"Dream Land - Melbourn ..." a Melbourne Travel Page by chennaismartguy

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The details here are during my last trip - August 2005

Well. It’s time for another exploration story to share with you all on my Melbourne trip.

Took a Thai Airways flight from Bangalore to Bangkok (I would like to smell the Thai air, since it has been quite sometime from Thailand). At the BKK airport had a nice Thai massage for 1 hr (because of availability of 4 hours transit timeJ), cost me US $26 (which is way expensive compared to that of a message inside Thailand…may cost around $3 to $5). After a very relaxed massage took the flight to Melbourne via Sydney. The journey to Sydney takes around 10hrs. While flying above Sydney most people where looking outside the window to see the famous Opera House…but unfortunately I/we couldn’t see it!

As soon as we landed in the Sydney airport we all are requested to get out of the airplane with our hand luggage and requested to board again after 45 minutes. So went inside the airport, the Sydney customs checked all our hand baggage for any quarantineable goods, even the laptops should be placed in a separate tray. As soon as I cleared the scanning, a customs officer called me and showed a nicely laminated flyer, which says something like “Australian government has the right to check any passenger chosen randomly….” so I opened my laptop backpack for checking. The officer then inserted some material which has some kind of cloth/paper on the tip and scratched allover inside the back, then took that into some machine and checked. After an 8 minutes of this checking, finally he said thank you and let me go. After a great experience at the Sydney airport, boarded again towards Melbourne.

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In the flight they issued Australian immigration card, apart from usual details it also asks several questions like “Do you carry any drugs/medicines, food items, any extra shoes” etc. After an easy clearance at the immigration point, went to pick up my luggage. While waiting for the luggage…there comes a customs officer with a tiny little dog (sorry I am not so familiar with what kind of dog it is) and asked everyone to put their hand luggage down, so that the dog can sniff. As soon as the luggage comes, I took and walked towards the customs check. There stands another customs officer, who sees your immigration card and based upon your answer towards the question you will be put on a different lane. Persons who said no for all the questions, baggages will be scanned and checked thoroughly. I answered that I am carrying food items, so the Quarantine officer asked me to show the food packets, he examined those packets. Since those packets are in a sealed condition, he told me ‘good enough’ & asked me to leave with the packets. I came to know that any food, fruits, shoes with the soil in its base, ninja stuffs, pornography materials, fake golf clubs, etc will not be allowed inside Australia and will be quarantine at the airport.

Took a taxi and reached my apartment hotel ‘Darling towers’. Since the reception is located in the 8th floor, it’s a tightly secured building, one cannot enter the building just like that. So I called the reception using the phone available on the side wall before entrance. The person on the reception opened the front door of the building and asked me to come to the 8th floor. And in the lift, you can operate only the 8th floor button, other buttons will not work…else you must need a magnetic key operator, which will allow you to your room floor and the 8th floor…you won’t have access to other floors. After a long trip from India and a totally new experience went to bed, which was around 1:30am, I couldn’t sleep...got so hungry since it’s my dinner time in India. So thankful to that quarantine officer…took one of my food packets heated in the microwave oven, had a nice Indian dinner (or breakfast?). Now it’s almost 3:00am in the morning, went to bed and slept well.

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From the Helicopter

The next day was Sunday, so got up late and went out to see Melbourne. First visited ‘Federation Square’ which is located a block away from the hotel. Not much interested to me and hope that this is a much hyped place. But there is a information center (Melbourne visitor center) where you can gather all the information about in & around Melbourne. So got some information and took some flyers and left that place. Just opposite to the Federation Square there is ‘Flinders Railway Station’, a good heritage building. Flinders is the person who first circum navigate Australia, found that Tanzania is a island and give the Australia its name. Next to that runs the river Yara. Boat cruise are available for AUD 25$ & 10$, I took the cheap one and it last for 30 minutes. After that went to the huge fish bowl (Aquarium) along the Yara River. It cost around 25 $, where you can spent some 1 hr depending upon your interest on the ocean creatures.

From my childhood I was very keen on one thing visiting the famous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). Took a cab to reach there. To my disappointment that was an invent day. Then I came to know that, we can’t tour the MCG on event days and on the non-event days only from 10am to 3pm. Since I was on a business trip, couldn’t see the MCG from inside. So took photo from outside and console myself that I will visit next time.

The next 5 days, I was attending business meetings until the evening. Only during the night used to walk on the Melbourne CBD (Central Business District). Since it was so cold and so much wind unable to walk for a longtime. But one day went to the observation deck located in the Rialto Towers located on the Collins Street, had a great view of Melbourne during the night. To mention here, there is old heritage tram which runs around the CBD and stops at every block, which is free of cost. During this trip, there was a road work on the Flinders road, so it doesn’t made a full round of the CBD. It’s nice to travel in this. To my surprise there is a heritage ‘restaurant tram’, where you can dine & wine while the trams moves around Melbourne streets…since I not much interested in that doesn’t enquire about the cost.

On the 6th day, the day I must leave Melbourne, took a day trip ‘Great Ocean Road’ since my flight is at late night. This trip starts by morning 7:30am and will return back to Melbourne by 8:00pm. Thatz a great experience. It cost around 125$ for the whole day trip, which includes some cookies & a cup of Australian tea. To my surprise I found there is no tour guide available in the bus, and then realized that the population is very low in Australia, the same is done by the driver itself. This trip extends along the shores of the South Sea of Australia, where we watched the great sceneries of the ocean. After the lunch, we went to a place called ‘12 Apostles’, limestone formations on the cost of the sea, such a nice view. Unable to describe in words…look on the picture. There is a helicopter company, who will take you on it to view these apostles from the air. Guess what? I didn’t want to miss it…it cost around 50$ to 80$ (10 minutes ride) depends on which coach you travel to that place (I don’t want to explain in detail about this). You can also take it for 30 minutes ride. I booked for 10 minutes and that was my first ride on the helicopter…it was a great experience…to be frank with you, before I started to enjoy the ride, I was on the land. Don’t miss this trip if you are in Melbourne and have day to explore, highly recommended.

The tour got over by exactly 8:00pm and I managed to get to the airport for my return journey to India. To conclude that it was a very wonderful and unforgettable trip.