Australian End Chapter

August 14, 2008

So it was my third time in Sydney. I had six full days in the city to appreciate it once more and round up my time in the southern hemisphere before flying back to that hemisphere farther north.

Tracy (the girl from Richmond Hill that I had met in Katoomba) had told me about the Biennale Art Festival in Sydney: a festival that occurs every two years with venues in prominent art galleries, and a few other places, all over the city. All of the venues offered free admission for the festival, so I decided to make it a high priority to visit many of the art galleries during my time in Sydney.

My first destination today was the Museum of Contemporary Art near The Rocks and Circular Quay in Sydney. My last time in Sydney I had really learned the way around so I decided to walk along the beautiful harbourfront and through the pretty Royal Botanic Gardens to the museum. Along the way I took many really nice pictures, but most of them are on (or soon should be) on Picasa, as always. I think this picture is pretty fun, though, so I’ll put it on here. I found a group of people playing soccer in the Royal Botanic Gardens, right near the harbour, and captured this shot:


The Museum was pretty cool. I didn’t take many photographs there, though. Like many museums, they don’t like you taking photos, and had people standing in each room to shoo you away if you try. So annoying.

The real highlight of the day was a short ferry ride away, however. I caught the free ferry from the steps in front of the museum to Cockatoo Island. This island was a prison in the 19th century and a shipyard for much of the 20th century. The shipyard closed many years ago, but many of the warehouses, metal shops, cranes, barracks, and docks remain on the island, gradually rusting and falling apart. For fans of urban exploration, Cockatoo Island is a true gem. I didn’t know about it at all until Tracy told me how she went there and didn’t have enough time to explore the whole place before she had to leave. I intended to go there for only about two hours, but I ended up getting completely sucked in by the place and was there for closer to five hours.

I wandered around the derelict machinery for so long. Since the island was officially one of the venues for the Biennale (hence, the free ferry ride and admission!) many of the abandoned metal shops and warehouses were host to art exhibits. All of the art pieces were contemporary pieces, and I think were created especially for the festival.

My favourite piece was this one in a darkened upper room of a warehouse with boarded-over windows. Six or seven projectors were displaying filmed scenes on the walls. All of the scenes were strictly black and white and showed silhouettes of some sort of action. One of them was of a man in a Russian military uniform dancing. One was of various people, robots, animals, and strange assemblages of beings gradually marching down a road holding revolutionary banners and placards. One showed meetings minutes from a meeting of a Soviet committee from the 1920s. Most of the meeting involved one Comrade Bukharin telling everyone else in the meeting how stupid he thought they were. All of the action was synchronized to a single rousing soundtrack of a Russian march. The piece was so well done and different from anything I had ever seen I had a difficult time leaving so I could see more fantastic art.

The theme of the Biennale was “Revolution” -- in any of its possible meanings: political, rotational, whatever. Different art pieces explored “revolution” in different ways. The communist themed artwork on Cockatoo Island was just one of really cool and engaging artworks I saw there.

August 15, 2008

My main destination today was another venue for the Biennale: the Art Gallery of New South Wales. This art gallery was in a grand Neoclassical building just outside the Royal Botanic Gardens. The collection of artwork was a range of Australian artists (19th century to present day), Aboriginal artists (present day), Torres Strait Islander artists (present day), and European artists (15th century to present day).

The front of the building was graffitied in clever ways, befitting the art festival. Particularly cute was the flying boomerang announcing that “I will be back”!


After the art gallery, I wandered through the central business district through to Chinatown where I had a really spicy korean kimchee and tofu soup for lunch. Yum!

From there, I went to Paddy’s Markets to look around for a didgeridoo. I shopped around for a while before picking up a really pretty one. I’ve tried to play it a bit since getting it, but not when I was still in Australia. The shop vendor packed my didgeridoo with bubble wrap for the big plane ride(s) home, and I wanted to leave it on since he really struggled to get it on. I’m not very good at playing it yet, though. I think I need to learn how to correctly do circular breathing (breathing out through the mouth and in through the nose at the same time) before I can make any musical breakthroughs. The vendor who sold me the didgeridoo also gave me a small book that explains how to do it. Wish me luck!

There was lots of food available to sell at the market, too. I was reminded of how used I had gotten to the Aussies using different words for things. Check out the “capsicums!”


Yeah, capsicum is just pepper. Crazy Aussies.

While the mornings and evenings were chilly in Sydney (it was early spring there), the afternoons were warm and delightful (around 16 degrees). However, just like the Melbournians, the Sydneysiders were bundled up against the weather. Since it really wasn’t that cold in the afternoon, I made the conclusion that the Australians just like to play dress up during their “winter.”

That night I went for dinner and drinks with Ann, the Australian girl that I had met on my last day in Tonga. She lived nearby and she took me around Newtown to get a look around the cool neighbourhood (reminds me of The Annex in Toronto). We went to a bookstore that was packed to packed to the rafters with a bizarre and eclectic selection of second-hand books. If you needed a nook about Criminal Law of Queensland, photography, or the Secret World of the Irish Male (maybe I should have picked this up for Patrick, but I didn’t think about it at the time), then this is the place. The books were sorted haphazardly and only by exhaustive searches and literally poring through the stacks could you find anything.


Ann bought a book about how to use artistic words to be able to quickly make it appear that you were the master of any subject. I hope she uses the book to good effect!

After a couple beers and a really nice dinner at a West African restaurant, we made plans to meet up again before I left again. She also said that her sister was visiting Australia for a year in a few months and Ann wanted to buy an old van and drive around Australia. If they end up doing it, and I’m back in Australia in a few months, maybe I should join them! Wouldn’t that be a great way to see a country?


That’s Ann and I. GO SIDEBURN POWER!

Here is a photograph of the African restaurant with a great full moon behind it.


August 16, 2008

After checking out the little weekend market set up in Kings Cross, I walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens again to see a tour of the world famous Sydney Opera House. If you read my blog many many months ago, you might have seen pictures of the opera house from outside. Now you can see some pictures from inside!


Since I took a tour early in the morning (because it was cheaper!) one of the concert halls was vacant of any workers or sets so I was allowed to take pictures inside it.


If there was anyone working there or any sets or props, then they would not have allowed me to take a picture (and most tour guides are too zealous in enforcing annoying rules like this, from my experience). I got to see inside the main opera hall itself, but I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures from inside of it since people were working on the sets for the performance of Othello that afternoon. Oh well, the concert hall was pretty, wasn’t it?

The walk continued from there. I wanted to take a tour of the nearby Government House, but it was closed for an official government function. I would have to return the next day.

Walk walk walk. Next stop: St. Mary’s Cathedral. It was a grand neogothic structure beside tree-filled Hyde Park. I had stopped in briefly the day before around lunch since I wanted to take pictures. They were in the middle of a mass and the church was absolutely packed with people taking breaks during their busy lunch hours to attend mass. There was a mass today, too, but I arrived much closer to the beginning, so I waited for the mass to finish before taking pictures. Since it was the weekend, there were far fewer people there.



Walkity walkity walk. More walking. Next stop was Chinatown for lunch followed by a snack and hot chocolate at the delicious Lindt Cafe beside Darling Harbour. It was my third time visiting the same cafe. I had made sure to stop in there at least once in each of my visits to Sydney.

I had not really explored Darling Harbour very much though -- usually I had just passed through here on my way to somewhere else (or specifically to the yummy Lindt cafe). This time I walked around a bit more to see people meditating, children playing, and tourists touring (just like me!)



There was more walking to do, though. Oh yes, it was a big walking day! I wanted to return to Newtown since I had enjoyed it much the night before. I hoped to check out some second-hand or vintage clothing shops. After walking like an hour and a half to get there, however, I saw an arty movie house and watched the movie “Persepolis” instead. It’s a French animated movie about the life of a Iranian girl that lives through the 1979 revolution and then moves to Europe to get away from the increasingly oppressive theocratic government. Excellent movie!

I had one more destination planned on my big walk. I walked from Newtown to Glebe (maybe about 45 minutes to the north, past a big university and Victoria Park). I had passed through Glebe back in March and discovered a Polish restaurant. The restaurant was only open for dinner, so was closed when I discovered it the first time. This time, I came during dinner time so I could feast.

Alas, it was not to be. When I got there, the restaurant was indeed open. However, all of the seats were booked that night and there was no space for little old me. I made reservations for Monday night.

The walk was not for nought, though. Walking past that big park, I got a lot of really beautiful photographs of trees, the full moon, and lots of clouds.



My big walk was wearing down on me, though. From Glebe, I hoofed it over to Central Station so I could take a train back to Kings Cross. I checked it out the next day and apparently I had walked over 20 km today... all on hard pavement! Good work, me!

In Central Station, I took this picture. It amuses me, so I’ll share it with you here.


Translation for the non-Aussies:

“Hungry Jack’s” means “Burger King”
“Brekky” means “Breakfast”
“6am” means “way too early, suckas!”

August 17, 2008

I headed over to Government House early on to catch one of the free tours. The stately mansion in the Royal Botanic Garden is the official residence of the Governor of New South Wales. The current governor, however, still lives in her own residence in Sydney. The house was very ornate inside, but, of course, no one would let me take pictures. Bastards.

The afternoon would be an interesting one! When I was in Cairns at the beginning of July, I had met a couple people from Sydney who shared my love of board games: Angus and Bendeguz. We had made plans to meet up again during my final pass through Sydney for some board gaming action. Bendeguz had created his own modified rules and map for the World War II war game Axis and Allies. Angus couldn’t make it, but Bendeguz rounded up three more of his friends and we met up to play.


We randomly drew countries. I was Germany. Bendeguz was Japan. We were teamed up against the three other guys playing the UK, the USSR, and the USA. It took many, many hours, but after a lot of candy, soda pop and pizza, Germany and Japan crushed the communist Russian forces and the German tanks rolled across Moscow and ground it into dust before the British and Americans could get their collective acts together and successfully use their naval superiority to launch a successful invasion of Western Europe!


Yay! We win!

Bendeguz gave me a ride back in his cool old VW Beetle. As we lurched through the busy nighttime streets of the Sydney CBD, we made plans to meet up again on Tuesday to see some amateur theatre.


August 18, 2008

Today was a quiet day. I mostly hung around the hostel, even though I didn’t enjoy the place much. Most of the people there were staying there long term, drank a lot at night, and smoked a lot of cigarettes and marijuana at any time of day. It was a pretty stinky place to hang out, and I generally avoided it. The past few days were pretty busy, though, so it was nice to chill out.

At night, I walked back to Glebe for my appointed meal at the “Na Zdrowie” Polish restaurant. “Na Zdrowie” is a very useful phrase in Polish. It means, literally “To Your Health.” You can say it after someone sneezes or when making a toast.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I asked the waiter, “Please tell me that you have Polish beers!” The restaurant did not stock any, but he recommended an excellent nearby bottle shop where they supplied Zywiec and Warka beers. They also stocked some Leffe Radieuse ales that I picked up for later. They also, surprisingly carried my favourite liquor in the world, the magnificent Licor 42 from Spain. I wanted to buy it, but there wasn’t enough time left for me to consume it while I was still in Australia and I knew the Americans would probably take it away from me when I flew through Los Angeles in two days. My backpack was too full for me to pack the big bottle into, so I’m sure they would consider my carried-on hazelnut liquor to be a dangerous weapon and would confiscate it so they could drink it themselves. Bastards. I lamented my poor fortune to the shopkeeper and he gave me a free single-serving bottle of Licor 42 to tide me over. What a nice guy!

(subliminal message: LCBO SUX)

Oh yeah, dinner was awesome. It was an expensive meal since I went all out... barley soup (zurek), mixed pierogie in tomato and roasted red capsicum (PEPPER!) sauce, and a proper piece of Polish cheesecake (sernik) for desert. I had to pay some corkage fees for my beers, but I don’t care. That was good food, suckas.


August 19, 2008

MY LAST DAY IN AUSTRALIA

It was really here. It was really hard to believe. My big trip was getting really close to the end. Emotions were mixed up in my head. Its hard to describe how I really felt that crisp spring day in Sydney. I won’t fuss over such weirdness now. Now its like two weeks later, and I can’t remember it all anyways.

I did a load of laundry in the morning before heading out for lunch with Ann on the Wooloomooloo waterfront near Kings Cross. I like that word: Wooloomooloo. It’s fun to say it. Try it.

We walked past Russell Crowe’s swanky waterfront condo and swish (and ‘spensive) restaurants before settling down at the less ‘spensive Wooloomooloo Hotel restaurant for risotto, chicken parma and beers.

That night Bendeguz and Rubin, both from the board game action on Sunday, met with me at the nearby SBW Stables Theatre to see an amateur theatrical production. I got a discount on my ticket price because I was under 30 years old. Curse my youthful good looks, heh heh heh. The show was called “Arabian Night” and was really cool. There were only five actors and very few props. The theatre was tiny and we sat in the front row, only feet away from the show. It was very engaging, engrossing and encompassing. The ending of the show was very memorable as a glass bottle fell from the ceiling, smashed on the floor of centre stage, and the lights went out.

After dinner we sat around at the nearby Oporto’s chicken place to drink hot chocolate and chat. It was a nice last night in Sydney. I’m glad that I’ve made friends here. I hope I can visit them again, someday.

--
Rob Sz
Toronto, Canada

The Blue Mountains

August 11, 2008

In the morning I took a two-hour ride on one of the Sydney suburban trains to Katoomba, west of Sydney, in the Blue Mountains. As the train pulled farther up into the hills, beautiful sweeping vistas opened up around me.

Last night, when I told the man working at the hostel reception desk that I was going to Katoomba in the morning, he said, “Why would you go there? It’s freezing!” As soon as I stepped off the train, I discovered how right that guy was. It was only six or seven degrees there... and this was the afternoon. Temperatures during the night dipped to the zero degree mark. Rumour had it that there was snow on the train platform the day before. It’s a good thing I bought the new long-sleeved top in Melbourne. I was going to need it.

Katoomba was developed mainly in the 1930s and still has many buildings from the era. Art-deco design is commonplace here. It’s a cute little mountain resort town, where Sydney socialites went to play many years ago. Now there’s a bit more of a hippie vibe (but nearly as much as there is in Byron Bay).

The YHA is located on the main street at the bottom of a hill in a gorgeous old art-deco-styled hotel. Now its been converted into a neat and tidy hostel. It’s fairly sizeable, but not as big as the behemoth YHAs in Sydney. I usually prefer staying in even smaller hostels since its easier to meet people, but that didn’t really turn out to be a problem here.

I didn’t stay in the hostel long before venturing out to see the big sights in Katoomba: the Blue Mountains. The most famous rock formation in the area were three rocks known together as The Three Sisters. Like most land features in Australia, there was an aboriginal creation legend attached to the landform, but I honestly can’t remember it now. The Three Sisters are quite pretty indeed!


The grand valley opening up behind The Three Sisters is the Jamison Valley. The valley is crisscrossed with hiking trails. There are several ways to descend the sheer cliffs into the valley. The one closest to The Three Sisters is known as The Giant Stairway: more than 800 steps down, down, down. Some of the steps are on metal staircases attached to the cliff face. Others are carved directly into the rock itself.

The top of the valley and the town were cold. The bottom of the valley, however, was sheltered from the winds and much more hospitable. Water collected at the base of the valley and created a lush landscape of trees, giant ferns, mosses, and waterfalls.



I climbed back out of the valley a couple hours later on the staircase near the Leura Cascades. It was a lot of work! I’m definitely out of shape.

After returning to town, I stopped at the Food Co-op to buy some food. They had prices for members of the co-op and non-members. I was surprised that I was able to get the cheaper prices for members due to my YHA Membership. Membership definitely has its rewards. The YHA Membership is not required to stay at YHA hostels, but non-members at YHA hostels have to pay an extra charge. Suckers.

Back at the hostel, I attempted to have a hot shower (I had earned it!), but was only successful having an unsatisfying luke-warm shower. The grand old hotel that now served as a youth hostel was very poorly heated (just like many buildings in Australia). The bedrooms and dormitories had radiators and were comfortable, but the bathrooms, kitchen, and common areas were finger-numbingly cold. Thankfully, there were warm gas fireplaces to huddle around.

That night, I met a whole troop of Canadians around one of the fireplaces. There were three people from Vancouver (I can’t remember their names), and Tracy (a girl from Richmond Hill, Ontario). We also met Sierra, a girl from Kentucky who was studying glaciology at the University of Ottawa. She had recently been doing field-work studying the receding glaciers in the Yukon territory. We declared that she could be an honourary Canadian that night. We played some drinking games with cards (I was drinking my rum from Tonga), then headed over to the RSL Club (Retired Services League) for cheap drinks.

The RSL is like The Legion in Canada... it’s for veterans and ex-service people. If you live nearby, you have to buy a membership to visit there. Travelers only need to sign a guest form and then they can enjoy $3 beers, too. We didn’t get to stay there very late, since it closed at ten. Oh well!

August 12, 2008

I had an ambitious goal today. I wanted to make the big hike to the Ruined Castle -- a rock formation in the Jamison Valley. It’s a six hour hike there and back. This picture is taken from the rim of the canyon. The Ruined Castle is located on the little bump of land approximately in the centre of the photograph.


When I reached the rim of the canyon, I was surprised to find icy frozen puddles on the ground. I hadn’t seen ice (not counting in drinks) for months! Yes, it really was winter here.


This time, I descended into the valley using the Furber Steps instead of the Giant Staircase. It was a beautiful path. In the same valley, the graceful Katoomba falls cascaded to the valley floor. It may be hard to see from this photograph, but this waterfall is VERY tall.


Some of the sections of trail went over very rough terrain and I had to scramble over sharp rocks to proceed. I didn’t have to actually climb hand-over-hand like I did in Tonga, but it was still tricky. It didn’t help that the wind was extremely gusty and tried to blow me over.


So, it was a long hike, but it was really nice. There were very few other people on the trail. I had to climb over, between, and through some big rocks to reach the top of the Ruined Castle itself, but it was worth it. I had my lunch there (a couple bananas, some fruit-strips and some Tim Tams). Some noisy birds wanted to steal my lunch and I had to shoo them away.


There was a little hole in the rock where I could set up my camera and take some pictures using the timer. Given that they are timer-shots, these photographs turned out suitably cheesy. The drop-off immediately behind me was at least 100 metres straight down.


After walking, hiking, and climbing for nearly six hours, my knee was hurting and I did not want to climb up the side of the valley to get back to town. It’s a good thing that the Katoomba Scenic Railway was there to whisk me back to the top of the valley. The Scenic Railway is the steepest funicular railway in the world, having a slope of 52 degrees! A funicular is a train that ascends a slope and has angled seating so that the riders can sit (approximately) level. The railway was a BIG tourist attraction and paid host to many hundreds of sightseers (especially the ubiquitous Asian package tourists). The ride seems to take less than 60 seconds and costs $10, one way. It’s an expensive way to save about an hour of walking, I guess.


That night, I met up with my drinking buddies from last night. They had gone on a bus tour that day to the Jenolan Caves (featuring some excellent karst formations, according to Sierra). By the night, the three Vancouverites had returned to Sydney. Two of my roomates, Brock (from Texas), and his cousin Thomas (from Sweden) joined us around the campfire for some Jenga action. We didn’t drink very much -- the Jenga was much too intense. We finished off the night with some Trivial Pursuit (I won, of course) and agreed to meet up again in the morning to get cafe lattes.

August 13, 2008

We did, indeed, meet in the morning and headed over to a nice cafe in town. In this photo (from left to right) is Sierra, Tracy, and Brock, and their coffees.


We found this book in the cafe that described people’s personalities according to the birthday. It was very strange, but the book really seemed to accurately describe many people’s personalities, including me. Here is a quote from the book for the February 19 page:

“The tough and determined individuals born on February 19 must fearlessly explore their environment and ultimately follow their inquisitive instincts to far-off worlds. ... February 19 people are usually practical enough to keep their feet on the ground and simply observe. Their more fanciful side can manifest in a love of travel, adventure, and romance...”

Wow! I *do* enjoy traveling! How does the book know?

After the cafe, Sierra, Tracy, stopped off at the St. Vincent De Paul shop to look at second hand clothing before returning to the hostel to check out and grab our bags. We trudged back up the hill to the train station. Tracy and I bought our $12 train tickets back to Sydney. When Sierra tried to buy her ticket, she discovered that she didn’t have her wallet anymore. Her passport was supposed to be in her wallet and she was going straight to the airport to fly back to Canada. Eeep! We still had about 15 minutes before the train was supposed to arrive so Tracy and I stayed with all the bags at the train station while Sierra ran back to the hostel to find her wallet. She made it back just in time for us to catch the train. Whew!

I said goodbye to Sierra when she transferred at Central Station and goodbye to Tracy when I left the train at Kings Cross station. I headed back to the hostel that I went to last time in Sydney: The Pink House. The weather in the afternoon in Sydney was quite warm and it was a good chance for me to do my laundry. I didn’t really do much else that day. I went out for yummy Czech food for dinner that night at the same nearby restaurant that I went to last time I was in Sydney. The more interesting sightseeing would have to wait until the next day.

BACK

Yes. It is true. I'm officially back in the big city of Toronto now. The flight was good. I was sitting beside the guys from the show Extra! who were coming to Toronto to cover the film festival. And Kevin McDonald was sitting somewhere up in the dregs of business class.

So.... party at Justin's on Friday night!!!!!!!

--
Rob Sz
IN TORONTO

Now It's Really Winter!

Thursday August 7, 2008

Back in Melbourne... it was my fourth time passing through this city. I returned to the same hostel, the Melbourne Connection. Again, I was reminded about how dingy the place is. The location was very convenient (close to the bus station in the city centre) and the staff and people who stayed there were entertaining and friendly, so that’s what kept me coming back.

I was amused that some of the same people from my first time through this hostel (nearly two months prior) were still staying there. Some of them had picked up jobs in the city so were now essentially living in the hostel.

Friday August 8, 2008

The agenda for today was pretty simple. Just like my past few times in Melbourne, I spent some time in the State Library of Victoria using the free internet to attempt to catch up with this blog. I was woefully behind. Writing the blog is starting (or once again) to feel like a tedious chore. I enjoy putting words to a page, but you may underestimate the number of hours I have to put into it... Every once in a while, though, I get an email from some unexpected person complimenting me on my work or my trip and that keeps me going. Thank you readers for stoking my motivation!

The weather in Melbourne was still a little cold. Winter still held the southern parts of Australia in its grip. I don’t think it was as cold now as it was back in June, though. The Melbournians were still bundled up in parkas, scarves, boots, and toques (though the Australians call them “beanies”). I needed more clothes, too. I’d be in Australia for almost two weeks and I didn’t have enough to keep me warm. It was time to go shopping.

I spent a few hours exploring the second-hand and vintage clothing shops on Brunswick Street in the neighbourhood of Fitzroy. I came away with a nice second-hand long-sleeve top. Yippee! New old clothes!

That night I met Joe Clancy and Natalie Thompson for dinner and drinks again at a bar called The Commune (does that make us communists?). Just like a couple months ago, Natalie was having a going-away party again. Last time, she was going to Singapore for a few weeks for a conference. This time, she was going to Washington State for more post-graduate studies (Joe, correct me if I’m wrong... I know you read this thing!). Just by random chance, I seemed to pass through Melbourne during these parties!

One of Natalie’s coworkers was from New Zealand and had recently received a gift from her sister who still lived there. It was a Flight of the Conchords CD! Sweet! I explained to them that I was still wearing my sideburns because of my passing resemblance to Jermaine Clement. The CD came with a poster, which lead to a great photo opportunity.

So, do I look anything like Jermaine?


Saturday August 9, 2008

Tonight there was an organized hostel outing to see an Aussie Rules Football Game (or just “Footy”) at the legendary Melbourne Cricket Ground (the “MCG”). Melbourne is considered the most fanatical city in Australia for sports. Their big games are cricket in the summer and footy in the winter. Both games are played on the same round fields. The 100,000-seat MCG is considered the holy grail stadium for both games.



Footy is vaguely like rugby, except played on a round field. There are some other differences in the rules, too, but most of them went over my head. I did learn that there were two tall goal posts surrounded by two shorter ones. If you kick, throw, carry, (or anything) the ball through the two centre posts, you get six points. If you put the ball through the two side goals, you’d get one point (this kind of goal is called a “behind”).

The teams were from the neighbourhoods of Saint Kilda and Collingwood. Footy is so popular in Melbourne that even individual neighbourhoods can garner enough supporters to sustain a team. After three quarters of action, it was so cold out that I was shivering, despite wearing five layers of tops (without a proper winter coat, I resorted to simply wearing lots of clothes at once). Most of our group left the stadium to go for drinks at a pub. We weren’t missing much. For the whole game, Collingwood was thoroughly spanking Saint Kilda. Rumour has it that Saint Kilda rallied and caught up somewhat in the fourth quarter, but stilll lost.

It was my last night in Melbourne, so I had to celebrate. The bar was playing fun music and it was good times. That night, I met a cute and friendly Japanese girl Mayumi from Osaka. She had travelled extensively in Canada and seemed to have picked up jobs at various ski resorts in Australia and Canada. I told her how much I enjoyed Osaka and told her the story about how Will Chau and I tried to order sushi in the japanese restaurant there while every person in the restaurant stared at us. After professing our mutual loves for okonomiyaki, she promised to make it for me if I returned to Melbourne sometime in the next few months!

Sunday August 10, 2008

My bus out of Melbourne today left at 7 AM. It would be a thirteen hour trip (including a couple breaks) to reach Sydney Central Station, almost 900 km away.

The last time I travelled between the same two cities it was a mere one hour flight. This bus ride was only $60. The flight was $92, and that didn’t include the costs to get to and from the airports. I know that there are occasional specials for dirt-cheap flights on Australia’s busiest air route, but I did not succeed at finding one this time around.

As the bus drove past the mountainous regions near the Australia capital city, Canberra, I saw something I hadn’t seen since February 1.


Yes. That’s SNOW on the side of the road. It was COLD out.

The bus stopped for about one hour in Canberra. I had a short time to walk around and take pictures. This is a photograph of the Parliament House of Australia. The building is located mostly underground to better fit in with the surrounding hills and landscape. This photograph is taken from a great distance away since I did not have enough time to walk the rest of the distance to get closer. Wikipedia tells me that the building cost over AU$1.1 billion (1988) to build, making it the most expensive building in the southern hemisphere.


Maybe some day I will return to Canberra (maybe when the weather is warmer.... BRRR!) and capture a better photograph to please my readers.

We arrived at Sydney Central Station at 8 PM. I walked a short distance to the nearby Sydney Central YHA hostel. It’s a huge hostel... seeming more like a vast hotel than a cozy home. At least it’s squeaky clean and modern. I’d only be here one night, though. In the morning I had one more short trip to take... the Blue Mountains!

Long Live The King!

Wednesday July 30, 2008

...continued

Coronation? I knew that Tonga was a Kingdom, but I had no idea there would be a coronation when I was there. News is often hard to get while you’re traveling and keeping track of current events isn’t usually a high priority. Wow! People told me that the coronation of King George Tupou V would be on Friday. I was going to be able to see it! What a surprise!

Thursday July 31, 2008

I was, again, seated in business class on my short flight to Tonga. My flight took off on Wednesday morning, but landed only one hour later on Thursday morning. I was the first person out of the plane and into the airport and my bag came out third on the baggage carousel. So far, the gods were favouring me with good luck in the Polynesian kingdom.

When I left the terminal, I found Toni (not Toni Bate), the owner of Toni’s guesthouse. After a brief stop at the ATM to take out the local currency, the Tongan Pa’anga (1 TOP = 1.8 CAD) and sell the rest of my Samoan Tala off, Toni drove Rita and me to his guesthouse. Rita, whom I had met on the islands of Savai’i and Manono in Samoa, was on the same plane as me to Tonga and decided to stay at the same guesthouse. Toni’s Guesthouse is basically the cheapest (and most basic) guesthouse in the whole country of Tonga. One night’s stay in a dorm was only 15 pa’anga (CA$8)

Toni is quite a character. He’s an Englishman who emigrated to Tonga something like twenty years ago. He’s been in Tonga long enough to acquire citizenship. He is a bit of a grouchy fellow and often shouts and yells at his Tongan employees (and his Tongan wife, Lennie) when they make mistakes or aren’t doing anything. It seems harsh, but I think he did it out of necessity... the Tongans weren’t known for working very hard. I saw it all the time.

Toni explained that most Tongans aren’t motivated to work very hard. Their island, Tongatapu, is a paradise. Food grows everywhere. No one goes hungry. Also, there are as many Tongans outside of Tonga as there are in Tonga itself. Many of them have jobs in Australia, New Zealand, or the US and send money home to their families. So, if a Tongan in Tonga doesn’t want to work, they don’t have to since their families will always take care of them. They might not live in luxury, but they will live in comfort.

At Toni’s, I finally had the opportunity to shave. I hadn’t shaved in more than a week and I was extremely scruffy. Because of my love for Flight of the Conchords, and my epiphany about my likeness to Jermaine Clement, I decided to leave my sideburns on. I daresay that they make me look rather dashing.

After a short while, Rita and I went into the capital (and only) city, Nuku’alofa. Toni’s wasn’t actually located in the city, but about 5 km outside. We could walk, but Toni offered rides for only 1 pa’anga. When we got to the city, I bought some stamps at the post office, some plane tickets (to the neighbouring island of ‘Eua -- more about that when I write about they day I go there), and some food at the market.

We walked along the waterfront. The whole city was decorated in honour of the coronation, mostly by gates that were constructed on many of the main streets.


There had been events all week long so far. We had the option to see a rugby match today (the Tongans vs. The World 15), but we sat that one out. Instead, we wandered around the central market and marveled at the bounty of foods and crafts for sale. The variety of vegetables and fruits for sale in Tonga seemed much greater than it did in Samoa. We enjoyed drinking some fresh coconuts and then settled down to watch some Tongan kids dancing in the market parking lot along with a live band.


We didn’t watch the show very long since some people came out to deliver some very impassioned speeches. We didn’t know what they were talking about, but the volume control was set to “ear piercing” and it was too unpleasant to stay much longer. Too many speeches. Not enough dancing.

Nuku’alofa was a nice enough little town. It was smaller than Apia and less dirty. I had a better feeling about Nuku’alofa than Apia. Yay Tonga.

That night, I went to town with some of the other people in the guesthouse: Elaine (from New Zealand), Rose (from England), and her two kids, Valentine (probably about 10 years old) and Dolly (about four years old). They were all in Tonga specifically to see the coronation (not like me, who was just there randomly). We had some ice cream and then went to the outdoor patio of Friend’s Cafe. There was a jazz band playing and the atmosphere was lively. It wasn’t very long before Rose’s daughter, Dolly, grew very attached to me and wouldn’t leave my side. She sat on my lap and we played games like 20 Questions (and we whispered answers to each other!).


Friday August 1, 2008

Today was the day of the actual coronation. The crew from Friend’s Cafe the night before, along two English medical students, Mark, and Abigail, went into town and stood outside of the church where the coronation ceremony took place. We didn’t get to go into the church itself, but got to stand right outside. From where we were standing, we could see the king and his throne through a church window. We could also see lots of the action going on outside, too, including the arrival of many foreign dignitaries. I was able to identify most of the flags waving from the hoods of their vehicles, but I couldn’t identify some of the ones from the smaller Pacific Islands. I guess even my awesome geography knowledge has its limits.

The church ceremony had lots of the harmonious singing that the church in Samoa had warmed me up for. We got to see some Important Church Dude put the crown on the King’s head. After the mass, I snapped this photo of the king in his crown, robe, and ermine cloak, before he was spirited away in his limousine.


Following the church ceremony, there was a military marching band parade in front of the church.


Once the bands cleared away, the foreign dignitaries were all spirited away in their own limousines. There was a big long line of limos, and it took a while for them all to get through. I saw Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark exit the church and board her limo, too. I don’t know if Canada had any official representation there. As far as I know, I was the highest ranking Canadian official there.

We walked the short two blocks from the church to the main street of Nuku’alofa to watch some more of the parade and go to Friend’s Cafe for lunch. It wasn’t just a coronation parade, you know. This day was also my six month anniversary of leaving Canada on this trip. It certainly was nice of the Tongans to great me with all this pomp and grandeur.

That night, I had the option to see a huge and very elaborate fireworks display. I didn’t go to it, though. Instead I went to a Tongan Feast at the Good Samaritan Inn. There was roast suckling pig and lots of other foods to choose from. While we were eating our meals, we were entertained by some really bad lounge style music played on an electric keyboard. Because the inn was located right beside the sea and the waves were crashing violently against the coast the whole time, there was a fine mist that spread over the stage, and the entertainer had to keep drying off the keyboard with a hair dryer. Hilarious!

Following the meal, we got to see some traditional Polynesian dances. The dancing was really good. In addition to some dances from Tonga, there were also dances from Samoa, The Cook Islands, and New Zealand. My favourite was the dance of the Maori from New Zealand., “The Haka”. It’s a war chant with lots of slapping for emphasis. I also saw the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team perform the same dance before one of their matches against the Australian Wallabies while sitting on a ferry from Savai’i to ‘Upolu in Samoa. So cool.

Saturday August 2, 2008

Today I took Toni’s day tour of the island of Tongatapu. There were some nice sights, but it was generally pretty boring. We got to see the huge number of fields of fruit and vegetables everywhere. We drove past countless churches, including about 30 Mormon Churches. I think that the Mormons want to make Tonga the first official Mormon country in the world. It looks like they’re trying to take over with their neat and tidy cookie-cutter carbon-copy churches. We also got to hear Toni complain some more about how lazy the Tongans are.

Two of the nicest sights were the blowholes on the south coast of the island. The island is made from limestone that gets eaten up by the waves. Along the coast, the water forces its way into the rock and makes cracks and holes. Some of these holes start underwater and extend to the surface. When the waves crash against the coast, water can travel through the holes and jet out the top like a geyser. That’s what a blowhole is. They looks really cool in action.


Another cool sight was the Trilithon (“three rocks”). This rock structure was constructed from huge limestone rocks one thousand years ago and is theorized to have astronomical functions similar to Stonehenge in England.


That night, after a fine dinner at The Two Sister’s restaurant in Nuku’alofa (I had Red Snapper with Mustard Sauce -- SO GOOD), Mark, Abigail (the two English medical students who were doing an internship at the hospital in Nuku’alofa), and I had some “kava tonga” with Toni. Kava is a traditional Polynesian drink made from plant roots. It’s consumed on many islands in the South Pacific, including Fiji and Samoa. I didn’t get to sample any kava on Samoa, so I had to make sure that I tried it in Tonga. Normally only men are allowed to drink kava. Toni is the only person in Tonga that allows women to sit around the kava bowl and drink, too. This is a photograph of Toni’s wife, Lennie, preparing our kava for us. She is filtering the drink through the large bag and letting it pour into the kava bowl.


When we asked Lennie to drink kava with us, she declined and said, “Kava is for men. Beer is for women.” I like her attitude.

Kava is not alcoholic, but is supposed to have a mild narcotic affect that makes your tongue tingle, makes you relaxed, then makes you sleep. It’s one of those things, however, that generally doesn’t have the proper effect the first time you have it. My tongue tingled a bit and I did get sleepy after a while, but I drank a LOT. Lennie admitted that she made a bit too much. After a while, before we finished the kava, I went to bed while Mark and Toni kept drinking. I drank so much kava that I had to wake up a couple times in the middle of the night to pee (waking up to pee in the middle of the night is one of my pet peeves -- made even more annoying when you are sleeping in a dorm and have to go outside to find the toilet!).

Sunday August 3, 2008

It’s Sunday in Tonga! Almost all shops and restaurants are closed. The Tongans mostly go to church. The foreigners have very few options on what to do. One fun thing to do is to catch a 15 minute ferry ride to the island resort of Pangaimotu in Nuku’alofa’s harbour. I went with Mark and Abigail. Because of the coronation, there were far more foreigners in Tonga than there usually are, so the little island was a very busy place that day. Most of the guests that day were sailors from the Royal Australian Navy vessel Ballarat. The place was swarmed with rowdy drunken Aussies (much like Melbourne on your average Friday or Saturday night!).

Mark, Abigail, and I walked around to the other side of the island to enjoy a quieter beach. We laid there for hours reading, soaking up the sun, and swimming. I used my sarong as a beach towel to lie on. There was a tiny crab living in a hole beside me and we played peek-a-boo for a while.


After our sleepy beach party, we went to the beach bar for lunch. We sat at the same table as an Australian expat whom worked in a local bank. He offered us the use of his snorkels and masks so we could do some snorkeling! Sweet! There were a couple partially-submerged wrecks just beside the beach there that just begged me to go snorkeling around. We didn’t have any fins, but I found we didn’t really need any. So, now I know that I can snorkel just fine with just a snorkel and goggles.


There were lots of fish and corals on the other side of the big rusty ship. I greatly enjoyed swimming there. I’m not very good at swimming, mostly I flounder around and get water up my nose. Having a snorkel and mask makes it MUCH EASIER. I think I’ll have to buy a set before the next time I visit any tropical island location.

Monday August 4, 2008

I had to get up a little early today so I could catch my flight to the neighbouring island of ‘Eua. It was the shortest flight ever in probably the smallest plane I’ve ever been in. We were in the air for only ten minutes, even less time than I was in the plane when I went skydiving in Byron Bay. The plane had only ten seats, including the pilot and copilot. There was no real copilot there that day, though. It was I who got to sit in the copilot’s seat. SO COOL OMG OMG OMG.



I also had the option of taking a ferry to ‘Eua. Joe Clancy told me, however, that the ferry is very unreliable and very uncomfortable -- a real sea sickness and barfing party. The ferry’s schedule wasn’t very convenient for me, either. Although the ferry was much cheaper than the plane, I’m extremely happy I took the plane. It cost 119 pa’anga (CA$66) with return. That seems cheap for a flight, but you have to remember that the two flights are only ten minutes each! It didn’t matter, being able to sit in the copilot’s seat made it completely worth it.

We even got to see a whale from the plane! Hundreds of humpback whales swim through the channel between Tongatapu and ‘Eua each year in order to reach their mating and calving waters around the northern Tongan islands of Vava’u. Vava’u is supposed to be really nice to go to, and has lots of whaling tours available, even tours where you can snorkel with the whales! Flying there is much more expensive, and all the flights were booked solid because of the coronation. That’s one reason I chose to go to ‘Eua instead of Vava’u. If I ever go to Tonga again, though, I’d make sure I stayed longer than one week so I could make sure I could make it to Vava’u.

Anyways, ‘Eua is pretty good on its own. Unlike Tongatapu and many of the other inhabited Tongan islands, ‘Eua is volcanic in origin. Tongatapu is made from the limestone created by corals over millions of years. As a result, ‘Eua’s landscape is more spectacular than Tongatapu’s.

‘Eua is also one of the least developed islands in Tonga. Not many people live there and many of the roads are unpaved. It’s a quiet, sleepy little place.

After getting to my accommodations, the Hideaway resort, I settled in and didn’t do much else that day. The place was more comfortable than Toni’s (and more expensive), so I just relaxed. I spent some time talking to some of the other guests. There was a prosecutor, Peter (from Sydney) who was working for the Tongan government. He had worked on several other south Pacific islands before, like the Solomon Islands. Along with the prosecutor Peter, there was an English judge named Robert. Robert was one of the three judges of the Supreme Court in Tonga. Tonga needs to hire foreigners for its judges since no one in Tonga itself has enough experience to be a judge. Robert used to be a judge in Fiji, but left after the last coup made things unpleasant. I spent some time listening to Robert and Peter tell stories about how the justice system in Tonga and other small South Pacific island nations works. It sounds like it would be very boring, but it was actually very interesting.

Also at the Hideaway were Rose and her two kids Valentine and Dolly, who had been at Toni’s before, but took the ferry to ‘Eua on Saturday. The two kids were still attached to me and I had to entertain them for a while. They were very interested in playing my Nintendo DS games!

Tuesday August 5, 2008

I took a great tour of the island today. The only people on the tour were me, and my guide Baia. We were dropped off near the tip of the island by a small field of some giant taro plants. Baia and I walked down a hill and through a jungle. In the jungle, we were greeted by the noisy squawking of the native parrots. We saw a few of the birds flying above the jungle, too. They were beautiful black birds with colourful red, blue, and green feathers.

Baia and I reached an amazing lookout where we could see the ocean, beach, jungle, and big cliffs.


We walked through meadows and cow pastures along the top of the cliffs to the other side. From there, it was mostly a hand-over-hand scramble down the sharp, jaggy rocks of the cliff itself to reach some caves near the base. There was a long series of interconnected caves honeycombing the base of the cliffs. Lots of stalactites and stalagmites. There were a few places where we had to crawl through small barely human-sized holes to get through to the next cave.


We ended up on a beach where Baia climbed a coconut tree to find some coconuts to augment our lunch of toasted sandwiches. Opening the coconuts is a lot of work! Baia banged the coconuts against some rocks to loosen the thick husk. Once it was soft enough, he pulled the husk off and used his knife cut a small hole through the shell. The shells were filled with delicious liquid. Once we drank the juice, we could bang the shell some more to split it and use a knife to cut out the coconut flesh inside. Delicious!


After lunch, I had the option to go swimming around the reefs and rockpools near the beach, but I didn’t have my own snorkling gear so I didn’t bother (another reason why I need to buy my own set before the next time I visit a tropical island). We climbed back up the cliff, hiked back through the jungle, across a meadow, and through a pine forest filled with coffee bushes.


Since we were technically a little early, our ride from the Hideaway wasn’t there to pick us up yet. That wasn’t a problem, though. While we were walking back, Baia and I managed to catch a couple lifts from passing motorists to take us most of the rest of the way back. These were really bumpy and bone-jarring rides sitting in the backs of nearly derelict pick-up trucks. One of the beds of the trucks was so rusty, that there were holes in it where we could see straight through to the rear wheel, axle, and roadway.

When I got back to the Hideaway, I found Robert, his wife, Peter, and the kids sitting on the deck watching whales swim past. Robert said that he had seen at least fifteen or twenty of them swimming past in the several hours they had been sitting there. Many of then were swimming in the distance and required binoculars to see them, but some of them were a lot closer. I joined them, but, sadly, had missed most of the action already. I only saw a couple in the distance spouting water through their blowholes. One was a bit closer and I was able to see it flip its tail gracefully up out of the water before diving under the surface.

I didn’t do much else for the rest of the day. I said goodbye to Peter, Rose, and her two kids. Rose and her family were heading back to Nuku’alofa and flying back to England the day after. Their five week trip in Tonga was rapidly coming to an end. As a departing gift to the two kids, I gave them a couple of my Nintendo DS games (Cooking Mama and Megaman ZX). Rose bought me a beer in exchange. I explained that its the Canadian way to get paid for things in beer.

That night, I sat around with the judge Robert, his wife, and his official interpreter, Tonga (yes the Tongan interpreter’s name was Tonga). Robert kept buying us beers so we kept drinking them. What a nice man :)

Wednesday August 6, 2008

In the morning, it was my time to leave ‘Eua, too. I got a ride to the tiniest airport I’ve ever seen. This is the termina
l building! The check-in desk and waiting room aren’t really even inside.


This was the baggage cart and carousel. The big blue bag with shoes hanging off is mine.


Again, I got to sit in the copilot’s seat on the tiny Britten Norman Islander plane. This time, I spent some more time looking at the instruments, dials, and guages, on the control panel of the plane. We reached a maximum altitude of about 1000 feet during the flight and reached a maximum speed of about 110 knots.

When I got off the plane, my pick-up from Toni’s Guesthouse wasn’t there. I guess they forgot to come pick me up. I had to call them using someone else’s mobile phone so they could come and get me.

So, I’ve been traveling for more than six months now and had purchased very few souvenirs. I had less than one month left, and decided that it was time to start buying some. I went to the market in Nuku’alofa to do some shopping. Kerstin (from New Zealand) and Ann (from Sydney, Australia), who were also staying in Toni’s, came along, too. Kerstin had just arrived in Tonga and was scouting out the market for her own souvenirs to buy. I ended up buying a cool (and kind of gruesome looking) wooden hand-carved mask.

We ended up sitting in Cafe Escape for a while to have some coffees and lunch. Ann had a couple of Tongan friends join us, too. The three of them then left and left me and Kerstin behind. We decided to walk to the Tongan Cultural Centre, located about midway between Toni’s Guesthouse and Nuku’alofa. Sadly, the museum was closed so we just walked the rest of the way back to Toni’s. I bought some beer and a bottle of Tongan rum. The beers were for drinking tonight at Toni’s. The rum was to bring back to Australia.

Kerstin and I made it back to Toni’s and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling and listening to music. She was a fan of Feist, but had only heard the second album, so I played the first one for her. She copied some of my music and I copied some of hers. She listened to lots of Japanese and Korean music (she also spoke fluent Japanese), so she gave me some of that to listen to.

That night was my last night in Tonga and I hung out with Mark and Abigail for the last time. They had started working at the hospital in Tonga. The work there was pretty laid back and they could show up whenever they wanted. The hospital didn’t have a lot of medicines to give to people, so they mostly gave out Panadol for most problems.

Thursday August 7, 2008

My time in Tonga was over. I had to take a plane today to get back to Melbourne. again, I got to fly on business class the whole way. Sadly, this time I didn’t get the very swanky lay-down-flat seats that I had the first time. The food was excellent, again. I ended up drinking a lot of Pinot Grigio wine that day. After spending a few hours enjoying the business class lounge in Auckland again I took another business class flight to Melbourne. After three weeks on the islands, I was finally back in Australia for one more time before heading back to North America.

To be continued...