My trip to Australia, Adelaide & Melbourne

The trip to Australia has many connotations, projects, jobs, fun etc. I started my journey (with my wife) without any expectations and reached my transit point of Singapore with relative comfort and uneventful. On the leg between Singapore and Adelaide we were unlucky to be seated next to a person who was clearly suffering from the flue, coughing and sneezing. When will the airlines seat such passengers in a different area of the flight? I wonder if I live to see such care by an airline; anyway reached Adelaide with the knowledge that, we have a high probability of getting the flue or at least a cold.

Australians are very strict in terms of anything you bring into Australia so being my first trip down under I din not anticipate the ques, baggage scanning and physical inspection for any food items etc. Man it just not worth the hassle to take anything to Australia. We reached out hotel (Granada Motor Inn) in the morning and had to wait for a while till our room was ready. It was a comfortable hand had a decent air conditioner coz the outside temperature was around 42 C. In the evening we went for a quick tour of Adelaide and had dinner at an award winning Korean restaurant. Dining in Australia is also a big thing.

The next day we went to an area north of Adelaide (Playford North) where a new federal government led development was being rolled out. Needless to say there are employment opportunities and project opportunities there. We met the people and had a look around to see if it was to our liking.

Between the 31^st of January and the 3^rd of February we were in Adelaide and had a good look around Adelaide. We ventured out alone on several occasions and found the public transport (Busses) to be the most economical mode of transport. On the 4^th of February we took a tiger airways flight to Avalon / Melbourne were a friend of my wife picked us up. We went straight to the Crown Casino to have lunch. You can be fooled when you are at Crown Casino thinking you are in Hong Kong or China as 90% of the punters are of Chinese origin.

After Lunch we went to the river bank / pier where there was a street carnival on account of the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. It was great to observe how clean the street carnival was. Guess the minute emigrants from this part of the world go to Australia they become model citizens. Wonder what makes them behave like animals (my apologies to all animals) when they are in their own country?

In the evening we went to a nearby forest reserve to see some wild Kangaroos and were treated by some good sightings. On the way back to our friends place we went to a drive in liquor store which was unique for me. I hope that they would bring this concept to Colombo.

We had a BBQ for dinner (yes I had Kangaroo stakes) and had a great time with our friends. The next day we had to head back to Adelaide so; In the Morning We went to our friend’s restaurant for breakfast ZEST 89 and drove to Avalon to get back to Adelaide. I recommend anyone who visits Melbourne to at least have one meal at the ZEST 89 restaurant it is a great place.

We reached Adelaide by mid afternoon. We then took the Mount Lofty Scenic Route and went to Cleland Park for the afternoon to see the other wild life in a park environment. Cleland Park was an education. There I was able to see the famous “black swan” in real life. It is a truly remarkable astonishing site even though you have heard about it seeing one in real life was beautiful.

We stayed in Adelaide until the 8^th and took the flight back to Singapore. In Singapore we had arranged to meet some of our good friends for dinner. The immigration officers at Changi Air Port were a bit amused that we went out for 3 Hours. Anyway we returned to Colombo without incident and I am certain we will be going back to Australia in the near future.

Given the position of all the Asian countries and their role in the post financial crisis global economy Australia is a very attractive prospect vis-à-vis US and Europe.