the tours for tomorrow. The hotel itself has got all those leaflets and we chose one of them which came with a free underwater camera. I realised that there is a bit of cheating here also. They have the tour price highlighted on the leaflet and when you try to book it, comes the hidden prices – pickup-from-hotel fee ( I have never ever heard of it ), reef tax( I have no clue why they keep it separate and cheat) etc. ! Actually, I realised later that we were better. There was this hot air balloon flight, which charged some A$275 or so, and in small font was written ‘ excluding the compulsory insurance fee A$25 ! The cruise had a whole day itinerary including the trip to the reef, snorkelling, and trips in a semi-submersible boat and a glass-bottom boat (all are same, just making money putting in all these jargons).
We went for a walk towards the city centre. It was a deserted peaceful place with lot of houses and broad roads. They got hills all around and sea on one side co-existing with some mountains in the middle (forming small small islands). There was a long walk on the sea side- called the Esplanade (this just means a pathway in Dictionary) walk. We could see the day trip cruises bringing back tourists after their day out snorkelling and diving. It was not forming a beach, so they made a park and pathway to walk. The cruise was expecting us to get the swimming costumes, and we went in to an evening market (which opens at 5pm and closes by 9pm! I have never expected I will find such a thing in the whole of Australia). After our shopping, we walked to the artificial lagoon made near to the city centre end of the Esplanade. Sat sometime there, and it got dark by 7:30 itself as there is no daylight saving in Cairns (it is 8:30 in Sydney then).

We walked back home, doing some window shopping at the Opal shops and other souvenir shops. It all looked costly than our Souvenir shops in Sydney!

That ended our first day in Cairns. We were excited about tomorrow, seeing and doing something we are going to do for the first time.

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 30

Day 2 in Melbourne:
Imagine a drive through the cliffs for some 600kms! Imagine huge pieces rocks standing in the middle of the sea some 100 feet from the shore! And that is what you experience in Great Ocean Road!
We checked out of the hotel and waited outside for the pick-up at 7:40. Most of the tours have got a free hotel pick-up if you are staying inside the city. The streets were so empty on a Sunday morning (Picture 1). Our tour started by 8. It was 20 seater minibus, but with more comfortable seat and air-conditioned. We were around 14 people- a German and a few people from Tasmania (the beautiful island territory of Australia on its North). We headed to Geelong where the Great Ocean Road begins. The guide-cum-driver, Craig was telling us about the population of Melbourne, the growth, and ‘preparedness’ for the future growth showing a set of huge flats which has got no takers at all !
We were in Geelong in two hours. We got a walk to the sea shore, and met some elephants in a local circus to Krithi’s excitement (Picture 2)! Then, started the Great Ocean drive, the dream drive through the cliffs, cliffs and cliffs (Picture 3)! Craig was stopping at times for taking photos. He was asking Krithi every time, ‘are you fine’ (We had to give our lunch choice from the menu so that he can call and book them. Then, I had mentioned that Krithi would like to eat something she has brought because of her taste buds’ conditions in this situation). Slowly the other passengers also know it and all were so concerned about her. The German sitting near us was suggesting her to keep the head up and straight and never look down, to avoid vomiting( he had a bag bought from Wimbledon souvenir shop, and so I think he had come here in association with the Australian Open!). I think his tip worked well for us!
Even with the best of miracles, I was sure that Krithi will vomit. Even I was getting uneasy feeling at times. It takes a bend and you can see the next three to four bends! She vomited once; we handled it professionally, and dumped the same in the bus dust bin with no smell or mess! My idea with the freezer bags worked! She got candies, tips, tissues and a lot of care from around. I was getting jealous J !
The bus stopped for its regular petrol filling. He dropped us in a shopping area and went to fill the gas (just using gas for a style, none here uses that term for petrol/diesel). Before this point, the Great Ocean Road was taking a turn away from the sea in to the inland. It was suppose to be inland drive for another 50 kms before it goes back to the cliff-chains again.
We resumed the journey and in another 10-15 mins, he got off the main road and gone in to a muddy road, stopped after a kilometre. Craig had taken us to show Koalas in wild. He gave us some 15 mins, and we could see some Koalas in their usual nap (Picture 4). Wonderfully, one of them was moving too J !
Starting from there, we went another 20minutes, and Craig stopped for a rainforest walk. A 20 min walk through a shady rainforest in the afternoon which is full of bushes and huge Eucalyptus trees, gave us a good appetite for the lunch. Landing at the restaurant by around 2, Krithi again did vomit, for the last time!
It was hot in the afternoon, and we could feel it whenever we come out of the bus. Many of our fellow passengers, who were from Tasmania, were enjoying the heat. They say they never get a hot day back in Tasmania (which is an island located north of the Aussie mainland, and is a part of Australia).
It was just 30 mins drive after the lunch, and we could slowly feel we are nearing the sea. Slowly, we could see one of the rocks at distance and we are at our site of the day, the Twelve Apostles! Craig gave 20 minutes to walk to the view point and come back. But we were planning for a helicopter ride. Craig agreed to come back to pick us after leaving the others at the next view point which will give us an additional 15 minutes.
The place was full of flies; full of flies means at any point of time at least 10-15 flies were sitting of everyone! We walked to the helipad, paid A$180 (90 per head) and waited. They need three people for a flight, and we had one more old man. We both sat in the rear seat and the other gentleman sat near the pilot. It took off giving us a spectacular view of the twelve Apostles (Picture 5), I kept my camera was blinking non-stop. I had put it in the continuous shot mode. It was a breathtaking flight to move over the sea from the land at such a low altitude. Krithi was enjoying her first helicopter flight! It was a 10minutes flight, but those 10minutes were so exciting and memorable!
We, then, ran to the view point through the tunnel under the road. Took some snaps standing at that view point (Picture 6), spend a few minutes there and then back to the point where Craig came and picked us up. The next part was really exciting: we could walk down the steps (around 200 steps) to the beach to see this huge rocks standing in front of us (Picture 7), and enjoy the ice cold water. I would have preferred to spent a romantic evening in that place, with a small tent and a lantern, and just two of us J. The setting Sun leaving its orange light would have made it perfect, but for the clouds L.
We moved to the third spot which is called the London Bridge (Picture 8). The Great Ocean Road extends to another 400kms, but this part is the cream of it. It was around 4:15. We started back to Melbourne. It was another route, which is more of a straight route. Craig was entertaining us non-stop telling us of a hell lot of ship-wreck stories, one of which was about a person who survived 6 ship-wrecks, and his sons died later in different ship-wrecks, but he died on normal death at last! He also got in to explaining about the people who have their faces in the Aussie currency notes – most of them are either journalists, or novelists.
Craig was telling that there is some bush fire and we have chances of getting diverted or blocked. But that didn’t happen. We could see the smoke at distance (Picture 9) some half an hour before Melbourne.
Craig dropped us in front of the Southern Cross station by 7:15. We had become close with others in the tour. One Tasmanian had been calling me Bollywood producer. While saying bye, he said we will meet when you come across to Tasmania for your next film :D.
We realised the real heat when we got out of the bus! It was just like landing in Ranigunda in mid May! We walked in to the station to get another bad news; the trains are all delayed due to the bush fires! They were getting caught up or were running in reduced speed in this extreme heat conditions and bushfire. They were more than 1 hour late. That means I won’t be able to make it to the office on time tomorrow :(.
But for now, this heat was horrible inside the station with asbestos roofing. We came out of the station; Krithi had a place she wished to visit given an hour more in Melbourne, a place near Federation square where there is a huge waterfall-glass-door. We missed it yesterday because we couldn’t find it. We got in to the next tram in that direction, and suddenly found ourselves in trouble. All I had was currency notes and the ticket machines in the trams will only accept coins! I just ignored it and noticed that less than 10% of the people are using those machines (may be they have a day ticket). I think I am trying a ticket-less travel after years :). Krithi was a bit afraid, but anyway we had to go.
We got down, and walked across the places we wanted to see. To avoid the same tension, we took a taxi back to the station. And believe me; it was cheaper than the cost of tram ticket for two!
The weather had changed by now! A strong wind was blowing cooling the air. It was so strong that the dividers were flying. So, ran in to the station before getting hit by something flying in the wind! The train was again delayed. The station was in a place where there were no restaurants around as I mentioned. I had to search a bit to get a place where I got a fresh huge 2’ Vegetarian Pizza (it was large enough for us to eat till end of next day).
The train at last started by 10:30, two and half hours late. We both were tired enough to sleep well. The train continued to go slow with the speed restrictions. I remember seeing the train stopped at around 1am, and some fire engines moving around.
It took one more hour more than the delayed time, to leave us at Strathfield by 10:30(where it should have been 6:40). I took off because it was a very tiring situation now to go to work.
Thus ended our Melbourne Adventures!

Tailpiece: Aussies got seasons for everything – bush-fire season, fly season, pest season, and so on.

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 29

The train didn’t make up at night as it does in India. It just took its own time stopping in the middle and slowing down at times, to reach Melbourne- Southern Cross station by 8:30 instead of 7. Southern Cross station? I couldn’t find Southern Cross in any of my maps! All said Spencer Street station is where the long distance trains arrive and depart including our Country link timetables. So one more nail added to our crown of issues! I was still in sleep, sort-of got down at a strange station, left my tickets in the train.

The confusion got over when I saw the name board in the station saying Southern Cross (formerly Spencer Street). So R K Narayan’s street name changing story works here also :D. Now out of the name confusion, realised my tickets are missing! Ran back to look for them, and it was on the floor in front of our seat itself.

Now, I had to tackle the other problems, first the accommodation. As I mentioned earlier, all railway stations and airports have this automated helpdesk for accommodation. You will have a big screen containing some 10-15 hotel details with some rent details, and a receiver. All hotels will have a 3 digit number. You can pick the receiver dial the three digit code and you are connected to that hotel/ B&B. Started calling the numbers from the helpdesk (these are free calls). The first two places had vacancies only with shared baths. But as always, the third one clicked! It was near the station, some 20 minutes. We chose to take a taxi as we were not able to see many trams and we were tired too.

Booked the room, paid the deposits and rent, left our baggage there. We could check-in only at 1, so as we know we have to roam around till that. We finished our breakfast in the McD nearby. Went through the maps, and proceeded towards the Federation Square, the city centre. Our plan was to take some small trips or visit some areas which may be relaxing. We checked at the station to get a day ticket to use the trams and trains, for 6 dollars per person. It was almost one-third compared to the 15 dollars in Sydney!

The city centre was the junction with Flinders Street Station entrance (Picture) on one side, and SBS building on the other. SBS had a free area around their building for the public to sit and view their big TV screen. SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) is a major Australian Channel which brings us all diverse programs from different parts of the World. It focuses and boasts a multicultural set of programmes. We get so much exposure to documentaries from Africa to America, including the uncensored documentaries of US’s war histories and smuggled Chinese tapes showing their breach of human rights.

The best thing being stuck in between issues is that you will learn to appreciate the small things which you would have never noticed otherwise. You always go with no expectation in such a situation and whatever comes by, positive and unexpected, will be excitingJ.

The city which looks very quiet all this time looked crowded in this part of the city. It was sunny too, contradicting the weathermanJ ! A huge crowd was queuing up to enter a tram. All other trams are running empty and the trams from one stop are full! We got the answer quickly, Australian Open! All were heading towards the Melbourne Olympic park, where the Australian Open is happening!

I had got no clue on where Krithi got the idea to check the ticket rates at the helpdesk in front of SBS building. I would have just thought that tennis is a costly sport. But when we found out that it is only 27$ per person, and that too for a day with multiple entry, it was cheap. It was cheaper than the worst available city tour! We purchased two tickets, and joined the crowd. We got hold of a fan someone was distributing with ‘The Lion King’ logo on it. Then we knew that Melbourne got a good drama theatre environment too!

It was festive atmosphere inside the fully-packed tram – packed like our buses in India. The heat was on, which had triggered sweating, and it was an Indian experience! People were in different costumes to make it evident where they are going to (Picture ).

It was a 20 minute ride to be dropped at the Melbourne Park. A security checking and we are a part of the Aussie Open festival crowd (Picture ).

I was never a big fan of tennis with the exception of Steffi Graf J. But I never wanted to leave a chance to see Australian Open. We had no plans for the day and till 1 we can’t go to the hotel also. But there was this fact that I can’t recognise between the No.1 and the beginner, it was all the sameJ. The two three names I could make out in the schedule is Martina Hingis, Sania Mirza, Mahesh Bhupathi, and Leander Paes. But of them, all we had today was a match for Mahesh Bhupathi and one for Leander Paes, both playing doubles.

But they were all for evening. Now, any match was same for us. So, we both saw tennis at the stadium with the crowd for the first time in our life! We peeped in to one or two women’s singles, sat for a couple of game or for a single set and then moved to the next. People were obeying the unwritten rule to not move in between the play. After each game, whoever wants to go out will stand up and slowly move, and once the next game starts, everyone make sure they are sitting. Again, the heat was becoming worse, and we could visibly see the crowd choosing the shadows leaving the sunny areas literally empty (Picture ). We came out of the ground by 12:30 to get a tram back to the city and another tram to our hotel (by this time we knew how the tram system works). We saw one of the electronic temperature board showing 40 degrees! Checked in and just got fresh, as we were as on yesterday night :D.

We had spotted an Italian restaurant near the hotel for lunch, while walking in the morning. We went there by 2:10 and they have closed lunch at 2! It looked stupid, but he was telling that the heat was one factor. We got to the other side to get a tram to a shopping mall two stops away and spotted a Pizza hut!

Back in the hotel, we started looking for a tour for Great Ocean Road. The lady there was telling that most of them come back late, by 8 or 9. We had to catch the train at 7:55PM! Though a couple of them say the tour timings as 8 AM to 7PM, none is ready to commit to us that they can drop us before 7:50. There goes another problem! This was the main part of our trip, so we could not help but take a risk. There was a good part of it. We got a backpacker deal for the trip which was telling 128 dollars pp(per person) in our leaflet. For the backpacker, it comes at 78 dollars pp! I was amazed to see so much difference in rates for the same tour. It was the same package and the next day we could see many paying 128!

We booked the tour, and got a short nap back in the room. Started the evening by 5:30 again and went straight to the Melbourne Park. One the way we calculated and discovered that our Indian doubles matches would be over by 6! The heat was still there, but it was little windier. We were surprised to see the entire crowd retired to the shades, taking rest. We walked to court 6 where Leander was supposed to be playing. We found it deserted! It took time for us to realise the problem, the plays have been stopped due to severe heat(Picture)! So the good news was, both the Indian games are not even started. But the bad news was the play have been stopped so early that the game before Leander’s is also not begun! Now the play will start at 6:30 means they can’t have Leander’s game today (and that means we can’t see it at all).

The play started at 6:30, and we slowly moved around to other courts checking the court where Mahesh Bhupathi’s match was planned. We were lucky there to see that match was just starting! There were some Indian people here and there (Picture). We saw his team loosing the first set and didn’t want to see India loose after all this pain. Just took some snaps (Pictures), and I think I am seeing him first time.
We started by 8, back to the city, it was only starting to get dark. Took some snaps of the Federation square in Twilight(Picture), and tried dinner in an Indian restaurant. Again, it was a flop! Some run away guys putting names like ‘Flora’ and running an Indian restaurant in the heart of the city. It becomes worse when people like us choose to eat Medu vadai at a Sardarji’s restaurant! I took rice and some curry which was safe, but Krithi’s masala dosai and vadai( Medu vadai made with wheat flour)were still in crude form L ! A 20 minutes walk to our room, a long day and eventful day comes to an end for us.

We have overcome some of the threats like accommodation and weather. I will say we survived today, but what tomorrow… ? Weather is again very critical for our trip tomorrow. If Great Ocean Road tour gets washed out by rain, I will say we have spoiled the Melbourne trip. We also have this risk of missing the train as the tour returns just on time. But leaving it all for tomorrow.
Closing off the day thanking God for today and hoping the best for tomorrow….

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 28

I am not sure how many of you have seen calendars having this wonderful picture of a set of huge rocks standing in the middle of a beach, and with projections of a hill range on the shore. It will look as if the hills have split-up from their parents and gone in to the beach! Otherwise, how many of you have seen the film songs where the hero/heroin is shouting standing at the tip of a huge piece of rock with beach underneath it? If you have seen that, you have seen Great Ocean Road some 100kms near Melbourne!

You would have heard of Melbourne for the cricket ground, or Australian Open or at least in one of my weekenders. They call Melbourne the cultural capital of Australia and if you remember my story, this beautiful city on the banks of Yarra River was as good as Sydney to be considered for being the capital of Oz! May be if Melbourne would have been this good, Sydney would have become the capital!

It was a peaceful Wednesday evening. I was sipping a coffee back home, and casually asked Krithi on what can we do this weekend. As usual, she put the ball on my court. I asked, ‘What about Melbourne?’ She was looking at me like ’are you mad?’! It is 880kms away and takes 11 hours to reach by overnight train. A weekend will be enough if all goes well. Again, provided that you have to sit and come on the train whole night and go straight to office.

Krithi was excited of the place, I had shown her what is Great Ocean Road and she was dreaming of having her first helicopter ride above this natural wonder! But now, because of her present situation, we have to see that she is not suffering sitting the whole night, we are ready to face her vomiting while travelling through Great Ocean Road, which is obviously hilly, and nearly 600kms long!

I was ready for taking care of her provided she is fine with the travel and she was ready! We checked the country link, and booked the ticket. Checked for accommodation and forecasts, both didn’t look that great. But it is all done in an hour time!

Now comes budgeting. We had the big Cairns trip the week after next and I will have to book for my return tickets to India for March. So we were tight on finance. We took all the available booklets on Melbourne, and started budgeting. We had to choose between two tours – a penguin parade (which happens at night, along a coast where small penguins comes out of their dens in bulk and go in to the sea) and our dream Great Ocean road. They both won’t fit in, as the first one’s timing is from 3:30pm to 12 midnight. Again we may have to leave next day early morning at 8 for the Great Ocean road tour, and catch the train at night straightaway and me, end up in office next day morning. So it will become a hectic schedule. We dropped the Penguin parade at last, because of financial and time constraints.

The only part missing now was the accommodation. We need one night stay, which is tough to find in net. Most of them insist on minimum two nights stay during the weekends. By Friday night, I realised that I am not going to find any accommodation in Melbourne in net. That is something we had to risk. But even for the long weekends, I have seen people getting down at the station and trying the accommodation desk and get through with one! So I was sure that we will get something.

We started Friday evening. I was surprised to see that the train was an hour late! May be this is the first time ever I am seeing a train getting late by an hour outside India. It started by 9:30, took another one or two hours to finish off the ticket checking and to switch off the lights. We had tried two neck pillows from a Chinese shop, both were punctured L ! But still, I think we could sleep without much disturbance. Krithi also was not as bad as I thought, may be, we got some leg space between the seats.

All sort of negative things happening to us – no accommodation, negative weather forecasts, and now the train getting late and our sleep arrangement also flopped! But it is too late to rollback !

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 27

Chinese all over the World synonymously means cheap! Even for travel, it was surprising to compare the Chinese company’s rates with the local rates. A normal site seeing trip costs 100 AU$ minimum for a full day trip and 50-60 for a half day trip. It will mostly have hidden prices again like the entry fees and food charges. It is almost same across Australia with a difference of + or – 10%.

There is a Chinese tour company who organises tours for less than half of the same rates! You have to pay 40 AU$ for a full day trip. Again, the conditions apply is there, but they spell it out clearly that these are the extra costs which you may opt for not paying. They even specify that 5$ tip to the driver in the leaflet. Then, why is it not so crowded? Why people still hesitate to take it? The answer lies where the Indians are ahead of Chinese, their English! The basic commentary and jokes provided by the driver during the trip will be in Chinese! He will only use English to inform you or summarise in between! He will talk 15 minutes non-stop in Chinese and it is a 1short sentence in English!!! It reminds me of my old roomie Avi’s English Drama teacher’s story (story at the bottom).

Anyway, I am an Indian (or let us make it I am still that old Venki) and still not comfortable with dollars. I have enough tolerance to listen to Chinese for a day if it saves me some 100 dollars!

They have this flat rate for many one-day trips. Those trips comfortably challenge the public transport itself including trains! For example, if you take a train to Canberra, it costs 25 $ per person one-way if you get hold of the apex ticket which you need to book early. Then it is a problem to go around in Canberra as you have to depend on the funny bus services which will again cost 5-10 $ per person. But the day-trip to Canberra which includes seeing the important places and sights there, will cost only 40 $ altogether!

We saw a different trip to places which we were something totally unknown of – dolphin cruises, and lavender gardens! That also includes a waterfall on the way. We booked the tickets two days ago, and the only worry was to go to Strathfield from where the trip starts. I went to whereis.com.au which tells us how to go given a source and destination. For me, I had to check from Strathfield station to Churchill Avenue, which was actually just outside the station. This funny site gave me a route to get out through the other side of the station and to walk 200 metres before taking a left to cross the bridge and walk back! I also trusted it thinking that there will be some block on this side of the station!

We just managed to reach there by 7:20 and we were the only pick-up from Strathfield (it starts from China Town) and so he started immediately. He warned us first itself that the commentary will be in Chinese and he will tell in English for us (Picture 1).

It was a 15 seater mini-bus. We were the last to get in; only the last seats were free! He got in to the freeway getting out of the suburbs. His short English said he was first heading towards the waterfall. It was around 9:00, when we took an exit to some hilly roads, and reached a forest area. Krithi who was silently sitting, ran out to give me the first unexpected! She started vomiting! I never even in dreams thought of her vomiting. We had travelled through the same hilly routes in a Countrylink bus some months ago, and even in India she was not vomiting during our hilly trips.

Anyway, we were not prepared for that. I still thought it was one time, but when she vomited again in the bus, I knew she is not going to enjoy the trip todayL !

The journey continues. By 10:30 we reached our next stop, Lavender farm. We walked through this small farm and took some snaps too (pictures). Then had a honey-lavender flavoured tea and to their plant to see the process of manufacturing lavender oil. The lady was telling like our road-side sellers – it will smell all day, it will relieve your tension if put on back-neck, it will relieve headache, it will cure even wounds! Good!

I bought the smallest bottle of lavender oil. We started again around 11:15 AM, our next destination was the Jervis bay for watching dolphins in the sea. We crossed through a castle like bridge on the way, the guide told that this is the oldest in Australia (Picture) ! It was another 90 minutes away and again all hilly routes. We could do nothing but just sit on the back seat and suffer.

By the time we reached Jervis bay by 12:40, Krithi was fully exhausted. If we could find a single railway route on the way, we would have stopped the van and gone back home. We spent our time trying to get fresh during the so-called ‘lunch break’. The cruise started by 1, which was a normal one which we have to pay separately. The ferryboat had an under water camera inside. So you can choose to sit inside and watch the TV taking your drink, or stand in the Sun waiting for the Dolphins! We were very excited to hear English around after hearing so much of Chinese, and ‘Chinglish’! We both were at the deck taking pictures of the Dolphins (Pictures), which went on for the first half an hour. The dolphins came around our boat jumping here and there like they are excited to see us! It travelled along the boat then disappeared. Slowly we left their area, and the boat went on in to the sea.

Krithi again got back to her ‘sickness’ and it is good that most of the ferries have got toilets inside. It was another 2 hours before we came back to the land, by 3:30.

We had done with the trip, and it is straight back to Sydney now covering some 200 kms. It was a sort- of non-stop journey. Krithi was too tired slept for the whole return trip. The return was a straight freeway route and we were back by 6:30. Back home, it was like in-heaven for Krithi. The trip was good by itself, but I am not sure whether we enjoyed it.

Cheers
Venki

Avinandan’s Story: It was their English drama class. It is Macbeth! The whole class is sitting with text book and the teacher will read one sentence and interpret it in simple English and the pupils note down the meaning on the side or available free space in the text. The font becomes smaller and illegible as it progresses, on each page. That is the normal case.
On this particular day, the scene was just after Macbeth has killed the King. The thoughts in his mind is been beautifully elaborated by William Shakespeare. The teacher, on the contrary to the normal habit of interpreting each sentence, is keeping on with the reading. Students look surprised and worried on how difficult it will be to note down the meaning for the whole page together!
Shakespeare finished his description of what went through Macbeth’s mind after killing his King in a page. The teacher finished reading it. Class is silent.
The teacher looks up from the book, looks at the class almost with a wry smile, looks back at the book and then again at the group of eagerly waiting adolescents. Then with a profound assurance in his voice, proclaims to the world - "Macbeth is afraid!"