Visiting Australia

Sunday 12th, 2005
The wheels started to rotate putting the gigantic body into motion and the noise
of the engines started filling me up. I checked my seat belt one more time just
to be sure that it was fastened. As the plane started picking up speed, I
reminded myself that this wasn't a dream. I was finally flying to Australia.
A country about which I had heard so much. The beaches, the cars, the babes. As
the plane left the runway, I looked down at the fast receding land. "3
Months.", I whispered to myself.


The aircraft seats were quite uncomfortable and the ride was not unlike the one
I had taken on countless occasions previously when I was traveling from Pune to
Mumbai or the other way round. Except for the fact that there was a small LCD
screen TV for everyone on which I watched Hitch and Robots and food was free,
apart from the fact that there were air hostesses wearing the traditional
dress. The road bumps that are present on the trip from Mumbai to Pune were very
effectively replaced by the turbulence that we experienced quite often. However
among all this were the breathtaking views that could be seen from the window.
As I had a window seat, I was able to enjoy this to the fullest. Not quite
impressed by the flight itself, I stepped on the Singapore International
Airport in the evening, it being a 5hr 22min flight till Singapore from where I
had to change flights after 4hr 30min halt to reach Melbourne.

The Singapore airport is one of the bigger airports in the world. And by bigger
I mean big and complete as well as beautiful. The airport has everything - u
name it - Electronics, laptops, food mart, liquor, shopping malls, cinema
theater, traditional food the list would go on. Anyway, by the time I reached
the airport I had a slight temperature but that did not stop me from exploring
the airport. After roaming around for quite some time, I finally sat down to
watch live F1 screening on a large screen display. And soon after ate a burger
at Burger Kings since I was in no position to try any of the more traditional
foods. One thing that I could not fail but notice was that the goods at the
airport were way higher than normal, and some things were even more expensive
than back in India! 4hrs passed and I reached the Airport gate. Since my
luggage was already checked in till Melbourne, clearing the security was not a
problem. Thus started one more forgettable plane trip.

Since the airlines was the same this time, there was nothing new except for the
fact that I did not get a window seat although I had been promised one by the
officer at the Indian airport. "Ek ke saath ek free." (Buy one get one
free.) were his words when I told him I wanted a window seat in both the
flights. This time however, I decided to go to sleep after watching The
Pacifier halfway. But for some reason, which I still am trying to figure out,
the flight staff just would not let me sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes,
there would be someone waking me up and asking me if I would like to have
something to eat/drink!!

I was still able to sleep for some time before I got up just in time to catch a
first glimpse of Australia through the clouds. We landed finally and after
clearing the customs which was not very difficult, I came out of the airport.
There are bus services from the airport to different corners of the city and
probably I would have found one which would have taken me to my hotel. But
considering the fact that I was still feeling feverish and that I had not been
able to sleep and I had luggage, I was not very keen on finding one. So I just
took a cab and reached the hotel. We took the freeway on our way and the cabbie
was comfortably doing a 100kmph which immediately reminded me of the times when
we have to push the driver to go "a little faster" on our way between Pune
and Mumbai. After driving for about 30min he brought me right in front of the
hotel which was going to be my home for the next few months.