I reached Perth about 2pm. Had the longest questioning from immigration yet. "Where have you been?","Prove you are leaving.","What are you doing in Australia?", "Why did you decide to come here?". The lass was certainly doing her job. Then I had to run through the Aussie customs and Environmental Quarentine gangs, equally keen to check you out with two different sorts of dogs and then X-Ray or Open all baggage as it enters the country, looking for a long list of banned items, including almost anything that has ever been alive. That said, they were scrupulously pleasant and highly efficient.
The cab driver on the way in spent most of the trip whining about how depressed the local economy was. 9/11, the war and now the SARS outbreak have all had a significant effect on travel and tourism here. I checked into the Novotel and got a nice suite, which I had to get out of just now, because of loud machine noise from a service elevator. Now, I'm trying to wrangle 'breakfast included' ;-)
Earlier on I took a stroll round the town, well OK - city center. I saw both cathedrals, railway station, shopping center and concert hall. Beautiful weather and surprisingly quiet, mot much traffic by US standards. Also, as Pete said, Aussie girls are pretty gorgeous. Plenty of curves, decent height and a wonderful, outgoing, friendly personality. Big, but in an outdoorsy hockey playing kind of way, rather than couch potato types.
Had a pleasant conversation over fish and chips with Frank. A sales guy from Sydney. It's so nice to be back in a country with Brit. food; fish and chips, sausage rolls etc. I'm sure I will find a nice lamb roast on Sunday. The bar even has four, count them four brands of cider. I can see why the Brits. love it here ;-)
Big news this morning, front page of "The West Australian" and TV is the American operation to rescue Private J Lynch. Call me a cynic if you like, but Jessica as J Lynch is known to her friends, is a very attractive 19 year old girl. Think of Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin. You do wonder if the CIA chose to go get her for how it would play on US TV. It helps that she has a totally supportive family, indeed town behind her in West Virginia. Conducting focus groups on how to run a war is something only the present US administration could do ;-(.
Interesting trivia: Annual average rainfall in Perth 869mm, London 530mm ;-)
Busy day today, started with a call to Stephanie, which was special, along with a stroll on the banks of the Swan River. Came across the Perth Bell Tower, a purpose built creation handling a peal of 18 bells. A bell ringers heaven! Most of the bells were relocated from St Martins in the fields, Trafalgar Square, London. This was another one of those funny twists, because the last time I saw Pete, who normally lives in Perth we walked past St. Martins.
Then I caught the noon ferry to Freo (which is Australian for Fremantle). Lovely ride down the river. When we reached Freo at first I thought it was closed, but then I found my way out of the port and into town. It's a pleasant little place. I bought some lovely 'reviving soap'. All in all it made me think of Poole, near where I grew up.
Got back from Fremantle about 5pm, then headed off to Subiaco, with is another nice suburb. I went to a great restaurant called Witches Cauldron. It had the best food I think since Brazil. Then to top it off, saw a pretty good play called X-Stacy about a girl called Stacy who dies of a drug overdose - catchy title ;-). I thought the play did a great job of treading the fine line between not glorifying drug use among young people, while not alienating a teenage, potentially drug comsuming, audience. This Australian work, deserves wider exposure on other continents.
Incidentally, I was probably being overly charitable about Aussie chicks the other day. Australians are the third fattest nation on earth and there are plenty around who are more than chunky. Aussie slang continues to amuse me. Today I learnt 'sunnies' which are sunglasses ;-) On a more somber note, a kid seriously injured another in school here today using a crossbow. It seems this is happening everywhere.
I did the Perth Mint this morning. Very good tour and another gold pour. Finally had the chance to do some serious souvenir shopping.
This afternoon I went out into the sticks, to find Pete and Sandies place. The, so called, detailed directions, missed a turn so I got some extra exercise. The best directions would have been "take train to interchange, then take bus from there right to the house" ;-) but then I wouldn't have been able to appreciate the scenery ;-). Anyway, fortunately I found someone pulled over at the side of the road who had a map. Not only did she give me directions, but then gave me a lift all the way to the front door. I don't think this would have happened in the USA or Britain, people are really friendly here.
Pete and Sandies place is really nice. More rural than I had expected. No sign of the tenants, but the cat a small white pussy was in residence and let me pet her so that was happy. After the visit and photos I caught the bus up to the local mall, which has Woolworths, a Target (no relation), K-Mart (same founder) and a Tandy aka Radio Shack. Also a nice movie theater AUS$15 for a ticket. But, can you believe, the whole mall closes at 6pm! Actually this area makes me think of Washington, Tyne & Wear (named after George Washington's granddad), but obviously with much better weather and prices.
I got back to town around 4pm and then I discovered there was a suburb on the other side of Perth called CHALLIS so I took a ride out there. Turned out to be even quieter than Edgewater where Pete lives.
On the way back I saw I guess my tenth Aboriginal person. Is Abo more insulting than Pom? I have to say that 8 out of 10 seem unfortunately to be bums. No jobs and in a couple of cases drunken street people. I don't know how much it is their own fault, but it seems like another bunch of indiginous slackers to me. Footnote: I'm transposing this to computer on April 8th - I'm now up to 25 sightings, of which 20 were doing nothing useful. 80% idle seems like a statistic, I wonder how close that is to the truth?
In many ways Australia represents how America might have turned out, if the War of Independence / Revolutionary War had never happened and America had got it's independence peacefully around 100 years ago. Though of course this train of thought doesn't begin to address the question of the south and slavery.
Interesting fact of the day: Here 'Burger King' is called 'Hungry Jacks'
Tonight I am watching the Truman Show. Kind of ironic really, Truman's desire to travel mirroring my own. "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it....". Well, at least I know a bunch more countries exist, either that or the "Dan Show" budget is taking a serious beating for new locations ;-)
Went out clubbing in North Ridge tonight, it was really good fun. Nice bar, then better club. At AUS$7 a drink, it was heaven compared with New York prices. Everyone else at the club seemed to be drinking just Evian water - who were the clubs main sponsor - isn't that strange ;-)
Unfortunately, I was stuck with only Bacardi and Coke otherwise I probably would have been having breakfast in North Ridge. Well there's always Saturday!
I didn't do much during the day. In the evening went out again to North Ridge, checked out about four bars and clubs. Not such a great evening, none of them really enjoyed good DJ's and only one Church had a really great light show. All of them were nowhere near full. I walked back and checked out the IMAX theater in Perth, which I think is the first one I have seen closed down, which was a bit of a shame.
Yesterday when I was out shopping I bought the Australian Phrasebook from Lonely Planet - fair dinkum - sport! The book featured the story of Ned Kelly (1855 - 1880). An Australian criminal who fancied himself a bit of a Robin Hood, but was eventually hung in Melbourne. Anyway I immediately thought, undiscovered movie script! This morning I am watching 'Sunday' the morning magazine show, featuring a new movie starring Heath Ledger, the title 'Ned Kelly' coincidence - or what ;-)
I am now watching the Footie. That's Australian football, which looks a little bit like Rugby, but goals are scored by kicking the oval ball between two center posts like soccer with no crossbar. There are no touchdowns and the game is 18 players a side played on a giant Oval pitch about 185m (500ft) long - that's nearly twice the length of an NFL field.
It's a good game, very fluid, no real padding, hard tackles. In many ways combining the best of soccer and rugby. If only the NFL was this good.
I've just started working - for it is work - through Henry Miller's book 'Tropic of Cancer', which has the hallmark of intellectualism stamped all over it. Personally I prefer my literature; Shakespeare, Keats, Dickens, Twain, Archer, Grisham. What's interesting about these is that they are all excellent descriptive writers, anyone of them can paint a fantastic word picture of the world around them. But, and I think this is key, there is almost no attempt to internalise or look inside the characters. To be sure, base emotions, such as love, hate, greed are documented, but only to move the story forward. Not for page after page of navel gazing as is common in some other nation's culture.
Face it, there are no great British intellectuals or even philosophers. It does seem to be connected with a certain lack of emotion in the race. A passion for practicality, perhaps. But now I am straying into the territory of introspection and that is so un-me than I must stop here. I really think unme should be a new word?
Went down the river to Freo again today. It was beautiful and when I got there I got a great roast lamb lunch. Everyone is so friendly here. Today for instance, I helped to cast off a ferry, the crewman, couldn't unhook the rope loop from the hook on the quay. So I did it, "No worries - sport!". It makes me a bit homesick, not for America, not for England now, but for England when I was a kid. No immigration (to England), very low crime, everyone being really, really nice to each other. The only problem is (for Perth) I have a feeling that it won't last much longer.
A cab driver here tried to rip me off (by taking a very long route - which I had already been over) I challenged him on it and he switched off the meter and asked me what I wanted to pay - no details of his cab (0218 actually!) and no receipt. Guess what, he was a recent immigrant from India. I've also met cab drivers from Serbia and Afghanistan - who seemed honest. But my message is clear, the more non-Celtic immigration that occurs and the more accomodation and welfare handouts given to the Aboriginals in Australia the faster it will go downhill - shame really.
Sunday night is movie night here. All three channels are showing them. I'm watching Frequency, which I happen to think is a good movie, reminds me a bit of how some people describe the effects of Acid - reality slipping away ;-) Just saw a great commercial, two grazers on their station. One says to the other "What did you do when you won Auslotto?", he replies. "I stopped shearing sheep" and then the camera turns away and you see this half-sheared sheep running past. Well I thought it was funny :-). In other news, Stephanie is in Paris by now. I hope she enjoys it - I think she will.
Took the train down to Bunbury today. I guess about 80 miles south of Perth. Train took a little over two hours. Small little place, about 1 in 10 stores closed down. It's on the seaside. Technically a city ;-), took a stroll around and then came back by coach.
This evening went to Balthazar a Pete recommended restaurant. It was a great meal, but the setting was maybe a little romantic for one ;-(. When I got back I saw 'Sex and the City', sadly it was the episode where Miranda's mother has a heart attack, is admitted to hospital and dies unexpectedly. A plot line I could still do without. "The best we can do is breath and reboot". Moving right along, we then had "six feet under" - time for a channel change!
Aussie Expression for the day: "Territory formal" - Shirt and Tie, but no jacket. Seen on invitations round Darwin in the North.
[straight to the web site...]
This morning, out of curiosity, I visited a couple of computer staff agencies here in Perth. The first had one job and said the market was really, really quiet. The second had nothing and said it was 'dead quiet, for the last few months, especially since the war'. If Pete and Sandie are coming back here I hope they have something lined up first.
Catching the train to Sydney tomorrow, or as the Aussies would say, goin' bush...
Checked out the local museum here in Perth. Major political correctness started about ten years ago, when they started describing European settlers as Invaders! It makes me quite mad to see this rewriting of history. In many ways it is at least as bad as what is happening in South Africa.
Apparently the present problems with the natives stem from the 'lost generation' these between 25-50 years of age who were taken from their parents as children and given to white parents with whom they failed to integrate, leading to the present problem.
Just finished dinner at C. Perth's revolving restaurant. It takes around 90 minutes for a full revolution, which is slow by New York standards. Food was quite good, but Balthazar definitely better, service ditto. But the view was wonderful. Thinking of Stephanie, I ordered two cafe parisennes coffee and toasted her. Hope everything is well, half a world away.
I should also mention that I had Kangeroo for dinner. It was pretty good, not too stringy, very much like beef. AUS$100 including tip made it pretty good value.
So I am sitting on the train heading into the outback. We are presently about 150kms outside Perth and already an hour late. This is no Orient Express for sure. They have about 120 sleeper guests on board and 120 economy passengers who just have seats! For a four day journey!! I guess they might have about forty staff. The train itself is over 2000ft in length, so I guess that's impressive. Top speed around 50mph not so good. The cabins are described as ensuite ;-) But that means a fold up toilet, mounted below a fold up wash basin. I doubt that I will be shaving the next few days.
Showers are at the end of the compartments along with proper toilets which we have been encouraged to use whereever possible to avoid smelling up our compartments. Lunch today was a steak sandwich, cold and fairly bland though quite edible. No one in the pricey section, except me, seems to be under fifty (Actually there were about five others). Amazingly enough there are a few repeat travellers. I guess some people really hate flying!
Just finished listening to the on-train briefing. The most interesting point was not to leave the train, when it stops for some reason, because if you do and the train goes without you, you'll most likely die before anyone notices! They might be a little over dramatic, but it's certainly very empty here.
Single track with passing loops every forty miles or so. We just reached one now, actually four tracks with the remaining two running under a huge grain elevator. The amount of grain produced here is almost inconceiveable. Mile upon mile of empty fields where only stubble remains, the harvest has just finished, it's fall here. It's 5:34pm now and the sun is getting ready for bed in a beautiful sky with white, fluffy clouds. The sun is at the treeline. Moon is well up in the sky about half full tonight. Now 5:45pm and the sun is below the horizon, dusk has gripped the land.
We have just passed Booraan halt, still an hour behind. One of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen, you can see so far across the flat landscape.
We've just stopped off in this funny little mining town. OK it's actually 25000 people. Anyway the town contains Langtrees the only brothel in the world you can tour ;-)
Saw a bunch of rooms, very nicely done (it cost AUS$3M), though nothing that exciting. We now sit in the station until nearly 2am, hopefully I will be asleep by then and the train moving won't wake me - yeah right! Called mum, she wasn't in, so Gerry took a message.
Woke at 6am this morning. Didn't sleep much, just dozed for a while. Looked out the window just now and all I can see is flat desert as far as the eye can see. The desert isn't empty, it's filled with small scrubby bushes, but nothing that would stop you walking through it. Very occasional tree, but that's about it. Already seen most of the wildlife; eagles, emus and of course Kangeroos.
Cook population 2 was where we stopped a short while ago to take on more water (every drop brought here by rail tanker) and change crew. It's 1100km from Adelaide and 1500km from Perth. More or less in the middle of 1000 miles of desert. One thing I found out today is that not only does the desert have no water and baking sun, it also has 1000's of persistent flies making any visit to Cook as short as possible :-(
We have also left Western Australia and are now in South Australia, where Adelaide is the State Capital. We are also just reaching the end of the longest straight piece of track in the world. Nearly 300 miles in length. Next stop Adelaide 7am tomorrow.
Well were not in Adelaide. Running about an hour late but we are back in farmland, though not cell coverage yet. Moved clocks forward another 1.5 hours last night, now 14.5 hours ahead of New York. Sunrise this morning was slow and misty, another thing that made me think of England. Already passed several grain trains this morning, I've already said it's amazing how much is grown here.
Went into Adelaide. Since the tour was cancelled, I caught the hotel bus in and went around the city dropping people off before returning to the station (Keswick Terminal). I saw the parliament and the main square, nothing that special.
Back on the train now, out in the desert again. Another 500 miles of nothing. I did have a long conversation with a couple about relationships and kids. The guy owns a motel and conference center, is a former vicar and now a motivational speaker / negociation specialist. It was a very interesting chat.
Another stop at a fly bitten, outback mining town. Actually got quite a good little tour. The mine here 1.5km deep. It extracts silver and lead. Most interestingly they have a road that goes all the way down in a spiral - wow!
We also visited the Flying Doctor service. This is where "The flying doctor" TV show was filmed, lots of movies have also been shot here. Anyway, tonight we head through the Blue mountains and finally down into Sydney tomorrow morning - hooray! Clocks went forward another 30 minutes tonight. Now fifteen hours away from New York, actually only fourteen because NY is now on daylight saving - time is a funny thing, summer time doubly so ;-)
Just finished breakfast in the Blue mountains about 100 miles outside Sydney. Commuter trains reappeared at Lithgow so we are really out of the outback now.
Train discomforts aside, it's been a really good trip across Australia. Much more interesting than the Orient Express and the food which provided at least one choice for every course has been much more agreeable. Just passed through Springwood. Its funny to see all of these towns, knowing that I will probably never see them again. This could be "The journey of a thousand towns". Also its interesting that human needs are the same everywhere, but how we satisfy them is very different. I had a twenty dollar bet going with an Aussie about not arriving on time. Since we will be at least thirty minutes late, I think I will collect on it. It looks like he doesn't fancy paying out, so I told him to send it to the flying doctor service which seems fair.
We've moved into the executive home belt now. Definitely outlying commuter territory, should be in Sydney in about an hour.
We are now in the east of Australia. Nearly at the Pacific, yet still six hours away from the west coast of the USA. That's a quarter of the globe covered by the Pacific! Just reached "Emu Plains", no emus, no plains, I guess the name arose a few years back.
What can I tell you about Sydney? Well it's nothing like Perth. Far more cosmopolitan, people seem to be a lot less friendly here and not as plump. It's much more like London or New York. Like those cities, Sydney is also a money drain, so I shall have to watch my wallet.
Recent immigration from Asia is much higher here than in Perth. Many businesses are run by Chinese or Indians.
Today I took a walk over to Kings Cross. Perfectly named, it has the same sleazy atmosphere as Kings Cross in London. The other neighborhoods around it include Paddington and my favorite Darlinghurst which is wonderfully bohemian, especially along Oxford Street.
This evening I took a ride round the center of Sydney on the monorail, went over Darling harbour which was beautifully lit up. Also spoke to mother tonight, she is fine.
The truth is that the train, with it's early morning starts and early beds have left me ill prepared for a late night tonight. So I am turning in at 11pm. Hopefully it will pay off tomorrow.
Yesterday I purchased a hop-on/hop-off ticket for the Sydney tour bus. After having got half way round, I jumped off at the Opera house, thinking I would be there for about an hour. I left about six hours later ;-) and just had time to finish the tour bus loop before it got dark.
The Sydney Opera house building has to be one of the most recognized structures in the world. The speaks volumes about the modern, elegant and wonderful design as well as it's fantastic location on the peninsular overlooking Sydney harbor.
I was lucky enough to get on a special backstage tour. We visited the control rooms, rehersal rooms (of which there are about fifty) and the five auditoria, culminating in a walk out onto the concert hall stage. The acoustics in the concert hall are amazing, everything in the 2600 seat hall is made from white birch. They actually have a human sized dummy with microphones for ears that they move around the auditorium to 'tune' the sound using movable baffles for each event.
In the afternoon I stuck around for a performance by the Australian Chamber Orchestra entitled "Baroque to Brahms". Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell and Corelli in the first half and Brahms after the interval. All in all a wonderful day. I wanted to be here ever since I was a kid - so it was particularly special for me.
Stephanie rang late last night. Had a very long conversation, talking about France mainly. I'm so glad she had such a good time.
I've been holding off writing my accusations, before I had proof. Today I got a film developed. It came out fine - no surprises there. But the previous film which I handed in for development, when I first got to Sydney, came back blank as if it had never been in the camera. The toad who put it through the machine blaimed my camera, but now we know who the toad really is!
As a result I lost my pics of the tall ship at Freemantle, the Perth Skyline and the outback all the way through Western and South Australia as far as Adelaide, so as you can imagine I'm a bit upset. On the plus side at least the camera is OK.
I went out to the casino this morning, after taking the light rail to the end and finding nothing there :-( The Casino was like all the others. Mohegan Sun with an Aussie backdrop one big difference is that unlike Mohegan Sun the Aboriginals get nothing from this, whereas the Native Americans benefit from many US casinos. Every town in Australia of any consequence has a casino, the rights to own and operate it going to the highest bidder - seems pretty fair.
Interestingly fully ninety percent of those in the mainly empty casino were Asian, I guess that is definitely their thing. That said, I just checked my AusLotto numbers for last Saturday's draw. There were ten winners dividing a jackpot of AUS$19M, by the fact that I am still writing this you can tell that I wasn't among them. In fact I didn't get a single number come up. At least it saved me a trip back to Perth to pick up my winnings :-)
One of the most amazing things about mankind is the ability to perform conceptual planning. For instance, six months ago when I was organising this trip, I knew that tonight or maybe tomorrow there would be a full moon over Sydney and there it was just hanging over Darling Harbour as I had imagined it.
That brings us to the evenings entertainment. First a visit to the Aquarium, one of the newest, biggest ones around. Lots of great exhibits, the coolest of which was the Barrier Reef tank where you went underwater in a tunnel, which went right through the middle of the tank and had a transparent floor with sharks and other fish swimming under and over you.
Then I went to the Sydney IMAX, obviously a big project in itself, but the movie was about the International Space Station, a much bigger piece of conceptual planning which came into reality. It was an awesome movie in 3D which made it even cooler.
I've spent a lot of time on this trip thinking about Fusion Power, vast areas of the world could be greened using desalination plants powered by cheap fusion reactors. Long distance space travel could one day also be simplified. I know quite a bit about fusion energy, but an Imax film about the engineering effort in this would be totally cool as well.
I went to the local agricultural show today. Nice day out, saw all the usual farm animals as well as a fruit bat, cats, dogs etc. Also lots of craft retailers and a big amusement fair, including a sling-shot a sort of bungee jump in reverse.
One thing that is very clear is how bad the drought was here. It's caused the farming community big problems. Sydney are working to combat the lack of water by making much more extensive use of recycled water in certain new developments near the Olympic park.
Checked out Sydney Tower tonight, the local revolving restaurant. Nice food, nice view, poor service. The actual tower is interesting, it's like the Space Needle in Seattle or the Telecom tower in London. It contains telecoms & TV masts, a restaurant/observation deck and that's about all.
Afterwards I took a wander up to Kings Cross, there were a few girls working the streets, but I have a girlfriend :-) Most of them were women I wouldn't have touched for free anyway! The pubs and clubs were dead, it started to rain so I headed back to the hotel where I am watching the West Wing.
A brown dried out Autumn leaf blew onto my balcony this morning. Fall in April is still very confusing ;-) That said, it's certainly getting colder here by the day. Only 20C and showers today, not really vacation weather.
Hopped the bus down to Bondi Beach today. The beach was every bit as gorgeous as you might expect. Nearly white sand and plenty of nice big waves. I wasn't so impressed with the seafront buildings, which looked like Whitley Bay on a bad day. Ugly old cheap hotels and overpriced stores.
Anyway now I have slipped back to the hotel, where the promised showers have materialised. Oh well, off to Hawaii tomorrow - weather should be a lot better there. I just have to get packed - arrgh!
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|