Always it is good to be back to home-sweet-home. And was good to be back after almost two weeks!

How were my days down under? Let me try to scribble down. In short, I could not see much of Melbourne, thanks to the tight work schedule. I wish me better luck next time!

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30^th September :

The Emirates Flight took off at 2.30 AM in the wee hours; and took almost 17 hours to reach Melbourne, from Dubai. This includes an hour or so halt in Singapore Airport. And add the time difference of 6 hours from UAE to Melbourne makes the duration of flight almost 24 hours - Ooofff.! Quite a long journey, indeed!

But it wasn’t as bad as I thought. With few hours’ sleep, two or three movies and some chat, I could complete the onward journey. My seat was next to an aged Australian couple, who travel around the world to see the countries and understand the culture. They believe that life after retirement is incomplete without these travels – which keeps them close and happy!  They were going back to Melbourne after a long tour which included our own India, and especially, Kerala ;-)…. They were very sociable. Against usual in-flight syndrome ‘be-in-your-own-world’, we were  in chatting mood. We had a nice chit-chat during the journey.

While landing in Singapore Airport, noticed that the land looked so green, and that all the trees/green patches were equi-distant from each other – so, must be a well-planned/planted greenery than something  by-nature. Was in the Airport for just over 45 minutes, so  a walk-around saw me back in boarding area. Time to stretch legs and body. Few sit ups and basic stretching moves gave some relief to the body after 7 hours.

It took 7 hours to reach Melbourne from Singapore. Reached early morning of a Sunday.  As usual, the Cabin crew handed over the customs immigration document to be filled in. Had surprises for me: You are supposed to declare if you are carrying any food items, herbals, plants and  ‘any medicine which you think it contains herbs’,, etc. Also, if you carry ‘shoes with mud cakes on it’! (such an incident I had heard earlier – happened  with a sportsperson)! The penalty, if you don’t declare, and later they find it, is up to Australian $ 60,000! Too much, eh! As my ‘seat-mates’ informed me, the Government does mean it. (had to call and check with my wife whether she had put some ‘surprise eatables’ for me in the bag, which usually she does!) Down in customs, they asked about this, but soon cleared me off, was out of customs, put my foot in Australia without much problems (though they asked questions about my visit: why, what, when; who will pay for my stay; if there is anybody to pick me up or I hail taxi etc etc… ). The Australian couple became so friendly that they invited me to their home on one the days of my stay! Other citizens really like to befriend Indians, as I have seen in my travel to various countries – which I felt very nice, and proud to be Indian!

2^nd October Tuesday

I am staying in a serviced apartment in Dockland, Melborne. Proximity to sea provides a good view from my apartment. Nice, clean city – as most of the foreign countries. Sky scrapers covered with tinted glass gives a metro look to the city. There are trams for public transport, across the city. Taxis are expensive, like in Europe . On the streets, there are  separate lines for cyclists. You can see many guys and girls of all ages cycling before or after office hours – very health conscious.  Could see many guys and girls  jogging too. They want to look good before summer days… probably  they like to flaunt their body in beaches! Summer starts in December.  Seen some kids go to school on Bicycles.

Among trams,  there are brown coloured ones, which are for city tours. You can hop in and travel free for the city tour, tram takes you around the city – somebody from cabin explains about the place, buildings and some story about them.  I felt it very convenient for tourists, who comes from Sydney, Perth, Brisbane etc on weekends, and visitors like me away from Australia.  

Friends said funny things about Melbourne weather. That you can have all the four seasons on the same day! Sunny day become wet in no time. Can see people carrying umbrella even in a sunny – not so  hot – day..  I went for a long walk enjoying the sun.. but after a small shopping it had started raining and got drenched. Could not catch a taxi. 

Seems the residents of Melbourne like to taste different cuisines.  There are so many restaurants catering to foods of  all countries. One of these days I had been to one of the Indian restaurants, BHOJ. A nice,  up-market one… And of course costly(to me!). Could see many Australians there enjoying our spicy meals – they seems to love Indian and Chinese food, along with ‘Beeah’ & Wine!  

7^th October Sunday:

At last, weekend. Friday evening me and two other colleagues from Melbourne office went for Dinner. Had a beer at friend’s house, then we three were off to the restaurant. It was a famous sea food restaurant ‘Waterfront’, on the banks of water.  Crowded one.  Must be weekend crowd.  To start with Wine and starters. Oyster was not my palette, so all for them; I can’t stand these half-boiled items. They were really enjoying the taste of oysters by closed eyes and ‘ymmmmm’ sounds. I was so startled to know they were not even boiled, but raw ones!!! Yuck! …As for wine, the selection was much more difficult. I was amazed to see the menu ‘card’ for wines – A thick booklet of at least 15 pages! Astonished to know that there are people who could say each wine by name just by tasting.  My colleagues  were trying to impress me with the qualities of   the ‘flowery’ ‘gourmet and discerning’ ‘smooth’ Italian wine.  Well, it was a good wine, but for me nothing much more!  So, me straight to the main course. The sea-food fan in me was not at all disappointed with the menu – Baby Snapper grilled with lime and green vegetables’ seemed to be great, and in reality it was so!! That Italian wine went well with the dinner. And by the way, the baby snapper was not ‘baby’ at all – it was almost one foot and so fleshy!

Sunday afternoon, could spare few hours for sight seeing. Jumped into the brown tram, I decided to scout the city. Had plan to visit the famous Victoria market , hence got down in the nearest stop.  Got into another tram which was going to the Victoria market.  I was looking for the ticket vending machine in the tram (no conductors) – one middle aged fellow who was having another beer in the seat laughed at me: “ hey, ain’t no checker, ain’t buy ticket, mate!” . I tried to fiddle around with the buttons on the machine, but failed to press the right buttons. Luckily the stop arrived.

Any visit to Melbourne is not complete without visit to the Victoria Market. You can buy anything from vegetables to clothes to curios to electrical items to what not…. If you are a good bargainer, well and good! Some musicians from Bolivia was performing in the square outside the market  - singing and playing wind pipes, flute, and some instrument like mandolin. All dressed up in colorful traditional dress. Were selling CDs with their music, and also Musical instruments. I couldn’t resist buying  a wind pipe (pan pipe?) musical instrument.  So I was down by 25$.

8^th October Monday

Coming back to me.  Last week I was very busy with work.  Though left office daily around 6 pm, been working from apartment. Clocking daily till 12 midnight. Don’t know how the first week was over! Used to snatch an hour’s walk daily evening thru the streets – to have some exercise as well as sight-seeing . Bourke’s street, Collins street and Flinders streets are the ones I frequented. Weather used to be in the range of 15 degrees. Spring season is on. All are looking into summer.

Felt more like a human being in this week. As, the work load reduced little bit.

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PS: Last part follows shortly.