My 2008 Australia VacationMy 2008 Australia VacationAustralian Vacation Planning: Help me plan my vacation, and learn from my planning approach. I am going to Australia in early 2008, and am building this blog as a resource both for myself and for other travellers. Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania Articles
Port Arthur and the long drive
2008-01-15 09:54:00 This morning I had planned to get up very early and beat the traffic out to Port Arthur . I’d been told that the highways would take a long time because they are narrow and winding. But when the alarm went off at 6am, the answer was a resolute no. Eventually I made it up around ... More About: Drive , Long , Tasmania
Hobart 2 - Sightseeing
2008-01-14 12:14:00 After a week and a half on foot and using public transportation, it’s very different with a car. My flight landed at 8am, and by 9am I had figured out the car and driven to the city to my hotel. The Grand Chancellor is your typical small city primary businessman’s hotel. ... More About: Tasmania , Sightseeing
Hobart 1 - Getting There, Getting Around
2008-01-14 11:56:00 The alarm clock went off at the ungodly time of 3:30 this morning. In retrospect, I could have probably slept another 45 minutes, but I could not remember if I had an advance seat assignment on my JetStar flight from Melbourne to Hobart. I had packed the night before, so it was pretty quick to ... More About: Air Travel , Tasmania
Halfway Point: Great Ocean Road
2008-01-13 13:14:00 I cannot believe that I’m already at the halfway point of the vacation. Tomorrow morning, I leave for Hobart. Today, I took a guided tour of the Great Ocean Road stretching west from Melbourne . The tour covered about 500 kilometers of driving. The bus (seats 21 in 1-2 seating, ... More About: Point
Raw photos batch 2
2008-01-12 14:36:00 The first dozen photos are from the last day and a half in Sydney . The other hundred and forty odd photos are from Melbourne and environs. Link to Shutterfly Album Share This More About: Photos , Batch
Foreign Drivers and Accidents
2008-01-12 11:43:00 On the train back from Mornington this afternoon, I read an article about traffic accidents on the Great Ocean Road. It turns out that 12% of the drivers involved in accidents are visiting from another country. Sounds awful, right? But what they didn’t say was what percentage of miles driven on that highway are from ... More About: Drivers , Accidents , Foreign
Mornington
2008-01-12 06:13:00 I had a fun day trip today out to the Mornington Peninsula southeast of Melbourne . I had thought about doing a guided tour there today, but a) it wasn’t going to guarantee getting me back in time for my dinner engagement, b) they had a couple of very silly shopping side diversions, and c) they ...
Saturday update
2008-01-11 21:35:00 I’m feeling much better. I’m still not 100%, but I sound worse than I am. But what I have left can be classified as “really nasty hay fever the normal allergy medicine isn’t quite touching.” At this point, I’m basically just working on preventing a re-infection. My family has planned a dinner out tonight for ... More About: Update , Saturday , Melbourne
Getting caught up: Melbourne
2008-01-11 21:26:00 Just before I went out for a late-afternoon round of sightseeing on Thursday, Steven called me and asked if I’d like to go out for a ride to one of the heavily-Greek suburbs called Doncaster. He had a customer out there he had to visit for about twenty minutes, and then he’d be free for ... More About: Caught , Melbourne
Melbourne vs. Sydney
2008-01-11 06:13:00 While I knew that there would be differences between Melbourne and Sydney , I did not think they’d be so pronounced and yet so difficult to explain. The best way I can put it is that Sydney feels like a city where people work, and Melbourne feels like a city where people live. It sounds stupid, ...
Beating the Melbourne heat
2008-01-10 02:30:00 It’s 12:15pm Thursday in Melbourne as I start to write this. It’s also 98 degrees outside, with a high of 103 expected. You’d think that since Melbourne is further south, it’d be cooler than Sydney. Not always… it’s going to be like this today and Friday, then cool off into the low 80s for ... More About: Heat , Beating
Flying to Melbourne
2008-01-10 01:51:00 I ended up being just really tired during the morning on Wednesday, and never made it to Darlinghurst. I just wandered around some of the area east of the hotel, including Hyde Park, stopped and got some Indian curry chicken and chick peas for lunch, and then changed and hung out in the Executive Lounge ... More About: Sydney , Flying , Melbourne
Moving Day - on to Melbourne
2008-01-08 21:21:00 I fly out early this evening to Melbourne , so I am packing up here at the hotel and will be offline for probably the next 24 hours. I do not feel like doing the 10am Opera House tour, so I’m just going to take a bus over to the Darlinghurst neighborhood and look around, then ... More About: Moving
Tuesday - Wolloomooloo, Kings Cross, and Tapas
2008-01-08 21:18:00 Yesterday was a great day. Except for a couple of passing drizzles, the day was perfect weather-wise: high 70s, good humidity to feel that you’re sea-side, partly cloudy. The first thing I had to do is get a new charger for my cellphone. Even though the old was was dual rated, and I’ve used it ... More About: Sydney , Cross , Food and Drink , Kings , Tuesday
Australian TV
2008-01-08 10:35:00 Several of you have asked about Australian TV. I’m staying at hotels, so I don’t have the full spectrum of cable/satellite TV that your typical Aussie has at home. The Four Points had about eight channels (3 of them being Fox Sports), and the Hilton has maybe 14. While stuck in bed, I watched a ...
Open Question Thread
2008-01-08 05:48:00 Anybody have specific questions about things I might be forgetting to mention? (No work questions allowed!!) If so, leave it in a comment, and I’ll try to answer them as best as I can. Share This More About: Question , Open , Thread
Raw photos batch 1
2008-01-08 01:55:00 From getting on the plane in LA until yesterday afternoon. Link to Shutterfly album. Share This More About: Photos , Batch
Friendly Aussies and America
2008-01-07 23:02:00 I’m going to make a blanket statement: Australians are friendlier than America ns. Let me ask you a simple question… when was the last time you were in a public place and just struck up a conversation with the person next to you because they looked like they were from out of town? And for those of ... More About: Friendly , Aussies
Monday - Errands and Chinatown
2008-01-07 22:54:00 I moved to the Hilton Sydney yesterday afternoon. It’s a far different experience than the Four Points. The hotel is very sleek, with Scandinavian influences in in-room design. The rooms are much smaller than my two-room suite at the Four Points, but about the same size as a regular room there. I’ve traded a view ... More About: Chinatown , Monday
Salvaging Sydney
2008-01-06 23:48:00 Another day’s worth of medications seems to have done the trick, and I’m feeling much better today. Still not good enough to go walk for three miles, but enough that I think I can go for a light stroll for dinner tonight. I’m switching hotels this afternoon. The Four Points is ok, but it is not ... More About: Sydney
Bounce Walking Tour of Sydney
2008-01-06 23:37:00 Before my health deteriorated, I spent Saturday morning doing a walking tour of Sydney . The tour is offered by Bounce Tour s, who have been in business for about two years. I had made the reservation for Friday online from the LA airport, and when I arrived in Sydney I had a message from Rebecca that ... More About: Walking
Barefoot Hospital
2008-01-06 10:21:00 While I was in the “transit” area of the emergency room waiting for the blood tests to come back, I struck up a conversation with a very nice Filipino nurse. He has moved his family to Saudi Arabia, London, and now Sydney. We had a wide-ranging conversation about our two countries, and it really helped ... More About: Hospital
Well THAT was fun?
2008-01-06 04:03:00 Eight hours in the emergency room… it took five hours to get in and see somebody, but the difference in going to leading teaching hospital (St. Vincent’s) was significant and I feel much better about the situation. As I’ve had difficulty in the past with spiking a serious fever when flying with a sinus infection (almost ...
Why does this crap happen to me??
2008-01-05 19:15:00 9am Saturday: minor irritation fever, nothing bad 4pm Saurday: fever jumps to 99.7 (for me, normal is 97.8), I call for the house doctor who comes and looks at me and tells me to take the Zithromax I have with me. Taking Advil for the fever because I forgot to bring Tylenol with me 5am Sunday: Fever ... More About: Crap
Air Conditioning
2008-01-05 06:45:00 It’s amazing how ineffective air conditioning is here. Every time I’m in a supposedly air conditioned place, it is stuffy and hot. I don’t understand it at all. Share This More About: Conditioning
Day 2: Rocks, Milson?s Point, Gardens, Pyrmont
2008-01-04 22:22:00 I woke up on Friday at 0630 with a nasty throat full of post-nasal drip, so I spent the entire day sounding like I had TB: one of those periodic non-productive coughs. I think the issue is a mix of allergies and lack of humidity. I was very dejected, as this is exactly ... More About: Sydney , Food and Drink , Gardens , Point , Rocks
Currency Exchange Markup: Cash vs. Credit
2008-01-04 21:42:00 Friday’s exchange rate was 1 Australian Dollar=US$0.8816. The effective rate, however is a bit worse due to various foreign exchange charges. But the rate from my ATM card is significantly better than the one from one of my credit cards: 0.8816 vs. 0.9093. Even adjusting for the fact that I get ... More About: Credit , Currency , Exchange , Cash , Markup
The Big Mac Index
2008-01-04 15:27:00 The Economist calls the Big Mac Index “arguably the world’s most accurate financial indicator to be based on a fast-food item.” The idea is that a Big Mac is a Big Mac regardless of the country, and so the cost of one ...
Day 1: Sydney and Manly
2008-01-04 08:27:00 It’s 6pm on Day 2 (the 4th), so before I head out for dinner, I need to get caught up to at least just 12 hours behind. My plane landed at Sydney Airport at 8:15am, and by 10 I was at the hotel. I took a side trip before leaving the airport ... More About: Sightseeing , Manly
United LA-Sydney
More articles from this author:2008-01-03 22:35:00 After the adventure involved in getting to Los Angeles, the actual flight from LA to Sydney was a breeze. The only little scare was that they forgot to turn on the in-flight seat power to the upper deck, and I had to remind the flight attendent to do so. Unit ed ’s 747s are old and ratty, but ... 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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