Monthly Archives: August 2015

Handel Holiday (part 1 of ?)

Travel

Jon and I are back in Melbourne after our first Aussie holiday to the “top end” of Australia. When we were getting ready to leave on our trip, we engaged in one of Jon’s favorite activities… speculating. Much like CNN, Jon does not need to know the facts before going into great detail on a topic. Here are a couple of things we were wondering about beforehand:

What would it be like to fly domestically in Australia?
When flying in the US, we got quite used to having our identity checked multiple times before boarding a plane and the usual shuffle to get ready to go through security – after waiting in line for ages of course. I am both happy and terrified to report that in Australia, NO ONE checked my identity on any leg of our trip. Jon handed over his license to check in for our flight home, but we are pretty sure it wasn’t compulsory. We could also leave our shoes on and went through a regular schmegular metal detector so no getting patted in awkward places by the TSA after something shows up on the full body scanner screen somehow. And the cherry on top? The whole process, curb to gate, took about 5 minutes.

"Only" 4 hours to Darwin
“Only” 4 hours to Darwin

What did people mean by crowded?
In reading about Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, we couldn’t miss being warned that both parks are subject to be very crowded in the dry season and you almost have to rent a 4WD vehicle to avoid the crowds. Well… I am very pleased to report that is a whole lot of stuff and nonsense. The most crowded place we went had what I would guess to be less than 100 people and that was with the parking lot almost full, meaning it really couldn’t get much more crowded. The place we stayed at in Cooinda did have heaps of people staying there, mostly in campas, but I am not sure where they all went during the day because we never saw more than a few people on any given bushwalk.

So crowded - sheesh!
So crowded – sheesh!

We are slowly adjusting to getting back to reality after a week of having our most pressing decisions be about where to eat and when to start drinking so there is lots more to come about the trip. Eventually.

I’ll be stuffed – here’s what Oz is doing right

Random Musings

I’m now approaching 5 months here down under, so I’ve started to notice some things where I prefer the Aussie implementation. Here they are!

Credit Cards: No signatures needed here.  It is all chip and pin. Additionally, they have paywave – which means for transactions under $100, you just have to tap your card on the reader.  I much prefer this to signing, though for some reason my 3 cards have different PINs and that can prove challenging at times.

Money: There are no pennies here.  That is wonderful.  Each bill is a different size and color, making it very easy to determine which bill is which.   The lowest bill is a $5, and there are coins for $1 and $2.

Public Transit: This may be more “Melbourne” specific than Australia specific, but the public transit here is quite robust. Even on nights and weekends, the train/tram/bus frequency is still good enough that I haven’t used a cab or Uber since I’ve been here.  Another *huge* bonus is there is a price cap (basically two rides) for the day.  So, the most I can spend for the day is $7.52 ($6 on weekends and holidays).

Bars / Pubs: There is a much larger prevalence of small local bars / pubs here than in DC.  Sara and I keep discovering little bars here and there, and they are never too crowded. We have no idea how they stay in business, but we are so happy they are plentiful and uncrowded.

New slang: I’m loving learning new slang that is different from what I know.  A basketball teammate told me someone else had “cracked the shits” and I had no idea what that meant.  The news tells us to “rug up” when it is cold.  Each week I tend to learn some new phrase to chuckle at.

Customer Service: Most of the customer service interactions I’ve had here have been quick and positive.  Short hold times and friendly folks have greeted me across many different industries when I’ve had to call about something.

MSAC: The Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Center is where I play basketball twice a week.  I am just quite happy this place exists and has 10 full size basketball courts that are easy on my old man legs.

Car rentals: We’ve rented cars here for a few weekend trips / errands, and I’m enjoying certain aspects of the process.  All rentals include some insurance – a loss damage waiver – that limits your liability to about $3000.  Also, they have a detailed description of what constitutes “damage” – so there is no question of what you need to report beforehand.

Parcel Lockers: Now, this is something that Amazon has partially implemented, but here the Australian Post Office is doing it.  You can sign up for a free locker in as many locations as you want, and you are provided a shipping address for that locker.  If you have something shipped to it – they’ll deliver it to the locker and send you a text message that it is there.  It works quite well for things you need to sign for.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot they are doing wrong here, but that’s for another post!