Great Ocean Road Trip

Commentary later! This is Australia’s equivalent of Big Sur in California. Except you’re driving along the southern coast so the ocean is the Southern Ocean (or Antarctic Ocean). The water and winds are coming straight from Antarctica!

You’ll have to click through twice. And the names aren’t descriptive at all… sorry!

Cow Up A Tree (and penguins!)

Melbourne has some pretty weird stuff. In the same fashion that San Jose has shark sculptures scattered throughout downtown, and Seattle has pig statues in Pike’s Place Market, Melbourne has random “art” displays within the CBD. Last night I saw a metal tower… thing… in the park shoot up flames. I thought it was a dragon, but it’s just a… wall sculpture. I tried to take a picture but was too far. Maybe it’ll shoot fire again tonight.

At the Docklands by the piers, there is this sculpture called “Cow Up A Tree.” If you Google it, you’ll find more pictures.

Now that I’ve seen a cow up a tree, I can scratch that off the list of things to see before I die. Melbourne’s CBD is a lot smaller than Sydney, but it feels much larger. You have hordes of people crossing the streets, and trams and buses and traffic jams. I think it’d be like New York.

Here are some city shots. This is from the Yarra River, which runs along the south end of the city.

I was walking around the city without a map the first night, weaving through the crowds. Looking for penguins.

Near Flinders Street Station, one of the 4 (or 5?) train stations in the city, is ACMI (Australian Center for Moving Image). It’s basically a movie theatre I believe, but on the first floor there’s a video game exhibition which gives you a history of video games. It also lets you play the games. I didn’t go in.

It was getting late and very cold. It started to rain when I was snapping this shot of Southern Cross Station, another train station. It’s the one I came in from. I think it looks pretty nice architecture wise. I love major transportation hubs. Unfortunately it started raining right when I took the picture, so there’s dew glare.

The following morning I went to the Melbourne Zoo in search of penguins. The penguins that live along the southern coast of Australia are Little Penguins, the smallest penguins in the world. They’re also known as Fairy Penguins. I did find the penguins, and they’re another highlight to add to this trip! Warning: I took way too many pictures of them… here are a few:

Aren’t penguins awesome? Don’t watch “March of the Penguins.” That movie does not do penguins justice. Some other animals at the zoo which got a lot of attention and love:

This peacock was just walking around the common area. People were feeding it, and little kids were chasing it. When it fanned out its feathers, a crowd of people formed to take its picture. I should have snapped a shot of the people too.

Here’s a tree kangaroo. It lives in the tree and jumps from branch to branch by using its tail to balance. This one drew attention because it had a little Joey in its pouch. It started peeking out!

That’s all for pictures. There are a lot of other things I’ve been meaning to write about before I forget. One of the stranger things here in Melbourne is in order to make a right turn, you have to go to the left lane. At first I thought that didn’t make any sense. However, the tram runs in the center lane (oh yea, Australians drive on the left), and after observing this for awhile it kind of makes sense. So for the cars to turn right, they merge into the farthest left lane, and wait for a red light then they all turn. It’s hard to explain. Other random tidbits, some of which are common to the UK.

• Take out food is called “Take Away”
• Yield signs read “Give Way”
• There aren’t 4 way stop signs here. Instead they have (much more efficient) roundabouts which you must yield to before going in. Think of them as rolling stop signs, or a California Stop.
• Coffee here is so confusing! They have short black, tall black, short white, tall white… the Starbucks here doesn’t follow this convention though it seems.
• The Burger Kings are called “Hungry Jacks”
• The toilets here have two flush buttons. One is a half flush to conserve water for when you don’t need a full flush. To me, it still seems like the half flush is a lot of water. It’s like Niagra Falls when you flush.
• Business hours (when shops are open) are known as “Trading Hours”
• I saw a dust devil (a small tornadoe) in the desert, and my guide called it a “Willy Willy.” By the way, my guide at Uluru was so nice. Just hearing her talk made me laugh. I wish I recorded the tour so I can just play it back for you guys, haha. We were talking about tour guides behind the scenes. Like how all the workers at the resort actually live on site, but in these apartments hidden away so that it won’t remind visitors about daily life. They live like University students, meaning with other people who work on site. Her roommate was my tour guide from the morning who she said was weird and very quiet. Yea, he was a boring tour guide. I think he’s just tired of walking around the rock everyday.
• Hearing Asian Australians in Melbourne speaking is weird. From looking at them, you can’t tell if they’re tourists or natives (because there are a lot of Asian tourists here as well). Very strong Australian accents.
• If you’re wondering about driving on the left lane, you don’t have to worry because the gas pedal is still on the right, brakes in the middle, and clutch on the left.
• In some parts of Australia (mainly central and northern), you need a 4WD vehicle to get around. The roads are unpaved and often times get flooded during the Wet season. The 4WD SUVs here sometimes have a snorkel attached on the side next to the side view mirrors to as the air intake system into the engine. The snorkel is elevated so the vehicle can be partially submerged. Google “safari snorkel”.
• Australians do say “mate” a lot, as in “G’day mate”, or “No worries mate”. They also say “You’re quite alright” in response to “Excuse me, pardon, or sorry.”

Can’t think of anything else at the moment. Walking around in the rain has made me a little sick. I hope I can still do the Great Ocean Road in a few days. Happy 4th of July!

Out of Uluru

I just touched down into Melbourne. When the plane landed they started playing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Classic. My first impression of Melbourne is that it might beat out Sydney. I was talking to this Canadian person from Vancouver, who said I would like it since I told her I liked Vancouver. I think she may be right. It seems a little sketch here though so I’m hesitant to take night time city shots – we’ll see.

I lost my small digital camera at Ayers Rock :(. It had all my random pictures – like hostels, supermarkets, road signs, etc. I’m not even sure when I lost it… my guess is it fell out of my bag when I was getting off the shuttle. I still have my DSLR since I keep that with me at all times. Instead here are some pictures from the last few days from the 40D. I also figured out to resize the images on these lamez computers!

Some pictures from the Daintree Rainforest. The rest don’t look that unique.

We went to some animal sanctuary which is cooler than a zoo since they built up the entire habitat for us to walk through. Oh yea, when I say we, I went with this family from Rhode Island.

I saw a lot of emo koalas there, so I didn’t want to take a picture with them. I think they’re sad enough. Poor guys.

The kangaroos were a little more playful. We got to feed them. You can even fake feed them and they’ll come up to you.

This saltwater crocodile was huge! The guide said they can grow up to 8 meters (about 25ft). His mouth is open to regulate its body temperature.

There were plenty of birds and ducks. I think you can find most of these at the zoos in California. Here’s a fruit bat. Eating fruit.

At the end there was a shop that sold frog skin wallets, out of frogs from the rainforest (or so they claim).

I went to the Great Barrier Reef but didn’t find Nemo. I also didn’t take many pictures since we were out in the ocean and it was very wet. But if you like swimming, this is a must do if you come to Australia. Aside from that, Cairns was an OK city. My next stop was Ayers Rock in the Central Australia.

On my first day there, I went for a camel ride during the sunset. It was pretty awesome. Camels make funny noises, and they whine a lot about giving rides. The cameleer said they have the intelligence of an 8 year old. The one behind me licked my leg a few times… My camel’s name was “Couscoh” (not sure how to spell it). He’s 6 years old. The oldest one in the pack was Sandy, who’s 32!!

The following morning I did a sunrise walk around the rock. It took us a little over 3 hours to walk the circumference, stopping at key locations learning about Aboriginal culture. It’s hard taking a picture of the rock. You need a really wide lens! It’s color changes with the rising and setting of the sun, but for the most part it’s red because of the iron oxide. You can see it from Google Maps!

You can tell who’s been to Ayers Rock by looking at their shoes. BTW, don’t bring your white Pumas to the desert.

The Aboriginal people don’t want you to climb the rock for religious regions. When I went the climb was closed due to strong winds at the summit. It can be closed due to a number of reasons, including: too hot, strong winds, a rescue search is in progress, an Aboriginal ceremony or holiday is occurring, or too slippery (after a rain). There have been 47 deaths so far and all their names are on a plaque at the base of the climb. Still, many people choose to climb the rock. There is a guiding rail for the first few meters, but after that you’re on your own. It was open a few hours later before sunset.

I also went to Kata Tjuta and walked through Wapa Gorge, but didn’t get to do Valley of the Winds (which I really wanted to!!!). It was booked for the day I was free. On my last day here, it was Territory Day (Northern Territory is one of the states in Australia, where Uluru is). So that basically meant hordes of Australian tourists coming to the rock.

I mentioned earlier how beautiful the stars are out here. Since I was in the middle of the desert where there is very little light pollution, the view was simply amazing. I tried to take pictures but I don’t have the gear to do star photography. It’s ranked up there as one of my top 5 photographic-mind-images in my life. And it was only one of the nights – the other nights it wasn’t as bright.

Anywho, here’s a desert sunset, or is it sunrise, can you tell?

Ayer’s Rock (Uluru) – Amazing

This place is simply amazing. I’ll update when I get to Melbourne where the internet is cheaper and where I can do laundry. I got to ride a camel and eat camel meat (tastes like ham). The stars in the southern hemisphere has made this trip. More to come later.

Alligator Meat: Thumbs Up

Can’t upload any pictures because it takes too long. I’m flying out to Uluru tomorrow – probably the best part of this trip.

Edit: Adding picture of, Alligator (or was it crocodile?), Emu, Kangaroo, and Barramundi

Things I can scratch off my todo list:

• Eat Kangaroo
• Eat Alligator
• Eat Emu
• Eat Barramundi
• White Water Rafting down the Barron River (it was level 3, so it wasn’t that great. the last one I went on was a 4 I believe).
• Visit the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainfest in the world – think dinosaur times.
• See the Great Barrier Reef (but I didn’t see any clown fish or turtles)
• Went on a river safari
• See a pineapple patch (yea, you can see them in Hawaii)

Cairns grows a lot of tropical fruit. There are endless fields of sugar cane here. They adopted a lot of Southeast Asian fruits, and so they’re exotic. To name a few: dragonfruit, soursop, jackfruit, durian, lychee… common stuff you’d find in Chinatown.

It was overcast for half of my stay here but it was still hot and humid outside. When it gets cloudy, the birds go crazy chirping. It’s enough to drive you round the bend!

I met some more Irish, Germans, Canadians, and an American family this time. A lot of them are students who just finished up a semester or year studying abroad in Queensland. Some of them have been traveling for 6 months to a year, or until their visas expire. That’s insane. One thing I noticed that’s different here in Australia than in Europe is it’s a lot easier to get work. So you find plenty of backpackers working to travel here.

I booked one day short of my flight here so I get to be homeless tonight. Luckily my flight is early, at 7:05AM so I’ll be at the airport before 6AM.

After Uluru I don’t have anything planned in Melbourne yet, so I’m doing that now!

Sydney to Cairns (Cans)

I flew out of Sydney this morning and landed in Cairns (pronounced Cans). Sydney was pretty cold, but Cairns is tropical and humid. I’m waiting (I was waiting) to check into my hostel here. The computers here are so slow! I’m trying to pick which photos to upload since it will take awhile… so here goes.

Let’s back up to the start of my trip in Sydney. My hostel is WakeUp Hostel, right across the street from the Central Rail Station in the Central Business District (CBD) of Sydney. All the cities here call their town center the CBD – essentially where all the main businesses are (if you couldn’t tell). The culture here isn’t too different from the US, as expected. There are a lot of Asian people here, but they don’t speak English. In terms of tourists, I’d have to say most of the people I’ve run into are from France. If there was ever

a place where knowing French is useful, it would be here in Australia (and maybe in France too… and Canada).

Ok ok, onto pictures, because writing takes too long and this keyboard is a little sticky. . . .

Since my room wasn’t ready upon arrival, I walked around Darling Harbour. This is where the aquarium is (which I didn’t visit). Somewhere around there is the convention center…

After walking around for a bit, I decided to go to Sydney Harbour, which is where the Opera House and Harbour Bridge is. I took the train from Central Station to Circular Quay (pronounced Key). They don’t have floor signs that say “Mind the Gap” like they do in London, but instead have these:

When I got to Circular Quay, I walked around a bit some more. If you’ve been anywhere, then you’ve seen this silver guy before. I think we saw him in 3 or 4 different cities in Europe…

I have both of my cameras with me, so when I ask someone to take a picture for me I give them the P&S. I think picking someone to take your picture for you is an art… which I haven’t mastered yet. I got a French lady to get one of me with the Opera House.

I walked around the Royal Botanical Gardens for awhile. I noticed in Europe and here in Australia that they have huge parks and gardens. How come we don’t have any back in the States? You can get pretty darn tired walking around these. Afterwards I went inside the tour to see the Opera House. They explained how Utzon (the architect/designer) won the competition and showed designs from other architects. The design is actually from a sphere.

Here are some shots from the inside – they wouldn’t let us take any pictures in the theaters or orchestra room. It’s pretty amazing inside so I’d recommend you check it out if you can…

From Circular Quay, there are ferries which take you to the Northern Islands. I went to Taronga Zoo pretty late in the day and tried to find penguins but turned up empty handed. I did see some wallabies and koalas.

If you buy a daytripper ticket you can ride on all the trains/buses/ferries for an entire day. This is worth it if you’re hanging out by the harbour since the ferries provide really great shots of the bridge and the opera house.

The sunset over the bridge is pretty awesome.

Ok, time for some night shots! It’s pretty cold at night so my hands aren’t steady at all. I brought a Manfrotto monopod with me that fits in my daypack, but it doesn’t have a ballhead – I’m looking for one while I’m here. I need to get one before I get to Uluru!

Here’s a shot of Sydney Harbour from Cremore Point. In the center is the Opera House and the right Harbour Bridge. I don’t think the bridge looks that great at night. It needs more flashing lights. The bridge is supposedly the largest steel single arch bridge in the world… I think.

Here’s a shot of the Opera House from the bridge side. It looks eggshell white. It’s not actually that smooth. The outer layer is tiled with an off-white color so that when the light reflects off of it won’t blind the viewer. It’s hard to get a good shot in the afternoon because the sun is always directly above it – night time works better!

I also went to Sydney Tower, which is like the Space Needle in Seattle. It’s almost identical I would say. It’s downtown in this gigantic humongous mall, Pitt St. Mall (which is a Westfield Mall). I went up the tower and took some more shots, but it was hard to get the horizon because of the glare off the windows.

At the bottom of this photo is Hyde Park (not as big as the Hyde Park in London, but still pretty big). I forget what the building is…

On the last day in Sydney I took a daytrip to the Blue Mountains. This was a two hour train ride to the city of Katoomba, from which I boarded the Explorer Bus. I spent the entire day hiking around the mountain at the designated spots. I was hoping the mountains would be blue, but they’re not. They only have a blue haze about them because of the Eucalyptus oil in the air, which scatters the light. Everybody knows that Rayleigh scattering is most pronounced for blue light since it is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength, right?

The main attraction, aside from being able to hike along the trails here, is a rock formation known as the Three Sisters. They’re essentially three rocks.

I wore blue hoping to blend into the mountains. That sweater’s been with me to every city/country I’ve been to! The point where I’m standing is known as Echo Point, a lookout area. You can actually walk to the Three Sisters but I didn’t get there.

Instead I decided to hike along the trails in search of waterfalls. I found out later that Wentworth Falls is actually a train stop away from this area (Katoomba and Leura). I did find some streams though before heading back home, so here’s your typical shot.

I’m still warming up to the fact that I’m traveling alone. I spoke to some locals since they asked me where I’m from. One guy was from Bangladesh and he was saying how the food here is cheaper than in the US or Europe. Food here is not cheap. It’s like $12 AUD for breakfast! I haven’t had anything fancy yet, just a regular British breakfast with beans (mmm, love them beans).

Anyway, I’m in Cairns now and it is a lot warmer than Sydney. I’ll be going to the see the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree Rainforest, and maybe skydiving or whitewater rafting. I think whitewater rafting would be more fun but I’ve done that already. Decisions decisions… Ok, I’d upload more pictures but this process takes a damn long time. It almost feels like work! So.. until next time!

I hope they serve Kangaroo meat in flight

Flight will be 14 hours. I’m going to lose a day – but who needs Sunday when you have Sydney? Later folks, enjoy your summer(s) =].

Graduated, Fleeing the Country

I graduated with my MSEE this past weekend. It was blistering hot and I got sunburnt. But it was fun. The entire week was full of fuzzy feelings. The good kind.

So the question now is what am I doing next? Well, the same thing I do after every graduation… travel!  Going to be in Australia for 3 weeks. I’m going by myself this time since no one wanted to come along on a week’s notice. It got me thinking… with everyone working and busy, that I definitely need to take a break before work. This will be my first real vacation since Europe back in 2006. I’m even using the same backpack.

The difference this time is my camera setup. I’m also bringing a 70-300mm telephoto lens for all those penguins. I need to figure out how to not look like a tourist …

I’ll try to post updates here (mostly pictures) about the trip.. but no guarantees as I’ll be chasing rabbits and kangaroos in my spare time!