Day 8 - Life as an Aussie

I had now made it to the very beginning of my second week in Australia and a true weekend day. I did actually log onto the customer system to check that it was performing appropriately before starting my day. In doing so, I was still in my room when, as I stated in the previous post, the cleaning lady arrived. I heard her knock, came to the door and struggled to make her understand that I was still in the room and that I was OK with her not cleaning it, again.

I had decided to make it out to Healesville sanctuary, a key tourist sight down here, and had sent asked my co-consultant and the girl Troy from dancing (she had given me her e-mail address) if they would like to join me. Both refused, but Troy suggested that I pet a Kangaroo. Pet a Kangaroo?!? Healesville is a place to do that?!? Well, that secured my desire to go regardless of if I were going to have any company. I had earlier been looking up how to get there and decided that a planned Group Tour bus out there would be, 1) too expensive, and 2) too touristy. What other options do I have? I thought about driving out there, but figured that without a navigator, my left-hand-side driving ability was not good enough to get me there without first getting lost. Again, what other way to go? Melbourne has good public transportation, maybe I can get there that way. I looked it up and found sure enough that the subway train (as opposed to the street-car/tram) taken to the end of one line and a bus to the end of its route would get me there. This route, I decided would be best because it would be relatively cheap, was not touristy, and did not require that I get myself lost driving.

I consulted the train and bus time tables (the bus company made it very easy by listing on their table the arrival times of the subway) and found myself the best time option for getting to the sanctuary. I also noticed that the final bus trip to the sanctuary is at 5:05PM on Saturdays. They do, however, make another loop ending at the stop before Healesville.

I walked down to the central subway terminal, just a few blocks from my hotel, and boarded the train towards Lilydale. On the train, the seats were positioned in general three on one side, two on the other (like your S-80 airplanes) with some seats facing center for elderly/handicapped, or those with bicycles. What was truly unique about the train was that the seats alternated facing forward and backwards with regard to the direction of motion. I thought this was a brilliant idea. I hate riding backwards on subways and would prefer to stand. That, and this allows friends and family to sit facing each other, or overly lazy people like me to put our feet up.

I was not the only one with my feet up. The 16-ish year old kid across the aisle from me was also sitting with his feet up, but he was facing away from the direction of motion. I noticed the kid, not just because of his proximity to me, but also because he was wearing a white hoodie (they advertise hoodies here all over the TV and tram stops), black shorts, and a big neon yellow safety harness hanging loosely from his waist. This, I thought was an interesting fashion statement. On his jacket, were the letters PHD.

As we were prgressing from stop to stop, I noticed that the area actually felt very similar to taking the subway in Chicago. Subway is a slight misnomer because the train did travel on ground level more often than it was under ground, but it did do both. Out the windows you could see various tagging on the buildings.



The kid across the aisle started talking to me while I was sitting there, (not because of taking the photo, I did that after he had exited the train) and we managed to talk for the full 45 minutes until he left the train. We discussed cultural differences between Australia and America and rules for driving with and without learners' permits and restricted licenses. The rules and ages are about the same, actually, well at least now that Kansas requires you to be 18 now to drive by yourself at all times of day.

The kid asked me if we have gang people just walking down the streets and if we have tagging in America, too. I told him that like anywhere else, it depends on the part of town you are in. He also asked me about clubs and what type of music they play there. He proceeded to show me a short video of himself dancing the night before at some club, which like the US, require you to be 18+ to get into. He freely told me his fake idea so that he can go to clubs, and that he works at one. What I had figured by the conversation was that PHD was the club he works at. I found out the next day that I was a little off (but that is for tomorrow). It also finally clicked why he was wearing the harness. It looks that much cooler at raves and other techno clubs in which all the lighting is done by black-light and neon-light. I also found out that this morning the kid was on his way home from being at one of these clubs all night long.

[Side note about techno: The TV on behind me is showing clips of cricket to the beat of a pretty decent techno song. Cricket is much more interesting in clip form with techno playing, and is otherwise a game that I understand nothing about the scoring of. What is a wicket?]

We had a good time talking and he asked me for my MSN chat/IM handle. Coincidentally, I only know one other person with MSN and only signed up for a chatting account on that network about a month ago. That brings the dork you know and love up to five IM accounts on different networks.

[Side note 2 about techno: Lindy Hop (swing) dancing to techno is AMAZING!]

Anyway, eventually the train found its way to Ben's stop and he departed the train. I continued on until the end of the line in the small, but somewhat quaint town of Lilydale (there is no need to make a special stop to see the town). When I got there I had 30 minutes to wait for the bus and decided to find myself lunch. I ordered a Cheeto at one of the three little cafes on the main drag of this town. They did not call it a Cheeto, I picked up that name in the Salt Lake City region. The sandwich was a grilled ham and cheese with tomatoes. Sliced tomatoes would have made it easier to eat, but it was still good, and much better than the macchiatto I drank with it.

In the town was this little stop that I couldn't resist taking a photo of. The photo looks washed out and grainy because I enhanced it to emphasize what is inside the drive through...



I was shocked, and humored immediately. Of all drive through liquor stores!!! This one did actually have an inside, too, that you can almost see from the photo. I am not sure if they leave the alcohol out when they close shop for the day (oh, they call them Trading Hours here, times for all stores from open to close). It is important not to let this skew your opinion of all things Australian, because their government has many signs and TV commercials about drinking and driving, and dozing while driving. They have signs on the freeway that say stuff like "Drowsy? Take a Powernap!" I also noticed one sign in a parking garage (and if I head back to that part of Melbourne I will take a photo of it) a sign that said "If you drink and then you drive then you are a bloody idiot!" I thought it was brilliant!

When my time in Lilydale expired, I went over to the bus and road to Healesville. I was trying to pay attention to the stops in case I needed to walk from Healesville to the next nearest bus stop. I inquired to the bus drivers when we stopped for them to change shifts and was told that the stops are about 5km apart. That is not a short walk, but if I missed the 5:05 I needed to know how to get home by catching the 7:35 bus at the next stop.

We got to the sanctuary and I paid (out of my personal pocket) the admission to the park. Once there I got to see all of the famous Aussie animals and learn a little bit about their lives in the wild.

I saw dingos...



and various bats and birds and Tassie devils, who are apparently plagued with some weird face disease in Tasmania, and the only remaining rock-wallaby in Victoria (they have this plan to raise more by placing the young marsupial offspring in the pouches of other types of wallaby so that the rock-wallabies can become pregnant again). I also saw a platypus (no photos of it because the cage was too dark and flash was not allowed) and I saw a guy in one of the shows that the park gives throw and catch a boomerang three times in a row. He explained that there are a right and left handed version and that you can tell by the sharpened (not cutting sharp) edge.

I, of course, got to see the Kangaroos and Koalas, too. And sure enough, they do let you pet the Kangaroos and also the regular wallabies. Pictures of them are below. Kangaroos are very very soft! Wallabies, not as much so. They do not let you hold or pet the Koalas because it is too high stress for them and and because they like to claw into whatever they are being supported by. Some guy tried to save a hurt Koala on the road and received 170 stitches for his effort. The Koala keeper did not know if the koala survived. Oh, Koalas have opposable thumbs and three fingers to make their five digits per hand.

Koalas in a tree...


A friendly Kangaroo...


Some young kids playing with a Wallaby...


And me petting the same Wallaby


When I left the park it was barely in time to catch the bus home. thankfully I didn't have to walk. I watched some controlled brush fires off in the distance of the country side, and by the time I got home over two hours later, I was too tired to do anything else, so I went home, checked my e-mails, chatted with Ben who IM'd me and then went to bed.