Melbourne, Australia

After Tioman I spent a night in Kuala Lumpur but I did basically nothing so I am nnot going to spend a post on it.

On the way to the KL airport I re-met an English guy that I had originally met in KL. He was supposed to be travelling for a pretty long time but had to cut his trip short because he broke his leg and decided it would be a better idea to let it heal at home. He had planned on going to Australia but since he no longer was and I was about to get on a plane going there he gave me his Australia Lonely Planet, which is nice to have and has a retail value of US$30 and often actually cost more to buy on the road. While waiting in line to check in on my first Air Asia flight I met a Aussie guy on the same flight. He had just flown in to KL from London, making is travel path London-KL-Melbourne, which is a long couple of flights. We started talking a bit and ended up sharing a cab from the Melbourne airport to where I was staying and where he lives as they are about four block from each other. We were supposed to met up to go to a "footie" match but it did not work out.

I am getting ahead of myself. Air Asia is a low cost airline. I had to pay an extra US$20 for the weight of my big bag because its weight is above the standard permit weight of zero. My boarding ticket was printed on the same paper that a receipt from your grocery store is printed on. The seat wide enough to accommodate me but not much more. There is food and drink available the cost of which is not included in the fare. Not even water. I heard the toilets used to be paid as well but was reversed. The flight cost less than US$200.

Melbourne has a cool atmosphere about it. The people are relaxed and fitness crazed. Never in my life have a seen more people running or biking outside of a race and they were just on their way home from work. It seemed as if everybody opts to not take the famous tram home in favor of a little exercise. It was a drastic change from Asia were it seems almost nobody ever exercises. Another change was the weather. What are the summer months in Chicago are the winter months in Australia, though an Aussie winter is distinctly not a Chicago winter. I enjoyed getting out of the sun for a bit and the cool air. It felt good to need to wear pants and a long-sleeved shirt for reasons other than protecting myself from branches and bugs.

The city is a nice place to walk around and explore. The esplanade is pleasent (and a favorite place for the runners and bicyclists, of course) though the views are less than spectacular. Melbourne is known for its culture more so than Sydney. The only museum I went into had no theme that I could pick up but the section I visited was free and seemed to have to do with light. It sounds weird and I cannot describe it well but it was really cool. (The paid portion of the museum had a Tim Burton exhibit going on that looked really cool but was too expensive.) There were a bunch of different set-ups including a circular room with cameras all around that allowed you to make a short Matrix-bullet-time video. There was also a screen that captured peoples' shadows and automatically recognized shapes and assigned them sounds and sometimes rounded out the shadow image. For example, if you made a bird shadow with your hands there would be a bird noise. If you made a circle it would often assume it was supposed to be an eye and put a pupil in the middle. It was really cool and would be interested in learning how it works.

I was couch surfing once again in Melbourne with three 21-year-old Aussies. Most of the accommodation in Asia (except for Japan) cost between US$3-6 a night, the low being about 50 cents (Pingyao, China) and the high being probably US$8 in various places. Sometimes those are dorms other times they are private rooms. A night in an Australian hostel (which are called backpackers here) generally costs AU$20+ (US$17+) for a dorm. I like couch surfing for a variety of reasons but the savings is much more important when it is saving you $20 instead of $4. The hosts' place was not quite as nice as where I last surfed in Singapore. The three bedrooms were occupied by the hosts and the surfers all slept in what was basically the living room on some padding on the ground or the couchess. During my week in Melbourne the most people that surfed on a single night was nine and the minimum was three. The door is never locked. There are two half washroom. The walls of one with the shower are cover with mold from shoulder-height up. The one with the toilet is outside (meaning you have to go outside to access it) and does not have a functioning light. As you would probably guess, the Italian family that lives next door is not fond of them. The hosts are Liam, Tom, and (Fat) Tom. Liam is an apprentice carpenter, Tom is prodigy with computers and a student, Fat Tom is almost 2 meters (6.6 feet) tall, wide, though not fat, bartender that, in addition to wearing almost all black, has a number of piercings, can never drive because is an epileptic and has a benin tumor. Fat Tom and I got along well.

While walking around one day I say somebody I recognized from Chicago, a former co-worker. The firm I worked for does an exhange thing with firms in Australia and as the Australian financial year was due to end in a few days, he was there for the impending busy season. Given that he was working at the time we could not catch up much and because I was leaving Melbourne in a couple days we did not have a chance to meet up. It was funny coincidence but I guess it should not be all that surprising.

I thuroughly enjoyed Melbourne, more so than expected in fact. It seemed to be kind of an Australian version of Chicago though there are some difference aside from the accent. I hope to go back for a few more days before leaving Oz (short for Australia) and get to know the city a bit more. And to make another Matrix video.