olafman

February 2011: Melbourne, Australia

We spent the month of January in Cochin, India and next needed to get to Melbourne, Australia as part of our year long adventure showing our son the world. So, of course, we flew via Delhi, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. I know that sounds like a “Visit Asia” itinerary but each of those cities had a purpose:
• We flew to Delhi to see the Taj Mahal
• We flew to Tokyo to visit the two Disney parks there. We’ve been to all the other nine parks worldwide so we needed just the Tokyo parks to have the complete set!
• The only Oneworld airline so far to fly the A380 is Qantas. We wanted to catch it from Singapore to Sydney as part of our round-the-world ticket!

We left Cochin on January 27 and didn’t arrive in Melbourne until February 8. These two weeks would be kind of mini-vacation in the middle of our year long vacation. Corbin would get a break from homeschooling until we were established in Melbourne. Until then, we would be tourists tackling Asia!
3 Days in Tokyo
We left India on a Japan Airlines flight (you can read the trip report here: FLIGHT#26: Delhi Green Lounge & JL 740 Business Class with photos)

Three Days in Tokyo

One of the great things about the international teaching community is that people are constantly changing schools and living in different countries. After our first year in Munich, Sharon, another math teacher, moved to teach in Tokyo. Then when we left, our good friend Rebekah also left to teach at a school outside Tokyo. This meant we had two friends to see in addition to hitting the two parks.

Getting to a new city is often hectic because figuring out local transport is not easy. Sharon had given us the directions to catch the airport bus to the Tokyo City Airport Terminal where she met us and we took a short taxi ride to her flat. It was very easy and soon our jetlagged bodies and luggage were relaxing at her place.

Luckily Sharon lives with her boyfriend who is also a teacher. Putting their two housing allowances together, they can afford a stylish two bedroom place in a lovely high rise. Sharon mentioned that it would be cozy but the Haley Boys could stay with them. In fact we were the inaugural visitors for the room.

I asked about taking a well needed shower and instead she offered that we go spend the rest of the morning at her favorite onsen. For the uninitiated, an onsen is Japanese spa where you strip down naked and soak in a variety of warm and cold pools between enjoying dry and steam saunas. Sharon asked if Corbin was comfortable with being naked and he said he was unsure. The naked thing is sex segregated so at least he’d be with the guys. He wanted Disneyland and instead we were dragging him to a naked spa.

Before we left, Sharon remembered to ask if we had any tattoos. Apparently anyone with any tattoos is forbidden entry to the spa. It seemed to be based on concern for people in gangs but we weren’t really sure. Luckily all the Haleys are tattoo free and thus had no problem getting in.

Being with a local, she showed us how to buy tickets for the metro system. I was really surprised how difficult it was to figure out where we were going. Not all signs are written in anything other than Japanese.

When we arrived at the onsen, the issue we did have is that Corbin needed to be twelve and was only eleven and a half. None of the employees spoke at English so we relied on Sharon’s basic Japanese and sign language to convince them that it was fine. In the end, they made a phone call and soon we were all inside. Sharon suggested that we hang out separately for a while and then meet upstairs in the restaurant for lunch.

Terry, Corbin and I ventured off to level three which was the men’s floor and found our lockers. It was just a bit after eleven in the morning and the place was fairly empty. We all undressed and made our way into the main spa room. Sharon had instructed us that we were supposed to take a traditional Japanese seated shower before hitting any of the water therapies. It took some adjustment to shower while seated on a small stool but we simply watched the other guys and imitated them.

About a minute after we arrived, Corbin forgot about being naked and never mentioned it again. At eleven the effects of puberty are beginning to emerge in his behavior. Luckily he loved the whole experience and still talks about it today.

We rotated through the various pools until we reached one that was impossible to stay in. At this point we discovered the cold plunge pool to wake up the body and cool it down. After spending the night flat Business Class seat, our bodies were really enjoying this experience. The only annoying thing was that each of the saunas had a loud TV that showed sports channels. I usually prefer my sauna time to be quiet and reflective.

We next put on the beautiful Japanese spa bathrobes and met up with Sharon in the restaurant. It was a quiet atmosphere with tiny groups of Japanese women enjoying a day at the spa. Sharon and Rebekah have come here together several times and Sharon recommended the wonderful udon noodles. Indeed they were great and went well with the tempura veggies that I also ordered. Corbin and I are especially big fans of Japanese food and never were disappointed with any of our meals. Terry doesn’t really like the whole raw fish thing but happily eats tempura.

Terry, Corbin and Sharon went to the top floor where they got a hot rocks treatment. I had experienced this before and knew that I’d prefer to just relax in a warm pool. Corbin joined me later having thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

That day was our one day to see anything in Tokyo but we were moving slowly. Spending the middle part of the day at a spa doesn’t help energize you. I needed to hit the Apple store in the shopping district so that’s where we headed next.

My MacBook Pro power cable had developed a short somewhere and now had stopped working entirely. I started to use Terry’s cord but this was not a great solution. My Mac was only eight months old but I didn’t have any receipts with me to prove my story.

Within minutes in the store, I was explaining my problem to an Apple Genius and they happily replaced it without hesitation. That’s great customer service. Not many other companies allow you to go into a store in a foreign country and get that kind of service! Domo Arigato!

None of us are really shoppers but it was fun to look along the shopping street. Next we wanted to do something historic and headed over to the Imperial Palace. Sharon hadn’t been so it was going to be fun for all of us. Unfortunately the palace is no longer there. It’s just a park. We didn’t realize this until we had walked around the whole place looking for the palace. Instead of seeing nice pagodas and other Japanese architecture, we saw some basic buildings and lots of trees. We found the biggest Japanese gate, took our photo and moved on.


Sharon and the Haleys at the gate to the Imperial “Palace”

The only other time I had visited Japan was when I worked for the concert tour company. It was our first stop in a tour through Japan and China with a symphony and chorus. Since I was working, the whole experience is a blur for me. I just remember great food, lots of people and vending machines that sold lots of weird stuff.

Japan hasn’t changed much since my visit in 1991. It probably has but I couldn’t see much difference. Still lots of people and lots of vending machines. One difference that we got very excited about was a Krispy Kreme shop. By this time in the day, we needed a little coffee and a nibble. When Corbin saw the Krispy Kreme sign, we all rushed over to sit and taste their heavenly donuts. It was probably our first Krispy Kreme donut in over three years. Delicious.

Next Rebekah met up with us and we looked around the crazy Shibuya district. We stood at the famous intersection and watched the thousands of people cross the street at once. It was mesmerizing.

Sharon’s boyfriend also met up with us and soon we were enjoying a great sushi meal at a tiny little restaurant. It was one of those magical evenings of good food, good drink and most importantly old friends. A cloud of nostalgia set over us because we all realized how much we miss living nearer. We had shared many wonderful times together in Munich and one evening in Tokyo just wasn’t enough. Ah the plight of the international school teacher.

When I planned out our year, I intentionally picked warm countries or at least the warm season. Out of an entire year of travel, we only had six days of winter: three in Delhi and three in Tokyo. Most of the rest of the year we could get by with shorts and a t-shirt. Our friends in Tokyo laughed at us because it was unseasonable warm and our whining about the cold amused them. We had enough fleece and long pants to survive but it was hard on our tropical bodies.

As our first day in Tokyo came to a close, we realized that we probably had spent over $700 that day. Ouch. Our house in India was $1000 for the month. We couldn’t believe how expensive Tokyo was. We knew that the next two days at the Disney parks wouldn’t be cheap ones either but relief was on its way. Singapore was two days away.

We convinced our friend Rebekah to play hooky and join our trip to Tokyo Disney Sea. She had been waiting for our visit to go to Disney’s most heralded park. We took the metro out to the Disney Parks and were in line along with thousands of Japanese teens about thirty minutes before the gates opened. Being Disney geeks, we know that we could ride lots of rides during the first couple of hours before the real crowds arrive. We decided to spend the first day at Tokyo Disney Sea and then do the traditional Disneyland on Friday.

We got to the park about an hour before it opened and were surprised to see so many people in line already. Considering this was a weekday in February, I could see that the park would be full. Most of the people were 14-20 year olds. We saw signs for some discount promotion which seemed to be working well.

Tokyo Disney Sea is stunningly beautiful. A local company owns 51% of both parks and spent much more money building the parks than what Disney usually does. The surroundings are simply luxurious. This park is ten years old and I read that they paid for the park in only two years. The details in the restaurants and attractions simply put Disney’s California Adventure to shame. The building housing Tower of Terror is beautifully designed. It’s the best of all of the ones worldwide. The only thing missing is the Twilight Zone theme to the ride. Since the Japanese aren’t familiar with the TV series, they created a different story that they didn’t have to pay the rights to!


Our day at Tokyo Disney Sea with Rebekah

Most of the rides at TDS are unique to the park and not in any of the other parks. As Disney geeks, we really enjoyed seeing what was on offer. One thing the Japanese love is the flavored fresh popped popcorn including waisabi, strawberry and curry. We tried a couple but I still prefer the basic butter flavor.

The food throughout the park was fantastic. I loved doing drive by gyoza. We ate lunch at a great Italian restaurant with beautiful design. My favorite part of the day was afternoon drinks at the Teddy Roosevelt bar. The hand carved wood panels made it feel like an old gentlemen’s club.

We saw lots of shows throughout the day. They locals love shows with the characters in them. I’m just like my mother, I always cry at a nice parade or moving show. Let’s just say that Mickey and his friends got a couple of tears out of me.

The next day we were back at 8:15am standing in line Tokyo Disneyland along with thousands of young Japanese. It was absolutely chaotic. The Winnie-the-Pooh ride there has these great cars that move independently of each other. We were beginning to drag at this park but really enjoyed it. It was also our last Disney park in the world to visit of all the eleven. I expected to hear trumpets as we went through the gates but alas nothing special happened. It was still a great day.

The trip report on my visit to FIVE Oneworld lounges an our flight down to Singapore can be found here:
FLIGHT#27: Five OW Lounges & JL 719 NRT-SIN Biz Class with photos

Three Days in Singapore

We have been enjoying meeting people from CouchSurfing.org throughout our trip. I’m really impressed with the high quality of people that the site attracts. I was excited to arrive in Singapore because it would be our first experience of actually surfing on someone’s couch. Okay, it wasn’t really a couch. Instead he had two guest bedrooms with beds. I’m not sure I’ll ever surf on a couch through the site. Maybe at a friend’s house after drinking too much but I’ll never intentionally arrange to do so. Mama likes a real bed.

John answered my surfing request via the website and provided all the details to get to his house. His place was in Sembawang up on the north of the island in a beautifully wooded area that reminded me a lot of the Presidio in San Francisco. He works for the US Navy and they provide him with this huge flat that he graciously shares via CouchSurfing. After getting settled, he took us to his favorite nearby hawker stall restaurant. It was a delicious mix of Chinese and Indian. I love Singapore’s food so much. It is such a great mélange. Malay + Chinese + Indian + influences from the rest of the world = OUTSTANDING FOOD. That’s my kind of math.

We spent Sunday looking around the city. The whole Marina Bay complex was new since the last time I was there. I like the surfboard look of the Marina Bay Hotel. I read that for $30USD, you can go up on the surfboard observation deck and drink expensive coffees! That was a little out of our budget but will be fun to do some day. Chinese New Year was still going on so a festival was set up along the shores where we ate some great dim sum. Corbin tried some of the carnival games but I REALLY didn’t want him to win a HUGE stuffed animal. Luckily all he won was a key chain.


Marina Bay, Singapore

The next day Corbin and I headed out to the pleasure island Sentosa. Our original thought was to spend the day at the new Universal Studios park there. In the end we decided to explore the rest of the park and do some of the other attractions. They have a really long rip-line that we did out to a small island. Corbin loved flying over the ocean! We also did the toboggan ride a couple of times. The gardens were full of blooming flowers as the annual Flower Festival was going on. It was a fun but expensive day. The poverty of India from a week earlier was now just a memory. First world consumerism and spending were easy habits to get back into. That night we ate at another hawker stall that was recommended and enjoyed the Singapore unofficial national dish: chicken rice. This deceptively simple bowl of boiled chicken, rice and sauce is an easy addiction.

With that our short visit to Singapore came to a close. We didn’t see our host much after the first night but he was very kind and generous. We loved his American sized washer and tumble dryer. How nice to get clean clothes so quickly!

The flight down to Australia was one of the most anticipated of our journey. It was our first time on an Airbus 380. The whole trip report can be found here:
FLIGHT#28: QF32 A380 Biz Class & QF/CX SIN Lounges with photos

FLIGHT#29
Qantas Airlines #497
Sydney, Australia (SYD) – Melbourne, Australia (MEL)
Date: Feb. 8, 2011
Departure: 22:05
Arrival: 23:40
Length: 01:35
Miles flown since start of trip: 54,886 mi.
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300
Seats: ECONOMY

After our A380 flight we connected to a domestic flight down to Melbourne. I didn’t write a separate trip report because it wasn’t very interesting. We already had our boarding passes. Our bags were checked through. The lounge was empty because it was the last flight out. The flight was half full. We all were tired by the end. Qantas did a perfectly fine job.

Our month in Melbourne

After four months in developing nations, all three of us were looking forward to a first world experience in Melbourne. For many years, I have wanted to get to Australia. I’ve always liked the Australians that I’ve met traveling around. They drink a lot, talk to loudly, enjoy a good BBQ… They seem very similar to Americans!

Our apartment in the Collingwood area of Melbourne wasn’t available for a few days so I went online and found a nice couple on CouchSurfing that lived in the ‘burbs in east Melbourne. I liked that they put in their profile that they were “gay and trans” friendly. They had great references and I knew we’d get along. Unfortunately, we arrived near midnight into Melbourne so I had booked us into the Formule 1 motel within walking distance of the airport.

As we traveled around Europe, we used ‘Formule 1’ and “Primere Classe” which are both basic motels with a cheap room rate. I think we last paid 40 euros in Lyon for a triple. The first inkling that Australia was crazy expensive was that the Formule 1 at the Melbourne Airport was $120 USD. Understand the rooms look like they were taken out of a Winnebago. Our RV back in LA had a bigger bathroom that the one in the motel room. The whole place felt very modular, a bunch of tiny boxes jammed next to each other. Normally, I accept it because you get what you pay for. But $120 later, it seemed like we were part of some laboratory experiment on exhausted travelers.

The next morning we caught the airport bus to the train station and then transferred to a regional train that took us out to Belgrave in about fifty minutes. It was a bit far from the center of Melbourne but I knew that we had the whole month to explore the city.

Our hostess, Penny offered to meet us at the train station. She was a bit surprised at the number of bags we had but gladly helped us push them up the tiny hill to their place around the corner. They set us up in their guest bedroom and Corbin got Penny’s office sofa. He was the first in our family to actually surf a couch! They host many CSers (CouchSurfers) so she had the welcome tour down pat. Their house was charming and warm. Penny was a vegetarian and Rhys is a vegan. I really enjoyed learning about both throughout our visit. I offered to make dinner the first night which set a great tone for the rest of the visit. They loved my roast veggies on the barbie, polenta and garlic bread. The next night Penny made dinner for us with a delicious tortilla pie! On our last night we took them to their favorite Indian restaurant down in the village. The best part of all these meals was that we got to talk for hours with the both of them. Like many people that we have met from CS, their kindness and hospitality to the CS community are amazing. Rhys had recently begun teaching high school English so he and Terry had lots to talk about.


Enjoying dinner in the garden at Rhys and Penny’s

During our time in Belgrave we enjoyed exploring the area. Corbin loved hanging out with about fifty wild cockatoos in a nearby park. Penny had given him some birdseed so he was very popular. I did the “1000 steps” walk but was greeted at the top by rain and 10m visibility. We also used those days to get local SIM cards and other housekeeping items. Yes Optus had a great deal for prepaid accounts: $15 a week for unlimited calls, texts and Internet! Using tethering, we downloaded lots of TV over Terry’s phone to his laptop. It was a great deal.

After three wonderful days at Penny and Rhys’s place, we took the train into the center of Melbourne and checked into the Westin. I used some Starwood points for our final night before we could move into our apartment. The hotel is definitely on the higher end of the Westin brand. The location couldn’t have been better.

The next morning a friend of ours who taught with us in Munich met us as she now lives in Melbourne. She’s not from Melbourne but took us all around the center of the city as if she was a local. We immediately fell in love with the city. It felt like home. It’s hard to say if we were just starved to be back in the first world but DAMN, we were happy. Great food, a mixture of cultures, friendly people.

Around one we headed over to our flat in Collingwood. Like many other barrios that the gays have taken over, Collingwood has a reputation of being bohemian, artsy and a little on the seedy side. PERFECT. Think Greenwich Village but a bit grittier.

Our basement apartment was owned by two fashion designers with a three year old girl, Wendy. They lived above us and Corbin loved playing with her. He’s always done well with smaller kids and Wendy was a thrill for him. They had recently finished decorating our two bedroom apartment and it was modern, clean and lovely. It was a big change from our cozy but less than spotless house in India the month before. The brick building was a converted factory and our apartment had rugged wooden floors with the occasional cement pad that obviously used to have some kind of machine on it. This gave lots of character to the place.

The unexpected benefit of renting from fashion designers was FREE CLOTHES. The wife designed clothes for teenagers and brought Corbin clothes almost everyday! Very cool, very hip, all a little baggy on his super-model body. He loved them!

State St. was the main drag through Collingwood and was dotted with many restaurants, bars (gay and straight) and clubs. Terry and I both enjoyed being back in the land of a nice gay bar with drag shows! It had been a while since I got my fix. Both Terry and I enjoyed hanging out in little coffee houses and spending time writing. It’s hard to write at our flat so it’s a good excuse to get away from the family for some alone time. Although our area was full of great restaurants, we didn’t actually eat in many because the prices were so expensive. Even grocery shopping was expensive. We just couldn’t believe it. Many people had told us that Melbourne is the most expensive in Australia and now we were experiencing this first hand. I felt poor. The first world is EXPENSIVE. Gone were the $0.75 lunches of Cochin. We decided that it was a good month to trim down a bit. Ten months of traveling was beginning to show up on our waistlines a bit.

On one of the first days, we went to the Visitor Center in Federation Square where they offered us a free walking, orientation tour. A volunteer took us around the downtown area for three hours providing his perspective of history and the architecture. He let us buy him a coffee half way through but wouldn’t accept any tips. He gave tours simply because he enjoyed it! Every city should organize this. Originally two other people we supposed to join us but they never showed so it was a private tour. I would strongly encourage all visitors to sign up for this tour. Booking is essential as they fill up every day in advance.

During our tour, I began to understand the similarities between Melbourne and San Francisco. Both showed up on the map because of the discovery of gold. This brought people and money into the area, the effects of which can still be seen today in the magnificent buildings downtown. Melbourne has a mature, well planned feeling to it.

Our guide introduced us to the public transport tram system which we ended up using heavily throughout our stay. It’s convenient and runs frequently. We bought week long passes for just under $30 each. From our area, we could travel 15 minutes to the dead center of the city.

One expression that I had never heard before Australia was CBD or Central Business District. In California we say “downtown”. In Australia and New Zealand, it’s the CBD. Collingwood was just outside the CBD with a much slower pace and more residential.

One of my favorite parts of the CBD was touring the designated graffiti lanes. The city had set aside several alleys around the center where local graffiti artists could paint to their heart’s content. Imagine an alley where EVERYTHING including the dumpsters, trash cans, windows and doors are all covered in bright colors and designs. The city managed to take an urban problem and convert it into a tourist attraction. I’m not sure the graffiti lanes cut down on graffiti in other places but they were interesting art installations.


A graffiti alley near Federation Square

Being in Australia meant that the movies were in their original English. None of us will forget traveling three hours to the movie theater in Thailand in November for the opening day of the newest Harry Potter movie only to be told that it was dubbed into Thai. This wasn’t going to happen here in Melbourne! What I didn’t expect was that the tickets were $21 each for the Green Hornet in 3D. Ouch. Luckily when we recharged our Optus SIM cards online, they sent us some 2-for-1 coupons which helped a lot. While I enjoyed the Green Hornet, I’m not sure I would have gotten $21 worth of fun out of it.

After the movie at the Crown Center, we found a great food court that offered many meals for less than $10. I can’t say I’ve ever been a food court person outside of Singapore but it would allow us to not eat all our meals at home.

A week into our Melbourne experience, I was still experiencing lots of culture shock. The juxtaposition of our life the previous month in India with our life in Melbourne was night and day. Our life in Melbourne was very similar to our life in Los Angeles. But in all honesty, I’m not sure which made me happier. Corbin did mention that he liked Melbourne because we were seeing a dead animal daily on the streets like we did in Cochin.


A view of Melbourne


Being in Melbourne was especially a treat for us because four of our friends from the Munich International School had all moved home back to Melbourne. It was great to hang out with old friends.

One of the best places I have found for finding out what’s happening in a city is the message board on CouchSurfing. Each city has its own forum and locals are constantly sharing exciting events around town. Soon after we got to Melbourne, I read that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was giving free concerts at Sydney Myer Amphitheater in the Botanical Gardens. For many years we loved going to concerts at the 18,000 seat Hollywood Bowl and this was simply a smaller version of that. And free! We arrived at 5:00pm with picnic baskets in hand and met up with our friends from Germany. It was a delightful afternoon of catching up, drinking Australian wine and eating good food. At 6:00pm, the youth orchestra came out and played two pieces. I thought it was such a good idea to give the youth orchestra this opportunity since the place was already full by then and the concert didn’t start until 8:00pm. They were excellent and sounded perfectly professional to me.


Janet, Karen and Domenic wait with us for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert

By the time the MSO arrived, the amphitheater was packed and we all eagerly awaited this final concert of the season featuring Australian composers. The most moving of all the pieces was a requiem written by a composer for his young son who had died. The composer introduced the piece and I was in tears by the final note. Luckily the concert ended with a tribute to Stephen Foster including a medley of Camptown Races with the Symphony Chorus.

On the next weekend our friend Janet organized a great day of wine tasting to the east of Melbourne. Our first stop was Domaine Chandon. I have always enjoyed the French and California versions of this famous brand and was equally pleased with their Australian cousin. But at $40 a bottle, we only tasted and didn’t buy. We also enjoyed some lovely reds at the TarraWarra Estate. Our final stop was Montsalvat which is a beautiful artist community built in the style of an European village. Any visit to Melbourne should include a visit there. The restaurant looked great but we just had coffees and dessert.

The highlight for Corbin during our month in Melbourne was seeing his third grade teacher from Munich. She retired and moved back home to be with her family. He has told us many times that she is his favorite teacher ever. When we were in Thailand, he read an entire Rick Riordan book in one day. It was the first time that he had every done anything like this. After he finished, he really wanted to call Mrs. Gotts and share his feat. She spent many hours with him after school making him a fluent reader and it meant a lot to him.

Mrs. Gotts had always told Corbin that if he ever visited Australia, she would take him to a special place that she has taken all her grandchildren, the Healsville Animal Sanctuary. So one morning she showed up at our apartment and drove us about an hour out this fantastic zoo that featured all the exotic animals of the continent. Corbin loved being there with her. She even made us a picnic lunch that we enjoyed in the park there. It was a truly magical day together.


Corbin and Mrs. Gotts enjoy the kangaroos

Just before we left, Mrs. Gotts had us around to her house where she cooked us up a wonderful barbecue of shrimp and meat. Her generosity towards us and especially Corbin really touched me.


Book ‘em, Danno! Victoria Police Museum

Melbourne has many wonderful museums that we enjoyed throughout our month there. Corbin loved the Victoria Police Museum where he got his mug shot taken. He and I also enjoyed the Melbourne Museum which had great exhibits on the Aboriginal people of the area and dinosaurs. On Federation Square, the Moving Images museum was a great mix of modern and older technology in TV and movies. Corbin loved going there and playing the sample video games. He treated it like a free arcade. I really didn’t mind. I’d just bring along my Kindle while he sat and played games with other kids.

Our favorite museum of the month was Scienceworks. Adults and kids alike enjoyed many great exhibits and demonstrations. The best was an exhibit where I lied down and this flat surface and then with the push of a button, a bed of nails comes out of the surface lifting my body up 5 inches! Note that these were SHARP nails. But with the distribution of my weight over all the nails, it didn’t hurt much. Corbin and I both did this demonstration several times. It was fantastic.

Being a foodie, I have always heard that Melbourne had lots to offer. A little research soon showed me that I didn’t have to spend lots to have some amazing culinary experiences. Ever since we left Vietnam, Corbin’s been asking me to make Pho. So far it just hadn’t been possible to get all the ingredients. First on my food list was to find the best Pho shop in town. Luckily our landlady was from a Vietnamese family so she had several recommendations. We ended up at the highly praised Pho Dzung on Richmond St just a short tram ride from our flat. People online said that their Pho is even better than any Pho in Vietnam because the quality of beef is so much higher in Australia. Boy, they were correct. It was a heavenly moment. We also ordered fried spring rolls wrapped in fresh lettuce just like they serve in Ho Chi Minh. It was all fantastic and less than $18 for the two of us.


Corbin and Pho

Second on the food list was to find the best dim sum. Since Melbourne has such a large Chinese population, I know that it would not be hard. The first thing I found out is that the locals call it Yum Cha. We sampled several recommended restaurants, all of which were top notch. We also enjoyed the best Chinese noodle soup in town at Noodle Kingdom. As I sit here and write this, it’s nearing lunch time and all this talk of good food is KILLING ME.

The newest of my food passions is Italian pizza from a proper wood-burning oven. Our friends built an oven in their backyard and I really enjoyed the perfection that it cooked. I asked an Italian guy where the best pizza in town was and it happened to be right on the edge of Collingwood called Ladro Gertrude. One evening Terry, Corbin and our friend Janet went to see some Shakespeare play in the park. I’m not a big fan and looked forward to a moment on my own. I took myself to an early dinner there. I love when you show up at a place at 6:00pm and it’s fully booked for the night. Luckily I could sit at the tiny bar and still get served. The pizza and my glass of wine were spectacular making the $35 bill a little easier to pay.

Another highlight of our month was a visit from Terry’s best friend Kyle and his partner Tom. It’s been hard living away from our friends and family during the past few years and visitors from home help make it a little easier. Even though we only had forty-eight hours together, we had a great time eating, drinking and watching a great drag show! Janet had offered to babysit so we could go out on the town with them. It was a great visit and so important to keeping our traveling spirits going.


Kyle and Tom join us for a couple of days in Melbourne

One day with them we took the tram down to St. Kilda beach area. It happened to be a beautifully warm, sunny Sunday so the locals were out in force on the beach. Being an older group of guys, we watched it all from the shade of a great restaurant overlooking the beach. It’s the gay equivalent of wearing a muumuu and a big floppy hat. “Where else can you pay $26 for fish and chips and have to wait an hour for the privilege?” says Mama, the .....y queen.

Just before our departure from Melbourne, Janet loaned us her car and we drove up the Great Ocean Road. Everyone had raved about the experience saying it was a must do while in Melbourne. The weather wasn’t great but we still enjoyed the Grand Canyon-esque coastline. The colors ranging through red-orange-yellow-gray were amazing.


Carl and Corby on the Great Ocean Road

Corbin made an iReport of our experience finding a group of wild kangaroos and then some shots of the Great Ocean Road. The video can be watched on our website here.

We spent the night in Warmambool and then spent the next day in Balarat at Sovereign Hill which is a gold rush “town” where you can see demonstrations of candle making, wagon wheel making, gold pouring and rifle firing. We also descended into a mine and got a sense of what it was like to work underground. Corbin got to hold a recently poured brick of gold valued at $150,000. A guard stood nearby in case he tried to pull a fast one.


Corbin holds a still warm brick of gold worth $150,000.

On our final night in Melbourne we had a dinner party and invited all our friends, old and new. It was a great time. Terry made his chicken tenders and I made gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Penny and Rhys even made it into town to join us. It was an evening of much laughter and friendship. I was especially touched when Rhys got a little teary-eyed saying goodbye.


Our last night in Melbourne dinner with friends

Terry and I both said it would be easy to live in Melbourne (as long as we were earning a local salary.) The people are so friendly and easy going. The food is great. The theatre/arts scene rivals most cities. It’s a highly livable city.

FLIGHT#30
Qantas Airlines #428
Melbourne, Australia (MEL) - Sydney, Australia (SYD)
Date: Mar. 4, 2011
Departure: 11:30
Arrival: 12:55
Length: 01:25
Miles flown since start of trip: 55,313 mi.
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300
Seats: ECONOMY

We took a Maxi-cab from our flat to the Southern Cross station where we picked up the airport bus. In hindsight, it would have been cheaper to just take the cab all the way to the airport but we had purchased a round trip ticket. It wasn’t a big deal.

Our little hop back to Sydney was not included in our Round-The-World ticket. Instead I purchased a really cheap web fare in economy via the Qantas website. I didn’t write a fancy trip report since it was a short, economy flight. The Qantas lounge was fine in Melbourne but I was surprised at the limited warm food selection. The flight was full but we enjoyed the in-seat entertainment. Qantas even managed to serve us a simple meal WITHOUT AN EXTRA CHARGE!

I decided that it was better to stay out at the airport in Sydney since our flight to Auckland was at 8:45am. Corbin and I were very excited since we would be flying in First Class on the Emirates A380 and taking our first in-flight shower.

The airport hotel was absolutely unmemorable, two stars if they’re lucky. As soon as we arrived, we dropped off our bags and took the airport train into town. We got off at the Circular Quay and walked around the famous harbor. The weather was perfect. We ended up at the Lowenbrau beer hall for lunch where Terry and I each had a $21 liter of beer. How can things be more expensive in Australia than Bavaria!?!

Now I have to mention that we are aging, middle-aged gay dads. The reason I know this is that it happened to be Gay Pride Mardi-Gras weekend in Sydney. It’s the largest gay pride parade in the world. When I was booking our flights it didn’t even cross my mind that it might be gay pride. Then once someone mentioned it to me, I wasn’t at all disturbed. I think I used up all my gay pride in the 90s. I’ve marched in so many gay pride parades during my lifetime that I really don’t need to march or watch too many more.

At the visitor’s center we did find out about the Drag Races that were happening that afternoon at Bondi Beach. For the uninformed the Drag Races are a competition between drag queens out on the beach consisting of such races as “the handbag toss” and the “three high-heeled legged race”. About twenty drag queens competed and the whole thing was emceed by a very funny drag queen. While Corbin wasn’t the only kid there, the 1000+ crowd was mostly 20-40 year old gay men. The emcee had a slightly vulgar mouth which entertained Corbin greatly. After a while, a winner was announced and the event broke up and soon we were all trying to get a bus back into town. The local bus system was overloaded and we could tell this would take some time.

We thought about calling a taxi but then this big, pink bus drives up offering us all a ride into town. On the side of the bus it was literally called “The Big, Pink, Free, Gay Bus”. Once aboard, the interior was all rainbow flags and pink flamingos. A local, kind of gay, television station was sponsoring the bus for the whole weekend. They even passed out rainbow suckers as our in-flight meal service. They gay Corbin ten suckers since he was a kid! We laughed the whole way back to the CBD. There are few places in the world where a big, pink, free, gay bus will solve your transportation needs. Considering that we were in Sydney for less than twenty-four hours, we had been thoroughly entertained by the locals.

Back in town, we picked up a quick bite to eat and then took the train to our airport hotel. After our next month in New Zealand, we’ll be spending four nights back in Sydney before heading on to Buenos Aires. This was simply a transit stop.

We all went to bed early with visions of being naked on a plane in our heads. Emirates A380 here we come! Yahoo!

UP NEXT: A great month at Lake Tarawera, New Zealand with Terry’s parents